Although the animals had adjusted to their new surroundings with relative ease, Anna’s adjustment had come more slowly. It had taken months for her disguise to unravel. At first she had felt awkward shepherding the flock as a young woman. And it had seemed stranger still to adjust to her body’s new shapes and cycles. Since the start of her monthly renewal, her hips had widened ever so slightly, and her breasts had begun to announce themselves more prominently, though they remained considerably smaller than most. Despite the changes, Anna noticed that her shepherding skills had sharpened rather than declined.

Perhaps since she no longer feared discovery, or struggled against the developments of her body, she could better focus her energies on the tending of her flock?

Whatever the reason, her efforts had begun to pay off handsomely. Within months of their arrival, the sheep had begun thriving and providing the Sisters with skins full of milk.

Stepping out of the caves to rest from their labors, Sisters Shereen and Ruth climbed to a summit above the caves. From this vantage they could observe the young shepherd tending her flock in the valley.

The two women felt particularly vindicated by Anna’s success since it had been they who had helped calm the Circle’s initial concerns about her.

Shereen turned to Ruth. “Has she yet shared anything of her past with you?”

Ruth shook her head. “Just a few stories from her life among the shepherds. For the most part, though, she has remained preoccupied with her animals and their comfort.”

Shereen nodded with a smile. “You will have to share her stories with the others. I gather they are curious to hear about her adventures as a boy!”

Ruth chuckled in agreement. She then grew serious. “But I would expect, now that she has gotten the sheep settled, her mind will turn to other concerns.”

Shereen lifted a hand. With the tip of a finger, she traced the lines creasing her palm. “She will have many questions for us,” she said.

“Yes.”

A gentle breeze swept around them, bringing the scent of sage and lifting the hair about their faces.

“Do you think Zahra was wrong to send her?” Ruth asked.

Shereen gave a slight shrug. “I do not know,” she said. “Though I can understand why Mother Susana and the others might think so,” she added. She watched the shepherd’s stride. Noted the graceful, almost floating gait. “There is something so different and … unknown … about her. And yet”—her voiced dropped to a whisper—“and yet she possesses qualities that are so familiar.”

Ruth turned to Shereen with a questioning look. Knowing the older Sister to possess extraordinary powers of intuition, she wished for her to elaborate.

But Shereen interrupted. “Can you imagine the courage and cunning it took for her to endure life as a male shepherd?”