25th Spring 509 A.V (Flashback)
Natane woke at sunrise, most of her pavilion was still asleep. She sat up and brushed her tangled hair from her face, on either side of her were her sisters. Isatas and Hateya, who both slept soundly, curled up under the warm blankets. Inteus and Knoton were not allowed to sleep with the girls, so they stayed on the other side of the pavilion with their male cousins.
The Skytears pavilion housed two families, Dasan's family and his younger brother Honovi's family. Natane loved them all dearly, her aunty, uncle and cousins, her father's second wife which he had taken after her mother's passing, and her siblings. She would spend most of her day fussing over the younger Drykas, braiding their hair, and constantly mending their clothes. And her aunty and Chenoa spent the same amount of time fussing over her, it was always a battle to get Natane to brush her hair and keep her clothes clean, from the moment she could walk Natane had been escaping her parental figures and causing much distress when she would crawl towards the hunting dogs and try to pat them.
When Natane turned five, she discovered the striders that grazed the grasslands on the outskirts of her clan. After this discovery all hope of turning her into a respectable responsible girl vanished. Sometimes she would disappear at dawn and return at dusk, it was Honovi who eventually found her asleep amidst the strider foals being carefully watched over by the mares. Dasan thought it strange that his daughter would have such a way with the animals yet not have bonded with one, all in good time he would remind himself.
Dasan's wife claimed that Natane's unfeminine behaviour was due to the fact that the young girl had grown up without a true mother figure and had only had the men to copy off. Understandable. But no one could explain Natane's irrational fear of strangers; she communicated freely with the members of her pavilion, but said little to those in her clan and ran from those that were unfamiliar to her. They discovered her fear when Dasan's family had travelled to the tent city of Endrykas, she had utterly refused to enter the city and when one of her father's old friends greeted her, the terrified child had run and hid behind Chenoa's dress.
Those in her clan had grown used to Natane's strange ways and no longer questioned it, they mainly ignored her which was fine by her. The less she had to deal with the strangers the better.
Although Chumani and Chenoa loved Natane, they had their own children to worry about, they tried to distribute their attention evenly between all eight children in the Skytears pavilion but it was hard. Natane was the oldest of the children, closely followed by Wapi, her cousin. As she grew older, she began to receive less and less of the women's attention. But she didn't mind, she knew that their own blood would always come first and foremost and that was to be expected.
And not long after the birth of Knoton, Natane was ten at the time, she began to notice that the amount of time she spent with Wapi was rapidly decreasing. He had started accompanying the men on their hunts or rounds, when she tried to follow they would send her home. By the time she had seen her thirteenth year, no one seemed to have any time for her. Although her aunty and Chenoa were still trying to turn her into a respectable young woman, even though their efforts were pretty much wasted. The majority of the time the women were busy with their own children and the men were hunting or training. So Natane would sit with the striders, accompanying them as they grazed the grasslands away from the clan.
And that was where she headed, before Chumani woke up and attacked her hair with a comb. Natane quietly wove her way through the tents, past the Harmony Homes and other pavilions, a few people were already awake and tending to the cooking fires. They called good morning to her and she nodded a reply.
The striders were dozing peacefully a few hundred feet away from the clan; the mares stood with their heads drooped while their foals lay in the grass, the only strider that was fully awake and alert was Hinun. He was the stallion who protected the clan's herds, he was big and strong and absolutely terrifying. But he was surprisingly docile and friendly, except when something threatened one of his herd. The darkness of his fur hid most of the scars he had obtained over the years, they had lost very few horses during Hinun's reign and they planned to keep it that way.
But, one harsh lesson every person who walks the earth must learn is that nothing goes according to plan. And those that fight fate will suffer the God's wrath.