The Ash Girl
by A’Lis Bly
For my daughter Claire
Hun Vedverte
Chapter X
TURN
And so we find our story at the turn of the wheel. A gate. A passing through place. Spinning toward the next way of being.
On this morning, Asmeret awoke to blood between her legs. More curious than frightened (she was no stranger to blood) she immediately remembered the initiation ceremonies.
Chapter XII
1953-1960 CE
The City of Clouds-The Village of Ash
Asmeret wandered between tents; her head hurt again, yet she could think. Remember. The cavern of gold, the river, the singing of the ghost animals falling, falling, arrrrraaaaaaaaa, the ravens pulling them from the river where they bumped up against her, the zebra, the rhino—bloody stump where they’d hacked off the tip of its horn—climbing the staircase behind the boar. Her.