Bansel and Dinna are outside playing with the almer, and I stand in the entrance, watching them. I notice behind me Arbella putting a small piece of bone in a skin that already has several pieces.
"Why do you do that?" I ask her.
"I am counting days." she says.
"Why?"
"I just want to know how much time passes. Every day I put a bone in this skin. The bones are how many days have go by since I started counting."
I'm not sure I understand why she wants to know that, but with how much time goes by without anything to do, we tend to start wondering about some pretty random things.
Ellei lies in a skin, making noises. Filiny and Gatyk are in the next room, I can hear them talking. The days are just passing by...
We try to find things to do. Arbella often comes up with different things. Sometimes she creates new skin drapes out of differently colored skins. Bansel and Dinna have been making up activities where they pretend to fight or chase eachother. They get along most of the time but sometimes I have to stop him when he gets too rough. Bansel is quite big now... It always astonishes me that he used to be as small as Ellei... other than that, there haven't been any more changes to the world for a long time... I often sit up in the dark with my family and we talk about our thoughts... it is a mysterious world we live in. Are things just happening out of nowhere, or is someone controlling all of it? If not, how can all these new things come into existence? I wonder often, but there's no possible way to discover the truth. I explore sometimes and go as far away as I safely can. I must always return home, so there is a limit to how far I can travel, but I have never found anything other than what I've already seen. I don't think the answer is out there... but who knows? Is there an end to this world or does it go on forever? I wish I could see...
Perhaps I could travel multiple days by building shelters along the way. But... I cannot leave my family alone. Could I take them with me..? I talk to Arbella about it, but she says she doubts there is an end. In the end, I just stay here.
We speak to the almer humans often as well... I can see that their child will soon be here. We talk about what happened before they came, talk about our thoughts and questions... we have become close to eachother... they are almost like family too, even though they did not come from us.
One day Filiny has her child. We come to look... she holds the little almer human in her hands, it is covered in the same skin as hers, and it's a boy. They name it Hast.
The days go by... the boy learns to crawl, and we let him play with Ellei. They seem to get along, and learn new skills faster together as they watch eachother, discovering how to reach, grab, and shake things. We spend a lot of time teaching them, trying to get them to say words...
Bansel and Dinna are left on their own more often as we have new small children to take care of... Bansel has become rather good at taking care of her and keeping an eye on her.
One day I hear a commotion outside. I hear the sound of uams... the small grey carnivores are nearby, and it sounds like they're coming closer. I pick up a weapon, hearing a scuffle outside and hurry out. But I'm surprised at the sight... two uams are lying dead on the ground already and a third one is standing at a distance, looking aggressive. The almer we've been keeping nearby stands guard, it's teeth covered in blood. The uam seems to decide otherwise and runs away. I look down at the almer. Did it protect us...? I notice a wound on it's leg.
Dinna cries, looking very upset while I clean the almer's leg. "It is just an injury. It will be fine." I tell her.
"Avu will not die..?" she asks.
"Avu?"
"I named it that.." she says.
"No, it will be fine." I say. She gave it a name... well... it did really protect us from wild anims. Perhaps this creature is alright to have around after all.
The almer would soon recover and could walk again. I noted how big it had gotten since I found it... it has become an adult almer. But by now, I don't feel the need to supervise it around the kids anymore... and even then, Bansel could handle it if it did anything. Regardless... I have become used to the creature's company...
As life becomes uneventful again, I find out that it's possible to scratch the maze walls with sharp bones. If I keep going for a long time, I can even create a deep dent... perhaps even a hole. Since I don't have much to do, I start to break down the walls around us, finding more optimal ways to do so over the days... I soon create an open space around the home. It's so large for once, compared to the narrow maze passages. It feels strange... I put up skins at the entrances and create a small yard. This will let us expand our area even more...
I also obtained loose stone from the broken walls. This is a whole new material... I wonder if I can use this for anything. Bansel and Dinna have already started playing with small stones, stacking them on top of eachother and creating small structures. They're very creative... when they grow up, they may come up with many new ideas for our small civilisation.
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