The Hunter of Things Not Seen

[this story is a follow-up to this concept piece]

A brief summary of the primary genders of the First People:
- Pneot: attuned to air and sky and things that breath; usually hunters
- Geot: attuned to the earth and water; usually foragers and fishers
- Hleots: attuned to sun and fire; keepers of the camp, teachers, crafters, raising of children
- Praots: anyone changing from one gender to another, or bridging or in between genders; attuned to change, esp. birth and death. Most often those who bear children.
- Rmaots: rare, attuned to strange and unusual things, like time or dreams. Typically seek out their own unique calling.

Children were considered genderless until one clearly expressed itself.

~

Tsaki was in prar sixth hour of labor when Chele became hopelessly bored and wandered off. Chele had come along in the first place due to delusions of grandeur -- which, being so young, had proven easily dispelled. Wone had recently become a midwife at only 15, and Chele had overheard two adults discussing with admiration how Wone had been observing births for about as long as hle could walk. Thus inspired, when the midwife group, the payen, had gathered to accompany Tsaki to prar chosen birth site, on what passed for a mountain near the village, the eight-year-old Chele could not be dissuaded from going along.

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