See how they look at you! They’re in awe, Brank’ox. They’ll barely dare to nibble on anything.”
“Okay,” I reply. “We’ll take our chances and explore how they behave.”
“We are extremely good at exploring,” she agrees. “And later, I’ll really like you to explore something else.”
I frown. “What?”
“Me.”
“I think I would like that, too,” I state, my crotch tightening. “One can never know one’s wife too well.”
Dolly signals to Jennifer. “Or one’s husband. Brank’ox?”
“Dolly?”
All the guests, which means the whole village and all the warriors who are not on sentry duty, slowly come towards us.
“I’m very happy.”
I stand beside her, her hand in mine, ready to formally receive the guests. “That’s actually the only thing I need to know.”
Epilogue
- Dolly -
“A birth taking place during the daytime, in broad sunlight?” Jennifer says. “No thunder or snow or terrible predicament? With not even one of us missing? I mean, is that even legal?”
“It can only be barely,” I agree, handing her a cup of not-coffee. “I think the Supreme Court of Xren is still in deliberation.”
“Is there such a thing?” Eleanor asks. “Or do you mean Delyah?”
“I don’t even know,” I admit and sit down by the fire. “All I know is that it’s not me. Despite me being the finest legal mind on this bench.”
“Hey,” Jennifer protests from beside me. “Finer than me? I’ll have you know I once got a speeding ticket.”
I reach over and squeeze her wrist. “Well, I got a parking ticket. So I have the experience.”
“A parking ticket is just barely violating a city ordinance,” Jen scoffs. “Whereas I broke an actual law. I think. Anyway, I just wanted to check. Wouldn’t want to have to issue a warrant for Sophia’s arrest. With her giving birth and everything.”
I glance over at the cave where Sophia and Jax’zan and Delyah and Caroline are handling Sophia’s second delivery. We all hope it will be easier than the first one.
“I think we can actually start doing law-related things now,” Mia says. “Now we have rubber stamps. Or rubber, anyway.”
“Yes,” Eleanor agrees. “The lack of rubber stamps was always keeping us from having courts and statutes and amendments and lawyers and such. We can go crazy now.”
I toss a little twig onto the small fire, which we only keep burning to boil not-coffee. “Then I have bad news. Turns out it’s not rubber.”
“It’s not?”
“Nope. It goes as hard as a rock after a couple of weeks. Which means that it’s sensational as glue, but terrible as tennis balls or rubber boots.”
“Huh,” Mia muses. “I’m actually not disappointed. The less rubber stamps, the fewer laws, and the better for everyone. Well done, Dolly. Good work.”
“That was only one kind of sap, though,” Jennifer points out. “There could still be another kind of tree that produces rubber sap.”
I take a sip of my own cup. “There could. Maybe we’ll find it one day. I’m in no hurry.”
All the girls are here, somewhere around the cave, strolling or sitting in small groups like this one, just waiting for Sophia to be done. Brank’ox is supposed to return from a patrol any time now, the first with his new sword.
“So we can have guns now,” Mia says. “And grenades. I’m not sure what to think about that.”
“It’s like any other tool,” Jennifer says. “It can be used or abused. We won’t abuse it. But we should make sure nobody else gets a hold of it or understands how it is made.”
“As long as it’s being controlled, it can’t be that bad,” Eleanor says. “It can be used for other things than just killing. I mean, a good while back there was a danger the village would be trampled by a dinosaur stampede. If we’d had serious explosives back then, I’m sure we could have scared the whole herd to turn away before they even came close.”
“We can do mining for copper and such,” I point out. “Gunpowder is not a perfect explosive for that, because it explodes much slower than dynamite. But it will be better than a pickaxe.”
“But the real use will be for killing dragons,” Mia says. “I know everyone thinks I’ll be mad about that because I’m married to one. But we’ve talked about, all four of us. And we think it’s fair that the tribe has a serious weapon. As a last resort. Right, Eleanor?”
“Yep. Kyandros and Aragadon actually think we should make cannons right now, and place them in defensive positions. Like, turn the village into a castle or a