Free Redemption: Supernatural Time-Traveling Romance with Sci-fi and Metaphysics by Jacklyn A. Lo Page A

the edge
of the desert, and tufts of grass have been appearing for some time. Ahead of
her, the grassland begins in earnest, a long sloping plain that sweeps down towards
the water which stretched away to the horizon with no discernable end. She
smiles, happy for the first time in days.
    “Big land!” she says, pointing to
the left, where a wild-looking river runs down to fill the lake. “Good land!”
She points to the right where a great forest disappears into the distance along
the shore. “Many people,” she adds, as she points directly ahead where, on top
of a grassy hill, the tribe is going about its day’s work, moving around among
what appear to be large boulders covered in animal skin.
    “Where caves?” she asks the men,
but they just shrug at her unfamiliar words. Sleep in forest, she suggests, but wonders whether these strange
people even need to sleep and hide away from the creatures that hunt in the
night.
    “Come,” says the man, an arm
still around Mi’s waist, and begins to lead her down the slope towards his
tribe. As she walks with him, Mi begins to cry, partly at the sorrow of being
parted from her own people, but mostly because she realizes that she is safe at
last. She has found her new home.
    ~
    It is not long before the four
of them begin to climb the hill to the tribe’s village. Mi is surprised to find
that the area is surrounded by a ring of wooden stakes that have been hammered
into the ground, cutting off all access to the tribe, except through a narrow
gap.
    “Tree?” she asks, pointing at it
with a frown.
    “Fence,” says one of the men
behind her. “Keeps village safe.”
    “Fence?” she repeats, shakes her
head in bewilderment at the strange word.
    They walk together through the
gap in the fence and make their way through the skin-covered boulders, which
are much bigger close up than she had imagined. She stares at one and reaches
out a hand to touch it when, to her amazement, a woman bursts out through the
skins and heads off across the village.
    “Trick!” Mi shouts in alarm and
jumps backwards, bumping into one of the men and together they fall into a heap
on the floor. A small antelope-like creature sniffs at her hair. “No!” she
says, pushing it away. “No eat Mi!” She climbs to her feet and edges towards
the place the woman came from. She reaches out a hand to touch it again,
cautiously, though, in case the curious mound produces another person. As she
touches the skin, it moves easily and reveals what lies within — not a
boulder, as she thought, but large, open space. She peers inside and can make
out two small children playing on the ground. Beyond them are many objects
which Mi does not recognize, but there is also a pile of skins, similar to
those she slept on back home.
    “Sleep?” she says, pointing at
the skins, but the children just stare at her. When she tries miming sleep to
them, head resting on her hands, they start to laugh and, with a start, she
realizes what this strange place must be.
    “Cave!” she says excitedly,
turning back to the men. “Skin cave.” But again the men do not understand her.
    The man with the water bag
points, saying, “Hut.”
    “Hut,” says Mi, smiling at the
strange feeling this new word makes in her mouth.
    The man beckons her to go with
him, and together the group makes its way to the center of the village.
Stopping next to one of the larger huts, the man points to the entrance.
    “Go in,” he says. “Women here.”
    Nervously, assuming this is what
the man wants her to do, she pushes through the skins into the hut. She is
surprised to find that it is quite bright inside, a curious orange glow coming
from something on the ground. To one side of it sits a woman of a similar age
to Ka, wearing an antelope hat and necklaces made from berries and herbs.
    “Sit,” says the woman, gesturing
to the ground next to her. Mi sits down and, looking curiously at the light, she
reaches out a hand to touch it.
    “No!”