It was a few days later when we sat round the fire that I finally came to a decision.

  “HoPa,” I said after dinner that night. “I know what my Tree is.”

  He raised his eyebrows and waited.

  “Three hands holding.”

  His eyebrows fluttered up and down for the briefest instant, “Why, little moon?”

  Mother said, “Ah! That’s not for you to know, Kalna. Isn’t that the way of it? Trees are personal and get to remain so.”

  HoPa opened his mouth, a slight shake to his head, but LoPa came behind him and clapped hands over his mouth, “Nah uh!” LoPa laughed, then looked at me with a smile, “That’s a perfect Tree, little Lu.”

  I smiled and bit my lip.

  LoPa let go of HoPa and sat beside him, arm round his neck, “Your job now is to make your next Audra masterpiece.”

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  HoPa snorted with a smile, then pulled out the piece of wood he would carve into my Tree. He had it with him, had maybe been carrying it round with him for days. I think finding the right piece of wood is what motivated him to teach me Audra and find me the stones that would make my set. It was a thick chunk of wood.

  “Where’d you find that?” LoPa said.

  “In the forest.”

  That was all he had to say about that. It was dense and strong, and HoPa worked at it with his knife until it was a large ball. It was too dark for detail work, so he picked it up the next morning, before any of us were awake.

  When I woke and came outside, he was sitting by himself, carving into the wood. He used his normal knife to take off bigger pieces, but for detail, he used a very thin, very sharp strip of obsidian.

  By the end of the day, he presented it to me.

  “Three hands holding,” he smiled down at me and dropped it in my outstretched and cupped hands.

  It was heavy for its size. It reminded me of his own. That weight. It felt significant. Powerful.

  The lines were beautiful, and even though I didn’t ask him to, he gave me the hands I desired. HoPa’s thick fingers, LoPa’s long delicate ones, and mother’s short powerful ones.

  “Beautiful,” the only words that came to me. They crossed my lips like a breeze.

  It was perfect, and I carried it with me almost always.