Chapter Seven
It is night beneath the horned moon. Nut sits among the people settled around the blazing fire. Three women play with a baby, tossing it softly one to the other. An old man, cross-legged, is showing a young boy how to strike two rocks together to make an arrowhead.
Ketbel stands up and raises his hands to the sky, commanding attention. He utters a few words, then begins passing out chunks of the goat that has been roasting on the fire.
Nut looks across the fire at the girl with the long black hair. She looks back at him with her strange green eyes, but quickly turns away. He stares at her. She pretends to not notice. She whispers to the girl siting next to her and they both giggle.
* * *
The horned moon becomes the round moon. The round moon becomes the horned moon.
The tribe is walking along a scrubby plain. They file along, flanked by dogs strapped to skids towing bundles of their scant possessions. Ketbel leads. The others follow.
Nut is near the rear of the procession. Inni is a few paces behind. Nut stops to adjust his burden, and she passes. He falls in behind her. He watches her hips sway as she walks. Suddenly she spins and hisses like a snake, and Nut stumbles backwards. She lifts her face heavenward, laughing to the sky.
* * *
The tribe is camped on a ridge high above a broad valley. Ketbel and Nut leave before sunrise. Early that morning they spot an antelope and pursue it.
The sun is now high. Ketbel and Nut watch from a ledge as the antelope stumbles down the slope toward the valley below. Nut begins to climb down but Ketbel pulls him back.
“Why do we not follow?” protests Nut. “It is spent! It cannot go much further.”
Ketbel points toward the river in the distance below. “If we go down there we will not return. There are evil men there.”
“Evil men?”
“Men who take everything. They believe that everything belongs to them.”
Nut and Ketbel remain on the ledge. They talk quietly and share a piece of cheese.
Ketbel looks up. Coming across the hillside is a small goat. Ketbel silently notches an arrow and lets it fly.
Soon Ketbel and Nut are kneeling next to the dead goat. Ketbel raises his hands and says, “Lord Kush, maker of goats, Ketbel thanks you. My people are in your debt.”
Ketbel and Nut sit there and remain silent for a while. Then they begin to bleed the animal.
* * *
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