THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART TWO )

In a thicket of the forest a young child was foraging for herbs for her mother, she stopped in
her tracks for she knew hunters were coming, she watched as the birds flew from the trees, 'a sure
sign,' she thought to herself, she quickly hid in some long grass and ferns, that were so tall, they
were almost her size.

She watched and waited, not making a sound, hardly daring to breathe in case she was heard. Sure
enough the hunters came marching, striding out, the child peeped out from between the ferns and
saw there were about twenty hunters, this was a route they regularly took, she knew being there
was very dangerous, but the herbs were so lusciously rich in taste that her mother would be
so pleased with her. Often if she came home with nothing, her father would beat her so hard she
would ache for days.

Suddenly the hunters stopped, the child cried with fear, they were so close that they started to smell
the air, 'could it be they were aware of her?' She sobbed quietly crouching down even lower into
the ferns not daring to come up.

She had been down in the ferns for so long, she had cried herself to sleep. When she awoke she
had no idea how long she had been asleep, but she was very cold and shivering, she poked her head up very slowly and looked out, there was not a hunter in sight, she thought again how lucky she had been, she felt safe enough to go home now.

As she made her way back to the camp, she could tell something was wrong, her mother seemed
worried. Evelyne watched with anger as her daughter hesitantly came towards her. Evelyne stood quite tall with shoulder length black hair that was always covered by a scarf made from bear skin, she wore a top and a long skirt that were also made from the skin of a bear and so were the boots that she wore, every part of the bear would be utilized.

The child wondered what was wrong, her mother had her arms crossed, which usually meant something was not right. She started to run towards Evelyne crying, "mother look what I have found for you," but Evelyne was not listening, she caught hold of the child and dragged her into their hut.
"Why oh why?" screamed Evelyne,

"Why what?" said her child, "your hurting me mother!"

"You went on hunting ground didn't you?" "

How do you know?" cried the child, now shaking with fear.

"You were seen, luckily for you by a friend of your fathers." said Evelyne getting angrier by the second.

The child then wondered why the hunters hadn't grabbed her. She questioned her mother,
"because," said Evelyne, "they know what your father would do to you if they had brought you back,  luckily he's not here but if he finds out, you will surely be beaten."

The child felt a fear, a fear even bigger than the one she had felt when in the forest. "But mother I wanted to please you with fine herbs for the stewing meat." she said.

"Then pick them anywhere, but where the hunters go, will you promise me?"

the child looked at her mother, "it won't happen again I promise."

Evelyne calmed down and told the child to go and prepare the herbs for the pot and keep her baby
brother entertained while she got the meat ready.

The child feared and worried what mood her father would be in when he came home, she was also worried that he would find out about her going on hunting ground, she didn't think she could take another beating.

To be continued ..........THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART THREE ) | ABCtales