SABIS the SURVIVOR

Chapter 3: First Test

Chapter 3: First Test

After spending a fretful sleep cycle tossing and turning in her lichen and fur hammock, she awoke with the thought:

"I like the smell of reindeer moss."

She sniffed her hammock and breathed in its earthy aroma.

"I wish that we could live as long as those lichens found growing in the wild." Then she thought of her Father.

"Oh Mother Earth, will I ever see my Father again? Do I have to risk my life for one more chance to be with him?"

Her Mother had prepared a favourite breakfast nosh, cooked snails and liver paste.

"Eat Claris. Who knows when your next meal will be."

Claris swung out of her dream-like trance and hopped into her stone seat next to her Mother.

"You were talking in your sleep, my little Jerrayate. I think you were talking to one of the Elders, asking them to let you go on a quest."

"Oh Mamya, I must have been thinking about what Elder Janis had said to me at the end of my first test. And please do not call me little Jerrayate anymore."

"Your Daddya, Lewis, used to call me his little Yate when we were courting, referring to a tree that grows evergreen and tall and spreads out with multiple thinner branches from one wide Mother branch. When I asked him why he called me that, he told me:

You remind me of that tree which has a rough exterior, some smooth parts near the top, with elongated flower buds and cup-shaped fruit. The Yate has one of the strongest woods on Mother Earth while at the same time growing lovely flowers and tasty fruit. With you in my life Maris, I believe that we can build strong dreams and a solid future that will bring much joy and beauty to our families and our community. Jerra is tribal for place, which means that wherever you are, then that is where I want to be. My little Jerrayate."

As Claris chewed her snail-liver combination, she replaced the stone pin in her hair with a mollusk clamp, gazed at her appearance in the small reflective gemstone mirror and counted to ten. She had to learn patience and patience she would now embody.

Instead of running out of her home cave like a young and impulsive wild animal, she would take stock of herself. Her straight coal-black hair remained pulled back off of her forehead and face so she could see without any impedance. Her slightly reddened eyes blinked back at her and showed the anxiety that she kept inside. She did not want her Mother to fret so after swallowing some charcoal-filtered water, she used her pink and full lips and her lean cheek muscles to whistle a tune to lift her spirits.

She took the mirror and moved it down the length of her body so she could see the curves and flaws of her frame.

"Gem mirrors don't lie."

She had inherited her stout and stocky frame from her Mother's Mother, her Ibbi. What she lacked in height, she more than made up with core strength and a low center of gravity that helped her to stay upright when she crouched low. Her pale nape and thighs peaked out from underneath the gold-plated vest that she donned again for this second visit to the Hall.

This time she met the previous steam cycle's entrance guard with a smile and a wink. His long spear blade glistened and his eyes twinkled. He wore a freshly picked wreath of Banksia shrub upon his head. He tried not to smile back at her but as she walked by, he nodded his head in approval.

She entered the Great Hall more relaxed and calm but was met with the pungent scent of ripe old men.

"I think that this place should be renamed the Hall of Feet and Sweat," she mused thinking of Ravis. "That poor lad ought to have his foot odour used as a weapon to paralyze prey." She wrinkled her nose to adjust to the distracting fragrances and finally breathed with her mouth open.