Beautifully Wild (Beautifully Wild Series Book 1) by Leesa Bow

Author:Leesa Bow [Bow, Leesa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

A jog turns into a sprint as Samuel takes the path, swiping at unruly vines and smacking low branches, his pack bouncing on his back.

He reaches the village perimeter and slows to a walk to catch his breath.

He emerges from his hut in a grass skirt and a beaded necklace strung over his shoulders. He inhales a long breath and then a slow exhale to calm his thoughts before finding the shaman, passing the women leaning over mud pots, smoke rising from the fire beneath. He nods to Kaikare. Years ago, he believed she was an outcast. Like him, she’d found no partner. In those early days, he’d find her sitting with the shaman listening intently to his words. The two were close, and initially he thought they were a couple, only she was many years younger. Then he discovered she was his daughter and an apprentice, like him, who understood sacrifice.

She nods in the way of the garden. Samuel snakes around more hut clusters until he reaches the village perimeter’s farthest point from the river.

A song leads him to the shaman, peaceful sounds of vows repeated in a tune sung to the trees in gratitude.

Dropping to his knees, eyes closed, Samuel concentrates on the words and allows the tune to fill his thoughts. The melody calms his heart, and he bows his head and simply absorbs the sounds like medicine healing the soul. He opens his eyes when a hand rests on his crown, and the singing stops.

Samuel speaks first, his head bowed. He tells him Eden waits near the river.

Nothing more.

No explanation.

Consequences are understood.

The shaman asks Samuel to wait outside the chief’s hut until a decision is made.

Samuel does so, and elevated voices carry through the village. It’s not the usual calm way the Ularans communicate.

White fluffy clouds roll overhead and block out the sun. The sun breaks through momentarily before clouds shut it out again. It’s Samuel’s only way of knowing, at this moment, time is passing by.

Kaikare mimics his pose, sitting cross-legged beside him, mere feet from the chief’s doorway.

She nods to the river and, in her language, tells him the children saw his Tamu’ne Akare.

He holds back a smile at the name the children have given Eden—White Tortoise. He assumed her white hair—like his—would garner attention. And after the warriors watched over her those few nights, they thought her to be a slow learner of their ways.

Kaikare’s name is a combination of a jaguar and a tortoise, and he wonders if, in her younger days, she was also a slow learner of the Ularan way. Or someone they wanted to protect like the tortoise when it came time to lay its eggs in the sand on the riverbank. The jaguar part he didn’t question for it’s the most feared animal in the jungle.

The rattle of beads and bones on a walking stick indicates movement. Samuel rises to his knees. Kaikare is a little stiffer than he remembers. She ambles to her feet. He considers her to be in her late fifties.

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