The Flute

The hunt went well. We took three tabuk, a larl, and I brought down a tumit with my bola. The meat is being jerked and salted. I saved the feathers in a cloth sack and one of the bones spoke to me and I have cleaned it and I have begun to carve a flute from it. The bone is light and it is taking the carving well. It would not be the first flute I have made. I used to do it often as a boy. This one though I am taking my time with. I want it to sound perfect. I want it to speak, as the bone spoke to me. I do not play often, perhaps this will inspire me to do so more.

I have caught Ani watching me. She is always alone. She is always quiet. I have never heard her make a sound, I have never seen her smile. There is only the big dark eyes. I think she likes the sounds I have been making with this flute. The boys like it as well. I have been teaching them as I go how to do it. I seem to be better at teaching some things than doing them myself. They are quick to pick it up. Juu is honored by his sons. I have thought on asking him about Ani. Why she is so different. But I do not wish to insult him somehow. Oni, she is a good mother, but she does not seem to care for Ani. It is not that anyone of the family seems to dislike her. It is more like they do not even realize she is there. Perhaps it is because she is so quiet. I find her eyes beautiful. I think I would be a proud father. I think I would hunt and hunt and work until my daughter had everything she ever wanted. I believe I would spoil her, protect her, and kill anyone that looked sideways at her.

Ani scares me, she is so different, and yet I feel a strange kinship with her for I too feel different from everyone else. Yaz seems to notice it also. For he allows Ani to sit with him sometimes near my wagon, or even the step. At first I was caught up in the fear of the big sleen and the tiny girl, but now, after catching her there with him so many times I have relaxed. I see it in Kai too. Sometimes when you watch a mother kaiila with her young you notice she is careful where she steps. Movement of paws almost exaggerated with extra care. He does just that when Ani is near. I am amazed. Whatever happened to Ani, whatever makes her the way she is ... Yaz and Kai seem to know. How is it that a small bit of female could wrap a warrior and a sleen and a daemon kaiila so easily around her little finger?