Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin Read Online Free PDF Page A

them.
    “Skins?”
    “Yes,” said Enat. “We hunt animals sometimes and keep a small flock of chickens. But we always honor the spirit of the animal for feeding us and providing us with skin and bone.”
    Ash did not look convinced. She knew the villagers hunted, and she had stolen meat from them many times, but she did not wear animal skins. “The skin and bone are better left with the animal.”
    Enat laughed, a sound that startled Ash at first. She had heard the villagers do this thing sometimes, but she had never laughed herself. She tried to emulate what Enat did, but it sounded like a crow’s screech.
    “Never mind,” Enat said with a smile. “Not all humans laugh. You will, if something moves you to it.”
    The more time Ash spent with Enat and the more Enat spoke of things about which Ash knew nothing, the less certain she was that she belonged among other two-legs. “I will not be like them.”
    “No,” Enat agreed. “You will be like you. And that is good enough.”
    Ash did not understand this.
    A few times, Enat paused when they encountered other two-leg settlements. She studied them from afar for a bit before choosing to detour around them. This puzzled Ash, as Enat had willingly gone into the village near the sett, but she obediently followed as they gave these settlements a wide berth.
    On their fifth day of traveling, they climbed the largest hill Ash had ever seen. As they reached the summit, she gasped. “What is it?”
    Enat’s eyes crinkled in amusement, a look Ash was beginning to recognize, as she did it often when Ash expressed surprise over something she had never seen or heard before. “That is a lake.”
    “Is it the endless water the birds speak of?”
    “No.” Enat pointed. “See? There is land on the far side. At the ocean, you cannot see any land.”
    Ash had never seen so much water and she could not imagine more water, so wide that no land was visible. Enat pointed to another range of hills, so far in the distance that they were little more than a purple smudge against the sky. “That is where we are going. Beyond those hills is our forest.”
    Far from being reassured, Ash felt an emptiness inside her. As Enat had talked of leaving her clan and never seeing Broc and Cuán again, Ash had still harbored a tiny hope that it might not be so final. But this was so very far… Never had she imagined such immense distances.
    Ash was quiet as they settled for the night. She knew now how to strike metal against flint to create sparks and kindle a fire. Enat found some wild onions and shoved them under the coals to roast. They tasted good with a bit of the dried meat she had in her bag.
    That night, Ash lay watching the fire until Enat slept and the fire grew low. She got to her feet, wrapped her cloak around her and crept away into the dark. The moon was waning, but there was still enough light to see by as she made her way back down the hill. She no longer wanted to learn magic. She did not want to live among two-legs. She wanted the comfort and warmth of those she loved. As she walked, she heard the scuffling of small animals in the underbrush. She realized she had not spoken with a four-leg since she and Enat had begun their journey. She called out.
    “I am one of you.”
    There was only silence for a long while, then a timid voice said, “We do not know you.”
    “I am of a clan far from here,” she said. “I will not harm you. Will you not show yourself?”
    The bushes rustled and a young vixen peeked out, her nose twitching as she sniffed. “How is it that a two-leg can speak to us?”
    “I do not know.” Ash squatted down. “I have always. My clan of badgers raised me from a cub.” She held a hand out, but the vixen backed away.
    “You are not of us.” With a flash of her white-tipped tail, the fox was gone.
    Ash sat there for a long time, listening. She could hear small voices whispering around her, and she knew that other animals watched her, but none would