There came a morning when I found time to play upon my harp. So I took it outside after morning sunshine had burned away the last frost, warming the ground barely enough to sit upon.

It had been my mother's harp and her mother's before her, given to me upon my marriage, nearly three summers ago. Sometimes I still feel as if just a day or two have passed.

My younger son Flint sat close by me, humming as if he was trying to sing my songs. He seemed fascinated, by the wood, reaching his tiny fingers to trace the egrets carved on its great arched neck.

Flint was close to the end of his babyhood, a strong infant whose bearing gave hint that he would be an even stronger youth. He gazed out at the world with his father Snow's deep blue eyes, so like the inner shells of those tiny mussels we rake up from the river bottom to flavor our winter broth.

You might wish to consider appending your authorial notes after the text of the opening, to allow a reader to react to your opening without any expectations. Let the story tell the story without nudging potential critiquers, at least until you’ve started getting some feedback. At least, that’s how I feel.

You’re certainly proficient with language. It’s a perfectly sound opening. It’s not clear what kind of story it’s going to be, but I’m definitely captivated enough by the strong diction to find out what comes next.

Based on this and your previous opening, you’re clearly working on your own style, so please feel free to reject the following comments.

You’re mixing present and past tense in a way that strikes me as distracting and without purpose. I’d keep it all it one tense or the other (probably past), unless you have some very specific purpose you’re trying to achieve, which should be apparent to the reader as soon as possible.

Some particular syntactical choices which broke the flow of my reading:

He seemed fascinated, by the wood, reaching his tiny fingers to trace the egrets carved on its great arched neck.

I’d kill that first comma.

Flint was close to the end of his babyhood

Maybe

Flint was nearing the end of his babyhood

the end of his babyhood, a strong infant
Misplaced modifier—you seem to be describing babyhood as a strong infant

so like the inner shells of those tiny mussels we rake up from the river bottom to flavor our winter broth.

The ‘we’s kind of break the power of the metaphor. Why not just:

so like the inner shells of the tiny mussels raked from the river bottom to flavor winter broth.

What do you think about something like 'our folk' instead of the first 'we'?

You certainly don't need to erase your notes entirely--just put them after your opening. You were just telling us too much about what you were intending the characters to be, before we could see what they are.

Regarding "our folk"--you're clearly trying to link the mussel harvesting with this tribe of people, but personally I think the connection is quite evident from the diction (specifically, from the very effective POV and tone). The fact that I don't think it's necessary is a tribute to your success with the language.

But you should probably listen to how others react, also.

Another couple of alternatives I'd looked at:
In the first sentence I thought of the woman finding the energy or strength instead of time. Finding time is a modern contrivance but she is surviving a winter after enemies have burned her fields. Perhaps changing time into strength will start the conflict sooner. The egrets should actually be carved up the sides of the harp body with their necks spiraling on the harp neck with the pillar being carved to resemble reeds. But I cut out all the excessive detail to get to action faster.

I'll add back a spoiler, so skip the rest if you don't want to know.

This is the wife of the guy who was dying of an arrow wound in the first story and the time is about 14 months later. These are late copper age folk being invaded by protoCelts about 4500 years ago.

Much of the initial conflict is psychological. She is depressed, lonely, hungry and fearful. Paragraph 5 introduces reincarnation, paragraph 6 tears, paragraph 7 hiding/refuge/fatigue/strife, paragraph 8 pride. There is a good bit of fighting and piles of heads and other gore but the first book dealt in too much detail with the psychology of rape recovery so I'm leaving that out. More or less.

Rahl22, is prehistoric fiction really speculative or is it quasi historic?

I didn't catch your previous post, and I don't have much to add, but I caught your last post and wanted to respond.

There is a touch of "clumsiness," or "contrivance" or whatever you want to call it, but there's also something evocative. My initial impression is that just snipping a few words to tighten your sentences is all that's required. But, I'm hesitant to make any specific suggestions without having read more. I don't have a feel for what's actually your "style" and what is just you getting settled into the story, if that makes any sense.

If you're looking for someone to read on, I'd be very interested.