{"id":37,"date":"2013-09-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2013\/09\/30\/30-secret-practice-in-the-woods\/"},"modified":"2013-09-30T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T14:00:00","slug":"30-secret-practice-in-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/09\/30\/30-secret-practice-in-the-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"30. Secret Practice in the Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Unfinished Song: Initiate<\/i><\/a>\"\"<\/i><\/p>\n
(Start at the Beginning of the Novel<\/a>)<\/div>\n

Chapter 3 <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“Moth Dancer” by Electric Rainbow<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
Brena<\/i>\n<\/div>\n
Before dawn, the clanhold of Sycamore Stands already throbbed with the sounds of women pounding nuts. The astringent smell of acorn drifted from the leeching ditches between the clay domed huts. Once Zavaedi Brena made certain her snoopy neighbor, Auntie Ula, was not following her, she urged her two daughters, Gwena and Gwenika, past the clanhold stocade, down the embankment, to a spot hidden by sycamore trees. They did this every morning, yet every morning Brena had to battle all over again to force them to move, as if it were the first time.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Gwena, the oldest, spent an inordinate amount of time combing her hair. On the way to the woods, she craned her neck to attract the attention of young men burning brush for gardens. Several of the hoolilgans smiled at her like idiots, until they saw Brena and hastened back to work.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Gwenika, younger by two years, started her whining earlier than usual. \u201cDo I have to practice today?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cYes. You have to practice everyday.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u201cBut I\u2019m feeling very dizzy this morning.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHrmf.\u201d Brena still smarted from her cousin Ula\u2019s admonishments last night. For fifteen years Ula had failed to have children of her own, but she insisted on lecturing those who did. \u201cYou\u2019re too soft on the girls, that\u2019s why the little one is so lazy. A good mother wouldn\u2019t put up with that.\u201d In the next breath, Auntie Ula went on to say, \u201cAnd why do you push those girls so hard? It isn\u2019t natural for a mother to put so much pressure on her daughters to become Tavaedies. What\u2019s wrong if they just want to be wives and mothers?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Brena wanted to shake her. Well, which is it? Am I an unfit mother because I\u2019m too soft on them or an unfit mother because I\u2019m too hard on them? <\/i>She already knew the answer. She couldn\u2019t win either way. A woman, even a Zavaedi, had no business raising a family without a man, and Brena had made it clear to the whole clanhold years ago that one husband had left her bitter enough for a lifetime. The last thing she needed was another man in her life.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And if my girls become Tavaedies, they won\u2019t be dependent on a having a husband to tend their fields either. <\/i>After her husband died, what would have been her lot if she had not been a member of the secret society, able to earn gifts from the community by her own skills? With one hungry babe toddling at her feet and a belly full of a babe to come…she shuddered at the memory. It had been hard enough as it was, returning to the troop after she\u2019d quit to raise her family.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
She checked the clearing again to assure they had privacy, then clapped her hands to retrieve her daughters\u2019 errant attention. \u201cToday, girls, I want to see you walk through the Badger and Deer Positions, in both the Still and Moving forms.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, Mama,\u201d they chimed. Warblers chirped overhead.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“Dancer in the Dark” by marlene-d<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cBegin girls!\u201d commanded Tavaedi Brena. \u201cDeer Leaps, from Still to Moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Gwena flawlessly performed the steps several times. Gwenika, however, slumped through the forms with limp arms. She kicked at the dry leaves on the ground, then bent to pick up one of the spiky sycamore balls that littered the dust of the clearing.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cCan we dance somewhere else? These keep poking my feet.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d said Brena. \u201cThis is the safest place. I don\u2019t want anyone spying on us.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHow can you expect me to dance with poked feet?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cGwenika.\u201d Every day it was some new complaint. Maybe Auntie Ula is right. I must have done something wrong with this one<\/i>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cBesides, my head is spinning. I\u2019m feeling dizzy again.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cGwenika, I\u2019ve told you\u2014\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u201cAlso, I\u2019m suffering from fatigue. And my heart is beating more rapidly than usual.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cYour heart is supposed <\/i>to be beating more rapidly. You\u2019re exercising.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, but my face is\u2026<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
TO BE CONTINUED<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
TO BE CONTINUED<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Unfinished Song: Initiate (Start at the Beginning of the Novel) Chapter 3 “Moth Dancer” by Electric Rainbow Brena Before dawn, the clanhold of Sycamore Stands already throbbed with the sounds of women pounding nuts. The astringent smell of acorn drifted from the leeching ditches between the clay domed huts. Once Zavaedi Brena made certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brena","category-initiate-excerpt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}