FicWad

Chapter 81: CRACK!

Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
Earth’s Children is owned by Jean Auel


In the middle of the river, the horse couldn’t get a good foothold to buck Mariza off. And every time she started to get to close to the shore, Mariza would pull on the mare’s ear, forcing her to turn away from the edge. Over the whinnying screams of the horse, Mariza heard the splash of Vezava being bucked off into the river. Her acolyte had tried imitating Mariza: cutting the laces on the left side of her summer-dress so she could pull it off, swimming after and horse and climbing on its’ back. But Vezava’s horse was too close to the bank and it easily bucked her off. Mariza continued to keep steering the horse away from the bank until finally, the mare wore herself out and ceased struggling. Mariza was tired too. She sat on the horse in the river until she’d caught her breath.

When she was ready, Mariza loosened her grip on the horse’s ears and patted the mare’s neck. Gingerly, the mare took cautious steps towards the shore and finally climbed out of the water. With Mariza still on her back, she began walking away from the river. The mare walked faster until her gait had become a gallop. Mariza just let the horse run for a few minutes before pulling on her ears to turn. She guided the horse back to the group of women then forced the horse to halt with a strong tug on both ears. The horse reared back and kicked with her front legs before settling down. Mariza looked down at the women who were staring at her, transfixed! Mariza didn’t like the worshipful look in their eyes, especially Vezava’s.

“Yes, this woman is riding a horse!” signed Mariza. “But it does not mean that this woman is secretly the Great Mother! So stop looking at this woman that way! Now as soon as this Weech figures out how to duplicate this, this Weech will help each of you get a horse to ride. Now, let us take her back to the cave. Maybe we can put her in the stone-house.”

Mariza, who was her mother’s daughter, named the horse Whinney. They quickly devised a system of hobbling the horse when it wasn’t being ridden during the day, and locking it in the stone-house at night. Zariz and Đak were put in charge of watching the horse. For riding, Mariza devised a harness similar to the ones used to on snorkacks, back home.

Thoughts of women hunting were forgotten for the rest of summer. Once Mariza had analyzed what she had done and how she had done it, she was ready to help capture more horses. They would drive the horses in the river, and try to duplicate Mariza’s feat. They weren’t always successful. But by the end of summer, each of the women-who-hunt had a horse and half of them had learned to ride. Vezava had noticed that her horse would often try to scrape her off in the bushes at the edge of the forest. If she was just wearing a summer-dress her legs would be cut up fiercely by the brush. So Vezava made herself some thigh high boots to protect herself. The other women soon adopted the idea, even Mariza.

But there was more to do than ride horses. The still had to gather the plants that they needed to eat and for potions and healing. And there was the special plot of grass to harvest. Wild wheat and barley were not native to here. So Mariza was domesticating a grain that hadn’t existed in the old timeline. But with the horses, the warded area was not enough. They had to gather still more in order to have enough.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Towards the end of Autumn, Mariza and the women were gathering nuts in the forrest went she spotted Međveđj. The Cave Bear was pulling down a hollow tree that some bees had made a nest in.

“You think he let us have some of honey after he done?” signed Vezava.

“This woman is certain that he will let us have some,” signed Mariza.

“It is too bad that we cannot have honey available all the time,” signed Zurbgranaza.

“Yes, after he done, the bees fly away, build new hive somewhere else,” signed Vojkovica.

“This woman wishes we could keep the bees nearby,” signed Zurvgakava.

“That is it!” waved Mariza. “We CAN keep the bees nearby! All we would have to do is provide a hollow tree and some honey. Of course, we’d have to Ward it so that the Bears would stay out of the hive. . . . But it would be better to do it in the Spring.”

“Why?” signed Vezava.

“There are lots of flowers in the spring,” signed Mariza. “This is too late in the year. This woman is not certain that those bees will be able make enough honey to survive the winter.”

“Are we going to have another Mother Festival to charge the rune-stones around this hive?”

“No, this woman should be able to take care of it myself with the help of a willing woman,” signed Mariza.

“This woman willing!” signed Vezava.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Autumn also brought new births. All of the women who hadn’t given birth the winter before had conceived that winter and now they were delivering.

“Look Zurbgrana, you have got a new daughter!” signed Mariza.

“And it is alive? It is!” signed the Medicine Woman as she took her baby and offered it the breast. “This woman is lucky to have survived the birth. This woman would not have if not for you. This woman is grateful, Mariza.”

“Oh, it was just part of my duties as a clanluna,” signed Mariza. “This Clan has had many children these past two years. Why were there so few in previous years?”

“There were not any fewer births,” signed Zurbgranaza. This is the usual amount of births. It just that we have never had so many survive before.”

“What do you mean: never had so many survive before?” asked Mariza.

“Well, most babies do not survive their first winter,” signed Zurbgranaza.

“What happens to them,” signed Mariza, with dawning horror.

“They die,” signed Zurbgranaza.

“Babies don’t die,” signed Mariza.

“Usually they do,” signed Zurbgranaza. “That is what made last winter so miraculous”

“No! Babies don’t die!” waved Mariza.

“It is true,” signed Zurbgrana. “And often even if the baby survives, the mother doesn’t”

“That happens a lot amongst Vanthonoi,” said Vezava. “That’s why there are so many more men than women.”

“No! Babies don’t die! Old people die!” insisted Mariza.

“That may be true amongst your own people with your potions that saved my life,” signed Zubgrana. “But until last winter, babies usually died.”

As the realization of how much their lives had changed hit the women gathered at the medicine woman’s hearth, Vezava looked down at her daughter as if seeing her for the first time. The Great Mother had just promised her that her child would live! Vezava promised to thank her goddess with a lavish gift of Pleasure, later tonight.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

In order to keep the horses for the winter, the stone-house was covered in hides. The first snow would provide insulation and keep the horses warm. They were locked in, but Mariza and the dogs would check up on them frequently through the Winter.

Winter was almost upon them. The men had gone on one last hunt. But they returned carrying not game, but one of their own.

“Zuragavab!” cried Zurbgranaza when she saw the condition her mate was in.

“What happened?” asked Zurbgrana.

“A wooly Rhino gored and trampled him,” signed Zezbrakran.

After examining him, the medicine woman turned to her daughter and signed. “This woman grieves for you . . . he cannot be saved.”

“No! Nooooo!” cried Zurgranaza.

Mariza can running out of the cave carrying her bag of potions. She could see why Zurbgrana thought he couldn’t be saved. His chest was caved in, his leg was broken, he was heavily bruised and bleeding badly . . probably internally . . . he was pale from all that blood loss. . . . Mariza poured a blood replenishing potion down his throat and he started bleeding more heavily. She then started pouring coagulation potion on the wounds to get them to close. She gave him another blood replenishing potion, then a pepper up potion. Smoke jetted out of his ears.

“His Heart has stopped!” Mariza looked around at the gathering Clan. Zurgrana was trying to comfort her daughter while watching closely to see what Mariza was doing.

“Vezava! Vezava, go get the rune-stones from our fire and bring them here!” said Mariza.

Vezava handed her baby off to Vojkovica and ran into the cave. She returned carrying two of them. After she’d handed them off to Mariza, she ran back into the cave for more.

Mariza set one rune-stone on Zuragavab’s sternum and signed: “Stand back everyone,” before raising the other stone over her head and slamming it down on the first stone.

CRACK!

Zuragavab’s body appeared to be enveloped in lightning as the magic in the rune-stone discharged as it shattered. Mariza felt for a pulse but didn’t find one. So she brushed the pieces off of him and set the second rune-stone on his chest. When Vezava came out of the cave with two more rune-stones, Mariza took a third stone, held it over her head and used it to shatter the second stone.

CRACK!

Again the lightning-like discharge of magic enveloped his body. Again feeling no pulse, Mariza tried again:

CRACK!

This time, when Mariza didn’t feel a pulse, she accepted her failure.

“This weech could not save him either,” signed Mariza. “This woman grieves for you.”

Zurbgranaza had stopped crying. She now resumed her expression of grief as her mother and friend tried to comfort her. She finally calmed down when her daughter, Marizurba began crying. She shushed her daughter as she offered her the breast. Once she was happily nursing, Zurbgranaza looked up from her daughter and at Mariza.

“What is this woman going to do? This woman has two children and no mate!” signed Zurbgranaza.

“This Clan will take care of you no matter what you decide,” signed Mariza. “You may stay at your hearth as long as you wish. You may want to become a second mate to one of the men. But if you want . . . you could move into our hearth.”

“Asking her to be your mate?” asked Vezava. “Can women really mate other women?”

“Yes they can,” replied Mariza.

“Then this woman want to be you mate” signed Vezava.

“You would give up Zurdan to mate me?” asked Mariza.

“Well- . . . Uh- . . . can a mate you both?” asked a flustered Vezava.

“Yes, you could . . . if it were not for the fact that, as clanluna, this woman is already mated to you, to everyone in this clan,” signed Mariza. “This clanluna already Shares Pleasures with you. But you and Vojkovica each have someone to share your furs with, to sleep with. This woman is asking you, Zurgranaza if you would like to share her furs, to move into our hearth.

“This woman thinks she would like that very much,” signed Zurbgranaza. “But . . . would it be acceptable if this woman sometimes still Shared Pleasures with men?”

“Of course!” signed Mariza.

“And while you and Zuradan are Sharing Pleasures, this woman can Share Pleasures with Mariza!” added Vezava.

“Sometimes . . . and other times, you can help me watch the children,” replied Mariza.

“That too,” signed Vezava. “What kind of ceremony do you have for two women mating?”

“Actually, this clanluna thinks that she should have a ritual where she is formally to mated to everyone in the Clan.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

And so, that evening, after the funeral, the whole Clan gathered outside the cave for a mating. Next to last was Mariza, wearing only her redfoot skirt. (Vezava was, of course dressed the same) It was a bit chilly to be wearing so little. But Mariza would endure. One by one the men and women of the Clan came forward, painted the sign of their totems over where the mog-ur had painted the sign of Mariza’s on her chest. After each person, the mog-ur would announce that their totem had joined with hers. The people of Mariza’s hearth were the last to paint their signs on her chest and Zurbgranaza was the very last. Mariza then knelt at Zurgranaza’s feet and waited . . . . it seemed like forever . . . had she changed her mind? Was she ever going to? Finally, she tapped Mariza on the shoulder. Mariza looked up at her and smiled. Zurbgrana offered her a hand and Mariza used it to get up before walking hand and hand with her into the cave.

Their mating night was pretty messy. Mariza’s chest was covered in paint and she got it all over Zurbgrana. At one point during the night, Međveđj return to the cave to hibernate, signaling that winter had begun. There were men’s and women’s ceremonies that night and there had been a funeral earlier in the day for Zuragavab.

Their hearth was too smoky because Mariza had destroyed the rune-stones that had channeled the smoke in a futile attempt to save Zuragavab. So they had to used the fire in Zurbgranaza’s old hearth until Mariza had a chance (with help from Vezava and Zurbranaza) to charge some new rune-stones. In the meantime, the boundary stones were moved so that the two hearths were combined into a single large hearth with two fires.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

When the time came for the Winter Mother Festival, the mog-ur chose to drum with the children. This along with the death of Zurbgranaza’s mate meant that there were two more women than men this year. Since no one was heavily pregnant this year, the women danced with more joy and abandon before they started pulling men out of the dance to Share Pleasures. The order in which men were picked was no surprise either. The first men chosen were all of high status, next were the ones who were known to be good at Pleasures. The only Surprise had been when Zuragakadaza had taken Mariza by the hand and started leading her away from the dance. By now the mushrooms in the tea were making the whole cave glow with a bright iridescent glow. When they arrived at Mariza’s bedding, she turned and signed:

“This woman did not know you liked to share Pleasures with women.”

“This woman is uncertain,” admitted Zuragakadaza. “But this woman would like to try it.”

“Well, let us see if this woman can give you Needs, first,” signed Mariza before pulling her into a kiss.

As it turned out Mariza was successful and her attempt at Relieving Zuragakadaza quickly progressed into mutual Sharing of Pleasures. And during the peak, Mariza had a vision of a black haired woman sharing pleasures with Zeen. Mariza had never seen this particular woman before, yet she seemed familiar somehow. . . .

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Like every winter, there was much work to do. Especially since someone had to go check on the horses several times a day, even during blizzards. Vezava and Vojkovica had greatly improved their skill at both the ancient and the local Clan signs. And the many of the people of the Clan had picked up a lot of the Vanthonoi language. Learning a new language had given Mariza fuel for thought. She now knew so many languages that she was starting to see patterns in how they were related, which the analogized to familial relationships. Sungaean and Sharamudi appeared to be siblings, descended from some other language. Zelendonii, Mamuti, Haramuti and Vanthoni all seemed to be sibling children of Sharamudi. Harvatišarani, the Everard language, was obviously a child of Haramuti and Đananđanađi or the Đumbleđore language was a child of Harvatišarani. English appeared to be unrelated to any of the other languages.

This Winter Mariza judged that Zariz was old enough, so she began teaching him to read and write. When Vezava saw what she was teaching, she wanted to learn too. As did Vojkovica and Zurbgranaza. Pretty soon all the women-who-hunt plus the medicine woman were taking literacy lesson from Mariza. But although teaching them to read and write Vanthoni, spelling everything the way it sounded, didn’t take long, teaching them to read and write English would require them to learn to speak English. Mariza could also easily teach them to speak the spoken portion of the Zorg’s Clan signs. There was no easy way of turning signs into written words. She could perhaps create some sort of ideagrams like Chinese or Hieraglyphic Egyptian. But it was easier just to teach literacy in spoken languages.




Mariza (21) - Other, (Golden blonde hair, sky-blue eyes) Leader, Ayla’s daughter, Weech, , Đučaviča’s former 2nd mate. clanluna, redfoot, N: Cr,H,R,Div, Care prodigy (Stork totem)
---Zariz (6) – ¼ Clan son of Mariza, Weez-ur
---Širiža (2) – Other, Mariza’s daughter, Weech
---Vantha (1) – Other, Mariza’s daughter, Weech
------Đak (7) – blink-dog
--------- 5 Blink-wolves (1)
------Međveđj (5) Cave Bear
---Zurbgranaza (19) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zurbgrana, medicine woman, widow of Zuragavab
------ Zurbgranazaga (4) 1/32 Clan daughter of Zurbgranaza
------Marizurba (1) – 1/64 Clan daughter of Zurbgranaza
Zuradan (19) – 1/16 Clan son of Zurvgakaza
---Vezava (15) – Other, daughter of Larnva of the Vanthonoi, abducted by Zorg's Clan, Mariza's accolyte, Zuradan's mate,
------Marizava (0) - 1/16 Clan daughter of Vezava
Zuradaz – (16) - 1/16 Clan son of Zurvgakaza, (Mammoth totem)
---Vojkovica (16) – Other, daughter of Larnza of the Vanthonoi, abducted by Zorg's Clan, mate of Zuradaz, (Shamois totem)
------Marojkova (0) - 1/32 Clan daughter of Vojkovica

Zezbrakran (42) – 1/16 Clan son of Zezbraka, former-Leader
---Zuragavaka (35) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragava, mate of Zezbrakran
------Zuragakama (1) – 1/64 Clan daughter of Zuragavaka

Zurbgun (55)-1/8 Clan son of Zurbga, mog-ur
Zurvragun (40) – 1/16 Clan son of Zurvraga, mog-ur's acolyte
---Zurvgakava (31) - 1/8 Clan daughter of Zurvgaka, mate of Zurvragun
------Zurvgakun (13) - 1/16 Clan son of Zurvgakava,
------Zurvgakavama (1) -1/32 Clan daughter of Zurvgakava

Zezbrakruk (39) -1/8 Clan son of Zezbraka
---Zurbgrana (39) – 1/16 Clan daughter of Zurbgra, medicine woman, mate of Zezbrakruk
------Marbgra (0) – 1/16 Clan daughter of Zubgrana

Zuradanak (37) -1/32 Clan son of Zuradana
---Zurvgakaza (34) – 1/8 Clan daughter of Zurvgaka, mate of Zuradanak
------Zurvgakazma (1) – 1/16 Clan daughter of Zurvgakaza

Zuradavun (37) – 1/32 Clan son of Zuradava
--- Zuragakada (38) – 1/16 Clan daughter of Zuragaka, mate of Zuradavun
------Zuragakadama (1) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakada

Zurvgav (36) – 1/8 Clan son of Zurvgava
--- Zuragakaba (30) – 1/16 Clan daughter of Zuragaka, mate of Zurvgav
------ Zuragakabava (12) – 1/16 Clan daughter of Zuragakaba
------Zuragakabama (1) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakaba

Zuragavaz (20) – 1/64 Clan son of Zuragavaka, former-future Leader
---Zuragakadaza (18)– 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakada, mate of Zuragavaz
------ Zuragakadazad (3) – 1/64 Clan son of Zuragakadaza, former-future leader
------Zuragakadazama (1) – 1/64 Clan daughter of Zuragakadaza

Zuragavab (16) – 1/32 Clan son of Zuragavaka - dead

Zurvgak (16) - 1/16 Clan son of Zurvgakava, future mog-ur's acolyte
---Zuragakabaza (15) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakaba, mate of Zurvgak
------Zarama (0) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakabaza

Zubgranev (16) – 1/16 Clan son of Zurbgrana
---Zuragakadava (15) - 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakada, mate of Zurbgranev
------Maraga (0) – 1/32 Clan daughter of Zuragakadava