The first race on the obstacle course with Tasha was an awkward and slow endeavor as we both tried to overcome the obstacles for the first time. It ended in a draw, and that was enough to spark a rivalry between us. Now, I know I was supposedly an adult as far as my mind was concerned, but spend some months in the body of a baby and you'll start to think like one too, also, friendly rivalries are always a good thing.

As days passed both our rivalry and our friendship grew stronger. We would challenge each other to the obstacle course many times a day. When we were not racing on the course, we would be wrestling against each other, or compete in a number of ways, be it who could jump higher, who could run faster, who could kick a ball further, et cetera. In no time we grabbed the attention of other kids in the playground, but none could keep up with us, except for two boys, Ivan and Andrei, who could barely do so.

Soon the four of us became a group and the challenges became harder, especially the wrestling matches, as they now were almost always two versus two matches or one versus three, with the odd one versus two mixed in when one of us wanted to take a break, although it happened fairly rarely.

Because of the nature of the tribe, our behaviour received nothing but praises from the adults, and every day we would receive either nuts or berries as rewards. The rewards, no matter how small they could seem, would only help to push us to try even harder and do even better. In a few months we were leagues above any other kid in the playground.

Summer went as it came, lasting only a couple of months before snow covered the village again which, couple with the fact that for a few weeks during summer the sun never set, suggested that the village was quite close to one of the poles of whatever planet I was now in.

The first snow was still fresh when some hunters returned to the village with another spirit animal. This time, it was again an elk, if what actually looked like a giant moose could be called such, so the four of us didn't get the chance to go through another infusion and I was instead able to see the whole ceremony from start to finish. There was little I had not witnessed already, as it was the same for every age group, with even the older children passing out at the end of it, although some of them managed to contain their screams. After the ceremony the table of the chief was cleaned up of the blood and ash used during the rite and dinner resumed as usual.

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More months passed and soon my mother decided I could have some minimum of independence, which meant that, while she would accompany me to the kindergarten every morning, she would wait in our tent for me to come back by myself in time for dinner.

It was thanks to this change that, one evening, I had quite the culture shock, although a welcome one. I was returning home by myself when I heard some loud cries and moans from our tent. Worried about my mother, I ran to the tent, only to open the flaps that shielded it from outside to reveal her naked body over a just as naked Ivanka, Tasha's mother. When they saw me, they apologized with mild embarrassment painted over their faces and Ivanka left to go back to her tent. Apparently they had lost track of time and thought they still had a while before dinner.

When I inquired my mother about it, she said that adults sometimes had to have fun in their ways too. Not content with the answer I pressed further, asking why she wasn't doing it with a man. From her reaction it was obvious that my question surprised her and that she probably didn't expect a child to know how certain stuff worked, but she smiled and explained anyway. She told me that, as long as I was still a child and living with her, she wasn't allowed to mate again with a man, so sometimes she would meet with one of the other mothers of the tribe to blow off some steam.

I then asked her what would happened if I only wanted to be with girls and never with men when I grew up. She just smiled and told me that, while it wasn't good for the tribe to not have children, no one was going to force me to mate until I wanted to.

The ease with which she explained it and the simplicity with which such an apparently primitive culture approached such a matter blew my mind for a bit and I practically froze in place. My frozen moment didn't last long as my mother soon defrosted me by ruffling my hair and reminding me that we had to go have dinner with the others.