10, Wolves

“I can hold the little one for you while you hang your laundry,” Ayya told the woman.

The woman turned around and realized who had spoken. She curtsied as deep as she could with the baby on her hip.

“Oh no, no, it’s really not needed,” Ayya said, smiling. “Let me help you,” she said again, extending her hands. The woman precariously handed the girl over to Ayya.

“Thank you so much, your grace,” she said.

“It’s my pleasure,” Ayya replied, still smiling, and then turned her attention to the little girl.

“What’s her name?” asked Ayya.

“Denisha, your grace,” the mother replied and started hanging laundry while trying not to turn her back on Ayya.

Ayya positioned herself so the woman could see her while she was doing laundry and then continued to focus on the little girl. Denisha was about a year old, Ayya guessed, and she didn’t seem to mind at all being handed over by her mother.

Ayya held her up against her hip with the help of one arm while with the other hand, she made a flower disappear and reappear to the girl’s great delight. Denisha laughed fondly every time the flower reappeared, looking surprised every time it disappeared. Even her mother seemed to relax and smiled. 

It had been a long time since Ayya had held a child like this. She had interacted with children when she helped her mother, and sometimes in her training. But to hold one like this and play with them. She hadn’t done that since she helped at the orphanage in Dermes.

 Kahane, still standing with the other riders on the other side of the yard, had spotted what was happening. He looked at Ayya in surprise as she played with the girl while Sinhera stood some distance away, doing her best to look friendly.

The play continued until the woman had hung up her laundry, then she turned with a shy smile to Ayya, who handed Denisha over to her.

“Thank you so much your grace, she’s in a face where she screams as soon as I put her down,” she told Ayya.

“It was a genuine pleasure. She is a wonderful girl,” Ayya replied.

The woman wanted to say something more, but hesitated. Ayya waited to see if she wanted to continue or not. After hesitating for a moment longer, the woman spoke up.

“Would you bless her?” she asked gently, not daring to look at Ayya as she did so. Ayya smiled a genuine smile.

“With pleasure,” she replied, taking a step closer so she could put her right hand against Denisha’s forehead.

It was the first time Ayya had performed a blessing. But she knew it wasn’t unusual for parents to ask for their small children to be blessed by an aari.

She felt the familiar warmth as she gathered the energy, and she remembered an old blessing she had read. A dim light was visible where her hand touched Denisha’s forehead and the little girl tried to cross-eyed see what was happening.

When Ayya was finished, she smiled and removed her hand from the girl’s forehead. The woman looked at Ayya with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you,” was all she said and Ayya responded with another smile before waving to Denisha and turning around to join the group on the other side of the yard.

“Excuse the unplanned stop,” she said to Kahane. 

“Don’t worry,” he said, sounding confused. It seemed like he was trying to understand what he had just seen.

“We’re done with the tour unless there’s something specific you want to see” he then said.

Once everyone had stated that they were happy, he suggested they return to the village hall to share a meal and speak to the council and his father. 

Kahane led them back to the village hall and showed them inside. The hall was made up of one large room. In the middle of it there was a fire pit, and around it tables had been set up with seats facing the firepit.

The table that was facing the door had a large chair in the middle. It made Ayya think of a throne. She assumed it was the chief’s seat. In the room, there were groups of men standing around, talking in hushed voices.

As Ayya and the group of riders entered the room, the groups stopped talking and turned towards them. The village chief walked up to them with three other men in tow.

“Your Grace, how did you find our village?” he asked as he reached Ayya.

“It’s lovely, and your son has been a wonderful host,” Ayya smiled at him.

“It does good for a chief’s and a father’s heart to hear that,” he nodded.

“These are my closest advisers. The head of the horse block, Firdim nor Kredin. The head of the sheep block, Trium nor Derim. And the head of the goat block, Limdo nor Terdem,” the chief introduced the men that had walked up with him.

They all bowed towards Ayya and mumbled “An honour”. Ayya bowed back.

“Would you let me escort you to the table? Dinner is almost ready to be served,” the chief then continued.

“Of course,” Ayya said.

“You and the leader of the riders will sit with me at the head table. The rest of your men will be placed with the three blocks. If that is acceptable to you,” he said as they were walking along the table.

“It is,” Ayya nodded. It was a good idea to have the riders sit among the council members.

The chief pulled out the chair to the immediate right of the throne-like chair and offered it to Ayya. She thanked him and sat down. Sinhera sat down to her right and the chief took his seat on the chair to her left. Kahane sat down on the other side of his father.

After a moment of chaos, when everyone scrambled to take their seats, the room fell quiet, and everyone looked at the chief. He stood up.

“My friends, we have lived through dark times. We have lost the animals that we cherish, and we have seen sons, husbands, brothers, and friends getting hurt. But today we can see the dawn’s first rays as we are joined by aari Ayyanapia and a group of riders. We are no longer alone and now we just need to gather a last ounce of energy and together we will come victorious out of this,” he said.

“But now, now we eat,” he added and banged his fist on the table, making Ayya jump.

A door at the back of the hall opened and a small army of women came in, carrying food. When the food was sat down on the table and the women had exited the hall, the chief took a platter with some sort of meat stew and held it towards Ayya.

Ayya was happy that she had read all those books of mountain village customs as she added some of the stew to her plate. Then she lifted a plate of vegetables and held it out to the chief. He looked surprised but appreciative as he took some and put on his plate.

As Ayya and the chief had served each other, the rest of the people dug into the food. Ayya was looking forward to tasting all the different food and took a little bit of everything that was offered.

As people ate, they started talking and Ayya watched how comfortable and relaxed with each other. They may be scared, but they trusted each other and felt safe in the group.

The group of men comprised different ages. The youngest looked to be about Ayya’s age, and the oldest looked to be in their eighties.

“How was your journey?” the chief asked Ayya.

“It was long, but interesting. I have never been this far north, and the road gave me a lot of new experiences,” Ayya told him.

“Where are you from?” he asked her.

“Originally, I’m from Dermes,” Ayya answered and smiled at his surprised look.

“An aari from Domne? I have never heard of it,” the chief said.

“I’m one of a kind,” Ayya laughed.

They ate in silence for a moment. The food was amazing and Ayya was enjoying herself.

“The food is wonderful,” Ayya told the chief. He smiled at her, looking proud.

“My wife will be proud to hear that. She is responsible for the food,” he told Ayya.

“The women don’t eat with you?” she asked.

“No. Not when we have council meals,” the chief shook his head.

“I hope I can get to meet her outside of our meetings then,” Ayya said.

“She will make sure of it. I know how it looks with a council consisting of only men. But believe me when I say that the women have more than their share of power. There isn’t a man in this room that hasn’t discussed the topics of this meeting with his wife, mother, or sister,” the chief smiled.

The food had been eaten, and some of the men gathered the plates and carried them away. When they returned, the mood had changed. Ayya could feel how seriously everyone in the room took the pending discussion.

“Time to talk about the serious business,” the chief said. Ayya nodded and turned all her attention to him.

“Up here we are tough. We know the winters are hard, and the summers are short. We don’t expect anything else. During the deepest winter months, the wolves will come and try to take some of our stock. We don’t hate them for it, we don’t curse at them when they succeed,” the chief told them and got nods from the other men.

“But this winter we saw a new behaviour of the wolves. Their numbers grew, and we noticed that the deer and moose got fewer. When the wild pray dwindled, they came after our animals. If they would be satisfied with a couple of older sheep and goats, we wouldn’t complain. But these wolves are different,” he continued, and he looked stone faced.

“They went after the stock relentlessly. When we saw what they were doing and that they didn’t stop, we realised we needed to stop them. We started protecting the herds. It was hard, the wolves were relentless, the night was long and the cold bitter. But we held out for spring. The wolves always backed off in the spring when the wildlife replenished.”

“But the spring came, and the wolves stayed. It’s now summer and they are still out there. Every night they come. We are tired, we are injured, and we know we won’t make it through another winter like the one we went through,” the chief sighed.

The room fell silent as everyone took in what he had said. Ayya could see how dire the need for help was. It was written in every face around the tables.

“We are here to help. We will help in several ways, and we will stay until we have dealt with this issue,” Ayya told him.

“Let’s start with the most important thing, your men. How many are injured and how?” she asked.

“At the moment, we have two that have serious bite wounds and ten with minor injuries,” the chief told her.

“Okay, after we are done here, I would like to see the two with the bite wounds. I can’t promise I can help them recover quicker. But I can make them comfortable and help stave off infections,” Ayya said.

“We would be grate full fore it,” the chief nodded.

“I know you have tried to hunt the wolves but had no success,” Ayya said.

“Yes. We can’t seem to find their den and when we go out, they attack us. After losing one of our men, we stopped attempting to hunt them,” Kahane told her.

“I must confess my shortcomings in hunting. But Sinhera and her riders are more than skilled in the art. I warmly hand this discussion of to her,” Ayya smiled at Sinhera.