Seyi felt Kelo’s large hand on his shoulder. “Restrain yourself, brother. Let them come to you, they were badly blooded by the Cave Children, they will be less than friendly.”

Seyi looked over his shoulder, a broad smile still on his face, “Then I must treat them as friends, I am not stupid, brother, but a warm smile and an open hand can be the best defense, and the best offense at the same time.”

Kelo rolled his hazel eyes and tightened his grip on the slighter frame of his somewhat shorter brother, but far from hurting him, Seyi seemed to not even notice. ‘You simply do not listen. You never will, will you?’ He wondered, and tightened his grip on the spear in his hand as the pair of large Red Ax men came closer.

Seyi shouted like he was greeting a long absent parent that had come home from a hunt. “I am Seyi of the Spirit Horse people, I have come to give and take, we bring furs from our lands that you lack, we desire from you, things we lack. I come as a friend.” He waved enthusiastically, and the two large men, clad in dark unikoslof furs, slowed their approach and relaxed their hold on their axes.

“This is my stupid brother, Kelo! He comes because he thinks me the stupid one!” Seyi shouted and turned, he slapped his brother on the shoulder and let out a rich, full laugh. Kelo, predictably, looked to the sky and let out an exasperated sigh.

Seeing the interplay between the two brothers, the large red ax tribals relaxed even further, set at ease by the open nature and humorous behavior of the slighter built Seyi.

The pair paused, glanced at one another, and though they didn’t set aside their axes, they flipped them upside down so that the heads were now toward the ground.

“See, brother, they’ve set their axes to the peace place.” Seyi said and turning his spear upside down so that it too, pointed to the ground, he began to walk toward them. He stepped calmly toward them with long strides and his other hand open as if to embrace them as old friends.

Kelo remained behind, and picked up the furs both of them had been carrying. A moment later he followed after his brother, grumbling with annoyance the entire way while he watched his brother charm the two black bearded behemoths of men who towered over him. He was speaking like they were old friends, compliments poured out of his mouth like rain from the sky as he praised their watchfulness and courage. ‘Why he took to trading for the chance to lie with women… I will never know, he could charm the fur off a fenrisu if he wanted.’

By the time Kelo came close, the two had slapped Seyi on the back several times and they were walking back to the center of the camp where the numbers had gathered together near the remains of a large fire. ‘They are much fewer than they had been. Their tribe is dying.’ Seyi realized it almost immediately. There were many old, but few young adults his own age, and there were ‘younger younger’, the too small to fight, or mate, or hunt. They were many more than the aged, and he tried to picture them resisting an attack by another tribe. ‘If we come, we can take the whole of them… but this is curious. Why are their ax heads black?’ He suppressed a frown and focused on the true purpose of their coming.

‘How can danger lie here? Perhaps they were wrong, I see no sign of a monster among them.’ Kelo felt his doubts begin to rise. ‘Perhaps they were only using us to scout the Red Ax, to see how much they have been weakened?’ He waited through these thoughts until there was a lull in the conversation. He pointed down to the wicked looking edges of the black stone. “Your axes are very interesting, what is that?” He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “They’re very different from the stones I have seen before.”

“Monster rock.” A sour faced older man approached and spat into the dirt. Seyi looked him up and down, and immediately felt his hairs stand up on end.

Seyi couldn’t keep the look of happiness on his face, but he was able to maintain a neutral look the he disguised with curiosity. “Monster rock?”

“A monster brought among us from a cursed one, a woman who refuses to redeem herself in the eyes of the gods, it swam into the lake, and brought forth cursed stones.” He glared at the two young men. “Go away.”

The two young men looked down in shame, and slunk away under the glare of the older man. As they withdrew, he went on, “I am Malach, Shaman of the Red Ax and ruler until the chief is chosen by the elders. I apologize for the presence of the cursed stones nearby, the ones you spoke with are unredeemed. Since the monster left with his promised sacrifice, the few who survived have taken to using the stone against my orders. I can still shame them, but curse breeds curse.” He stepped closer to the two young men, “We will let you give and take here, but… carry my words to your elders. Our women are beautiful, and make strong young. Allow our tribe to join with yours, and we will fight to protect you from the monster, or from Makine and his Cave Children.”

Seyi and Kelo traded a grave expression, with pursed lips and wide eyes. ‘Whatever the danger, he believes it true.’

Malach whispered as if giving them a secret knowledge, “The gods tell me disaster will come with the monster, danger is lessened by many hands to bear it. The monster is a dragon, death and pain are seldom confined to their sacrifices.”

Kelo furrowed his brow and leaned slightly forward, “What do you truly ask?”

“For two to become as one. Let our men mate with your women, our women with your men, the gods decree that if I do not lie with a mare child, then the horses will not run.” Malach stared deep into Kelo’s eyes as he spoke his vision, and suppressed a smile when the younger man shuddered.

“I see… I will bear your words with our takings.” Kelo replied, and added, “Show us to where we may display our furs, we bear the white fox, the black fox, even a long fenrisu, as well as horses hide.”

Malach turned around and led them to near the tribal fire, only ash remained, along with the faint smell of burnt wood and gathered dung. It wasn’t long before the remaining members of the Red Ax approached, and one of the larger men that had gone to greet or challenge Seyi, approached.

He waited patiently with a bowed head until Malach had gone to his hut, and Seyi greeted him with open palms.

The young man thrust his palms out and turned them up, in them lay several shattered fragments of the cursed black stone. “I have no food to give, but I have the black rock.”

Seyi looked down at it intensely and ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth as he tried to come to grips with the curious shiny objects.

“What makes this stone special? Your axes were always good, why go from gray stone to black?” Seyi asked without removing his eyes from the various chunks.

The young man grinned above his beard and said, “Do you have meat?”

Seyi looked to his brother, then Kelo reluctantly nodded a moment later, and drew from his simple pouch, a hunk of dried horse meat.

Seyi took it and held it out to the huge young man. He took it, smiled more broadly and crouching down to the ground, he laid the meat to the earth and swung his ax with a sudden, savage motion. The black rock cut clean through the thick chunk and buried itself into the soft ground below. “That is different.” The young man said with the sort of grin Seyi normally reserved for the hours after lying with a particularly skilled lover.

“I see.” Seyi whispered, staring down at the stone ax, and then to the broken fragments in the young man’s free hand.

The young man held a troubled look in his eye as he withdrew the ax. “Yes. Good stone makes a good ax. Also it is easy to work, much faster than the gray stone, Malach tells us it is a curse but…” He sighed and shook his head. “Ayente would not lie to another of the unloved children of the gods. She is not perfect, but to us? She would die, if she uses it… we will too.”

“So the monster, a dragon?” Seyi asked in a doubtful voice.

“Yes. She spends time with it, much time, even to the point of forgetting us it seems.” He chuckled sadly, “But… Malach has told you, it is going to kill and eat her in exchange, offering up her life as she has, I cannot disbelieve her.” He bit his lip, “Forgive me, I say to much, with the disaster, there are now few to speak with for one like me. Seyi looked up to see wild hope in his eyes, “If I bring you more stone, much more, will you send a woman to me?” He dropped the fragments from his hand to fall in a small clatter together on the ground and grasped Seyi’s hand desperately. “Please…” He whispered hoarsely, “You cannot know what it is to live in a tribe from which birth cuts you off… it is like being on the open plains, and chasing a distant shadow that you can never catch. I haven’t the swiftness or stealth to steal a mate, and…” He bit his lip and looked left to right and over his shoulder where others where still gathering their small goods.

“I do not want a mate to run from me as Ayente’s did from Makine’s father. To make a cursed one… I will not.” He shook his head with vigor and a rosey flush came to his exposed cheeks. Seye and Kelo shared his silence.

“I… will ask, we had the mating time where we all gathered together, few young women remain without mates of their own. But I will speak of a gentle man who offers all he has for one to join him.” Seyi eyed the pile of stones covetously.

“Take them, and carry them with your promise to me.” The big man uttered with a voice of quiet despair, and left all his collection of stones behind.

Kelo whispered into his brother’s ear. “Pitiable… even our cursed ones are not so hopeless. But that was cruel, brother, you took everything and gave him nothing.”

Seyi watched the retreating back before he gave a crooked little smile to Kelo, “I gave him my promise, if none want it, well?” He shrugged his shoulders, “I did not steal from him, it is simply the will of the everplains spirits that he run them alone in the afterlife.”

The rest of the day of give and take went swiftly, with Kelo and Seyi coming away with various stones, dried fish found only in the brackish waters, and a few small spear points and a single ax, both of which were made of ‘cursed stone’.

Throughout the day of give and take they spoke and questioned and traded stories with the Red Ax tribe members, and by the time the sun began to set, doubts began to fill Kelo’s heart while greed filled Seyi’s eyes.

Malach returned to them at the last finger of the sun’s descent, “We offer you fire and, thanks to the cursed one, we have empty huts for you. If you leave two furs for me as well, I will send you two of our widows for the night as comfort. The cursed one left us with those as well.”

Kelo didn’t even bother to roll his eyes when Seyi snatched up two remaining fox furs and thrust them towards Malach. “Of course!” Seyi said eagerly, “The warmth of the Red Ax flame is exceptional.” He refrained from winking at his small jest, but it was clear that even if Malach caught it, he was not the sort to laugh. His sour, pursed lipped expression went unchanged. Only the slight widening of the whites of his eyes when he clasped the soft furs, which revealed what Seyi recognized as the hint of greed in man, gave away his want.

Hours later, the tribe had gathered around the communal fire, and small, meager offerings of food were given to their guests. Though Seyi and Kelo said nothing to one another or to their hosts, all it took was a glance between brothers to say it all. ‘They are going hungry.’ The growls in the stomachs of those who nearby, and the muted, hollow words were sufficient to tell the mood of the tribe.

Seyi was the first of the two to rise, “We will have a long walk, can I ask for my hut?” He said as he stood and stretched out, he took a deep breath while his shadow dance by firelight, and a child’s toss of a stone away, Malach put his hand on the thigh of a dark haired young woman.

“Go.” He said bluntly, and the woman stood to up straight, she crossed to him and took his hand in her own.

“Come, follow.” She said softly and lowered her eyelids, her hair was black as the night, but had a lustre to it that reminded Seyi of the black stone he’d bartered for. His eyes fell to the bosom confined by the thick furs she wore, but which spoke by the outline of the abundance beneath.

She walked with a roll of her hips and took him to a hut. She drew him in, and whispered, “Malach says the gods command I lie with you for blessing.” The dangling fur closed behind her and utter darkness in the hut engulfed them both. However a growl from her stomach, and the sound of her furs falling away, said plenty.

Seyi took the lead and moved further into the hut. “He spoke the truth.” Seyi replied softly and removed a fur pouch, from which he removed several pieces of dried meet and turning her palm up, he placed the pieces there. “Eat. I have not much, but I will share with you as you with me.”

He felt her mood change and become warmer even without seeing her. “You are kind to me. Perhaps this is the blessing I needed. Now… let me bless you.” She thrust the meat into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed in mere seconds, and then helped him remove his furs and cast them into the dirt beneath their feet.

She drew him down over top of them, lay upon her side, parted her thighs, and sighed as the length of his man’s desire opened her silken folds. She drew him into her arms, and he covered her soft moan with a kiss, savoring the heat of a fire all their own. They cast the warmth of their flesh from one to the other, burning hotter and hotter, until shared release forced it to burn itself out. Only then, with the fading light of the fire of their want, did Seyi’s body allow him to sleep at last. At least until the very first ray of morning light slipped through a gap between the hut entrance and the fur that covered it, to strike him in his closed, slumbering eyes.