"Agreed."
"I'm what's left of her," the woman said. She tilted her head. "You ran away. You were supposed to be my hundredth child. The one that would finally fill me up again. Instead, you left a seed in my mouth. Did you know what that seed was?"
"That's what you came back to see?" a voice said. Mother Village -Finished- - Version- Ch. 1 Fina...
But a village is not a place. It's a root that grows through your bones. And roots, no matter how far you travel, remember the way home. Now, at twenty-two, Fina stood at the ravine's edge and smelled smoke.
"The hundred children I swallowed. Your brothers. Your sisters. The ones your running left behind." "Agreed
Not cooking smoke. Not ceremonial incense. The thick, wet smoke of something burning alive .
That was seven rains ago. Now, standing at the edge of the ravine with a crooked walking stick in her hand, she wasn't sure if the tree was dead or simply waiting. You were supposed to be my hundredth child
Fina looked at the crack in the tree. The amber light beckoned like a hearth on a winter night.