Read Online The Forgotten Sisters by Shannon Hale - Free Book Online Page B

last month.”
    â€œWe brought in one too, last year,” said Sus.
    â€œYes, but they all said it was small and skinny and anybody could’ve done it,” said Astrid, “and that it takes a man to bag a big caiman.”
    â€œThis will show them,” said Felissa.
    â€œWoo-wee!” Astrid shouted. “That’s a lot of meat.”
    â€œYou’re bleeding,” Miri said, gesturing to Astrid’s cheek.
    Astrid touched her face and then examined the scratches on her hands.
    â€œNot as badly as the caiman did. I win.” She smiled wide.
    It took an hour to drag the caiman back to the linder house.
    â€œGood work, Miri,” Astrid said, huffing with the effort. “Your clumsy movements attracted this beast. We should use you as bait more often.”
    â€œShe’s kidding,” Felissa said, equally out of breath.
    Miri nodded. She could not find the air to respond.
    When they finally reached home, Astrid scaled the house and stood on the roof. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she shouted toward the village, “We’ve got meat! We’ve got meat!”
    There was a small answering shout, then another. She made her announcement again, and more voices responded, repeating her words.
    A man came running up the slope to the linder house. Miri recognized him as one she’d seen at Jeffers’s house. He was holding a knife with a serrated edge.
    Miri ducked behind the house and hissed at Astrid. “What are you doing? He’s going to steal your caiman!”
    Astrid rolled her eyes.
    â€œThis much meat would rot before we could eat it all,” said Sus, “so if you bag a caiman, you share a caiman. It’s sacred law.”
    â€œBig one,” said the man approvingly. “That’ll feed forty.”
    â€œForty!” Astrid called from the roof. “Meat for forty!”
    â€œOne caiman alone can’t feed all the villagers,” Felissa explained to Miri. “So for this feast, only the first forty get a piece.”
    The movement from the islands reminded Miri of a hive of ants fleeing a flooded nest. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to take part in the feast. People ran up the hill, offering dried peat for a fire, baskets of water plants, or stacks of flat brown bread. Two other men squatted by the first to help butcher the caiman, expertly cutting up pieces of meat and placing them on a reed mat. A stooped woman put some of the guts into a pot. Another man scraped the fat off the skin and sprinkled it with salt to dry it out. Such a skin would be worth something to traders. Miri suspected that if a person did not contribute to the meal in some way, they were not invited to stay. There would be others ready to take their place. Astrid stood over it all, queen of the feast, her arms folded, smiling.
    Miri stayed inside at first, keeping an eye out for that bandit Dogface. Cook fires sputtering in mud holes, with pots of water heating for the stew of organ meat and water plants. The villagers began threading chunks of white caiman meat onto green reeds and roasting them over the flames.
    The smells of cooking meat made Miri’s stomach plead. She took up a branch and chose a fireside, facing town to keep watch for Dogface.
    She blew on a chunk of white meat and popped it in her mouth. The meat was denser than fish, chewy with a mildly spicy aftertaste. The image of the caiman attacking burst into her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She took a deep breath and bit down on another piece of meat, chewing hard enough to kill. She was the predator now, she was the beast with teeth to fear, tearing and biting and killing!
    â€œWhat are you smiling about?” Felissa asked, sitting beside her.
    â€œOh nothing,” Miri said, blushing. “Well, just about how that caiman almost killed me. But now I’m chewing it up. And even though it’s already dead—”
    â€œIt’s still kind of satisfying?”