The Bowdancer Saga by Franz Janie

Author:Franz, Janie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Published: 2014-11-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

It was barely morning when they awoke. Jan-nell had slept badly, but her child seemed to be not the least weary for a night on rough ground as she found a spot away from their camp to relieve herself and poke about the scrub bushes. The few moons they spent in Khrin's village had certainly not made Mira-nell soft.

When she eased her body upright, Jan-nell's stiff muscles rebelled from the previous day's climb. The way they had come was not difficult. She silently scolded herself for letting her body be lured into the comforts of village life. She, too, found a place to relieve herself, and then applied her attention to removing food for their breakfast and distributing the supplies in her sack more evenly so that carrying it would be comfortable. As she was about to hoist the sack onto her back, Mira-nell stopped her.

“No, Mother, we cannot go yet,” she said, approaching her mother with a long piece of crooked wood she found. “We must dance the Woman's Dance first.”

Jan-nell smiled, easing the sack down to the ground. “You are right, but I daresay the journey we make will keep us both limber.”

“But not in the same way. Only the Woman's Dance can prepare you for the birth that is to come. That is what you told me.”

“'Tis true. But there is yet another I must dance each day a moon before the birth. It will make the birthing easier. Till then, let us begin.”

Jan-nell with her staff and Mira-nell with her crooked branch danced the stages of a woman's life—from birth through childhood to first moon to motherhood to becoming a wise woman and then to the weakness of old age. It stretched nearly every muscle of their bodies and added a grace to their movements. By the time she shouldered her sack and the water jugs, Jan-nell's muscles had lost their stiffness, and she felt more sure-footed as she skirted the large boulder on a trail no wider than a boot was long. She was grateful that Mira-nell insisted on dancing the Woman's Dance before they began their long trek. And she was relieved the path returned to its previous width when they rounded the large rock.

They munched on the last of the bread and cheese as they paced ahead on ground that changed from hard-packed earth to sheer rock. Scrub bushes that bordered the trail, obscuring their view of the countryside, were now gone. Yet, they still could not see how far they had come because large rock outcroppings blocked their view.

When they encountered a bend in the trail, they left behind the large boulders, and the bright morning sun flooded their faces. They stopped to catch their breaths and drink some water, resting against the mountain. Once, they craned their necks to see what lay below. The rolling hills and meadows stretched as far as they could see. Khrin's village was a bunch of dots on the landscape, and farther away a stream meandered near another bunch of dots.

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