“Ehd!” I hear Beh call out my name-sound and I look up at her. Her eyes hold shock and confusion, and I immediately drop my flint and pick up my spear again. I look all around us but see nothing out of the ordinary. When I look back to Beh, she is walking toward me.
She stops and lays her hand against my head, making a bunch of noises as she runs her fingers over my hair. She reaches up with her other hand and grabs hold of the end of my hair on one side—the side I have already cut shorter—and shakes her head.
Running her hand down my arm, she pulls me down to sit on the stones as she takes up my last bit of flint and goes to work on my hair. It doesn’t take her long, but when she is done, she takes me back to the lake and washes me off again. I run my fingers through the shorter strands, and I am surprised at how even it feels. I usually end up with long bits in random places around my head.
Beh makes more mouth sounds, takes my hand, and sits me down near the fire. I wait as she grabs one of the cloths she uses to wash and dunks it in the pot of warm water. She looks over my face very carefully, and I stay still under her gaze. Beh reaches up and rubs the hair on my face. Then she presses the warm, wet cloth to one side of my face and holds it there.
I’m not sure why she’s doing this—she’s already washed my face—but I don’t move to stop her. The warmth feels good as she washes my cheeks and neck.
My mate picks up one of the flint blades in her hand and removes the cloth from my skin. With a slow, smooth motion, she runs the edge of the blade across my jaw. I widen my eyes as I watch her smile come across her face.
“Luffs?” I don’t know what she’s doing, but she seems very happy about it, so I stay still as she runs the edge of the sharp rock over my neck and cheeks. When she’s done with one side, she does the other. She puts down the flint and holds the warm cloth to my face again—first one side and then the other.
Beh sits back on her heels and give me another smile as she makes noises. She takes my hand and presses it against my cheek.
My beard is gone!
The skin of my face is smooth just like Beh’s. I run my fingers all over, but there is no hair anywhere. It feels strange but nice as well. My face isn’t itchy anymore and feels soft when I touch it.
I look at Beh, who is still smiling and making mouth sounds. I rise up on my knees, take her face in my hands, and look into her eyes. They flicker around my face and head as I lean close and first run my nose over one cheekbone and then the other. Her hands cup my face, too, and she rubs her thumbs over my cheeks before her lips press to mine.
I place my hands on her shoulders and then run them down her arms and wrists. I move them to the front of her and lay them over her rounded stomach. Beh looks down, her eyes becoming wet as she looks at my hands on her belly.
“Beh, luffs?” I hope it will bring back her smile, and it seems to for a moment. I can feel how worried she is, and I am not sure if she is worried for the baby, our food supplies, or for something else entirely. I only know I want her to be sure of me and know that I will provide for her and protect her and the baby. I will never let anything happen to them, and I will make sure they both have enough for next winter. I will always take care of them first, making sure there is plenty for both of them in the coming seasons.
My hands push the tears from her cheeks, and Beh tries to smile at me.
“Loves,” she whispers.
I wrap my arms around her to show her everything will be all right. Beh’s tears finally dry, and we gather up everything to bring back to the cave.
As the days pass from warm to hot, Beh’s belly gets bigger, and she doesn’t seem to be as sad as she was early on. Sometimes, she still gets upset for no apparent reason, but she always does that. It’s just a part of her.
My mate is unusual, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Fresh foods and meats are plentiful in the spring and summer days though most of the game is in the form of birds, rabbits, and fish. We need another large animal for its hide—the baby will need to be kept warm—so I dig another pit trap along the steppes far from our cave home.
Beh tries to help at first, taking a large, flat rock and scraping the dirt away from the area I’ve selected on the trail where many large aurochs have passed to get from their feeding and living areas to the lake. If I could get one of the large oxen to fall and injure itself in a hole, I would be able to finish it off quickly. They are so large, a single one would provide not only plenty of meat but also sinew for tying, hide for clothing, and bones for tools. Its horns and organs can be useful for many other things as well.
Once Beh sits back and grimaces with her hand around her stomach, I make her stop trying to dig with me. I know it will take days to make the pit trap even if she does help, and I don’t want her in pain. She backs off with a sigh and goes to the hide on a stick to pull out the reeds she had collected at the lake. She begins to weave them together, and I have to smile at how quickly she makes something useful.