The Wanderer Scorned by Natasha Woodcraft

The Wanderer Scorned by Natasha Woodcraft

Author:Natasha Woodcraft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Broad Place Publishing


Chapter 15

In the throes of harvesting the last barley and the spring vegetables, opportunities to seek out Awan were few. Anytime we gathered as a family and I had to watch Awan and Havel together, it pained me. I struggled to comprehend this new feeling which caused an irrational knot in my stomach and consumed my thoughts. It crept into my mind unbidden, clouding my view of everything Havel said or did with my sister.

I wanted her to love me, but I had meant it when I said I would wait. I just hadn’t realised how hard it would be. I wasn’t sure how long I could cope watching Havel and Awan together. I kept thinking about what it would be like if she chose him; if she decided that she couldn’t ever part from him. Would they display the kind of affection I saw between my parents in front of me?

While waiting for the wheat to ripen, I spent what spare time I could trying to rebuild my leg muscles by swimming or jogging on soft terrain. I suspected I might always have a slight limp, but I’d do my best not to.

One day, the wheat finally felt ready.

‘We will begin cutting the day after Shabbat,’ I told Chayim. We’d need tomorrow’s rest to refresh our strength. Harvesting wheat was a tough job, even with sharpened stones.

As I was trying to get to sleep that night, I could hear Awan and Havel murmuring outside. I couldn’t make out their conversation, but she was giggling at something he said. I tried to block it out, imagining other things. When it grew quiet, I finally drifted to sleep, only for my nightmares to return.

I lost Awan. She ran away from me, laughing, in the forest. I searched frantically for her, spear in hand, expecting any moment to find some wild creature attacking her. Eventually, I saw her. Unusually, she was not hurt but was lying with Havel under a cliff-face on the other side of an impassable river. At first, they seemed to be clinging to each other for safety, so I cried out to them. Then I realised they were not clinging for that reason but a different one. They had chosen each other.

At the look of conquest on Havel’s face, my heart shattered and in place of pain, uncontrollable anger grew. I threw my spear into the river and screamed. A cloud of myriad colours blocked my view. Then the sound of the spear shattering turned into a loud humming noise that beat against my eardrums.

I sat up, sweating and confused. I blinked several times, trying to discern if I was awake or asleep. The loud humming still filled the air. I rose from my pallet, but there was nothing to be seen. Where was the noise coming from? Making my way out of the hut, I walked towards the cacophony, letting my ears guide me. Dawn was just breaking through, sending both light and shadows across the land. The noise grew louder and louder.



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