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“Well, when you’re done getting the bee out of your hair, would you go check on the irises? I have a bad feeling that this week’s sunshine has been too much for them. Coax them back to strength like I taught you. Call the water if you must. Or grow a bit of shade if they are too beaten down.”
Auntie Mo always had a bad feeling about everything. Unfortunately, she was often right. Raela took a slow breath through her nose, attempting to calm her temper. “I’ll head right there. After this …”
Cupping Raela’s cheek, Auntie Mo smiled. Raela almost pulled away, but her Auntie’s eyes lined with a rim of tears. “You are the dearest creature. I hope you know that.”
Blinking, Raela said, “Um. I love you too.” She didn’t mean to lift the end of the sentence, as if it was a question, but Auntie Mo wasn’t known for her gentle affection … or for crying. Ever.
Auntie Toru emerged from behind the house walking toward the apple trees, one hand on her cane, the other resting on the ancient elk. When she saw them, she immediately burst into tears and stumbled hastily away.
What was with them today?
“On with you, now,” Auntie Mo said, patting her apron as if to gather herself. “We’ll see you tonight. We need to talk about your birthday dinner.”
“That’s next month, Auntie.”
“Never too early to plan. What if the flowers get blight? We could pick and hang them now to be ready then. Plan like a squirrel, I always say.” And with a snuffle, she bustled away, her little legs moving double-time back into the kitchen.
Something was definitely going on. They were notoriously emotional on their memorial day and maybe a day or two leading up to it … but they were usually more cheerful afterward, more hopeful, more anticipatory …
She tossed her hands into the air in surrender. Who could understand their whims? Raela stashed the basket beside the house and made her way east, toward the iris patch, singing a song to settle herself as she walked. The jays followed beside her.
“Run little mink, the storm is on its way.
Rest from your hunting and go another day.
The lightning is flashing, the wind is yet fierce,
but sleep in your cave, safe and unpierced.”
The lullaby was one of her favorites, one of Auntie Shou’s, of course, and apparently, a favorite of the birds as well. When she paused to climb over a fallen log, there were loud squawks of displeasure at her silence.
“Sorry, friends,” Raela murmured. She continued the song for another verse as she approached the tall, open irises her auntie had sent her after.
Irises that looked absolutely perfect.
The sun was warm but not burning. Raela stuck her finger in the earth, which was well hydrated. The wind was cool, the petals vibrant, and the stalks strong and growing. She used magic to pull a bit of water from the deeper soil and push it around the roots, but these were fundamentally healthy plants.
Was Auntie Mo more paranoid than usual? Or… was this a deliberate attempt to send Raela away from the northern meadow?
She turned in the direction of that meadow. Where was he now? Would he come back? What was a man like?
A quiet loping gallop preceded a fluffy, surprisingly heavy bear cub that barreled into her. Raela reached down just as the cub’s brother collided against Raela’s thighs and knocked all three of them over with a puff of seed, pollen, and dust into the air.
“Ouch. You two are heavy. What have you been eating?” Raela laughed as she dragged her fingers into the thick fur between their fluffy ears.
The twins spoke in her mind so fast she could hardly register who said what.Berries. The blackberries! Acorns. Fish. I love fish. I love fish more! No, you don’t.And many other words that she didn’t catch. Mother Bear gave a low rumble, and with only a small complaint, the cubs crawled off Raela and turned to wrestle each other down the hill instead.
Mother Bear sauntered beside Raela and snuffed her hair in a gust of hot breath.Young one, you seem agitated. Is everything okay?The bear looked around the hill they were resting on.I see no fairy circles. Why have you come here?
“Auntie Mo was worried about the flowers. But they seem fine.”
She nudged Raela with her massive head.And what areyouworried about?
Tapping her fingers on her leg, Raela spun around to sit by her bear. The sweet scent of the meadow warmed by the sun was soothing but didn’t wash away her agitation. “Where did I come from? Have I always lived here? Where are my aunties from? Do I have a mother or father? Or did I? What is beyond the forest, or up the mountain or down the river, beyond a day’s travel? What about—”
So many questions for someone so small.The huffing laugh from the massive beast sent Raela’s hair fluttering around her. Mother Bear sat heavily in the grass, sending seeds and dust billowing up and around them.These are questions I didn’t expect from you for a bit longer. What changed?
She shrugged. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t know. I’m thinking about things that had never occurred to me before seeing that man in the meadow.”
