“Everybody has to die sometime,” I said thinking of my own children and remembering how I feared for them, but I still wanted them free. “Living free makes the time you have worthwhile. This is how anyone would wish to live.”


    “My Sister agrees with you,” the woman said, looking over at Kana. “She has for a long time…”


    We stood in silence as the woman watched her Sister.


    Tyle and his young family approached us suddenly. They stared at us as though waiting for something.


    “We must change the dressing,” Aryn exined when neither the woman nor I moved.


    The woman hesitated and Tyle asked her politely toy on her stomach.


    She didn’t move. “There is no point to what you are doing,” she said harshly. “I cannot fly even if this wound is healed. My wing will not grow back.”This content ? 2024 N?velDrama.Org.


    The woman’s refusal to do as they asked seemed to startle the young men for a moment. The wounded men in this hall were not refusing anything, most of the women were too injured to argue much. Thepliance came from different ces but it was the norm.


    A woman’s prerogative, I thought to myself, it exists here, too.


    “I cannot fly either,” Tyle reasoned thoughtfully. “If I wish to rise into the air, I take a transport. There is much to do on the ground, though. You have been left to us by The Great Harmonious Spirit. Your purpose must no longer be in the air.”


    The woman seemed stunned as the young man’s statement.


    “You must know The Spirit,” Tyle insisted. “You are a woman and I know you carry many generations of knowledge. The Spirit is alive and well in all of us, just as it was long ago. Even without the ability of flight, you have a talent The Spirit needs. Lay down and let us help you.”


    It took a moment, but the woman slowlyy on her stomach. She gave the boys ess to the injured areas and they worked quickly to remove the old dressing. It was soiled and bloody. The sharp smell that permeated the area when the bandaging was off told me infection was threatening to set in. The boys saw and smelled what I did. They cleaned the whole area very thoroughly.


    “I have heard there are ces the women cannot fly, due to the wind,” Tyle said as his Brothers murmured assent.


    I had heard this, too. The T’vailk mountains were supposed to be so wild that women couldn’t fly during certain parts of the year. My attention went to my stomach where my little one seemed suddenly more active. She must be curious about those mountains.


    The woman on the stone looked back at Tyle before agreeing. She talked about the T’vailk mountains in detail. At one point, she and her Sisters had mined there, so she was quite informative.


    I rushed and threw the dirty linens away before returning to listen. As Tyle and his Brothers applied a treatment to the damaged wing she told them all about that area of the world. The interest the young men had spurred the woman to talk more. She responded to them and they continued to interact.


    She told us things I’d never even read about. As usual, there were things you’d only know if you lived there. The details of life in those mountains was fascinating to all of us. The storms made it a very different ce.


    “They say our cousin still in Ciara’s belly is a woman of that line,” Aryn said proudly as the boys finished. “My male breeder is excited for his Brother. They say it is rare to breed a female of T’vailk mountain heritage.”


    I’d never seen a female on this look so startled. The woman’s head raised and she looked right in my face and then down at my big belly.


    “That is not possible,” she said firmly.


    The boys took her opinion in stride.


    “Our cousin Kennedy and her Sisters say it is,” Tyle responded. “They say the growing life is too fast to be a Paterian that isn’t T’vailk. They are very smart girls. Many that have heard their argument believe it.”


    The woman looked between us a moment before she settle back down. I got the distinct impression she wasn’t going to argue, but she did not believe us one bit.


    “You call the women here cousin,” she said instead.


    “Yes,” Tyle answered, binding the injured stump with deft and practiced moves, “this camp is important to us. We would do anything for our campmates. We provide whatever they need, whether they are men or women.”


    The woman snorted and muttered something. It sounded like she said ‘what can you provide a woman?’


    Tyle and his Brothers grinned. Their attention switched seamlessly off the injured wing, which was now bound, to the rest of the woman’s body. Aryn slid his hands along the woman’s undamaged wing as his Brother touched her back. I recognized what they were doing probably constituted a massage.


    The woman flinched as Aryn’s hands slid across the contours of her right wing. Her head whipped around and she watched him with narrowed eyes. The young family just ignored her reaction and continued to stroke systematically.


    The wings were sensitive in ces, I’d learned that from listening to my campmates. Men in thepounds would not know that and only focused on the spears, where the sensation was burned out. In the camps it was not umon for a man to find the ces a woman liked her wings touched. Men talked and I’d overheard their conversations about it. Tyle and his family were well versed in this particr physical attribute.