Beyond to Hutanya by Julius Kristan

Author:Julius, Kristan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Frenchaven Press
Published: 2022-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Sarah woke to birdsong, the sun warm on her face. Sitting up, she was greeted by the sight of Will waving a handful of chevis in front of Meta’s nose.

“That’s it,” he urged. “If you’ll kneel down, Meta, you can have some of this lovely yuck, and then you can give me a ride.”

The grazel accepted the grass, then patiently lowered herself to allow Will to climb onto her back. Will’s face lit up in triumph, but when Meta remained folded in place, he frowned. “Umm… now up, Meta!” he commanded.

In one fluid movement, the grazel surged to her feet, and Sarah, watching through half-lidded eyes, suppressed a laugh as Will’s own eyes widened.

“All… all right, then.” Will gave Meta’s neck a gentle pat. “Let’s go, shall we?”

The grazel pivoted her head and gave him a long, steady look. It was clear that she wasn’t in the habit of being ordered into action, and certainly not by a very small boy.

“That is… if you want to,” Will added uncertainly. “Go… maybe… for a little walk?”

Meta snorted and remained in place, chewing the chevis. When she’d swallowed the last of it, she bent her long neck and rummaged through Will’s knapsack in search of more.

Ever curious, Will leaned over to watch.

Sarah couldn’t suppress her laugh when he slid down the grazel’s neck and landed with a thump on the ground.

“Good morning, Will,” she said. “What are you up to?”

Will flushed, and shifted his gaze from the grazel to the clumps of chevis scattered all around him. “Oh… nothing much. Just… um… feeding Meta.”

“So I see. Has she eaten all of our chevis?”

Will caught up his pack and held it to his chest. “Don’t worry, Sareka. She only ate a little bit.”

“Too bad,” Sarah muttered.

She stretched her arms over her head and breathed in the scent of tea and herbs from the neighboring cooking fires, along with the warm, earthy smell of the grazels. The Dasai, dressed in their sunbright clothes, were about their morning activities—stirring pots over the embers, sweeping around their hearths, and calling soft greetings to one another.

A boy with black ringlets spilling down his back trotted over from a neighboring fire with a platter of grains and chopped roots. The fiery food brought tears to Sarah’s eyes, but both she and Will ate heartily, gulping down mugs of honeyed tea to temper the burn.

“I see you’ve already breakfasted.”

Sarah’s heart gave a little lurch as Rein settled on the ground between them. He patted Will’s bulging stomach playfully. “And you’ve eaten well, by the looks of this!”

Will giggled, but Sarah felt her cheeks flush. Why did Rein’s voice trigger this strange and exciting feeling in her? To cover her confusion, she snatched up her pack, only to have it slip through her fingers, spilling its contents to the ground. To her horror, she felt the prick of tears as she scrambled to gather them up.

Rein gently took the pack from her. “I was wondering,” he said casually, as

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.