​

It was at the age of twelve that I first understood how I had come to Duga. And like me, all the rest of the people. The idente traditions ordered that when a person became pregnant, they had to leave the town to give birth to the forest. Afterwards they could not return, because the seed cult of the idente traditions implied that the broken seed in the human body was a shame. The shame was so great that after giving birth no one dared to return to their village. Although there were no rites about it, it was known that anyone who tried to return was often beaten. After giving birth the normal thing to do was to leave the creature near a town with which there had been no contact. As for those in labor, they wandered for some time in the forest, and sometimes they tried to join a new people by offering to work in the fields. This had happened in Duga several times. There were at least half a dozen people in Duga who had come from who knows where in my life time then, because since it was suspected that they came from giving birth in the forest, they were not asked anything about their lives.
Now after many years I understand how it is that there were hardly any pregnancies in Duga. Everyone avoided them, because they were embarrassing not only for the pregnant person, but also for the other party. Nobody wanted gossip because there were proven ways to avoid this state. The most used was water. Since there were constant rituals in which this technology was used and in which everyone was forced to participate, it seemed to the assembly of old women most extravagant that somebody in Duga could carry a pregnancy. It wasn't just a shame, it was a choice, they said. Otherwise, all they had to do was to actively participate in the idente traditions. Those who did not follow the rites rigorously exposed themselves to this danger, they argued. After all, the people could not afford to grow at the rate that ancient human biology proposed. The manufacture of water was the only technology that remained efficient, due to the simplicity of its reproduction. The assembly of old women had complete control over it. I never knew this, I've figured it out over the years. At first I thought it was something that was in the hands of Marcela and Liuben. But Liuben has spent years denying it. Although at first I did not believe them, in the end I have come to accept that it is true.

When we were twelve years old, one day, walking along the cliffs, Merise made me sit on a rock to look at the sea. They came up to me, put their hands on my knees and told me that they wanted to touch me. I told them that I was not interested. They got very angry and asked me if I knew how I got to Duga. I told them no, that just like the rest of the people I didn't know. Merise told me that they knew, that it had been said in the meeting room chamber, and that if I tried harder at the rites, perhaps they would have told me as well. They told me that Águda knew it too, both about their arrival and mine.

A horrible rage came over me, just because I didn't want us to touch each other I had to blame myself for not actively participating in the rites. I grabbed their hands, got up and pushed them. They fell off the cliff. I didn't want to kill them, I just wanted them to let me go. That was the first time.