The Colony thrived in the days that followed. The Gods Inside worked many wonders through it, and this brought the efforts of the Gods Outside whose labors against them were made more difficult. They sent many dangers to the Colony, and after their floods and their droughts the land was made barren, and there were very few places left where the Colony had learned food could be gathered. All who lived in the Colony became hungry and their labors became short and also tiresome. They tapped their jaws on the walls often and rattled their armor loudly at the Gods Outside when the winter season came, and many labors were unfinished.
In the spring season, Yaka's eagerness to travel Outside was thick upon her armor. Foraging was her labor, and the winter had seemed long without it. Food was scarce, but Yaka in her cleverness could remember secret places that would be untouched by the Gods Outside. She found two-and-three sisters who were not afraid to forage to strange places beside her, including Iss whose strength had been made less by the hunger of the Colony.
Beside those two-and-three sisters, Yaka traveled far from the Colony to a place that she had learned was full of thorns, which do not bend to the wind or flooding waters and repel many beasts. Their journey was long, and when Yaka arrived in the valley of thorns, she was joined by only six others. They were eager to arrive, since they had left scent for others to follow to the valley of thorns where sour fruits are found. But Yaka did not feel that all of her labors were complete, for she had learned much of her companions, including that Iss was sickened. Yaka could hold one-and-one of the sour berries, and Iss lifted only six. Yaka went to Iss as others gathered fruit and spoke with her.
“Iss, I see that your legs tremble and I smell that your eagerness is thin upon your armor,” said Yaka.
“I am hungry and needful of rest,” said Iss. “But I will complete my labors, because this is more precious a thing to me than comfort.”
Even with this learning, Yaka did not feel satisfied. She gathered all that she could and together she, Iss, and the others made for the Colony. While they walked, however, Iss fell to the barren ground and spilled her around her. Yaka had not before learned what was to be done when a sister's strength failed, and she watched closely as she saw the others put down their gathered fruit and lift Iss to carry her. Together they carried Iss back to the entrance halls, and Yaka felt an evil learning come into her while she watched her sisters tending to sickened Iss.
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Yaka walked on the scent-lines that she had made many more times in the days following. The valley of thorns was stripped of all of the fruit there, and the Colony began to thrive once more. One day, Yaka lingered in the valley, and it seemed a good thing to her how her cleverness had helped the Colony in a difficult time. She had not gathered any fruit this time, for in having originally found the valley of thorns she felt that her labors were completed. She did not wish to grow hungry today from the labor of carrying fruit, and so her thoughts traveled back to Iss and her learning of how her sister had been carried by the others. Most had left for the colony with what they had gathered, but Yaka laid on the ground and dragged her legs over her armor in the manner of a sister in pain. She thought of times of hurt in days long past so that her smell would have upon it thoughts to match the sound of her distress. None came to lift her, for she had lagged behind the rest. She became louder and threw her scent far, hoping that some sister might hear and return to carry her.
But it was not a sister from any Colony who heard her. A spider that was waiting in the bramble heard Yaka then, and approached her from crisscrossing shadows. It might have eaten Yaka were she not clever. As its one-and-two legs descended over her, Yaka spoke to the spider.
“Come no closer, spider, or risk your death. The Colony and all its sisters will have answer for any harm you would bring to me.”
The spider stopped then, for it was rare to hear its food speaking. “I saw many others, but now you are alone, and you are hurt. I will kill you now and drink your insides.”
In her cleverness, Yaka laid still and continued to scrape her armor. “The Gods Inside have left me lonesome!” she cried for the spider to hear. “I will die with labors unfinished, and I will not find the Tunnels That Glitter!”
The spider drew close upon her with hungry jaws, for it had not eaten in many days. The beetles that it had eaten in days past were gone, because there was no fruit for them to eat. Yaka waited. As the spider raised its fangs above her, she sprang up and grappled with them. The spider was so surprised that it nearly fell upon its back as it reared its legs high into the air. They battled fiercely, and Yaka was thrown painfully against the thorns four times. Yaka closed her jaws upon the spider's belly with a killing bite, and when her venom came, the spider thrashed until its legs were folded.
Yaka did not leave the valley of thorns then, for there were wounds upon her armor. She laid in the shadows and despaired, thinking that she had been slowly killed. But when the sun returned on a new day, she smelled Iss nearby and called precisely to her.
Iss had walked alone to the valley of thorns, and her strength had been fully returned to her. She lifted Yaka and carried her to the safety of the colony, and Yaka then learned many things that she would keep among her thoughts and not bury.