Page 97 of Feast

The infant’s tiny hand brushed against Ika’s chest and touched the metal ring that was hanging around her neck.

“I would like to name her Mara,” Ika said. “That was my mother’s name.”

Thusar hummed with pleasure, and she felt the vibrations of that sound ripple pleasantly through her body. Perhaps the little baby felt that reverberation too, because she seemed to relax a little more. It was as if she knew that she was safe and sound now, surrounded by her protective ukkur daddies.

“Mara is a perfect name,” Thusar said. “A perfect name for a perfect baby.”

The other ukkur all grunted in agreement.

Slaine gently touched the baby’s chubby little cheek and said solemnly, “Slaine protect Mara forever.”

“Yes,” Thusar added. “We all will. It is our duty to protect Mara, just as it is our duty to protect Ika.”

Ika felt so warm and happy in that moment, with her healthy newborn daughter in her arms and her strong and protective ukkur surrounding her. She remembered what Alyx had told her before, that their life would not be an easy one, and she knew that it was true. She knew that she would have many more children, and she knew that every time would be hard and painful. But she also knew that it would be worth it, and she silently vowed to care for each of her little ones with all of her heart.

Suddenly an idea occurred to Ika, and she gasped.

In all the commotion and excruciating effort, she had forgotten about her own childhood caretaker who was still standing guard outside the door.

“Rolf,” she said. “Please, someone get Rolf. He needs to meet Mara.”

EPILOGUE 2

Rolf heard Ika’s screams of pain inside the tent, and his body jolted in response.

It was happening. The thing that he had feared for so many years was finally coming true.

His Ika was dying.

The woman named Alyx had promised him that Ika would not die, but she had also warned him that the process of birth would be a painful one. Rolf knew that was the reason why he had been given the duty of standing guard outside the tent. Alyx thought he would not be able to handle the sight of his Ika in such intense pain, and she was probably right. Just hearing her screams now was almost more than Rolf could bear.

He was terrified for his Ika.

His new companion Kate was there. The beautiful human woman with curly red hair. She was trying to soothe him, stroking his shoulder with her little hand. Rolf appreciated the gesture, but it did little to set his frayed nerves at ease.

With each fresh scream from within the tent, his anxiety mounted.

Rolf’s mind went back to that night so long ago when he had first found Ika in his den. Ika and her mother who had died from giving birth. For such a long time, Rolf had been terrified that the same thing would happen to Ika, and now that seemed to be coming true.

“Oh-kay,” Kate said reassuringly.

She seemed as confident as Alyx that everything would be fine, but Rolf couldn’t believe it.

He was going to lose his Ika. And with her, he would lose that warm, beautiful, painful feeling in his heart. The feeling for which there was no word in his language. The Ika feeling.

Suddenly, Ika’s screams stopped, and a moment later other screams started. A different voice, tiny and loud, just like the one that Rolf had heard all those years ago.

His heart sank into the depths of his stomach.

It had happened. His Ika had died, he just knew it. She had given her life to the little ukkur that had come out of her belly.

Gradually, those tiny cries faded away too.

For a long time, Rolf just stood like a stone statue staring at the ground. Kate tried wordlessly to console him, but he was inconsolable. It took many minutes before he was mentally prepared to face the devastation that he was certain lay within that tent.

At last, Rolf turned and reached for the tent flap to peer inside.

But before his hand reached the tent, the flap was pushed back from inside, and the woman Alyx was standing before him. There was some blood on her hands, but her face was beaming, and that gave him hope.