<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">“For one purpose only? That’s <i>boring</i>,” he had replied. Then he repeated the name of the ceremony, Ngono Ya Mdomo, to lock it in his mind. “I guess everyone celebrates their birthday on the same day, too?” </span></b><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(235, 107, 86)">Sabina laughed at his horrified expression, the sound bursting from her lips from deep within her, rolling around them like a warm blanket. Mirth painted smile lines on her unmarred face, and her eyes twinkled with laughter as she bent over, holding her sides. When she finally could speak, her voice was light and airy but tinged with its usual huskiness, "You misunderstand, Will. They...have sex any time they want, but it's only...uhm...the kind that could produce babies. They save all of the other stuff for Ngono Ya Mdomo." She wiped tears of humor from her cheeks and chuckled again.<br/>
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<b>“It sounds like harvest time is the best time to be a tourist in Nubia then,” he observed. </b>She smiled when he stretched his long legs out beside hers, and they relaxed against the tent.<br/>
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She nodded, agreeing, "Yes, it was definitely a spectacle. I was young, sixteen or so, when my father and I studied their language. We'd heard whisperings about an impending celebration, but we didn't know what it was because they guarded their words around us. However, one of the village chief's sons took a liking to my red hair, and he approached my father about me participating in the ceremony with him. My father asked him to explain the ceremony, and he was both curious about the proceedings and horrified about the idea of me participating, naturally."<br/>
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She grinned, remembering how her father yelled at the young man and sent him from their campsite. The chief had arrived that evening to explain that it was a great honor for an untried woman to be invited to the ceremony, and his son had meant no disrespect. Usually, just married women and village prostitutes participated because the men wanted women who knew their way around a man's body and could bring him maximum pleasure.<br/>
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"So, I celebrated the Harvest Moon with sweet treats like the other children, but the adults did not hide their actions behind the cloak of night," she explained, "so we all witnessed a lot."<br/>
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A companionable silence settled around them, and Sabina thought about the graphic images she'd seen during the celebration. Although she had not physically lost her innocence during Ngono Ya Mdomo that autumn, she'd learned much more than most girls knew at that age, even if they had lain with a man.<br/>
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<b>“It was an interesting conversation. She was trying to get a reading for her map and was straddled…,"</b> Will paused, explaining how Lia had mentioned <i>jinsia</i> to him, <b>“let’s just say, we were <i>very close</i>, and she mentioned that if we had been any closer, she’d have to explain that word to me.” He leaned back on his elbows and sighed. “But I like your explanation. It opens up more of the world, which is something I want to see—”</b><br/>
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The wind picked up suddenly, whipping them with dirt and pebbles. Sabina closed her eyes, covering her face with her arms and turned to face the tent when she felt Will push her into the small structure as he yelled, "Get in!"<br/>
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She obeyed, crawling into the small tent with him on her heels. There was no room to stand or even sit completely upright, so they lay stretched out, his heavy body pressing down on hers. She barely noticed, though, her mind focused on the sudden storm, and she gasped against his chest when the raucous winds beat the tent, shaking the poles and yanking at its ties. Sabina felt Will wrap his arms around her shoulders in a protective move as the sides and bottom of the tent seemed to lift.<br/>
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Through the chaos a rumbling beat drummed--BOOM...BOOM...BOOM. The girl felt it from the tips of her toes and through her bones, and she felt as though static electricity  shot from her hair. Will turned to look through the opening, releasing her from his tight hold.<br/>
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<b>“What, in the world…”</b> he trailed off, and Sabina's eyes widened as a sad, sweet voice of a young woman began to sing, its tongue foreign and melodic. She nodded when Will asked if she was okay, and then she scurried to join him to peer out of the flap.<br/>
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Mist painted the campsite a mystical gray that glittered in the moonlight, and through it an old woman puttered, her gnarled hands covered in wrinkled, onion-skin flesh gripping a staff that beat out the echoing sound. The tap of the staff burned a circle in the earth, and tendrils of lightening snapped into the sky with each hit. Sabina held her breath, fear tingling down her spine, and she unconsciously pressed closer to Will as she watched, her eyes mesmerized, unblinking as they stared at the woman.<br/>
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<b>"Du blir løyst frå banda som bind deg," </b>boomed an unfamiliar voice, and the giant stepped onto the path behind the crone.<b>"Du er løyst frå banda som batt deg,"</b> he intoned again, and Sabina searched the catalogues of her mind for the language but found nothing. She stared at the pattern of scars on his torso, swallowing as she thought of how painful those must have been, but curious as to their meaning. Whatever Red spoke must have been enough, for the woman finally returned into the mist, and all was silent and still.<br/>
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<b> “Did you know he could talk?” </b>Will asked, looking at her face filled with equal wonder and curiosity.<br/>
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She shook her head and watched as Red cast bones, swallowing at the implication. He was more than brute strength, and a small smile tugged at her lips. He spoke. Now she just needed to figure out how to get him to talk to her.<br/>
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Without another glance, she crawled back into the tent and opened her bedroll, yawning as she stretched out. Now that her heartbeat had returned to normal, she was exhausted.  "You can bunk here, if you want," she offered Will, hoping he'd agree. Truth be told, the events had terrified her, and having another person nearby would be welcome. "Don't worry. I won't besmirch your honor," she teased, offering a wink at the man before turning on her side and using a satchel as a pillow. In a wink, she had drifted off to slumberland.</span>