THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART SEVEN )

The smell of smoke soon became evident throughout
the forest, Fern felt uneasy and started to run,
watching and listening to all the sounds around
her. She soon arrived at Bella's.

Meradith, Bella's mother came out to meet Fern
with her daughter.
"Fern my dear girl, how are you? let me see you
now and give you a hug."
Sometimes Meradith could be a little overwhelming
but Fern didn't mind, infact she enjoyed the
attention.
"How is your mother?" Meradith enquired.
"We are all fine thankyou," replied Fern.

Bella was eleven winters old, as Fern was eleven
summers old. Meradith did enjoy the children, she
would tell them tales and stories of their ancestors who came from another world, stories that
she had been told by her parents and grandparents,
the children would be mesmerized. Children learnt
to grow up quick in the forest, if they wanted to
stay alive.

Meradith also wore the traditional bear skin top,
skirt and boots. She brushed the hair from her eyes
and watched as the two girls walked off together,
she thought about how much Bella and Fern reminded
her of herself and Evelyne when they were the same
age, she smiled remembering the way Bella would put
her hands on her hips and tap her foot, when she
didn't want to do a job, it was almost like an angry dance and her pained expression on her face,
she would purse her lips in defiance.

Bella took Fern to milk their goat Neona, which
Meradith had named, she told Bella it meant
New Moon. Neona was a friendly goat, she produced
enough milk to feed the family each day. One of the
jobs Bella did enjoy was feeding the chickens, she
loved to cry, "here chick, chick, chick!" at the
top of her voice, they would all come wobbling along after her. The chickens were kept in a mud
hut at night and during the day they were left to
roam in penned off ground that her father constructed out of logs.

Bella's father had been to see some friends two days before and bartered some bear skins for two
sacks of corn to feed the chickens, that would keep
the chickens going for a while. This particular day, the chickens had produced ten eggs, Meradith
was very pleased.

After Bella and Fern had finished feeding the
chickens, Meradith gave them some potato, corn and
wild onion soup, she had made that morning and some
corn bread, it was Bella's favourite soup, because
it was so sweet.

"Mother," said Bella,
"yes dear," replied Meradith,
"would it be okay if me and Fern went down to the
stream to play?"
"yes okay, but on one condition, you must stay close to the camp, don't go wandering off, I want
to beable to call you."
"Yes we will." said Bella grabbing Fern's hand, as
they skipped off down to the stream. They played at the stream for the rest of that day, racing leaves as they sailed down stream rippling over
pebbles.

When finally Meradith came down to the stream, she
informed them it was getting close to dark and that Fern should return home, Fern agreed, she did
not want to upset her mother again, so she said her goodbyes and made her way home.

To be continued .........