Desert

give a little, get a lot;

Nadja is tired. She stands in the little bit of shade from one of the sparse, spindly trees that grow here — it’s more of a shrub, really, and the shade it casts is not enough, but it’s all she has.

Beneath her, October nurses contentedly. The little colt had been fitful and stressed on the swim here, but he seems now to enjoy the warm sun, and he is easily soothed by eating. Nadja doesn’t feel like she’s quite caught her breath yet, and she’s dropped some weight since leaving Tinuvel, but she can’t complain too much. The less fat on her body, the cooler she’ll be, at the end of the day. In any case, they are safe, for now.

She casts about for Mila, but her second-youngest child is off on some adventure or other and out of sight. It makes Nadja nervous, but Mila has always been independent, and not so bold as to be stupid, so she doesn’t worry too badly. Here, at least, sound carries easily; if Mila were to call, Nadja or Solomon would hear it at once.

She gently detaches October from herself, prompting a small bleat of protest, but the spotted colt doesn’t have the attention span to remain angry with her just yet and he soon bounds ahead of her as she moves toward Boaz and Jachin. Her thick coat is shedding raggedly beneath the Salem heat, coming off her chunks, floating languidly behind her as she stirs from her resting spot and then falls still next to the children she had taken in. Boaz, still young, is already taller than she — or at least, she perceives him to be, his posture being upright and hopeful while hers is low and tired — and October darts immediately to squeeze beneath his belly and poke his dark little head out from under one armpit.

“I think tomorrow,” she says in her soft-spoken way, noting that Jachin is asleep, “we should do a little exploring. There must be a better watering hole around here somewhere.” so far, they had found fresh water in the form of a large, rather muddy puddle (to call it a pond would be too generous). The grasses growing here were tough, but fine enough; Nadja wished only for a drink of cool water to help wash the unfamiliar dust from her throat.

— Nadja