November 18
7:01 AM

Carol awoke to the sound of Koo babbling in his crib. She sat up on her bedroll on the floor and stretched and yawned. Daryl was gone, probably for some early morning hunting. Murphy was still at his new friend's house.

She rose and walked over to the crib. "Look at you," she cooed at her grandson. "Sitting up all by yourself!" Not quite by himself. He was using his hands for support. "Did you do that for your grandma? Did you?"

Koo giggled and bounced on his bottom. He lifted one hand from the crib's bottom and opened and closed his little fist. Sophia had apparently taught him the baby sign for milk. "Let's let your mama rest a little more, okay?" asked Carol, scooping Koo up from his crib and settling him on her hip. "I'll get you some water and a little bit of solids for now."

"Nahbabalabahbabah," Koo agreed, or at least Carol took it for agreement. She walked him over to the hutch and looked at the shelves. There were a couple of little bottles of mushed food, hand labeled.

"Do you like pumpkin?"

"Pummmbalahbabalh!" Koo squealed.

"I'll take that for a yes. You're as cute as a pumpkin, you know."

She found a small spoon she assumed was Koo's and a wood sippy-style cup she filled with water from the water pitcher. Then she settled him down on one of the floor mats between her legs before the stone table and began to feed him.

"Mhmmmmmm!" he murmured with each bite and looked back and up at her and smiled before diving in for another.

Her heart twisted at the thought of only seeing him two weeks of the year, on their fall hunting expeditions to West Virginia. She and Daryl had talked about it…talked about the right thing to tell Sophia, and she agreed with every word Daryl had said last night in, undoubtedly, his own Daryl-esque fashion. Still it made her heart lurch to think of leaving this little one behind.

"Mhmmmm!" Koo tilted his head back, smiled up at her, giggled, and then flung his head down and chomped for the spoon.

Carol thought he only kept in half of the pumpkin. The other half he pooped right out. She found the cloth diapers and pins and changed him, and then she found the stinky bin outside the cabin where Sophia dumped the used ones until they could be laundered. She saw Rick stepping out of the Council House, where he and Dixon and Patty had slept last night. "Want to go see Grandpa Grimes?"

Koo squealed and bounced against her hip. Carol brought the little boy to his grandfather, who happily took him in his arms. Koo preceded to reach up and tug at Rick's beard, and Rick had to pry his fingers loose. "Easy now."

Koo giggled.

"God, he looks just like Carl did as a baby," Rick said. "Except the hair."

"It'll likely darken in time. Sophia's did."

By the time Carol brought Koo back inside the cabin, Sophia was awake. "Thanks for letting me sleep in a little," she said. "It's been ages since I did that."

Wohali certainly wasn't changing diapers, Carol thought.

Koo reached for his mother and settled to nurse on her breast. Sophia sat down in the rocking chair, and Carol took a seat on the bench.

"I've done some thinking," Sophia said as she pushed off the earthen floor with one foot. "I'd like to spend the rest of the fall and winter with you and Dad in Alexandria, and then come back here in time for the First New Moon of Spring. It's in March, and we always have a festival. Then I think…I'd like to stay here through the Great New Moon Festival. That's in October. It's our new year's celebration. Maybe your coalition could do its fall hunting expedition a little earlier next year, and you and Dad and Murphy could come for the festival? Murphy would love it." She smiled. "It's so much fun. Dancing and games and good food. And then I could go back with you to Alexandria afterward, for the rest of the next fall and the winter, and then return again in time for the first new moon. What do you think?"

It wasn't a choice to settle permanently with them, but it was far better than the worst Carol had feared. If Sophia continued that pattern, she and Koo would be with them for about six months out of every year. "I think that's a fantastic idea, sweetheart. A really fantastic idea."

Sophia's responding smile was mingled with relief and happiness. "Patrick could come and get me in March," she said. "On Magnus. He should be healed up enough to ride by then, and I'm sure he'll want to visit and catch up with everyone from Fun Kingdom who's still alive. I'll ask Tala to accompany him for protection. Patrick's become a decent wendigo-slayer, but…no one should travel alone. Especially not him, after he nearly died out in those woods." She sighed. "I have to tell Tala I'll be gone all winter. And Wohali, too."

"Well, we're hunting for several more days," Carol assured her. "You don't have to tell them right away. Choose your moment."

10:05 AM

After hours of early morning tracking in the woods, Daryl ran into Tala, who was on horseback, resting gracefully in the saddle, and leading the animal with ease. He wore a knife on one hip and a tomahawk on the other, but he didn't seem to have a bow or spear with him.

Tala heard Daryl's approach, even though Daryl thought he was being silent, and reached for his knife. He relaxed his grip on the hilt without drawing when he saw who it was.

"Hell you doing here?" Daryl asked. "Ain't you watchin' my boy?"

"The boys are fine. Sophia came to get them an hour ago."

Daryl relaxed.

"She'll feed them fry bread sweetened with corn syrup, and they'll love her for it. She's an excellent cook."

"Gets that from her mama." Daryl said. "The boys keep you up late?" Tala looked alert for a morning after a sleepover. Murphy had a sleepover with a visiting friend from Oceanside once, and Daryl had been up half the night shushing them. He'd felt hungover the next morning. Of course, he was a good fifteen or sixteen years older than Tala.

"They were boys. But they were good. Mostly. They did break one of my tobacco jars throwing a ball in the house." He studied the ground.

It suddenly occurred to Daryl he didn't know how the men of this tribe disciplined their children. Of course, Sophia would never date a man who beat his child, Daryl was sure. "You punish 'em?"

"I made them run twelve laps around the plaza," Tala answered. "Two of those laps running backwards. They fell over twice. Laughing. But it wore them down. They were asleep by midnight."

Daryl tapped his forehead. "Smart thinkin'." He'd have to keep that one in mind next time Murphy had a sleepover in Alexandria."

Tala stepped his horse forward. Daryl fell in step beside him. "Following the deer? 'Cause that deer's mine. Been tracking it for hours."

"I'm following the wild horse." Tala patted the lasso slung from his saddle.

"Mean that cowboy hat ain't just for show?"

"I used to be a ranch hand. A few miles outside of the Qualla Boundary where I grew up. I started part-time when I was fourteen. Dropped out of high school to do it full-time at sixteen. The earth groaned when I was twenty. The ranch was overrun, but before it was, I was able to grab a few of the chickens and drive some of the cattle and horses to Qualla. The wendigo stayed so busy feasting on the rest of the animals at the ranch, that Qualla had time to build defenses and gather ammunition before they migrated our way. Then we eliminated them. After that, there weren't nearly as many in the area. We'd kill them here and there, when outside the boundary hunting and scavenging. For years, we had peace, with the exception of two attempted raids. But then Qualla fell."

"So my daughter's datin' a high school dropout?" Daryl asked.

Tala looked down at him from atop his horse with narrowed eyes. "While my peers were digging themselves up to their eyebrows in college debt, I was a nineteen-year-old assistant ranch manager pulling in $32,000 a year."

"Relax. Just givin' ya a hard time. I look like a college grad to you?"

Tala shrugged. "Well, college grads don't look like they used to."

"Hell you care what I think of ya anyway?"

"Because Deyani respects and loves you. And I care very much for her."

They followed their parallel trails in silence for awhile, and then Tala asked, "Was Deyani as strong-willed as a toddler as she is now?"

"Dunno. Didn't know her as a toddler, but I reckon so." Until Ed had driven all the determination out of her, probably. He'd never beat Sophia, Daryl knew, Carol had seen to that much, always been certain to take the blows herself. But he'd been a menacing father. He'd crushed her spirit.

"What do you mean, you didn't know her as a toddler?"

"You know. Married her mama after the earth groaned."

"I thought...I had understood..." Tala shook his head. "Deyani never mentioned any other father but you."

"Yeah, well, her first wasn't exactly a peach." Tala's words registered on Daryl slowly, and he gradually realized that Sophia had acted to these people as though he were the only father she had ever had before Wohali found her. And in Sophia's eyes, maybe he was. The idea made his chest feel strangely tight. He cleared his throat. "You break horses?"

Tala nodded. "At its height, Qualla had nineteen, including the foals. We lost all but three when Qualla fell. In the last year, I've caught and broken four." He patted his gray stallion. "John Ross was my first since we settled here."

"John Ross? Weird name for a horse."

"He was the Principle Chief of the Cherokee nation for almost forty years. His Cherokee name was Koo-wi-s-gu-wi. Like your grandson."

"Know who Chief John Ross was," Daryl assured him. "Still a strange name for a horse." Daryl glanced down at the faint tracks. "And that horse your trackin' is long gone."

"From this spot, sure. But the wild horses never stray too far from the stream. If it was once here, it will likely return, perhaps farther up the flow of water."

They tracked together in silence for a while. Their trails split from one another, and so did they. But both men returned to the village in the afternoon, each with his sought-after prize.

2:30 PM

Murphy ran to see the field-dressed buck Daryl dragged into the plaza on a burlap drag sled, and then grumbled, "Why didn't you take me hunting?"

"You were sleepin' when I left. And you wouldn't of been focused. Tala said you was up 'til midnight."

"I'd of been fine!" Murphy insisted.

"Take you tomorrow. If you promise to be in bed by eight." He ruffled Murphy's strawberry blonde hair and asked, "Wanna help me hang it in the cold shed?" Wohali had told them they could hang their kill in what he called "the cold shed," which he said stayed below forty degrees even in the afternoon. There, the meat could drain and age safely until they processed it.

As they began stringing up the carcass, Murphy let go of the rope and rubbed his little hands together and blew on them. "Where are you gloves?" Daryl asked.

"I didn't know it would be so cold in here!"

"'S why they call it the cold shed, son."

"I left 'em at Jitsu's. I'll run and get them."

Daryl didn't wait. He suspected Murphy would get distracted by play anyway, so he finished stringing the deer.

Wohali strolled through the open door of the cold shed just as he was finishing. "Impressive. A ten pointer?"

"Yeah. And it's yours."

"Mine?"

"Yeah. in payment for your hutnin' lease. And for dinner last night."

"I didn't ask for payment for a lease this time," Wohali replied. "Only if you return next fall."

Daryl didn't want him to have the chance to hold his generosity over their heads. "Take it. It's yours."

"That's a lot of meat," Wohali told him. "And an excellent hide. In return, why don't you welcome all your hunters to camp in our village. They can sleep on the pews in the Council House, with the fire, where it's warm at night. They can be guests at our tables."

It was a good offer, and Daryl took it, even though he didn't want to. He couldn't tell if Wohali was being genuinely welcoming and open-handed, or if he was just trying to one-up him.

But Daryl's ruffled feathers were smoothed twenty minutes later when he found Carol weeding Sophia's private garden behind the cabin. She told him about Sophia's decision.

"So half the year with us, half here?" he asked.

"More or less. At least for now. She didn't commit to any farther than next winter with us. But I think she'll maintain the pattern."

"How'd Wohali take it?" He hadn't seemed angry in the cold shed.

"She hasn't told him yet. So don't you."

Daryl ran a finger across his lips as if he were zipping them. Then he smiled and pulled her close. He pressed his forehead against hers and murmured, "Our little girl's coming home."

5:30 PM

When the coalition hunters rolled into camp that evening, some settling in the Council House and some erecting tents, members of the tribe gathered in awe around the truck that still ran. They'd stopped using vehicles a year and a half after the apocalypse, when even the diesel spoiled. They'd never found anything like a tanker full of stabilized gasoline. Patrick had thought to convert engines to run on pure ethanol, but the council had ruled maize was too precious for other uses, and eventually the batteries would die anyway. "How do you still have a functioning battery?" Tala asked, peering under the hood of the vehicle.

"We only have a few," Rosita told him. "We looted them years ago and kept them well stored and made sure to charge them every seven months, to prevent them from discharging and sulphating."

"You were a mechanic?" Tala asked her. "Before the earth groaned?"

"Not exactly. I took a couple of auto mechanic classes in high school at the vocational center. And I had a boyfriend who loved to work on cars. So I worked with him."

"Rosita's learned a lot from past boyfriends." Rick shut the hood of the truck. "She's a Jill of all trades. A mechanic, a medic, an explosives expert, a crack shot, and now a hunter, even."

"Can you break horses, too?" Tala asked.

"No. But my boyfriend Ozzy can. Who knows. Maybe I'll learn from him."

6:30 PM

That evening, Rosita dined in Sophia's cabin with Carol and Daryl to catch up with Sophia. "He's adorable," she said of Koo. "I have a three-year-old at home myself. Oscar Abraham. Everyone calls him O."

Sophia looked at the baby in Daryl's lap. "How can you stand to be apart from him for so long?"

Rosita shrugged. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder. And he's in good hands with all his aunties and uncles at Mount Vernon."

"And his father?" Sophia wondered.

"Well, his father is at St. Demetrios, waiting for his own father to die." When Sophia blinked, Rosita told her the about Ozzy and the abbot, and about Zeke Washington a.k.a. King Ezekiel a.k.a Father Maximos, who would likely be the new abbot,.

"It sounds like quite an interesting coalition you have," Sophia observed.

"You've built a lot here in just a year," Rosita told her. "An entire village. And, if you don't mind me observing, your boyfriend is hot. That is one virile looking man."

Daryl shifted uncomfortably at the declaration and Carol suppressed a laugh at his reaction.

Sophia smiled. "I never thought of Tala that way until recently. Of course, he was twenty-one and married when we met, with a newborn baby, and I was only thirteen. He was just Ama's husband to me at first, and then Carl's friend." She sighed into her soup. "We both lost so much that day. It seems easier for Tala."

"Men are always more eager to jump back in the saddle again," Rosita insisted.

"Bullshit," Daryl muttered.

Rosita waved her clay cup. "Present company excluded, I guess."

Carol smiled. "Daryl's not much of a saddle jumper to begin with. I had to throw the saddle at him."

At thirteen, Sophia would have flushed furiously at this. Now she merely chuckled.

"Well, take my word for it Sophia," Rosita assured her, "older men are the way to go. I've never dated any other kind."

"Then how would you know?" Sophia asked. "Besides, Carl was a month younger than me."

"I'm really sorry about what happened to him," Rosita told her. "I know it's not the same. He wasn't my husband. But when Oscar didn't make it out of Fun Kingdom…I could barely eat for weeks. I just felt sick to my stomach all the time. And Abraham's death bowled me over for a good while before that. But now…there's Ozzy. Life does press on."

"Ozzy's your husband?" Sophia asked.

"Not exactly. Ozzy and I have an open relationship."

Daryl huffed. "Ozzy know that?"

"Ozzy knows I'm keeping my options open."

"Rosita's been keeping her options open for five years," Carol explained. "And she's never yet opted for anyone else."

"Well, Ozzy is fantastic in bed."

"Hey!" Daryl exclaimed. "Enough of all the in'propriate conversation!" He nodded down to Koo, who was in his lap and currently sucking a bit of broth off his index finger. "Innocent ears in the room."

Sophia stood from her cross-legged position at the table. "Can you watch those little ears for me for a little while? I'm going to take Patrick a bowl of stew in the infirmary."

"Yeah, me and mini-Carl are gonna be just fine." Daryl slipped his finger from Koo's mouth, dipped it in the broth again, hissed at the heat, blew on his finger to cool the broth, and then gave it to Koo for another suck.