Chapter 88: Bearing Burdens
The ancient roadway snaked past the headwaters of the River Luath before becoming a steep climb toward the western most edge of the vale. Zedya pushed the horses hard in the dark of night to ensure that they arrived at Orava just as the stars began to fade into the lightening sky.
"My darling," Nyrielle said, gently cupping Ashlynn’s face with both hands before she exited the carriage. "I know I’ve given you much to think about, but always remember one thing. You and I will always have each other. I can feel your heartbeat," she said, placing her fingers gently on the lace that stretched across her pale bosom.
"And I can feel yours," Ashlynn said, closing her eyes and relaxing into Nyrielle’s touch as she placed a hand on the swell of her full bust. "You should go, the sun is rising."
When Nyrielle left the carriage, she moved so swiftly and gracefully that Ashlynn didn’t even feel the carriage shift on its springs. One moment, Nyrielle was there, her cool fingers cupping Ashlynn’s face and the next, she was gone, vanishing like smoke on the morning breeze, leaving behind only the ghost of a touch on Ashlynn’s skin and the faint scent of lavender soap.
By the time the carriage started rolling again, Ashlynn turned her attention to the view outside as early morning light spilled over the neighboring hills.
Georg had told her that the Clan of the Great Claw preferred communal living to the individual family dwellings that the Horned Clan preferred, but it wasn’t until she saw Orava Village that she realized what ’communal’ meant to the bearish clan.
Longhouses built from an arch of tree trunks radiated out from the center of the village like the spokes of a wheel, bridging the space between the village square at the center and the wooden perimeter wall. In between the longhouses, neatly tended gardens boasted a variety of early spring vegetables along with a wide variety of vegetables that would be ready for harvest later in the year.
Each longhouse was large enough to house twenty to thirty people, despite the fact that most families in the Clan of the Great Claw were small with only two or three children born to each couple.
As much as she wanted to get out of the carriage to meet with the villagers, however, Captain Lennart and the servants who had come for the journey moved swiftly to change out their horses for ones that had been prepared in advance to take over from here. In less than a quarter of an hour, the carriage departed through the gate opposite the one they’d entered from.