Scavenger Girl: Season of Toridia

by Jennifer Arntson

  “This is not charity of the gods, kind sir,” I corrected him. “It is one family helping another.”

  He nodded, his eyes still fixed on my feet. He gained control of himself and continued, “We’re hard workers and not a family who accepts handouts. We’d like to do something for you in return.”

  His wife and children agreed.

  “Stand.” I reached for the woman to help her up. “This is not necessary.”

  The man begged, “Please, my Lady.”

  I thought about the conversation I just had with Qarla and Sterle. They were right; the starts would not last long, and harvesting more thistle would be risky. If I went, I’d have to take all the children with me, and we’d be more vulnerable than ever. But if people brought us thistle in exchange for the soup, we wouldn’t run out.

  “Would you mind waiting here for a moment?” I asked the man.

  “Of course, Mother Una, my Lady,” he replied.

  I hated being addressed as my Lady. “I’ll be right back.” I held out my finger and crossed back over the bridge. After setting the bowls down with the others to be washed, I found Marsh to ask his opinion about my plan.

  He immediately agreed. “I’ll go get some canvas.”

  I returned to the family.

  “Did you think of something for us to do or trade, my Lady?” the woman asked.

  “Actually, yes. When you come back tomorrow, I’d like you to bring me back some thistle.”

  “Thistle?”

  “The soup you just ate is made from its sap. We’ve prepared some of the stalks already, but it won’t be long before we’re out. If you can bring one stalk for each person in your family, we can easily keep the process going.”

  “We’ve never harvested thistle before,” the woman said timidly.

  “I didn’t know it was edible,” the man said in awe.

  “There’s a particular way to prepare it so you don’t make yourself ill. It’s an old Scavenger recipe. My brother will show you how to uproot it without injuring yourself. Here he comes now.” I waved to him.

  “Hi, I’m Marsh.” He bowed.

  The man introduced himself and his family.

  “I’ll show you every trick I know,” my brother offered.

  “Thank you.” I smiled.

  “No, Mother Una.” The wife knelt with tears in her eyes. “Thank you.” She bent and kissed the top of my feet.

  “Please, there’s no need for that.” I reached for her hand and pulled her up again. “I’m truly grateful for your help. We all are.”

  I watched as Marsh led them away from the property and toward the main road. We would need more people to harvest than one family alone. Somehow, I knew it wouldn’t be an issue. People brought thistle by the bushel after Alux’s death. I was sure the word would spread that I needed it again.

  Wouldn’t it be nice to teach people how to prepare it themselves?

  That plan would have to wait for a different day. A day when everyone had something to cook it in.

  We worked steadily until the sun fell behind the hills and our pots were empty. Kii made sure all the children had eaten before we cleaned up for the night and prepared for the morning. Marsh returned with two tied bushels of thistle, one over each shoulder, ready to be processed in the morning. Since the sun had set, we didn’t have to worry about them drying out as long as they stayed in the canvas wrap. Tomorrow, Marsh would teach the children to press and reserve the pulp. If that family returned, maybe they’d be willing to help, too. Pressing stalks required a certain amount of strength, and with all the older children and adult volunteers busy over the fires, we would need at least a few people available to do it.

  The children started begging Marsh for a story as soon as he crossed over the bridge with the harvest. As I expected, he agreed. It took him a bit to settle in once he arrived, but when he got to it, his audience was not disappointed. They received another colorful tale of grandeur while I sat on the wagon with my swollen, aching feet propped up. It felt good to get off them, and since the nights were cooling off, kicking them free from my sandals felt better.

  As promised, Calish returned with animals from the neighborhood and a couple additional Authority guards. His noisy entrance to the property with balking goats and stressed-out chickens caused quite a disturbance during story time. I was sure his arrival was the only thing that would ever compete with Marsh’s animated recount of the River Cat and the Hen. Once Marsh saw the attention of his audience turned elsewhere, he wrapped up the tale and encouraged the children to help Lord Calish offload the livestock.

  My brother didn’t mask his jealousy too well. It’s not as if Calish wanted to draw the children’s focus away with goats, pigs, and chickens. With Marsh’s permission, the children stormed the wagon, making it nearly impossible for Calish to move faster than a snail’s pace across the yard. Since he had his hands full with more than enough assistance, I stayed put, enjoying the comedy from afar.

  The animals reminded Davin of our traps. He ran to me to ask if we should check them.

  “That’s a great idea. Calish is back, which means Mr. Graken is too. Why don’t you find him and ask if he’ll take you? My feet are a little achy and need to rest a bit.”

  He darted off to find his friend. It brought a smile to my face to see the large guard carrying a little blanket with an extremely excited boy at his side. Despite what he might admit to, Graken looked almost as eager to check those traps as the kid did.

  “Hey,” Calish said, hopping up on the wagon next to me as his men took care of the animals. “How did it go today?” He kissed me then my stomach.

  “Good. There were a few things to improve on, of course, but overall it went well,” I admitted. “How about for you?”

  He slid his hands over my belly, hoping to feel the baby move. Not sensing anything, he sat back and sighed. “You’d think we’d focus on things like preparing for Talium, you know, food and shelter for these people, but no, apparently we need a jail. However, we cannot have that until the Temple is built. We wouldn’t want to anger the gods.” He rolled his eyes. “I swear, maybe we should team up with the Woodsmen. If they’re paying any attention at all to the seasons, they’ll be the only ones prepared for the dark, gods help us all.”

  Feeling the baby move, I took his hand and put it on the spot to feel it. He smiled and pressed just a bit harder, hoping it would continue to kick at his hand.

  Calish had a point about the Woodsmen. If Noran and Reinick didn’t realize things were going differently than they always had been in the past, they had another thing coming.

  “Is there a plan for dealing with the Woodsmen?”

  “Oh, of course,” he said sarcastically. He leaned over and spoke baby talk to my belly, “That’s what the prison is for. I can put them there and execute them.”

  As if an infant needs to know what happens in prison.

  “That’s not a good plan.”

  He slid his hand off my stomach and propped himself up next to me. “I don’t think so either. While I’ll admit I think it should be part of the plan, I don’t believe that should be the center of it. We need to protect the Citizens while reestablishing commerce and trade. People need to be active in a prospering community to want to submit to its ways and follow its laws. If we don’t, there’s no way we’d ever be able to build a prison big enough to hold every person causing havoc. Reinick wants a zero-tolerance policy for lawbreakers. He and Noran are so used to ruling by fear in a well-running society, fear of the gods, fear of execution. What they fail to acknowledge is people are losing their faith in the gods. They’re no longer fearing the Authority, either.”

  “There will always be fear of the Authority.”

  “Maybe, but the fear of the Woodsmen is greater, and the Woodsmen don’t fear us at all.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “Pure defiance? I don’t know.” He untucked his shirt. “I’ve been told so many times I need to be quiet a
nd I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve stopped asking questions. I don’t know why I’m invited to these meetings at all.”

  “They speak to you that way?”

  He leaned back and looked up at the stars. “No, but it’s strongly implied.”

  I didn’t want to question him about it. Well, I did, but I didn’t want to put him through a battery of questions I was sure he’d rather not answer. Calish was a good negotiator, a master with his words. His ideas were good because he held a different perspective than an ordinary Citizen. Calish was an observer. He was smart. If he couldn’t get a word in edgewise when meeting with Reinick and Noran, it was because they didn’t want to listen to him at all. Their arrogance would be their undoing, and they would take all of us down with them. If I knew it, so did he. No, there was no need to ask him more about it. He was doing his best, and that’s all I needed to know.

  I rolled to my side and put my head on Calish’s chest. He lay on his back and ran his fingers through my hair as we gazed at the heavens together. It’s hard to believe this was the same sky we watched as children. Those stars must have witnessed so much change, generation after generation. Did they enjoy watching us as much as we did them?

  I felt a strange connection with the night. It had been the backdrop for some of the most treasured moments of my life. Those were the same stars Calish and I fell in love under, the same moons who watched us give ourselves over to that love. I wondered if tender moments were observed by the heavens so often, they became bored of it.

  They probably have no interest in us at all.

  Our moment was interrupted by Hawk, who, seeing we weren’t busy with another task, thought it would be a good time for an impromptu meeting. While I wished he’d just left us alone, I let him make use of the time we had. The Woodsmen didn’t seem to take breaks, nor did the Citizens. If we had any chance of victory, it would only be the result of proper planning, hard work, and a whole lot of luck.

  Each day proved more important than the one before it. As we pursued our goals, every moment would bring us closer to the one where our efforts would succeed or fail. We had too many people counting on us to make mistakes. I never wanted to look back and regret not taking advantage of the time we had; I didn’t want to face my children knowing I didn’t give it my all. If I felt this way, I knew Calish and Hawk did so more.

  I loved looking at the stars with Calish, but I needed to remember the stars would be there again tomorrow even if we were not. Proper preparation would increase the chances of me having an opportunity to appreciate them again, and for now, that would have to be good enough.

  Chapter 33

  The days were so full and passed so quickly I hardly noticed the difference between them. Each person, child and adult, had fallen into a routine and performed their job as if they’d done it all their lives. The Authority guards aided the efforts by keeping the Citizens orderly and assisting the elderly. In fact, it was their idea to create a sitting area for the lame to rest after a long trek to our home. Their assignment was to protect us, yet they couldn’t help but get involved somehow.

  Aria collected the bowls and cups from our visitors, while Kii became quite a kitchen manager. She had a knack for knowing when to start a new batch of broth and when to scale it back. Davin, uninterested in food service, had visions of becoming an entrepreneur. While we were working with the Citizens, he’d sit out of the way making traps he intended to sell or trade. He told me he wished to set them all out and catch rabbits to breed or put in the stew as a special treat for our family. His traps in the field had done well, and his hutch housed three rabbits. He quickly realized catching one every day proved impossible and blamed it on the number of units in his employ. Every morning before breakfast, he dragged Graken into the fields to check and reset them as needed. If he saw the officer in the evening, he’d beg to go before bed.

  Word spread about our project, and our visitor count increased exponentially. The path of grass leading from the river to our property had been crisped by the sun and subsequently trampled by the Citizens who followed it to find us. While it may have invited the initial wave of people to our house, it certainly wasn’t necessary past the third day. Thankfully, the family Marsh had trained to harvest the thistle had presented their stalks each morning, and as I suspected, other visitors did the same once they found out we needed the plants. We were going through so many pots of soup, all the starts made at the neighborhood had been used in the first few days. Without the help of the Citizens, we would have never kept up with the demand. We had trouble making it fast enough as it was. Grateful to everyone who brought in the harvest, I made sure to thank each one of them personally.

  After the fifth or sixth day, we recruited a family to press and prepare the starts in the shade of the pasture. Of course, before inviting them over the bridge, I did a quick assessment to make sure they weren’t Woodsmen. Unaware of my gift of Sight, an Authority guard pressed with them to ensure the protection of our facility. Together with Sterle’s friends and Qarla’s son, they prepared thistle all day long in preparation for the next day’s service. Marsh supervised to make sure they were doing it correctly and not inadvertently poisoning our guests. Making sure they properly separated the sap from the pulp was not the only reason for his interest. Periodically, he collected the leftover bits, laying it out in a more remote place in the yard. I was sure they were curious what he was doing, although they never asked, and he never offered to educate them. In the evenings, after our guests had gone, he’d scrape it off the drying canvas into a stone bowl. In the privacy of his tent, he ground it into a fine powder and kept it hidden in jars next to where he slept.

  I didn’t have any spare time to try and find our resident Grower. Whoever it was continued to enhance the yard and all its vegetation. To my surprise, there were vegetables growing in my mother’s garden. Every morning, we’d harvest what had grown, only to find fully grown, mature ones ready the next day. The herbs grew wild, sometimes reseeding before we woke. Kii added them to the broth by the handful. Having so many, Qarla hung them from the pasture fence to dry them for future use.

  “We may not have such a bounty come next Talium,” she said.

  All the animals, with the exception of the hogs and the rabbits, roamed free around the property. The Grower provided more than enough to feed them. With its extraordinary fast growth, allowing the livestock to graze it down became a necessity. We let the grass grow in the pasture area to be cut down and dried for animal bedding or feed at a later date. At this rate, we would be able to harvest the grasses every moon cycle, not that we had enough hands to do it. Everything grew so quickly, we could barely keep up.

  Though the work piled up, I slowed down. The weight of the baby became so heavy, it forced me to take several breaks throughout the day. Nobody let me carry anything or lift anything. If I attempted to clean the dishes, someone would step in, and when I’d try to stir the broth, Kii would take the spoon from me.

  “I don’t feel useful at all,” I lamented to Trisk as we bound basil for drying.

  She raised her eyebrows. “You cannot be serious.”

  “I’m picking herbs, Trisk. Soon, I’ll be interrupted and told to go sit down.”

  She put her arm around me and gazed out into the area before us. “All this is happening because of you. Look at the children you saved, the families you brought here who can sleep protected at night, the Citizens being fed and given hope. How can you say you’re not doing anything?”

  “I’m not actually physically doing anything. I’m not working like the rest of you. I wander around, talk to people, and pull herbs out of the garden.” I held up my handful.

  “I’ll take those, Mother Una!” Ky snatched it from my hand and ran it over to where the broths simmered.

  “See?” I sighed. “Even the boys are doing it!”

  “Una, listen to me.” Trisk laughed. “There are all kinds of work and all sorts of jobs. Just because yours isn’t dif
ficult for you doesn’t mean it’s not as important. No one else is talking to these people. No one else is inspiring them. Do you think Marsh would want to chat with people he didn’t know?”

  “No.”

  “Why? Because he hates talking to people. He’d be miserable. We all have different talents and abilities, Una. Nobody feels like they’re working because everyone is doing what comes naturally to them. Besides, leadership is about taking care of the people around you, encouraging them to do the best they can and fulfill their purpose. You’re our leader, and by the looks of it, you’re doing a great job even if it doesn’t feel like a lot of work.” She patted me on the back. “Now, go use your gifts and talents and stop complaining.” She gave me a quick hug before she left the garden area to hang our clippings.

  I plucked a carrot root for the rabbits. Knowing they wouldn’t tolerate me standing too close, I pushed it into the hutch and stood back. While they nibbled at it, I noticed something different about the nesting material in the hutch’s box, so I pulled down the wooden door to peek inside.

  Baby rabbits.

  Davin had caught a pregnant rabbit, and she gave birth either last night or this morning. Rabbits were skittish, especially wild ones. If the mother felt threatened, she may not care for her young. Keeping the children out of this area would be difficult but necessary. I’d have to put someone at the garden gate to keep them out of here and away from the hutch. Davin would be a good person to stand guard. He could weave his traps here and protect the animals he caught.

  As I expected, he was working on another trap when I found him. “Wow, Davin, you’ve been busy.”