"It would be a great honor to be chosen, Opna!" Peqo exclaimed as a welcome when Opna entered into the house. "Damn woman, always eavesdropping!" Opna thought, forgetting that it was hard not to hear a conversation when only a piece of cloth separated you from the conversation. "If the Brotherhood of Emmer will choose you, you can add this honor to those you already have, husband, and you will become the most important chief of the valley." "A great honor, indeed!" Opna muttered annoyed hushing her. Actually Opna didn't want to be chosen. Opna had three major flaws: it was chesty as a peacock, he was a short-tempered individual - and those weren't considered great flaws - and he was stingy, and this was unacceptable in a chief. As a chief Opna had to reciprocate the gifts of the village's guests, send gifts to the chiefs of the neighboring villages, help the poor, the widows and the orphans of the tribe and all that, of course, at his own expenses. Opna lived torn between the desire to be a powerful chief, and therefore have the most beautiful gifts and the most delicious morsels, and having to reciprocate: therefore Opna's gifts were always a bit cheaper than the others, his banquets a bit less glitzy, his blankets-money a bit shabby. The more time passed the more Opna's avarice grew fierce, and the whole village nodded knowingly and grinned seeing every day Opna checking his barn or counting the beautiful fabrics made of shining nettle-silk his wife and his daughter wove. Chaisos, his daughter, was especially good, and her fabrics with intricate patterns were so famous that there were merchants willing to exchange them for Northern amber beads or Southern fine pottery wares. So the more his brotherhood's fellows attributed honors to him, the more Opna was lacerated. And his brethren knowing his flaw, maliciously raised him into positions requiring a man to bleed himself dry. "I am sure the brotherhood will choose you!" Peqo said with a smile, "How might they choose differently?" "I will be so proud of you, father!" Chaisos smiled. "More than one has been left impecunious and at the mercy of the lucky ones' charity, after having spent several years as a Guardian of Fire!" Opna mumbled in response to his wife. "I do it for you, for you and our daughter Chaisos! Already you are always at the loom, or making pottery or preparing food for everybody passing through here, as the members of the Keeper of the Fishbone of First Trout's family has to do. If I'm appointed Keeper of the Sacred Bundle of the Last Harvest, we will be ruined." Opna tossed and turned for over half the night, unable to sleep. Then the solution flashed through his mind: he had to hide away from the village and stay put until the new keeper was chosen.