Chapter Nineteen - Parenting the Twos

-Summer-

https://i.imgur.com/6VzHabA.png [https://i.imgur.com/6VzHabA.png]

She started with counting lessons. Most tribesmen could count to ten, using their fingers. But other numbers were harder. So, she started by teaching them how to count to twenty. Using their fingers and toes was a good start. But they started to lose the thread when she had them count pebbles instead. It was difficult for them, she understood, especially since Dahnei was still only five. Even five-year-olds in Victoria’s world had trouble counting sometimes.

Belbet was patient, even as she felt Kaion’s eyes watching her lessons. Honestly, she didn’t mind because at least that meant he was maybe picking something up too. The more of them could count, the better. It meant keeping track of the supplies better.

Dinner was stir-fried snake meat and vegetables, and a soup with thick cut noodles. Belbet regretted that she was limited to so few recipes, but as always when her family dug in so happily, she couldn’t help but feel that she was doing something right.

That night, she took watch. She occupied herself with trying to perfect the spindle she’d been making when she broke down. Now that she wasn’t so freshly terrified, it was a little easier. The clay weight on the end of the stick was hardened now, so it wasn’t falling off the stick every few seconds, and now it was just a matter of shaving off little bits of it until it was the right weight to properly spin.

She spent the rest of the night spinning wood fiber into wood yarn, and the success was actually kind of nice. She felt accomplished, even if it was just something as simple as spinning thread.

After a short nap, Belbet poured the lye into a new dried gourd that Deenat had gathered that morning. She didn’t bother waxing it, since this gourd was probably not going to survive this process. Once the lye was in the gourd, she used one of their eating eggs to test it. She sighed when it sank to the bottom. “Not a strong enough mixture.”

Putting the lye back on the fire to boil down and concentrate, Belbet turned her attention to spinning more yarn. This of course drew Dahnei’s attention, which meant Belbet spent a bit of time teaching her daughter (and her son, although who only knows how much the three-year-old understood) how to spin yarn.

“Thats right, just keep rolling the threads between your fingers, and then spin the spindle… Just there.” Belbet guided her fingers, the sound of bubbling lye in the background, Deenat’s humming as she cut through more beaver meat. Kaion was doing something, but honestly, Belbet wasn’t sure what it was.

Dahnei got bored after half a foot of yarn, which was typical, honestly. Even Belbet found it tedious to spin the yarn, but if they wanted any sort of matting for the floor, she had to. So, she put her mind to it.

That is, until a squeal of joy from the garden drew her attention. She stood, following the sound and found Dahnei doing a little happy dance in the field, next to rows of little sprouts. “Mama, mama, look! They grew! They grew!”

“Yes, baby, they grew.” She laughed, joining her daughter next to the sprouts. “...If I remember correctly, this is where we planted the Calendula.” Tracing her finger over the little green shoots, she smiled. “Calendula is good for a lot of things, but especially for easing muscle cramps, and helping ladies start their-” She paused, because Victoria wanted to call it a ‘period’ but Dahnei wouldn’t know what that is. “Their blood. It also helps with sore throats and coughing.”

DAhnei’s mouth was a round little ‘Oh’, and she nodded. “These do all that?” She asked, tugging on one and accidentally pulling it out of the ground, “No!” She cried, suddenly terrified. Belbet couldn’t hide her laugh as Dahnei tried to shove the little sprout back into the ground.

Belbet stopped her, taking the sprout and smiling. “Once you pull something from the ground, it’s very hard to get it to live after you put it back. Why don’t you do me a favor, go get one of those clay cups that cracked. Do you remember?”

Dahnei nodded before running off for the cup. Once she came back, Belbet showed her how to scoop some of the earth into the cup, and resettle the little sprout roots down in the new planter. “Now, you have to water this, every day. Just like we do the garden here, okay?”

Dahnei nodded, and took her plant to show her aunt, who stared at it, and then said, in a very confused voice, “Good for you?”

Belbet snorted, laughing as she began her daily routine of greeting and weeding the garden. When she was done, she felt lighter. As she returned to check on the boiling lye, Deenat called out to her. “Did you see the wolf this morning?”

Belbet frowned, turning her mind back to the early morning darkness. “...No. I didn’t.”

“I didn’t see it yesterday either.” Deenat stated.

“Neither did I.” Kaion said. Belbet frowned in his direction, but only because she was thinking. The domestication of the wolf was necessary to begin the domestication of other species. Not only that, but it would make hunting so much easier to have a wolf on their side. So where could it possibly have gone?

“Perhaps we should look for it…” Belbet wondered aloud, thinking over the danger versus the reward.

“Might be dangerous,” Kaion muttered, leaning towards the conversation and away from whatever bit of wood and stone he was working with. “Perhaps we should simply wait for a bit.”

“You might be right… If the wolf comes back, everything’s fine. We can afford to give it a day or two.” Belbet sighed, nodding. “In the meantime, we’ve got things to do.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

She pulled the boiling lye, now reduced by at least a fourth, off the fire and set it to the side to cool. She’d egg-test it in a minute, but first, she wanted to get a batch of animal fat ready. Taking several spoonfuls of the half-solidified body fat, she started those liquifying. Taking that time to grind up some rosemary and add a little lye-water to it to make a mush, Belbet watched carefully. An egg test proved that the lye solution was the right concentration; only a quarter-sized bit of egg was left above the surface of the lye. Then, with spoonfuls, she began adding the rosemary lye mixture into the animal fat. This was followed by spoonfuls of the lye substance until it began to turn solid instead of clear.

Once she was sure it was mixed properly, and the right half-cake-batter consistency, it was time to pour it. Pulling over one of the near-waterproof baskets, she poured the now-soap into the basket. Some leaked out, but away from the fire, it solidified enough to hold itself in, somewhat. It was still messy, though.

Setting the messy basket aside, Belbet tilted her head back, looking up at the sky. Almost noon and Belbet was at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. She could spin more yarn… She could check how many tiles they actually had, maybe start putting some of the cured ones into place. They were making them much faster now that they had a kiln that could fit about 14 tiles in one sitting.

“No!” came a little voice shrieking, and Belbet turned her attention then to her son, who seemed to be voicing displeasure at something Dahnei had just done. The older girl had abandoned her new potted plant in order to crouch down next to her brother. Her body blocked what exactly they were doing, so Belbet had to get up and head over.

Once there, she could kind of see what the problem was. Mohniit had his blocks (still rough and not nearly as splinter-free as she would like) piled up in what might’ve been a tower, if it weren’t a little crooked. Mohniit and Dahnei were physically grappling over a single block. Dahnei making frustrated little, “Let me-!”s at him.

But Mohniit was not having it. With the hand that wasn’t grabbing onto the block, he was smacking his sister’s shoulders and face, trying to pry his toy from her grip. This startled Belbet, who hadn’t considered her child violent until this moment. She jolted forward, grabbing Mohniit’s wrist and frowning down at him, “We do not hit!”

Her voice, loud and sudden, along with the tight grip startled the little boy, who promptly shrieked in Belbet’s face, making her flinch back. This loosened her grip on his wrist, and he yanked it out of her hold. Dahnei reached forward, dropping the block and grabbing her little brother around the waist.

“That’s wrong!” Dahnei cried, shaking her head even as her brother started smacking her around the head again, shrieking his annoyance at being held.

“Okay!” Belbet cried, louder than both. “That’s enough. Dahnei, let go of your brother. Mohniit, we need to be quiet and talk about our feelings, okay?”

The baby of course had no idea what she was going on about and continued squealing even after Dahnei had let go. His little fists waved through the air, and apparently, he was so upset he couldn’t even manage words, because it was all baby screaming at this point.

“What happened?” Belbet asked Dahnei, hoping someone would be able to communicate.

“I just wanted to help!” The girl cried back.

“Dahnei, I asked what happened, not what you wanted to do.” Belbet corrected, “Now, what happened.”

“Mohniit’s block kept falling, and he was getting upset and whining, so I just picked up the block and tried to put it on, but he started hitting me!” Dahnei cried, her little nose scrunched up in annoyance.

“And hitting is wrong, that’s right.” Belbet coached, “But it sounds to me like your brother didn’t want help. He wanted to try to do it on his own. You get annoyed when someone takes something away from you when you’re trying to do it, right?”

Dahnei frowned, glaring at the ground as she considered it. Belbet let her think, turning to her son, who was slapping the ground in impotent rage. She gentled her voice, “Mohniit, baby boy, can you stop for a moment and talk with me? You’re upset that your sister took your block, right?”

The boy didn’t stop his fit, still screaming, but at least his attention was on her now. “No! No block, no!”

“That’s right. You said no, and she took it anyway, and that was bad. You’re right.” The affirmation seemed to calm him just a little. “However, we don’t hit, do we?”

A thought occurred, then. Had Belbet ever expressed such a rule to the kids? That they shouldn’t hit each other? That would explain the boy’s confusion and adamance. She took a deep breath, and then lifted Dahnei’s arm, showing Mohniit the red slap marks on her skin. “See? You hurt Dahnei. You hurt sissy. You made her very sad.” Belbet made a face to Dahnei, who in confusion made one back.

“Hurt…?” This thought seemed to pause Mohniit’s tantrum. He looked at the red marks on his sister’s skin, who by now had caught on that she was supposed to act pitiful. When he looked up and saw her lip wibbling and her eyes squinched, he frowned and rubbed the skin. “No. No hurt.”

“That’s right, you didn’t mean to hurt her, did you?” Belbet tried. “Maybe next time, we can do something other than hitting, okay? You did very good, yelling loudly to get attention. Next time, let’s do the same, and not hit, okay?”

It was a toss-up as to whether the baby actually understood. But since he was rubbing at his sisters arm, she decided to try one more thing. “Can you say you’re sorry, baby? Can you say “Sorry sissy”?”

“...Sorry sissy.” Mohniit copied, earning himself a hug from Dahnei.

“Sorry too, Mohniit.” Dahnei said, and Belbet felt warmth blossom in her heart.

“Ah, look at my babies. I have the best babies.” She cooed, gathering both of them up in a squealing, squirming hug. This lasted a few minutes before it was more squealing than laughter, at which point she let go.

She let Mohniit drag her and Dahnei into a baby-led building mission, and it was quite entertaining, compared to sitting around stirring. However, it didn’t hold her attention forever, as when Eefim came back into camp, looking much more relaxed, she found herself drawn to her nephew.

“Do you feel any better?” She asked, and the boy paused, his brow furrowing.

“I think so?” He shrugged one shoulder, clearly unsure. “It feels less and less like I have to concentrate on holding it close. Almost like it’s caught in something, yknow?” Belbet did not, but she nodded anyway.

“Well, so long as you don’t feel any pain.” Belbet declared.

Eefim nodded and continued his trek past his aunt and towards the hut they all shared. “Going to bed?” she asked, wondering if he’d worn himself out.

“Just going to grab a few snacks-” His words were interrupted by a mournful howl filling the air all around them. Belbet tensed, turning to look at the woods. She didn’t hear another howl join it, so it had to be a lone wolf.

Perhaps… their lone wolf? “Eefim, get your bow. Deenat, watch the babies!” She called, figuring they could at least take a look. Deenat would make sure everyone in camp was safe, so Belbet went and grabbed one of the sharpened spears they’d made. Eefim appeared at her side, and together nephew and aunt ran out into the woods after the sounds of a wolf in pain.

https://i.imgur.com/6VzHabA.png [https://i.imgur.com/6VzHabA.png]