The Mender

New Ways

Esri and Kai started spending more time together. He took her to his favorite spots for finding stones that flaked easily and hard hammer stones to strike off the flakes. They shared their knapping techniques with each other. Kai had long, strong graceful hands that could quickly shape the core flakes. Esri's hands were smaller but she was more gifted at coming up with new ideas for creating effective tools for hunting, scraping hides, preparing foods. They both took pride in their work and sometimes shaped the stones simply to make something beautiful.

The relationship between Dagan, Saba, and Riga was a little more complicated. As everyone became more comfortable with each other and could understand each other's words, it was clear that both of the young women were attracted to Dagan.

Riga was the more attractive and out-going of the two so she was usually more successful at getting his attention. But Saba had a quiet warmth that also drew Dagan. He admired her devotion to caring for Nagar and how Saba was always pleasant to everyone. Growing up with Zura, Dagan understood that kindness and caring were more important than physical beauty or strength.

Riga approached Dagan, "Dagan, come with us. We are going to look for Others. It would be good to have another strong man. We may be gone a long time."

It was the first time they had approached Dagan to be an equal member of a scouting party. He wanted to go but was worried, "What about the bode? Who will stay here with Zura and Nagar?"

"Tars, Piram, you, and I will go. Kai and the others will stay here."

Saba didn't like what Riga was suggesting and said, "Maybe Esri should go with you too."

"No, it's better if she stays. Nagar wants to plan Fenti-Dumu's Naming. She can help with that," said Riga.

Saba didn't know what to say. Tars and Piram would probably walk and hunt together on the trip, mostly leaving Riga alone with Dagan. They would be gone for days, maybe Dagan and Riga would even come back paired. Saba was sure that was what Riga had in mind. Dagan was so appealing to Saba. Among all the people she had known, including traders, she had never seen anyone like him who was both so strong and gentle. But she could not go and leave Nagar for so long.

Sometimes there were women who never mated. Until Dagan came, Saba thought she might be one of those and now he was going off to be almost alone with Riga for days. But what could she do?

Nagar, Zura, and Tars agreed that they should try again to find more people. The merging of their two little groups was working. Maybe there were more like them who had survived the Ash Rain. They just had to look harder. Though it was risky, they would be stronger if they were a larger group.

Tars, Piram, Riga, and Dagan left the next morning.

As they were leaving, Esri told Dagan, "I will keep a Sun-Man Stick until you return."

He leaned close to her, "Don't worry, Little Bird. I will always come back to you and Zura."

Zura tried not to appear so, but she too was anxious. The blending of their two groups was going well but it was still new. If something bad happened in the scouting party, it would be three against one. And though older, Tars and Piram were still strong and could probably take down Dagan.

Before they left, Tars showed Esri on one of her old counting sticks the number of days he thought they would be gone. It looked like a long time. She watched them leave and carved the first notch on her Sun-Man Stick.

Soon after the scouting party was out of sight, Nagar and Zura engaged those remaining in the plans for Fenti-Dumu's Naming.

Nagar pointed to the spot where Namings happened, "We will fix the Naming Place. We have not used it for a long time. Now that the Ash Rain is over and the Always Cloud is weaker, we can look to the heavens again. Zura is a Skywatcher. She can help us set the Guideposts."

Zura said, "As the plants and animals return, we need to watch closely what is happening in the heavens. We need new knowledge. Maybe some of the knowledge of the Ancients has changed. We will make the Naming Place a Thinking Circle like we had in our bode and use it to mark what is happening around us. When we are done and the scouting party returns, we'll have Fenti-Dumu's naming."

Esri, Kai, and Saba looked at each other. This was something new, to make changes to knowledge from the Ancients. How would they do this?

Zura saw their glances. "We'll keep many old ways but we have a new world and we're building a new bode. We need to learn new ways to survive."

Kai smiled, "Where do we start?"

Zura said, "Let's start with finding good stones for marking Moon-Woman's journeys so we'll know when she shines brightest and when she disappears." She held up a round, reddish rock. "Find me more stones that are the same size and color as this one."

Nagar said, "Saba, you go with Kai and Esri. I will be all right."

The three knew where to go. They walked to the cove of smooth rocks by the river, down from the cave.

Esri asked Saba, "How does the Naming happen?"

"I will tell you what we did before the Ash Rain came, but maybe this will change now. I hope so. The tradition is when the Elders see a child is starting to be more adult than child, they declare that it is time for the Naming. The child is taken by a group of Elders to the far hills and they're left there from sundown until sundown the next day. For most of the walk, the child's eyes are covered as they are led through the winding narrow pathways. It is a place where it's easy to get lost. The group of Elders comes for the child at the next sundown. While the child is alone, sometimes the big cats or scavenger animals come and the child dies. You're not supposed to talk about it but I crawled up into a tree as high as I could go."

"So did I!" said Kai.

Saba said, "Maybe that's what everyone does who survives, but we never talk about it. We're not supposed to. If the child is alive, the Elders decide on a name. It can come from something the child says or something the Elders saw. The Elders and the child come back to Flat Rocks. We make a big fire, tell stories, and the Elders reveal the child's name."

"Do children ever die?" Esri asked.

Saba was quiet and Kai said, "Nagar's son was killed by big cats. Nagar wanted the ritual to end and she never again took part as an Elder in a Naming."

"And no one listened to her?"

"Tars would have gone along with changing the way of Naming, but too many others did not. They were afraid the Ancients would get angry. I'm sure Nagar will make a different Naming for Fenti-Dumu," Kai said.

"Maybe these bad times are a sign from the Ancients not to always keep to the old ways if they are harming people. That's what Zura says, and we saw it in our bode - people dying who were afraid of the deep cave. It's because of her that Dagan and I are alive. Zura was right to leave our bode and find you," said Esri.

Saba said, "It's good you came. I was afraid at first, but everything is better. I remember the first time Nagar and Zura laughed together. I hadn't heard Nagar laugh in so long."

"And now even Esri smiles at me," teased Kai.