In The Lair of the Draca (Book 2)

In the Lair of the Draca (Book 2)-- Chapter 83: A New Era Blooms

Unless she found that ova, no refugee was safe.

Julian would not realize until after regaining consciousness that all of his teeth had been blasted from their sockets.
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Ample hips juggled fat babies as their mothers congregated for the morning well-water.

The Elders had long been trying to introduce a lighter livelihood in Looks Thrice Village by stimulating bartering, commerce, harvesting, and creating more advanced curricula for school-children. Malaraq and the Village Matron, Amiechek, had been at the forefront of these plans, particularly in trying to quell the rumored talk that serious things were amiss in the near-by village of Hidden Well.

But rumors, of course, were exactly that. One could try to quash the whispers, but there would always be those few which evaded censorship, thus snaking their way through the lodges, the wash houses, and even the birthing cabins.

Looks Thrice women in particular knew their way around the Matron's futile efforts. Little escaped their sharp hearing. Sharing what they knew around the village well and later at their looms was the satisfaction teen girls and young mothers lived for.

"You!" A burly, pink-cheeked woman balanced her chubby toddler on one hip, using her free hand to drop a bucket into the well-- plishhh-- and jerked her chin at a slender girl whose belly looked as if it bore two fully grown water fruits. "Barely six months ago you gave that husband of yours, twins, eh? Now look at your belly! By the looks of it you'll have two more in another two weeks!"

Cackles all around as the other women simpered, exchanging knowing looks while the twin mother blushed profusely.

"Twins or not, my babies are always healthy," Twin Woman managed, taking care to obscure her mild embarrassment. "And besides, isn't it much more important that the environment in Looks Thrice is the best for young children?"

"She speaks the truth," aquiesced a lithe woman with blue ribbons woven into her shining braids.  She looked on as Pink Cheeks dipped and filled the bucket, afterwards using the pulley to bring it up again. "When was the last time Dragura claimed a sacrifice from us? We have better grain, fortified rice, and a new palisade reinforced with bars of steel--"

"St- steel?" The other women looked at one another, trying the foreign word out on their tongues. "And what exactly is--"

"It is a fabled substance harder than any Rock," pressed Blue Ribbons, determined not to be out-done: "and rumor has it that it was bartered for at Star-Flower Village!"

"Aaaaahhh!" The women at the well clutched their babies and listened raptly, painted mouths slightly agape.

"Star Flower Village?" queried Twin Woman. "Isn't that only a mythical place we learned about from the stories our mothers used to try and put us to sleep?"

Blue Ribbons shook her resplendent braids. "Star Flower Village is as real as I am standing here before you," she chirped, pleased at the attention. "Our very own men have travelled a great distance to harvest the Star Flower steel for our Matron--"

"...no doubt in exchange for several of our virginal maidens to keep as wives," interjected Pink Cheeks with satisfaction. She was the oldest at the gathering, which meant that her word carried heavier weight (or so she thought).

"What does that matter?" queried Twin Mother.

"You can't guess the reason why?" Pink Cheeks lifted a skeptical eyebrow at her and shifted her baby from the right hip to the left. "I'd think you in particular would be displeased at such a thing, given your shyness and prudishness and eager-to-please--"