2

Moving slower than usual, Bryla pushed herself up from the bed and stretched carefully. Her brown eyes rested on her newborn daughter, sleeping in a basket far too large for her. Bryla had made the basket for her son, who had been a large, healthy baby. The midwife assured Bryla that her new daughter was healthy, too - she was just very small. Bryla had checked her over thoroughly, and the baby was a perfect little orc from her tiny pointed ears to her little square feet to her flawless nut-brown complexion. Even though Bryla stuffed the baby's basket full of thick clefthoof furs, the little girl all but disappeared, and Bryla feared the girl might smother. She would need something much smaller to sleep in for some time to come.

Bryla moved over to the table where she had begun braiding reeds together to sew into a new basket. As Bryla settled herself at the table, two boys appeared at the door.

"Hello, Mother," the shorter boy said in a loud whisper. "Grom wants to see the baby."

"Okay, Harcos, but be quiet. She's sleeping." Bryla sighed inwardly. Her son and Grommash had been the only two boys born to the Warsong clan four years ago and so had grown up together, but she often wished Harcos had another playmate. Grom did unexpected things that put her on edge every time he was around. "Don't touch the baby. You'll wake her."

The taller boy nodded. "I'll be careful."

The boys crept across to the infant's basket. Grom peered down at the baby, reaching one grubby finger into the basket to touch the baby's nose. Her mouth opened in response, and he grinned. "She's cute."

"Grommash! Don't touch the baby," Bryla repeated.

"I'm not going to hurt her." The boy absently hitched up his pants as he studied the new infant. "She sure is little."

Bryla cringed. Only the ancestors knew how long it had been since Grom washed his hands. But his pants were hanging loose, as usual, which gave her an idea. The boy was too thin and ever hungry. "There's some roast talbuk on the table, if you boys are hungry."

To her relief, both boys left the baby and helped themselves to some of the meat, seared to a crisp crust outside but still juicy inside. Yet the food only distracted Grom for only a moment. Talbuk in hand, he went back to the baby and leaned over her basket.

The infant stirred a bit, then opened her eyes. She looked straight up at Grom. The boy stuck one of his fingers, dripping with good, fresh talbuk blood, into the baby's mouth. The infant closed her lips around his finger and sucked.

Grom grinned. "Hey! She likes it!"

Bryla's jaw tightened. "Grom. I can feed the baby myself. You boys just take care of feeding yourselves."

"I don't mind sharing with her." Grom turned to Harcos. "You know, we're gonna have to look after her. She has no father, so it'll be up to us to take care of her."

"Yep," Harcos said. "We'll look after her real good."

Bryla closed her eyes and said a quick prayer to the ancestors. The enormous gronn that had killed her husband only three months ago had also taken the life of Grom's father. Yet here was Grom, offering to look after the baby. What was she supposed to think of such a child?

Grom rubbed more talbuk blood on his finger for the infant, and her little fists waved excitedly in the air when she tasted it. Suddenly Grom yelped, pulling his finger away. Then he laughed. "She bit me!"

"She can't bite, she doesn't have any teeth yet," Harcos said.

"She tried to, anyway. Didn't you, little baby?"

Bryla set the reeds aside. "Bring her to me, Harcos. She's hungry."

Grom started to reach for the baby but Harcos pushed him away. "You never had a baby sister, you don't know how. I'll get her." Carefully Harcos slid his hands beneath the tiny infant and lifted her smoothly to his chest.

"I can do that," Grom said. "Let me try."

"Maybe later," Bryla said firmly. "She needs to eat now."

Her son brought the infant to her, and Bryla unfastened her shirt. As the baby nuzzled against her mother's breast, Bryla nodded toward the bundles of reeds lying on the floor. "You boys could go out to the river and find some more reeds for me."

Grom, however, would not be drawn that easily from the baby. He patted her soft black hair while she suckled. "What for?"

"Because the baby needs a new basket. Could you get me some more?"

Grom shrugged. "Sure."

"I know where they are," Harcos said.

Grom stopped to pat the baby's head one more time. "Bye, little baby. We'll be back soon."