you let her go

"Eska"

The sleepy girl's curiosity was captured and she asked what Eska had brought. The silvered woman motioned to the rolled fur and explained. "Your father and I enjoy going on picnics. I scented some traders near the border and traded them a freshly killed deer." Eska plucked at the ties holding the fur together. She unrolled the massive hide to show the girl. "A nice, plush musk ox fur, but the other side," she flipped the edge up as she explained, "Is oiled and worked so that moisture won't get through when you lay it on the ground."

Eska began to roll the hide again and, once it was all folded up, she tied it once more. Only then did she look back to the girl. "I'm Eska. And you are... Lillith?" She had met Jane and Lillith was the only other girl child, so it had to be her, right? "Your father has told me a lot about you and your siblings." Lillith had been ill for most of her life, she believed he'd said. Only now was the girl beginning to heal.