Now all that remained was to wait for my man to come home. In expectation of that eventuality I fell asleep.
*****
The barest whisper of the sound of flesh moving across stone was all the warning Okani had of his brother's return. Standing up he turned and came face-to-face with his older brother, who did not look pleased.
"They told you?" Okani needlessly inquired.
The anger on his brother's face was evidence enough. Tolak made to move around his brother and climb the stairs, but Okani gripped a hold of his arm and stopped him to say, "Do not be angry with Sheatera. She only wants to be happy and she thinks she's made a way to have back what she lost when her mother was killed last year."
Tolak breathed out heavily before then speaking in a low angry tone fraught with frustration, "What was she doing being out so far from the village?"
"Probably looking for you. You are not home often any longer brother. She needs you to be here. The woman inside is her way of making you stay."
Tolak snorted and nodding sympathetically Okani said, "I know you don't want this, but a woman is not a bad idea and Sheatera needs the security of a family. You have to do what's right for her and besides the stranger…… you might just like her." Okani finished with at the last as he released his brother's thick muscled arm.
Tolak gave him a dark look before looking away. Turning to look at the house once more he said, "Let none of our people leave the confines of the ridge. The uplanders are everywhere and the Sea People have declared all-out war. I am not sure that is such a good thing for us."
Okani gasped in surprise to hear such a statement from his brother, "You think we should let them come and destroy us as once Solomon did?"
"No, I do not, but this resistance could prove just as fatal for us brother."
"I do not understand!" Okani exclaimed.
"I know and yet just the same I feel it is true. Have the people start building what extra boats we may have need of in case we must flee this place."
Tolak advanced up the stone stairs as his brother called out, "But the Sea People will protect us, right?"
"The Sea People will do well to just protect themselves. Despite their advances they are far more fragile than you and I, brother. Now leave me to deal with this stranger."
Okani fell silent as his brother disappeared within the house. Obediently then he turned to see to the accomplishment of all his brother had said to do.