Page 45 of Planet Zero
Chapter 15
The next day Addie rose early and headed in the direction of the For settlement. She had no desire to go all the way in; her goal was to catch Illied and Chele as they left their home to go foraging. If they went today.
When she reached the sands that marked about halfway, she found them, plus Oh’na and Melmie.
“Hello!” she yelled and waved. They waved back. “I’m so glad I found you! Are you taking a break here?”
“We’re waiting for you,” Chele patiently replied.
“For me?” Surely she hadn’t heard it right.
“Yes. We waited yesterday but you never came. We don’t have all day. Men failed to make a kill again, so we have to hurry to gather plants for dinner.”
They started walking. Addie fell into step with them, reveling in pure joy that someone had thought about her.
“Why can’t men find game?” she asked.
“Lean times are upon us. Elkeks are gone. Teks are hard to find. We can make do with Truneds and bugs, but for how long? Ours is a large tribe.” Illied looked grim.
“Large animals give us furs and bones,” Chele added. “It’s time for us to move.”
“Move? Where will you go?”
“Chemmusaayl will decide. Scouts are looking for signs of animal herds to follow.”
Of course, they would move. For were nomadic, after all. That was how they survived, by following the food source. And when they left, what would Addie do?
They arrived at a place where Chele instructed them to split. “Illied, take the girls and follow this path to the grassland.” She told each woman what they should be looking for and collecting. “I will show Addie the Boroms patch.”
The two groups went their separate ways.
“What are Boroms, Chele?” Addie asked, barely keeping up down the hill with the agile For woman.
“What? You don’t know what Boroms are? They are fat little buggers, plant-like. Everybody knows. How can you learn about rare plants if you don’t know what Boroms are?”
Boroms looked like purple cacti, and they smelled musty. From what Chele explained, resentful for having to explain such a ubiquitous thing to Addie, Boroms were kind of like beans or tofu, used to beef up meals when meat was in short supply. Many folks didn’t like the taste, especially children, but men needed their protein.
But Boroms wasn’t what Chele wanted to discuss with Addie. There were other, much more interesting and potent plants that she planned to collect along the way.
“I can’t get all that I need when I am with them. They ask questions. It’s hard to find an excuse to go by myself. Pay attention!”
Chele needed two kinds of plants to bring home today. One of them, a moss, was hard to find, and she was elated to have run across a large patch of it. She collected as much as she could stealthily carry herself and stashed some to the bottom of Addie’s sack.
“Here, you can dry it for me. You live alone. But be careful when the girls visit, they cannot see.”
Addie arranged the Boroms on top to cover the therapeutic moss.
“Clears bowel blockage,” Chele explained about the moss. “Works almost instantly. Don’t overuse it.”
The other plant was part of the mix they had given Oma in an attempt to staunch her bleeding.
“Is Oma doing better?” Addie asked.
“Yes, much better. She came outside yesterday.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Hunlath was worried about her. Did you know that he came to see me?”
Chele turned her owlish head full one-eighty degrees. “Hunlath?”
