Kaelele and the Wild Wonders

“You will be a great mother.”

Kaelele glanced at her husband, Bashete, as he gently stroked his hand down her arm. She turned her head back to the cauldron of water in front of her, stirring it with a long wooden stick. The intricate design etched into the surface was meant to protect them from evil spirits and keep their house safe from harm. As she stared into the bubbling water, she wondered if it would actually work.

She turned back around towards her husband and noticed he was staring intently at something behind her back. She looked over her shoulder, following his gaze, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The children were playing outside with the dogs and goats, while the women were sitting in pairs near the entrance to their large grass-hut home talking quietly to one another. Beyond that, there was nothing but endless rolling hills of green grass, brown dirt and patches of yellow flowers that stretched on for miles in all directions.

“What is it?” Kaelele asked Bashete curiously when he continued to stare into distance without saying anything else.

Bashete slowly lowered his gaze to meet hers and smiled warmly. “You will make an excellent mother!” He said proudly before placing both hands on either side of her belly. His eyes lit up as he felt their child kick his hands from within its warm place inside Kaelele's womb. “I can't wait to see what our child looks like! What do you think it will be?” He asked excitedly as he leaned closer towards her face so that he could hear what she had to say in between the loud gurgles emanating from within her stomach.

Kaelele had already decided she wanted to have a boy because girls were just too much trouble; they took forever to grow up and learn how to be wives or mothers, but boys only needed their fathers to train them how to hunt and fight before they could begin their own families and pass on their own traditions across generations of men who would then repeat the same cycle again until everyone forgot what life was like before they arrived here in this world at all. But now that Bashete had brought it up, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like having a girl instead. She sighed sadly as she thought about all of the work she would have to put into raising a girl: teaching her how not to get lost in the woods when gathering herbs for medicine; teaching her how not to wander off after rolling down a hill during playtime; teaching her how not to fall prey to bad spirits when walking alone through dark jungles at night... It just seemed like so much more work than raising a boy was going to be! And besides, why did girls even need protecting from spirits? They were weak creatures; they couldn't even reach up above their heads without using a stick or some other sort of tool! How could they ever survive in a jungle full of tall trees with trunks too wide for them to fit between if they couldn't climb them? Kaelele knew she didn't have time for this nonsense right now though; if it was a girl then she would just have to deal with it because no one was going to let her change her mind once they found out what gender this baby was going to be!

Kaelele quickly shook herself out of these thoughts when she noticed Bashete staring at her expectantly after asking “Well? What do you think? You know better than I do anyway!” He chuckled softly before taking one of Kaelele's hands off his belly and kissing it softly so that the baby would feel his love for both its mother and father at once.

Kaelele smiled happily as she stared deeply into Bashete's eyes and felt his love wash over every inch of skin on her body before turning back around towards the cauldron in front of her. Her smile quickly faded though when she realized something wasn't quite right with it anymore - something was moving deep within its depths - but that couldn't be possible because nothing could live out here except for plants and animals, which had no intelligence or sense of self-awareness... right?