"Mamma!" I woke to someone calling me then realized it
was Shanda.
"What is it?" I
asked, sitting up.
"Kennie,
she…she...." Shanda was straining herself from getting herself upset.
"Kennie what?"
"Kennie
went outside and never came back; she been gone a long time."
Thinking maybe she had gotten
herself into some type of trouble, I pulled myself out of bed and pulled my
robe on and headed out to outhouse.
"Kennie?"
I called to her, opening the door, "Is everything..."
she wasn't in there. Turning to Shanda and Skyla who were nearly in tears, I
told them to go back to bed and tell Darcy to keep an ear out for the younger
ones. I was going to try and find their sister. They both nodded and did as I
asked. After spending most of the morning looking for her, and not having any
luck and in the need for fresh horses, I headed home.
To my surprise,
"Where in the world did
you go
"Can't
tell you." She answered.
"We’re NOT going to do
this Kenya Elsa, you’re going to tell me."
"YOU will stay RIGHT
here until I tell you." She nodded. I then headed out, sighing. I had
never gotten that angry at any of the children before. Bliss crawled over to me
balancing on her knees she reached up for me.
"Thanks Baby."
She's the one that goes to anyone when they're upset.
"Mmmmmm"
She babbled nestling into me as close as she could.
"Do me a favor and never
make me that upset at you." Bliss's little blue eyes looked up at me as
the rest of her head was buried in my shirt.
"I take that as an ‘okay’."
She grinned at me.
"Excuse me, Ma'am."
I turned to see a young girl standing behind me. The
prettiest thing. She was a shade of indigo, her
hair was a dark lavender. Eyes were light light blue.
I turned to Darlita and told her to get the child something to drink. She looked
as if she had walked a long way. Her fur was sticking together.
She took the juice and drank greedily.
"How can I help
you?" I asked, taking the glass and refilling it for her.
"That’s all I needed. Something to drink. My parents sent me out not too long ago,
cause of not being able to get enough to eat. There was some man chasing me.
I've been running for almost three days now. I believe I lost him. I traveled
upstream from where the lakes combine." I nodded, having Darcy take Bliss,
and the other children to play while I talked to this one some more.
"Can you tell me what
the man looked like?" She nodded.
"He was tall, dark hair,
and had a knife; he said something about finishing what had been started long
ago. What that is I don't know."
I thought for a moment.
"What’s your name?"
"Tanjia
Destiny" The young girl answered.
"Well, Tanjia, I'm Selena." She nodded. "Do you have
anywhere that you can stay?" She shook her head ‘no’. She noted Chase as
he noted her.
He headed over, sat on my
feet, and batted her hands away crying out,
"Mamma"
"You stop that, Chase."
I scolded. "Don't mind him; he's like that with everyone. Even his own siblings." Tanjia
nodded her head. Then looked at me with questionable eyes.
"Sure if he lets
you."
"I had over nineteen
siblings back at home. Most older I'm closer to being
the youngest. I'm ten."
"You sure are good with
him."
"I don't have anywhere
to go. All my brothers and sisters were killed by that man. They didn't see me.
I had been hiding in a...." The little girl’s voice was stopped by tears.
I jumped up immediately and pulled her to me.
"It's alright; you don't
have to tell me anything else." I told her, gently brushing the long
lavender bangs out of her eyes.
"We have plenty of room,
and plenty of food, if you would like you can stay here as long as you'd
like." The little girl's eyes lit up slightly as she looked into my eyes.
"There’s plenty of siblings here for you to play
with, I know that they will never take their places, but they can do."
"W...
what about you?" She asked me,
stifling back the last bit of tears.
"If you'd like, you can
call me Mamma, or Mamma Selena." She nodded.
"Not that it matters but
do you know what Clan you would be from?"
"Glen." I nodded.
"If you'd like I can
take you around to meet most of the other children; some are off playing down
by the lake. They'll be back later tonight; you'll meet them then.
"You already met Darlita;
she's just a couple of years older than you. She's the one that got your drink
for you. And you've also already met Bliss and Chase." Seeing that she
looked a little worn I took her over to the outdoor bath and heated the water
from below.
"This is where we take a
lot of our baths, in the cooler weather; we of course have one for inside. But
we use this one more in the summer and late spring. Go ahead and get yourself
cleaned up, I'm going to go find you some new clothing." She nodded and
started to get ready to be in the bath. When I had come back I noted that she
had a big bruise in the middle of her back, it was visible even with her dark
fur. It had started turning different colors.
"That looks sore,
Sweetheart."
"It’s not so bad
now." She answered, looking a little uncomfortable.
"I'll let you be, but I
want to put something on that, so it heals better, might also make it easier to
sleep tonight." Tanjia nodded as I took off.
"You’re not going
anywhere, Scarlet." I told my three month old daughter who had managed to
get herself up on her hands; she was looking at a toy that had gotten away from
her. "I'll get it for you." I told her, handing it to her. Rei still
had yet to get that far, but was content where she was with things. Happy with
the way things were.
"Where do you want me to
put these?" I turned.
"Just put them on that
chair for now, Tanni." She nodded then walked
over to where the twins and I were playing. She started playing a little with
Scarlet before I handed her Rei and told her that I would be right back.
"I'm going to put this
on your back, is there anywhere else that been injured in any way?"
"Not
that I know of."
"Alright, I need you to
take your shirt off so I can get to that bruise a little easier." She
nodded and did as I asked.
"Thank you. You listen
real well." I told her, helping her get the back off without it hurting
her. Placing the cream onto her back, I noticed that the thing was in strips,
and it went way past her back onto her bottom.
"How did you get this
thing anyways?" The little girl's head hung. I got the idea.
"Don't worry about it;
I'll take care of it. You’re safe here." I told her, helping her get the
shirt back on.
"Did you want to get the
other half of it?" She took the jar just as I had heard a loud cry.
Running to see who it was, Chase had fallen into the
kitchen wall. That spot on the floor hadn't had all the butter from the night
before up. Picking him up to console him I checked his head for some type of
injury.