The Blessing Stone Read Online Free PDF Page A

wanted, Baby being so constantly willing to allow him. They were currently the only pair-bond, sleeping together, sharing affection. One Eye even tolerated Baby’s children, something few males did.
    Eyeing the females, Frog decided to try to interest a few by showing them his erection and giving them a hopeful look. But they either ignored him or pushed him away. So he went back to the fire and raked through the coals. To his delight he found an overlooked onion, charred but edible. He took it to Fire-Maker who immediately grabbed the morsel and got down on her hands and knees, supporting herself on one arm while with her free hand she chomped away. It didn’t take Frog long. He was soon finished and shambling to his nest-bed for sleep.
    When Lion finished eating, his eye fell upon Old Mother who was sucking on a root. Lion and Old Mother had been birthed by the same female, they had suckled the same breasts and tumbled together as youngsters. When she had produced twelve offspring, Lion had been in awe of her. But now she was growing feeble and the dim notion formed in his mind that food was wasted on her. Before she could even react, he strode past her, snatched the root from her fingers and popped it between his teeth.
    Seeing what had happened, Tall One went to the dismayed Old Mother, making crooning noises and stroking her hair. Old Mother was the oldest member of the Family, although no one knew exactly how old since the Family did not reckon by years or seasons. If anyone had counted, they would know she had reached the advanced age of fifty-five. Tall One, on the other hand, had lived for fifteen summers, and she knew vaguely that she was the daughter of a female Old Mother had birthed.
    Watching Lion as he circled the camp before settling down into his nest-bed, Tall One felt a nameless unease fill her. It had to do with Old Mother and how defenseless she was. A dim recollection came to the young female’s mind: her own mother, having broken a leg, was left behind when she could no longer walk, a lone figure sitting against the trunk of a thorn tree, watching the Family move on. The group could not be burdened with a weak member, for the predators were ever watchful in the tall grass. When the Family passed that way again, they had found no trace of Tall One’s mother.
    Finally everyone began to settle down for the night, mothers and children curling up together in their nest-beds, the males on the other side of the fire, finding comfortable spots, lying back to back for warmth, tossing and turning to the sounds of growls and barks nearby in the darkness. Unable to sleep, Tall One left the nest-bed she shared with Old Mother and made her way cautiously to the water. A short distance away she saw that a small herd of elephants—all females with their young—had gone to sleep for the night, slumbering in the manner peculiar to elephants: by leaning against a tree or one another. When she reached the water’s edge she looked at the surface of the pond covered in thick volcanic ash. Then she looked up at the stars slowly being devoured by smoke and she tried again to understand the turmoil in her mind.
    It had to do with the new danger.
    She looked back at the camp where seventy-odd humans were settling down for the night. Already, snores rose up to the sky, and nocturnal grunts and sighs. She recognized the moans and gasps of a pair engaged in sexual release. A baby wailed and was quickly hushed. The unmistakable sound of Nostril belching. And the noisy yawns of the males guarding the perimeter with spears and torches to protect the Family through the night. They all seemed unconcerned; for them, life was going on as it always had. But Tall One was troubled. Only she sensed that the world was not right.
    But in what way? Lion was leading the Family to all the ancestral places where they had roamed for generations. They found the food they had always found; they even found water where it was supposed to be,