“Ahh!”
I jump back in pain and surprise, rubbing at the burned spot.
Beh’s sounds are louder as she drops the flint and round thing and then brushes at my nose. It doesn’t really hurt but does surprise me. I look up at my mate through my lashes as she looks over my face and then runs her thumb over my cheek.
It’s distracting, but as she picks up the flint and round thing again, I remember more pressing issues, and we go back to trying to start a fire. Beh strikes the flint, and after a couple more times the spark hits the tinder directly, and when I blow, a tiny flame arises. Only a few minutes later, I add a few thin sticks and move the burning bark to the stone circle. A few minutes after that, there is a roaring fire blazing.
Leaning back on my heels, I look at the fire. Now that the task is complete, I have no idea what to think of how it was accomplished. I have never seen a fire started so quickly except in a lightning storm like the one that burned the forest and killed my tribe.
Like the hide on a stick, I have no idea how Beh would ever think to do such a thing to make a fire. How can fire come from the little round thing? Is that what her tribe uses to make a fire? Is that why it is part of her leggings?
There are too many questions in my head and no way to get any answers. I drop down to my backside and feel the tension begin to flow out of my body as I breathe deeply. We have fire again, and my mate is awake.
I glance at my mate who is sitting on the grass mat and smiling broadly. Her eyes turn to mine, and they seem to glow in the firelight. I crawl over to her and wrap my arms tightly around her middle, placing my head in her lap and my face against her stomach. I hug her tightly in gratitude and awe as she strokes my hair and makes soft, whispering sounds.
Finally, I know we will be all right.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
As the first flakes of snow begin to fall from the sky, I look out across the cold steppes with more comfort than I would usually feel at this time of year. When I work my way around the hide that partially covers the entrance to our cave, I see the reason why and smile.
Beh makes quiet, rhythmic sounds as she stirs cooked grains, cattail roots, and rabbit meat together in one of her clay pots. She has made another one, a larger one, and it lies in the coals of the fire just outside the cave. With the hide on a stick, we dragged back the large pot from the lake, and Beh bathed me, using warm water heated in a clay pot over a fire. That way, Beh can wash both of us off without freezing me half to death in the process. With Beh’s firemaker, it is easy to have a fire anywhere we go, even down by the lake.
I have no idea why my mate likes washing so much or why she pushes me to do it as well, but it seems to make her happy. When my mate is happy, she smiles and lies down in our furs at night with her legs spread as I take her slowly, filling her with my seed to start a child.
Beh calls out to me, and I turn from the darkening sky and move back inside. She holds one of her clay bowls up to show me our food is ready to be eaten. I look around the cave and marvel at how much we have gathered over recent days using the fires by the lake to quickly dry fish and rabbit as well as using the hide on a stick to return far more than we could carry on our own. There are clay containers and wrapped hides full of food, enough to take us through the winter even if we already had a handful of children. There almost isn’t even enough room for it all. The stacks of grains, dried meat, and hides are encroaching on the cave’s living space.
Beh calls me again, bringing me from my thoughts.
My heart beats faster just looking at her.
I go to her and kneel beside her for a moment before I lay down on my side and place my head in her lap. Sometimes I prefer just having her scent all around me to the meals she makes. I roll to look up at her and am graced with her smile and her fingers on my cheek. I also notice that she has discarded the leather ties around her waist and between her legs that catch her blood and again wears the little pink cloth instead.
I hope she has no more bleeding times. I tell myself the reason for my thoughts is because I want her to get round with a baby growing in her, but I also don’t like it when she pushes me away when she has her bleeding time. My mate likes everything to be clean and dry, and putting my penis in her while she is bleeding is clearly not an option.
There are other times, though, even when she is not bleeding, that she still refuses to let me put a baby in her. I think maybe she is tired on those days since we have gotten so much of the work done for winter, but there are other days where the hard work doesn’t seem to bother her. There was also a day when she didn’t let me touch her, and I just kept her inside with me all day and brought her everything she needed.