Dying Breed (Part 2)

marie-jay (61)in #weekendfreewrite • 6 years ago (edited)

When they were young they played by the river until it grew dark. Sol and Apy and Aba, sweet little Aba, the one he’d always known was going to be his mate one day. They didn’t use to be afraid those days. The women cooked the evening meal without as much as glancing at their kids, screaming and splashing in the clear water, for even the water was better than. Not murky and foul smelling as it is now most days.

Nobody knew if the glowies were attracted to the murky water or it was them that fouled their river. When they first appeared, it was not such a big deal. They’d seen glowies in the night sky before and they never harmed them. The grown-ups thought they’d go away, it is the way of the dying stars to fall to the ground they said. And when they do fall they shatter in small shiny stones, like the blue ones women of their tribe wore around their necks. But these new ones never did fall - night after night they’d be right there on the northern border of their land. Of course, it didn’t use to be a border back then, that came later. After the night Aba and her sister went out north to look for the blue stones of fallen stars. They’d both had their first bleeding and they wanted to look pretty like the other women. When they did not return by sunrise, they all knew something bad must have happened. The men spoke in short words, barking orders at the women and children, getting their spears and their carving stones ready. Sol wasn’t allowed to go with them so he spent most of the day up a tree craning his neck to see the search party return. How he wished he’d never seen them return, carrying the two girls, their bodies limp and cold, their chests torn open. As if all the glowies ever wanted was the hearts in their chests, leaving the rest undamaged. No other animal behaved like that, killing for the sake of killing. It must have been the birds of fire, which glowed in dark of night as the sun brightened the blue sky of day. Nobody cried when they put the girls in the ground, they knew the Stone Mother will welcome them on the other side. But Sol’s heart broke nonetheless. Like the glowies ripped his heart out, too, only there was no hole in his chest.
It was then the elders decided to mark the northern border and all the kids were taken to see the white stones where their land ended so no one would ever venture further where the birds of fire looked for prey.

But then more glowies came to light the night sky, fencing them in, until they could no longer go to the forest on the hill where the wild boars lived. Sometimes, the Stone Mother took pity on them and a freshly slaughtered would be found at her feet, so her children would not starve. Yet, her eyes told them they needed to go - run south, go round the mountains and find a new home. Before the wet season started.
They promised themselves they’d come back to take the Stone Mother with them, for only she knew all their names and would see them on the other side. They needn’t have worried about that for most of them were sent to the other side the first night of their journey south. And it was not the glowies that killed them.

(To be continued)