I woke up late. Father and Mother had not called and shaken me as usual, but had let me sleep and wake up on my own. The first things I noticed were the roof ring and the top ends of the ribs holding it in place. Blazing sunlight was streaming into the yurt. Then I saw the shining blue of the sky beyond the roof hole. Both the sunlight and the sky struck me as strange, as if I had searched for them and longed to see them again, and as if something had occurred to me that I now had to tell them about. My eyes wandered to where Grandma used to sit and slurp her tea from her wooden bowl when I heard the wake-up call and felt the wake-up shake, and when I fought equally against the call, the shake, and my sleep, and then finally opened my eyes.

But this time Grandma was not there. Her bedside had been cleared. The three sheep skins piled on top of each other which she used to sit on were no longer there.

Her cane was nowhere to be seen, either. Instead of Grandma and instead of her things I saw Dügürshep. He was the older of Nansyka’s two sons and the father of the other Torlaa, the one who was called Little Torlaa then and Pale Torlaa later. Ours was called Red. Nansyka’s ail always spent the winter in Hany Dsharyk, the mountain valley next to ours. Sometimes we noticed smoke or heard the dogs bark over there, but so far none of us had had the heart to go there. Now this Dügürshep was sitting and eating in our dör. Father sat next to him and ate with him. Mother was busy in the kitchen area and talked while she worked. She was talking about someone who had explained long ago that she would announce when her time had come, and who now had announced that her time had come. And it had been true.

I got up, slipped into my boots and ton, put on my belt, and stepped outside. I did not say a word and neither did the others. The hürde was empty. The tip of a flock was just disappearing behind the mountain finger below Eser-Haja. It must have been the hendshe. Arsylang was nowhere to be seen. For the first time ever I went all the way to the rocks behind which the adults went to relieve themselves. I went there even though I knew I was allowed to pee anywhere I wanted—I could have peed walking or even skipping had I been in the mood. But my mind was not on playing now, nor on being the youngest, the only child in the ail. The horses were saddled and shone with the hoarfrost that covered their bodies. Who might ride off with Scholak Dorug?