3

Morning did not bring anything new. The sky was still overcast with dark gray clouds that pelted harsh raindrops off and on during their travels. After some time Kaval pointed with his staff and Aja saw the thin line of green to the East. They were coming back to an area that was not so devastated. Surely here they would find food, clean water, and life. Aja shivered in the cooler air that seemed to settle over them. She considered turning aside to find grasses to weave for a cloak. But Kaval wanted to keep moving.

Soon they passed among low scrub bushes. As they did so, Aja searched for berries and tubers, and greens to eat. She found only a few… but it was more than they had. Food, not comfort was still the primary focus of their searches.

By nightfall, they'd reached a rolling meadow with tall grasses and could hear the sounds of birds, nesting in the tall grass. Aja smiled, they might be able to find a few eggs if the birds were nesting. It was the right time of year. And… if they remained, she would weave a cloak to warm her against the wind.

Kaval gestured toward a rock and dropped his staff at its base to climb to the top and peer around the grassland from the height. "I see only grass," he said climbing down… sliding down along the rock-face.

Aja sniffed the air. "I smell water though."

Kaval looked off into the distance. "Wait here while I do a fast run through. I'll see if I can find it. Perhaps it is in a low-lying area where water collects." He pulled a baked clay jar from his bag and started off.

Aja cleared an area for working and pounded some of the grassheads to paste. She added a few of the pungent greens, chopped with the flint knife, and worked up dough, which she wrapped in some broad leaves. Then she set about making a small fire and banking it to bake the dough into bread. It would be dense and coarse… but it would be filling. She turned her attention to the berries, wishing she had some cream to go with them. Pulling out a small clay flatpan from her bag, she pressed the berries into the pan, covered it with leaves and placed it in the fire.

By the time Kaval returned with water and a handful of nuts, the aroma of the baking food had begun to be scented on the air.

Kaval grinned. "I have missed real cooking."

"It's not the best," Aja replied smiling at his gift of the nuts, "but it will be something to fill us. The pungent greens will help season the bread."

"We will need to find or trade with the Others for some salt."

Aja smiled. Already this male was making long-ranging plans. She crouched by the fire, stirring it slightly. Perhaps this would not be so horrible a partnership.

Kaval stood suddenly, sniffing the air. Aja smelled it soon after, the thick smell of dead, rotting flesh. She clasped her staff as she stood beside him. In the distance, she saw them… a hunting pack of the Others… four males. They carried hunks of dead meat wrapped in skins on their backs. Their staffs had flint blades and they, themselves, were adorned in fur. Even from here, Aja could smell the animal grease they lathered onto their bodies to help ward off insects.

The four paused… sniffing the fire on the air. The leader pointed towards the couple as the others dropped their loads of meat and readied their weapons. Evidently this was a group that had come to fear the People they now met.

Kaval handed her his staff, spread his hands and stepped forward, intoning the ancient words of greeting. Aja nearly smiled at the memory of the Ko'val of her own tribe who had always been the one to greet travelers first. Their names were similar… but the inflection in saying them was slightly different.

The Others snorted and lowered their spears as they circled and approached. Their fierce demeanor showed they meant business.

Again Kaval attempted to speak greetings but the Others hooted at him. He lowered his hands and stepped back. Aja handed him his staff, and stepped away from him calmly watching the eyes of the Others.

One of the men leered at her when she moved and worked his tongue up and down. Aja stared flatly at him… as if he were nothing. He was so certain that he was the stronger, and already looking forward to rutting with her the way he did with the women of their tribe, that he would be easy to deal with. She turned slightly and twirled her staff as she watched both him and the one who had attempted to move behind her. She had to trust that Kaval would deal with the others.

This second one was not so easily distracted. Evidently he'd seen the People fight before. He glared stubbornly and watched her and not the movements of her staff. He jabbed the spear a few times in her direction as if to warn her off.

Suddenly the leering one leaped forward. Aja supposed he thought she'd forgotten him. With a whirl and twirl she cracked the hardened staff over his head and continued the movement so that the other end slammed up against his bearded jaw. Between the two swift blows… he was down for the count. She kicked away his spear and heard another fall behind her with a thud. She focused on her opponent.

He kept moving, slightly stooped and with both hands on his spear. He kept jabbing in her direction and pulling back without landing a blow. A swift glance at the ground showed Aja some loose rocks between them. Evidently he hoped she'd step forward onto the loose stones and lose her footing. She continued her sidestep as she circled around him… It they were going to come to blows… he'd have to step in.

She heard another hit the dirt off to one side. Her opponent looked up startled and grunted. Wide-eyed he shifted and pulled back his spear as if to cast it. Aja used that moment to twirl into him and slam the staff into his head one way and another. He sank to the ground. Aja sighed in relief and smiled thinly at Kaval.

"Let us retrain them," he said with a laugh.

Aja bent over her first opponent. He was still unconscious. She found several long strands of sinew and rawhide and tightly tied his hands and feet. She did the same with the second man. Then she tied them together… back to back and returned to the fire.

She scooped the meal from the flames. Kaval, meanwhile, having secured his two opponents, began going through their belongings to see what the two of them might be able to use. In the distance, Aja saw vultures circle and begin to dive at the loads of meat the Others had carried. Before long the other carrion eaters would come. She blew on the charred leaves and began to peel them away from the bread… breathing in the warm pungent aroma. She handed one gingerly to Kaval who passed it from one hand to the other until it cooled. Then he tore off a chunk and chewed.

"We'll eat and move on despite the darkness," he finally said.

"Yes… it would be best not to sleep near these Others. They will be angry when they awaken."

"Perhaps next time they meet the People they will merely greet and move on."

"That would have been best." Aja let the bread melt in her mouth. She was surprised how very hungry she was. She wished she'd had time to find a few eggs. Sighing, she pulled the berry pot out and let it cool. They each dipped a green stick into it and sucked on the sweet berries. When finished, Kaval pulled a few things from the packs of the Others, a flint knife, a sling, some salt, and then checked the four men. They'd awakened and were struggling. Kaval threw three of the spears into the distance and jammed the fourth into the ground where they could manage to eventually cut their bonds. He clubbed each man unconscious again as Aja packed up their belongings.

The moon was high in the night sky by the time they stopped again near a tree line. They climbed into the low branches and settled for the night. As she gazed into the high small face of the moon, Aja once more thought of the life she had lost… and her dreams still troubled her.

Within the Standing Stones, In the Before Time

The drumming beat pounded and seemed to emanate from within. Aja and the other females shuffled their feet as they danced about the stone altar chanting and trilling. Once, she had been the one lying on the altar… awaiting rebirth. Now… after long years, it was a regular occurrence as one by one the small ones were ushered into the life unchanging. Behind her… moving in the other direction were the men. Their lower voices sang a counterpoint to the female's chant so that the two melodies wove in and under and about each other… even as males and females did when coupling.

She sensed Havron's light touch and laughter as he passed behind her… taking the moment to appreciate what he saw. Aja smiled but remained focused on the young female on the altar. Recently, a few of the small ones had not returned from the initial death-sleep. The elders were confused by what that might mean.

As one of the eldest of the small ones to be found by the tribe, she often sat in quietly on their discussions and often knew more about things that were happening than most of the others like her… the small ones who's passed into the unchanging life. She kept the secrets of the elders. They were not hers to speak of. Aja knew that the elders could not fathom the reason that some returned and others did not. And still small ones came.

Only a moon ago she had found one. She'd been awakened from sleep by the sounds of thunder in the distance.

"It is nothing," murmured Havron who'd attempted to pull her back onto their pallet and once more into his arms. She'd resisted and he'd changed position to fall back into sleep. Aja had risen and seen lightning on the horizon… flashing like a great fire into the lowering clouds. She'd felt a cold wind from the ocean. She shivered slightly, and her necklace of shells chinked between her breasts. Havron had re-strung recently it and added more shells to the ones he'd made the first necklace from while she had still been very small. She loved the way it felt… and its every sound reminded her that they were joined.

Lightning flashed again. A few moments later she felt the rumble of its voice. The weather had been odd here lately… as if the warm climate that had always been was growing colder. To'val, the weaver of grasses had mentioned having to wander further afield to find the ones she most needed. "In my wanderings, I have seen the distant mountains covered in a white blanket. And where no mountain should be… I have seen a great white mountain arise… and a cold wind blows from it. The only constant is change."

Aja had repeated the adage along with others who had heard the patient one speak. To'val believed if one lived long enough… one would see all things. One need only have patience to await the unfolding of the future… as the unfolding of a flower.

That night the stones had called to the first daughter of the people so that she climbed the hill to stand among the sentinels of the source of life and listen to the wind blow and the thunder roll. In between the cracks of noise that accompanied the lightning… he heard a cry.

Even as the rain had begun to fall… cold and harsh… she had found the small one lying on the altar stone. She was tiny girl child… so small she seemed more one of the Others than one of the people. But in her Aja sensed the promise of tomorrow she always sensed in the small ones. In them was the untapped and unrealized power of the undying. Aja had gathered the child of joy into her arms with the knowledge that this child meant there was once more a complete set of small ones that had come to the tribe. Soon, when this child was grown and unchanging, the time of division would come. Kritis, her brother, and Havron would lead the small ones of the People to a new Holy Place.

Aja was comforted that for every one of the small ones who did not survive the changing, another child came. As she turned from the stone, she'd known that this child was for her and Havron to raise. "At last," she'd breathed, "joy is ours."

Now she worried as she stepped the ancient steps and chanted the old words with the others that Omar'le would not awaken. They had painted her body with the signs, they had given her the sleeping draught and laid her on the altar. Morannon had slipped the flint shard deeply into the young woman's side and she'd screamed and lurched as her life's blood pooled about her.

All they could do now was wait.

How long had it taken Aja the night she'd made the crossing? The moon had been full and low when she'd gazed sleepily into the sky. She could still recall the pain as the flint entered her heart and it had stilled. She'd slept then, not understanding what had happened. When she breathed again and opened her eyes… the moon was small and high in the sky. It seemed very far away. Then she'd seen the lights of the night sky falling like fiery trails.

Glancing upward, Aja could see the first rose of dawn in the east.

Then she heard it… the ragged breath.

Immediately the dancing, the drums, and the singing stopped. As Omar'le screamed into her new life… they gave a great shout. "All life is one with the source of life!"

Aja breathed a sigh of relief even as Havron's arms encircled her. Now the celebration could truly begin.

By mid-afternoon many were stirring from where they lay entangled with mates among the stones. Aja sat up and was running fingers through her heavy hair when she saw two of the Others sneak about the outer circle and back toward the hovels. She pointed them out to Havron who nodded and rose to approach Morannon with the information.

"They have been watching again."

Morannon nodded. "Their ways are not our ways. They do not understand what they see and hear."

"Should we talk to them?"

Morannon shook his head. "They are children. They do not live long enough to understand what it is we do. If they come to me and ask their questions… I shall try to answer them as we would the small ones."

Havron pointed toward Omar'le. "What if they saw her changing?"

"To their eyes they see nothing. Only the People can truly see and feel the People. They do not sense the source of life in all things."

Havron shook his head. "Some of them are graybeards and old crones. Surely they should receive some instruction."

"But the graybeards are often more simple than the younger ones. It is as if sometimes their minds revert to childhood. They are not part of the unchanging guard. They are those who must be guarded and watched over until they are ready."

"Already I have seen some leave the encampment and strike out on their own. Their numbers grow too rapidly," Havron pressed.

"Yes… they do not yet understand that all must be in balance," agreed the judge of the People.

"How can it be when we are not in balance."

Havron met Morannon's gaze. Three of the elders had left uncounted seasons ago on a journey to discover why the small ones came. They sought to know why in a society that had no need for children or for extras had they suddenly begun appearing. The elders were out of balance. "D'Jann and the others will return. If all of the small ones reach maturity and the make the change… by then you will be ready to move on. The source of life must have need of another clan of the People to guard the increasing numbers of Others and to preserve the balance. It is the only thing that makes sense.

"And the lightning in the skies that feels like the Power of the People has been torn asunder and ripped out of being?" Havron finally asked.

Morannon looked away.

"What does it mean?"

"I do not know," Morannon finally said.

Aja listened to their words and worried… but it was warm… and she wanted to return to the hovel where the eldest of the small ones watched over the tiny one of joy. She had not named her yet… the name seemed fleeting… but she would soon. Never had she not known the name with a single touch… but the name she heard in her mind was not one the People had ever used… so she waited. The time of naming would come in time.

Havron took her hand, kissing it with a smile. Pulling her close, they returned to the hovels and the activities of the day.

How far we are from morning
How far we are
And the stars shining through the darkness
Falling in the air

from Fallen Embers, lyrics by Roma Ryan