An Abominable Affair by Maddie Syn

Author:Maddie Syn [Syn, Maddie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-20T18:30:00+00:00

20

GGHAAUR

After Tapeesa left me to return to her family, I set about working on my camp. I had the strange notion that I looked like one of the young mother birds nesting in the spring as I worked tirelessly to keep the melting snow and mud at bay. I did my hunting, only to find that when the meat was cooked, it had no flavor in her absence. Eventually, I gave up on eating it at all. Instead, I opted for the angelica root, ground up and mixed with water, telling myself that Tapeesa would appreciate the extra meat when she came back, and I didn’t need it, anyway.

But as the days grew longer, and the sun made itself known more adamantly, worry gnawed away at me. I could not wait for my Tapeesa to return to me. I could not wait to feel her tiny body curled into my chest again. I could not wait to taste her lips on mine one more time and see the way her face flushed with embarrassment when she pulled away. My body ached for her, day and night, and sometimes I could do nothing but stay up, staring at the moon and growling my protests at the stars.

However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there would be trouble. Spring was coming sooner than usual. The tribes would return before long. The hunting parties would be about. And if we had not found a way to keep our arrangement a secret, they would catch us.

I counted the days and nights carefully, watching the moon turn its face away from me a little at a time, and I set about a new project. Something to keep me busy while my Tapeesa was away, and I waited for her return.

Gathering the rabbit furs from my morning walks, I set to work, scraping and soaking them until they were soft and downy and letting them dry by the fire. I soon realized that I would not have enough to complete my project before she returned, so I spent a whole day setting new traps and then I checked my lines twice a day so that I could reset them sooner.

Each day, I brought in more and more, until I had gathered nearly three dozen pelts altogether and the newest ones were setting up to dry while I cut the older ones down and began working them together with long bits of sinew and a bone needle. I worked until my hands were numb and my back ached from being hunched over for so long beside the fire, and I fell asleep at night, with my needle still in my hand, only to wake up in the night and find it lost in my thick fur and had to be dug out.

But just as the moon was turning its face back to me, my gift was almost complete. A long, snowy white dress that would reach to the ground and keep my Tapeesa warm, even when I could not be with her.

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