Welcome back to my post-post-apocalyptic novel, Ada’s Children, and thanks for reading! If you’re new to the story, please don’t be surprised that it’s paywalled. The Prologue and first three chapters are free, and you can start reading them here. The previous chapter, “Genesis,” is here.
The last time we were with Jun and Sila, they and the other hunters confronted a gigantic cat-beast that threatened the Rendezvous. Later, they discovered the cat-beast’s dead prey: an even larger beast with tusks and a long snout. Where such unknown beasts could have come from remained a mystery, at least in Jun’s mind. At the same time, Sila obviously regretted her transgression with Jun, and he couldn’t find an opportunity to talk with her about it.
Now it’s six weeks later, and Sila is trying to move on with her life. But, as the old saying goes, life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.
SILA cut the reed at its base and piled it on the bank with the others. Around her, girls and women performed the same repetitive actions, a few humming a song to occupy the time. Perched on a cattail nearby, a marsh wren joined in with its repetitive call. A bobolink added its more tuneful song from farther away, out on the grassland beyond the bog where the women worked.
One full moon had come and gone since the Rendezvous, and now the waning gibbous orb rode the sky above the stooping foragers. It was a bright morning, but cooler than on recent days; fall was not far off. Sila hadn’t been out gathering with the women during this time, having fulfilled her pledge to keep to the Hunt. It was good to be back with them, especially since it was only for one morning.
Good, but different. Brina was gone, of course, having moved in with Garth in the village of the Bear People. But more, since the Rendezvous, her girlfriends were cooler toward her. And how could they not be? She’d chosen Brina over them. And they had seen how she treated the woman she supposedly wanted to pair with. It would take time to regain their trust.
Worse, her mother was angrier with her than before the Rendezvous. That morning, when Sila had offered to help with the gathering, her mother had feigned surprise. “What’s this? The Great Sila lowers herself to cut reeds with the women?” Off to one side, Ina smirked.
“Mama, you know I need to be with the hunters if I’m truly going to be part of the Hunt. Otherwise they won’t accept me. And there are blades to sharpen, weapons to mend, arrows to fletch.”
“And that occupies all your time between hunts?”
After her time with the hunters, Sila knew that it didn’t. Repairs and fletching took only a few hours, but if the hunt had been successful, then they wouldn’t need to go out again for a week. The hunters passed the days in between telling stories and experimenting with different ways to ferment the last of the summer berries. Sometimes a few of them would go down to a stream with a fishing net and call that work, or the women would cajole them into helping with the heavier gathering tasks. And especially in summer, they spent the heat of the day napping. Other than the occasional risk of being gored by a bison or trampled by a horse, it was an easy life.
“That’s what I thought,” her mother said when she didn’t respond. “But very well, we can always use another pair of hands.”
The argument had left a knot in her stomach, and she hadn’t bothered to eat breakfast. It was too bad, because she was only here for a chance to talk to her mother. It was time for her to move out of her parents’ hut and build one of her own, but she didn’t quite know how to raise the subject. Starting with one parent at a time seemed like a good idea.
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