Weavers
As you work you notice that the girls keep giving you sidelong glances as if measuring you as either a rival, or a mate should you ever return to being male. You shake your head at the thought, but the voice, which has plagued you since you arrived here, mentions that none of them are really much competition since you killed the boar. You ignore the voice and wrap your mind around the task at hand as you try to get the dye to seep into the cloth despite the natural oils that used to surround and fill it. After about ten minutes of dunking the fabric in the dye it starts to gain a light blue color and you smile in satisfaction, and a small bit of pride at the fact that you personally managed to get the formerly green leaves to change color.
You go back to dunking the cloth until it gets a rich dark blue color then you hang it to dry on a makeshift clothesline the younger girls hung up. With that done you get up and walk over to a bucket of water that everyone's been using to wash their hands and clean your own hands thoroughly before stretching and sitting down next to one of the weavers who is drying, out the leaves that they use for fabric and cutting them into strips. She smiles and hands you a few of the leaves as well as a simple belt knife. You take it and slowly start scraping away the top layer of the leaf as you saw her do then roll the handle up and down the body of it causing the moisture to come out onto the top. She smiles and motions for you to shake the leaf, then does so herself, with one of them, showing you how all the oils and moisture are sent flying with the motion of the leaves.
You do as she showed you, then start cutting the leaf into strips alongside her, finding the work both rewarding, and relaxing. You do this about ten to twenty more times then put all the strips in a basket and hand them to a girl who runs the basket over to where a few of the girls are weaving breeches and tunics, with looms. You glance at the girl who just helped you out and notice that her ears are perked and she's watching the back of the hut. You follow her eyes and blink as you see a few of the younger males standing there watching everyone as they work. When they catch your gaze they bow slowly then turn and walk out. You start to ask the girl next to you why they did that, when one of the older women walks over and says softly "You've earned their respect as a hunter. Not many females would dare to do what you did without at least five or six others at their back, let alone with only one able bodied companion and a hunter who's injured."
Written by Jake Shadow Wolf on 14 January 2013
