First Snow of Winter

Part 2: Around the Fire
A cold wind blew around the oval mound of the communal hall of the Summer Village. Inside 4 figures still sat around the fire while a dozen more were sleeping a little further off. One of the figures got up and walked toward the corner, clutching a fur around her bony shoulders. The grey in her hair and the wrinkles made her look older than she really was.
Shyobahn looked down on her two children who were peacefully dreaming and smiled. The oldest of the two, Koy was protectively holding an arm around his baby sister in a way he wouldn't admit to in real life. Her fears were put to rest again. She silently paced back to the fire and sat down again.
Shyobahn took up the hide she had been carving again and carefully started scraping the back again, careful to get every spot that looked rotting out.
"Shyobahn! How do you do it!" Tryl suddenly cried out.
The young girl looked up to her teacher with eyes that showed desperation. That particular emotion wasn't one you could see often on the thin boyish features of Tryl's face. The girl looked down to her hide again and saw the irregular corners and fuzzy edges where her knife had cut the hide. Tryl would have started crying if she was more of a girl, but she wasn't. She had always been around boys, most likely because she had bunch of younger brothers. They had played and later trained together, but when push came to shove her parents wouldn't let her join the hunting trips. Why was beyond her. There were plenty of women who joined them, granted they didn't always stay with them long but she wasn't even near to getting pregnant.
"Patience dear," the older woman said, "you'll get the hang of it eventually." But Tryl could see that Shyobahn too was near giving up on her. And Tryl didn't blame her... maybe then her parents would let her leave with her brothers.
"I think you even have improved a bit," Shyobahn continued, "What do you think Eyos?"
"Huh?" The man sitting next to her looked up from his work, his knife stopping an inch above the little statue he was carving. His hand stayed in the same place without shaking. "What did you say, Shyobahn?"
"Don't you think Tryl has improved?"
"Sure." Eyos said and returned to his work. Or rather he returned to his dreams. Dreams where he was larger than in real life, where when he said something people would listen to what he had to say. Eyos didn't have to look down to the statue to know what he was carving. If he was having this particular daydream he was carving Ollear the Brave, his vision of a hero. He had carved Ollear many times but lately another theme had emerged in his statues. More and more he was carving little statues of mythical creatures like were told about in stories. The kids loved them and the elders certainly enjoyed his work when they were telling his stories.
Eyos put down the Ollear statue and took another piece of rectangular wood. His thoughts had shifted to the South. What was spectacular was that it wasn't Ollear doing the exploring, no it was Eyos himself walking around and seeing all the creatures that he knew so well. The birds in the sky some smaller than his fist, the bunnies that were juicy and fat from the green grass and brown in stead of white. And sometimes, though not always he saw the Shadow of the dragon though those dreams only came at night... in his nightmares.
Some embers flared up in the fire and Maryse hastily scooped gensters out of the fire. She stayed there a bit longer than necessary. When Shyobahn stood up again, precise like clockwork, Maryse placed herself briefly next to her best friend and looked down on the ruined fur.
"I think Shyobahn is seeing things." She said to Tryl.
"I know! Why doesn't she just throw me out?"
"Possibly because she doesn't know you're not very happy here."
"You think? I've been miserable ever since I got here."
Maryse scrambled up again as Shyobahn got back and returned to her own spot around the fire. Maryse sometimes felt a bit resentment about how her friend felt unhappy in the Oval. It wasn't unthankful work, people appreciated the hidecarvers and the cooks. In fact they would do little without them like she in the kitchen could do little without the meat from the hunters. All had their importance. On the other hand, Tryl really did suck at what she was supposed to do. Maryse looked at the fire and arranged the kindling and wooden blocks again. Nights like these were a bit boring. Both Shyobahn and Eyos never spoke a word when they were working and though Tryl would enjoy to talk to her Maryse felt too uncomfortable with the idea that the other two would hear what they were saying. She sighed slightly and went back to staring in the fire.

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Lantessama Isle - Ryslen