“They"re saying it"s the birth of Tsoko Mutupo.”
They"re saying a lot more than that, Nosuma wanted to blurt. She supposed their calling it the birth of the totem was a bit more gracious than the way the other figurine had been received.
Work at the site had ground to a halt while Tumai Adouma had finished excavating the statuette. Among the most meticulous of the diggers, he worked slowly and methodically, the entire encampment on edge as he"d loosened the soil from around the artifact.
Lunch had come and gone while he worked.
Nosuma and Nyankore had watched him from the command canopy, a vid piped to them of the excavation process. The canopy gave them scant relief from the oppressive heat, their clothing splotched with sweat.
As the figure took shape from the sediment around it, No
