Novel Treatments / Something in the Air.

Karah sat on the floor of the shamans hut, kneeding clay before her. She was making a figure for her sisters upcoming mating, and wanted it as perfect as possible. Studying it, she decided it was finally time to fire it in the kiln.

Just as she had tied on her leggings, the shaman came in. She smiled at the younger woman and hugged her. “Child, you almost cause my heart to stop! Can’t be sneaking up on an old lady like that!” Karah smiled.

“Sorry Jesiah. I didn’t mean to.” The shaman hugged her again. “Get on out of here, or that figurine will never get done!”

Karah had been raised by the shaman, as a daughter, but more importantly, as an acolyte. Karahs’ mother had died giving birth to a son, who had died also, and so the girls had found refuge with the healer/ spiritual woman. She had ensured that both young women would have a place in the tribe, and not be at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak.

Karah ran out to the kiln, and almost ran into her sister in the process. “Marah! Watch where you’re going!

“YOu almost ran into me! YOu watch it. What’s that behind your back Karah?”

“Uhhh, nothing. Just something for Jesiah.”

“Ha! You think I believe that! I’m not stupid!”

“Well you can’t see it. It’s a surprise! Quit trying to look!” Karah glared at her sister. She did not want the surprise spoiled, and at the rate Marah was going, it wouldn’t be a surpise on the day of her matrimonial.

Marah brushed her long brown hair out of her eyes and lefted her chin. “Fine then. Be that way.”

“Shut up. Go do what ever it was you were doing!”Karah smirked. Little sisters could be so annoying. After putting the figure in the kiln, she stared at the sun as it sat behind the mountains. She felt the little hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She wasn’t sure what was making them do that, but she would find out soon, if the gods willed it.

She did not mention what she had felt to the shaman, she had decided she would meditate while she was out tending the herds.

Early the next morning she rose, even before it was fully light, eager to get the sheep moving with the dogs help.

She dressed quickly, and ran quietly to the sheep pen where the animals we milling around. The dogs heard her coming, and one, a bitch dog, walked obidently by her side. “Ona, go get the sheep. She undid the gate holding the pen closed, and watched as the dogs began rounding the sheep up and herding them out. Two ewes were pregnant, and looked as if they would give birth at any time. She would have to keep an eye on them even though she would be meditating. A lamb, only a few weeks old tried to wander off, and Karah used her staff to heard it back with the rest. The lamb was being stubborn, and after a smack on the rump in the direction of the other sheep, it got the idea. She walked along, humming to herself, and mentally keeping an eye open for any danger. There was none, and the going up the well worn path was easy.

They arrived at the pasture where the sheep grazed, and karah walked over to a rather large rock that sat in the middle of the field. It would be warm later, but until then, she’d have to sit on her old blanket made of the wool. It was scratchy, but it worked.

As the sun climbed higher, she noticed that something seemed off about the field. Some of the trees near the perifory of the field looked dead. As to why they would be, Karah didn’t know. It was spring, trees should be coming alive, not dying. It was out of order, not right. She shuddered, and drew her knees up to her chest, staring ahead. After a time, (the sun had climbed noticably higher, she saw that one of the pregnant ewes had given birth. It was not getting up, and Karah had a pit of dread in her stomach. How odd. She went over to the ewe and saw immediatly why it had not gotten up, it was dead, and so was the malformed beast it had given birth to. The lamb, (if it could be called that,) was very malformed.It had two heads on two necks, one torso, and eight legs. Curiousity got the best of her, and she took out her knife and cut into the beast, wanting to see if there were anymore annomalies. She had seen animals cut open, she routinely helped butcher them, so she knew what was normal, and what was not. This lamb had an odd shaped heard, and it’s intestines were a mess, not neat like they should’ve been. She swallowed heavily, and decided to just leave the carcass out in the open. It would be best to let the lamb go back into the earth. She dragged the lamb into the forest, and left it there. Then, she dug a pit and dragged the ewe into it. the pit was also in the forrest.

Later on that day, the other ewe went into labor, but that labor did not progress, so Karah was forced to help pull the helpless lamb out. it slid out, and bleated weakly. Drawing in more air, it bleated quite loudly. Karah smiled. “You are alive little one. I’m glad to see that. However, the ewe had not survived, and Karah was once again touched by that feeling of wrongness. Things were dying when they should be living. That was not right.

She decided to fill her waterbag, and scooping the water in, she saw something just below the surface, a rock that looked like an egg. She was sure that in some time before, in ages long past, that this had indeed been an egg, but something had happened. She studied the small egg, and saw that the creature inside had been on the verge of hatching when it died. There it was again, dying instead of living. What was going on?

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