November 19

Murphy bagged his first deer the next day, with a lot of tracking help from Dixon and Daryl, but he had to share the glory with his cousin Patty. Daryl and Dixon walked the kids through how to field dress the carcass, though the dads did most of the work and the kids did a bit of "Ewww"ing. They hung the deer in the tribe's cooling shed to drain and age. By the time Daryl shut the door to the shed, Murphy was off like a shot to play with Jitsu. Patty had found her own friend as well, and Dixon was chatting with the new playmate's mother.

So Daryl went looking for Carol. He found her helping Sophia in one of the tribe's vegetable gardens. "Where's Koo?" he asked them, because he'd seen Rick helping Tala in the stables, which were now a bit crowded and required a lot of mucking with the coalition hunters' horses added to the mix. At least the stable wasn't too overcrowded; it had been built out in expectation that Tala would capture and break more horses in the spring, and one of the tribe's mares was expecting a foal.

"With Wohali," Sophia answered.

"Bet he don't change diapers," Daryl said.

"He does," Sophia told him. She smiled. "If it's absolutely necessary."

Carol stood and slapped her hands together to brush off the dirt. "Your father says that as though I didn't change ninety percent of Murphy's diapers."

"Yeah, but I cleaned up ninety percent of the projectile vomit."

"True enough," Carol conceded. "You hungry? I can fix you a little something. Sophia and I already had lunch an hour ago."

Daryl nodded, and they went to wash up. The village had a stone well, so they drew water and heated some over the outdoor village fire, which seemed to be kept burning a good part of the day because of the number of people using it on and off. While they waited for the water to boil, he told her of Murphy's conquest. "Wish I had a camera," he said excitedly. "You know, take a picture of him kneelin' by it, one hand on the rifle, one hand on the antlers."

"You're one proud daddy."

"Yeah," Daryl said with a big grin. "Should of seen 'em, Carol, when he realized he got it. Really wish I'd had a camera."

"Well, he'll have the memory. I doubt you had a photo of your first deer either."

"Oh yeah, did," Daryl said, taking the kettle off the fire and pouring it into the cold water in the washing trough. "That was one of my dad's few non-asshole moments. I was nine. He had this Polaroid camera he bought broken for $3 at a yard sale. Still had six pictures in it." He stirred the water with a wooden paddle. "Fixed that thing right up. He could tinker. Couldn't hold a job worth a damn, but he could fix just 'bout anything if he had a mind to. And then when I bagged that deer, he snapped that shot. Hand on the antlers, hand on the rifle."

"Not a crossbow?"

"That came later. He was proud though. Frist and last time I ever remember him saying he was proud of me. He put that photo right on the fridge. Then, when he'd used up the other five shots, he tossed the camera. It was still working, but he couldn't afford more film. That polaroid shit was expensive."

Carol rolled up her sleeves. "What did he use the other five shots on?"

"Took neked pictures of his girlfriend."

Carol immersed her hands in the water and peered at him doubtfully.

"Only knew 'cause my mama found 'em and gave him holy hell. Started screamin' and slappin' him 'cross the face over and over, 'til he finally grabbed her wrists and shoved her away and went out the cabin. She died three months later. Drunk and smokin' in bed. Always wondered if it had something to do with the pictures, you know, if she hadn't found them, if she'd have drunk so damn much."

"Your mother was violent, too?" Carol asked.

"Not toward me. Toward my dad, though, sometimes."

They finished scrubbing up. That evening, Sophia nursed Koo before leaving him with Grandpa Rick (who came to her cabin to watch him). Then she went to have dinner with Tala, while Carol and Daryl accepted Wohali's invitation for dinner at his cabin. Murphy was having a "campout" with Jitsu in one of the coalition's tents, which they'd set up with a little help from Jerry. It was erected close enough to the Council House that the coalition hunters could keep a close eye on the boys.

As the couple walked toward Wohali's now, Carol said, "I know Sophia told him her decision this afternoon. If this dinner invitation is just an opportunity to lay a guilt trip on us for taking her away for the winter, I swear to God, I'm going to reach across that table and throttle him."

"This is Sophia's aga-daba-doo," Daryl warned her. "Better play it cool."

"I'm usually the one telling you to calm down."

"Well you ain't usually the one threatenin' to throttle someone 'cross the table."

"Sophia's telling Tala tonight, too," Carol said.

"That's gonna be a fun date." He strolled to a stop outside Wohali's cabin and knocked on the wood frame of the door.

Wohali greeted them in the doorway and led the inside. They each took a mat side by side on the floor, while Wohali brought plates of food to the table. "I cooked dinner myself today," he said, as he lay the plates on the table. "But you may wish Woya had again instead." Wohali sat down across from them and poured them both water from a pitcher. "Will Koo be celebrating Christmas while he's in Alexandria?"

Carol wondered if this was an innocent conversation starter or some kind of cultural test, if Wohali resented the idea his grandson might be raised a Christian in Alexandria. She realized she had no idea what Sophia believed when it came to religion, whether she had retained any hints of the Catholicism Carol had once tried to raise her with, if she believed in the "Great Spirit" and the various spirits she'd heard many members of the tribe talk about, or if she believed nothing at all.

"Yes, our household observes Christmas. We share a house with three other families. It's big enough. There are a lot of kids. It'll be great fun."

There had been a move to a different house and a lot of musical bedrooms over the past eight years. Currently, they shared a four-bedroom house with Rick and Michonne, Dixon and Beth, Glenn and Maggie, and their kids. Each couple had their own bedroom, with baby Lilly in a crib in Beth and Dixon's room. RJ, Murphy, Otis, and Hershel were all bunked in the garage apartment, which Daryl had taken to calling the barracks. Patty and Judith shared the attic. For Sophia and Koo, Carol thought, they would convert the study. It was small, but it did have a French door that would lend some privacy. They'd need to move out the desk and chair and move in a crib and bed.

"We always hang stockings from the hearth in the Council House," Wohali told her, "one for each child under twelve, and then we fill them with treats. Wooden toys, nuts we gather, that sort of thing."

"I wasn't sure if you celebrated," she said.

"Most Cherokee were Christian before the earth groaned," he replied. "Baptists and Methodists, to be precise, though I don't suppose there are any denominations anymore. Some members of the tribe adhere only to the old ways when it comes to religion, but most here mingle the ancient traditions with Christianity. We're a syncretic people."

Carol took a tentative bite of her dish and said, "This is good. What's it called?"

"Kanuchi. It's made with hickory nuts and hominy and water. We gather the nuts in October and then let them dry three or four weeks. We crack the nuts and remove the shells by shaking them through a loosely woven basket. Then we hollow out a log, put the shelled nuts inside and pound them with a long, heavy stick until they're a good consistency to roll into balls. Then we store the balls in a cooler in the cooling shed. But I understand Alexandria has freezers?"

"Yes," Carol replied. "Four deep freezers."

"But Deyani says you don't have batteries for power storage and the solar panels and windmill are limited in their generation? How do you maintain the freezers during blackouts?"

"If we don't open them," Carol explained, "they usually maintain a low enough temperature until the power comes back on. If a blackout goes too long, we use an ethanol generator to power them."

"Sounds like quite the impressive community," Wohali said. "Houses the size of mansions. An armory as big as my cabin. A pantry the size of our Council House. Electricity and running water. Koo-wi-s-gu-wi will have comfortable winters. I hope he doesn't grow too soft."

"He's a baby!" Daryl roared.

Carol raised an eyebrow as though to say, Who needs to calm down now?

"He won't always be." Wohali studied Daryl. "But Deyani tells me you are a great warrior." He turned his attention to Carol. "That you are as well. And Rick. That you have all slain countless wendigo and that you fought off two invasions of your community in the first year, likely many more since you and your daughter parted ways. So I suppose Koo-wi-s-gu-wi will have good role models in his grandparents, that you will see to his training?" The way Wohali looked at them now, Carol got the impression he wasn't guilting them so much as earnestly pleading with them. "You will see that he is raised to survive in this world and not a world that once was?"

"Sophia'll see to that," Daryl insisted.

Wohali nodded. "I suppose she will. She has had two strong fathers, after all. And a strong husband. She would want nothing less of her son."

"You talk as though she's settling permanently with us," Carol said.

Wohali sighed. "I suspect our Deyani will not return to us at the first moon of the spring, as she says she will." His dark brown eyes shimmered. "I found her by chance like a beautiful feather dropped from heaven, but the winds will take her again. Your camp is comfortable and your coalition is vast. She will forget her agidoda in time. I was always a shallow substitute for what she'd lost." Wohali sat with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his knees, his kanuchi growing cold on the table. "She will return to her roots with you the way so many in my tribe returned to theirs in Qualla when the earth groaned. These years with the tribe will become a shadowy memory. Many men in your coalition will wish to woo her, and she will forget Tala, too."

"I think you seriously misjudge her affection for you, Wohali, if you think that," Carol told him. "I can't speak of Tala. I have no idea how serious that is or isn't, but you saved our daughter's life."

Carol realized now, that in their jealous rivalry for Sophia's affection, that was something neither of them had thanked him for. Wohali had rubbed her the wrong way almost from the start, but as she looked at him now, biting down on his emotions and struggling to maintain a stoic posture, she realized that he was just a frightened, lonely man who realized he couldn't hold onto a past that was slipping away from him.

"You provided for Sophia," Carol told him, "taught her new skills. She's grown into a beautiful, independent woman. She won't forget you or her friends here. She'll be back with the first new moon."

With two fingers, Wohali swiped quickly at his eyes. "It seems I've forgotten the chestnut bread." With his bare feet, he pushed up from his deer skin mat and walked to a pan sitting on his hutch. "My mother's recipe. I'm sure I didn't make it quite like she did, but if I did it even half the justice, you're going to love it."

7:30 PM
Tala's cabin

Their plates were cleared. The candles flickered softly on the table, while the fire burned low in the center of Tala's cabin, warming the space against the November chill. Sophia looked across the small, wood table and waited for Tala to respond to her announcement that she had decided to return with her parents in a few days and spend all of the winter in Alexandria.

"I expected this."

"You did?" Sophia asked doubtfully.

"If my mother were to return from the dead, I would follow her to the ends of the earth and off a cliff."

Sophia smiled. "Well that doesn't sound very smart."

"She always did say I was more inclined to follow my heart than my head."

"If you expected this, then why did you act as if you didn't? Why did you act as though you expected me to choose to stay here permanently, year-round?"

"Because I wanted you to," Tala replied. "It's that simple. I wanted you to."

"My parents wanted me to come to Alexandria with them. But they told me to do what made me happiest."

Tala nodded slowly. "I was less selfless." He swallowed hard, despite having nothing to swallow. "I'll come to Alexandria in March. I'll escort you and Patrick back here. If you still want to come back."

"Of course I'll want to come back."

"You say that now." He blinked, looked up at the ceiling of the cabin, and then back at her again. He hadn't quite hidden the fine mist in his eyes. "You're an amazing woman, Deyani." He took in a deep breath. "Other men will see that."

"What other men?"

"That handsome young Benjamin, perhaps. I've already noticed him noticing you."

"Which one is Benjamin?"

"The only one under thirty? He and the big smiling man came back with a wild boar today."

"The blond?" Sophia shook her head. "I've never been a fan of blonds. And he's too young."

"He's older than you, I think. By a couple years."

"There are more ways to be too young than in years."

"I'm sure he's only the tip of the iceberg in the coalition."

"An iceberg of men?" Sophia asked with a smirk that almost mirrored Daryl's. "Will it melt and then be raining men?"

Tala chuckled.

"It's not as if you don't already have other women here chasing you. It's not as if Galilani doesn't walk by you every day with her back arched."

"She's not subtle, is she?"

"No." Sophia smiled. "I like you, Tala. I'm not promising you anything, but I do like you. And I'm attracted to you."

"Perhaps time and distance will be the test you need, then," Tala suggested. "To decide what this is. Or isn't." He pushed one of the candles aside, so he could see her better. "Would you like a glass of wine?"

"You have wine?"

"I traded that priest for it. The monks at St. Demeterios make it, apparently, did before the earth groaned, still do. It sounds like they live as they always have."

"I'd love some."

Tala got up, struggled to loosen the cork with a pocket knife, and poured them each a glass in clay goblets. Sophia fished out a floating piece of cork with a fingertip and took a sip. "It's good. It think. I've only had wine a few times. The first time was when were at the CDC. Carl - Junaluska - kept asking his mom for a sip, and then he made this face…" She laughed. "And we had it at Fun Kingdom, sometimes. They'd let us have a few sips for special occasions. We had champagne on New Year's Eve. But then I never had it again until Carl and I were out scavenging, when we were eighteen. We found this bottle and drank the whole thing together. We weren't used to it. We got so drunk. And then that was the first time we…" She trailed off. "Sorry."

"For what?"

"You planned a romantic date and here I am rattling on about Junaluska."

"He was your first love, your husband, and the father of your child. Of course you're going to talk about him. And he was my friend, Deyani. I miss him, too."

"You never talk to me about Ama. Why is that?"

"I don't like to think about my failure."

Sophia set her goblet down. "You're failure?"

"I failed to save Ama."

"You couldn't have. She was on the other side of the herd. There was nothing you could do. You saved Jitsu. You fought through them, and you saved your son."

"If I had just…"

"- Just what? There was nothing you could do - "

"- Junaluska figured out something to do, didn't he? He saved over a dozen people. And he gave his life doing it. I saved my son, and my horse, and my own hide. Jitsu is motherless because I failed to -"

"- Tala, you can't put that weight on yourself. It was chaos. I was slashing and slashing...stabbing and stabbing...almost blindly. It was all I could do to make a trail for the people behind me, even with Junualuska drawing off the pack like he did. And Ama was far too far away for you to rescue. "

"That's the other part of it. The other reason I don't like to think about it. It was the middle of the night, Deyani, when that herd broke through."

"Yes. What's that got to do with anything?"

"It was the middle of the night. Why do you think Ama was on the other side of that herd, on the other side of camp, in the middle of the night, and not in bed with her husband?"

"Oh. She…Ama had an affair?"

"No! No. But we had a fight that evening. And she wanted to cool off, think it over, put some distance between us, maybe give me a chance to worry a little." He shook his head. "It was such a stupid fight. I was being stubborn. Arrogant. I could have ended it half way through with some humility, and she wouldn't have gone to stay the night with a friend. She wouldn't have been on that side of the camp. She would be alive today. And the last words I ever said to her…" His hand tightened on the goblet. "They would not have been said in anger." He took a big sip of the wine and coughed.

Sophia reached across the table and put a hand over his. "You've got to forgive yourself, Tala." She squeezed. She slid her hand away. "I feel guilty too, sometimes. It didn't have to be Junaluska saving me. It could have been me saving him."

"You were pregnant."

"I didn't know that then. Neither did he."

"He didn't give you a choice, anyway," Tala said. "He did what he did. I doubt you were consulted."

"No," she agreed. "And as many wendigo as I've killed…I don't think I could have got through them if he hadn't…" She shook her head and sighed. "This was not quite the date you had in mind tonight, was it?"

"No, but...it's good to talk to you. Really talk to you…Sophia."

Sophia smiled. "Then pour us a little more wine."

10:00 PM

Rick had kissed his sleeping grandson goodnight and returned to the Council House when Carol and Daryl returned from Wohali's at around 8:30. Koo now stirred awake for a moment, but he fell back to sleep when Carol stroked his fine hair and murmured quiet endearments. Once Koo was settled, Carol stepped out of the cabin and found Daryl leaned back against the outside wall, smoking the new corn cob pipe and tobacco he'd traded Tala for yesterday. "Come to bed, Pookie."

"Why ain't she back yet? Left for dinner at Tala's at seven. Been three hours!"

"Daryl, she's probably not coming back until the morning. If it's this late, she's likely decided to stay overnight."

"Knew he was tryin' to get in her pants with them damn candles," Daryl grumbled.

"Well, if he succeeds, it will be because she wanted him to."

"Thought she was in love with Carl."

"She was. Clearly. But he's been dead fifteen months."

"If I was dead fifteen months, would you screw some other guy?" he asked.

She laughed at his jealous glower. "Depends," she teased. "What's this guy look like?"

"He's short. And bald. And he's got a growth on his neck."

"Well then, probably not."

"Yeah? What if he was tall dark and handsome and he wrote you poetry and shit."

"Well any man can shit."

Daryl snorted.

Carol smiled. She hooked a finger through his beltloop. "You know who I do want to screw, though? Right now?"

"Me?" Daryl asked as though this invitation was the last thing he had been expecting.

"Baby's sound asleep. Murphy's at his campout. The cabin's all ours."

"What if Soph comes back?"

"She's not coming back tonight, Daryl. Trust me. What do you say?"

Daryl slid his pipe from his mouth. "Say you're a tease, Miss Murphy. Don't think you mean it."

She slid her finger free of his belt loop. "Well why don't you come find out?" She turned suggestively and walked back into the cabin, and Daryl quickly snuffed his pipe out.