Elsewhere, the girl silently returned to the camp and sat glumly beside the campfire.
Hugging her knees with both arms, she could not make sense of what she was thinking, nor did she know whether she was sad, angry, or simply at a loss.
"Xia Hua? Why aren't you asleep yet?"
At that moment, an elderly woman beside her seemed to sense something. She opened her eyes, glanced at the girl, and muttered.
This book was first published exclusively across the web on
The tribal women's names were all quite simple. Those born in spring were generally named Spring Flower, Spring Grass, or Spring Day; those born in summer were called Xia Hua, Summer Grass, Summer Rain...
Xia Hua had been born in summer. As it happened, the woman in the tribe who had previously been called Xia Hua had died, so she inherited the name.
"..."
Xia Hua did not respond. The more she thought about it, the more unwilling she felt.
So what if she was a woman from another tribe? Why should being from another tribe mean they could not have children together?
She liked the way Nameless had stepped out to stop the two tribes from slaughtering each other. At that time, he had seemed to be glowing. She had never seen a male like Nameless.
Although Nameless was missing an arm, she did not mind at all. At worst, she could help hunt and gather fruit in the future, and they could raise their children together.
The more she thought about it, the more excited she became. In the end, she simply stood up and ran back the way she had come. She wanted to tell Nameless that she would not give up.
Perhaps because of the monster, all the living creatures nearby had