One More Step

Kyra stood at the top of the mountain and looked at the long line of people that wiggled on their way home. Anna stood by her side and they just silently stated at them.

After the people found out about the donation their village made, others joined in. Some donated pots, clothes, seeds, food.

At the end, most of those that wanted to return had some hope. But only the families that a foreign village supported had the best materials.

The two girls sat on their horses and after seeing last ones go around the corner they turned around and continued their search. This time Kyra was looking for wild beehives.

"Kyra. Should we get ourselves bees? Near the house. Them we can have a lot of honey every year. '' But seeing her shaking head she gave up. "Why?''

" Anna, how many people do we have in our house? " Her calm voice and serous expression made Anna think deeply.

'We are just two. Is there something wrong?" She couldn't think of anything at the moment.

Kyra had a frown on her face. "Anna lets from now be less open. We will need to talk to people just the basic stuff. We gave the people enough. Think, if we have honey, people will know. They'll ask questions. I really feel its too bothersome."

Anna knew her. Even this Kyra was friendly, open-minded and helpful, she actually liked being apart from other people. She liked climbing the mountains, harvesting herbs, being in nature. The people usually male her nervous.

But she never shows. She just endures it for her own sake.

"Kyra. I..." She wanted to say something but Kyra just smiled at her.

"I know Anna. With your ability, you are made to be an amazing healer. I already told you. You heal the people I will feed them. Standing behind you and supporting you is more comfortable than being in front. This time we are looking for wild beehives as the honey from wild bees is healthier and more nutritious. We will harvest a bit from each hive so we can have again when we need it."

Overharvesting would cause bees to change their positions.

"I can hear them. You stay away. They won't sting me. By the sound, there is a lot. You check for wild fruits. We can bring some seedlings with us."

Anna nodded. Indeed the bees somehow never attacked Kyra, but she was stung quite a few times. "It's already late spring. If I could find wild strawberries..."

Her eyes shone as she found the fruit ice quite enjoyable doing summertime. Her lips smacked as she thought about it. She could hear Kyra laughing and she joined in.

"You really like sweets, don't you? Well, in that case, I'll make honey cheesecake. I plan to make some candies as well. Anna, we can live freely now. Let us enjoy it while we can. Who knows what the future will bring us."

She could hear bees buzzing. To most of the normal humans, that sound would make them quite nervous, to her was not much. She smiled as she looked at a whole wall filled with beehives.

She slowly bows to the bees. "Please let me have some of your precious honey. I promise we need just a bit. She could literally see how the honey dropped from the hives already.

She pulled behind herself a small contraption she made from twigs. On it was one big box filled with big glasses. Inside the big glasses were small glasses that she took out.

Glass by glass she filled with honey. But she didn't take stock from the same spot. She would take some

honeycomb from this or that corner and put in small pots while big pots were placed under it.

These wild hives would make their

honeycomb straight at the wall, not making any house or something.

These bees couldn't be raised like normal bee's and she didn't want to push them to be stuffed in small space. It was fine if they lived freely as they wished.

From those corners, she cut off save honey started coming out like a small stream. As the honey freely flew straight down to the big glass pots she stopped cutting their honey be save and just sat down.

As bees didn't see her taking any further action they calmed down completely. She waited that pots were filled then replaced them with other ones.

The honey just streamed so much that the whole prices took just a short time. She filled almost all pots, took the honeycomb she collected before and slowly attached again, plugging the holes where honey was coming out.

Somehow the bees were quite calm the whole time and when she started plugging the holes they just went there to fill in and make those corners completely connected to the hive.

Kyra calmly packed the heavy glasses and bowed to the hives again before leaving.

It took her a couple of hours.

At the same time, Anna searched the surroundings by foot. She found a bunch of berry bushes, rare healing herbs and whole corner filled with wild strawberries, making her go wild.

Luckily they were not far from their cave so she rushed on her horse and brought a bunch of pots to slowly fill them with tiny fruits. She was sitting in mid of strawberry field and munching on the fruits when Kyra came back.

Looking at few filled pots and one half filled she chuckled making Anna look at her. "You are back. Come rest a bit. Look at these delicious little things."

Kyra felt hungry as well so she sat down next to her and started munching. The two girls filled remaining pots with strawberries and went straight home, not entering the cave again.

As soon they came back home, they washed carefully the strawberries and let them dry a bit. Some will be made into a jam and rest will be frozen in their cold cellar.

When Kyra went down she realized how much food they need. Almost all the pots were empty. Luckily they were harvesting a lot of greens lately and some pots were filled with dried new leaves.

What they did from last year is to put in pig feed. Fortunately, their pigs liked the taste. They were fed with food rests, cooked bees and grains and all leftover dried vegetables they didn't plan to leave for next year.

Anna told her that the small piglets were growing well so she planned to kill most of it and dry meat before their mother don't get new ones.

They actually got a bigger place. The older two pigs got their own space while piglets were near caves. Girls transported them here as the trees gave enough shade and piglets had enough space to run around.

With soft earth were many bugs and fallen acorn fell, they knew that they didn't need to feed them every day.

They just supplement them with food every two-three days. Nearby they had a small stream, greens, acorn, soft place to stay, those piglets felt quite comfortable.

Soon the summer will start. Until the fall will be a long time. Before that, she had no plan to move them. Anna planned to dry meat and ribs in this place so she just accepted.

She snapped out her thoughts as she started getting cold. The doors were closed behind her do there was no warmth coming in.

When she came out Anna laughed. "You got dazed again? Oh, Kyra..."

The girls started laughing while preparing to make cookies and cake.

Now they had a strange fireplace outside that Kyra paid to brothers Jafar to make for her.

It was made from clay bricks she personally made.

This thing she saw once when visiting Europe. The people there use it to cook, bake and even barbeque. The girls use it to bake bread, cakes and cookies.

"Kyra, this cake is delicious." Anna sat in her recliner and smiled brightly while slowly enjoying every bit of honey cheesecake.

Kyra on the other recliner had just relaxed with closed eyes. "The weather is getting warmer. In summer such heavy stuff would not be good to eat. But we have now so much honey. Should we sell it or just keep it in our storage?"

Anna thought about it. "Leave it in storage. Honey can be stored for a long time. We can make cool honey water in the summer." She turned her head and saw Kyra curled in her blankets like a cat and sleeping. It was rare that she was not energetic but it was fine.

To rest will be good. The vegetables in the garden this year were even better than last year so Kyra was quite busy the whole day. If Kyra is busy, she couldn't sit still as well. Days passed, then weeks...

One day they choose to go to the city. Kyra could feel that the summer will be hot so she really just wanted to laze around after first heat starts.

They brought all the dried herbs they prepared before, essential oils and some jams they made s far.

In the city was a strange feeling when they came. People were quiet and not many moved or laughed around. What actually happened?