{"id":65,"date":"2013-09-14T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-14T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2013\/09\/14\/14-the-problem-with-blueberries\/"},"modified":"2013-09-14T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-14T14:00:00","slug":"14-the-problem-with-blueberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/09\/14\/14-the-problem-with-blueberries\/","title":{"rendered":"14. The Problem With Blueberries"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Unfinished Song: Initiate<\/a>\"\"
\n(Start at the Beginning of the Novel<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“Handprint” by par-rish<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Dindi<\/i><\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Dindi,\u201d sighed her mother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Uncle Lubo slapped his thigh and bellowed with laugher. In minutes, the whole clan joined him.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cFor mercy\u2019s sake, girl,\u201d said Great Aunt Sullana. \u201cDid you smear your face with blueberries?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dindi\u2019s hands flew to her face. It did feel sticky…. Horrified, she glanced back at the pile of soap lumps she had left by the cistern\u2019s lip. The lumps were blue.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Blue soap. Blueberry soap. The fae had mixed the blueberries, not the soaproot, with the\u00a0ashes and lard. Oh, mercy. Her whole face must be stained with the indelible juice.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cBecause you don\u2019t know her well, you may think Dindi\u2019s just a little strange,\u201d Papa said to Zavaedi Abiono. \u201cOnce you get to know her better, you\u2019ll realize that\u2019s not true. She\u2019s extremely <\/i>strange.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Uncle Lubo\u2019s renewed peals of laugher reverberated around the smoky kitchen.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cEnough,\u201d said Great Aunt Sullana. It was a decree. The guffaws of the uncles subsided to an echo of snickers and snorts from the younger cousins. \u201cWhere have you been, Dindi? Hadi says you ran off without him despite my express wishes.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dindi shot Hadi the wounded look of one betrayed. He shoved a pisha <\/i>into his mouth and shrugged.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cSeven and seven times and seven times more,\u201d said Great Aunt in a voice wheezing with age, \u201cI have warned you and warned you about going off on your own. Didn\u2019t I just say that strangers have been spotted in the woods? What if some outtribesman had seen you alone and made off with you!\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d said Papa, \u201cYou\u2019ve been wondering how we\u2019d get Dindi married off.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cI said I wanted her married off, not carried off. Elli, can\u2019t you put a leash on this man\u2019s tongue?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cIf I had married a goat, I could leash him,\u201d Mama said. \u201cInstead you had to marry a boar.\u201d Papa just laughed. Great Aunt Sullana turned to Zavaedi Abiono. \u201cYou see what I<\/div>\n
have to put up with, Zavaedi.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Zavaedi Abiono glanced at Dindi, at her sticky blue face. He emitted a non-committal cough.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
She wanted to die.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cI gave up on taking that wild child in hand long ago,\u201d went on Great Aunt Sullana. \u201cIf her mother won\u2019t do it, I can\u2019t. And her mother won\u2019t. Will you, Elli?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s still just a child, Aunt Sullana,\u201d Mama said. \u201cNot for much longer,\u201d said Great Aunt Sullana. The adults\u2019 conversation moved on, finally and thankfully, but beside Dindi, Jensi and Tibi began whispering. \u201cDindi, before you arrived, Abiono was asking what year you were born,\u201d said Tibi. \u201cHe asked about Hadi and Jensi too. Do you think there\u2019s going to be an Initiation?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cOf course that\u2019s what it means, you squirrel brain,\u201d said Jensi impatiently. \u201cIt\u2019s finally here. Finally. You\u2019re lucky, Dindi. It came early for you. It came late for me. Just think, Dindi, a year from now, we can start to pick a husband! And after that, you know what comes next. Babies!\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cUgh,\u201d said Dindi. \u201cI can do\u2026<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
TO BE CONTINUED<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Download the complete book for\u00a0FREE<\/b><\/u>\u00a0or buy it on Amazon as an\u00a0ebook<\/a>\"\"\u00a0or paperback<\/a>\"\":<\/center><\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
Author’s Comments<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
The delightfully goofy photograph is by\u00a0par-rish<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\n
on deviant-Art.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Unfinished Song: Initiate (Start at the Beginning of the Novel) \u00a0 “Handprint” by par-rish Dindi \u201cOh, Dindi,\u201d sighed her mother. Uncle Lubo slapped his thigh and bellowed with laugher. In minutes, the whole clan joined him. \u201cFor mercy\u2019s sake, girl,\u201d said Great Aunt Sullana. \u201cDid you smear your face with blueberries?\u201d Dindi\u2019s hands flew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dindi","category-initiate-excerpt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","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=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}