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It didn’t matter that I was surrounded by incredible people.
They weren’t my people.
If they were, I would remember them...wouldn’t I?
If it were true that my kin were related to them—that I spoke the same tongue as them—surely, someone would recognise me? Some wanderer or trader who travelled between clans could give me a name at least? Shed light on my history that stayed so stubbornly forgotten.
I sighed and drank in the sunset. Its fiery blaze hitched my heart, sending a crippling wave of homesickness through me.
Homesickness for what?
For who?
Argh, stop it.
Swiping at the dampness on my cheeks, I sniffed up my tears.
I was so sick of crying.
I was more exhausted coming back from the dead than I had been in all the moons I’d walked alone.
Gritting my teeth, I tripped away from Solin’s lupic. Cursing my wobbling legs, I hated being so frail and weak compared to the happy, laughing people ringing the large fire in the centre of the camp.
My eyes scanned the village, taking in the many other lupics, spearing into the darkening sky with their bison-hide walls. The largest one sat at the top of the clearing. Reed mats were scattered outside, and river boulders were arranged in a circle as if offering a place for people to sit, chat, and share.
Other members walked from lupic to lupic, their hands full of things I couldn’t name, doing tasks I didn’t understand.
Some had skin as black as the night, some were a rich honey, while others were as white as the heart of a flame. Some were tall and others short, some were stocky and others as slim as reeds, yet they all flowed as one—so at ease with each other, sharing the same purpose.
My stomach clenched for that.
My heart bled for that.
For someone I’d once loved but now had lost...
I moved closer toward the large fire, glowing merrily in the centre. Orange flames danced over the differences in skin and hair colour as the sky deepened into darkness.
The scent of roasting food made my mouth water as I forced my brittle legs to shuffle a few more paces.
A girl looked up from her task of chopping something juicy and red, her ebony face splitting into a wide smile. “You’re alive!” Stabbing the bone knife she’d been using into the dirt, she swooped to her feet and crossed the small clearing. “I’m so glad the herbs worked, and you’re no longer sick.”
I blinked as she came close enough to touch me.
Her fingers cupped my elbow in friendship, but I flinched as if she shouldn’t. My heart seized at the thought of something bad happening from her touch. Something disastrous that would smite all these wonderful people who’d taken me in and given me a second chance.
I hunched and looked at the sky.
“A-Are you okay?” The girl released me. “I didn’t mean to upset you by touching you.”
I shook my head, struggling to drop my stare from the awakening stars.
What sort of past did I have that a simple thing like touch drove me straight to fear?
“I’m the one who should apologise.” Forcing a smile, I looked properly at her face. “I didn’t mean to...oh...it’s you.”
I stilled.
A nudge of remembrance lit up my mind, proving that I could remember certain things.
Niya.
The girl who’d found me, fought for me, saved me. The girl with dark eyes and dark skin. Her long pretty hair was currently tucked behind her ears, cascading over her shoulders with a lone sparrow feather knotted in the strands.
My heart swelled with gratefulness. Despite my fear of this new life and my constant emptiness for what I’d misplaced, without her, I would still be by that river’s edge—a pile of bones after the wolves had gnawed them clean.
“Don’t worry if you’re not ready to speak just yet,” Niya said softly. “This must all be so overwhelming.”
Biting my bottom lip, I twisted my fingers, trying to arrange my mess of words into something cohesive. “T-Thank you,” I murmured. “For saving me.” My eyes widened, worried she might have forgotten what an incredible thing she’d done. “By the river. Y-You saved me. I would’ve been eaten if you had not—”
“Hey...” She interrupted me with another grin that crinkled her eyes and made my heart flutter at her welcome. “Of course, I remember. And I would do it all over again.” Smiling wider, she added, “I’m grateful Solin and the healers were able to help you.”
“I was sick?”
I vaguely recalled the surly man named Kivva worrying about sickness and refusing to take me to their clan.
“Ah, I see you’ve found her.” Solin appeared from the heavy dusk, the fur around his waist now adorned with a belt of twisted reeds and shells. In his right hand, he carried a staff like Kivva had when I’d first been found. Unlike Kivva’s, Solin’s wasn’t just decorated with vines and leaves but the skull of an animal with ivory fangs and empty eye sockets.
