Mock-Tar Bay-Her shifted in her saddle as she watched the old woman speak to the elders of the bear tribe of the mountains. The dress that they had put her in was not designed for undergarments and riding a horse without them was... challenging. For that matter, the dress wasn't designed for riding at all, but for walking. The dress kept riding up over her hips, constantly exposing her lower half, much to Alac's enjoyment. So, Kailynn had taken a blanket and sewed it into a riding skirt to keep herself covered. Her women had protested, but she had silenced them by simply raising her hand.
Now as she watched the conversation between the old woman and the elders she only had the lack of undergarments to worry about, but no one could see that at least. Their tones stayed low and even. Alac leaned in close to her ear from where he sat astride his reclaimed horse.
"Have you noticed that they never raise their voices? When one speaks all the others wait for them to finish too."
"Too bad half the people where we are from can't do that." Kailynn whispered back. "It would simplify things tremendously."
"Speaking of simplifying, we are still four days away from the border. How many more of these stops do you have to make?"
"Hush, here they come."
The old woman and the elders approached Kailynn as she sat on her horse above them.
"Mock-Tar Bay-Her, gah-mock kor-eh." The old men peered up at her, then bowed with their hands open palms down. "Mehk."
"Ah-korr." Kailynn responded. "Gah-tahr-kor kor-tahr."
The men approached her and one by one each touched their forehead and then her sandaled, rapidly tanning foot.
"Mock-Tar Bay-Her, kah-kor-tor." Kailynn pointed forward.
The old men bowed again. "Mock-Tar Bay-her, tar-khor." They motioned toward the horizon.
Kailynn urged her horse forward and the whole tribe started forward again.
Alac looked at her in surprise. Kailynn shrugged.
"What do you think I have been doing this whole ride?"
❧
The rest of the trip to the border of the wildlands went much the same. Kailynn had counted at around fifteen tribes. Some were immediately accepting, others took some convincing, but each one agreed in the end that she was in fact, Mock-Tar Bay-Her. Kailynn and Alac had picked up enough of the language to understand what was going on around them.
They believed Kailynn was their Bear Mother, that Alac was the Kah-mock, Kah-tor or the bonded mate to Kailynn and the alpha of the tribe. She was to become pregnant with their promised leader that would take all of the tribes into one large camp and they would be one people again. While she and Alac needed no encouragement, Kailynn's retinue of the four women often engineered situations for Alac and Kailynn to be alone in privacy with Kailynn wearing that dress.
Kailynn was beginning to feel a real happiness for the first time in her life. She was wandering the earth, free and with a man that she was beginning to love and absolutely enjoyed spending her nights with. She had begun to amass an army of sorts that Alac estimated was around five thousand men. As the border grew closer, she grew heavier and heavier in her spirit. It was all going to come to an end soon. She would have to put her manners back on, much more constricting clothing and she couldn't be as free and open in her interactions with Alac. Certainly no one would be pushing for her to get pregnant with him.
She could see the border mountains in the distance when they made camp for the final time with the tribe. Her tribe. A wave of sadness crashed over her. Kailynn blew out a deep breath and shook off the feeling. The whole tribe knew that tonight was the Mock-Tar Bay-Her's last night with them. They piled the fire high with extra wood so that it blazed high into the blue-grey twilight. The drums where out and the food was being cooked and being put into the feasting bowls.
There was a light touch on her shoulder. Kailynn turned to see the old woman standing there with tears in her eyes.
"Kor-tahr."
Kailynn nodded and followed her to the tent she had shared with Alac for the past week. The old woman reached into a back and pulled one of Kailynn's old grey traveling outfits and offered it to her. Kailynn stepped back holding the strands of bear claws that strung across her stomach. The woman offered it again. Kailynn shook her head vehemently.
"Khet-gah-tahr." Kailynn tilted her head and raised her forearm as she uttered the sounds.
The old woman dropped the traveling outfit, burst into tears and ran to Kailynn to hug her tightly. "Mock-Tar Bay-Her, gah-tahr-kor, mock-kah-tor."
Kailynn squeezed the woman back tightly with her own tears starting to fall, "Mock-kah-tor, mock-kah, kor-eh."
Stepping back and wiping her eyes, the woman pulled out a container of grey wood ash and began painting symbols and runes on Kailynn's body. Kailynn took a few deep breaths as the drums outside started. Alac entered the tent, Kailynn stared at him. For the first time he was dressed in the tribe's full ceremonial garb. His tanned skin was painted with grey wood ash to match her. He was draped in strings of claws and teeth and wore a loin cloth that barely covered him. He smiled mischievously at her.
"My eyes are up here Kailynn."
"I'm not looking for your eyes!" Kailynn laughed as she let her gaze roam all over his tanned, painted body. "Most certainly not your eyes." Her eyes dropped to his loincloth.
He offered her his arm as the old woman finished her decoration of the Mock-Tar Bay-Her. He lifted the flap and they stepped into the night together. Fires blazed all over the camp and they had re-created the ash circle and her ash footprints from the day she had been recognized as the Mother Bear by a dying man.
She and Alac walked to the center of the ash circle and stopped as the rest of the tribe gathered around them. The drums started with a heavy heartbeat as the tribe began to dance around the circle to the beat. The drums increased their fervency as the old woman began to chant a song in Goh-Tor, the language of the people of the Mock-Tar Bay-Her. The swirling mass of humanity leapt and sang and chanted around them as Kailynn stood in the middle of her people and let her tears fall freely. Alac held her shoulders, supporting her as her knees grew weaker from the heaviness in her chest. How can I leave them? This is the first home I have ever had. Kailynn was sobbing now as she could see many of the dancers were now freely and openly crying as they chanted and sang their goodbye to her. To their Mock-Tar Bay-Her.
Kailynn couldn't stand to be apart from her people anymore. Shaking off Alac's arm, she ran into the tribe's open arms and danced, sang and cried with them until the early morning and the drums stopped.