BONESETTER 2

—winter—

By

Laurence Dahners

Copyright 2016

Laurence E Dahners

Kindle Edition

Author’s Note

Though this book can “stand alone” it will be much easier to understand if read after the story “Bonesetter.” I have minimized the repetition of explanations that would be redundant to that book in order to provide a better reading experience for those who are reading the books in order.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Epilogue

Author’s Afterword

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Yadin rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them. A cold day like this wasn’t ideal for knapping flint, but it wasn’t particularly good for anything else either. He studied the knife blade he’d been working on and tried to decide whether he could make it any better. The notch he’d worked into it for strapping it to the handle wasn’t very deep. However, he worried that if he tried to chip it a little deeper, the blade would break the rest of the way across.

Which would be infuriating.

Aidu, the old man who’d taught Yadin flint knapping, had often said, “Just keep working on that good blade and eventually you’ll have a useless blade.”

With a sigh, Yadin decided that what he had was good enough. He tried fitting it into the deer antler handle he’d made for it. It fit pretty well. Picking up a small shard of flint, he scraped the slot in the deer antler to make it a tiny bit wider and fit the blade back in. That’ll have to do, he thought to himself. I’ll need to heat some pitch, then bind the blade into the handle.

He looked up. His eyes narrowed. A couple of strangers were walking up the valley. He squinted and thought that he was seeing a man and a woman, though if so, the woman was taller than the man. “Caltas,” he called out, “come out here.”

A minute or so later the boy appeared at the narrow mouth of the cave, blinking in the bright sunlight. Rubbing his arms, he walked down the little slope to Yadin and said, “It’s cold out here!”

This young pup has no idea what cold really is, Yadin thought. Young people nowadays are so soft! He said, “Do you recognize those people coming up the valley?”

Caltas held a hand up to shade his eyes and looked where Yadin had pointed. “Strangers!”

Yadin said, “Tell Jalgon.” The boy trotted back up to the cave. Yadin wondered what strangers were doing out traveling this close to winter. Most people were getting ready to hunker down for the long cold months ahead. They might be planning a big hunt before the freeze, but they wouldn’t be traveling. Yadin looked to the north. Dark clouds were gathering. He hoped it wasn’t going to snow already.

By the time the strangers arrived at the Oppos’ cave, Jalgon had come down with four more hunters, all carrying spears. They’d brought a spear for Yadin as well.

The six men stood waiting, leaning on their spears. They weren’t particularly trying to look threatening, but Jalgon wanted to make sure the strangers knew they were prepared.

Yadin’d been right, the man was shorter than the woman, with skinny bowed legs. The woman was good-looking and had a regal bearing, as if she was used to having people do what she told them.

Yadin decided he didn’t like either of them.

The man said, “Hello, I’m Pont, a medicine man. Is my good friend Nosset here?”

Now Yadin knew he didn’t like this guy. Nosset was a useless, pompous jerk. If this guy was his friend, he was probably an asshole too.

Jalgon said, “How do you know Nosset?”

“We’ve met several times at the big tribal meetings on the plain. We’ve traded medicine secrets.” Pont surveyed the Oppos who’d come out to greet him, “It’s possible that some of you have been helped by secrets I’ve passed on to Nosset.”

Yadin raised a doubtful eyebrow. That could only be true if Nosset had ever helped anybody! Yadin’s mate, Uva, had died the previous winter and Yadin didn’t think Nosset had done anything for her. In fact, he suspected Nosset’s treatments had hastened her death.

Jalgon turned and looked back toward the cave. “Caltas,” he called out to the boy hanging around the cave’s mouth, “Get Nosset up. Tell him there’s someone here that claims to be his friend.”

They all stood around looking at one another, though no one said much until Nosset wandered down to them. Yadin thought the medicine man looked like he’d been chewing hemp again.

“Hello Pont,” Nosset said, scratching his buttocks and looking mildly curious. “What’re you doing here?”

“There’ve been some wicked goings-on west of here. An evil spirit took over one of our young boys in the Aldans’ tribe. We cast the boy out last spring, but he quickly enthralled a number of others, some from our tribe and some from other tribes. Once he’d gathered strength, the demon began corrupting our hunts and causing us to fight amongst ourselves.” Pont waved a hand to indicate himself and the woman with him, “As you can see, we in the Aldans haven’t been eating well, a terrible situation to be in shortly before winter.”

Yadin saw the woman with Pont glance at him in some surprise. Yadin didn’t think she viewed events in exactly the same light as Pont did. However, the Oppos’ hunters looked nervously at one another. Evil spirits were talked about in tales around the campfire on long winter evenings, but no one in the Oppo tribe had actually heard of a real one in the area.

Nosset narrowed his eyes, “You left your tribe?”

“I had to,” Pont said. “The evil spirit killed our headman and his son, leaving us directionless. It took over a couple of our hunters. Now the spirit, still inhabiting that boy we cast out, has returned. It’s made the boy huge and powerful, so now he’s dangerous to stand against.” Pont shook his head sorrowfully. Indicating the woman with him, he said, “Fellax and I fled for our lives. She’s the headman’s widow and the only other member of the Aldans whose mind hasn’t been at least partially taken over by the demon.” Pont looked at the woman as if he were sympathetic, “I think that her sorrow protected her from the spirit’s influence.”

“What’re you going to do now?” Jalgon asked.

“Because the demon started in the West and keeps moving east, I thought to come warn my friend Nosset and you Oppos. I fear that the spirit will be coming for you next.” Pont shrugged, “I must be honest and tell you that I hoped that if Nosset and I joined forces, perhaps together we might have the strength to thwart the demon.”

Yadin looked at Nosset, trying to gauge whether the Oppos’ medicine man believed the load of crap this Pont was feeding them. Nosset looked uncomfortable, but Yadin couldn’t decide whether Nosset thought Pont was lying, or feared the demon. Or maybe Nosset worried that Pont would show him up. Certainly, since Nosset was no great shakes as a medicine man, it wouldn’t be hard for a real medicine man from somewhere else to come in and make him look bad.

After studying Pont for a few moments, Nosset turned to Jalgon and said, “We should invite these refugees in. They at least need a good meal and in return they can tell us what we might be facing from this demon.” He turned to Pont, “What did you say the demon’s name was?”

“Pell.”

A snowflake landed on Yadin’s cheek.

Chapter One

Yadin held a wet stick with a blob of pitch on it so that the pitch was in one of the steady flames in the Oppos’ fire. He glanced down to make sure of the location of the flint blade. He still held the deer antler handle for the new knife in his left hand. Pulling the blob of pitch out of the flame he looked at it. It was getting pretty soft but still wasn’t ready. He put it back in the flame.

This visiting medicine man, Pont, was still talking about what had happened to his tribe. He’d described a clumsy young boy, born and grown up in the Aldans. Even though this child, his father having died when he was a child, depended on the tribe for everything, he wasn’t “respectful.”

Yadin pulled the pitch out of the flame, decided it was soft enough, and wiped it into the hole in the end of the deer antler. He picked up his flint blade and shoved it into the pitch, then tried to hold it as motionlessly as possible while the resin hardened.

Pont continued, “Toward the end of last winter, the boy fell and dislocated his finger.” Pont glanced at Nosset, the Oppos’ medicine man, and said, “You know how difficult those can be.”

Nosset gave a knowing nod, though Yadin doubted that Nosset had ever dealt with a dislocated finger himself.

Pont said, “But this boy made it even worse. First he refused medication. Then he refused a poultice. Then he immediately jerked away when I tried to put it back in place, not even letting me have a good try.” Pont shrugged and sighed, “Still, I did my best for him, intervening with the spirits, giving him medicine and making prayers. When the boy tugged on it himself, the spirits finally acceded to my requests and the finger slipped right back into place!” Pont cast his gaze over the people surrounding the fire. “So, you’d expect the boy to be grateful, wouldn’t you? But no! He decided that he’d put the finger back in place so he owed me no gratitude, no payment, not even thanks.”

Nosset tut-tutted in disgust, “Young people today!”

Pont said, “I know! It’s shameful, and it’s the same everywhere. Anyway, the spirits were angered by his lack of gratitude. Soon, another one of our hunters fell and injured his finger. It took days of prayer to the animal spirits before his finger also slipped back into place. Still the boy wasn’t grateful! Next the spirits broke the wrist of our best hunter! This time the spirits made it obvious that it was the boy’s fault—that hunter tripped over the boy’s poorly-thrown spear shaft.”

Nosset shook his head, “What did you do then?!”

“Fortunately, I didn’t have to do much. All the hunters recognized the trouble he’d brought us. Our headman moved to cast him out and everyone agreed. He was a weak and scrawny thing so everyone felt sure he’d soon be dead.” Pont shook his head in regret and said bitterly, “We should’ve killed him!” Pont looked around the group and spoke in an ominous tone, “I think the evil spirit may already have subsumed his soul by then.”

Yadin, little disposed to believing the tales of medicine men, was horrified that this visitor thought they should have killed a young boy for little more than rudeness or clumsiness. If they did that, they’d have to kill every young man Yadin had ever known! He looked around the group, expecting their expressions to show similar revulsion. Instead, to his dismay, they all appeared to be intently listening. Could they be agreeing with this man?!

Yadin surveyed the group again. In fact, they looked apprehensive.

Nosset said, “What happened next?”

“We didn’t see the boy for a long time. But our hunts started going badly. Time after time, the animals we were hunting were spooked before we could get close to them. Despite all my strongest prayers to the spirits and the most powerful magic I could bring to bear, our hunts brought nothing!” Pont spoke as if disgusted, “We were reduced to eating what the women gathered! We lived, but not as men should. Even in summertime, we were going hungry!” Pont glanced around as if to be sure his audience’s grasped the gravity of the situation. “It was terrible. We decided to go to a summer trading place. I hoped that I could meet with another medicine man who might have had experience with such an evil ghost. To our dismay, our hunts having been so bad, we also hoped to trade some of our goods for some roasted meats like some tribes sell at trading places. Believe me, our mouths watered when we arrived on that first day and found one of the tribes roasting a boar and selling slabs!”

“Did any of the medicine men have any wisdom?” Nosset asked.

“No! A few had heard of such a spirit, but none knew what to do about it. And…” Pont stopped talking.

“And, what?” Nosset asked

“And the boy was there! At the trading place. Much bigger than he had been.”

“Bigger?” someone asked.

“Taller, more muscular. He hardly seemed like the same boy! He attacked our headman’s son on a remote path. The headman’s son, Denit, was a sturdy sort and fought back valiantly, but when Denit seemed to be winning the fight, the evil spirit called a huge wolf out of the woods to attack Denit.” Pont shook his head, “The wolf’s bite caused a dreadful wound on the young man’s arm. It took all my efforts to keep it from going bad.”

Yadin looked around to see how the Oppos were taking this story. A story that was ridiculous on the face of it. Surely no one believes that a boy controlled a wolf through some spirit!

Unfortunately, Yadin could see that many of them did believe.

Yadin liked a good tale as much as anyone else, but he could tell the difference between a made up story and a true telling. After surveying the faces of his fellow Oppos, it seemed to Yadin that they couldn’t recognize fiction when they heard it.

My fellow Oppos. Yadin pondered this thought for a moment. He’d lived with these people since he’d mated Uva, oh so many summers ago. Yadin had long thought of them as his friends, but after Uva’s death, he’d slowly grown more and more distant from them. He still lived with them, and shared food with them, and contributed the gifts of his flint knapper’s skill to the tribe’s use and trading.

But, Yadin realized that he no longer cared as much about the Oppos as he had in the past. He wondered if he should try to go back to the Kala tribe he’d grown up in. He hadn’t been there for many summers and couldn’t know whether any of his old friends or relatives would still be alive, but if they were it would be good to see them.

Yadin turned his attention back to Pont’s story. The medicine man was saying, “… so I gathered the Aldans’ hunters and we went to the cave at Cold Springs, where Pell and his evil spirit live now. Denit, the headman’s son, had injured Pell with a knife in the fight they’d had at the River Fork trading site, so we knew the boy wasn’t invincible. We had six brave hunters and I thought they would be enough…” Pont shook his head, then continued, “I did what I could to weaken the spirit inhabiting the boy and then Denit called him out. However…” Pont stopped, his throat working.

Yadin rolled his eyes. Storytellers used those kinds of dramatic pauses. However, in a hushed tone, Nosset said, “What?”

Hoarsely, Pont said, “When the boy came out of the cave he was huge and… the wolf accompanied him!”

Yadin snorted aloud, “Come on! A wolf in a cave? You expect us to believe this?!”

Nosset turned angry eyes on Yadin, “If Pont says it, it’s true! I’ve never known him to lie!” He turned back to Pont, “Go on with your story. Yadin’s just a crotchety old man. He doesn’t even believe in the spirits!”

Pont also gave Yadin an irritated look, “Well then, he won’t believe what happened next. We were shocked of course, but then Pell uttered some strange words we couldn’t understand and a giant hand jerked young Denit up into the air. It ripped the life from the young man’s body and slammed him against the cliffside. Then it cast boulders down from the cliffside at us. One of the huge stones killed our headman and another rock grievously injured one of our hunters. Hit on the head, another man converted immediately to Pell’s cause. ” Pont held up six fingers, “So of the six of us who’d gone, the headman and his son were both dead, one hunter was injured so badly he peed blood for days and the fourth was taken over by the power of the evil spirit.” Pont shook his head, a dismayed look on his face. “Only I, and one of the other young hunters escaped to return to the Aldans’ cave.”

“That’s awful!” Nosset said. “Then, the spirit pursued you even back to your home?”

“Yes,” Pont said bleakly. “The next day Pell showed up at the Aldans’ cave with the hunter he’d enthralled. He brought a boar. Apparently he’d enspelled the pig like he had the wolf, then had it stand still so he could kill it. As you can imagine, the hungry women and children of the Aldans enthusiastically ate the poisoned beast despite my warnings. Soon they’d been taken over by the evil spirit as well. Realizing that it was too late for me to save my people, I recognized that I must leave.” He indicated the woman with him, “Fellax here, because of her deep sorrow over the death of her husband, had resisted the curse of the spirit. She was able to leave with me.”

Yadin looked around at his fellow Oppos. These people he’d known for so many years sat staring, open-mouthed, apparently gobsmacked by this ridiculous story. Some looked angry; many looked fearful.

Nosset said, “What if this spirit comes to us next? Will we be able to resist it?”

Pont shrugged, “Perhaps? I thought perhaps if you and I worked together to control the spirit, the hunters could kill the merely human body of this Pell?” He shook his head wearily, “Or maybe it’d be better if you fled like Fellax and I are doing.” He looked around, “I’m sure you don’t want to give up this fine cave and your hunting grounds, but perhaps it’d be safest. After all you don’t want to risk the lives of your women and children.”

Yadin found it hard to believe, but a few moments later the Oppos were seriously discussing whether to mount an expedition to kill this Pell and his wolf or to try to run away.

Quidea, the headman Jalgon’s mate, pointed out that if they tried to move to another area, the tribe that currently claimed that territory might object.

***

Gia woke up feeling cold. She’d spent the night spooned with Pell because the Aldans didn’t exactly have a surfeit of sleeping furs. She felt around for him in the darkness.

Pell was gone.

Getting up, Gia could see a little from the glow of the fire even though it’d burned down to coals. She picked her way through the bodies of the sleeping Aldans and picked up a couple pieces of wood for the fire. She used one to stir the coals to a brighter glow, then laid the firewood onto the red embers.

Trusting them to begin burning, she made her way amongst the sleeping people again, this time to the opening in the cave wall that Pell had taught the Aldans to build. The wall enclosed their wide mouthed cave and kept it much warmer than it had been. Pushing aside the big leather flap they’d fashioned to cover the opening, Gia peered outside.

The sun was rising on a white landscape.

Snow!

Gia’s heart skipped a beat. The leaves had turned colors, but most of them were still on the trees. To have snow so soon… Could this be a bad omen?

Gia saw Pell standing at the right end of the ledge outside the Aldans’ cave. His wolf, Ginja, stood beside him. He absently scratched the wolf behind one ear. Gia went back into the cave to get her moccasins and leggings, as well as the fur blanket they’d been sleeping under. Noting that the two small logs she’d put on the fire had caught, she wrapped the fur blanket around herself and went out onto the shelf.

Because of the snow, the world outside was completely silent. Gia quietly came up behind Pell and startled him by throwing her arms around him. “It’s a good thing I’m not a lion, I’d be eating well now.”

The wolf licked Gia’s hand, and Pell tentatively put his arm around Gia, apparently still unsure of their relationship. “Are you warm enough?”

“As long as I have your arm around me. Isn’t the snow beautiful?”

There was a pause before Pell answered. “Yes, it’s beautiful… but deadly.” She felt him shake his head. He whispered, “And the Aldans are so unprepared.”

Gia turned her head to look up at him. He’s handsome even when he’s looking sad, she thought. She slid a hand up around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Gia had kissed several boys before Pell and found his fumbling uncertainty endearing. She suspected that he’d never kissed anyone else, but whether he’d had practice or not, she thought no one else could ever have kissed as sweetly. Pulling back, she said “You don’t have to take care of them, you know?”

Pell’s eyes rose to the horizon and he wiped at one of them. “But… some of them are my friends. And the children…”

Gia looked at the horizon herself, giving a little shrug. “And you can’t take care of the children without taking care of their mothers. You can’t help the mothers without helping their mates. You can’t help one hunter, without helping his friend… Yes, I know. It goes on and on.”

Pell drew a shuddering breath, “Why couldn’t the snow wait until we’d gotten in a few good hunts?”

“There’s no accounting for what the spirits decide to do.” Gia said, “I should know, look what happened to my tribe…” her voice broke for a moment, then she continued in a rasping tone. “So many dead… so many…”

The two young lovers were still quietly holding one another in the snow blanketed silence when suddenly Gontra burst from the opening of the cave, looking wildly about. When he saw Pell, his shoulders visibly relaxed and he started through the snow toward Pell and Gia. “Spirits,” he almost gasped, “I thought you’d left us!” He looked around, “And it snowed last night!” He shook his head, “We’d be goners if you’d left us.”

Gia felt Pell shrug, “We may be goners anyway. I can’t do anything about the weather!”

Quietly, Gia said, “Pell, maybe your ‘trapping’ will work even in the snow?” Pell and Tando hadn’t yet taught the members of Aganstribe who’d joined them at Cold Springs how to trap. Therefore, Gia really had no idea what trapping was or whether it might work in the winter. She did know they’d only developed it this summer and so they couldn’t have used it in the winter before.

Pell shrugged again, “Maybe,” he said dubiously.

The flap over the cave mouth opened and Tando came out. He rubbed his arms and said, “What’re you guys doing out here?” He walked to the edge of the ledge and started passing his water.

Gontra said, “I woke up and saw them gone! I thought they’d left. Then when I came out here and saw it’d snowed, I really started to panic. Fortunately, it turned out they were just out here fooling around.”

“We were not!” Pell exclaimed.

Gia looked up at him and saw that Pell was blushing. He really is new to this, she thought, then supported him by saying, “Pell’s really worried about how the Aldans are going to make it through the winter. He thinks this snow is a bad omen.”

Tando turned and walked towards them, a surprised look on his face. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. Pell will figure something out.”

Pell gave him an irritated look, “How am I going to ‘figure out’ food for so many people?! They don’t have any fat stored up! They don’t have any meat, and they only have three hunters!”

Tando shrugged, “Teach them to trap. Teach them to smoke their meat. They should be fine, just like we are.”

Exasperatedly, Pell said, “What if trapping doesn’t work after the first snow?!”

Tando made an odd twist with his lower lip, then said, “What if it does? You worry too much. I’ll bet you put snares out yesterday when you got the deer, rabbit, and squirrels, right? We’ll go check them this morning and find out.”

Enthusiastically, Gontra said, “Yeah, and we can start learning how to do your new kind of hunting. Are these ‘traps” and ‘snares’ part of how you hunt?”

Pell nodded.

Tando said, “For the Spirits’ sake! Let’s go back inside.” He rubbed his arms again, “It’s really cold out here!”

They made their way back over to the cave opening and pushed their way through the big leather flap. Once it fell back into place, Tando said, “Hoy! It’s so dark in these caves with flaps over their openings!” He turned to Pell, “You need to figure out how to get more light in here.”

Pell said, “How would I do that?! If we make an opening for light to come in, the cold will come in too!”

Gia said, “Our winter cave had only a small opening, so it was dark like this one. We made ‘lamps’ which help. I can show you how to make them.”

“Lamps?” Pell asked, appearing very curious. “What’s a lamp?”

“It’s a way to make a small steady flame,” Gia said. “It’s hard to explain, so it’d be better if I showed you. It’s not a good choice for the Aldans right now, because it burns animal fat. The Aldans can’t afford to burn fat when they’re so hungry.”

Back in the cave, Gontra barked at the Aldans until they’d all gotten up. The women began preparing food to start the day. For the first time in many weeks, with the deer, rabbit, and squirrels Pell had brought in the previous day, they had plenty of meat. Everyone got a small strip of deer liver and some stew with bits of meat, grain, and roasted tuber.

While they waited for their food, Gontra said, “As soon as we eat, we’ll go for a hunt and Pell can teach us his new methods.” Gontra, Belk, and Exen got up and went to the men’s area of the cave.

Tando looked over and saw they’d gotten out their spears and begun sharpening the wooden ones and tightening the points on the ones tipped with flint. He laughed, “That’s a great idea, but stop worrying about your spears and come on over here. Pell and I’ll start teaching you how to make a snare.”

The Aldans’ men looked surprised, but they gathered off to one side of the hearth where they could see by the light of the fire. Pell got out one of his thongs. He and Tando explained how a noose made from the thong could be suspended above the paths that animals followed. Then, Pell held the small noose over an imaginary path while Tando used his hand as a puppet. Tando ran his hand into the noose and pantomimed the rabbit jerking around in a panicked fashion until it’d strangled itself on the cord.

Pell looked up at the three men of the Aldans and found them staring wide-eyed at Tando’s “dead rabbit.” Belk said, “That can’t work… can it?”

As Belk said it, Lissa brought him a clay bowl full of stew. Tando reached out and poked a chunk of meat floating in the bowl, “It can work, and there’s your proof.”

Once they’d all eaten, Pell had each of them cut several long narrow strips of leather and make little nooses on the ends of them. They headed out to check the snares he’d left the day before. He had them pick up lumps of grass-eater dung on the way.

The first two snares they came to were empty. Pell picked them up to move them to new sites. Belk said, “Was there something wrong with those two?”

Pell shrugged, “Maybe? Maybe there aren’t any small animals running those trails? Maybe the snow kept them in their burrows? In the past I’ve tried leaving a snare on a trail where it didn’t catch anything the day before. Sometimes it catches something the next day, but not very often. So, now I usually move it.” He rubbed some droppings on the thongs as they walked. “Whenever I move them, I put more dung from plant eaters on the thongs to cover up my smell.”

They came to the third snare and it had a rabbit! The rabbit’s brown coat stood out against the snow. Pell wondered whether the rabbits’ coats changed to white because of the snow, or for some other reason. Hopefully, he thought, Maybe this’ll be one of those years when the first snow is followed by some warm weather.

The next two snares were empty as well, as was the first large snare that used a heavy rope. Pell began to worry that he’d been right to think the snares might not catch much during the winter.

Then they came to the second big rope snare he’d put out on the trail up the steep slope up to the plateau. It had a goat! One of the goats that so nimbly ran up and down those steep slopes. They were so quick on the difficult terrain that hunters rarely had any chance at them. The goat was only trapped, not strangled like many other snared animals and it was chewing on the rope. Pell thought it would have been free soon, but Tando quickly ran it through with his spear. Tando said, “I’ve never eaten goat! Do you think it’s any good?”

“I hope so,” Pell said, feeling great relief. With the goat, as well as the deer from yesterday, they had enough that he could start teaching the Aldans to smoke meat.

When they got back to the Aldans’ cave, the women and children were excited to see them carrying a rabbit and a goat. Tonday quickly took charge of skinning and breaking down the animals.

Pell walked over to the flint knapping area and found a couple of very sharp shards. Returning to where the women were disjointing the goat, Pell appropriated the hindquarters for himself. Saying, “Let me show you how to make our ‘spirit meat,’” he laid the leg on a leather and began slicing strips of meat off of it.

Looking up, Pell saw that he held the rapt attention of all the women. He was about to hand the other leg off so they could slice strips off of it, when he realized that none of the men were there. Looking around the cave he saw Gontra, Belk, and Exen lounging over on the men’s side of the cave like they always had. At first, he was puzzled.

Then anger flooded over him. He rose and stalked over to them. “I thought you were worried that you might starve this winter.” He turned his eyes to focus on Gontra, “You claimed you were worried about your poor daughter Tila?” Directing his full fury at Exen, he said, “And you, you said you would learn to hunt tubers if I only taught you. Instead,” he said scornfully, “I find you over here lying around while the women do the work that might save your tribe this winter.”

The three men gave Pell an astonished look. Exen, Pell was gratified to see, rose shamefully to his feet. However, Gontra said, “We just brought in a goat! If we bring in too much meat, it’ll just go to waste!”

Trying to keep his temper in control, Pell grated out, “‘We,’ didn’t bring in anything! I set out those snares yesterday. I led you to them. I told you that you would need to put out new snares in new locations, but did you? No… If you’d been listening and trying to learn rather than lounging around, you’d know that I was teaching the women how to make spirit meat. If you’d paid attention, you’d realize that ‘if you brought in too much meat,’ it could also be smoked into spirit meat for you to eat later this winter!”

Gontra and Belk got to their feet as well. Pell suddenly realized he’d been scolding men much older than himself and worried that they’d be angry. Instead, when he looked at their faces, he saw shame. Gontra said contritely, “I’m sorry Pell. We’ll do better. What do you want us to do right now?”

Pell studied them, thinking. He wanted to make them start learning to do women’s work, but at present, the Aldans had plenty of women and not enough men. He looked over and saw that the women were well into cutting up the meat. Looking back at the three Aldan men, he said, “You don’t have enough men in your tribe at present. So, you need to start teaching some of the women how to use snares. Besides, you still need to go set snares for today in the hopes that you can get more meat tomorrow. You can teach them while you’re doing it.”

The three men looked dumbfounded. Gontra said, “Women can’t hunt!”

“They can with snares, especially small animals. If a couple of you get hurt, you’ll surely hope that they know how to set snares! Gontra and Belk, I want you to take Ontru and Teda with you. Set snares like I taught you and explain it to them. Tomorrow, we’ll go see if you caught anything and I’ll be able to see what you’ve learned from where you put your snares.”

Rather than looking angry or resentful like Pell had feared, Gontra and Belk simply nodded. Enthusiastically, Exen said, “What do you want me to do?”

Pell turned to him and narrowed his eyes, “Keep your promise! Learn to hunt tubers. Bring me twenty good-sized edible roots and then I’ll think about teaching you more about hunting animals.”

A flash of anger crossed Exen’s face, but then his eyes dropped and he nodded, looking ashamed. “Yes Bonesetter.”

While Pell was giving the men their orders, the flap over the cave opening pushed open and Tando came in dragging a small tree. Pell immediately saw what Tando intended and thought he should go help him as soon as the three Aldans were on their way. However, when Gontra saw him he barked a small laugh. “Tando, Pell’s sending Exen out to hunt tubers. I didn’t know he’d taught you to hunt trees.”

Tando smiled at his old friend, “Hah! I saw you three start loafing and I knew Pell would be yelling at you for being so lazy. I decided to think of something to do myself. Is he going to make you do women’s work?”

“No!” Gontra said, appalled.

“He will. Pell thinks it’s really important that men do women’s work and women do men’s.”

Listening to the banter, Pell felt appalled to hear it sound like they thought he was such a tyrant. Though he had been telling the men what to do, he still felt surprised that they were actually doing it. Trying to distract them from his dictatorial behavior, he turned to Tando and asked, “Did you get the little tree to hold the meat up in the smoke?”

Tando said, “Yes. I remembered that this cave didn’t have any high places where smoke gathers like the Cold Springs cave does. It seemed,” he said, pointing up to where they’d left an opening for smoke to exit near the top of the wall around the cave, “that the best place to put the meat would be up by the smoke hole.”

Pell studied the smoke hole. They’d built a wall around the Aldans’ cave made of poles and twigs covered with mud. Though they’d called it a cave, the Aldans’ home hadn’t really been one. It’d been more of a shallow recess in the cliff. When they’d walled it in to make a real cave out of it, they’d left a smoke hole at the highest part of the wall where the roof of the rocky part of the cave rose up. Then they’d moved the fire hearth over near the smoke hole so that the smoke mostly tended to rise up and exit through the opening.

Tando had walked over to the smoke hole. Now he stretched and jumped to show that it was quite a bit higher than he could reach. He said, “I went out looking for a small slender tree, taller than I could reach when I jumped.” He picked up the tree he’d dragged in. He’d trimmed off all the branches except for a big tuft of them up near the top. Now he lifted it up toward vertical and stood it so that the branches stuck up into the smoky recess next to the smoke hole. He looked at Pell, “We should be able to hang the meat strips on this, don’t you think?”

Happy that Tando had put so much thought and effort in, Pell said, “Good idea. I’d been thinking we needed to build a frame like Deltin made for us back at Cold Springs cave, but that’d be really hard without Deltin.” He looked up, “Especially getting it all the way up by the smoke hole. I think your little tree should work fine. Then he noticed the three Aldans men gaping up at the tree in confusion. Turning to them, he said, “Go, set your snares and,” Pell grinned at Exen, “do your tuber hunting. When you come back, Tando and I’ll teach you about making ‘spirit meat.’”

Once the three Aldans’ men had left, Tando worked with the women to densely suspend strips of meat over the branches at the top of Tando’s tree. Pell sent Gurix to wash out the goat’s intestine while he, Lessa, and Ontru chopped up meat from the fattier parts of the goat, mixing them with dried onions.

When Gurix returned with the intestine, they stuffed it with the fatty meat and onions, tying it off into finger length sausages like Pell had made at the Cold Springs cave. They suspended the sausages in Tando’s tree as well, then Pell and Tando carried the tree over and stood it so that the tuft of branches loaded with meat was up in the smoky recess by the smoke hole.

The two men stood staring up into the recess. Despite the general darkness in the cave, they could see fairly well because of the light coming in through the smoke hole. Tando said, “I don’t think it’s as smoky up there as it gets in the recess of your cave at Cold Springs.”

Pell said, “I think you’re right. The smoke hole’s so big that the smoke goes out through it without clouding around the meat.”

“We could put a piece of leather up there to cover most of it, but then it’d be even darker in here,” Tando said thoughtfully.

Pell shrugged, “Meat’s more important than light, I think.”

“Okay,” Tando said, “but how are we going to get our leather flap up there and hold it in place?”

“Put it on a long stick and lean it up against the hole.”

Tando smiled and thumped Pell on the shoulder, “Good idea! I’ll go cut the stick.”

Exen came in carrying an arm load of large tubers. Pell was pleased to see that they all appeared to be edible; he’d wondered if Exen would try to get away with bringing in just any kind of thick roots. It didn’t look like he brought in twenty of them though. Pell’s eyes narrowed as he counted. Thirteen.

Exen had been watching Pell. He said, “Not enough, huh?”

Pell’s eyes flashed to Exen as he wondered what Exen was trying to get away with. Then he saw the honest question in Exen’s eyes. Quietly he asked, “Don’t you know the counting words?”

Looking a little embarrassed, Exen shook his head, “Hardly anyone does. How’d you learn them?”

Pell rolled his eyes, “Listening to Pont use them in his interminable ceremonies. He droned on with them all the time.”

Exen frowned, “Those are counting words?”

“Not all of them, but a lot of them.” He lifted his chin, “The ones that start, ‘One, two, three…’”

“Oh!” Exen said. “Four, five, six, seven, eight…” He actually continued on up to thirty.

Pell grinned at him, “You do know them!” He pointed at Exen’s stack of tubers, “Now, you can count up how many you brought in.”

Looking proud, Exen turned to his stack of roots and counted them, stopping at thirteen. Then he tilted his head curiously and turned back to Pell, “So, how many more do I need to get?”

Pell lifted an eyebrow and held up his hand. Saying, “Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…” he stuck up a finger for each word. “You try it. Stop when you get to twenty.”

Frowning in concentration, Exen turned back to the roots for a moment, then he faced Pell and started counting with fourteen holding up a finger with each number. When he got to twenty he stopped with all the fingers up on one hand and two up on the other. “Now what?”

Pell said, “Now, you count your fingers that are sticking up, starting with ‘one.’”

Exen did so, counting from “one” to “seven.” He turned curiously to Pell, “Now what?”

Pell lifted his eyebrows again, “Now, you get seven more tubers. Then you’ll have twenty.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Frowning in concentration, Exen left the cave. Pell was relieved he didn’t look angry about having to get more tubers. In fact, it looked to Pell like Exen was more interested in the numbers than he was upset about having to work.

Pell looked around, wondering where Gia had gone. He tried to think whether he’d seen her since they’d been outside first thing in the morning. No, I saw her while we were eating breakfast, and I’m pretty sure she was here when we came back with the goat. Pell knew he’d been focused on his worries about the Aldans, but he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought about Gia for the past hour or so. She’d been at the forefront of his thoughts for what seemed like forever.

He couldn’t really believe he didn’t know where she’d gone. Could she have left? What if she’s mad at me?

Pell got up and walked toward the entrance of the cave, glancing this way and that to be sure he hadn’t missed Gia in the dimness. He picked up his extra furs and stepped out through the flap. It was still cold, but the snow was melting quickly which he took as a good sign. He didn’t see Gia.

As he stood there looking around, someone else shouldered through the flap behind him. He glanced back and saw Gurix. Briefly, he wondered where she was going, then forgot about that question and started out across the ledge, looking around for Gia. He didn’t see her and began to worry even more.

Could she be hurt? Her absence felt like a palpable void to him, but he wasn’t sure what to do. He’d heard people talking about being in love and wondered whether that was what he was feeling. Am I supposed to go look for her? Will she be mad that I’m checking up on her?

Something touched Pell’s shoulder, startled, he spun and found Gurix standing behind him pulling back her fingers. She said, “Sorry. Can I help you find something?”

“Um, I’m looking…” Pell wondered if he should say “girlfriend” or whether that presumed on the new relationship he had with Gia. Probably not since they’d agreed to be mated, but he still felt uncomfortable about it. He settled for, “looking for Gia. Did you see where she went?”

Pell’s eyes had gone back to searching for Gia so he didn’t see the flash of disappointment cross Gurix’ face. Gurix quickly hid the expression and said, “I saw her leave, but I don’t know where she went. Should I help you look for her?”

Grateful for the help, Pell said, “Sure.” Feeling the need to explain rather than just looking like he was worried about nothing, he continued, “She doesn’t know this area. I wouldn’t want something to have happened to her without someone checking on her.” He stepped back inside to get his spear and started toward the right end of the ledge, expecting that Gurix would go to the left so that they would spread out their search. He felt surprised then, when she turned and walked with him to the right. Pell almost suggested she go a different direction, but then felt like it’d be rude to criticize someone who was trying to help him.

Ginja ran to the side or ahead of them as they walked down along the stream. Though Pell didn’t notice, Gurix kept an apprehensive eye on Pell’s wolf for a while. Then she shook her head and turned to Pell. She said, “So you’re a bonesetter now! How did you learn to do that?”

Pell glanced at her. Gurix, a year or two younger than he, had always been friendly. He’d teased her some when they were younger, after all, she was a girl and that’s what boys did. Now he realized that she was becoming a pretty young woman. He thought back to when he was trying, but stumbling while talking to Gia. His mother had recommended that he pretend he was talking to Gurix. Since he’d always been comfortable talking to Gurix it’d helped him. He launched into explaining how he’d learned bone setting, “I started to figure it out when I tried to rip my own finger off after I dislocated it…”

Gurix was a good listener, inserting perceptive questions whenever Pell started to run down. They walked down into the valley and looked out over the huge meadows where the large animals fed. They walked back up along another path into areas where Gurix said the women frequently did their gathering. The whole time, Gurix gently kept their conversation going, not saying much herself, but pulling things out of Pell.

It’d been quite a while since Pell had had much time to talk to someone his own age. Gia was his age, but Pell had been too timid to hold much of a conversation with her. As he thought about her, he suddenly cast his eyes around, realizing that in the midst of talking to Gurix he hadn’t been very vigilant in looking for Gia. Gurix brought him back to her conversation by saying, “And now, you’re the leader of two tribes! Are you going to bring them together into one?”

Pell gave her a startled look, “I’m the leader of no tribes! Agan is the leader of the Cold Springs tribe and Gontra is the leader of the Aldans.” He paused for a moment, stunned by her thoughts. Hesitantly, he said, “I, I’m just a boy who has a trick for setting bones!” He looked Gurix in the eye, “I’m hardly older than you, you know?”

Unsettlingly, Gurix shrugged her shoulders and said, “That may be true, but we all know that everyone does what you tell them. You may be young, but you have the… I don’t know what it’s called, maybe the ‘power’ to do things. Everyone respects that.”

Having, less than a year ago, been the useless, weak, bullied, butt-of-jokes, Pell felt a shiver run over him at Gurix’ words. Can she be telling the truth? Do people really respect me now? He’d been so hungry for esteem for so long that the thought that people truly did value him was heady. Of course, he’d had inklings when Tando thought he could do so much more than bone setting and had thought that Pell should be the leader of the Cold Springs tribe. At the time he’d thought that Tando just hadn’t understood his limitations. And then, last night, Gia had said she wanted to be his mate! Gia! Pell surveyed the area around them and resolutely reminded himself to keep a better eye out for her. As he did so, he noticed that the snow was almost all gone. To Gurix, he said, “Where else do you think Gia might have gone?”

Gurix indicated a trail off to their right, “Let’s go this way. We gather oats out here. I think they’ve all been harvested, but perhaps someone suggested she might look that direction.”

“Do you think it’s safe for her to be out here by herself?” Pell asked. “You women usually go in groups don’t you?”

“Well, yes,” Gurix smiled shyly up at Pell, “but we only go in the daytime and I think it’s pretty safe then. Anyway, I’m not sure that a group of women could protect ourselves if we were attacked by wolves or big cats. I think mostly we go together because we like to do things with our friends.” She touched his arm, “I do feel much safer out here with you beside me, carrying your spear.”

Pell felt a little shiver run through him at her touch. If I didn’t already love Gia, he thought, maybe I could’ve fallen for Gurix. She’s… nice. They surveyed the area where the wild oats grew, but didn’t see anything and turned back toward the cave. Gurix continued to ply him with questions whenever the conversation faltered.

They were almost back to the cave when they rounded a bramble patch and found Gia sitting cross legged and pecking at a chunk of limestone with a piece of chert.

Exen knelt beside her!

When Gia had finished stuffing sausages, she’d watched as Pell and Tando hung them on the little tree Tando had brought in. It’d puzzled her at first, but when she saw them tilt the tree up so that the tuft of branches Tando had left on the tree were up in the smoky recess by the smoke hole, she immediately understood what they were trying to do.

The women had mostly broken down the carcass of the goat the hunters had brought in. Lessa had begun preparing to tan the skin into leather. Tonday and Ontru were scraping the rest of the meat off the bones. They were planning a big feast for later in the day but also cutting a good part of the meat into strips for Pell and Tando to smoke.

Looking at the pile of bones the women were producing, Gia realized she could harvest the marrow fat from them for a lamp. Earlier she’d said that the Aldans shouldn’t waste the animal fat on lamps, but now she was thinking that occasionally they might really need lamplight. It’d be a shame if they didn’t even know how to make or use one. I’d just as well make one, she thought, putting on all the furs she’d brought with her so she could go out in the cold. I need to find some juniper.

Gia walked some distance back down the path she and Tando had followed on their way from Cold Springs. She thought she’d seen some juniper on her way, though she wasn’t sure exactly where. As she walked, she took note of a rock-fall from a small limestone cliff.

Having found some juniper, she cut off a couple of branches and started back toward the Aldans’ cave. On the way, she stopped at the rock-fall and found a piece of limestone a little bigger than her hand. She was nearly back at the cave before she found a suitable piece of chert. Gia stopped there and sat down. First she took a piece of her juniper and laid it on the limestone. She thumped it steadily with the chunk of chert until she had fibrous strands that she could twist into a wick.

She turned her piece of limestone over, looking for a good place to make a recess for the oil.

Exen had found his seven more tubers. In fact, he’d actually found eight. Though he wouldn’t admit it, he was actually kind of proud of his tuber hunting. He hadn’t been the most successful of the Aldans’ hunters in the past. He’d yearned hopefully that maturity would make him better and knew he was certainly stronger than he had been. Strength was important for a hunter, but he’d hoped to develop accuracy in spear throwing which hadn’t happened, at least not yet. He really hoped that he’d be good at this new method of hunting Tando and Pell were going to teach them.

Exen wondered if he could use one of the thongs he’d made to set out a snare of his own. Seeing a narrow path between two small bushes, he squatted down and looked at it. He could see tracks where some small animals had passed. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out one of the thongs he’d made. Putting one end of it through the hole he’d cut in the other end he made a noose. He held it up, trying to imagine it suspended at neck level for an animal that might run between the bushes.

He glanced around, then back down to his noose. Should I tie it to a branch and come back tomorrow to see if it catches anything? He glanced around again, considering, then reluctantly put the thong away. Pell had told him he had to hunt tubers first. The last thing he wanted was to have Pell angry at him again. He picked up his tubers and started again on his way back to the cave.

He was almost back to the cave when he found someone sitting at the side of the path tapping two rocks together. It’s Gia! He thought, his heart skipping a beat as he recognized the beautiful girl who’d come with Tando and Belk. In an age when the appearance of health was a major ingredient of loveliness, Gia was magnificent. Glowing un-pockmarked skin, flowing hair, clear eyes and a full set of straight white teeth. “Hi Gia… What are you doing?”

She looked up at him and gave him a smile. If she knew that Exen and Pell weren’t on the best of terms, she gave no indication. “I’m making you guys a ‘lamp.’ Something you can use for light inside your cave now that it’s so dark in there.”

Frowning, Exen knelt beside her, “It’ll light the cave? Like a fire?”

She smiled again, showing those perfect white teeth. “Exactly! It’s a little fire that burns steadily. Unfortunately, it burns oil made from fat. Until you have more food you probably won’t want to waste fat on lamps.”

“Do you mind if I watch? Or is it a secret?”

“No, it’d be good if someone from your tribe knew how to make one.”

Exen squatted to watch, finding it hard to keep his eyes on the lamp instead of the girl.

Pell stopped in the path, heart in his throat, staring at Gia and Exen. Gia was banging the two stones together and for a moment Pell thought she might be trying to bring the chert to a point. Then he realized that hitting hard chert on soft limestone was unlikely to modify the chert very much. More importantly, Exen’s eyes were admiringly focused on Gia.

Gurix’ hand stole around Pell’s elbow and her thumb gently rubbed at his triceps. Pell blinked at her for a moment, wondering what her touch meant. Then, not knowing what else to do, he resumed walking down the path. He cleared his throat, then said, “Hello Gia, Exen.”

Exen startled back, drawing away from Gia guiltily. Gia didn’t notice, tilting her head up to smile sunnily at Pell, “Hi Pell. I’m teaching Exen how to make a lamp.” She noticed Gurix, “What have you two been doing?”

Suddenly, Pell didn’t want to tell Gia he’d been out looking for her. “Um, we’ve been out looking around. We looked at the valley where the Aldans hunt big animals and a small meadow where the Aldans’ women gather oats.” Is she going to wonder why I’m going places with Gurix?!

“Oh, did you set some of your snares down in the valley? Are you going to get us some more big animals?”

“Um, no,” Pell said, glad that she didn’t seem to be upset that he’d gone somewhere with Gurix, “the snares need to be on a path next to a tree.”

Gia frowned, “I wish you’d take me with you when you’re setting snares sometime. I’d like to see how they work.” She grinned at him, “You’re always saying how men need to know how to do women’s work. I think women need to know how to do men’s work, don’t they?”

Pell ducked his head, “Yes. I was going to go out with the Aldans men this afternoon to check the traps they set this morning. Would you like to go with us?”

“Yes!”

“Can I come with you too?” Gurix asked.

Pell felt uncomfortable about Gurix going somewhere with him and Gia, but didn’t know how to deny her, “Sure.” He turned back to Gia and lifted his chin interrogatively, “How do you make a lamp?”

She looked back down at her rocks, “It’s really pretty simple. All I’m doing is making a little bowl shaped cavity in this piece of limestone. The cavity holds the oil. You can make them out of clay too, but you wouldn’t want to make them out of something that would burn.” She shrugged her shoulders, “This cavity’s deep enough,” she said, rising smoothly to her feet. “Why don’t we head back to the cave so I can render some oil for it to burn.”

“Okay,” Pell said, immeasurably relieved that she wasn’t going to stay out there with Exen.

Exen leaned over and picked up a pile of tubers before he stood. “I’ve got eight tubers Pell, one more than you told me to get.”

Pell said, “Good.” He thought of complementing Exen on his use of the counting words, but felt reluctant to say anything good about Exen in front of Gia.

Back at the cave, Pell watched as Gia broke up the goat’s bones, crushing them on one of the big rocks with a hammer stone. After breaking a few, she said, “Do you mind breaking the rest of them while I start heating some water?”

Pell said he’d be happy to, though he really didn’t want Gia to go somewhere else and heat water. He wanted to be with her. She took one of the cooking pouches and left the cave, he thought down to the stream to get water. He took her hammer stone and started breaking bones.

To Pell’s dismay, Gurix showed up with a fist-sized rock and picked up one of the goat bones. With a few smart raps she’d cracked it in many places without actually crushing it like Pell had his first bone.

Gia came back with the pouch and suspended it near the fire. Lifting some hot stones out of the fire with a wet pair of forked sticks, she banged them once to knock off ash and dropped them into the pouch to heat the water.

By the time Gia had several rocks heating the water, Pell and Gurix had finished cracking the bones. Gia seemed blithely unconcerned about any rivalry between herself and Gurix. Pell wondered if he should be relieved… or mad that Gia wasn’t worried that Gurix might try to steal him away.

Gia and Gurix changed the rocks in the pouch, then put the bones in. As she put them in, Gurix twisted apart the bones she’d cracked since she hadn’t crushed them and they were still mostly holding together.

Pell thought to himself, Of course she’s not jealous of Gurix. Gia is beautiful and smart, and an accomplished medicine woman. I’d have to be crazy to leave Gia for Gurix. A moment later he started worrying about why he’d spent so much time with Gurix that morning. Sure, she’d invited herself along, and she was an old friend, and she’d been nice to talk to, and Gia hadn’t accused him of anything, but he still felt guilty.

With those thoughts milling in his brain he wondered if he was going crazy.

Every so often Gia changed the hot stones. At first Pell intended to wait until she finished her project, but when it’d been going on for quite a while, he finally went over to her, “Gia, how much longer do you need to work with those bones?”

“Oh,” she said, stirring the bones around with a stick, “at least until tomorrow. The longer the better.”

“Do you still want to go with us this afternoon to learn about snares?”

“Yes!” she said excitedly. “Are you going now?”

“Well, whenever you’re ready?”

Gia looked around, then said, “Gurix, can I get you to keep boiling my bones for a little while?” Then she paused, “Sorry, you wanted to go to watch them set snares too, didn’t you?”

Pell thought Gurix looked surprised and a little guilty, as if Pell wasn’t the only one thinking that Gurix and Pell’s walk today looked suspicious. However, she nodded.

Gia turned, “Lessa, can I get you to watch over my bones for a bit?”

Lessa nodded.

Gia turned back to Pell, “Let me just make sure Lessa knows how to keep the bone marrow simmering and I’ll be ready to go.”

Pell said, “Okay, I’ll get the hunters.”

By the time Pell returned with Gontra, Belk, and Exen, Gia had finished explaining the bone rendering process to Lessa and put on the rest of her furs.

Outside, they ran into Tando. Tando was dragging back another of his small trees, Ginja trotting beside him. He’d trimmed all but a tuft of branches at the top again. He said, “Are you guys going out hunting?”

“Trapping,” Pell said with a shrug, feeling a little jealous that Ginja had been hanging out with Tando. I must be going crazy, first I’m jealous of Exen and Gia, now I’m jealous of Tando and Ginja. I know Ginja doesn’t like being in the cave with all those people. I should be glad she’s getting to be friends with Tando.

Ginja trotted over to Pell and nudged him with her head until he started scratching behind the wolf’s ear. That made him feel better.

Tando tossed his little tree to one side. He said, “Great! I’ll go with you.”

Pell felt glad that Tando would be along. He turned and gave Gontra an expectant look.

Gontra looked back at him for a moment, then his eyes narrowed and he said, “What?”

Pell shrugged, “You’re the ones who put the traps out this morning. I have no idea where they are.”

“Oh, sorry.” Gontra glanced around, “This way I think.”

Tando guffawed, “Oh Gontra! I hope it’s better than ‘I think!’”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gontra said, looking a little embarrassed. “It’s this way, don’t worry.”

As they walked along towards where Gontra and Belk had set their snares, Ginja ranged ahead and alongside as usual. Pell and Tando were so used to it that they hardly noticed, but then Tando noticed Belk keeping an alarmed eye on the young wolf. “Don’t worry, the wolf runs our trap lines with us almost every day back home.” He nudged Belk, “She hasn’t eaten one of us yet.”

Belk gave him a sheepish grin, but then said, “She still might eat me!”

Gontra slowed and started looking around, looking a little frustrated. Tando noticed and laughed, “You can’t remember where you put your first snare?!” he said incredulously.

Gontra scratched his head, saying, “It’s right here somewhere.”

Tando said, “Pell told you to mark where you put it!”

Gontra snorted, “I was sure I’d remember.”

Pell pointed, “Is that it?”

They all turned to look. A small leather noose hung between two bushes. Disgustedly, Gontra said, “Yeah. No luck with that one I guess.”

Pell chewed his lip for a moment, trying to think how to tell Gontra what he’d done wrong without making him angry. “Um…”

Gontra said, “I should move it to a new location, right?”

Pell said, “Yeah, but… Let’s talk about this one and why it might not have caught anything.”

Gontra frowned, “Why, what’s wrong with it?”

“Well, first of all, there’s plenty of room beside it for an animal of the size that the noose might catch to get by. I think that, rather than trying to run through the noose, they’d just go around it.”

“Why would they do that?” Gontra said, sounding mystified.

Pell shrugged, “If there was a rock in the middle of the trail we’re walking, wouldn’t you go around it rather than trying to hop over it?”

“But I didn’t have a noose big enough to fill that entire space.”

“Yeah, that passage is too big for a rabbit, but too small for a deer. The only animal I know of that’s about right for that path is a porcupine.”

Gontra and Belk blinked at him, “Do we want to catch porcupines?!”

Pell shrugged, porcupines were good eating but dangerous to skin. He shook his head slowly, “That’s what I’m trying to say. The path you put that noose on isn’t the right size for the kind of animals you’d like to catch. Besides which, you want your noose to cover the width of the path so the animal can’t go around it very easily.”

Exen said, “That opening’s about the right size for a little pig.”

“Young pigs follow their mothers,” Tando said. “Mama pig isn’t going to go down that little path.”

“So…” Gontra said, and paused. Then he continued, “How do we trap something on that path?”

“You don’t,” Pell responded. “You find a narrow spot on a trail that’s just big enough for the animals that you’re trying to trap.” He pointed off to the side, “Like that little tunnel into the brambles there. A rabbit probably lives in there and a noose the size of yours would probably work well.” He shrugged, “Hedgehogs are the right size for that kind of noose and we catch them occasionally. If you’re going to trap big trails, you need big heavy ropes that’ll hold animals like deer, goats and pigs.”

Exen said hopefully, “Could we catch an aurochs or a moose?”

Pell shrugged, “I think their horns are so big they’d catch on the noose and keep the animal’s head from going in.” He tilted his head and thought, “Maybe horses?”

“Oh! Let’s try that!”

“I don’t think we have a rope strong enough right now. If you braid some heavier rope, we could try, but I think for now we should stick to the animals Tando and I already know how to catch. We shouldn’t waste effort on other animals until we’re sure you’re going to have enough food to live through the winter.”

They put a snare on the rabbit sized opening in the brambles and went on to find the rest of the traps the men had set late that morning. Pell felt a little surprised to learn the different ways the Aldans’ men had misunderstood his instructions earlier. He’d thought he’d explained the traps clearly, at least clearly enough that the men should have been able to figure out the rest, but they hadn’t. They’d trapped a couple of squirrels with nooses over branches that the squirrels would typically run on, but those were fairly foolproof traps.

However, Pell knew that squirrels weren’t going to feed the tribe. He had them move their snares to better locations and made sure they marked them. He placed snares himself, including his two braided leather ropes in hopes of getting some large animals.

They headed back to the cave as sunset was coloring the sky. Gia’s hand crept into his and she tugged a little to slow him. When they’d fallen behind the others, she walked close at his side and slipped an arm around his waist. Pell found his arm falling naturally onto her shoulders and he began to feel like the world couldn’t get much better. She looked up at him and said quietly, “Who taught you about snares?”

Pell found himself again explaining the amazingly lucky incidents with the rabbit and the pig and how he’d gradually worked it out from there. She didn’t say much, and, deciding he must just be rambling on, he glanced down at her.

Gia was staring at him in wide-eyed amazement. “So, you’re saying no one taught you? You just figured it out?”

He nodded uncertainly.

Gia gave him an enthusiastic hug.

I guess she doesn’t think trapping’s a shameful way to hunt after all, Pell thought.

That evening, although the goat bones weren’t finished rendering, Gia scooped out a little bit of the oil floating on top of the water in the pouch where she’d been simmering them. She spooned the oil into the depression she’d pecked into the top of the piece of limestone and then laid her twisted wick of juniper fibers into it to soak. She pulled the wick out so that it was sticking up out of one end of the depression and lit it with a burning splinter from the fire.

The Aldans gathered around excitedly to stare at the steadily glowing flame. Young Odran said, “Why’s that better than the fire? The fire’s brighter.”

Gia said, “Watch this.” She picked up the lamp and carried it back into one of the dark corners of the cave. The Aldans followed her back there and were excited to see the way it lit the recess with only a little flickering.

In an amazed tone, Tonday said, “Oh, that’ll be so helpful now that the cave’s so dark!” She turned to Odran, “When we need to find tools, or roots, or grain that are stored back here in the dark parts of the cave, this will be really helpful, can you see that?”

Gia said, “It’ll burn for hours too.”

That evening, after the Aldans had eaten and boredom had set in because no one was ready to sleep, Pell suggested that Gia tell a story. He’d heard her tales back at the Cold Spring’s cave and knew she was a consummate story teller. As he’d hoped, she soon had the tribe enthralled in one of her stories about lovers from different tribes meeting each other. Pell glanced at the people sitting raptly around the fire, eyes gleaming with excitement. He felt surprised when he recognized that this was yet another different story. He’d already heard many stories from Gia and had been thinking that sometime soon she’d be telling a repeat. However, either she remembered an endless number of stories she’d heard from others, or she was capable of making up new ones night after night.

He wasn’t sure which ability would be the more amazing.

Later, as everyone was settling down to try to go to sleep, Gia quietly asked, “When are we going to return to Cold Springs? Your mother’s probably getting worried because you’ve been gone longer than you said you’d be.”

Pell chewed his lip a moment, then said, “I think I should help them run the trap lines again tomorrow. Could we go the next day?”

“Sure,” Gia said, happy to have been consulted.

Chapter Two

“What do you think, Yadin?” Jalgon, the Oppo chief, asked.

Startled, Yadin looked up. He’d lost track of the conversation and been daydreaming to himself about moving on to another tribe. He’d had a sudden realization that he’d like to be mated again, and decided that he wasn’t going to get mated within the Oppos. They had no extra women near his age. Besides he couldn’t stand living with Nosset anymore and his revulsion toward their medicine man had become even worse since this new medicine man, Pont, had shown up. He shook his head as if muzzy headed, and said, “Um, what? Sorry, I was thinking of something else.”

Speaking patiently, as if Yadin was some kind of idiot, Jalgon said, “We were talking about scouting out the Aldans tribe. You know, to see if this Pell is still there and get some idea whether the people remain in his thrall. You’re our best stalker when it comes to hunting, so you could probably do it without them even noticing you were there.” Jalgon glanced at the medicine men, then said, “You might even be able to put a spear in this Pell if you can catch him alone on an out-of-the-way trail.”

Yadin frowned, “So, you think I can just sneak into the area and watch them? And somehow, I’m supposed to be able to tell by the way they look whether some evil spirit has them in its control?”

Pont was the one who responded, “Well, yes, it may be difficult to tell if they’re enthralled. But you could easily find out if Pell’s still there.”

“How?! I don’t know what he looks like!”

“Young but tall. He’s taller than any of your men here in the Oppos as well as all the men in the Aldans. Muscular and handsome, though his good looks must be something the evil spirit did—he was an ugly boy.”

Yadin lifted an eyebrow, “And if he’s there? You really think I can attack someone protected by a powerful spirit all by myself?”

Pont shook his head, “I wouldn’t recommend that you try that, even though Jalgon says you’re an amazing stalker. It’d be better to attack with many hunters after Nosset and I have worked some spells to protect everyone from the evil spirit.”

“Okay, Yadin asked, “assuming I am pretty good at hiding from people, how am I supposed to keep a spirit from seeing me and taking me over?”

Pont glanced at Nosset, “Nosset and I will work together to make a charm that’ll hide you from the spirit.”

“All right,” Yadin said disgustedly, not quite angry enough to say that he wanted nothing to do with any charms the medicine men might create. Maybe this is as good a way as any to get out and have a look at another tribe, he thought. A small thrill of apprehension shot through him at the possibility that perhaps this “evil spirit” was real.

***

To their great delight, the next day when they went out to check their snares in the morning, the Aldans’ men had caught a couple of rabbits. They’d also got a couple more squirrels and a hedgehog.

Pell felt encouraged. Of course he couldn’t know how well trapping would work in the winter, but if the Aldans continued to get this much small game, it might sustain them through the cold months. He’d caught three rabbits, presumably because of his greater skill, so perhaps they’d get better at it and catch even more. On the other hand, he thought with disquiet, it might be that trapping produced as little in the winter months as hunting.

The first of Pell’s two big rope snares, placed beside a deer trail in the woods, held nothing. However, when they approached the second one, which Pell had put on a steep trail up behind the cave, it held another goat! A goat which, when they first saw it, was stretching up on its hind legs to eat the foliage of a large bush next to the trail. At first, Pell didn’t even realize that it had one of his braided leather ropes around its neck. As they approached, he lifted the wood chip on his necklet up and peered through the tiny hole he’d bored in it. Looking through the pinhole improved his vision enough that he could see the rope, though Tando had already exclaimed, “You got another goat!”

As Gontra and Tando trotted ahead to spear the goat, some kind of idea kept tickling at the back of Pell’s mind. At the last moment, he shouted out to them, saying, “Wait,” but he was too late.

Gia turned to him and said, “Why did you want them to stop?”

Pell shrugged as he stared unseeingly at the dead goat, “I don’t know… I kept thinking that if they kept the goat alive, its meat wouldn’t go bad.”

“Kept it alive?” Gia said, frowning. “But you couldn’t keep it for very long, it’d starve.”

“Um, maybe you could tie it to a different tree every day. That way it could eat.”

“You’d need to tie it near the river so it could drink.”

Gontra and Belk had lifted the goat up and draped it around Exen’s neck. Picking up their rabbits, squirrels and the hedgehog, they started back toward the cave. Pell untied the rope of his snare and carried it with him, intending to set one more snare that he could check in the afternoon. Turning to Gia, he said, “Maybe you could just tie it near the river part of the day.”

Dubiously, Gia said, “I don’t know. I think a goat that’s tied up would just provide a meal for wolves, bears, or big cats. Besides you’d be using one of your fancy ropes to keep it there. I think it’s better to catch goats that’ve been feeding themselves than to spend a lot of time and effort taking care of one yourself.”

Glancing around for a place to put a big snare, in a disappointed tone Pell said, “You’re probably right.”

They came upon Tando, standing between two trees straddling the trail they were following. He said, “I’ll bet we could get a deer here.”

Pell looked around, realizing that the trail they were following had probably been formed by animals like deer. He’d been thinking so hard about his goat idea that he hadn’t been watching for a place to put out the snare. “Good idea, Tando. Let’s set it up.”

They suspended the noose of braided leather across the trail with the bottom part of the noose about chest high on a deer. Tando rubbed some dung onto the rope to disguise its scent while Pell went to find a vine. When he returned, he found Gia leaning a slender leafy branch across the trail at the level of the bottom of the noose. He gave her an admiring glance as he admitted to himself that it looked more natural than a vine would.

As they walked on back toward the cave, Pell said, “Tando, Gia and I were thinking that we should go back to Cold Springs tomorrow. What do you think?”

Tando got a distant look in his eye. There was no doubt that Tando had enjoyed spending time with his old friend Gontra. Pell wondered if Tando might decide to stay with the Aldans permanently. Finally, Tando said, “I think that’s okay. If you don’t mind, I’ll stay with them a few more days to make sure they really understand trapping.”

Pell’s heart skipped a beat as he realized that this would mean he and Gia would be walking back to Cold Springs alone. “Okay,” he said, glancing at Gia to make sure she wasn’t about to raise an objection.

***

Yadin started out the next day. Pont had made a halfhearted offer to go with him to be sure he found where the Aldans lived. That would have been helpful, but Yadin couldn’t stand the bowlegged little medicine man. Besides, it seemed fairly straightforward. Down to the main river, go west past one tributary then up the next one until he saw people and a cave.

The women gave him a pouch of grain and a couple of roots as well as a slab of meat from the last kill. The meat was just starting to go bad.

When Jalgon saw Yadin off, Yadin saw Jalgon’s eyes linger enviously on the two spears Yadin had chosen to take with him. Yadin knew their points were works of art and wondered if Jalgon would object, wanting him to take plainer weapons and save the high quality spearheads for trading.

Fortunately, Jalgon didn’t know that Yadin had packed up his flint knapping tools. In with the gear, he’d also bundled all of the best needles, chisels, knife blades and spear points he’d made recently. He didn’t have any really heavy things that were easily made such as hand axes, but his pack was still pretty hefty.

***

Taking a break on their long walk home, Pell and Gia sat on a large boulder that hung out over the big river. The stream in front of the Aldans’ cave, as well as the icy cold creek from Cold Springs both ran into this same big river. In fact, all the tribes Pell had ever heard of lived on various tributaries of this same large river.

Chewing on some of Pell’s jerky, with Gia leaning on Pell’s shoulder, they stared peacefully out across the slow-moving waters. Pell turned to look back at the big meadow behind them. It had some bison, aurochs, deer and pigs grazing on it. He kept an eye on the herbivores. Pell worried about predators, but didn’t look for the predators themselves. Rather he watched the activity of the big plant eaters—they’d be spooked if a predator came near.

As he turned back to the front, Gia reached up and caught a hand behind his neck. She pulled him down for a kiss, as usual leaving him feeling somewhat breathless. He traced a hand down her flank, hoping she’d be willing to do more than just kiss, even though he feared such activities might distract him from the possibility of predators.

Gia pulled back, a sparkle in her eyes and she teasingly caught her lip between her teeth. “Now, you know I want to wait until summer. Don’t make it harder for me!” She looked around, apparently for a distraction. “Let’s see if there are any fish.” She scrambled around to lay flat on the rock, her head hanging out over the water.

What about how hard it is on me! Pell wondered, glancing back up at the meadow to check again for any disturbances amongst the herbivores. Reassured, he turned and slid out beside Gia. Looking down into the water he said, “Do you see any?”

“Umhmm,” she said quietly and pointed.

Pell saw a couple of large fish gently undulating in the slow-moving water. It looked to him like they were swimming to stay in the shadow of the boulder. He’d never paid much attention to fish before, but thought they looked interesting.

Gia said, “One of the tribes near our old cave ate fish. I’ve had some and it’s pretty good. Do you think one of your snares could catch a fish?”

Pell drew his head back a little bit, startled at the question. “It doesn’t look like they have a head for the noose to catch on. And, aren’t they supposed to be slippery?” He took a bite of his jerky.

“Mmm-hmm, they’re really slippery.”

“How does that tribe hunt them?” Pell asked, looking back over his shoulder to check the meadow again. He saw Ginja trotting up and felt relieved. With her behind them he didn’t think any predators would be able to sneak up on them.

“With spears.”

Pell put the stick of jerky he’d been gnawing on between his teeth and pulled up his spear, “Shall I try?” As he spoke, the jerky he’d been holding between his teeth slipped out, landing in the water. With a movement so quick Pell hardly realized what had happened, one of the fish shot to the surface, gobbled the jerky, and dropped back down to its original location.

Gia giggled, “It looks like you’re feeding the fish, instead of them feeding you.”

“Well, I’ll just have to get my revenge,” Pell said as he lifted the spear.

Gia put a hand on his arm, “Spearing fish is really hard. I heard their hunters talking about it one night at their campfire. You have to aim either above or below the fish, I can’t remember which. They said, ‘the fish isn’t really where you see it, it’s a little bit below.’ Or, ‘above…’” Gia frowned, “I’m not sure which way they said it was.”

Pell plunged his spear into the water, aiming just above the fish. With a flash of their tails, they disappeared. Pell wondered whether he missed because he wasn’t very accurate with a spear—though he’d felt like this time the spear went right where he’d intended—or whether, like Gia had said, he’d missed because the fish wasn’t where he saw it.

Nonetheless, he once again resolved to practice his throwing. When he’d been visiting the Aldans, he’d never had any time alone. He didn’t want to practice throwing in front of anyone, it’d be too embarrassing.

They filled their water skins and resumed their journey back to Cold Springs. As they traveled, Pell’s mind kept going back to the fish quickly gobbling his little piece of jerky. Maybe if I dropped a piece of jerky right in front of a noose that I’d put in the water? When it swam into the noose, I could jerk it out of the water. He didn’t think it’d work though. Since fish didn’t appear to have a neck for the noose to catch on he thought the fish would escape. Maybe it’d catch on their fins?

He decided he’d just have to try it.

***

Yadin first encountered an Aldan when the trail he was following rounded a small copse and he saw a young man crouching in front of a thicket. Curious, Yadin silently stopped and watched. The young man appeared to be tying some knotted leather thongs into the thicket, though for what purpose Yadin couldn’t imagine. Having positioned the thongs, he rubbed them with some substance, then plucked a few leaves of grass and twisted them over the thongs.

Yadin was still wondering about this strange ritual, when the young man stood up. Not wanting the young man to turn and see him standing there unannounced, Yadin said, “Hello.”

Startled, the young man spun around at Yadin’s strange voice and stared at him wide-eyed. Yadin saw the young man hadn’t been eating well. He was thin like Pont and Fellax. Yadin assumed this meant that the young man was a member of the Aldans tribe and thought to himself that if all the Aldans were as thin as the three he’d met, it boded ill for their survival this winter.

As the young man had said nothing, Yadin thought he should continue. “I’m Yadin, a member of the Oppo tribe. I’m trying to find the Aldans. Do they live near here?”

“Um, yes,” the young man said. “I’m Exen, one of the Aldans.” He narrowed his eyes and lifted his chin interrogatively, “Why are you trying to find us?”

“I’ve heard that a stranger recently came among you. A man named Pell?”

Exen shrugged, “He’s no stranger. He grew up amongst us.”

“But he’s been gone for some time, yes?”

Exen shrugged again, “Only for the summer.”

“And he’s the same as ever?” Yadin asked.

“Hah!” Exen exclaimed, apparently quite amused. “No, he’s really different.”

“What’s changed?”

“He grew. A lot! And… well, it’s hard to explain, but he’s… not the same.”

Yadin wasn’t sure what to say next. He didn’t want to come right out and ask if an evil spirit had invaded either the boy or the tribe. Finally, “Are you on your way back to where the Aldans live?”

Exen nodded.

“Can I walk with you?”

Exen thought for a moment, everyone knew that strangers could be interesting… or sometimes dangerous. He nodded, and started along the path that Yadin had already been following. His eyes tracked to the spears Yadin was carrying and widened a little. “Who made those spearheads?”

Yadin shrugged, “I made them. I’m a flint knapper.”

After a moment, Exen pulled his eyes away from the spearheads. “Why are you interested in Pell?”

“I’ve heard… strange things about him.”

Exen turned to look at Yadin with a frown, “Who would have told you about Pell?”

Yadin tugged at his ear while he thought. He wasn’t sure he should mention Pont, but he did need to have some reason to have come all this way. Truth telling seemed safest, “A man who called himself Pont came to the Oppos. Claimed to be a medicine man. He was telling us about Pell.”

Exen laughed, “Telling you bad things I’d imagine?”

Yadin paused, but decided that this Exen didn’t look like he’d been ensorcelled. He shrugged, “Pont says that Pell’s been taken over by an evil spirit. He says that Pell’s been enchanting the Aldans. Is that true? Do you Aldans need help?”

Exen laughed again, “You might say that, if feeding us counts as enchanting.” He looked at Yadin and lifted an eyebrow, “We’d been hungry for quite a while, so when Pell brought us food and taught us a new way to hunt,” he grinned, “we really liked that.”

Yadin blinked, “Wait, I thought you said that this Pell was a boy, just into his growth spurt.”

“He’s grown all right!” Exen snorted. “He was skinny, scrawny, and clumsy. A little tall for his age, but still, you know, he still seemed small. Now he’s taller than anyone else in the Aldans. He’s muscular too, and carries a healthy amount of fat that’ll help get him through the winter.”

Yadin digested that as they walked in silence for a minute or two. Then, he said, “Pont claims that the boy called on an evil spirit to cast boulders down from a mountain. He says the boulders killed your headman and the headman’s son?”

Exen also walked without saying anything for several beats. Then he sighed, “Yeah, that’s true. The headman’s son was my friend, but… he was a… a bad person.” Exen glanced off into the distance, “He did a lot of awful things. He and his father led the hunts for the Aldans and recently those hunts were almost all failures.” He patted his stomach, “That’s why we’re so thin.”

“Awful things?”

“Yeah,” Exen sighed, “terrible things… He killed a boy from another tribe… For nothing, really. I think just… just because he could. The boy was smaller than Denit… kid never had a chance. And he forced a young girl to have sex with him. Caught her alone on a trail near a trading place the day we were leaving so’s he wouldn’t get caught. Denit was always bullying someone who was smaller than he was. Denit bullied Pell when Pell lived with us…” Exen paused for a moment, then continued quietly, “Denit was merciless. He’s the biggest reason Pell was cast out of our tribe.”

Yadin looked over at Exen, “Did you try to stop Denit?”

Looking ashamed, Exen shook his head. In a small voice, “I was afraid. Afraid Denit would turn on me.”

Yadin mulled this over as they kept walking. He said, “So you don’t think this Pell is controlled by the spirits?”

Exen grinned at this, “I think he controls the spirits. Did you know a giant wolf follows him wherever he goes? It does his bidding too.”

Yadin shrugged doubtfully.

Exen said, “And the spirits teach him things. Amazing things!”

Yadin was feeling stunned. When Pont had talked about a wolf doing the boy’s bidding, Yadin had scoffed at the very idea. Somehow, he believed it more from this Exen than he had from Pont. After a moment, he said, “What kinds of things have the spirits taught him?”

“A new way to hunt! And a way to preserve meat so it doesn’t go bad.”

Thinking of the meat he’d brought with him, meat which had tasted pretty bad when he’d eaten it for lunch, Yadin thought the second thing Pell had learned sounded most interesting. “So does he perform some mystical ceremony to preserve the meat?”

“No! Anyone can do it. He just has to teach you how!”

Stunned by this possibility, Yadin’s gaze wandered ahead. He saw some people on a ledge in front of an escarpment. His eyes wandered over it, noticing a couple of goats up on the steep slope above the ledge. The escarpment was generally the pale color of limestone, but the area behind the people on the ledge was a much browner color. He frowned. It almost looks like they’ve smeared mud on that part of the hillside.

Yadin turned to Exen, “Why’s the rock a different color behind the people there?”

Exen grinned, “That’s another thing the spirits taught Pell.”

“What,” Yadin snorted, “to cover the hillside with mud?”

“Wait ‘til you’re there, you’ll see.”

Yadin suddenly stopped, “I’m not sure I should go any farther. You don’t seem to be enspelled, but until I’m sure, I don’t want to get close enough to this Pell that he might have his spirits take me over.”

“You don’t have to worry, Pell left to go back to Cold Springs ravine this morning.”

Yadin stood for another moment, wondering if he’d wasted his time coming here, then resumed walking. “Why did he leave?”

Exen shrugged, “He said he wanted to get back to his own tribe. He thinks of the new people he’s gathered at Cold Springs as his tribe now… more than he does us Aldans anyway. We Aldans treated him pretty badly, so it’s not hard to see why he’d like the people at his new place better.”

Yadin frowned, “If he doesn’t like you, why did he come? Pont said it was so that his evil spirit could take you Aldans over too.”

“He came because Gontra, our new headman, begged him to. After Gontra had seen what Pell’s done at Cold Springs he pleaded with him to come in hopes that he’d teach us some of his new knowledge.”

“If this Pell’s a boy, how does he know so much?”

Exen shrugged, “Maybe the spirits taught him? He claims he just thought about the problems he was having and came up with these new ideas. Says he was lucky that some odd things happened to him and he figured out how they might help him survive… And now they’re going to help us survive… I think.” Exen turned to Yadin, “I really don’t believe anyone, by themselves, could possibly figure out so many different… things… important things that would help people stay alive.” He shrugged, “So I think the spirits must have taught these things to him. Maybe in his dreams or something.”

Yadin suddenly stopped, staring. They’d just arrived in front of a bunch of animal skins that had been sewn together and hung against the cliffside. Exen had lifted up the flap and now Yadin could see that the skins covered a cave. But, not a natural cave. The mud he’d seen from a ways back was plastered over wooden poles and sticks and straw. The pieces of wood were bigger than spear shafts and ran almost vertically from the ledge up to the cliffside above. Yadin immediately realized that there’d been a large shallow cave here and that the Aldans had probably been living under the limited shelter it provided. It would have served to keep the rain off, but the wind would have blown through, making it cold in the winter. This “wall” of sticks and mud had turned it into a real cave!

It seemed simple enough, Why haven’t I heard of anyone else making a wall like this to enclose a wide mouthed cave?

Trying not to look too surprised, Yadin turned to Exen, “You say Pell thought of making this wall out of sticks and mud?”

Exen barked a laugh, “That’s what he says. The cave he was living in at Cold Springs ravine had a big opening like this one. He says first he put mud at the top to form a lip and keep the water from dripping back into the cave. Then he put mud at the bottom to keep water from running in down there. Then he tried to block the wind by putting bushes or something in front of the cave. That helped a little, but finally he started sticking poles in place with the mud. Then he sealed the cracks between the poles with sticks and grass and more mud. The way he describes it, it seems like he just thought of one thing after the other.” Exen snorted, “I never even thought that maybe the mouth of the cave could be closed off! If I had thought that, I probably would have thought of hanging animal skins over it like we do over our summer shelters.” He looked at the wall, “I think animal skins would have helped, but not as much as this wall of sticks and mud.”

Yadin reached out and gently thumped the wall. “I think you’re right. This is a better idea.” He wondered if he’d have thought of it. The Oppos’ cave had a narrow mouth and was nice and deep so they didn’t need anything like this. After a moment, Yadin decided that if he’d lived in a cave that the wind blew through, he’d have walled it up with something, maybe not mud and sticks, but something.

He thought he would have anyway.

Exen said, “Gontra, we have a visitor.” He indicated Yadin, “This is Yadin who comes to us from the Oppo tribe.” Exen jerked his chin up at the tips of Yadin’s spears, “Yadin’s a flint worker. Look at those beautiful spear points!” To Yadin he said, “This is Gontra, my father and our new headman.”

Yadin looked at Gontra, seeing a man in the prime of life… but thin. Yadin realized when he’d followed Exen up to the cave opening he hadn’t really looked at the other members of the Aldans. He glanced quickly at them and saw that Pont had told the truth about that at least. They all looked underfed. He didn’t comment on this. Instead he said, “Hello Gontra.”

Gontra had been staring at Yadin’s spear heads, “You do nice work.” He grinned slyly, “The Aldans could use a good flint worker if you’re tired of the Oppos.”

Yadin thought of saying that he was tired of the Oppos, but he didn’t want to intimate that he was ready to jump from one tribe to the other right now. Instead, he glanced up at the spearheads and said, “Thank you. I think these two are some of my best work.”

Gontra said, “So, why are you traveling after the first snow?”

“I think it was an early snow, and that winter won’t really be here for a while yet.”

“Still, why travel?”

Having already told Exen, it seemed silly not to tell Gontra. “Your medicine man, Pont, came to us at our cave.” Yadin glanced around to be sure no one was very close, then continued quietly, “I don’t want to offend, but Pont said some bad things have been happening here to you Aldans. Our headman suggested I come see what was going on.” Yadin didn’t say he was supposed to be scouting for a possible attack.

Gontra grimaced, “I’ll tell you not to trust anything that Pont says before I even hear what he told you.” Then he gave Yadin a dubious look, “But if he told you bad things, why did you come?”

Yadin lifted his chin, “Pont claims that evil came here from the west and took over your tribe. He says that because we’re east of here, the evil will soon come to us in the Oppos. My headman wanted me to come to see if it was true.”

Gontra smiled, “So, do you see any evil here?”

Yadin made a show of glancing around, “I see many people looking hungry.”

Looking around himself, Gontra said, “That’s true. And hunger is an evil in its own way. An evil which can cause men to do bad things. But hunger didn’t spread here from the west. The people in the west have been eating much better than we have.”

Yadin gave him a dubious look, “How do you know that?”

Gontra gave a long unhappy sigh, “Our previous headman, Roley… something went wrong with him. He started letting his son lead us and the boy took us on bad hunt after bad hunt. That’s why we were so hungry. Then the boy got it in his head that our bad luck was somehow because of a boy we’d cast out of our tribe at the end of last winter. Somehow he thought this boy was still bringing us bad luck, even after he’d been gone all summer.” Gontra shrugged, “And, we’d encountered the boy at a trading place where he was selling, of all things, meat that he said wouldn’t spoil. We weren’t sure we believed that the meat wouldn’t spoil, but if he was selling meat, we thought he must have a lot of it. One of our best hunters had joined him and we thought that Tando must have been having very lucky hunts. Denit, the headman’s son, claimed that Tando had taken all our luck with him when he’d gone to join this boy.” Gontra dropped his eyes, looking embarrassed, “Denit wanted to kill the boy to get our luck back, taking Tando and any meat they had stored up.”

“Pont said that the boy had an evil spirit drop rocks on your heads?” Yadin asked.

“Pont!” Gontra said in a disgusted tone, “He was talking to Denit all the time, and I’ll bet he was filling Denit’s head with these terrible ideas.” Gontra shrugged, “Yes, rocks fell down from the cliff, killing Denit and our headman Roley. I think they deserved to die and the boy claims no spirit was involved, only a trick he thought up.”

“A trick?” Yadin asked dubiously.

“Yes, a trick, or an invention, or a new idea. Whatever you want to call it. He knows how to do a lot of things that no one else knows how to do, but no spirits are required to do them. He could teach you to do them if he wanted. No fancy chanting or rattles like Pont uses.” Gontra shook his head, “Though I’m not sure any of Pont’s chanting and rattling ever does any good.” Gontra paused and looked off into the distance. Then he shrugged and said, “Most of the boy’s ideas seem simple once you’ve seen how they work, but I’ll confess I don’t know how one boy could have thought of all these things by himself!” He shrugged again, “Perhaps a spirit is involved. Maybe it teaches him how to do his ‘tricks.’”

“So you don’t think this Pell is evil?”

Gontra gave Yadin a penetrating glance, “So, Pont told you the boy’s name, huh? No, I don’t think the boy’s evil. I think he’s taught us things that are going to keep our tribe alive this winter when I surely thought most of us would die! In my thinking, that’s not evil.”

Yadin glanced at Exen, then turned back to Gontra. “Your son tells me that Pell taught you a new way to hunt. Is it a different kind of spear, or a way to hide yourself from the animals?”

“No,” Gontra said with a laugh, “you don’t even use a spear!”

“What do you do,” Yadin said, feeling a little stab of worry since his beautiful spear points earned him a lot of status, “jump directly on the animal with a knife?!”

“Well now,” Gontra said, giving Yadin a mysterious grin, “that’s not for me to say. You’ll have to ask Pell if he’ll teach you. That is,” Gontra lifted an eyebrow challengingly, “if you’re willing to approach a boy that Pont says is evil?”

***

When Gia and Pell arrived in the little meadow below the Cold Springs cave, Falin shouted, “Gia and Pell are back!” He ran to hug Gia, but then greeted Pell with a formal little bow. “Bonesetter, my ankle is feeling so good that I’ve started running again. I hope that’s okay?”

Surprised, Pell said “Um, sure.” He knew that Falin wouldn’t want to hear that Pell didn’t know whether running on his healing ankle was okay or not, but it did worry him.

Since the day was relatively warm, Agan and Panute were sitting in front of the cave weaving baskets. Pell and Gia walked up to them and Gia hugged them affectionately. “Did anything happen here while we were gone?”

“It snowed!” Panute exclaimed, “I thought winter was here, but Agan said that it was just an early snow and it’d melt.” Panute gave Agan an admiring glance. “She was right as always!”

Pell had often wondered how Agan came to be so wise. This time he decided to ask, “How did you know it was going to melt Agan?”

She sighed, “I’ve lived so long. After a while, you just come to know these things. You’ve seen so many winters, and so many springs, you can tell when winter has tried to come early, but won’t be able to stay.”

Pell frowned, “How many summers do you have Agan?” He’d never seen anyone who looked as old as Agan, but really didn’t have any idea how old she might be.

A little wearily, Agan said, “Too many I think. So many that I’ve outlived my daughter, and my daughter’s daughter… and my knees.”

Pell’s eyes widened, “I thought Gia was your granddaughter?”

Agan shook her head sadly, “Gia is my granddaughter’s daughter. I keep outliving the people I love… Now it seems I’ve outlived almost everyone in my tribe.”

Awed, Pell asked almost reverently, “How have you come to live so long? Is it your medicines?”

“Maybe,” Agan said a distant look in her eyes, “but mostly, I think…”

Agan didn’t finish her thought, so Pell said, “You think… what?”

Her voice croaked, “Mostly, I think it’s been luck. It’s not that I’ve had many illnesses and recovered from them, it’s that I haven’t even had the sicknesses that kill. When my knees got so bad that I could no longer gather food for myself…” She paused and wiped at an eye, “the people of my tribe were kind enough to feed me anyway. When the flood came, they’d already moved me to the high cave.” She shook her head and said bitterly, “They should’ve let me drown and saved some of the others.”

Gia knelt to put her arms around her great-grandmother and lean their heads together, “Your wisdom has saved us so many times Agan, of course your tribe takes care of you.”

Pell felt a lump in his throat. He’d merely been curious about how old Agan was and had no idea of the distress his question might cause. He wanted to apologize, but didn’t really know how to say he was sorry for asking a question.

Gia quickly improved their moods by beginning to tell Agan, Panute, and Falin about the trip to the Aldans’ cave.

Surreptitiously, Pell studied Panute’s leg which he thought was much less swollen. It looked pretty straight with only a slight bow. The foot was turned out to the side a little bit, but Pell thought she’d be able to walk pretty well on it. The amazing thing was the way she used her thumb and the remaining two fingers on her hand to deftly weave the reeds in her basket.

Panute was making a deep basket. Pell stared at it as she twined the weaver around the “stakes.” There was something about the un-woven pointed ends of the stakes sticking out of the top of the partially finished basket that reminded him of something, but he couldn’t think what it was.

Suddenly Pell realized everyone was staring at him, “What?”

An awed tone in his voice, Falin said, “You chased away a lion?!”

Embarrassed, Pell said, “With fire.” He shrugged, “They’re afraid of fire. That’s why we’re usually safe at night next to a fire.” He said a little contritely, “It probably wasn’t very smart to chase a lion with it though.”

“I can’t wait to tell Manute and Deltin!”

Pell looked around, “Where are they?” He frowned, “And where’s my mother?”

“Donte said she found some grapes! She said they were damaged by the cold when it snowed, but she’s gone to get as many as she can. She hopes she can dry them like the apple slices. Deltin’s looking for wood for spearshafts. I’m pretty sure Boro and Manute went with him.”

“Did Donte say where the grapes were?” Pell asked, “I could go help her.”

Falin was able to describe the location of the grapes in relation to one of the ‘escape sites’ where they’d stored some food. Pell went in to get a basket to carry grapes. The first basket on their stack was so loosely woven that grapes would fall through. The next one was tight enough. He picked it up and started on his way to help Donte, but found himself thinking about the loosely woven basket. It was as if something was tickling his mind, but he couldn’t think what it was.

As Pell walked up the ravine towards his mother’s location, he realized that he was alone for a change. Making good on his resolution, he picked up some stones and began throwing. To his surprise, even though he hadn’t been practicing, he suddenly found himself to be much better than he’d been in the past. He hit close to his marks every time and actually struck what he’d been throwing at a good third of the time.

This was such a huge improvement that Pell could hardly believe it. He wondered what had happened. It certainly wasn’t because he’d been putting in effort, he hadn’t. He remembered being told when he was younger that he’d become more coordinated when he got to a certain age. He’d always thought people were just trying to make him feel better, but now he wondered if it might be true.

Even if it were true, he’d always had the impression people were talking about a small improvement. Whatever had happened with him had made an enormous difference. He could tell that, not only was he throwing rocks where he intended, he was also throwing them much harder than he had before.

Pell wondered if he might actually be able to hunt without using a snare. He looked around, hoping to see a rabbit or a squirrel.

There! A grouse.

Pell hefted the last stone he had in his hand, lifted his left foot and cast it forward, following through with the stone. He finished with his hand pointing right at the grouse like he’d been taught.

To Pell’s stunned amazement, the grouse had barely lifted its wings to beat into the air when the stone hit. The bird exploded in a burst of feathers! He walked slowly over and picked up his prey, noticing that it felt like a bag of broken bones.

I guess that’s one advantage of snares, he thought, they don’t do so much damage.

He dropped the bird into his basket and continued up the ravine to find his mother.

Pell found Donte where Falin had said she’d be. She greeted him enthusiastically, then said, “Look at this, Pell! These grapevines are visible from our escape site down the hill. I can’t believe I didn’t see them when we were bringing food out here to store it. The vines have been picked over by the birds and the remaining grapes were damaged by the cold when it snowed.” She glanced at Pell, “Did it snow at the Aldans’ cave?”

Pell nodded.

“Anyway,” she continued, “we could have gotten quite a few good grapes if I’d seen them back then. Now we’re left with these damaged ones, but I noticed that a lot of the ones the birds pecked at have kind of dried up. I tasted some of them and they reminded me of dried apple slices!” She shrugged, “So, I decided to harvest as many as I could and cut them up and dry them.” She frowned, “Though we’ll need to pick the seeds out of them before we dry them. I think it’d probably be hard to remove the seeds once they’re really dry.”

Pell pitched in and helped her pick grapes until they’d filled his basket too. He tasted a few of the ones that the birds had pecked open so that the remainder had dried on the vine. They were different from Donte’s dried apple slices, but he still liked them. Grapes were better, but he had no doubt that he’d love these in the middle of winter.

As they picked, and on the walk back, Donte plied him with questions about her old friends in the Aldans. She was glad that Pont was gone and not surprised that Fellax had gone with him. Fellax had always had the attitude that, because she was the headman’s first wife, she should be able to boss the other women around.

The women apparently hadn’t felt the same way.

Especially because Fellax didn’t think she should have to work as hard as the other women either. “I think the rest of the Aldans will be better off without her. Do you think they’ll be able to survive the winter with only three hunters?”

Pell shrugged, “It depends on whether trapping works well in the winter or not. None of them have much fat on them, so if they aren’t successful at hunting, some of them will probably starve.” He tilted his head, considering, “Though the women worked hard at gathering roots and grains this past summer and they have a lot, so that should help. Especially if using shallow baskets and turning the grain and roots to keep them dry keeps the vegetables from spoiling.”

Donte shook her head, “You can’t stay strong eating only grains and tubers.” She peered up at her son out of the corner of her eye, “Will you let them have some spirit meat?”

“Tando said it was okay to teach them how to make spirit meat. He even cut them a tree that holds the meat strips up by the smoke hole in the new wall we built for their cave. We had good luck trapping while we were there, small animals like we get here, as well as a deer and two goats.” He shifted his basket to his other arm, “If they keep working hard at trapping and stay lucky, I think they’ll be okay.”

“Good…” Donte trailed off. Then she asked, as if dreading the answer, “But, if they do go hungry, will you give them some of our spirit meat?”

“I don’t think it’s up to me. It’s up to us.” Pell looked a little mulish, “If they worked hard and still don’t have enough food and we’ve got plenty, my vote would be to share some. If they don’t work hard and just count on us to take care of them, I think it should be their problem.”

“You’d let the children go hungry?”

Pell sighed and his shoulders drooped a little, “No.”

Donte sympathetically patted Pell on the shoulder, “Yeah, that’s the problem… Well,” she said, trying for a brighter tone of voice, “did anything else interesting happen while you were there visiting?”

“Um…” then Pell continued uncertainly, almost in a whisper, “Gia said she wanted to be mated to me.”

Donte gasped, almost dropping her basket of grapes. Then she set the basket down so hard it bounced. She turned to clasp her arms around her son. He held his basket off to the side to give her room, “Oh! Pell! Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you saw me?!” She pushed him back out to arm’s length and narrowed her eyes, “I assume you said yes?”

Pell nodded, unable to speak around a sudden frog in his throat. A flush rose in his face. He wasn’t sure why he felt so emotional.

Donte hugged him hard again, overcome with reaction to the recent changes in her son’s status. It seemed hard to believe that, less than a year ago, he’d been the clumsy, bullied son of a club-footed flint worker who’d died while Pell was young. A boy who’d been cast out of his tribe because his poor judgment and inaccurate spear throwing had resulted in an injury to their best hunter. A boy who no one had thought could possibly feed himself and who everyone had expected to die soon after being cast out. Her son, who against all odds, had not only survived, but thrived. Who’d learned a new way to hunt, and hunted so successfully that he actually had too much meat.

Extra meat that he’d found a way to preserve!

Her son who’d eaten so well during the summer of his growth spurt that he was now taller than anyone she’d ever known. Tall, muscular… dare she say handsome? Even though she was his mother, Donte felt sure that Pell’s looks were striking. In everyone’s eyes, not just his mother’s. A feeling now confirmed by the fact that Gia wanted to mate with him. Gia was the most beautiful young woman Donte’d ever seen.

Though, Donte had to admit, with Pell’s recent accomplishments, he could look like a mangy, half-dead, three-legged boar and girls would still be looking favorably on him.

Donte leaned away again to look up at her son through tear rimmed eyes. “When will you have the mating ceremony?”

“Gia wants to have it next summer,” Pell said, worried that it might indicate some reluctance on Gia’s part.

“Oh Pell,” Donte said, a rasp in her voice. “I’m so glad!”

Donte picked up her basket and they continued on their way back to the Cold Springs cave.

When they arrived back at the cave, Pell saw Gia talking to Manute, Deltin, and Boro just outside of it. Pell felt surprised to see that Boro already looked healthier, though it’d only been a few days since Pell had last seen him. He wondered if it was only the fact that Boro had been eating better or whether it had as much to do with the death of Boro’s tormentor, Denit. Pell remembered feeling sick after Denit had bullied him.

Donte abruptly put down her basket and ran to hug Gia. Pell bent and stacked his basket on top of hers and then picked up both to continue on to the cave.

He didn’t feel at all comfortable dealing with all these emotions.

A little later, Pell sat with Donte and Gia splitting grapes and picking seeds out of them so they could be dried. Gia suddenly said, “What’s this under the grapes in your basket Pell?” She dug under them a little more, then pulled up the grouse Pell had hit earlier. He’d forgotten tossing it in the basket and then putting his grapes in on top. Gia said, “A grouse! I love grouse!” She turned to Pell, “Have you figured out a way to trap birds?” She held the grouse up and looked at it, then turned back to Pell, “It doesn’t have a narrow neck. How did you get the noose to catch behind its head? I’d think you’d have the same problem as with fish.”

Pell said, “Um, I threw a rock at that one.”

Gia said, “Oh! Aren’t birds really hard to hit with rocks? Manute says it’s not really worth trying…”

Gia kept talking, but Pell wasn’t really listening. He was still thinking about the idea of trapping birds and fish. Gia lifting the grouse out of a basket had tickled something in his mind.

Gia said, “Pell?”

“Huh?” Pell responded breaking off his thought about baskets and traps. He hadn’t been getting anywhere with it anyway.

Gia repeated, “I thought you did your hunting with traps. Do you use a spear or a rock very often?”

“No, not very often.” More like never! Pell thought to himself, not wanting to admit to her that the grouse she held in her hand was the first prey he’d ever killed with a throw.

Gia waved a hand out across the small clearing in front of the Cold Springs cave. “Why don’t you knock down a couple of those grouse, and we’ll have enough to have grouse for our evening meal.”

Pell looked where she had pointed, seeing a number of different birds including a few grouse pecking at the ground in one area. He’d seen birds there before and now, suddenly wondered why. Glancing at Gia, he said, “Why do birds seem to gather in that same spot so often?”

Gia laughed, “Because, that’s where your mother and I thresh and winnow the grain. I thought you were going to learn the women’s tasks too? Did you think that harvesting the sheaves was all there was to it?”

“Um,” Pell said, embarrassed, “I guess I didn’t think about it very much. I kind of wondered why the sheaves we cut in the field didn’t look like the grains you actually cook, but Donte pulled the head of a stalk open and pointed the grains out to me. I suppose you’re going to tell me that there’s a lot of work involved in getting the grains out of the head?”

“Yes,” Gia snorted, “we beat the heads of the stalks with a flail to knock the grains loose from the chaff. It’s hard work! Then we have to toss it up in the air on a windy day so the wind will blow the chaff away leaving only the grain.”

“Oh,” Pell said, “I guess I should help you do that the next time.”

“Of course you offer now. We thrashed the last of the sheaves while you were off picking grapes!”

“Oh,” Pell grinned somewhat sheepishly, “maybe next fall then?” He looked back out at the grouse, “Still, I don’t understand what that has to do with the birds gathering there?”

“We spread skins to catch the grain when it falls free from the sheaves by the flail, but they don’t catch all the seeds. Your friends the grouse are eating the ones we missed.”

“Ah,” Pell said in sudden understanding. The fact that trapping mostly brings in small skins that aren’t as good for catching the grain probably has something to do with it too.

“Well?! Aren’t you going to do something about those grouse that are eating all of our grain?”

“Oh! Okay,” Pell said getting up. He picked up a couple of stones, thinking that he really didn’t want to throw them in front of Gia and have her see him miss. Then he realized that as soon as he threw the first one the birds would all be gone anyhow. Hopefully, she’d think he only missed once, rather than realizing how bad he actually was. On the other hand, he thought as he got closer, maybe I’ll make a lucky throw like I did earlier?

As Pell approached, the birds began acting nervously, bobbing their heads up to look at him more and more frequently. He decided that he’d gotten as close as he could and focused intently on the big grouse that was closest to him. He cocked, stepped, and threw in one smooth motion. He missed, his aim a little high, but, trying to flee, the grouse lifted right into Pell’s stone. It flopped over, instantly dead. In a whirring of wings, the rest of the birds exploded outward, disappearing in all directions and sparing Pell the possible embarrassment of missing on a second throw.

Pell heard Gia and his mother excitedly applauding behind him. He walked to get the bird, not trusting his face to hide his own astonishment if he looked back their way. How did I get so much better at this? Is it really just maturity and that little bit of practice this afternoon? Could a spirit actually be helping me? Or, he thought trying to be more realistic, have I just had a few lucky throws all in a row?

That night, as they ate their birds, Gia said, “I love grouse. It’s too bad we’re done with threshing. If I’d known Pell was such a good throw, we could have been having him kill us a grouse every afternoon after we threshed!”

Startled by that idea, Pell felt relieved that the threshing was done so Gia wouldn’t see him fail the next time he tried to hit a bird. Mentally, he recommitted himself to practicing his throwing before Gia asked him to try again.

Then Donte winked at Pell and said, “I’d be willing to throw out a little bit of our threshed and winnowed grain if Pell could feed us like this every night.”

A stab of worry shot through Pell as he thought not only of the embarrassment, but also of the wasted grain.

Later, as Pell lay down to sleep, something about the idea that they could lure birds to grain kept running through his mind. Birds didn’t follow narrow paths where you could hang a noose to snare them. Somehow, even if birds came to grain, he didn’t think there would be a way to get a snare successfully around a bird’s neck, but perhaps he should try. A failed snare would be less embarrassing than throwing stones that missed.

***

To Yadin’s surprise, the Aldans invited him to eat with them that night. He certainly didn’t expect a group that was starving to even offer, but then thought that perhaps they hoped he brought food with him. He said, “I’m sorry, I have nothing to offer other than a few roots and a little grain. I brought some meat with me when I left the Oppos, but it’s gone bad.”

“That’s okay,” Gontra said, “we have plenty.”

Although Yadin found this almost impossible to believe, he did stay to eat. He didn’t really have a place to go and would appreciate a warm place to sleep even if they didn’t have much food. He contributed some of his roots and grain to the meal as a friendly traveler should.

To his astonishment, the meal served by the Aldans was a heavy stew. It had the roots and grain he’d expected, but also had large portions of meat! How could they be so thin when they have so much meat? In a stew, it was hard to tell what kind of meat it was so he lifted a bit of it and asked Exen, “Is this boar?”

Exen shrugged, “I don’t know what kind that bit is. Rabbits, squirrels, and some goat all went into the stew.”

Yadin blinked. Small animals were notoriously difficult to hunt. They were so quick that they easily avoided a hunter’s spear. You could occasionally get lucky enough to hit one with a rock if you threw well, but having both a rabbit and a squirrel would be really… unusual. Even more surprising would be a goat. The nimble animals easily climbed paths where hunters couldn’t go. It was rare to see them down on level ground, but Yadin supposed that it must happen occasionally. To Exen, he said, “Tell me how you got a goat! That must be quite a story.”

Exen grinned at him, “Ah, to be able to hunt goats, you must learn how to hunt like Pell. You’ll have to ask him.”

Yadin said nothing for a few minutes while he considered. Then he said, “So, you’re saying that you have so much meat tonight because of what Pell taught you?”

Exen nodded, “If you’d come a few weeks ago, you would have found nothing but roots and grain in our stew.” He lifted an eyebrow, “And we’d have been loath to share even that with you.”

Across the fire, Gontra said, “Yadin, I hope you’ll be willing to tell us a tale. It’s traditional here for travelers to tell a story.”

It was traditional in the Oppos tribe also, so Yadin had feared this request. “I’m sorry, I’m a poor teller of tales.”

“Don’t worry,” one of the women said. Yadin thought she’d been introduced to him as Lenta. “Lessa is our storyteller and she’s good, but we’ve heard all her tales over and over. We’ll gladly take your poorly related account over hearing one of hers again.”

Lessa, Yadin knew, had been mated to Pont, but had chosen to stay behind when he’d left. She thumped Lenta on the shoulder. “Ha, see if I ever tell a story again to such ungrateful listeners!”

Lenta grinned at her and shrank away as if injured, “No! We love your stories…” She trailed off, then nudged Tonday and continued in a loud whisper, “When there’s nothing else to be heard.”

Eventually, Yadin found himself telling the tale of a particularly lucky hunt the Oppos had had when they’d come upon two moose who’d locked horns while battling one another. The hapless animals had been relatively easy to spear because, even while the hunters surrounded them, they seemed to be mostly focused on one another. Because he had little talent for it, he rarely was asked to tell stories in the Oppos and he could tell this one had a wooden feel to it, being more of an interesting anecdote than a real narrative.

When Yadin had finished his story to a smattering of polite applause, he asked, “Will one of you reciprocate with a story of your tribe? I’m sure even your worst story would be better than one clumsily told by a poor storyteller like myself.”

To Yadin’s surprise, they all now entreated Lessa to tell a story. She drew herself up in mock anger, “What?! This soon after Lenta mocked my storytelling!”

Lenta threw her arms around Lessa and begged, “You know I was only teasing! You’re our best storyteller and you have to honor our guest with a tale.”

“Well,” Lessa said consideringly, “I have been thinking of a first telling of the story of Pell’s return…”

“Yes!” the Aldans chorused, many of them actually applauding, even though they hadn’t even heard the story yet.

Yadin thought to himself that he should be offended by the fact that they’d applauded more for a story they hadn’t heard yet than they had for the one he’d just finished telling. However, he realized that hearing the “story of Pell’s return” fit perfectly into his mission. He said, “I’d love to hear it. Please do.” He watched with interest as the Aldans settled in to listen, eyes shining and obviously anticipating an evening’s entertainment.

He soon learned why. Lessa proved to be a master storyteller. She started slowly with a description of failed hunts and burgeoning hunger. It seemed she shared Exen and Gontra’s low opinions of the previous headman and his son. When she told of the expedition they’d led to kill Pell and take his food, it sounded less like a desperation ploy than an evil undertaking. Next she described how her husband Pont and Exen had been the only two to return from the ill-advised quest. She gave a heart wrenching description of the angst in a tribe that thought four of their six hunters had been killed. She described a tribe, already hungry, that thought its only two hunters were one barely more than a boy and the other a medicine man.

Her voice filled with bleak tones that raised the tension of the story to what seemed to be the breaking point.

Yadin had to tear his eyes away from Lessa to relax his own clenched stomach.

Now Lessa’s story turned to the arrival of Gontra followed immediately by Pell.

A Pell who’d grown and filled out so much over the past summer that his presence was hard to reconcile with the scrawny boy who’d been cast out of their tribe.

A muscular Pell, who stood before them in the firelight easily holding a large boar pig draped over his shoulders like a tremendous cowl.

A Pell who had a large wolf standing at his side!

Now, the tension throbbed, not from the disasters which had befallen the tribe, but from this young man, so tremendously changed from what they’d known. A clumsy boy cast out for being useless, who suddenly seemed more capable than all the other Aldans’ men put together.

Lessa suddenly expanded the tension even farther by describing how her own husband, Pont, had attacked Pell. Then the tension dropped as Pell resisted the attack with, by Lessa’s description, little effort. The tension dropped further as Lessa described how the tribe had begged the boy they’d cast out to help them. She told of him agreeing, then driving them mercilessly to enclose their cave with sticks and mud.

Lessa brought humor into the story by telling how Pell had gone out hunting and returned carrying tubers. She looked at Exen as she related that Exen had called Pell a mighty “tuber hunter.”

The tension ratcheted back up as Lessa told the tale of Pell’s hunt the next day. How he’d returned with a deer, but that there was a lion following him. Yadin expected that the story would now turn into an amazing escape from the lion, but to his utter astonishment learned that Pell had called for people to bring him fire and proceeded to drive the lion away from his kill with torches!

The denouement came with some lighthearted laughs over the discovery that the deer actually had several small animals stuffed into its abdominal cavity and finished with Exen begging Pell to teach him how to “hunt tubers.”

Yadin found himself applauding enthusiastically with the others. He recognized Lessa to be a gifted storyteller. Doubtless she’d embellished the story heavily to make it so interesting, but, wow, what a story! He turned to Exen, thinking that, since he’d been the butt of some of the funny parts, the young man would surely tell him what parts were true and which ones weren’t. “Exen,” he said, lifting his chin, “how much of that fabulous tale,” he nodded his head toward Lessa, “is true?”

Exen turned to Yadin, his eyes shining, “Every bit.” The young man shook his head as if amazed himself, “Every last bit.”

Chapter Three

Pell woke in the middle of a nightmare. In the dream, he was trapped again in the tunnel in the brush pile. It was the same tunnel where he’d later trapped a pig. Ginja had crawled in after the pig and been trapped as well which had led to the young wolf’s becoming his friend. Sharp spikes of wood protruding out into the tunnel at an angle had trapped him. In his dream he couldn’t get free, though in real life he’d been able to reach the spikes with his hands and push them out of the way. In the dream, as soon as he got one spike free, a different one stuck into him.

For a moment he lay there thinking it was just another nightmare. Something he wouldn’t be able to remember in the morning. But then he started thinking about how, in his dream the branches surrounding him weren’t as random as they had been in real life. They almost seemed… woven.

Woven, like the tall narrow basket Panute had been weaving the other day.

Pell lay there, excitedly contemplating the possibility of weaving a long narrow basket like Panute had been weaving the other day. He remembered thinking that the “stakes” sticking out of the end of the basket reminded him of something. Now he realized that they reminded him of the sharp branches in the tunnel. They had pointed towards one another at the mouth of the basket and would have prevented a small animal from climbing in.

But, if they were pointing the other direction…

Then a small animal, or a grouse could readily get into the basket, but wouldn’t be able to get back out!

Or a fish either!

If Gia had already made any of her lamps for the Cold Springs cave, Pell would have gotten up then, in the middle of the night, to start sorting through the baskets to see if they had one that would work. As it was, he lay there thinking about it until dawn’s light started creeping in around the edges of the flap over the cave’s opening.

As soon as he saw that light, he got up to put wood on the fire. Gia rolled over to look at him muzzily, “Are you going to cook the breakfast this morning?”

“Um… I can,” he said, wanting to show he was willing to do “women’s work,” but feeling desperately frustrated not to be able to work on his new idea right away. “I, uh, had an idea…”

Gia gave him a sleepy grin, “And you want to work on it right away. Don’t worry, I know what that’s like. I’ll make our meal.”

Donte sat up, “I’ll help! Anything to keep Pell from cooking, he’s terrible.”

“I…” Pell began to protest, then thought better of it, “am a terrible cook.” He gave them a sad look, “My mother failed to teach me any better.”

“Sure,” Donte said with a laugh, “blame it on your poor mother. It’s always the parents’ fault, isn’t it?”

Pell knelt and gave his mother a quick hug, “No, it’s not. I didn’t have any interest until I was cast out and had to cook for myself.”

With more light from the fire, and Gia and Donte committed to preparing the food, Pell went to the area where they’d been storing the baskets they’d been making. He picked out the ones that were more enclosed, leaving behind the shallow ones that they stored much of their food in. Taking several of them, he carried them outside where he could look at them in better light.

Unfortunately, it seemed that most of the baskets that had been made were woven quite tightly. Pell thought that he needed a relatively loose weave so the grouse could see the grain inside the basket.

He went back inside and got a few of the reeds that the women had collected for weaving baskets over the winter.

When Gia came out to tell him that the food was ready, she found him holding reeds in the mouth of one of the deep baskets. “What are you doing?” she asked.

Pell tried to explain how he thought that a grouse could push slanted reeds aside to climb into the basket after grain, but wouldn’t be able to push past their pointed ends in order to get back out.

Gia stood frowning at it, until Pell used his left hand to hold some reeds so that they slanted inwards in the opening and then pushed his right hand in past them. Then he showed how, as he tried to pull the arm out, the slanted reeds dug into his wrist making it hard to remove his hand. “Oh! Oh, that’s an amazing idea!” Gia said, “I can weave you one like that right after we eat.”

Pell set the basket down and stood to go into the cave with her. “I think the basket should be woven more… loosely. The grouse needs to be able to see into it or it won’t know there’s any grain inside.”

Gia looked up at him, “We could scatter a little bit of grain around the outside of the basket to lure them to it. Once they’re there, they should be able to see the grain inside and, hopefully, won’t be able to resist going in after it.”

“And,” Pell said, “you can teach me how to weave baskets.”

Gia nudged him, “That’d only be fair, you’re teaching me how to trap grouse.”

Pell gave her his best “pitiful” look, “But, if you learn how to catch your own grouse, you won’t need me.”

“Yes I will!” She grinned up at him, “I’m finding I like living with someone full of crazy ideas.”

***

To his relief, when Yadin woke in the morning, the Aldans fed him again. As he ate, he wondered what he should do. He realized that he’d finished the mission Jalgon and the Oppos had sent him to undertake. He’d scouted the Aldans—rather more closely than they’d asked him to— and determined, at least to his satisfaction, that they weren’t under the influence of any evil spirit.

So, he could return and report those findings.

As for Yadin’s own goals, those of leaving the Oppos and getting far from the despised Nosset, the Aldans didn’t seem like a terrible choice. Yadin thought he’d like to be mated again, and the Aldans had three unmated women where the Oppos had none.

Ontru was the young, attractive, widowed second wife of Roley, the Aldans’ former headman. Yadin found her exotic good looks alluring, but worried that she wouldn’t be interested in someone as old as he was. Lessa, the charming storyteller from the previous night, had been the mate of the medicine man, Pont, but had refused to leave with him. Yadin thought that showed uncommon good sense since he’d strongly disliked Pont. The third woman, Teda, said little. She was closer to his age and somewhat pretty. Apparently her son Boro had been Pell’s friend and had also been cast out of the Aldans. He’d gone to live with Pell in Cold Springs and he suspected that Teda wanted to move there too. Yadin didn’t feel attracted to her.

Actually, there was even a fourth. Gurix, the daughter of Belk and Lenta, was a pretty girl just blossoming into womanhood. However, she was much too young for him.

Yadin thought that Lessa was the most interesting of the women, but he didn’t actually feel a strong attraction to her like he had when he’d met his first mate Uva. He wondered for a moment if he was too old to have those kinds of strong feelings anymore.

Staring into the flames of the fire, he attempted to discern his own desires.

After a few more moments, he decided that he felt some wanderlust. Close enough to winter that a snow had already fallen perhaps wasn’t the best time to satisfy such a desire to ramble, but Yadin realized that he also felt very curious about the famous, or infamous, Pell. He wanted to go see this young man, at least from a distance. He also wanted to see another tribe before he simply decided to settle down with the Aldans. With some unease, he wondered if his desire to keep moving was because the Aldans were so thin that he wasn’t sure they’d make it through the winter. They didn’t seem to be terribly worried about it, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t be.

Yadin turned to Gontra and said, “I think I want to go see what’s happening at the Cold Springs tribe. I know you feel sure that this Pell isn’t invested with an evil spirit, but I think my headman would want me to see for myself.”

Gontra shrugged, “That’s up to you. When are you thinking about leaving?”

Yadin gave a little grin, “First I should probably get some directions on how to get there, don’t you think?”

“You should ask Tando. He’s actually visiting here from Cold Springs and says he’s going back soon. Maybe you could walk with him?”

“Oh, that would be great. Do you know where Tando is?”

Gontra waved in the direction of the cave’s opening, “I saw him go out a little while ago. I have no idea where he was going.”

Yadin got up, brushed off his butt cheeks, and started that direction. “I’ll see if I can find him, thanks.”

Outside, Yadin looked around. Belk’s wife Lenta sat on the ledge outside the cave stitching some skins together. No one else was in evidence. He turned to her, “Have you seen Tando?”

Lenta gave him an odd grin and waved off to the left, “That way.” She winked, “Then up the hill a bit.”

Yadin started in that direction wondering what the grin and the wink were about. He found out when he walked far around a corner and found Tando and Ontru kissing. “Whoops, sorry.” Yadin turned to retrace his steps back downward.

Tando called out from behind him, “Did you need something?”

Yadin turned. Even though the two lovers had obviously come out here in hopes they wouldn’t be observed, they didn’t seem to be very embarrassed. “Um, Tando, I was wondering when you would be going back to Cold Springs?”

Tando glanced at Ontru, then back at Yadin, “Not for a few days, why?”

Yadin scratched at an itch in his scalp, “I’m wanting to go there… Do you think you could give me directions?”

“Sure, I’ll be back to the cave in a few minutes.”

Realizing Tando wanted to spend a little more time with Ontru, Yadin said, “Okay,” and started back to the cave. To himself he thought, I guess Ontru isn’t available after all. Oh well, I was more interested in Lessa anyway. He wondered what it meant that Ontru could be found kissing Tando so soon after her mate’s death. He shrugged. From what I hear, being Roley’s second wife might not have been all that great. Maybe she’s glad he’s gone.

Yadin walked back down to the cave, I’d just as well assemble my pack while I’m waiting for Tando. Then I’ll be ready to go once he gives me directions. He wondered if he should offer to take Teda, the mother of Pell’s friend Boro with him to Cold Springs, but decided it’d complicate his life. No use asking for even more problems.

Yadin paused. Gurix, the girl just blossoming into her womanhood was standing in his path. “Hello,” he said, then made to walk around her.

She said, “Gontra says you’re going to Cold Springs?”

Yadin nodded.

“Take me with you? I really want to go.”

Yadin blinked, wondering what this was about. Could she be realizing that there are too many women in the Aldans and thinking that because I’m unmated I might want her? “Um…” he said, wondering what to do. “Do you have your parents’ approval?” He wasn’t sure what exactly they might not approve. Her leaving them before she was fully a woman? Her traveling with a stranger? If that was her intent, he doubted they would approve of her mating with a man his age, though he knew some tribes favored young girls marrying older, established men.

She glanced back over her shoulder, “Um, sure.”

Yadin stared at her for a moment and she started fidgeting. Finally he said, “Let’s go talk to them about it then.”

“No!” She looked very frustrated. “No, they don’t understand. I’m in love…” She looked down, toeing a pebble in the path. “They just don’t know what it’s like!”

Yadin shrugged, “I suspect they’ve been in love themselves.”

She shook her head disconsolately, “No,” she whispered hoarsely, “not like this.”

Everyone thinks their own love is the most powerful, Yadin thought. They’re sure it’s stronger than anything to have ever come over a member of mankind before. He thought about how much he’d loved Uva. “Who are you in love with?” Yadin asked, curious.

“Pell…”

***

Pell laughed. He’d thought that basket weaving would be easy, but now that he was actually doing it, he found it… frustrating. While it appeared that Gia’s fingers were flying as they twisted the reeds in and around one another, his own fingers were struggling just to get started.

Gia looked over at him and lifted an eyebrow, “It’s good to see that there’s at least something that you’re not good at.”

Pell gave her a startled glance. So far in his life his deficiencies had been pointed out to him so often that he thought she must be joking. “I’m only good at a few things!”

Gia snorted, but said nothing.

“Really! I’m…” He stopped, realizing that he really didn’t want to tell the beautiful girl who claimed she loved him—despite being much too good for him—all the things he’d failed at.

Eyes twinkling, she said, “You’re what?”

His face heating, he said a little sullenly, “There are lots of things I’m not good at.”

“For instance?”

“Um,” he paused, now not wanting to roll out the litany of his failures. Finally he said, “I’m not a very good throw.”

Gia giggled, “I saw you hit that grouse!”

Pell mumbled a response.

“What?”

“I was lucky,” Pell said, now feeling frustrated that she’d dragged it out of him.

“Uh-huh, and the grouse under the grapes?”

“I was lucky that time too,” Pell said, knowing his face was blushing for no good reason.

Gia snickered, “Well, I may disagree by thinking that you are good at many things, but,” she eyed his basket, “you’re bad enough at basket weaving to balance your skills in a lot of other areas.”

Pell looked down at the mess his fingers had made of the basket while he’d been trying to respond to her. He had to laugh as well. “You’re right. This is terrible!” He started pulling it back apart.

“Do you think this is deep enough?” Gia asked, eyeing the basket she’d been weaving.

Pell looked at it. Though he’d barely gotten started, she’d nearly finished. The basket she’d shaped was nicely woven. He thought it’d hold a couple grouse, though he doubted more than one would get in the trap at one time. There was room at the end for the inward pointing spikes that he hoped would keep the grouse from leaving once they’d gotten inside. “Um, it’s very nice…”

“Nice, but what?” Gia asked, evidently fully aware of the hesitation in his response.

“Uh, you’ve woven it so nicely… um, I don’t think the grouse will be able to see the grain inside.”

Gia’s eyes jumped back to the basket she’d been making and widened. Then she burst into laughter. “You’re right! I’m so used to weaving tightly so things won’t fall out that I just went right back to it!” She gave him a sly look, “And you’re so good at not hurting people’s feelings that you weren’t even going to tell me, were you?”

Pell cleared his throat, “I’m not very good at it! Otherwise, you wouldn’t have known I thought there was anything wrong!”

Gia gave her basket a rueful look, “Well, I guess I’d just as well take this apart.”

“Maybe not.” Pell shrugged, “We don’t know, maybe grouse find their grain by smell or something. Now that you’ve nearly finished that one, we should set it up and try it out.”

“Okay,” Gia said dubiously, “how should we make the little door that traps the birds inside?”

“Door?” He turned and looked at the door flap over the opening of their cave. “You’re right! A door that only opens one way would probably work.” He narrowed his eyes at the basket, “But it can’t be a leather flap like we have over the mouth of the cave, the birds wouldn’t be able to see that there was an opening.”

“I thought you were going to make it out of stiff reeds?”

“Yes, but I was just thinking of them as spikes that would poke the birds if they tried to leave the trap, not as an entire door.”

Gia looked at the cave, then the basket. “I think the spikes would be the easiest.” She pushed a couple of reeds through the weave of the basket so they pointed inward from the basket’s mouth. “You mean something like this?”

“Yes!” Pell said startled once again by how easy she’d made it look, “Though, I think you need to secure them better.”

She thumped him on the arm, “Of course I do. I’m just asking if this is how you want them positioned.” She started winding them into place with a slender weaver.

A little while later, they walked out to where the grouse had been eating their grain the day before. Pell set Gia’s basket down in the middle of that area. She’d brought a handful of grain and she scattered half of it around the basket. She pushed her hand in through the opening and dumped the rest of it inside the basket. “Um, Pell?”

Pell had been looking at a couple of small birds across the meadow, wondering if they could get in and out of the basket between the blocking reeds to steal the grain. Absently, he turned back to Gia, “Yes?”

“Your trap trapped my hand!” she laughed. I think I need your help getting my hand out!”

Pell turned to study the situation. He looked at Gia and grinned, “Perfect! A trap for beautiful girls!”

She glared at him, “What you have, is a trap for angry girls. If you don’t want to have come up with a trap for furious girls, you’ll help me get my hand out of it right now!”

“Oops, I guess I’ll have to work on the design a little more,” Pell said reaching in to push the reeds aside so she could pull her hand out. He studied the basket for a moment, then said, “If the weave was looser, we could tie some thongs to these reeds that came out through the weave in the basket. Then you could pull on them from the outside with your other hand to get your hand out.”

Gia snorted, “If the weave was looser, I could just drop the grain into the basket through the openings.”

Pell looked back at the basket, “Um, I guess you’re right. But, the basket needs to be woven tightly on the bottom so that the grain won’t fall out.” He tilted his head, “And, we need to do something so the basket won’t roll over and dump the grain.” He looked up at her, “Can you weave it so it’s tight on one side and the bottom side’s flat so that it won’t roll?”

“Yes,” she said, with a long suffering tone. “But, maybe it’d be better if you drove a stake down through the holes in the loose weave and into the ground. That would keep it from rolling, and from blowing away. You could put a curved piece of stiff leather on the bottom to hold the grain.”

“Oh,” Pell said, chagrined, “that’d be a good idea.”

Gia stood up and dusted her hands, “We’ve learned a lot. The next one’ll be better, but we’d just as well see if this one will catch anything.”

***

As Yadin walked along the big river that led to Cold Springs ravine he gnawed thoughtfully on a piece of the amazing “spirit meat” the Aldans had given him. He found it hard to believe that a tribe that had been going hungry right before the onset of winter was willing to part with any food, much less something as exotic as the tough meat with the smoky flavor.

Actually, when he’d first put a piece of the hard goat jerky in his mouth he’d thought that the meat had been ruined. It felt hard and smelled smoky, which made him think it’d been burned or something. He could tell that it was actually meat, but its texture didn’t seem at all like meat! Moments after he’d put it in his mouth, the smoky, meaty flavor filled his senses and he’d begun to think of it as some kind of exotic delight. When they told him that it was the meat that didn’t spoil he’d been dumbfounded.

Even during the brief time he’d been there at the Aldans’ cave, their hunters had come in several times carrying small animals. Yadin had already asked Gontra how they hunted so successfully for small quick creatures like rabbits and Gontra had told him it was Pell’s secret.

That hadn’t kept Yadin from also asking Belk. Belk had given him an odd smile, then said, “That’s another thing you’ll need to ask the Bonesetter.”

Yadin had frowned, “Bonesetter?”

“Pell,” Belk had said, looking surprised that Yadin didn’t know who he was talking about.

Narrowing his eyes, Yadin had said, “Why do you call him ‘Bonesetter’?”

Belk had shrugged, “That’s the first amazing thing he did. First he set his own finger, then Gontra’s finger, then Tando’s wrist. I’ve heard that he’s set the bones on several other people since he’s been at Cold Springs.”

“So you’re saying… this boy, Pell, not only taught you a new way to hunt, but also a way to preserve meat, and that… he’s a bonesetter?”

“Yeah,” Belk had snorted in disgust, “pretty good for a boy we turned out to die, huh?”

As he mused on this, Yadin saw movement on the trail ahead of him. He quietly stepped off the path and behind a large tree. He looked up to make sure he could reach a sturdy branch in case he needed to climb away from a big predator. He also freed up his spear in case a deer was on the path. Nothing quite improved your welcome like arriving at a tribe’s cave carrying a substantial animal so everyone could have a feast.

After a moment he was able to see that it was a young man coming toward him. Stepping out from behind the tree, Yadin raised a hand and said, “Hello.”

The man stopped abruptly to eye Yadin warily, “Hello. My name is Woday, I come in peace.”

“I’m Yadin. Where are you going?”

“Cold Springs ravine, how about you?”

Yadin smiled, “That’s where I’m going, do you live there?”

“No,” the young man laughed, “I was hoping you did. I’m not sure how to find it. I’ve come a long way with limited directions. Do you know where it is?”

“No,” Yadin said, “but according to my directions, it should be up the next stream, back the way you came from.”

“Damn,” Woday said with a frustrated but amused expression, “I wondered if that was the right stream because the water was cold. But by my count of the tributaries, it should be the next one or the one after that.”

Yadin shrugged, “Well, perhaps you’re right and I’m wrong.” He glanced back behind him, “It’s a long way back to the last stream I crossed. How far is it to the one you passed?”

Woday looked back over his shoulder, “Not very far. Shall we go back that way together?”

“Sure,” Yadin said. Woday turned and they continued the way Yadin had been going. He turned to Woday, “Why are you going to Cold Springs?”

“I’m going to ask if the Bonesetter will take me as an apprentice and teach me his art.”

Yadin coughed to cover his surprise. “Bonesetter?” He wondered if this Woday knew how young this bonesetter was supposed to be.

Woday gave Yadin a surprised look, “You hadn’t heard? There’s a man there who puts broken bones back in place!”

“How did you hear about him? Did he treat someone you know?”

“No, my tribe lives far to the west. But he treated a boy at Aganstribe, a tribe between here and there. The boy had a broken leg which was horribly deformed, but the Bonesetter put it back in place. The story spread from tribe to tribe until even we heard about it. I’m told that the boy walks better now than he did before he was injured!”

Yadin gave him a doubtful look, “How could that be true?”

“I don’t know,” Woday said, with an awed shake of the head, “but they say he can do amazing things…”

***

Pell crouched over the cold water of the stream from the Cold Springs. He held a forked branch in the water which had one of his thong nooses hanging on one branch. He’d tied a small piece of jerky to the branch just upstream from the noose. He’d seen a couple of fish in the water when he’d first arrived. They weren’t as big as the ones he and Gia had seen down in the main river, but he still suspected they would make a good meal.

They’d disappeared when he’d first leaned out and put his noose down in the water, but after he’d held still for a few minutes, they’d reappeared.

He watched tensely, then one darted forward—through the noose as he’d hoped. Pell jerked the branch up out of the water. There was no fish in the noose. It all happened so quickly that he couldn’t tell if he’d even touched the fish with the loop of leather, much less whether he’d come close to snaring it. With disgust, he examined the upstream branch and saw that his piece of jerky was gone once again. It was the fifth time he’d tried to snare one and he hadn’t really even felt the tug he would have expected if the snare had caught on a fish a little bit. I’ll never catch one this way, they’re just too fast!

He tried to picture how the fish might snare itself in one of his nooses like the rabbits and squirrels did, but just couldn’t imagine it happening with such a streamlined body shape. From behind him, he heard Gia’s voice, “What are you doing while I’m slaving away making your baskets?”

Pell turned and squinted up at her. She was limned by light from the sun behind her and looked almost mystical. His breath nearly caught in his throat. Nonetheless, he said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’d thought you were going to eat the grouse that the basket traps caught. I didn’t know they were only for me.”

Gia flopped down next to him and gave him a pitiful look. “I thought I was the love of your life and that you were going to share the grouse with me?”

Feeling terrible, Pell said, “Of course I’ll share them with you! I was just teasing you because you said you were making baskets for me. I was trying to say that they were really for you!”

Gia grinned, “You’re so easy!”

Pell snorted as he realized she’d completely taken him in, “You’re very mean!”

Gia smiled, “I just had a lot more practice than you did, because of all my cousins…” she trailed off as this reminded her that most of her cousins had died in the flood.

Pell put his arms around her, “I’m sorry…”

They sat embraced, rocking back and forth for a few moments, then she leaned back and wiped her eyes. “You still haven’t told me what you’re doing hanging over the stream?”

Pell sighed, “Trying to snare a fish.”

“Oh!” Gia said, excited. “Have you had any luck?” She glanced around, checking to see if any fish were lying on the bank.

“No!” Pell said disgustedly. “I was worried that if I did get a noose to tighten around a fish, it’d slip out of it because of its shape, but it turns out I can’t even come close to closing a noose on them.”

Gia looked thoughtfully down in the water, “Yeah, not only would their shape be a problem, but they’re slippery.”

“Yeah, you told me. Maybe I’ll have to figure out how to aim a spear at them.”

Gia giggled, “You know how I was saying you were good at everything, but you were saying there were lots of things you weren’t good at?”

“Yeah,” Pell said, wondering where she was going.

She nudged him, “Well, I guess you’re right. You missed the other day when you tried to spear the fish, now it turns out you can’t snare fish either. And, the grouse ate all the grain around your basket trap, but never tried to go into it.”

Pell felt a little stab of panic that she’d finally recognized how inept he was, but he tried not to show it. He gave a blasé little shrug, and said, “Maybe we should see if the basket trap will catch fish?”

“Fish?!” Gia turned to look back down into the water. “Really? I don’t see how, they’re not going to climb up out of the water to get in the basket.”

“We’ll put a rock in the basket so it sinks down to the bottom of the stream.”

She studied the lazily swimming fish, “And you think the fish will go in after the grain?”

Pell pursed his lips, “Maybe? I know they like spirit meat. I think they can smell it.”

“Oh!” Gia clapped her hands and stood up, “Let’s try it!”

***

As they walked up the ravine with the cold stream of water that hopefully came from the cold springs, Woday occasionally glanced at Yadin. He thought the man was old, perhaps even forty summers, but Woday hadn’t met many people that old so it was hard to judge. “Why are you going to see the Bonesetter?”

Yadin gave a soft laugh and said, “I’m going to see Pell.”

Woday’s brow crinkled as he considered this. “Pell” was the word for a flake of flint. Woday had seen the finely worked flint tips on Yadin’s spears so he thought that the man might be a flint worker, but it seemed unlikely that he’d travel a long way to see a flake of flint considering that there must be thousands of flakes where he did his work. “Pell?”

Yadin chuckled, “I believe that’s your bonesetter’s given name.”

For a moment Woday worried that Yadin was his competitor to work as an apprentice to the bonesetter, but then reasoned that Yadin was far too old to want to learn a new trade. Woday quickly looked the man over, wondering if Yadin might have a broken bone Woday hadn’t noticed and be traveling to get it repaired. Everything he could see about Yadin looked fine, so Woday said, “So, I’m back to my original question. Why are you going to see the Bonesetter?”

For a moment Yadin said nothing, then, when he began, he spoke slowly and ruminatively. “My tribe sent me… to look at this ‘Pell.’ He stands accused… of being… possessed by an evil spirit.”

Concealing a stab of dismay, Woday said, “Who says that?” He shook his head, “Everything I’ve heard makes him out to be an unusually good man.”

“Hah!” Yadin barked, at first making Woday think that Yadin had heard some truly bad things about the Bonesetter. But then Yadin continued, “He stands accused by a couple of meddlesome medicine men that I doubt have ever done any good of their own. I think they’re just jealous.” He shrugged, “Nonetheless, my chief sent me to scout him and that’s what I’m doing.”

“Oh,” Woday said. “Well, I hope you’re right and they’re wrong, I’d hate to have come all this way to find an evil spirit rather than a great teacher.” They walked on in silence for a moment, then Woday eyed Yadin, “What’s to keep the evil spirit from taking you over?”

“Ah,” Yadin said, lifting an eyebrow, “the medicine men gave me this amulet,” Yadin lifted a stone from his chest that was suspended by a leather cord around his neck. “They claim it will protect me from evil spirits.”

“You don’t sound like you believe them?”

Yadin barked a single laugh, “No! Nosset, the medicine man of the Oppos, my own tribe, is completely useless. When my wife was sick he did many things to her… Every single thing he did made her worse!” Yadin shook his head disgustedly, “I think he killed her. The other one, Pont, was thrown out of the Aldans tribe. He’s probably just as incompetent.”

“Yet,” Woday mused, “you still carry their amulet.”

“Yes,” Yadin said, glancing down at the stone. “Perhaps I’m wrong and it will protect me. Most likely, I’ll just have a ready rock to throw at anyone who attacks me.”

Woday grinned, “I think, if I were you, I’d defend myself with one of those fine spears you’re carrying rather than the stone. Are you a flint worker?”

“Yes,” Yadin said, “and I hunt, of course. I’m the stealthiest of my tribesmen so usually I scout for our hunting parties. That’s why they decided I’d be the best one to look into this evil spirit thing. Hopefully, I can see what’s going on without being captured.”

Woday wondered how Yadin thought he’d be able to tell if there was an evil spirit present.

The path they were following was narrow and Woday was walking close behind, so when Yadin suddenly stopped, Woday bumped into him. “What?” he asked, surprised to realize that Yadin had reached back and grabbed him firmly by the wrist to keep him from backing away.

Yadin turned his head a little and in a very quiet voice said, “There are two people down by the stream just ahead.”

At first Woday wondered why Yadin had whispered, but then realized Yadin didn’t want to be detected. Part of “scouting out the evil spirit,” Woday supposed. Woday searched the stream with his eyes but didn’t see any people. He also whispered, “I don’t see anyone.”

“On the other side, on those gray rocks. Beside that pool that forms where the stream bends back toward us.”

Having his eyes directed, Woday immediately saw two people crouching motionlessly on the rock and peering down into the water. Conflictingly, he both wondered how he’d missed them when he’d swept the stream with his eyes, and also marveled that Yadin had seen them. He supposed Yadin must constantly sweep the countryside with his eyes, a habit that would be good in a scout. Woday said, “What do you suppose they’re doing?”

Yadin shrugged minutely. A moment later, he said quietly, “Perhaps they’re enspelled by the evil spirit.”

Worried, Woday said, “Do you really think so?”

Yadin shook his head, though again the motion was small.

Woday wasn’t much of a hunter, but even he knew that big motions attracted the eye. Presumably that was why Yadin stood so quietly. Growing impatient, Woday said, “I don’t think you can tell if they’re inhabited by evil spirits from up here. We’re going to have to go down there and talk to them.” When Yadin didn’t respond, he said, “We don’t even know if this is the right tribe.”

Yadin whispered, “Okay. Go on down there. If the spirit captures you, then I’ll know it exists.”

“Um…” Woday said, at first intending to say he would go, but then feeling a sudden trepidation. “Let’s watch them a little longer.”

“A little longer” proved to be quite a while. Woday thought the sun had probably moved almost half a fist across the sky when one of the men on the rock down by the stream finally moved. The guy appeared to be pulling one hand over the other for some reason. Even squinting, Woday couldn’t discern the reason why. Woday’s heart beat a little faster as he wondered whether the man was working some kind of magical charm. If so, he hoped it wasn’t aimed at him. Woday was starting to lean away in preparation to bolt when, of all things, a basket broke the surface of the water and rose up to the man. Woday realized the man’s hand motions had been pulling the basket up with a slender rope he couldn’t see at this distance. He leaned a little closer to Yadin and said, “I thought baskets floated.”

Yadin whispered back, “They do…”

The two people down on the rock peered into the basket, then looked pretty excited. Woday couldn’t imagine what could be exciting about a submerged basket. He wondered if the cold water had done something to change whatever they had stored in the basket. However, he really couldn’t think of anything, from food, to stone, to wood, to fur that benefited from exposure to either water or cold.

The two people carried their basket a little way into the woods, then huddled around it for a little while. The bigger man returned carrying the basket and slowly lowered it into the water. Then he turned, joined the other man and they both started walking away.

Woday wondered what they should do now, but Yadin just kept standing there for another minute. Then he slowly started walking along the path again. Woday stayed right behind him and quietly said, “What are we going to do now?”

Yadin shrugged, “Follow them… and,” he glanced irritatedly back over his shoulder at Woday, “try to stay quiet.”

The path they were following turned and went down to the stream. They came to a ford that had a number of rocks to serve as stepping stones. Some looked like they’d been thrown out just to help people cross. Woday wondered if they should take off their deerskin shoes and wade rather than taking the risk of hopping from rock to rock. Before he could say anything, however, Yadin stepped out on the first stone.

Deciding he couldn’t let the old guy outdo him, Woday followed him out onto the rocks. When he got to the other side of the stream and looked up, Yadin stood there with a finger to his lips. Woday stepped quietly up beside him and looked the same direction that Yadin’s eyes were turned. The two people they’d been following were visible through a light screen of brush. He realized they hadn’t actually been following two men like he’d thought. Instead, they’d been following a boy and a girl. Well, a very young man. He had a boyish face with little beard, but seemed really tall, having to bend quite a bit to kiss the girl.

The couple had stopped just to the stream’s side of some trees. Beyond the trees, Woday could see a clearing, then a small ledge with what he thought was a cave behind it, though the hillside looked oddly patchy. If it was a cave, someone had hung animal skins over the opening.

Several people sat out on the ledge. Though Woday’s fuzzy distance vision made it hard to tell, he thought one of them had gray hair! He’d heard of people so old they had gray hair, but he’d never seen such a person himself. Maybe that’s the bonesetter, he thought. I hope he’s not so old he dies before he teaches me anything—assuming he’s willing to teach me in the first place.

Yadin started walking, which startled Woday. He realized that the young couple had started walking and Yadin was just keeping up with them. It looked like Yadin was timing it so that they would meet at the intersection of their own path and the path the young couple had been following. Woday hissed, “I thought you were going to watch these people from afar?”

Yadin shrugged and said quietly, “I decided that an evil spirit wouldn’t let those two stop and make out.” He turned his head front and called out to the young couple they were about to encounter, “Hello, we’re strangers looking for the Cold Springs tribe. Is this it, or are we walking up the wrong ravine?”

The couple stopped, obviously startled. Initially, Woday thought they were surprisingly oblivious to their surroundings, but then realized he wouldn’t have seen them if Yadin hadn’t pointed them out. Besides, they’d been really focused on one another.

When they turned, Woday saw the girl was stunningly beautiful. She had smooth flawless skin, straight white teeth, and healthy looking hair. She was a little plump just like a girl should be right before winter. He had a hard time tearing his eyes away from her to look at the tall young man. Woday realized the young man was taller than anyone he’d ever seen. He might have a boyish face, but he was ropily muscular. Despite his height, Woday thought he must be in his early teens and he couldn’t help but wonder what the boy’d be like when fully grown.

The young man said, “Yes, this is Cold Springs ravine.” He gave them a measuring look, “It’s late in the season to be traveling.” Woday expected him to ask them what they were doing, but instead he simply paused and waited patiently for them to state their business.

After a moment, Yadin said, “I come from the East. I recently visited the Aldans. They told me that your tribe had many wonderful secrets that it might be willing to share with me. Things that could bring great benefit to my tribe when I return to it. I decided that, late in the season or not, I should make my way here and see what I could learn.”

The young man nodded and turned his gaze to Woday, though he addressed Yadin, “And your companion? Is he simply traveling with you?”

Woday spoke for himself, “I’ve heard of the Bonesetter who lives at Cold Springs. I’ve traveled many hands of days to meet him and to ask him if he will take me on as his apprentice. From the tales I’ve been told, this bonesetter has powers that no other bonesetter has ever had.” Woday shrugged, “I’ve always wanted to be able to do something for the people in my tribe who’ve been crippled by broken bones. If he’ll teach me, perhaps I can.”

To Woday’s dismay the girl started giggling. The young man’s face turned red and Woday worried he might be angry. Woday quickly went through what he just said in his own mind, but couldn’t think of anything he’d said that would make someone mad. Then his eyes narrowed, he thought maybe the boy was blushing with embarrassment. Perhaps the lovely young lady was laughing at something the boy had done? Though he was worried that the young couple was laughing at him, Woday decided to simply wait until they got themselves in control. He even tried to be polite by looking off toward the cave so they wouldn’t feel his eyes on them.

In his peripheral vision he saw that the girl was laughing even harder. She appeared to be trying to control it, but had bent over and put her hand over her mouth in an attempt to hold in her snickers. She had a hand on the young man’s back and was patting it.

Finally, Woday said, “I’m sorry. Did I say something funny? Or perhaps my accent is odd?” He thought to himself that since their accent didn’t sound all that different to him, it seemed unlikely that they would think the way he talked was funny.

“No!” The girl said with a small squeak of laughter. “I’m laughing at Pell.”

“Pell!” Woday said, recognizing the Bonesetter’s name and turning to sweep his eyes around the nearby area. “Is he near?!”

This question pulled a peal of laughter out of the girl. “Yes! Very near!” she choked out.

Embarrassed at his inability to see the man he’d come so far to find and fully cognizant of the fact that, without Yadin’s superior woods-lore he wouldn’t have seen these two in the first place, Woday swept the area again with his eyes. Still seeing no one, he turned to look at Yadin.

Yadin’s eyes were twinkling. Obviously he also found Woday’s inability to find the Bonesetter quite amusing. Blushing, Woday turned back to the girl and spoke as politely as he could, “I’m sorry. Either the Bonesetter’s well-hidden or I’ve just gone blind. Can you tell me where he is?”

The girl had just gotten her laughter in control and had been trying to hold it by gently pressing a finger to her lips. At Woday’s request she hooted again, leaning on the young man to steady herself and wiping tears from her eyes.

Yadin stepped up beside Woday and said quietly, “I believe that this young man here is the bonesetter.”

Not comprehending Yadin’s meaning, Woday turned to see where Yadin’s eyes were pointed, thinking that he’d find Yadin looking back over his shoulder or something. Instead, Yadin was looking at the tall young man with the girl. Woday blinked and looked at the young man himself, “But…” Woday turned to Yadin and lowered his voice to a whisper, “he’s practically a boy!”

Still blushing, the boy stepped forward and extended his hand, “I’m sorry you’ve traveled all this way for nothing. Some have called me a bonesetter because I’ve put a few bones back in place, but I’m hardly the kind of expert who would be teaching others.”

Woday goggled at the boy for a moment, then belatedly put his hand out to shake. “You’re Pell?”

Shaking his hand, Pell gave an embarrassed shrug, “Yes… sorry.”

“How old are you?!”

“Um, I guess, now that I’ve lived through this past summer, I have fifteen summers.”

Woday turned wide-eyed to Yadin, “Did you know he was so young?!”

Yadin gave a little shrug, “I’d heard he was young, but not exactly how young.”

Woday blinked a couple of times, trying to take in this revelation. Then he remembered what Yadin had said when they first met Pell and the girl. With a frown he spoke to Yadin again, “And what kind of ‘wonderful secrets’ are you trying to learn from the Cold Springs tribe?” Suddenly Woday remembered the search for evil spirits that Yadin had given Woday as the reason for his trip. He realized that Yadin might be dissembling. Yadin would certainly want to conceal his true quest until he was certain about whether any evil spirit was present. He might be hiding his search for an evil spirit behind some nebulous desire for nonexistent secrets. Woday wanted to take his words back, but it was too late.

Yadin cut his eyes from Woday to Pell and said, “I’ve been told that you have a way to preserve meat.”

Astonished at this preposterous claim, Woday turned to Pell to see what he’d say.

Pell nodded slowly, “We,” he said, emphasizing the plural, “do have a way to preserve meat.” He shrugged, “We might be willing to share it with you.”

Yadin chewed his lip for a moment, then said, “I heard you’re the one who invented the method.”

Woday turned to see what Pell would say and saw the girl nodding beside him as if she were affirming the statement. Pell however, gave a minute shrug and said, “It’s the tribe’s secret.”

Yadin said, “I hear you also devised a new way to hunt.”

Pell looked more embarrassed, “Also a tribe secret.”

Woday realized that Pell had neither confirmed nor denied Yadin’s claim that he’d invented meat preservation and a new method of hunting. On the other hand, Pell hadn’t denied the possibility that there was a way to preserve meat and a new way to hunt. In fact, adding to Woday’s confusion by claiming that the methods were secrets belonging to the tribe, Pell didn’t necessarily confirm that they actually existed. He wondered whether the boy hadn’t actually invented the methods… or whether he was surprisingly humble.

Most likely, Woday decided, there weren’t any new ways to hunt or methods to preserve meat.

He hoped that didn’t mean that the whole “bone setting” thing was a myth as well. Feeling terribly disappointed, Woday plaintively asked, “Why do people think you’re such an amazing bonesetter then?”

The girl hotly said, “Because he is!”

“But,” Woday said weakly, “he said…”

She interrupted him, “He said he’d only set a few bones, right? Make that five different people! Much more important than the fact that he set some bones, is how they turned out! The people whose bones he’s put back in place hardly have any deformity! They’re not crippled! That’s what matters!” she said, her eyes flashing.

Pell touched her on the shoulder, “But Gia, if he wants to learn bone setting, he’s going to want to learn it from an older and more experienced bonesetter than I am. I’ve just got the one trick…”

“You have more than one trick! Don’t forget what you did for Panute! She’d have died!”

Pell pursed his lips, looking uncertain, “I didn’t know that it would work. I just guessed…”

Woday blinked, “What was wrong with Panute?”

Pell looked like he was about to speak, but Gia rode over whatever he’d been about to say, “Panute’s fingers had been crushed by a tree in the river and she’d developed the wound fever. She was already listless and weak when we brought her to Pell. She’d have died in a few more days.”

Frowning, Woday said, “A bone setting wouldn’t help wound fever… would it?”

Gia arched an elegant eyebrow, “He didn’t do a bone setting.”

“What did he do? Some special kind of poultice? A ceremony?” Woday felt disappointed, he’d learned herbal lore and magical ceremonies from the medicine men in his area, but hadn’t been able to convince himself that they did much good.

Gia leaned forward and practically whispered, “He cut the fingers off!”

Woday rocked back, shocked to his very core. “What!” he gasped.

“Why not?” Gia said. “The fingers were crushed. Even if they’d healed they would’ve been useless. And, they were killing her! It seems so obvious now, but Pell was the only one who saw the solution was to cut them off.”

Still horrified, Woday said doubtfully, “And you’re saying it worked?”

“Come with me,” Gia said turning toward the meadow, “you can meet her.”

Pell glanced curiously at Yadin and Woday, as if wondering whether they would follow, then started after Gia himself. Woday suddenly realized that Pell had a pair of large trout hanging by their gills from the fingers of his left hand. He turned to Yadin and whispered, “He’s got a couple of fish!”

Yadin nodded without evidencing surprise, evidently having already seen the fish.

Woday realized that Pell must’ve been holding the fish the entire time and chided himself for not noticing them until now. “Do you suppose that’s what they were doing down at the stream?”

Yadin nodded again.

Woday said, “But they don’t have anything to spear the fish with!” Though it was difficult, men in Woday’s tribe did quite a bit of spearfishing. Woday loved the taste of trout. He turned his eyes back to the fish, looking for spear wounds and not seeing any. He turned his eyes back to Yadin, “I don’t think those fish’ve been speared!”

Crinkles appeared around Yadin’s eyes as he nodded one more time. Woday suspected that Yadin found Woday’s slow and stumbling cognizance of the situation amusing. This time though, Yadin spoke, “Perhaps Pell’s new hunting method extends to fish.”

Woday’s eyes turned back to the fish. How can you hunt fish without a spear? He knew some people could throw rocks accurately enough to kill small animals, but he felt certain that no one could throw a rock hard enough to kill a fish while it was underwater. Maybe these fish were right under the surface?

As they crossed the meadow, Woday saw a young boy carrying an arm-load of wood lift the section of animal skins and enter where Woday had thought there might be a cave. Moments later he stepped back outside. Gia called out, “Falin, we have visitors. Come show them your ankle.”

The boy turned and ran toward them, Woday wondering why he’d want to see a boy’s ankle, then noting a faint limp. Could this be the boy we heard about?! The boy with the broken leg that was so badly deformed? The boy ran up, grinning, then stopped and held his foot up in the air. Proudly, he wiggled the ankle up and down.

Gia turned to Woday and said, “This is my brother, Falin. He broke his ankle badly in mid-summer and it was terribly deformed. We’d heard what Pell could do, and after several others had tried to straighten his leg we brought him to Pell. We’d thought Falin would never walk, but, as you’ve just seen, he even runs with barely a limp!”

This could be the boy with the broken leg that we heard about! Woday thought. If so, I guess he doesn’t run better than he did before he broke his leg, but he runs awfully well! To Gia, Woday said, “Are you from Aganstribe?”

She nodded, “We were, but now we’ve moved here and joined the Cold Springs tribe.” She resumed walking and waved ahead, “That’s Panute sitting on the ledge in front of our cave.”

Woday saw the person with the gray hair he’d noted from afar and realized it was a woman. He wondered if she could be Panute. He tried to look at her hands, but the woman was still far enough away that he couldn’t tell if any fingers were missing. As they continued to approach, Woday could see better and realized that all ten of the woman’s fingers were present. He looked at the woman next to her, a pretty woman that looked like someone… then he realized she looked like Pell. He turned to look at Pell then back at the woman. This must be his mother!

Pell’s mother also had all of her fingers, so now Woday’s eyes glanced at the third woman’s hands. The index and long fingers on one hand were missing! Woday saw that they were gone from about the mid-palm onward, a large scar showing that she hadn’t been born that way, they’d actually been cut off. Woday gingerly felt his own hand and realized they’d been cut off through the bones of the palm! How could that have been done? Woday wondered. Cutting through bone was difficult. Despite the missing fingers, Woday realized that Panute was dexterously using the remaining fingers to weave a basket. He thought she was doing about as well as any basket weaver he’d ever watched!

They’d all stopped in front of the three women and Gia now said somewhat formally, “Agan, I present to you two strangers, come to visit the Cold Springs tribe. I would tell you their names, but they haven’t given them. One,” she indicated Yadin, “is interested in our secrets for preserving meat and hunting without spears. The other,” she flipped a hand at Woday, “has come to apprentice himself to the Bonesetter.” Evidently, she still found Woday’s aspirations humorous as she appeared to be stifling a grin.

Also apparently suppressing a smile, the old woman said, “Welcome, nameless ones.”

Yadin said, “I deeply apologize. I certainly didn’t intend to withhold my name.” He placed a hand on his chest, “I’m Yadin, of the Oppos, to the east.”

Agan glanced at Pell,” I thought the Aldans were east of us?”

Yadin said, “Even further east. The next tribe beyond the Aldans.”

“Ah,” Agan said, “thank you for introducing yourself.” She turned her eyes to Woday.

Woday straightened and placed a hand on his own chest. “I also apologize for not introducing myself. I’m Woday of the Falls-people,” he waved toward the descending sun, “far west of here. Beyond even Aganstribe. Are you Agan of Aganstribe?” Woday had heard of a very old woman who led that tribe and wondered if Agan could be her.

The old woman nodded, “Though, now, I’m Agan of the Cold Springs tribe. A terrible flood came to Aganstribe and there were few survivors. Those of us who remain have joined with the people here at Cold Springs.” She waved to her left, “I make Donte and Panute known to you.” She waved at the boy, “I believe you’ve already met Falin.”

Woday looked at Falin, saying, “Yes, Falin is why I came here. Rumors of how well he did after breaking his leg made their way to us at the Falls. We were told that his leg was twisted and badly bent?”

Agan nodded solemnly, “Several medicine men in our area tried unsuccessfully to straighten it.” Her eyes flicked momentarily to Pell, but then back to Woday, “The Bonesetter straightened it on his first try. As you can see it’s healed so well you can hardly tell there was a problem.” Her eyes went to Panute’s leg, “Panute also broke her leg when our tribe was devastated by a flood. The Bonesetter applied those healing sticks to it. It seems to be doing very well, though it’s not fully healed yet.”

Woday’s eyes shot to Panute’s leg. He hadn’t really looked at the leg. He’d been trying to take in her hand injury without staring and hadn’t even noticed the wooden splints that were tied to her leg. Why, he wondered, would you tie sticks to a broken leg? “We of the Falls-people had heard that something bad had happened to Aganstribe, but I didn’t know what it was. I’m sorry to hear that many of your people died.”

“It was awful,” the old woman said, her voice trembling with sadness. “Of our entire tribe, only six are left.”

Woday felt horrified. Six was far too few to form a reasonable tribe. “No wonder you joined with the people here at Cold Springs! It’s a good thing their tribe was small enough to accept new members.” Woday didn’t say it, but he found it hard to believe that any tribe would accept six new members just before winter. Six new mouths to feed at the beginning of the hungry times!

Donte laughed, “Our tribe was certainly small enough to accept new members. There were only three of us! Having new members from Aganstribe is a boon.”

Wide-eyed, Woday turned to Agan, “Did those of you from Aganstribe manage to salvage your winter supplies and bring them here?”

Agan barked a laugh, “No.”

Woday’s heart sank. If a ravaged tribe of six with a dearth of supplies had joined with a tribe of three just before winter, they’d be very lucky to make it through the starving months alive, much less willing to take on an apprentice who’d brought only knowledge and some shell jewelry as compensation for his training. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he mumbled, not knowing what else to say.

“So,” Agan said with a smile, “would you like to take your evening meal with us?”

“We would,” Yadin shrugged, then made it obvious he was thinking along the same lines as Woday, “but I’m afraid we don’t have any food to contribute and I’m sure you have little to spare.”

Woday’s stomach grumbled. He hadn’t had any food since early that morning and had little prospect of getting any this evening. However, he agreed with Yadin, they shouldn’t take any food.

Agan laughed, “Don’t worry, we have food. You can see that Pell’s got a couple of big, fine-looking trout. Deltin and Manute are coming up behind you, bringing some rabbits.” She looked at Woday, “If you’ve lived at the Falls, I’ll bet you can teach us how to cook the fish, can’t you?”

Woday turned to see a couple of young men walking across the clearing toward them carrying rabbits. He glanced hungrily at the trout and said, “I haven’t cooked them myself, but I’ve watched our women cooking them.” He licked his lips, “They’re really good.”

“Well then, stay, tell us how to cook fish, we have no experience.” Agan gave a broad smile, “You’ll tell us stories; we’ll tell you stories; and we’ll all become fast friends.”

Yadin and Woday went out to find a flat stone to cook the fish on. Woday had described the method which involved leaning a flat stone up next to the fire until it became very hot. Then you would tip it onto its back and lay the filleted fish on it to cook. He’d looked at the stones that surrounded the Cold Spring’s hearth and decided that none of them looked very good for this purpose. When he said he was going to go look for a better one, Yadin volunteered to go along.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Yadin said, “These people seem very normal to me. What do you think? Could they be in the thrall of a spirit?”

Woday shrugged, “I’ve never even heard of somebody being taken over by a spirit much less have any idea what it’d look like.” He paused for a moment as they walked along, thinking, “But, to me they seem completely normal. It’s hard to imagine that one of them’s being controlled by something supernatural.” He stopped and looked around, apparently wondering where he might find a flat rock.

Yadin pointed towards an outcrop of shale, “I’d think we could find some flat chunks of shale below that crag.”

Woday turned that way and said, “Oh, you’re right.” Feeling embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed an entire hill of flat rocks, he started that direction.

Thinking that Woday seemed more oblivious than most of the young men he’d tried to teach to hunt, Yadin followed behind him. He reflected that the young man seemed to be very much more of a thinker than a doer. Still, Yadin liked him and had the feeling that Woday was intelligent. Yadin said, “Do you get the sense that anything evil is going on around here?”

Woday snorted, “It seems to me like a lot of evil things have happened to these people. The flood that killed so many of Aganstribe’s people for instance. The fact that two tribes joined and still only have nine people. That one of the tribes had no stores to contribute for winter; that seems like an evil thing.” He shrugged, “But terrible things happen to people everywhere. I know for a fact that bad things happen to very good people—I’ve seen it happen far too many times. The Cold Springs people don’t seem evil to me at all. Even though they can’t have much food saved up for winter, they’re still willing to let us eat with them tonight. You’d have to have a very good heart to do that!”

They’d reached the outcrop and, as Yadin had expected, there was quite a pile of flat shale fragments that’d fallen from it. Woday bent and started turning fragments over, looking for the perfect cooking stone. As they’d approached, Yadin had been hearing thudding sounds coming from beyond the outcrop. He said, “I’ll be right back,” and kept walking past the profusion of shale fragments.

Wanting to see what was going on without being seen himself, as he went further Yadin quieted his steps and expanded his senses. A sharpening of the sounds told him he was about to come into line of sight of whatever was making the noises. He eased around the corner and saw a small tree shake, coincident to one of the thuds. Frowning curiously, he kept moving very slowly forward. The tree next to the one he’d first seen also shook with a thud. This time, Yadin saw a rock skitter away from it. Someone’s throwing rocks!

As Yadin eased slowly forward, he saw tree after tree hit by rocks. It was a young stand of trees, their trunks smaller than his wrist. After a minute or so, he was astonished to realize that he’d probably seen 10 to 12 trees in the front row struck without a rock missing and hitting trees behind them. Finally, Yadin’d eased forward far enough to see the person throwing.

Somehow, he wasn’t surprised to recognize the young man called Pell.

He could really throw! Yadin had to admire the grace of his wind up and follow through. Sometimes he wound up, threw his left foot out and hurled the rock with the full force his body could produce. One of those throws actually broke one of the small trees. Most times he made a quick fling, as if he’d been surprised. These still hit their targets, though with less force. Yadin shook his head; the small stand of trees was taking a serious beating. Yadin slowly pulled back, then once he was out of Pell’s sight, thoughtfully turned and went back to join Woday.

Woday had picked out a large stone, several fingers thick and perfectly flat on one surface. Rubbing some dirt off of it, he looked up at Yadin, “What do you think of this one?”

“I think it looks fine,” Yadin said, puzzled that Woday would ask him when Woday knew Yadin had never cooked a fish. He decided Woday might be bright, but he lacked self-confidence.

Woday stood, lifting the chunk of slate. “I guess we should try it then.” They turned to walk back to the Cold Springs cave. Woday glanced over at Yadin, “What was making the thumping noises?”

Thinking that this seemed to be the first time that Woday had been at all observant, Yadin said, “Pell was throwing rocks. Practicing.”

Woday frowned, “He was hitting trees?”

Surprised that Woday had guessed the targets from the sounds, Yadin said, “Uh-huh.”

“You think that’s his new spearless method of hunting? Throwing rocks?”

Yadin shook his head, “That’s not new. Lots of people hunt by throwing rocks, especially at small game like rabbits.”

Woday shrugged, “Yeah, but hardly anybody hits anything.”

Tilting his head thoughtfully, Yadin said, “Well, you’re right. But how could anyone invent a better way to throw? Some people are a lot better at throwing, and I can tell you that Pell’s very good at it, but that’s not a ‘method’ you could teach to other people. You’re either good at it, or you’re not.”

“The hunters in my tribe told me over and over that I’d get better if I practiced more.”

Yadin shrugged, “I’ll grant that you can get better with practice. But some people start as good throws and practice to become very good, while other people start terrible and practice only makes them average.”

Woday’s shoulders slumped, “That’s me. Lots of practice and not even average. That’s why I want to learn bone setting. So I’ll be of value to the tribe even if I’m not a good hunter.” They walked in silence a little farther, but as they climbed to the ledge in front of the cave Woday said, “Now I’m hoping that Pell can teach me to be a good throw.”

Yadin said nothing, but doubted there was any chance that Pell could teach Woday how to throw better. Certainly Woday would never learn to throw as well as Pell could. Yadin had taught a lot of young men to throw over the years and Pell had a rare kind of athletic grace. Yadin himself threw better than anyone he’d ever met, but he knew he couldn’t reliably hit trees as small as the ones Pell had been practicing on, even if he took his time on every throw. A bit of a sick feeling came over him. Maybe an evil spirit is helping the boy?

Then they were up on the ledge and Donte looked up from her basket weaving to smile at Yadin. Though her words were addressed to both of them, her eyes remained on Yadin as she said, “Did you guys find a rock to cook fish on?”

Yadin glanced at Woday who tilted his piece of slate around for Donte to look at, “I think this one looks pretty good, do you?”

She glanced at it and Yadin had the impression she also wondered why Woday was asking her, when he was the only one with any expertise. Nonetheless, she said, “It looks good to me, nice and flat. Are you going to start heating it?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning and continuing into the cave.

Donte’s eyes followed Woday for a second, then turned back to Yadin, “So, you just met him on the trail?”

Yadin nodded, “He came from the west and I came from the east. He’d missed the turn off to Cold Springs. To tell the truth, I didn’t really know where it was either, but I’d been traveling a shorter distance and had a better count of the tributaries. We decided that he should turn back with me and we’d try this stream because he’d already noticed that it was colder than most.” Yadin shrugged, “Luckily, it turned out to be the right one.” Yadin felt a little surprised himself. He wasn’t normally talkative, but felt like he was practically burbling to this Donte woman. He thought she was pretty, and he’d already learned she’d been widowed. She was also more age appropriate for him than most of the other women he’d been meeting. However, he hadn’t expected to be feeling so eager… or whatever it was that he was feeling.

Donte grinned up at him and patted the ground next to her, “Well, don’t loom over me, sit down. Tell me about your life.”

Feeling oddly happy to be invited to sit down, Yadin said, “What are you thinking you could store in such a loosely woven basket?” Its shape seems so odd, longer and more slender than any basket I’ve seen.

Donte turned her eyes down to the structure her hands had continued to fabricate even while she’d looked up and spoken to Yadin. “It’s another of my son’s projects.” She grinned over at Yadin as he sat down next to her, “He has lots of crazy ideas.”

“Um, your son’s Pell?” Yadin asked.

Donte nodded, continuing to work on the loose basket. The reeds were so loosely placed, that she’d actually stopped adding new reeds and was using thin strips to bind the reeds she’d already woven so that they wouldn’t slip around. She glanced up in the direction of the outcrop of slate and smiled fondly, “Here he comes now.”

Yadin looked that direction and saw Pell striding toward them. Something about his gait reminded Yadin of a big panther. Maybe the evil that’s taken him over is the spirit of a big cat? Perhaps that’s why he could drive a lion away from his kill? Tearing his eyes away from the young man he turned back to Donte, “Has he always been so tall?”

Giving a little laugh, Donte said, “He’s always been tall for his age. But until recently, he was so scrawny that no one even noticed he was a little bit taller than other boys his age. He was one of those kids, so skin-and-bones, that you’d think a stiff breeze would blow him over.” She shook her head in wonder, “It’s just hard to believe how much he’s grown over this past summer.”

“But he was always really athletic, huh?”

Donte snorted, “No! Clumsy beyond belief!” She measured Yadin with her eyes, “I’d just as well tell you, you’re sure to learn someday. He was cast out of the Aldans for being so clumsy.” She shrugged, getting a sad and distant look in her eyes as if she were seeing something heartbreaking in her mind’s eye, “No one thought he’d be able to hunt. When he was cast out, everyone expected him to be dead in a few days.” Her voice broke, “Even… his own mother, she thought he’d surely die.”

“He got this big, and learned to set bones, all in one summer?”

Donte nodded and wiped at the corner of an eye, “Hi Pell,” she said, as her son walked up to them.

Pell squatted and studied the basket Donte’d been making, “That looks really good mother!” He looked up and noticed her red eyes, “Are you okay?”

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes again, “I’m fine. Tears of joy that you didn’t die when the Aldans cast you out.” She sniffed again and picked up some stiffer, harder reeds with points cut on their ends. She stuck them into the open end of the basket so they pointed backward into the mouth of it, “And these go like this, right?”

With an enthusiastic nod, Pell said, “That looks good. I hope it works!” He stood, “I’m going to go learn how to cook fish.” He turned and walked toward the door of the cave.

Yadin stared at what Donte had woven. She was sticking more of the stiff sharp reeds into its mouth. A more useless looking basket he’d never seen. “What in the world are you going to use that basket for?”

Donte gave him a sly grin, “You’ll have to have Agan’s permission before I can tell you something like that.” She shrugged, “Besides, it might not work the way we think it will…” She gave the basket a measuring look, “In which case,” she snorted, “we’ll just be using it to keep the fire burning.” She started wrapping fiber around one of the sharp reeds, but looked at him while her fingers kept working. “So, tell me about yourself. Were you born into the Oppos?”

“No, I fell in love with a pretty girl named Uva at a summer tribal gathering. She didn’t want to leave her family in the Oppos, so, after we mated we joined her tribe.” He shrugged, “I would have done anything to make her happy. We visited my old tribe a few times after that, but…”

To his surprise, Yadin found himself telling Donte his life story. In fact, telling her more of it than he’d told anyone since Uva. Every time he ran down, she’d ask a question that would keep him going. A couple of times he thought he should try to learn about her life, but then she’d have another question and he’d once again find himself answering in more detail than he’d expected.

Woday felt proud of himself. The people of Cold Springs had given him numerous compliments on the fish. He kept reminding himself that they’d never had fish before, so they really had no idea whether he’d done a good job cooking or not. They just liked the taste of the big trout. However, he did think he’d done a surprisingly good job of cooking it, especially having never done more than watch the women cook it back home.

He’d known how to clean the fish and filet it, those were common men’s tasks among the Falls-people. As he’d done so, he’d carefully inspected the fish for evidence that they’d been speared in case he’d missed it before.

He hadn’t found any spear wounds.

Shaking his head wonderingly, he’d next wondered how to judge when the rock was hot enough. There he suspected he’d just gotten lucky. When he’d laid the fillets on the rock they had sizzled much the same as when the women did it back home.

To his astonishment, the beautiful Gia had asked him if salt was good on fish. He’d only ever had fish with salt on it once in his life, but it had been wonderful. He knew it improved the flavor of most foods. When he’d nodded, she’d gone off into a corner and come back with a small leather bag full of salt! He’d spread a pinch of the precious stuff over the fish and thought the salt was a huge part of the reason everyone thought he was such a good cook.

Back home, any man would have felt insulted to be called a cook, but the men in this tribe seem to take it in stride. Certainly, Pell had evinced intense interest in how he cooked the fish, asking question after question. Woday hadn’t really known the answers to many of the questions, but Pell had persisted, asking for Woday’s best guesses and seeming satisfied with that. The two fish hadn’t been enough for ten people, but the Springs people had prepared their rabbits into a thick stew which was better than he’d ever had before. He suspected that they’d actually put salt in the stew as well and wondered where they went to trade for the precious material. The only salt he’d ever had come up with traders from the sea.

The Cold Springs people hadn’t stinted on the food either. At first, he’d thought it only natural to eat all the rabbit and fish; that’s what everyone did since meat went bad if you didn’t consume it. Then, he’d remembered Yadin’s claim that these people could preserve meat somehow. The mere fact that they ate all the fish and the rabbits they’d gotten suggested to him that the preservation claim must be false. Otherwise, surely they would have saved some aside to preserve for use later in the winter. They also ate more grain, roots, and apples than he’d have expected. He did see that their cave had stores of these foods in it, and more than he’d have expected considering that the six members of Aganstribe had only arrived very recently. However, they certainly didn’t look like they had enough to last the winter for nine people so he’d have been expecting them to husband those resources.

Thinking about the cave, Woday nudged Yadin, who sat next to him. He minutely indicated the wall they’d built for the cave and whispered, “You noticed that they enclosed a shallow cave to make it into a nice deep one?”

Yadin nodded.

Continuing to speak at a barely audible level, Woday said, “Have you ever seen a wall made out of sticks and mud like that before?”

Looking mildly amused, Yadin nodded again.

Feeling surprised, Woday said, “I’ve never even heard of anything like this, and I know a lot of tribes in our area who would like to be able to close in caves like this. Is it common here in the East?”

Yadin shook his head and also spoke quietly, “The only place I’ve seen it before was in the Aldans cave.”

“Oh,” Woday said considering this information, “so Pell and Donte learned it from them?”

“No,” Yadin said with an amused little snort, “Pell taught them how to do it, only a few days ago.”

Woday drew his head back in surprise, then said, “Who taught him?!”

With a small laugh, Yadin said, “As the Aldans told me Pell had explained it, cold breezes and blowing rain were a problem in this cave. First he piled some brush in front of the cave to block some of the wind. That didn’t work very well, so he started leaning a row of poles against the cave opening which he held in place with mud at the top and bottom. Then mud and grass and sticks filled in the gaps—the next thing you know, he had a solid wall.”

Woday shook his head, “Someone must’ve taught him, don’t you think?”

Yadin chewed his lip thoughtfully, “Maybe some kind of spirit?”

Woday looked across the fire at the Bonesetter. Pell had his arm around Gia, whispering something in her ear. Something amusing to judge from the giggle it induced. “Maybe?” He turned to Yadin, “But if a spirit taught him these things, it doesn’t seem like an evil spirit to me. I think these people seem… nice.” After a moment, he continued darkly, “I think they seem… to have fewer wicked, unpleasant people in this tribe than in the tribes I’ve known in the west…”

Across the fire, Agan cleared her throat. “Now that we’ve eaten, we should hear some stories. Woday, will you tell us a story from the Falls-people? Or if you like,” she winked, “you can make up a tale like our Gia does.”

“Oh,” Woday said, startled at the concept of making up a story. “I don’t think I could make up a story, but I’m good at remembering them. One of my favorites is the story of the wolf and the lion.” Woday had drawn a breath to start the story when the flap covering the mouth of the cave pushed aside and an immense wolf stepped through the opening!

…Woday blinked his eyes open. Pell’s beautiful girlfriend, Gia, knelt over him dripping cold water on his forehead. She used her hand to smooth the cold water over his brow and down onto his cheeks. Seeing he was awake, she said, “It’s okay Woday, the wolf is Pell’s friend, Ginja. She lived with him after he was cast out of the Aldans, back when he was all alone. Now she comes and goes as she pleases, but she’s here more than she’s gone. If you’re going to spend much time with us, you’ll have to get used to her.”

Embarrassed at having passed out, Woday rolled his eyes to the side to look across the fire and see if the wolf was still there. It was. In fact, it sat, tongue lolling and looking strangely happy as it leaned against Pell and curiously studied Woday. The Bonesetter’s fingers idly scratched behind the wolf’s ears. Woday would have sworn that the animal looked practically ecstatic about it. “Doesn’t it…”

Gia giggled, “Eat people?”

Woday nodded.

“She’s bitten people who were attacking Pell,” she raised an eyebrow, “so if I were you…” she continued in the ominous tone people used for frightening stories, “I’d be nice to the Bonesetter.” She sat back and grinned, “Actually, I’m just teasing. Do you feel up to telling your story?”

***

Tando felt bemused as they walked up Cold Springs ravine and approached the little meadow in front of what Tando still thought of as “Pell’s cave.” The fact that Ontru had chosen to come with him made him very happy. He’d always considered Roley’s younger wife to be the most attractive of the women in the Aldans’ tribe. The fact that she was Roley’s younger wife had made her completely unobtainable, but hadn’t moved her beyond his longing. Even when he’d been wed to Tellgif, he’d sometimes fantasized about having her for his second wife.

With Roley gone, he’d found himself unable to keep his eyes off her. When he’d realized she was looking back, his heart had done a little flip-flop. She’d actually followed him when he’d gone out to check his snares and when the first snare held a fat hare, she’d come up to admire it. Her touch on his arm as she expressed her high regard for his trapping skills felt… hot. Before he’d finished running his trap line, they’d been talking like old friends. Then they’d started kissing…

Tando had felt a few moments of guilt, since Tellgif had only died a few months ago. The guilt hadn’t lasted though. It’d been overwhelmed by the onslaught of his feelings for Ontru. A cynical voice in the back of his mind had told him that Ontru was thinking of the Aldans’ numbers. With three hunters, but five women—actually six if you counted Gurix who was blossoming into a woman as they watched—the Aldans were quite imbalanced. She probably hadn’t liked being the second wife before Roley died, even though she’d been mated to a particularly powerful man. Now, a suspicious voice in Tando’s mind argued that, rather than being an extra woman in a tribe with too many, Ontru was angling to be a first wife. As he’d previously been the most respected hunter in the Aldans, Tando had thought he might be sought after. Though, he thought, no man can truly understand what women want!

Even though Tando’s rational mind cautioned him about Ontru’s motives, he found himself so strongly attracted to her that it became hard to worry about her motives. By the time she said she’d like to return with him to Cold Springs, he’d already been planning to ask her.

As they’d been packing up to leave, Ontru had wanted to collect some of what she considered to be “her share” of the fruits of the Aldans women’s gathering that summer. He’d had a warm feeling at her surprised reaction to his revelation that they didn’t need her share because the Cold Springs tribe already had enough food to last the winter. During the long walk back to Cold Springs, he’d been grateful they weren’t hauling her share. Instead, they’d meandered easily along, stopping to make love several times.

They’d taken two days for a trip which was easily walked in a day. But they’d stopped overnight in a tiny cave Tando knew about. He’d even put out a few snares and caught a rabbit that they’d roasted for their breakfast.

Thinking about snares, Tando realized they were close enough to Cold Springs that he might set out a few snares to check tomorrow. They’d just passed a thicket where he’d had good luck in the past. He turned to glance back at it.

Someone on the trail behind them ducked behind a tree as he turned! “Who’s there?!” he called.

Whoever it was said nothing, evidently hoping that Tando hadn’t actually seen them, but Tando could still see a little bit of clothing.

Tando said, “Come on out. I can see you back there on the right side of the trail.”

After a moment, the person slumped and stepped out from behind the tree.

“Gurix! What are you doing here?!” Ontru asked in an appalled tone, though Tando suspected he already knew.

For a moment Gurix looked indecisive, then she straightened her shoulders and strode bravely down the path towards them. “I’m moving to Cold Springs,” she said decisively. “I’m in love with Pell.”

At the same time that Tando said, “Do your parents know where you are?” Ontru asked, “Does he love you?” Which, Tando reflected, showed what each of them thought was most important.

Gurix answered Tando, “Yes. I told Odran to tell them after we’d been gone for an hour or two.”

Noticing that she hadn’t answered Ontru’s question, but deciding to ignore that issue, Tando said, “‘We’ hadn’t been gone. Ontru and I left, and you followed after.”

“Sure,” Gurix shrugged, as if the distinction made no difference to her. “Anyway, we’re here now. It can’t be much further, let’s keep going.”

Ontru said sympathetically, “Gurix, you saw that girl Pell’s with. She’s gorgeous.” She shook her head, “You can’t compete with someone that beautiful… No one could.”

Gurix got a sullen look on her face, “Maybe I’ll be that pretty when I’ve finished changing into a woman.” Her eyes began to glisten and she looked away. Tando thought she knew she had no chance. After a moment more, Gurix said, “I’ll be his second wife if I have to. I just have to be with him.”

Ontru turned to look at Tando and he was worried that she’d say they had to walk Gurix back to the Aldans right then. Instead, she shrugged, “There’s no point in trying to convince her otherwise. Best she find out for herself.”

Ontru turned as if to continue along the path they’d been following. A moment later, Tando did the same, waving Gurix to come along with them.

When they entered the small clearing between the Cold Springs stream and the cave, Tando saw Pell and his old friend Boro kneeling to one side. “Ho, Pell,” he called out.

Pell rose smoothly to his feet, a big smile on his face. As Pell strode toward them, Tando wondered at the many changes that had come over the young man in such a short period. At the end of last winter, he’d been a little tall, but so skinny that he’d seemed small, and he’d been clumsy beyond belief. Seeing him with his old friend Boro, who still looked scrawny and small, made Pell’s changes stand out. Now, at the beginning of this winter, Pell was taller than any man Tando had known, excepting perhaps the massive Roley. And his movements… they were no longer clumsy. Instead they seemed… graceful and smooth, with hidden, unleashed-power in every action. It seemed as if they had none of the wasted motion inherent to the way other people did things. He moves like a big cat, Tando thought as he and Pell clasped arms.

“Hello Ontru,” Pell said, as if completely unsurprised to find her there. “Welcome to Cold Springs.” He turned to Gurix and arched an eyebrow, saying, “Do Belk and Lenta know where you are?”

Eyes cast down and blushing, Gurix nodded.

“Well then,” Pell said, picking up Ontru and Gurix’ packs, one in each hand as if they weighed nothing, “let’s introduce you to the people of Cold Springs.”

When Ontru first stepped inside the Cold Springs cave, she wasn’t surprised to find that, like the Aldans’ cave, it was a large shallow cave that had been walled in with sticks and mud. What did surprise her, was how neatly organized everything was. She recognized stacked baskets of roots and grain, but there were also baskets containing other things that she suspected were food, but didn’t recognize.

There were two fire pits, both near the mud wall and relatively close to the smoke hole. One had a bare area for people to sit around it as well as various cooking utensils and pouches. The other fire pit, farther from the cave opening, had neatly laid out bedding around it.

A high stack of firewood was along one wall, and as she looked around, a young boy came in with an arm load of wood that he piled neatly onto it. She saw bales of reeds such as you might use for weaving baskets. There were bundles of spear shafts, a pile of flint nodules and an enormous stack of small animal skins.

Most impressive to Ontru, however, was the fact that everyone was busy. Donte had been outside weaving baskets until she recognized Ontru and took it upon herself to show Ontru and Gurix around. An old woman with arthritic hands had been grinding herbs and Pell’s beautiful young girlfriend had been scraping bark that Ontru thought probably came from willows. She’d been introduced to a man named Manute who was working a skin into leather and been told that another man named Deltin was out hunting, apparently by himself. No one lounged about like the members of the Aldans so frequently did.

They even had a woman with a hand having only two fingers and a thumb tending the cook fire! While Ontru was in the cave the woman deftly lifted a hot stone out of the fire and dropped it into a cooking pouch producing a fragrant sizzle.

Ontru turned to Donte and asked, “What do you have in those baskets?” She pointed to the baskets stacked near the roots and grains.

Donte gave her a grin and walked over to get a chip of something out of one of the baskets. She returned and handed it to Ontru, “Go ahead, taste it.”

Ontru nibbled the corner of the chip, thinking it was perhaps wood. She didn’t know why you would taste a wood chip, but didn’t want to insult. It had a dry leathery texture rather than being hard like wood, but it had a tart flavor like an apple! She turned wonderingly to Donte, “Is this a… a chip of wood from an apple tree?”

Donte grinned again, “No! It’s a slice of apple that’s been dried in the sun!” She shrugged, “Apples keep for quite a while as long as you keep them cool, but eventually they go soft, mushy and moldy. I think these will keep a lot longer. I know they’re not as good as a fresh apple, but I think towards the end of winter we’ll be thinking they’re a lot better than no apples at all. We have dried berries, onions, and grapes as well. Later this winter we’ll have a better idea which ones were worth drying.”

Ontru found she just couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to have fruit during the hungry months, dried or otherwise…

After Tando had turned Ontru and Gurix over to the other women, he turned to Pell and said, “Let’s go see what you were working on over at the other side of the clearing.”

Pell stood and started that way, looking a little frustrated. Boro got up to go with them. Pell said, “I’ve been trying to come up with a way to snare grouse.” He gave Tando a sly grin, “Gia really likes grouse.”

Tando tried to envision a bird running into one of their nooses. “How would you do that? Birds don’t usually follow paths… since they can fly. How would you get them to run into a noose?” He frowned, “And even if they did, their necks taper down to their heads. I’d think they’d just be able to pull back out of it.”

Pell said, “Yeah, the shape of their necks is a problem, though I wonder if the way their feathers point back along their necks might make it hard for them to pull their head out of a noose.” He shrugged, “I did have an idea for a ‘basket trap’ that doesn’t need a noose and Donte wove one for me, but we haven’t tried it yet.”

“Why not?”

“We’ve got these two visitors, Yadin and Woday. They’re out spear hunting with Manute today because we weren’t sure we should teach them our snaring tricks yet. Do you think we should?”

Tando shrugged, “I know I tried to tell you who you could share your secrets with before, but like I said, I’ve decided that they’re really your secrets. You should share them with whoever you want to share them with.”

Pell looked off into the distance, “I think they belong to the tribe. We should all talk about it.” He glanced down, where they’d arrived at his newest project. He indicated it with a wave and said, “This is my other idea for a bird snare.”

Tando squatted down to look at Pell’s set up. A springy branch had been bent over. It had a long slender thong noose tied to the end of it with the noose stretched out into a big loop on the ground. A heavy rock with a thong tied around it sat on a knot in the thong keeping the bent branch from straightening.

Frowning, Tando said, “I don’t understand. How’s that going to catch a bird?”

Pell sighed, “I don’t know. What I’ve been thinking is that if the bird were standing in the middle of the noose here,” Pell stuck a twig into the dirt in the middle where he’d pointed, apparently to represent a bird’s leg, “and I pulled the rock off the noose.” Pell pulled the thong around the rock and the rock rolled off of the knot. As soon as he did so, the freed branch sprang into the air thus jerking the noose into the air. As it went up, the noose closed on the twig and jerked it out of the ground so it flailed wildly about in the air.

Pell reached up and grabbed the twig. “If the noose closes around the bird’s legs, I think it won’t be able to get free like it might if it was around the bird’s neck.”

Tando gave him a doubtful look, “Why would a bird decide to stand with its feet in the middle of your noose?”

“Oh.” Boro said, “That’s the easy part. He scatters a little grain in the middle.”

Tando turned his eyes back to the trap, envisioning some grain there. He knew birds loved grain. Shrugging, he said, “Okay, I can picture that happening. But I think as soon as you pull the cord to the rock and it starts to move, the bird’ll fly away.”

Pell was looking unhappily at the setup. Quietly, he said, “Yeah, I think so too. Besides, I don’t want to sit out here for hours waiting to pull the string either. Have you got any better ideas?”

With a little laugh Tando said, “Not unless you want to make Boro sit out here for you.” He shrugged, “You’re the idea man.” But then he looked back down at the snare for a moment, and said slowly, “What if you put the grain on a stick… so that when the birds pecked at the grain it wiggled the stick and somehow the stick…” He ran down, not sure where to go from there.

Pell said, “And the stick moved the rock?”

“Yeah,” he said disgustedly, “but if the rock’s heavy enough to hold the noose down, a few bird pecks aren’t going to move it.”

“What if the rock’s balanced so it’s about to fall?”

“I think… if the rock’s balanced that delicately, the pull from the springy branch will tip it over.”

“Yeah… you’re right.” Pell said sadly.

Tando hadn’t been surprised to find Yadin there at Cold Springs. After all the man had said he wanted to visit. He was, however, bemused to learn about Woday. “So you traveled for… hands of days, to come here and learn at the foot of the Bonesetter?”

Woday nodded uncertainly, perhaps suspecting that Tando was having a laugh at his expense.

“And,” Tando said, no longer suppressing his grin, “how did you feel, arriving yesterday to find that you were trying to apprentice yourself to a boy?”

“Well,” Woday said slowly, “he’s not a boy. I would say… more a very young man.”

“Still, much younger than you are,” Tando said, barely keeping from laughing.

“I know,” Woday said, a faint blush creeping into his cheeks as he looked down. “But… everyone says he’s really good at bone setting.”

Relenting, Tando put a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m older than you and I’ve felt much the same as you do while I’ve been learning from Pell.” He held out a slightly thickened wrist, “I had it easier than you because I was one of the first people that Pell did a bone setting on. Having experienced the results of his skill, it was easier to accept him as a master, not a boy.” Tando looked away for a moment, then turned back. “And he is a master, there’s no question about that. Not just of bone setting either.” Tando shook his head wonderingly, “He has… so many ideas and… so many of them work, it’s just hard to remember them all or to remember how our life was before he started having them.” Tando turned his eyes back to Woday and said, “I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t be embarrassed to learn from Pell just because he’s younger than you. Hah! I’m older than you and it seems like I learn something from him almost every hand of days! He’s… I don’t know what he is, but he could teach… anyone! Go ahead and apprentice yourself to him,” Tando’s voice sounded a little hoarse, even to himself. He shook his head one more time before finishing with a rasp, “you won’t be sorry.”

Chapter Four

Woday lay awake early the next morning. Despite being closed into the Cold Springs cave by the big door flap, it was cold. He’d tucked his sleeping furs around him, glad for the grasses they had piled in the sleeping area which kept him off the cold ground. He considered for a moment getting up and putting wood on the fire, but worried that someone would think he was taking liberties.

He wondered how cold it might be outside. If it’d snowed again, that would make it more difficult for him to give up his apprenticeship idea and try to go back home. When he’d traveled east to come to Cold Springs, they’d given him some roots and grain as well as enough meat for his first couple of days, not wasting more meat since it would have spoiled before he got farther than that. For the trip back though, he wouldn’t have friends and relatives willing to give him some food for the trip.

To tell the truth, many of his tribesmen had probably been happy to give him a little food for the trip in order to have him leave just before winter. His absence meant that the rest of their stores would last them longer during the hungry months. His mother had made this point to him several times as she tried to talk him out of the trip.

Woday knew he wasn’t a good hunter. Making a trip of hands of days back to the Falls-people without any food would be problematic. The people here at Cold Springs certainly wouldn’t have enough food to spare for him to take some on his return trip. The chances of him making a kill while traveling were slim… actually, nonexistent. The only food he knew he’d be able to find on his way back was a beehive where he’d managed to steal a honeycomb coming this way. It was about half a morning’s walk from here. Walking that long-distance back home in snow… honey or not, he likely wouldn’t survive. I had to be crazy, deciding to make this long trip just before winter, he thought. It might have been reasonable at the beginning of summer when the land’s fat. Mother was probably right; I may have just killed myself.

Worse, he realized, if he did get back, some of his tribesmen likely wouldn’t be happy to see him.

He heard someone moving and moments later could see a large shadow occulting the faint red glow of the dying fire. Whoever it was stirred the fire and Woday was pretty sure they put some wood on it. Moments later a crackle of yellow flame confirmed his thoughts. Woday snuggled into his furs, looking forward to the warming of the cave.

Though the light was dim, Woday quickly decided that the large shadow moving around had to be Pell. No one else was that tall. A few moments later, he realized Pell was heading for the cave opening.

Woday scrambled to his feet. He’d been waiting for some time now to be able to talk to Pell by himself. Since Pell seemed to be almost always accompanied, either by Gia or people interested in what he was doing, it’d seemed like there’d never be a chance. He’d missed a chance when Pell had been practicing throwing yesterday. Woday could have asked Yadin to carry the slate back to the cave while he went to talk to Pell, but he hadn’t thought of it in time.

Woday didn’t have to put on any clothing, since he’d put on almost everything he owned during the night trying to keep warm. Soon he was following Pell out into the early morning light. Frost crunched under his feet and gleamed wherever sunlight struck. Woday’s breath fogged in front of him as he followed Pell down the ledge from the cave and around to where people emptied their bladders.

Pell glanced back at him and said, “Good morning Woday.” He slowed so that Woday caught up to him. “Have you decided what you’re going to do? It’s starting to look like a bad time to travel.”

Glad of the opening, Woday said, “Would you take me as your apprentice? Yesterday, Tando told me I’d never regret it if you gave me the opportunity.” Woday wondered if he sounded too desperate. A tribe like this would want every hand it could get for the big hunt just before the long freeze. They might be happy to have him. But if they realized that one of the reasons he wanted to apprentice himself to a bonesetter would be to give himself value because he had such poor hunting skills, they wouldn’t find him desirable.

Pell gave Woday a surprised look as he undid his breechclout and started to piss. “Really? You want to learn from me? You know I’m much younger than you are, right?”

Emptying his own bladder, Woday wondered at the fact that his stream smoked just like his breath on a cold morning like this. He shrugged, “It’s what you know, not how old you are.”

Pell pursed his lips thoughtfully, “I suppose I could explain the trick I use to set bones. I might even be able to show it to you on a dead animal.” He shrugged, “But to show you how to do it on a person… for that, somebody has to break a bone and I really hope that doesn’t happen!” He turned to look Woday in the eye while shaking his head somewhat wonderingly, “I think it’s pretty amazing that, since last winter, I’ve had five people come to me with broken bones.” He laughed and looked a little embarrassed, “One of those people was me, and another was Tando who only broke his wrist because I tripped him during a hunt.” Pell tied up his breechclout saying, “It might be a couple of years before somebody else breaks something and comes to me. You’d have to be crazy to wait around for it to happen.”

Trying not to sound too eager, Woday said, “I’ll take the chance.”

“Well,” Pell said ruminatively, “it’s okay with me. But Agan leads our tribe; you’ll have to ask her.”

Somebody had told Woday that Agan led the Cold Springs tribe, but it hadn’t really sunk in since he hadn’t heard of a tribe led by a woman before. Well, he thought, that isn’t actually true. I’d heard of Aganstribe back home and I’d known that Agan was a woman. I’d just thought the tribe was named after her without her being the leader. To Pell, he said, “I’ll ask her, thank you.”

As they continued silently on their way back to the cave, Woday thought dispiritedly, He probably knows the tribe can’t take me in. They don’t have enough food. He doesn’t want to say it himself, so he’s put it off to Agan.

They were nearly back to the cave when the flap pushed aside and Gurix, the young girl who’d arrived the day before, stepped out. Her eyes immediately focused on Pell. She said, “Good morning,” and stretched as people often did when they’d just woken up. However, Woday had the feeling that she was showing off in front of Pell. He glanced at Pell, wondering if Pell was affected.

Pell wasn’t even looking at the girl. He seemed to be staring across the clearing toward the other side. Nonetheless, Pell said distractedly, “Hi Gurix. I hope you slept well last night.”

Woday had turned his gaze back to Gurix and saw her give Pell a quick, frustrated look. Then she smiled and said, “I did, thank you.” When Pell said nothing in return, her shoulders slumped a little and she started down the slope of the ledge, presumably to pass her own urine.

Woday turned back to Pell. He’d been thinking that Pell was only looking across the clearing to avoid Gurix’ eyes, but the young man still appeared to be distantly focused over there. Woday said, “What are you thinking about?” As soon as he said it, Woday wanted to call the words back. He worried that Pell had been thinking how to rescind his conditional acceptance of Woday as an apprentice.

Instead, Pell said, “Just thinking about an idea I had in the middle of the night. Might help with the project I was working on yesterday.”

“What’s your project?” Woday asked. He remembered Tando telling him that, in addition to his ability to set bones, Pell had some amazing ideas. Tando seemed to think that learning about those could be as important as learning how to put bones back in place. He tried not to sound too eager, “As your apprentice, I should be helping you with your projects.”

Pell turned to him with a little grin, “You’ll need to talk to Agan. If she says you can be an apprentice, then we can work on it together.”

Tando stepped through the cave opening and apparently heard the end of Pell’s sentence. “Work on what together?”

Pell lifted an eyebrow at Tando, “I had an idea for that bird hunting project we talked about yesterday. Woday wants to be my apprentice and says he can help me build it.” Pell shrugged, “If Agan says he can stay and be an apprentice.”

Tando gave a little laugh, “You know if it’s okay with you, it’ll be okay with Agan.”

Woday looked wonderingly back and forth from one man to the other. Surely it has to be okay with more than just Pell! Agan, as their leader, needs to take into account the number of mouths they’ll have to feed with their limited resources! He didn’t want to say anything and jinx his possible opportunity, but on the other hand, if they weren’t thinking about whether they had enough food to last through the winter, he didn’t want to stay here and wind up starving. He wondered if, morally, he should point the problem out. Then he decided that if he were to point it out, he should wait to point it out when the weather had warmed back up and it might be safer for him to make a trip back home. Hopefully it’d warm up at least one more time before winter really set in.

Pell had evidently been considering Tando’s assertion that it’d be okay with Agan. He shrugged, “Maybe I have some influence, but she’s the one that should decide. I shouldn’t be trying to decide for her.”

Tando clapped Woday on the shoulder while grinning and speaking to Pell, “If I were you, I’d be hoping Agan lets you have an apprentice. You know, if you have an apprentice, you can sit back and tell him what do. He’ll have to do all the hard work.”

To Woday’s surprise, Pell said, “That wouldn’t be fair!”

“Sure it would,” Tando said, like Pell was being unreasonable. “That’s how an apprentice pays you for teaching him.”

Pell frowned, “He shouldn’t have to pay me for that!”

“You shouldn’t have to teach him.” Tando shrugged, “It’s a fair trade.”

Pell looked at Woday thoughtfully for a moment, then he said, “I’d rather he taught me stuff in return. That’d be a better trade.”

“You’re the one with all the ideas! How can he teach you things?”

Pell frowned, “I don’t know things. I have ideas, but a lot of the time I had them because I didn’t know how to do things the way everyone else does. Woday already taught me how to cook fish last night.”

With a laugh Tando said, “Maybe we should make sure no one teaches you how to do things the way everyone else does. We need all those crazy new ideas you keep having!”

“That’d be dumb,” Pell said with a dismissive snort. “I’m going back inside where it’s warm.”

Woday went into the cave with Pell and Tando wandered off to pass his own water. Woday’s head was practically swimming at the conversation he’d just listened to.

The cave was much warmer. The logs Pell had put on the fire had heated it up quite a bit. As soon as Woday’s eyes adjusted to the light, he looked around to see if Agan was up so he could ask her if she’d let him stay and be an apprentice. He saw Gia kneeling next to her. The old woman still lay on her bedding. Gia was holding a cup for her. The firelight gleamed off of Agan’s eyes, so Woday could see she was awake.

Woday made his way around the fire to the two women. Wanting to initiate a conversation without immediately plunging into his own concerns, he said, “Having some morning tea?”

Agan lowered the cup and grimaced. “Willow bark,” she said, with an expression that told him what she thought of the bitter taste.

Belatedly, Woday realized that as arthritic as the old woman was, willow bark tea must be an important part of her morning ritual. It was probably hard to get out of bed before the tea assuaged her pain. Sympathetically, he said, “Oh, I’ve had that myself. Our medicine man put some honey in it to keep it from tasting so bad.”

Agan raised the cup for another sip. Gia said, “We do that too. Unfortunately, we don’t have any honey here in Cold Springs.”

“Oh!” Woday said, excited that he might be able to contribute. “I know where there’s a beehive.” He frowned, “But it’s quite a way from here.”

Woday heard Pell’s voice over his shoulder. “How far is it?” Apparently the young man had just come up behind him, probably to see Gia.

Woday glanced back at him, “Almost half a morning’s walk.”

“Do you know how to get the honey out of it?” Pell asked.

Woday nodded.

“If we get a warm day, we’ll have to go. You can teach me how to get honey without getting stung!”

“Okay,” Woday said, wondering what would happen if they got all the way to the beehive and then it snowed before they got back. “Usually though, you get stung at least a few times.”

Pell said, “Did you ask Agan yet?”

Agan’s eyes turned to Woday, “Ask me what?”

He felt a little put on the spot because he hadn’t been able to bring it up in his own way. However, realizing that it might be better with Pell introducing the topic, Woday said “I’d like to be Pell’s apprentice.” He shrugged, “Pell says he’s willing to take me on if you say it’s okay.”

Agan’s eyes widened, then went from Woday to Pell and back. She grinned, “You know he’s a lot younger than you are?”

Woday nodded, “It’s what he knows, not his age that’s important to me.”

“Okay,” Agan said, “What do you have to offer our tribe?”

There it was, the kind of question that Woday had feared. Before he could answer, however, Pell said a little excitedly, “He can teach me how to get honey! He’s already taught us how to cook fish.”

Agan’s eyes went to Pell and she gave him an indulgent grin. Then she turned back to Woday, “Can you hunt?”

For a moment, silence stretched as Woday tried to think what to say. If he told them he could hunt, it’d soon become painfully obvious that he’d lied. It’d soon be time for the big pre-freeze hunt where all tribes tried to put aside a few large carcasses that they hoped would freeze and keep them fed for a good part of the winter. As soon as that big hunt started, the Cold Springs group would know Woday couldn’t throw a spear very well. He decided that he had to be truthful if he was to gain any trust from these people. He shook his head, “I’m sorry. I’m not a very good hunter.”

To Woday’s utter astonishment, Pell said, “We don’t need a good hunter.”

Agan’s eyes widened a little, as if she also felt somewhat stunned by Pell’s statement. Then, Woday was amazed to see that she gave a little shrug, as if acknowledging the truth of what Pell said! Her eyes returned to Woday, “We may not need a hunter, but we also don’t need someone who can’t contribute.” She looked at Pell, “You may be excited to have an apprentice to work for you, but he still has to earn his keep, right? That’s what you said about our tribe. ‘Everyone has to work and do their share.’”

Pell turned to give Woday a measuring glance, “Well, that’s true. We don’t want anyone just lying around waiting for the rest of us to take care of them.”

Agan snorted, “Except me!” She laughed, “Don’t forget about me.”

Pell looked a little embarrassed, “Your contribution is to lead us. For instance, to keep me,” he glanced at Woday, “from inviting someone into our tribe who doesn’t do their share.” He looked back to Agan, “Besides, you’re still working; preparing your medicines and taking care of us when we get sick.”

Woday put in, “I’m willing to work hard. I’ll do anything you tell me.” He looked shamefacedly down at his feet, “But I’m not very good with a spear.”

Excitedly, Pell said, “But, if you come from the Falls-people, you must know about fish, right?”

Woday said, “I know about them, yes. But,” he said, feeling the heat rising his cheeks, “spearing fish is even harder than spearing other animals. I won’t be much help to you there.”

“More help than you might think,” Pell said enigmatically. He turned to Agan, “What do you think?”

Agan’s eyes turned thoughtfully to Woday. A sick feeling spread in his stomach as she said nothing and he waited for her to tell him that they didn’t have enough food. But she didn’t say that, instead, she said, “You’ll work hard, huh? Haul firewood and water?”

Woday nodded, trying to look willing, but not idiotically overenthusiastic.

Agan studied him for a moment longer, then shrugged and said the most unbelievable thing he’d ever heard. “Why not? It’s not as if we’re going to be short of food.”

They ate a morning porridge of einkorn, chopped acorns, and some kind of mashed root vegetable. While everyone was eating, Agan announced that Woday had been accepted as Pell’s apprentice. Despite Woday’s fear that there would be objections to taking on a new member at the beginning of the hungry season, no one complained.

Instead, Deltin and Manute hooted. Manute said, “I need an apprentice if I’m going to make leather out of all these skins we’ve piled up.”

Pell said, “Woday says he’s willing to work hard, doing whatever we need him to do in order to earn his keep. He wants to learn to set bones, but,” Pell shrugged, “since most of the time there aren’t any bones to be set, you can have him help you make leather when you need extra hands.”

Woday started to worry that he was going to spend the winter doing nothing but making leather. “I do want to learn how to do some of the other things Pell is supposed to be famous for,” he said, trying not to sound plaintive.

Deltin laughed and raised an eyebrow at Pell, “Listen, he’s already backpedaling on that promise to work hard!”

Feeling his cheeks warm, Woday said, “I’ll work hard! I’d like to learn how to make leather. I just want to make sure I learn some of these other things too… not only how to make leather, but…” he trailed off.

The whole group laughed then, and Woday realized they were just teasing him. Pell said, “It’s okay, I want to learn how to make leather too.”

Deltin hooted, “No you don’t! No one wants to learn how to make leather, it’s hard work!”

Yadin watched this interplay amongst the tribe at their morning meal with some envy. These people, despite the fact that they were mercilessly teasing Woday, got along much better than Yadin’s home tribe the Oppos did. Musing over how he’d been unhappy in the Oppos and had wanted to leave, he found himself envying the way these people got along and thinking he could be happy with them.

However, he had the same concerns about food for the winter that Woday had been worried about.

Yadin found himself wondering uncharitably whether Woday had told Agan some lies about his skills as a hunter. It was hard to imagine that the Cold Springs tribe would be willing to take on another mouth to feed right before winter unless they thought Woday was going to contribute in a major way to hunting, especially the big hunt before the world froze. Yadin had watched Woday long enough to feel certain that the young man couldn’t be considered a real hunter. Woday just didn’t notice the small events in the world around him. He didn’t move like a hunter either. Yadin hadn’t seen him throw a spear, but Yadin had coached plenty of young men throwing spears. Yadin felt pretty confident that Woday didn’t have the coordination to be good at it.

Until this morning, Yadin had felt confident that this tribe would be happy to take him in. After all he brought a high degree of skill in flint knapping. He threw a spear better than anyone he knew. After watching Pell throw rocks, Yadin worried the young man might throw a spear better than he could, but Yadin felt fairly sure he’d be better than anyone else in this tribe. Therefore, they should welcome him as a hunter.

But would they do so right after they’d taken on Woday? Especially if Woday had sold them lies about his skills?

To Yadin’s understanding, Donte had been the only woman gathering until quite recently when Gia had joined them. Although two other women, Agan and Panute, came at the same time as Gia, both of them were essentially crippled! Apparently, Donte must be an astonishingly effective gatherer, because the cave had a surprising number of shallow baskets full of grain, roots, acorns, apples, and even a lot of baskets containing things he’d never seen before. Yadin wasn’t sure, but he thought the rest of the baskets might also hold some kind of food. Still, he felt sure they didn’t have enough to get through the winter, even if he didn’t join them. If he went with them on their first freeze hunt and they got quite a few major kills, they conceivably could have enough meat, but everyone knew that you got sick if you only ate meat.

Maybe I should go back and stay with the Oppos this winter. Then I could try to join the Cold Springs tribe next summer? But, if I want do that, it’d be helpful if I’d learned one or two of Pell’s famous tricks. If I could teach the Oppos some things Pell’s supposed to be able to do, maybe I could convince them that Pell’s not evil—despite what those two idiot medicine men have been telling them.

He pondered a little longer, then decided, Anyway, now’s definitely not the time to ask to join Cold Springs. Not right after they’ve agreed to sacrifice a great deal to take Woday into their tribe.

Almost as if she’d been aware of the controversy in his head, Agan said, “Yadin, how long are you going to stay with us?”

Yadin wanted to say, “As long as you’ll let me,” but restrained himself for fear of frightening them. Hoping that he might learn one or two of Pell’s tricks just by hanging around, he said, “I’m hoping you’ll let me stay another day or two. Hopefully it’ll warm up so that I don’t have to make the trip back home during this cold spell.” To express his willingness to contribute, he said, “I could help you with a hunt.”

Manute laughed and said, “We don’t really need help with a hunt until the winter freeze is setting in, but I’ve seen those spearheads of yours. We could use your skills as a flint knapper.” He grinned over at Woday and gave a broad wink, “Woday’s apprentice leather work would go a lot faster if he had some good scrapers!”

Woday feared that once the morning meal was done he’d immediately be put to work scraping skins to make leather. However, when they were done, Pell stood and said, “Come on, you can start earning your keep by teaching me about fish.” Woday stood and followed Pell outside, relieved that he didn’t hear any objections from the rest of the tribe.

Pell led him back down the trail that Woday and Yadin had first hiked in on. Remembering that Pell had a couple of large trout when they’d first met, he suddenly found himself thinking about how the fish had been unwounded. He turned to Pell, “How did you get those fish you had when we first saw you? When I cooked them, I looked them over carefully but couldn’t find any spear wounds!”

Pell gave him a broad smile and said, “Be patient, you’re about to find out. It’s one of those things that’s a lot easier to show than explain.” Pell lifted his chin, “Tell me about life at the Falls.”

As they walked back down along the stream, Woday tried to explain how the Falls-people lived. Any time his explanation faltered, Pell got it going again by asking perceptive questions. Although Woday thought he knew a lot about fish, Pell asked him so many questions that he didn’t have answers for that he soon felt like he must be singularly ignorant on the topic. It turned out that he didn’t know what fish ate, where they stayed when they weren’t out swimming in the stream, where they slept, whether they mated, or why you had to aim your spear deeper in the water than where the fish were swimming! He couldn’t even say with confidence that fish died just because you took them out of the water. All the ones he’d seen out of the water had been speared.

Pell walked out onto the big rock at the bend in the stream where Woday and Yadin had first seen him. He started pulling a small braided leather rope up out of the water. This time, Woday wasn’t surprised to see the basket come up out of the water. As Pell carried the basket off the rock and out to the trail, Woday heard something flopping about inside the basket. “You keep fish in that basket?!”

Pell grinned at him, “I don’t keep them there.” He knelt, setting the basket on the ground, then reached into the basket at one end.

Woday squatted to look at the basket and saw that the end of it had a bunch of reeds pointing inward. Easily deflecting the reeds, Pell had pushed his right hand in and was feeling around. Woday had the impression he was trying to get a grip on something inside the basket, then he used his left hand to push the reeds out of the way so that he could pull the right hand back out. Woday could see how the angle of the reeds tended to catch on his wrist and make it hard to pull the hand out. When the hand did come out though, it held another big fish like he’d had the other day.

“What?!” Woday asked wide-eyed. “I thought you said you didn’t keep fish in this basket!”

“I don’t,” Pell said. “The basket was empty when I dropped it in the river.” He handed the trout to Woday and pushed his hand back into the basket.

Agog, Woday watched as Pell pulled out two smaller fish, one after the other. “Is that why you were asking me about where fish like to sleep? Do they like to sleep in baskets?”

“No, we’re pretty sure they swim into the basket because we put some meat inside. We think they smell food and go in to try to eat it. Once they’re inside, they can’t get back out through these slanted reeds.” He shrugged, “It doesn’t seem like they normally get much meat to eat. That’s why I was hoping you could tell me what they do eat. If we put the food fish normally eat into the basket, maybe we’d catch even more.” His eyes went back to the basket for a moment, “Although, I think three fish is pretty good for this size basket. It doesn’t seem like a lot more fish would want to get in it, all at the same time.”

Woday’s eyes had gone back to the basket as well. Now that his attention focused on it he thought he could still hear something moving around inside of it. “Are there still fish in there?” he asked.

Pell said, “There’s a thing like a big bug in there.” He shrugged, “It bites.” He lifted a finger to show a pair of little bloody spots. “I’d like to get the bug out of the basket, but I don’t really want to put my hand back in there.”

“Oh!” Woday said excitedly, leaning much closer to the basket and peering through the close weave, “That’s a crayfish! They’re good to eat! You just have to grab them behind the head so they can’t reach you with those big claws they have up front.”

“Show me,” Pell said.

Woday swallowed. He’d been bitten by crayfish before and didn’t relish getting bitten again. He really didn’t want to try to grab this one, especially since he couldn’t see it very well. Nevertheless, he got his eye down close and peered through one of the gaps. He pushed his hand in through the reeds. Unfortunately, the crayfish had backed itself into a corner and had its pincers out waving around at him. He couldn’t see a way to reach around and grab it from behind. At least not from the angle his hand had entered at. “Um…”

Pell barked a little laugh, then said, “Don’t know how you’re going to reach around behind to grab him?”

“No…”

“Don’t worry about it. Donte and Gia are making some baskets with looser weaves. Then we’ll be able to see your water bugs better. We’d even be able to poke the… what did you call it? ‘Crayfish’?”

Woday nodded.

“With a looser weave, we’ll be able to use a stick to poke the crayfish through the basket. That way we can make it move out where we could grab it.”

Woday used his left hand to free his right hand from the reeds that blocked the opening into the basket. Knitting his brow, he said, “It’d be nice if there was another opening to reach in through. One that didn’t have these sharp reeds sticking you.”

Pell tilted his head curiously, “But the fish’d just swim out through it!”

“Well,” Woday said, “you’d have to make an opening that you could close back up. Like the flap over the mouth of your cave.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea!” Pell said admiringly. He lifted an eyebrow, “I’m already glad I have you as an apprentice.”

Warmed by the praise, Woday turned his eyes back to the basket, “You may have spoken too soon. I don’t know what you could use to close the opening.”

Pell studied the basket too for a moment, then said, “We’ll ask the women who make the baskets. They’ll probably have a good idea.”

Woday said, “But how are we going to get the crayfish out of this basket?”

“I was thinking we were going to throw this basket away.”

Woday rolled the basket over, looking at it from all angles. He said, “I think we should try cutting a hole in it. After we get the crayfish out and eat it, we can try different doors on the hole. That way we won’t damage one of the new baskets to figure it out.”

“Great idea! For now, we can use the basket as a way to carry the crayfish up to the cave without getting bitten. We’ll cut it out of the basket after we get there.” Pell looked down at the basket, “How do you eat them?”

“You boil them in hot water. Once they’re cooked, you break them in half and there’s a chunk of meat inside.”

Pell lifted an eyebrow and grinned, “That sounds simple enough that even I could cook them!”

Woday thought about saying that Pell might still be able to screw it up, but thought better of it. He’d just been taken on as an apprentice after all; it might be a little early to start teasing his new master.

They walked back toward the cave, Pell carrying the three fish and Woday holding the basket with the crayfish still inside. Nothing much was said during the trip. When Woday glanced over at him, it looked like Pell was deep in thought. For his part, Woday’s thoughts were racing. Whether or not he learned to be a bonesetter, if he returned to his own people and taught them how to make these fish traps he’d be welcomed as a hero. The very idea that you could throw one of these in the river and come back hours later to pull out some fish—instead of having to stand in the cold water waiting for an unwary fish to swim close enough that you could try to spear it… wow!

In fact, Woday couldn’t believe that Pell wasn’t making a bigger deal out of this amazing thing he’d figured out how to do. Woday wondered if Pell somehow didn’t realize just how important this was.

When they arrived at the meadow, Pell turned aside, saying, “I’ve got another little project over here. Let’s see if you’ve got any good ideas for this one.”

Pell led Woday over to one side of the clearing in front of the cave where a small sapling had a long leather thong tied to it. Squatting next to it, Pell pulled on the thong, bending the sapling over until it was sprung tight. He picked up a substantial rock that Woday hadn’t paid any attention to and set it on a knot in the thong. The leftover thong, Pell stretched out into a big loop on the ground, untangling a twig out of what Woday realized was a noose in the thong. “So,” Pell said, sticking the twig into the ground in the middle of the noose. “We get birds to stand in this noose by tossing some grain on the ground in the middle of the loop. Once they’re standing in the loop, all we have to do is move the rock…” Pell reached out and flipped the rock over with a finger.

With a twang, the sapling sprang back upright, the noose snapping shut over the twig and jerking it into the air so quickly that Woday didn’t really see it happen. However, the twig bouncing in the air made evident what the snare would do to the unlucky bird that had been there.

The sudden motion frightened Woday enough that he fell back from his squat and sprawled onto his buttocks. It took a moment to get his pounding heart back in control. For a moment he thought to pretend that the snap of the sapling hadn’t scared him, but realized that, in view of the fact he’d just fallen over, it’d be a pointless act. Instead, he said, “That caught me by surprise!” He frowned, and after a moment said, “I see how it could catch a bird, but I don’t understand how you’re going to get the rock to move. If you’re sitting close enough to move the rock, no bird’s going to land!”

“Well now, that’s the problem,” Pell said with a grin. “That’s why I have you over here looking at it—to see if you have any good ideas.”

Tando had been walking across the clearing to them. Having arrived, he said, “I’ve been thinking about your bird snare. How about if we tie the noose to this stick?” As he said it he began tying a loop of the thong to a bent stick he’d carried in his hand. He tied it just below the knot that the rock had been sitting on before, near one end of the stick. Next he bent the sapling over and wedged the short end of the stick underneath the rock so that the long end of the stick protruded out into the area where the twig had been standing earlier. Next he placed a much smaller rock on the long end of the stick.

Because of leverage, the small rock readily held down the long end of the stick. Tando spread the noose out so it surrounded the little rock holding down the tip of the stick, placing pebbles on the thong to keep it aligned like he wanted it. “Now,” he said, “if we glue some grain to the end of the stick with a bit of pine resin and adjust the small rock so that it barely holds the stick down,” he wiggled the small rock so it barely caught the stick. He sat back, “When birds peck at the grain on the end of the stick, it’ll come loose from the little rock.” He picked up another large twig and used it to peck at the end of the stick where he’d proposed gluing the grain. On the third tap, the stick wobbled out from underneath a small rock, flipping up into the air. As the noose shot into the air—as if to prove Tando’s idea—it twitched the pecking-twig out of his hand and snatched it into the air.

Tando leapt to his feet, to dance a small victory dance. “Did you see that?! It worked! It worked!”

Woday stared in awe while Pell stood, clasping Tando to him and slapping him on the back in congratulation. Letting go and bending over to pick up his fish, Pell said, “Let’s go heat some pine resin and attach some grain to your trigger stick!”

Tando looked at Pell’s hand, “You got more fish! That’s great, I really liked the ones we ate last night.” He frowned at the basket Woday had picked up, “Why didn’t you leave the trap in the stream to catch even more?”

As they started across the clearing to the cave, Pell said, “It’s got a crayfish in it! Woday says they’re good to eat too. Besides, we’re going to build a door into the basket so it’s easier to get the fish out.” He tilted his head and grinned at Woday, “Well, and also to get the crayfish out. It turns out it’s hard to get at them without a door.”

Tando turned a curious glance at the basket, “What kind of fish?”

“Woday calls it a ‘crayfish’, but it sure doesn’t look like a fish. It looks more like a big bug. It has pincers that bite pretty hard,” Pell said, holding his finger up to show the little pincer wounds.

A few minutes later, the three men were squatting in front of the cave with the fish. Woday demonstrated how to slice the belly of a fish open to get the guts out. When he had the guts out, Pell took them and set them to one side, saying, “I wonder if we can put the innards in the basket to attract more fish instead of wasting a piece of meat.”

As Pell and Tando were trying their hand at cleaning the other two fish, Manute and Deltin came up. “More fish?” Manute said, bending over to watch. “That’s so sad.”

Everyone turned to stare at him and Tando said, “You don’t like fish?”

“I like fish just fine. But I like hunting too. Pell’s damned ideas bring in so much food it’s hard to justify going out for a nice manly hunt!”

Deltin laughed, “As long as I don’t go hungry, I don’t care if I ever go on a hunt again!”

Woday shifted his gaze from one to another of the various men as they laughed and joked over Deltin’s assertion. Woday assumed that they were teasing him somehow, but really didn’t get the joke. It was almost time for the big hunt at the freeze that every tribe counted on to get them through the winter. How could they possibly joke about not hunting right before the most important hunt of the year—what if their joking brings them bad luck?!

Tando had glued some grain to the tip of his trigger stick and set out across the meadow to arm the bird snare. After consultation with Gia and Donte, Pell had Woday cutting the end out of their existing cylindrical fish basket. Woday was finding that cutting the tough spokes of the end of the basket, even with a nice sharp flake of flint, was more difficult than he’d expected. His concern that the crayfish inside the basket would attack his fingers once he created an opening made it even harder.

Woday glanced over to where Gia bent over Pell teaching him how basket weavers made the flat base that they started their baskets with. Pell’s idea was that, once they cut the base out of the basket Woday was working on, they could just tie the new base he was making in its place. Then they’d be able to untie it to remove any fish or crayfish. Pell was weaving the new base more loosely than the original so they’d be able to see through it to know what they’d caught.

Woday shook his head; the last thing he’d expected was to be apprenticed to a master who spent his own time trying to learn women’s work. Somehow he’d expected that a famous bonesetter would have many patients gathered around him, all in various stages of healing. He’d pictured himself as perhaps one of several apprentices who spent most of their time going from one patient to another, being told what to do for the injured people while their bones slowly knitted together. Instead, there were two patients, Tando and Falin who were completely healed and one other, Panute who was well on her way.

He certainly hadn’t expected to be cutting up baskets! However, he consoled himself that whatever he could absorb about the fish basket might be more important than anything he ever learned about bone setting. He looked up at Pell again. If I had a girl as pretty as Gia teaching me, maybe I’d want to learn about basket weaving myself?

He turned back to the spokes he was cutting and mused, I should be grateful that Boro’s decided he’s interested in learning how to work leather. At least I don’t have to do that. He glanced at Pell, I’ve got to ask him to teach me what he can about Panute’s leg. I’ve got to take advantage of the only one who’s actually healing a broken bone.

Yadin slipped silently along the path, keeping Pell’s mother Donte and the boy Falin at the limits of his vision ahead. They’d walked away from the cave earlier and, wanting a chance to talk to Donte again, Yadin had followed. At first he’d thought that their leaving together was merely coincidence, but it soon became obvious that they were traveling together. Each carried an empty basket as if they were women out to gather, though that left Yadin wondering if something was wrong with the boy. As they got farther from the cave, he began to worry that they might encounter a predator. Neither of them carried a spear, though he suspected that having a spear in the boy’s hands wouldn’t do them all that much good if wolves attacked.

At present, they were climbing a switchback trail up the side of the ravine to the plateau above. Not wanting them to look back and see him, Yadin paused beneath a tree to watch. There’s just something about the way she walks, he thought to himself, unable to tear his eyes away from her ascent. She wore furs and leggings, so it wasn’t like he could see and be attracted to her bare skin. The way she moved though, so smooth, each step so graceful… it reminded him of something…

Ah, of course… her son.

Pell moved gracefully like his mother. Yadin wondered what Pell’s father had been like. Was he a great hunter like Pell? Though Yadin hadn’t yet heard of any amazing hunting feats by Pell, anyone who could throw rocks like that young man had to be highly accomplished.

Donte and Falin gained the plateau and a moment later, Yadin started up the switchback trail behind them. He wondered why he was going to such great lengths to keep them from seeing him. At first he’d been waiting for Falin to turn off on whatever his errand was, so that Yadin could catch Donte alone where he hoped…

Well, he wasn’t really sure what he hoped for… except to spend some time with her while no one else was around. This is crazy! I’ve barely met her. I hardly know her, yet I’m following her around like some callow youth!

Nonetheless, Yadin continued on up the path. Reaching the top, he looked around, to see Donte and Falin just disappearing over a small rise in the distance. There wasn’t much of a trail, but Yadin could see by some flattened grass where they’d gone. He started following them. He hadn’t been up on the plateau since he’d left the Oppos. He looked off into the distance at a herd of some kind of large animal. Even squinting, he couldn’t quite tell what they were and wished for sharper eyes like some people had.

Yadin didn’t worry that he couldn’t see the two people he was following. It wasn’t like he could lose track of them up here on the plateau. Though it was chilly, there was bright sunshine and his furs kept him warm enough to enjoy the day. It wasn’t a bad day for traveling he realized and hoped Agan didn’t ask him why he was still hanging around this evening after he’d said he was waiting for better weather. He crossed the rise where he’d lost sight of Donte and Falin, but still couldn’t see them. Feeling a little worried, he stopped and looked around, shifting his spear from his left to his right hand. He looked down. He could see grasses and small bushes that had been pushed aside recently, so he felt relatively certain that he was still on their trail.

Yadin started walking again, his head swiveling as he looked around. Suddenly, Falin stood from behind a small stand of bushes. Donte popped up next to him. “Yadin? What are you doing up here?”

“Um, I came to see what the plateau is like here.” He shrugged, trying to look blasé, “Turns out it’s much the same as the plateau over near the Oppos.”

“I see,” she said, giving him a little smile that made him feel completely transparent. “Well then,” she waved a hand around them, “we found a little patch of barley over here. As long as you’re up here, you want to help us harvest some?”

Yadin blinked, taken aback by the supposition that a hunter like himself might participate in gathering barley. For a moment he considered protesting that he was in the midst of something manly like scouting the herds farther out onto the plateau. Then he realized he’d wanted to spend some time with Donte and this task would accomplish his goal. “Um, sure… You’ll have to show me what to do though.”

Soon Yadin found himself gathering a bundle of barley stalks in one hand and using a knife in his other hand to cut the stems. Donte had him lay the stalks down with the seed heads all facing one direction. Once they had cut all the barley in the little patch, they began gathering the stalks into bundles they wrapped and tied with other stalks. Then they stood the sheaves upright so they leaned against one another. He’d always imagined the gathering that the women did was physically undemanding, but after they’d been at it for a while he changed his mind. Next he started worrying that the other hunters would learn that he’d been doing women’s work.

When they’d stood all the sheaves, Yadin realized they had quite a lot of them and began to worry that the next step would be to carry them back to the cave. Instead, Donte brushed herself off and started back to the path. “Um, what do we do with…” he waved, “the barley?” he asked.

She glanced back at it, “We leave it here for a few days to dry. Then we’ll come back out here and thresh it on a large skin.”

Yadin had vague knowledge that “threshing” involved beating the seed heads to separate the seeds from stems. He thought to himself that he should have known they wouldn’t carry the entire sheave back to the cave when they could just bring the seeds themselves. “Ah,” he said, turning to follow her. “That makes sense.” They’d been walking quietly for a few minutes, when, in order to make some sort of conversation, he said, “That was interesting. I’ve never even watched the women harvest grain before.”

She gave him a sly smile, “Back when we were a tribe of three, Pell insisted that there were no ‘men’s’ or ‘women’s’ tasks. He’s determined to learn how to do all the things that women do.” She shrugged, “He’s also been teaching me his new method of hunting.”

That’s crazy! Yadin thought to himself. After a moment, he said aloud, “That’s… interesting. How does his hunting method work?”

She grinned at him, “You know we can’t tell you until you have Agan’s permission!”

Yadin shrugged without embarrassment, “I thought it was worth a try.” After a pause, he said, “How did Pell come up with the notion that men and women should know how to do each other’s tasks?”

“Actually, it started when he was all by himself, you know, after the Aldans cast him out. “When you’re a tribe of one, you absolutely have to do both men’s and women’s tasks if you’re going to keep yourself alive. He thought one of the reasons he was going to die was because he had no idea how to do the things that women do, especially gathering the foods that come from plants. He managed to find some tubers just pulling plants up randomly, but he was really glad when Tando and I joined him so that I could teach him more of the women’s lore.”

Yadin found himself completely startled by this possibility. He’d always assumed that if he was ever on his own he could take care of himself unless he got hurt. But the only times he’d actually been on his own, say on trips, he’d carried along the fruits of women’s gathering in the form of pouches of grain and a few tubers. He thought that he could hunt well enough to keep himself fed with meat, but everyone knew that people who only ate meat eventually got sick.

Yadin hadn’t said anything in response while he thought through this, and Donte apparently wondered what was going on in his head. She said, “Do you think that’s crazy?”

From the tone of Donte’s question, Yadin had the feeling that if he did think it was crazy she’d lose respect for him. He shook his head, “Sorry, I was just realizing that, although I thought I could take care of myself if I was all alone, I might not be able to do it for very long because, like Pell, I really don’t know how to harvest any of the roots, or grains, or fruit.” He shrugged, “I do know that if I only eat meat, I’ll get sick.” He turned and gave her a little grin, “So, now that you’ve taught me how to harvest barley, I’ll be self-sufficient.”

She gave a little laugh, “You know how to harvest sheaves. You don’t know how to thresh grain or how to separate the seeds from the chaff. And, after that, you have to get the husks off the seeds.”

“Oh,” Yadin winked at her, “I guess I need to follow you around for the next few days learning how to do all the women’s tasks, eh?”

Donte gave him another of her sly smiles, then turned her eyes back to the front. After a moment, she said quietly, “That’d be okay.”

They kept walking. After a moment, Falin said, “Yadin? Can you teach me how to knap flint?”

“Sure, what did you want to know?”

“I think I need to learn everything. We don’t have any real flint knappers at Cold Springs, so I’ve never seen anything knapped except hand axes. I don’t even know where to find flint!”

Yadin smiled to himself at the thought that this young man wanted to learn “everything.” But to Falin he just said, “There may well be some flint around here. It’s found in limestone like these cliffs we’re about to climb down.” They’d reached the edge of the plateau and they started down the switchback path. Yadin waved his hand to either side of the path and said, “Keep your eye out for nodules. Maybe we’ll find a piece you can practice on when we get back to the cave.”

Yadin pointed out a medium-sized nodule of flint as they descended the switchbacks so Falin would know what to look for. After that, he kept quiet, but felt pleased when Falin found a small nodule of his own. The boy missed a number of others, however Yadin didn’t point them out to him. The boy would be on the switchback again someday in the future and if he truly became interested in flint knapping, it’d be an object lesson for him to realize how many nodules he’d failed to see the first time.

As they walked out into the clearing in front of the cave, they were all startled by a loud “snap” from one edge of the clearing. Their eyes, drawn in that direction, saw a rock pigeon flailing about in the air as if caught on something. It reminded Yadin of a flying insect caught in a spider’s web. For a moment he wondered if some kind of huge spider lived in this area, one big enough to catch birds.

As one, they turned to go see what had happened.

Before they’d taken their first step; Pell, Tando, and Woday were rising from the ledge outside the cave and beginning to trot across the clearing toward the pigeon. Consumed with curiosity, Yadin sped his own steps a little, but, not wanting to look like someone who had no clue what had just happened, he didn’t actually begin to run.

Tando got to the pigeon and twisted its neck. Yadin had the distinct impression that Tando purposely positioned himself to block Yadin’s view of what Tando was doing. By the time Yadin arrived, the men had turned back toward the cave. Tando held up the bird and said cheerfully, “Look, we’ve got a pigeon to go with our fish for tonight’s dinner!”

Curious, Yadin turned back to where the pigeon had been, wondering just what had happened. There was a small sapling with the branches trimmed off of it standing there. It had a leather thong tied to the top of it. There was a stick dangling from the thong. He studied it for a moment without gaining any idea just what had happened to the pigeon. He turned after the men and said, “How… What… what happened to that pigeon?”

Tando turned and gave him a grin. Then he uttered words Yadin had by now heard often enough that they were starting to get really irritating, “You’ll have to ask Agan if we can tell you.”

That evening, the tribe had their food portioned out to them by Ontru, who’d led the cooking. Woday quickly got his helping of stew and a chunk of fish, but then stood uncertainly. He wanted to sit next to Pell so he could ask if Pell would teach him about Panute’s leg. Shifting from foot to foot, he tried not to make it obvious that he was waiting for Pell to take his seat so that he could sit next to him. When Pell stepped up to be served by Ontru, Woday positioned himself where he thought he’d be able to quickly move to wherever Pell chose to sit.

Suddenly, Woday realized that Gia had taken a seat next to her grandmother, Agan. Surely Pell will sit next to Gia, Woday thought, beginning to move that way. A circumspect downward glance showed Pell’s feet moving toward that open space. Woday took another step that way and as Pell settled into position next to Gia… Gurix, the girl who’d arrived with Tando and Ontru, slipped in to sit on the other side of Pell! The girl hadn’t seemed to move quickly, so to Woday it almost seemed like she’d appeared in the spot Woday’d been angling for through some supernatural power.

Frustrated, Woday decided to sit next to Gurix since it seemed his next best choice. As he stepped toward that place, he glanced at Gurix wondering why she was sitting next to Pell. Maybe I could ask her to move over so I could sit there. I could tell her that I had some questions for my Master. Then Woday saw Gurix look up at Pell… with adoring eyes. She’s got a crush on him! Woday suddenly realized. Further, he realized that if he asked her to move, she’d probably do it, but would hate him for making the request.

Woday seated himself next to Gurix, head spinning. He’d had the impression that everyone expected Pell and Gia to be formally mated next summer. Could he be wrong about that? Or could it be that Gurix didn’t know they were planning to wed? Or… could Gurix be hoping that she could usurp Gia’s place in Pell’s heart?!

Gurix was nattering on to Pell about something. Wondering whether she knew that Gurix coveted Pell, Woday looked at Gia. He saw to his amazement that Gia was watching the younger girl chatter with an expression that Woday thought showed amused affection! Why, he wondered, isn’t she furious?

Pell responded to Gurix’ questions, though Woday paid little attention to the subject of their conversation. He ate his fish, thinking that it was good, but not as good as the two fish he’d cooked the night before. At first he took some pride in his fish cooking skills, but then realized that the difference might have been the salt Gia had given him to flavor his fish. The excellent stew apparently contained the pigeon they’d trapped as well as some porcupine. Porcupines were slow and easy to kill with a spear, but they were difficult to skin. He wondered who’d done that scary job. Probably Manute or Deltin, they seemed to go hunting every day. Besides, having been with them, Woday knew that Pell and Tando hadn’t gone hunting. Yadin had been gone for a while, but he’d come back while the snare had been catching the rock pigeon and Woday knew Yadin hadn’t been carrying a porcupine carcass.

Since Woday’s experience with cooking the fish had been positively reinforced by the compliments he received for it, he found himself much more interested in how the stew had been prepared. It was particularly good and he wondered whether it’d be too embarrassing to ask Ontru how she’d cooked it. Because of the flavor, Woday thought that Ontru probably put garlic and onion in the stew along with whatever grains and chopped roots she’d added. He wondered if she’d also added some salt.

Woday felt a touch on his arm and turned, hoping that Pell wanted to talk to him. Instead he saw that Pell had turned to talk to Gia. Gurix was the one touching his arm. “Your tribe was the Falls-people, to the west, right?” she asked.

Woday nodded, realizing Gurix was pretty. If Gia hadn’t been so unusually attractive, Gurix could have been quite a threat.

“Your people live on the main river and eat a lot of fish?”

“Yes, we’re called the Falls-people, because there’s a big waterfall there. We probably eat more fish than we do land animals, even though fish are harder to spear.”

Gurix frowned at him, “Why’s that?”

Woday explained how you had to aim your spear below the fish to actually hit them. He got the impression she didn’t really believe him, but was merely listening to be polite.

At least, he thought, she hasn’t asked me if I’m any good at spearfishing.

Yadin sat next to Donte for the meal. Shortly after he’d taken his place next to her, Tando sat on the other side of him. He was wondering how to start a conversation with Donte, when she leaned forward and spoke to Tando. She lifted an eyebrow, then said, “I got Yadin to help harvest some barley today.”

Yadin felt embarrassed, but Tando slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Hah! We’ve got you doing women’s work! Welcome to Cold Springs!”

Yadin shrugged, “I’d never harvested grain before. It was interesting,” he laughed, “and, a lot harder than I expected.”

Tando looked curiously back at Donte, “I thought the grain harvest was all done?”

Donte said, “Yeah. It’s pretty late and a lot of the seeds have already fallen. Falin and I went up to explore the plateau and see what there was to be seen up there. When I saw a small stand of barley that still had quite a few seeds, I thought it’d be a shame not to harvest them.”

Tando glanced at Yadin, then back at Donte. “So it was just you and Falin?” He grinned at Yadin, then turned back to Donte, “How did Yadin happen to be there to help you with your harvest?”

Donte gave Yadin another one of her sly smiles, “Oh, he just climbed up on the plateau to look around, see if it was the same as the plateau over by the Oppos.”

Tando laughed and elbowed Yadin, “See anything up there that you liked?”

Yadin had thought he was too old to blush, but he felt a little heat rising his cheeks. He cut his eyes to Donte as he said, “Maybe.”

She grinned back at him.…

As the evening meal wound down, Yadin got up and moved toward Agan, hoping to ask her whether he could be taught any of Cold Springs’ secrets. She looked up as he approached and somehow he felt like she already knew what he wanted to ask. Before he opened his mouth, she sidestepped him by asking, “Will you tell us a story tonight Yadin? Something about the Oppos, like Woday told us about the Falls-people last night? As you can see, Pell’s wolf is already here in the cave, so you don’t have to worry about being startled by it like happened to Woday.”

Yadin felt frustrated to be deflected from his purpose. However, if telling a friendly story would induce them to tell him some of their secrets, it’d be well worth it. When he’d left the Aldans, he’d thought that the stories Lessa, Belk, and Gontra had told about Pell’s capabilities had to be exaggerated at best, or blatant lies at worst. However, by now he was starting to wonder if they might have understated the young man’s abilities.

From his first meeting when Pell had fish that hadn’t been speared, to seeing him unerringly throwing stones and then today, to witnessing him today, apparently catching a rock pigeon without even being there…

Yadin shook his head, but then smiled, “I’d be happy to tell you a story of an amazingly lucky hunt we Oppos had, though I must warn you that I’m a poor storyteller.”

Agan waved a hand, indicating Yadin should proceed though, out of the corner of his eye, Yadin saw Tando, Ontru and Gurix wincing. After all, they’d all heard his story when he told it to the Aldans. They knew that it wasn’t a terribly interesting story and also that Yadin was a poor teller of tales. Nonetheless, Yadin began his story and worked his way through to the end, everyone listening politely. This was better than he’d have received back in the Oppos, where Yadin’s reputation frequently had people jeering even before he began speaking.

When he’d finished, Tando snorted and turned to Agan, “I told you, he’s a good flint knapper, but a terrible storyteller.”

For a moment, everyone gaped at Tando’s rudeness, but then they all broke into laughter. Some laughing so hard they were wiping tears from their eyes. Yadin found himself struggling not to laugh himself, though he protested, “I told you I wasn’t good at this!”

Agan had kept her face still despite all the mirth expressed by the others. Once the laughing settled down she said, “Well, I hope that you all realize we did learn something important from Yadin’s story.”

Yadin saw several of the others biting their tongues. After a moment Woday turned to Agan with a puzzled look on his face, “What did we learn?”

Agan turned slowly to him, a serious look still on her face as she sonorously replied, “We learned… not to ask Yadin to tell stories.”

The cave broke into gales of laughter once again. Somehow, having the serious Agan make a joke without cracking a smile made it all the funnier.

Agan then called on Gia to tell a story. She launched into a fascinating story which she later admitted to just making up as she went along. It featured a lion which fell in love with a deer, and if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, went on to describe an elaborate wedding ceremony in which all sorts of other beasts participated!

Yadin never got an opportunity to ask Agan about Cold Springs’ secrets.

***

Fellax stalked back to the rear of the Oppos’ cave where Pont and Nosset were supposedly carrying out some kind of magical ceremony. As she’d suspected, the ceremony featured a small fire with dried hemp smoldering on top of it. At present both of them were lying on their sides. Nosset was giggling and Pont looked like he was nearly unconscious. “What are you two doing?!” Fellax hissed furiously.

Nosset swayed upright. Pont slowly lolled his head into a different position that let him loosely focus his eyes on Fellax. Slowly, but with an attempt at haughtiness, Nosset said, “We’re performing a ceremony to fend off disease.”

Pont said dreamily, “You’re interrupting the ceremony. Please leave before you muddle it.”

Fellax stared at them in disgust. Though it was too dark to tell, she felt certain that if she could have seen, she’d have found their eyes bloodshot with the effects of the hemp. “I think you’re just hiding back here, leglessly hemped—trying to avoid any real work!” she said scathingly. Although she hated Pell, she’d liked his idea that everyone should work harder to get ready for the hungry months ahead. She’d tried to influence the Oppos in that direction, but, though they were happy for her to slave away, only a few of the women had made any effort to follow her lead. She’d come back to talk to the medicine men in hopes that, through Pont, she could get Nosset to influence his tribespeople to work at least a little harder.

Pont struggled partially upright, then cast an imperious finger toward the cave opening. “Go! Don’t meddle in things you don’t understand!”

Fellax stood her ground, chewing her lip and wondering how to bring these two idiots to their senses. Finally she said, “How long has Yadin been gone?”

Pont still had his arm pointing at the exit and for a moment Fellax thought he’d repeat his demand that she leave. But then he dropped the arm and turned to Nosset with a puzzled look on his face, “Nosset, do you know how long it’s been?”

Nosset frowned uncertainly, “Quite a few days.”

“Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

Nosset nodded thoughtfully.

Fellax wondered whether Yadin might have recognized that Pell’s rules might help the hungry Aldans survive the winter. Maybe even survive the winter better than the Oppos were going to. The Oppos had stores of food, but not as much as she thought they would need.

Pont had obviously been thinking as well. He said, “We should send someone to check on him. I’ll bet he’s been taken over by the same evil spirit that captured Pell!”

A little eagerly, Nosset said, “We should have a big ceremony with the evening meal. We’ll tell them…” Nosset paused for a guilty look at Fellax, then changed his words. “We’ll try to divine what’s happened to Yadin, and if we can’t tell from here, we’ll suggest that someone should go to check on Yadin from afar.”

Feeling a little lightheaded from the smoke, Fellax turned to leave. The two men reminded her of children playing make-believe.

Dangerous children, since other men followed them.

She wondered how she’d come to follow Pont when he’d left the Aldans.

Pell murdered Roley, she thought. I couldn’t stay with the Aldans while they were in his thrall! Or, the thrall of the spirit controlling Pell, if you believed Pont.

Still, she hadn’t loved Roley for quite some time. She wondered why she’d been so upset over his death. Had her pride caused her to make a decision she’d regret forever?

***

In the morning, Manute and Deltin invited Yadin to go on a hunt with them. Tando enthusiastically invited himself along and asked Boro if he wanted to go as well. Woday glanced at Pell, worried that Pell would decide to go on the hunt as well. Not having much skill with spear throwing or facing down charging animals, Woday had little desire to expose himself to the derision other hunters usually heaped on him. Realizing Woday would never have much success killing large game himself, the Falls-people hunters had used him almost exclusively as a beater the past few years.

To Woday’s relief, Pell made no effort to join the hunt. As the five men started up the ravine, full of braggadocio and enthusiasm, Pell turned to Woday and grinned, “Let’s go try out your new fish trap.”

Pleased to be going somewhere with Pell, and even more proud to have it labeled his fish trap, Woday picked it up and tugged on the door they’d made at the end of it. He also got the fish guts he’d set aside the night before. Woday blinked, realizing that although he’d happily thought of the trap as his, really the only part of it that could actually be thought of as Woday’s would be the door. The concept of the fish trap belonged to Pell, yet Pell had readily given him credit, calling the trap Woday’s! He wondered if Pell really thought of the trap as Woday’s or was just such a cordial person that he dispensed recognition to others—rather than bragging like most people did.

Or, did Pell just naïvely think it was Woday’s?

Pell came out of the cave carrying another basket. It was similar in shape to the one Woday held in his hand, but much more loosely woven. Woday narrowed his eyes, “When did you make that one?!”

Pell laughed, “My mother made it for me. Then, when you had your genius idea to put a door in them, she had to work late last night making a door!” He lifted an eyebrow at Woday, “You’re not on her good side, you know?”

Woday threw his free hand up in a peacemaking gesture. “Wait! You didn’t tell her that I said she should fit it with a door, did you?!”

“No,” Pell said in a jokingly ominous fashion, “but she knows it was your idea.”

“But… but I can’t help having an idea. If it’s a good idea…” he trailed off plaintively.

“Ah, but you see,” Pell smiled, “in her mind, you should have had this idea before she made the basket.”

“But I didn’t even know about basket traps then!” Woday said exasperatedly.

Pell shook his head sadly, “I’m told a good apprentice plans for the future.”

Wide-eyed, Woday wondered if Pell really believed he should have anticipated…

Pell broke into a broad smile, slapped Woday on the shoulder and said, “Don’t be so delicate. I haven’t been able to tease anyone for months so I’m taking it all out on you.”

A wash of relief flooded over Woday, then he drew himself up and said pompously, “You’re not supposed to tease your elders.”

Pell laughed as they walked along, then said as if he were sad, “Everybody’s my elder except Falin and Boro. Falin’s too young to tease and Boro’s been sick.” He shook his head mournfully, “And now you’re telling me I can’t even tease my apprentice?! What a sad world I live in.”

Woday snorted, “I’m sure you’ll get by… somehow.”

Pell surprised Woday by stopping off at a small meadow on their way down along the stream. He walked out to an area that was nearly bare and set down his loosely woven basket there. He said, “Do you see a rock I can use as a hammer?”

Puzzled, Woday looked around and found a stone a little bigger than his fist. He picked it up, “Will this one do?”

Pell nodded, pulling out a stake and pushing it through the loose weave of the basket from top to bottom. When Woday handed him the rock, he pounded the stake into the ground beneath the basket. Pell pounded another stake through the side of the basket near the opposite end, where the in-pointing reeds made the one way opening. He tugged and pulled on the basket as if to assure himself it was secure.

Woday tilted his head as he studied the basket. Inside, it had a small, shallow clay bowl attached to the bottom of it. “What’s the bowl for?”

“To hold the grain,” Pell said, untying the door at the end of the basket and reaching in with a little pouch to pour some grain into the bowl. Pulling his hand back out, he scattered a little more grain around the basket, then started retying the thongs to hold the door back in place.

Woday shook his head slowly in confusion, “I think as soon as you put it in the water, the grain’ll float away. You should glue the grain in place with some resin or something.”

Pell drew his head back as if surprised, “Oh! This is a bird trap, not a fish trap.” He grinned up at Woday, “You’ve got the fish trap. We’re leaving this thing here. We’ll check it on our way back.” He stood and started back toward the trail down along the stream.

Woday followed, feeling as if the ground had shifted under him a little bit. Now that Pell had called it a “bird trap” Woday could see how it could trap birds just like the “fish trap” trapped fish. What shook him was the fact that he hadn’t recognized that a slight modification of the fish trap could turn it into something suitable for birds.

They reached the little bend in the stream where they’d put the fish trap before. Pell stopped and looked around, then turned to Woday. “The first two times we put the trap in the water about there,” he said pointing. “Where do you think we should put it this time?”

Woday looked where Pell was pointing. The water flowed there, but not very quickly. He pointed to a quiet eddy and said, “I think if you put it in the really slow water, over there where it’s rocky, you might get more crayfish.”

“Oh, I liked the crayfish,” Pell said with a grin.

They undid the door and reached in to tie the fish guts to the wall of the basket. They did the door back up, tied it to the small rope Pell had left there from the other times and tossed the fish trap into the stream where Woday had suggested.

They watched from the vantage of the rock for a little while. Woday had been daydreaming when Pell nudged him. Speaking quietly, he said, “Look, there’s a crayfish investigating it.”

Woday saw another crayfish beginning to creep out toward the basket as well. “We might catch quite a few!” he said, feeling quite pleased.

Pell stood slowly, “Let’s leave this for a while and go see what’s happening with the bird trap.”

As they walked back up to the little meadow, Woday felt his mind tumbling like the stream they walked beside. Finally, he said, “Why do we need the basket trap for birds? It seems like it’s easier to make the trap with the bent sapling.”

“Yeah,” Pell said. “If they both catch the same number of birds, it’s crazy to spend a lot of time weaving baskets isn’t it?” Musingly, he continued, “But I think the basket trap might catch them uninjured. That might be useful.”

“What?! Why?”

Pell turned to look at him, “What if we kept the live birds around? We’d need a huge basket to keep them in. But if we did, we could feed them some grain to keep them alive, then, sometime in the middle of the winter, we could have fresh meat.”

Woday was so surprised that he stopped walking.

Pell stopped and turned to look at him curiously, “What do you think?”

Woday stared at Pell for a minute, then said, “I don’t know. Wouldn’t it be better if we ate the grain, instead of having the birds eating the grain and us eating the birds?”

Pell frowned a moment, then shrugged, “You’re probably right. I just thought it might be nice to have some grouse for a midwinter feast.”

“Well, that’s true. But if the birds ate a lot of grain… Um, the women complain that harvesting and preparing grain is a lot of work. They might be pretty unhappy if you took the grain they worked so hard to harvest, thresh, winnow, and hull; then you fed it to a bird!”

Pell’s eyes widened a little in surprise, then he grinned, “Oh! I think you just saved me from getting in a lot of trouble, didn’t you?” He frowned, “Though, I think a lot of the work is in threshing and the hulling of the grain. Do you think we could just toss the birds the un-threshed sheaves? I’m pretty sure that no one threshes or hulls the seeds that birds normally eat.”

Surprised to be asked questions on a topic of which he had virtually no knowledge, Woday said, “I don’t know!” But then they rounded a copse into the meadow and saw that their new bird trap had two grouse in it. Woday turned to Pell and lifted an eyebrow, “I guess you could try it out with those two.”

Pell had just seen the bird trap himself. He grinned, “I guess we can.” He snorted, “If I can keep Gia from eating those two birds.” He gave Woday a knowing look, “She really likes grouse.”

***

Yadin enthusiastically followed Manute and Deltin as they started off on their hunt. He hoped to learn how they were so successful hunting small game. However, they led him up onto the big plateau above the ravine and, after surveying the possibilities, began discussing how they might manage to spear one of the big animals grazing up there.

Yadin listened for a little while, thinking that there might be something special about the way they hunted big animals as well, but the ideas they discussed were similar to ones he’d used when hunting with the Oppos. Eventually, Yadin said, “I was hoping to learn how you managed to kill rabbits, hedgehogs and squirrels almost every hunt.”

Manute and Deltin looked at one another, then Manute said, “Um, we’d need Pell for that.”

Yadin sighed, “And I suppose he’d tell me to ask Agan if it’s okay to teach me that secret?”

Deltin laughed, “You’re probably right about that.”

“I know he’s good at throwing rocks. Did he teach you guys some trick for throwing, something that makes you so accurate you can hit little animals?”

Manute widened his eyes, “You’re trying to trip us up and get us to tell you his secret!” he said with a grin. Then he gave Yadin a considering look, “But, without giving it away, I can tell you that it doesn’t involve throwing rocks.” He laughed, “Pell may be good at a lot of things, but throwing—either rocks or spears—isn’t one of them.”

Startled, Yadin schooled his face to stillness, not wanting to show his surprise. After all, he’d watched Pell throwing rocks at that stand of small trees! He knew Pell was good, why didn’t these guys? Is Pell hiding his ability? Or—Yadin’d seen a number of young men quickly improve their coordination during their adolescence—could that have happened to Pell? “When’s the last time you went hunting with him?”

Manute looked up as he thought about it, “Way back in the summer.” He glanced at Deltin, “And I don’t think Pell’s ever gone hunting with Deltin. To tell the truth, I think he avoids going hunting because he’s embarrassed about the way he throws.” Manute shrugged, “I’d be embarrassed, if I threw that badly. But, he really shouldn’t be. There are so many other things he’s good at that any tribe would be happy to have him, even if he couldn’t throw at all!”

Deltin said, “It’s true, he’s never been hunting with me and I’d swear he’s avoided getting in any situation where he might have to throw in front of me.” He shrugged, “I don’t know how he thinks he’s ever going to get better if he doesn’t practice.”

“These young people today, they never want to practice,” Yadin said, like he usually did when such sentiments came up.

However, he was very thoughtful as they continued onward, wondering what was really going on in Cold Springs.

***

Woday and Pell headed back down the small river to where they’d placed their fishing basket. When they’d crept out onto the rock to look down at the fish trap, they saw it had a lot of crayfish climbing over the outside! Pell frowned saying, “I hope there’re some inside too.” He started pulling on the rope to drag the basket back up to them.

Woday watched as the basket rose toward them. The crayfish clinging to the outside of it stayed in place, though they looked a little agitated. “Maybe the ones on the outside will keep clinging to the basket and we can catch them after we get them up here on the rock.” However, to his disappointment, when the basket broke the surface, most of the crayfish dropped off and fell back into the water.

Pell lifted the basket out onto the rock and peered in through the more loosely woven door. “There’s a bunch of them inside too!” He turned to Woday and arched happy eyebrows, “Crayfish tonight!”

Starting back toward the cave, they left the crayfish in the basket as the most convenient way to transport them without getting bitten. They stopped at the little meadow to get the grouse. As Pell wiggled out the stakes that were holding the bird trap in place, he turned to Woday, “Do you think that if we put a big shallow basket on a sturdy branch for a handle…” He trailed off, apparently lost in thought.

Woday finally said, “What?!”

Pell said, “If we lifted the fish trap up near the surface, but stopped before it came out of the water, maybe we could slide the big shallow basket underneath the fish trap?”

Woday blinked in puzzlement, “What good would that do?”

“Well, when the fish trap came up out of the water and the crayfish dropped off, they’d fall into our big shallow basket.”

“Oh…” Woday said, thunderstruck. He frowned, “Do you think that would work?”

Pell shrugged, “I don’t know. I think it’s worth a try.”

“Sure,” Woday said with a nod.

Pell grinned at him, “So, there’s an apprentice type job for you. Cut a forked limb off a tree, fit a shallow basket into the fork and bind it there. Next time we try to catch crayfish, we’ll try it out.”

“Okay,” Woday said, thinking how much he hated using hand axes. He usually smashed his fingers at least a few times.

When Woday and Pell arrived back at the cave, Woday expected people to be excited about the grouse and the crayfish they were carrying. Instead, the women were upset. Donte had had them turning the grain to keep it dry and they’d found droppings. Donte turned to Pell, her hands on her hips. “Mice! Maybe rats. They’re eating our grain! We made tight lids for our old taller baskets. These shallow baskets may be keeping the grain from spoiling, but they’re not keeping the mice from eating it!”

Pell tilted his head and looked at them curiously, “I thought that the mice used to chew holes in your old baskets and eat the grain anyway?”

“Well… yes,” Donte admitted, “but we could patch the holes.”

Gia looked around at their food store and said exasperatedly, “Are we going to have to weave lids for all these shallow baskets?!”

Woday looked at Pell, wondering how he’d respond. In his tribe at the Falls, the men got angry when the women confronted them like this. Especially when the women yelled at them about some problem that couldn’t be solved. Everyone knew nothing could be done about mice. Instead, Pell had a kind of distant look on his face. After a moment, Pell smiled and said, “Woday and I were just talking about how we might keep these grouse in a big basket and feed them grain. Then, later in the winter, we could have some grouse for a feast.”

The women turned, apparently just now noticing the grouse in the basket Pell had been carrying. Gia said, “Yum, grouse!”

However, Donte looked irritated. “Are you trying to distract us from the mouse problem by talking about grouse?!”

“No! No, I was just trying to point out that I’d been thinking about feeding grain to an animal that we would eat later. You’ve got animals that are already eating our grain, all we need to do…” He looked around at them as if waiting for them to figure it out. After a few moments in which they all stared at him as if waiting for some kind of revelation, he finally said, “All we need to do, is eat the mice!” He made a little hand gesture which seemed to say, Isn’t that obvious?

Donte stared at him for a moment, then put her hands on her hips and said, “And just how do you think we’re going to hunt mice?! They’re too small and far too quick!”

Pell tilted his head curiously, “Squirrels are small and quick, but we catch them.”

That evening they ate a soup of lentils and grain with boiled crayfish and roasted grouse. Manute, Deltin, Tando, Boro, and Yadin had gone hunting, but their hunt had been unsuccessful. Though they had quite a few crayfish, Gia had convinced Pell that they should weave the large basket he wanted to put his grouse in before he actually started trying to keep any of them. Woday managed to seat himself next to Pell for this meal and Pell nudged him, “See, I told you I wouldn’t be able to keep Gia from eating my grouse.”

He’d said it loud enough for Gia to hear him, and she turned to him with a smile, “I’m only eating it because I know you can get more.”

“I hope so,” Pell said hanging his head as if he were moping, though it was obvious that he was faking.

Woday pondered the fact that his Falls-people tribe would have been happy with the number of crayfish he and Pell had brought in. Catching them one at a time by sneaking up behind them meant that even with many more people trying to catch them, they rarely got so many. Even though there were more people in their tribe they would have been satisfied with fewer crayfish. They would have mixed the crayfish meat in with grain and roots in a stew and been quite content.

As he was thinking about this, he heard Yadin talking to Agan. He was asking her something and for a moment a thrill of worry shot through Woday. What if he wanted to join this tribe also? The recollection of how much Woday had worried that this newly formed, recently devastated tribe couldn’t possibly feed him over the winter shot to the fore of his mind. If Yadin joined the tribe too…

His thoughts suddenly overturned. He realized that on the one hand he’d been thinking about how much food they had here at Cold Springs yet a moment later he’d gone back to worrying that they didn’t have enough. But will these fish traps and bird snares work in the winter’s dearth? He didn’t know, and realized that the people here couldn’t know either. They did have more root and grain stores than he’d have expected, but he didn’t think they had enough to keep this many people alive through the winter. Even if their snares continued to work after the snows, if the people only ate meat, they’d get sick. He started to get a gnawing unease in his stomach

His attention went back to Yadin and Agan. Agan was saying, “And if we did teach you our secrets, what would you do for us in return?”

Yadin looked surprised and Woday felt some surprise himself. He’d never considered the possibility that someone should pay to be taught a better way to hunt. No, that’s not true. When I asked to be an apprentice, they told me I’d I would have to work hard to pay for the bonesetting knowledge I was being taught. That’s not really any different from Yadin asking to be taught some of their other secrets. His eyes widened, I forgot to ask Pell to teach me about Panute’s leg again.

Woday turned to Pell to ask him about Panute’s leg, but Pell interrupted his thoughts by saying, “What happened to your fingers?”

Woday glanced at his bruised and scraped fingers and grimaced, “I’m not very good with a hand axe. I managed to bang my fingers several times trying to cut the forked branch for our crayfish basket.” He sighed, feeling embarrassed, “I guess it’s another thing I need to practice.”

Pell stared at Woday’s injured fingers, saying nothing. After a moment, Woday tried to get back to his concern, “Um, I’m hoping…”

Pell had put up his hand in a halting position as he kept staring at Woday’s fingers. Not knowing what else to do, Woday sat silently for a moment, then looked back over at Yadin and Agan. Yadin had unrolled a bundle, apparently from his pack. Woday’s eyes widened, the pack contained a fortune in worked flint! Spear points, knives, cutting flakes, scrapers, awls—all of them fine examples of the craft.

Woday’s eyes went to Agan, expecting her eyes to show some kind of avarice, but she merely looked contemplative.

Suddenly, Pell shook himself as if coming out of a trance. He started to speak to Woday, but then looked to see what Woday was focused on. His eyes went to the trove of flint and now they gleamed. Woday thought however, that they gleamed with excitement rather than a mere lust for the value of the flint. Pell said, “Yadin, do you have any hand axes?”

Yadin shrugged, “No, they’re pretty heavy to carry and almost anyone can make a hand axe so there’s not much point in me carrying them around.”

“I’ve had an idea,” Pell said.

Woday took a sudden interest because he’d heard so much about Pell’s ideas. What he hadn’t expected was the intent look that immediately appeared on Yadin’s face. Yadin was so much older than Pell that it seemed hard to believe that he’d care about the ideas of a man so young he was practically a boy.

“An idea for what?” Yadin asked

“A different kind of hand axe,” Pell said, waving in the direction of Woday’s injured fingers. “Just about everyone’s pinched or scraped up some fingers trying to use one.”

Yadin peered at Woday’s fingers and snorted, “Looks like Woday’s better at hitting his fingers than most.” He shrugged, “Still, a hand axe is a hand axe. It doesn’t matter what kind of hand axe you make, people are still going to scrape up their fingers sometimes.”

“What if…” Pell paused, his head tipped to one side as he thought.

“What if what?” Yadin asked.

“What if… you made a hand axe something like a spear, with a shaft on the back so that your hand wouldn’t get very close to what you were chopping?”

Yadin snorted, “If you hold your axe way back at the other end of a spear shaft, you’re going to miss what you’re chopping at most of the time.”

“No! No, a short shaft… More like a long knife handle.”

Yadin got a startled look on his face, then his eyes grew distant as he considered. “It’d be really hard to shape the back of a hand axe so that it had a narrow stem that would fit into a deer antler.” He frowned, “Besides if you hit a little crookedly, it might break off the narrow stem or split the antler.”

Pell shrugged, “Make it smaller than a regular hand axe, but bigger than a knife or spear blade.” He held up three fingers next to one another. “Maybe the size of three fingers?” he said, then pointed to the ends of his fingers, “With the sharp edge down here where the ends of the fingers are?”

Yadin looked intent, then he turned and said, “Falin, where’s that nodule of flint I gave you the other day? I think it’s time for your first flint knapping lesson.”

Falin got up and ran to look for his flint nodule. Yadin got out his hammer stone, then rolled up his bundle of finished flint implements. Woday turned to ask Pell about Panute’s leg, but Pell had already stood up. He moved over to sit next to Yadin. Shortly they were deeply immersed in shaping the oddest hand axe Woday had ever seen.

He glanced at Panute and wondered whether he should try to look at her leg and try to understand the magic sticks that were tied to it without Pell’s help. Finally, he shook his head and decided he’d have to try to ask Pell again tomorrow. Looking around, he saw that Donte wasn’t busy. He turned to ask her for help picking out and binding a basket to his forked branch.

Chapter Five

In the morning, as the tribe ate a porridge of einkorn with bits of apple, Woday saw that Pell was sitting near Panute. He made his way over to Pell and said, “Can you teach me about Panute’s leg?”

Pell looked surprised, his eyes going to Panute’s leg. Uncomfortably, he said, “What do you want to know?”

Woday felt flustered. He’d expected his teacher to simply begin instruction, not start by asking him a question! “Um,” his eyes went to Panute’s leg as well. “The sticks. How do you do the magic for the sticks?”

Pell looked distraught, “They’re not magic!”

Taken aback, Woday said, “They’re not? Someone told me you made them for her. If they don’t have healing magic, why are they tied to her leg?”

Pell blinked, “Her leg was flopping around! We needed something to hold it straight, so we shaped a couple of pieces of firewood to fit the leg, one on each side.” He shrugged, “Deltin did most of it. He’s much better at woodworking than I am.”

Woday cast around for something cogent to ask. “You said that you know a trick for putting bones back in place. What did you do to put Panute’s bones back where they belong?”

Looking a little surprised, Pell said, “Um, the trick is for bones that are stuck in the wrong position. I had to use it for everyone else’s bones, but not for Panute’s. Her bones just flopped around, assuming any position we put them in, so all we did was put the splints on to hold them as straight as we could.”

Staring at Panute’s leg and the sticks bound to it, Woday could see how the sticks would tend to hold a floppy leg fairly straight, but he felt very disappointed. He’d expected some kind of complex wisdom, not to be told that Pell had essentially tied her leg to a couple of stakes! “Um, how will you know when her bones are healed?”

“I think… I think the person whose bones are broken knows when they’re healed because they stop hurting. Your leg’s feeling a lot better now, right Panute?”

“Yes!” Panute said, looking excited. “Do you think it’s healed now?”

Pell shrugged, “I don’t know. Let’s take the splints off and see how it feels.”

Woday felt pretty disappointed. It didn’t really seem like Pell knew much. Woday found it hard to believe that the famous Bonesetter would think that the person with the broken bone would know better than he would whether the bone was healed. Nonetheless, when Pell knelt to untie Panute’s splints he leaned over eagerly to watch.

Woday wasn’t the only one interested. It quickly seemed that everyone in the cave had gathered around to watch. As soon as the splints were untied, the furs which had been padding the splints were unwrapped. Pell gently picked up Panute’s leg and bent it from side to side. Or at least that’s what it looked like he was trying to do. The bone didn’t seem to be bending very much. Since her bone had been recently broken, Woday expected Panute to gasp with pain, but she simply observed interestedly what Pell was doing.

Pell said, “Does that hurt?”

Panute shook her head. “Is that good?”

“I think so. How much of your weight have you been putting on it?”

Woday’s eyes widened, how could his Master be saying, “I think so?!” How was he going to learn from someone who didn’t know the answers to such basic questions?!

Panute didn’t seem to be put off by Pell’s lack of knowledge. She said, “Like you told me, I’ve been putting on as much as I can as long as it doesn’t hurt. I think I’m putting on quite a lot.”

Pell said, “Do you think we should leave the splints off?”

Panute’s eyes widened and she shook her head abruptly.

Pell looked back up at Woday, “Can you help me tie these back on?”

Woday squatted down next to Pell and helped wrap the furs back on her leg. As he did, he noticed that her leg didn’t feel broken. Next he held the splints in place while Pell tied them back on. When they’d finished, Woday wondered to himself if he’d learned anything.

He decided he didn’t know.

***

As Sidean and Wenax left the Oppos’ cave, they nervously looked at the sky. It had been days since that first snow and, though the weather had been good since then, they really didn’t want to be away from their home cave if winter really set in. Both of them felt somewhat surprised that Nosset and Pont had been able to talk Jalgon into sending two of his hunters on a mission this close to the onset of winter.

The evening before had been spent listening to ominous chanting by the two medicine men. Pont had repeated and embellished his stories about the evil spirit that had overtaken the boy Pell and how it now controlled his old tribe the Aldans. Everyone in the Oppos had been disquieted by the stories and relieved when Jalgon finally decided that something had to be done. However, when Sidean and Wenax realized they were the ones being sent out to do something, they hadn’t been nearly as happy.

Oh well, Sidean thought, at least I’ve visited the Aldans before and know where they live. We’ll make a fast trip there, see what’s happened to Yadin, and head back home, hopefully before the weather gets cold again.

***

Pell had Woday go put the fish trap back in the stream that morning. In the afternoon as he walked back with his new basket-on-a handle to check it, he found his thoughts turning back to his grave concerns about how little Pell seemed to know about bone setting. A trick he couldn’t show Woday, sticks for healing that Pell claimed weren’t magic, and asking the patient whether their bones were healed!

When he’d set out to apprentice himself, those were not things he’d thought he’d encounter in his Master! What if Pell was no more than he seemed, an overgrown, handsome boy barely come into manhood?

Though Woday had felt somewhat depressed early in the walk, the day was crisply beautiful. This seemed surprising in view of the fact that it’d snowed a little more than a hand of days ago, but Woday wasn’t about to complain. As long as he kept his thoughts away from Pell’s surprising lack of knowledge, his spirits continued to rise. After all, whether Pell knew anything about bone setting or not, Woday had already learned wonderful things about fish traps. And, for that matter, bird traps too.

He arrived back at the bend where they put in the fish traps and began tugging on the rope. As it rose near the surface, he felt a little dismayed to see that there were only two crayfish clinging to the outside of the basket. Maybe they all found their way inside this time, he thought in an attempt to reassure himself. For a moment, he wondered whether it’d be a waste of his time to slide his basket-on-a-handle under the trap to catch the crayfish as they dropped off, since there were only two. He decided he’d just as well determine whether the basket-catcher worked.

Stopping with the fish trap almost coming out of the water, he reached down and picked up the handle to the catching-basket. Carefully, he slid it underneath the fish trap, then lifted the fish trap and the catching-basket out of the water at the same time. With delight, he saw the two crayfish drop off the fish trap, but fall into the catching-basket. He brought both out onto the bank and set them down. He quickly caught the two crayfish in the catching basket, one in each hand. As they wiggled and twisted their pincers around, he realized with dismay that he didn’t know what to do with them. I should get one of the women to make me a crayfish carrying basket, he thought.

After standing there wondering what to do for a few more moments, he decided to put them in the fish trap itself. He knelt, planning to push them in through the reeds that created the one-way passage at the end of the fish trap. Suddenly, he worried that, if the trap was full of crayfish, one of them might bite him while he had his hand inside the trap. He leaned around to peer into the loosely woven door at the other end of the cylindrical basket.

There were only five more crayfish inside! How could that be?! Yesterday there’d been five on the outside and more than twenty, perhaps even thirty inside of it!

Dismayed, Woday shoved the two crayfish he had in his hands through the reeds into the basket while wondering what in the world had gone wrong. Did they just catch so many crayfish the first time through some kind of bizarre luck? Could it be that a trap only caught crayfish once?! Did Pell have to be there for it to work?

With a disheartened sigh, Woday decided he didn’t know. He picked up the trap, stood and started trudging back to the cave.

***

Yadin looked at his new axe. The cutting edge was a little more than three fingers wide and the entire axe not quite as long as his hand. For that matter, it was about as thick as his hand at the base though tapering down to the point. The back end of it, though thicker than the front, wasn’t as wide as the cutting edge. He turned to Pell, holding it up, “What do you think of this?”

“Oh! That looks really good!” Pell turned to Deltin who’d been helping Pell try to make a handle, “What do you think?”

Deltin shrugged, “I still don’t think it’s going to work.” He grinned, “But that’s what I usually think about your damn fool ideas. It hasn’t kept them from working so far.” He held out a hand for the axe, “Let’s see how they fit together.”

Yadin handed the flint axe to Deltin while he studied the handle Deltin had been making. Deltin had chosen the branch of one of the trees with hard wood. The branch had forked, but not at a steep angle like branches usually did, instead the two branches ran very close to one another for a little while. He’d cut it about a forearm length below the fork and a little more than a hand length above the fork. He’d been working to chip out the wood between the two limbs of the fork to be about the same size as the base of Yadin’s axe. Now he took Yadin’s axe and fitted it into the slotted fork he’d created so that the edge was pointing out, the same direction as the handle. To Yadin, it looked like a short, fat spear with a cutting edge instead of a point. It looked unbelievably clumsy to him and he couldn’t imagine it working.

Deltin looked it over. “Good,” he said, “it’s not pushing the limbs apart. I don’t think it’ll split.”

Pell said, “Shall we bind it with some wet sinew?”

Deltin shrugged again, “We could, but if I were you I’d try it gently to see if you think it’ll work, or maybe needs to be modified before you finish it.” He held it out to Pell.

Pell took it and stabbed gently at a piece of firewood with it a few times. He obviously wasn’t trying to hit hard, probably for fear that it’d split the unbound handle. It did keep his hand far from the wood he was cutting, but Yadin still thought it looked clumsy. From the disappointed look on Pell’s face, he probably did as well. On Pell’s final chop, he hit hard enough that the axe head twisted in the fork to point directly to the side. Pell reached down and grabbed the axe head as if to turn it back so that it would parallel the handle, but then suddenly stopped. Slowly, he lifted it up into the air as if he was holding a club.

Apparently not noticing Pell’s look of concentration, Deltin said, “I’m starting to think I might be right this time. It’s not going to work. It’ll keep you from smashing your fingers all right, but you won’t be able to chop very well.”

Pell didn’t react. As if he hadn’t heard Deltin’s words at all, he slowly lowered his club/axe toward the piece of firewood. It looked as if he was going to strike it with the edge sticking out of the side of his axe-with-a-handle instead of spearing it from the end like they’d originally made it to work. Looking entranced, he slowly said, “I think it’ll work… this way.”

Yadin could see it, though Deltin said, “If you hit it that way, the axe’ll just fly out the other side of the fork!”

Pell turned to him, an excited look in his eyes. “We might have to make the handle differently,” he held the axe out to Deltin, “but feel it! If you swing it like you would a club, with the edge sticking out the side…”

Deltin slowly took the axe through a swing like you would a club, obviously afraid the sharp axe head would fly off the handle. As he did his eyes widened. “You might be right.” He held the axe up so he could look at it. “If we made a hole in the handle rather than a fork, we could attach it solidly!” He’d said that part with an excited smile, but then suddenly turned and shot a mock glare at Pell. In an exasperated tone, he said, “How come I’m always the one having to do things over in order to make one of your crazy ideas work?!”

Yadin laughed.

Deltin turned his glare on Yadin, “Sure, you think it’s funny!”

Grinning, Yadin put his hands up in surrender.

From behind Yadin, Woday’s voice said plaintively, “Master, it didn’t work this time!”

Yadin turned to look and saw Woday behind him, holding a wet looking cylindrical basket and looking frustrated. Evidently he’d walked up while Yadin’d been focused on the axe. Pell stood, saying, “Call me Pell, I’m not your master. You’re learning from me, and I’m learning from you.” They walked toward the cave entrance. Pell looked back over his shoulder at Deltin, “I’m going to try to help Woday, I’ll try to redo the handle when I get back so you don’t have to do it over.”

Deltin snorted and called after him, “Oh no you don’t. You’re just wanting all the credit for the axe when it’s done!” His smile showed he wasn’t serious.

Pell gave him a dismissive wave as he continued walking away, “Okay, you do it. You can have all the credit if you want.”

Yadin stared after Pell and Woday. What in the world are they doing with a wet basket?

Sounding like he was still amused by the exchange he’d just had with the other men, Pell turned to Woday and said, “So what went wrong? Weren’t you able to catch the crayfish when they fell off the outside of the trap?”

Woday shook his head, “No! There were only two on the outside of the trap and only five inside!”

“Oh.” Pell shrugged, “Sometimes the hunting’s good and sometimes it’s not.”

“But last time there were more than twenty!”

“Did your catching-basket catch the two on the outside?”

“Yes, but…”

Pell plucked the trap out of Woday’s hand and held it up to look in through the more loosely woven and with the door. “They look fine,” he said musingly.

“It’s not that there’s anything wrong with them! There just aren’t very many!”

“I thought you said that a hunter would be happy with five to ten crayfish back at the falls?”

Woday gave an exasperated sigh, “Not if he’d had nearly thirty the day before with virtually no effort!”

Pell frowned, “Did you have to work really hard to get these?”

“No, but…” Woday stopped as he realized how much his world had changed to leave him so dissatisfied with a catch of seven crayfish.

Pell had started looking over the basket. Contemplatively, he said, “I don’t think there are any holes for them to escape through.” He pushed his hand in through the reeds at the end, carefully avoiding the waiving pincers of the crayfish inside. “It still seems like they should have been able to climb in without much difficulty.” He turned to look curiously at Woday, “Did you put it in the same kind of quiet water?”

Throwing his hands up in frustration, Woday said, “Yes! I put it in exactly the same spot we had it in yesterday!”

“Oh,” Pell said, looking amused. “You don’t think that you caught most of the crayfish that lived in that spot yesterday?”

“Huh?” Woday said, not grasping what Pell was saying.

Pell shrugged, “Supposing you were a great cat and you liked to eat people.” He raised an eyebrow at Woday to see if Woday was following.

Woday gave him a puzzled nod.

“And supposing you came here to Cold Springs and ate 10 people one day.” Apparently not registering Woday’s look of horror, Pell continued, “If you came back the next day would you expect to be able to eat ten more?”

Woday frowned, then raised his eyes to the sky as he thought, “No…” he said slowly. “There are only fourteen people here total, so if the cat ate ten,” he worked his fingers, “there’d only be four left.” He turned a puzzled look on Pell, then realized what Pell was saying. “Oh, so you’re saying we have to put our fish trap in a different place every day?! What happens when we run out of spots?”

“Then we go back to the first place,” Pell said unconcernedly. “That’s what we do with our animal traps. I think, after a while, other animals move in to take over the empty place. It’s the same with hunting… you can’t keep hunting the same place over and over again and expect to keep finding animals there.”

“Oh,” Woday said, feeling stupid. It seemed so obvious now. “So, shall I put the trap out in a different location?”

“Sure,” Pell said, “but you’ll need new bait. The crayfish seem to have eaten all the bait you had in here.”

“There’s still the entrails of the grouse from last night,” Woday said. Then, suddenly, his mind backtracked. “Animal traps?!” When Pell gave him a blank look, he said, “Before… you said you move your animal traps! Do you have traps like this you use to catch animals?!”

Pell shrugged, “Not like these. We use snares to catch small animals. I’ll get around to teaching you about them eventually.”

Realization dawned, “That’s how Manute and Deltin get all those rabbits, squirrels, and hedgehogs, isn’t it?!”

Pell grinned at him and nodded slowly.

“Teach me now!”

“First you need to figure out how to catch fish for Cold Springs, then Cold Springs can teach you how to snare animals.” He winked, “Bait your crayfish trap and get it back in the river; it turns out I like crayfish.”

With a sigh, Woday picked up the fish trap and said disconsolately, “Yes Master.” He tilted his head curiously, “Can I just put the fish trap in the stream right on the other side of the meadow?”

Pell shrugged indifferently, “Try it if you like. The section of the stream near the meadow is shallow and the water runs fast. I suppose there must be fish there sometimes, but I don’t see very many. If crayfish like still water, I’ll bet there aren’t very many of them in this section. There’s a little slow moving pool right at this edge of the meadow, perhaps you could try it there if you wanted.” But then Pell’s eyes went to Yadin. “Maybe you shouldn’t. We don’t have Agan’s permission to show Yadin how to trap yet and, since he’s right here, he might figure it out from watching you put the trap in the river.”

“You don’t want him to know?”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll tell him eventually. But you heard Agan last night. I think she’d like to get something out of it in return.” He winked, “Maybe some of those fine flint tools of his.”

“Oh, yeah.” Woday stood, “I’ll find a basket to store these crayfish in and then go put the trap in a different spot in the river for the night.” He turned curious eyes on Pell, “I’m sure there must be other areas of slow moving water to put the trap in besides that little bend we’ve been putting it in. Can I try some of them?”

Pell shrugged, “Sure. We were just fishing there because that overhanging rock let us see what was going on down in the water.”

“Okay,” Woday said. As he walked off, he wondered if he would’ve thought to try out a new idea down at that rock so he could see how it was working…

***

Sidean cursed, “Come on Wenax! Get your ass up!”

Wenax burrowed deeper into the drift of leaves they’d slept in the night before, “Let’s wait until it warms up a little more.”

“If we wait much longer, it’ll be nearly dark when we get to Cold Springs! We won’t be able to tell if Yadin’s there until the next day and we’ll be out here five days instead of four!” He grunted unhappily, “Hungry days!”

They’d only brought food for three days. Then they’d arrived at the Aldans and not been able to see Yadin anywhere. Fortunately, Sidean had encountered one of the Aldans that he’d gotten to know pretty well from previous visits. He’d asked the guy where Yadin was. They hadn’t been happy to learn that Yadin had gone on to Cold Springs, especially knowing that Jalgon would be angry if they returned without going to check Cold Springs as well.

Wenax heaved himself up onto an elbow and rubbed at his eyes with the back of a wrist. “Okay, okay. But I hate traveling in this cold.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sidean muttered, “you’ll hate it worse if it snows before we get back home…”

***

Woday sat beside Pell while they both watched Deltin work on an axe handle. At first Woday had been angry because it seemed like woodworking had little to do with the things he wanted to learn. However, he’d followed along as Deltin walked through the woods looking for the perfect branch. When Woday had asked why they couldn’t just take any branch that was the right size, Deltin had replied, “I’m looking for a straight one that has two knots, a little more than three fingers apart.” Then he’d smiled and pointed, “Like that one there.”

Watching Deltin quickly and efficiently cut the limb free with his hand axe, Woday could understand why Deltin thought making an axe with a handle to protect Woday’s fingers was a waste of time. Deltin was highly skilled and cut the branch free with a minimum number of strokes of his hand axe. With his confident chopping, there wasn’t any danger to his fingers.

They’d returned to the ledge in front of the cave and, using a stone chisel, Deltin had deftly started to cut a hole between the two knots in the branch. The wood near the knots appeared to be hard to cut. When Woday had asked why Deltin was making the hole between the two knots where it appeared to be so difficult, Deltin had held up the club he was using as a mallet for his chisel.

“The twisted grain of a knot keeps wood from splitting,” he’d said. “That’s why I’m using this club with a big knot on the end of it as a mallet. If I used a straight piece of wood it’d be breaking and splintering a lot more.” He pointed to the branch he was making into an axe handle, “We’re going to wedge that axe into this hole, then hit things with it. Straight wood would split as the axe wedged into the hole, but the knots’ll prevent that. Although,” he said, looking a little irritated, “the toughness of the wood at the knots does make it harder to cut the hole.”

Cutting the hole was a difficult project and took even longer because Pell wanted to do part of it. He’d never used a chisel and wanted to know how, but, because he hadn’t used one, he wasn’t very efficient with it. Pell even suggested Woday try using the chisel for a while. Though Woday had no desire to, and thought it was a waste of time, he chiseled some anyway.

Finally, they had a hole they could wedge the back of Yadin’s axe head into. It looked fine to Woday, but Deltin popped it back out and widened the hole a little bit saying, “We want it to be tight against the ends where the knots are, not tight against the sides like it was. If it’s tight against the sides, it’ll still be trying to split the wood down its length.”

Woday found this concept difficult to understand, but apparently Pell grasped the principle. He thanked Deltin warmly for explaining it, as if he thought he’d be able to use it again in the future.

Finally, they had the axe head wedged into the handle to Deltin’s satisfaction. He and Pell both took some tentative swings, gently chopping at a piece of firewood, but then Deltin said, “Now let’s wrap it with wet sinew. We’ll wait for it to dry and tighten before we try really chopping anything with it. After all this work, it’d be infuriating if it broke the first time we used it.”

Soon they were all sitting around chewing dried strips of tendon to soften them. Deltin wedged the axe head into the hole with some birch tar, trapping the starting end of the sinew in the tar as well as between the axe head and the handle. Then he started wrapping the sinew tightly around the junction of the axe head and handle. When he finally set it aside to dry, he shook his head as if dismayed and said, “I hope protecting Woday’s fingers was worth all that effort.”

Enigmatically, Pell said, “I think you’ll like it too, not just Woday.”

That evening, when they sat down to have their meal, Pell noticed that Tando was sitting higher than usual. Everyone usually just sat cross-legged on the ground. However, once Panute’s leg had healed well enough for her to be off her bedding, she’d started sitting on a log they’d brought in because it helped her keep her broken leg straight. Then Agan had tried sitting on Panute’s log and found that it made it much easier getting up and down with her arthritis. Soon they’d brought in another log for Agan.

Pell grinned at Tando and said, “I see you’ve started sitting on a log to help you get up and down with your stiff old knees.”

Tando drew himself up and arched an eyebrow, “This log is special. I was going to show everyone after dinner, but, if you’re going to treat me rudely, perhaps I won’t.”

Pell tried to pretend he wasn’t interested in whatever was special about the log, but it was hopeless. Soon everyone was venturing guesses as to the special nature of Tando’s log. By the time they’d finished eating, everyone was impatiently waiting for Tando’s revelation. Instead, Tando smiled around at everyone and said, “So, shall we tell some stories? I’m sure Yadin could tell us another one.”

This venture was greeted with hoots of derision. Even Yadin proclaimed himself uninterested in hearing any stories he might know. “Come on Tando, you’d just as well show us what’s under your ass.”

This brought a few laughs and calls for Tando to go ahead. He narrowed his eyes and surveyed the group, saying, “Anyone else want to make fun of how old and stiff I am?”

After more begging, Tando finally relented. Standing, he stepped behind the log, then sank down to sit cross-legged on the side away from the fire. He reached under the log and pulled out a couple of slender oak sticks. He thumped his log with one of them and arched an eyebrow.

“It’s hollow!” a couple of people shouted. People who’d been in the Aldans and had heard Gontra drumming on the hollow log there.

Tando started pounding on the log with both sticks. It seemed to Pell that he was trying to replicate the rolling thunder sound Gontra had often produced, but he didn’t seem to be generating the steady rhythm Gontra had so unerringly created.

After a moment, Tando slowed his pounding and looked down at the log with a frown. When he looked up, everyone was watching him, but no one was swaying to the rhythm like they usually did when Gontra was drumming. He gave Ontru an embarrassed grin, “I think the log sounds good, but I guess I really don’t know how to drum on it. I’d always thought that Gontra was just hitting it without any particular skill, but maybe that’s not true.” He slowed further and stopped. The looks of anticipation on people’s faces had faded.

Agan said, “I’ve heard drumming before and enjoyed it. Does anyone here know how to do it?”

Silence met her question for a moment, then, diffidently, Woday said, “I used to do the drumming for the Falls-people.”

Tando held the sticks out to him, “Come on, you can’t possibly be any worse than I am!”

Woday stood, but then hesitated. “Just a moment,” he said, turning and walking over to where the firewood was stacked. He sorted through the dried wood for a bit then picked up a stick a little bigger than the ones Tando had been using. Returning, he sat down where Tando had been sitting and thumped the log with the stick he’d brought. It produced a deeper thump than Tando had been producing with the smaller sticks. Woday set it down and picked up Tando’s sticks. He started tapping on the log, hitting it in different locations, each of which seemed to produce a somewhat different tone. After he’d explored the log for a little bit with a small stick, he picked up a larger stick he’d brought and thumped around the log with it.

Finally, he went back to the two small sticks and started thumping the log steadily. With one stick he struck an area that brought out a slightly higher note than the other. He was striking the high-pitched spots twice for every lower pitched blow he struck with the other stick.

Immediately, people started feeling the rhythm. Pell looked around and saw people starting to sway and move in time with the beat. Woday kept that steady rhythm for a while, then dropped one of the small sticks and substituted his bigger stick while keeping the same pattern. The bigger stick set a throb into the rhythm that had people tapping hands or feet.

Gia swayed to her feet and Pell thought she was going to come over and stand by him. Instead, she started twitching a hip to the rhythm.

Then moving her feet.

Gia’s arms began sinuous motions, still loosely following Woday’s beat.

Entranced, Pell couldn’t take his eyes off of her. When he finally did, he saw everyone else also tightly focused on her movements. Her steps had gotten larger, though they were still constrained by the people sitting close around her.

Then there came a tone. An airy whooshing tone. Pell’s eyes sought it out and saw that Yadin held a bone to his lips. It looked like he was blowing through it to make the sound. Yadin moved his fingers and the tone changed. Pell saw that his fingers were covering holes along the side of the bone. Yadin started changing the tone by covering different holes every sixth one of Woday’s beats. The eerie humming-whistling sound seemed somehow soothing.

Another sound came in, following the tones Yadin was creating. Pell looked around and realized Gurix was singing. Not normal words, just long moaning-humming renditions of “hayyyyyyaaayaa.” He’d never heard Gurix do it before, though Lessa had often sung while Gontra was drumming for the Aldans. Perhaps Gurix’d felt she couldn’t compete then, however, her voice was clear and pure—Pell found listening to it spellbinding.

Occasionally, Woday changed the rhythm of his drumming. There would be a moment of confusion, but each time the others quickly caught on and changed the rhythm of the tones they were making. Panute joined in, singing a lower tone that somehow managed to be different and still match what Gurix was doing.

Pell tore his eyes from Gurix and looked around. Agan had a peaceful look on her face, her eyes closed as she swayed gently on her seat. Manute and Deltin both stood where they’d been sitting, doing a little shuffle with their feet. It was a dance of some sort, though not as elegant as Gia’s movements. Donte sat next to Yadin, admiring eyes turned on him as he played his bone flute. Ontru sat behind Tando, gently rubbing his shoulders…

Pell’s eyes suddenly tracked back to Donte. She likes him! He wondered when this had happened and how he hadn’t noticed. Wistfully, he remembered the years as a boy when he’d hoped his mother would find a man. He felt a little guilty because back then he’d wanted her to find a man who could help her feed him.

Nonetheless, Pell liked Yadin and wondered whether he might reciprocate Donte’s obvious attraction.

And, it’d be nice to have a flint knapper here at Cold Springs, he thought, then felt guilty to once again be thinking about his mother’s loves in view of how it affected him. I’d be happy for her to find someone though, whether or not he fit with our tribe or helped me at all. I hope Yadin stays a while longer…

***

Moving slowly despite being well hidden, Sidean turned to Wenax, “What do you think?”

They’d started watching the Cold Springs tribe in the late afternoon yesterday, and had been watching again for an hour or two this morning. Yadin had been plainly visible, going about ordinary things that normal people did. He hadn’t worked any flint or done any hunting, the things he did back home, but he hadn’t done anything unusual either.

Wenax shrugged, “I haven’t seen anything weird. Yadin looks like Yadin. If we could hear him, I bet he’d also sound just as crotchety as he normally does. If he wasn’t in a different location, I think he’d look completely normal to me.”

“You don’t think he’s enspelled?”

“How would I know?”

Sidean turned and looked back out across the little meadow toward the Cold Springs cave. “Maybe we should try to talk to him?”

“The medicine men said we shouldn’t! If there’s really a spirit controlling him, it might take us over as well.” He shook his head doggedly, “We should go home. In fact, I am going home, with or without you.” He slid back into the woods and started toward the trail.

Sidean kept his eyes on the people in the meadow for another couple of minutes, then he pulled back as well and turned to follow Wenax. “Wait, I’m coming,” he said with some irritation.

***

Yadin was returning from a hunt he’d undertaken on his own out of frustration. He saw Woday walking upstream along the trail a little way ahead of him. He wondered what he might learn talking to Woday away from the rest of the Cold Springs people. They’d be able to speak as two strangers to the tribe. “Hey Woday,” he called out, jogging a little in order to catch up.

Woday stopped, turned around and waited for him. Yadin noticed that Woday had a covered basket in his left hand. At least it wasn’t the wet one he’d seen Woday carrying a couple of times. As he approached, he said, “What’ve you got in the basket?”

Woday lifted the basket a little, saying, “Crayfish.”

“Oh, are you the one who’s been catching the crayfish we’ve been eating the past few days? I really like them.”

Woday shrugged uncertainly, then said “Yeah, I’ve been getting them.”

“How do you catch them? I’ve never done it, or even heard of it being done.” Yadin let out an exasperated sigh, “I hope you’re not going to tell me it’s some kind of Falls-people secret.”

Woday said, “Um…”

Woday paused long enough that Yadin started to worry he was going to claim it to be a secret.

Then with what Yadin thought of as kind of a sly smile, Woday said, “Um, you have to sneak up behind them and grab them behind the pincers.” He loosened a tie and lifted the lid of the basket just enough for Yadin to see a writhing mass of crayfish waving their pincers. They nearly filled the cavity inside.

Yadin’s eyes widened, “Wow! How long did it take you to catch all those?!”

Woday hesitated long moments again, then smiled and lifted an eyebrow, “Oh, it takes hours.”

***

The tribe was finishing its morning meal when Yadin heard Pell talking to Deltin, “Do you think it’s ready?”

Yadin looked that way and saw Pell carrying the handled axe they’d been making. Deltin took it and ran his thumb over the dried sinew that was binding the handle and axe head. Deltin shrugged, “It’s dry. We’d just as well try it, but I’ve been thinking about how hard it will be to strike accurately with it. Half the job of cutting wood is hitting the same spot over and over again with your axe. With the axe way out on the end of this handle, it’ll make you clumsy and you’ll hit different spots each time.” He glanced over at Woday, apparently making sure the man wouldn’t hear what might sound like an insult. He turned his eyes back to Pell and spoke quietly, “You’d be better off practicing until you get good enough that you don’t smash your fingers.”

Pell lifted an eyebrow, “What can you hit something harder with, your fist or a club?”

Deltin blinked at this apparent non sequitur, “Um, a club…” He blinked again, his eyes going to the axe, “You think this hits harder, like a club?”

Pell smiled and shrugged, “Maybe? Let’s go try it out!”

Soon Yadin found himself trooping out with all of the men in the tribe. Even Manute and Boro had apparently decided that seeing the new axe in action or, possibly proving to be useless, was more interesting than starting their leather making for the day.

At the other side of the meadow, Pell turned to Deltin and said, “Pick out a tree we can try it on. One you can use for something else after we’ve cut it down.”

Deltin turned and looked around himself. Yadin wasn’t surprised to see him pick a trunk about four fingers thick, one with hard wood. After bad-mouthing Pell’s axe idea, it wasn’t surprising that Deltin was going to give it a hard test.

Pell hefted the axe, then, holding it with both hands near the end of the handle, he swung it back up and off to the side over his right shoulder. Yadin didn’t know why he felt surprised. However, in his mind, he’d been picturing someone holding the handle with one hand, just far enough from the axe head to protect their fingers. After all, Pell had come up with this strange idea after seeing Woday’s fingers scraped and bloody. Therefore, Yadin had been thinking of the new axe as a way to protect the axe wielder’s fingers. He’d heard Pell talk about using it like a club, but the idea hadn’t really sunk into his consciousness.

Now, Pell swung it around and forward like a club. He hit the tree so hard that Yadin flinched, fearing that the powerful blow would shatter the flint axe head Yadin’d made. This, despite the fact that Yadin had shaped the stone to be thick and stout. The axe head sank into the tree farther than Yadin had ever seen one penetrate. Pell had to wiggle the handle to break the axe head free. He swung back again and hit the trunk again. The first blow had angled in from above, the second angled up a little bit from below. A large wedge of wood flew free from the tree. Pell pulled the axe back again…

Yadin’s eyes rose to Deltin’s and saw the woodworker gaping wide-eyed at what Pell was doing.

In less time than Yadin would have believed, the tree was toppling to the forest floor as the men standing around it took turns looking at one another in wonderment…

Excitedly, the men took turns cutting limbs off the tree and chopping it into lengths. A job everyone normally hated to do had become a novelty that everyone wanted to try. When he took his turn, Yadin felt astonished to realize just how much harder he could hit with the handled axe.

As the day wore on, Yadin’s mind frequently returned in amazement to what Pell had wrought. Actually, I guess I could claim to have wrought the axe head, but I would never have thought of it. Could it be that Pont’s evil spirit is what… enabled Pell to come up with such a miraculous idea? After pondering this possibility for a while, he decided that any spirit infesting Pell must be benign.

Yadin hadn’t seen the young man do anything evil.

***

Woday and Pell walked up the ledge in front of the cave. Donte looked up from her basket weaving and saw them coming. Picking up an odd little basket, she said, “Pell, what do you think of this one?”

Woday studied it. It resembled the basket traps they’d woven to catch fish and birds somewhat. However, it was only half as long and its diameter was barely bigger than his fist! When Pell took it and, examining it, turned it around, Woday saw that one end of it had the inward pointing spiky reeds that the basket traps had.

He tilted his head and frowned curiously at it. It must be some kind of trap… Maybe for squirrels? Maybe this is how they catch the squirrels that Tando, Manute, and Deltin bring in most days? But… if that’s the case, whatever they’re using must work very well, why would they try to change it? Aloud, he said, “What’s that for?”

Pell and Donte both looked up at him curiously. Speaking as if he thought it was incredibly obvious, Pell said, “It’s to catch the mice.”

Feeling stupid, Woday said, “Oh… yeah, I forgot.” He leaned over and peered into the opening. “It looks like it should work,” he said, feeling like he was babbling. Surely they could see how he was just trying to cover up his stupidity of a moment before.

Pell grinned at him, “You think we should try it then?”

Woday nodded, feeling sure they were both laughing at him.

***

It was an evening about the fire. They’d eaten a veritable feast of fish, grouse, and crayfish. This despite the fact the day had been so cold that Yadin found it hard to believe anyone had spent much time hunting. Even more unbelievable was the thought that Woday had been wading around in an ice cold stream catching the crayfish!

Yadin was wondering whether they’d caught the grouse like they had caught that rock pigeon a few days ago. Was that an accident, or perhaps some kind of a device purposefully made to catch pigeons?

He sat up a little straighter and looked around at the people in the cave, wondering if perhaps he might see someone that he could talk some answers out of. Instead, his eyes fastened on Gia and Panute. They were working on something over on the other side of the group where he could barely see them.

Agan had asked Gia if she would tell a story and she’d said she could once she’d finished her “project.” Instead, Agan had asked Boro if he would tell how he’d come to be cast out of the Aldans. Boro had agreed and had just risen to begin his tale.

Suddenly curious about Gia’s mysterious project, Yadin stood, trying to see what she and Panute were working on.

Boro had only said, “I’ll start with…” Then he apparently thought that Yadin wanted to tell a story instead because he stopped. Eyes on Yadin, he said, “Did you want to tell a story instead?”

Several people moaned and others laughed. Stepping to his left, Yadin snorted and said, “No, no, I know better than to try to tell one of my stories to this group!” He kept moving to the left, having to watch his feet to be sure he didn’t step on anyone in the dim lighting.

Boro said, “I’m going to start with the hunt that killed my father…”

As Boro said that, Yadin lifted his eyes again to see what Gia and Panute could be doing. His heart skipped a beat.

They had five rabbits laid out, already skinned. At present they were engaged in cutting the meat off the bones!

Yadin stopped where he stood, staring, his mind racing. How… How in the name of all the spirits… had this tribe brought in four substantial fish, two grouse, a mess of crayfish, and five rabbits?! And what in the hell are they going to do with the rabbit meat. Cutting it up into small pieces was just crazy! Everyone knew that you should keep your meat in big chunks. It tended to rot on the outside first, but even after the outside had gone bad, you could still find some flesh that wasn’t foul down closer to the middle. His eyes narrowed. Though, they seem to have fresh meat every day! They’re so successful hunting small animals, I don’t know why they’d try to keep meat at all. They should have just thrown those rabbits out if they weren’t going to eat them tonight! His thoughts paused to wonder if they planned to make a morning meal out of the rabbits, but there was plenty of food left over from this evening’s meal to fill everyone’s bellies in the morning. Besides, even if they were going to eat the rabbits in the morning, it’d be better to cut them up right before they were cooked.

Yadin didn’t hear much of Boro’s story as he continued picking his way over to where Gia and Panute were working. When he got to them, they looked up at him and he would have sworn they looked a bit furtive and slightly embarrassed.

Perhaps as if they didn’t want him to know just how successful the hunts had been that day?! He glanced behind himself and saw several people watching him. Some of them also looked like they’d rather he hadn’t seen. A couple of others, however, had knowing grins as if they knew how astonished he must feel.

Yadin squatted down next to the two women and, not wanting to interrupt Boro’s story, quietly said, “Why are you cutting up the meat?”

Gia looked up at him and grinned. He closed his eyes in frustration, knowing what was coming before she said, “You’ll have to ask Agan if we can tell you that.”

Yadin snorted, shook his head, opened his eyes, and smiled at Gia. “I guess I’m going to have to. I tried a few nights ago, you know. But then Pell went off on his project to make that new axe!”

Gia smiled sweetly at him, then whispered, “Then you’re just going to have to try again, aren’t you?” She glanced over at Boro, then back at Yadin, “Now shhh, I want to hear Boro’s story.”

When Boro’s story was done, Yadin had found it heart-wrenching. Boro’s father dying after being tusked in a hunt. Being tusked, according to Boro, because of the cowardice of the chieftain’s son who was too frightened to spear a boar that had focused all of its attention on Boro’s father. When Boro accused the son of cowardice, the son had him cast out of the tribe.

There was no doubt in Yadin’s mind that there had been evil in the Aldans then, but it didn’t escape his notice that Pell wasn’t a part of the Aldans clan during the time that evil reigned.

Cast out of his tribe, with winter bearing down, already thin because the Aldans tribe as a whole had been eating badly, Boro’s chances of survival appeared nonexistent. Everyone thought he’d die, but his mother advised him to travel to Cold Springs and see if he could join Pell, who’d been cast out earlier in the year. Though on the face of it, this sounded like a terrible idea, Boro had made the trip in a bout of desperate last-ditch hope.

Tears streaming down his face, Boro talked about arriving at the Cold Springs cave. Arriving and finding not, as he expected, another group of hungry individuals loathe to take him in, but a small tribe of healthy, well fed people.

While telling how they’d agreed to take him in, Boro became so choked up that he couldn’t continue. Gurix and Pell, friends from his childhood stood up and both hugged him. They patted and consoled him, taking him over to one side and sitting with him as he tried to get himself back in control.

Everyone sat silently for a while, as if in respect for Boro’s emotional distress. Yadin found himself thinking about how Lessa had told essentially the same story regarding the evil affecting the Aldans. Evil yes, but not coming from Pell. Rather it came from the chieftain’s son and much of it directed at Pell. A pernicious evil, spreading from the chieftain’s bully of a son to ruin the lives of Pell, then Boro’s father, then Boro. Insidiously it seemed to have nearly destroyed the entire tribe.

A tribe which was then rescued, not harmed, by Pell!

Most notably for Yadin, Boro’s story several times counted Pont culpable for some horrible things that had happened.

Pell’s not the source of the evil, but Pont might be…

Agan broke the silence. “That’s a heartrending story you’ve told Boro. I hope we all take the lessons it contains into our own hearts.” She turned her head slowly about, surveying her small, but growing tribe. “Now, before we all go to our beds, I’d like to resume a conversation Yadin and I were having a few nights ago.” She looked at Yadin, “I believe we were interrupted when someone…” she glanced at Pell, “had an idea about an axe.”

Apparently everyone had heard about the success of Pell’s axe idea, because most of the tribe laughed, then began hooting excitedly. Yadin stood back up. Uncertainly, he said, “Would you like me to get out my flint tools again?”

Agan smiled, “No, I’d like to ask the Cold Springs people if anyone would object to having you join our tribe.” She winked at him, “Selfishly, we want even more flint than you have in your bundle, so we want you to stay and make more tools. Besides, then you can learn the answers to all those questions you’ve been asking.”

To Yadin’s relief, the people around him began hooting excitedly about this idea as well. No one ventured an objection. For just a brief moment, he wondered whether he should accept. Should he go back and visit the Oppo tribe in order to be sure he really wanted to leave? In good conscience, shouldn’t he spend the winter with the Oppos rather than adding another mouth to a tribe that wasn’t prepared for the hungry months to come? But he so wanted to learn their secrets!

He looked around and his eyes caught on Donte. A feeling of certainty swept over him and he turned back to Agan, “I’d…” he swallowed around a sudden frog in his throat, “be honored, to become a member, of this tribe,” he managed to choke out. Another round of hooting, stomping, and slapping the ground broke out. Donte stood to walk around and give him his first welcoming hug…

Though Donte had been first to welcome him into the Cold Springs tribe, one by one, each of the others came around to embrace him as well. He found himself uncharacteristically emotional at this enthusiastic reception, unable to speak more than an occasional croak and frequently having to pretend to scratch a welling eye.

When at last the last of the well-wishers had spoken to him he found Gia smiling at his elbow, “Now, shall I tell you why we cut the meat up into such small pieces?”

Though he felt as exhausted as if he’d chased and speared a bison by himself, Yadin couldn’t pass up a chance to get the first answer to one of his many questions. “Yes! Yes, please.”

Gia knelt and put a splinter in the fire. Once it’d caught, she held it over a rock she held in her other hand. To Yadin’s astonishment, when she took the burning splinter away, a small flame persisted above the rock. In the light of that flame he was able to see that a twist of some material sank into something that had congealed in a cavity on the upper surface of the rock. “What’s that?!”

“This?” She said lifting the rock a little and focusing her gaze on it. “We call it a lamp.” She shrugged, “It’s nothing but a piece of limestone with a cavity pecked out on the upper surface. The cavity’s filled with marrow fat and a wick of juniper fibers is dipped into the grease. The fat climbs up the wick to burn in this steady little flame.” She turned and knelt, picking up one of the rabbit skins that had all the cut up meat lying on it. Standing, she started picking her way through some of the bedding toward the very back of the cave.

Yadin followed. He’d never been to the back of the cave, partly because it was so dim back there away from the cave mouth, and partly because the floor and the ceiling rose in the region Gia was heading towards. Though most of the smoke from the fire neatly exited from the hole in the wall above the hearth, some of it always seeped back into this particular back region of the cave. The farther back one walked, the smokier it got, so Yadin had avoided the area.

Part way back, Gia stopped and knelt which had the advantage of lowering their heads out of the worst of the smoke. She set her lamp on the ground where its light made evident a frame of lightweight straight shafts of wood all bound together. Gia proved it wasn’t fastened down by turning it a little towards herself. Then she began deftly picking up strips of meat hanging them over the wooden shafts.

Yadin restrained himself from asking what she was doing. Instead, he said, “Would you like me to hang some strips of meat as well?”

Her head turned toward him, and in the dim light from the lamp he saw a gleam from her teeth suggesting a smile. “Yes, thank you. That would be very helpful.”

Yadin picked up a handful of the meat and began picking off strips and draping them over the shafts on his side of the frame. It didn’t take them too long before all the meat, even from five rabbits, had been hung over the frame.

Gia turned to him and said, “Would you carry the lamp?”

Yadin gingerly picked it up as Gia took a deep breath and lifted the frame in both hands. Now she walked quickly even further back and higher up into the cave. The smoke got thicker and Yadin soon wished he’d taken a deep breath as well.

Gia set the frame on a high spot in a niche at the very upper back of the cave and quickly turned to begin walking toward the front. “I hate breathing that smoke,” she said and coughed.

Eyes tearing up and coughing himself, Yadin said, “So do I! Are you going to tell me why in the world we did it?”

She placed a hand on his arm and said, “Yes, it’s finally time for some answers.” She fished in her pouch and held something out to him. In the dim light, Yadin couldn’t see what it was, but it felt like a stick. He only felt puzzled for a moment, then suspicion dawned. He lifted the stick and licked it. “Spirit meat!” he exclaimed. He turned to look behind him, then back to Gia, “Is that how you do it?! Hanging little pieces of meat up in that smoky recess?”

Smiling, Gia nodded at him.

Suspiciously, Yadin said, “And, does someone have to pray to a spirit?”

Gia gave a small laugh, “No. Apparently Tando had the idea to call it ‘spirit meat’ when they first sold it at a trading area. He wanted people to think that something special had to be done. Something different from just hanging the meat in a smoky area. So, we call it spirit meat when we’re talking to other people, but really, nothing special needs to be done. If you leave it in the smoke for a few hours, it adds flavor and makes it so it keeps for a few days. Usually, however, we leave it back there for days and then it seems to keep… well…” she shrugged, “we don’t know how long it keeps. We do have pieces of it that Pell smoked early this summer that still seem to be good though.” She glanced up at Yadin with a smile, “So, we hope we’ll have meat to eat all winter long, even if our hunting’s poor after snow covers the land.”

Chapter Six

In the morning, having eaten, Yadin was about to leave the cave when he heard Donte squeal. For a moment, he thought she’d been hurt, then thought it sounded like a squeal of delight. He turned to see what had happened and saw her carrying one of the odd baskets she’d been making the other day. Cylinders, approximately as big around and as long as his upper arm, the baskets were woven loosely enough that he thought whatever things were to be put in the baskets had to be bigger than grain or they’d fall out the holes. Since he’d first seen her making one of the little baskets he’d wondered several times what they’d be able to store in them. Certainly grain or small beans would just fall out the holes in the weave. Now he found himself wondering what could have happened to whatever she kept in the basket to make her so happy.

She kept coming his direction, so he held open the flap over the mouth of the cave so she could go out. As soon as she stepped out into the light she held the odd little basket up and peered through the weave. Yadin looked as well.

The basket had mice in it! Four or five, he thought, though he couldn’t quite see how many. Questions tumbled through his mind. Why would anyone keep mice in a basket? How had she caught mice to put them in there in the first place? What’d happened to them to make her so happy? He blinked a couple of times, then said, “What…?” He closed his mouth, not knowing what the remainder of his question should be.

Donte looked up at him, delight sparkling in her eyes. “Mice! They’ve been eating our grain!” She arched an eyebrow, “Now we’re going to eat them!”

Yadin blinked a couple more times, then said slowly, “Why… are you,” he frowned, “keeping mice in a basket?”

Grinning, she nudged him, “We’re not keeping them! We’re catching them in a basket.” She turned one end of the cylinder toward him so he could see sharp little reeds pointing into the cylinder. They left a tiny space in the center…

Realization dawned in Yadin’s mind. The mice could climb in through that hole, but wouldn’t be able to climb back out! They’d get stuck on the spikes. He lifted his eyes to hers, “I see… they can get in, but they can’t get back out.” His eyes turned back to the trap for a moment, then back to hers. “But why do they want to get in in the first place?!”

“Aha, we rolled some grain in marrow fat and dropped the little balls inside. They love fat and grain! So, they climbed in to eat it,” she lifted an eyebrow, “five of them, but now they’re stuck.”

“Oh!” Yadin said, suddenly understanding. He turned and looked down the stream where he’d seen Woday coming and going—first with a cylindrical basket, then later, carrying only a covered basket full of crayfish. He turned back to Donte, eyes wide, “Is a basket like this how Woday catches his crayfish?!”

Eyes twinkling, she nodded. “And the fish too.”

“Spirits!” Yadin swore admiringly. That’s how he caught crayfish on a day that was too cold to wade around. Suddenly Yadin realized that, because of the cold springs, the stream out front was too cold to wade around in even on warm days. I’ll bet he’s never once waded around in the stream catching crayfish! He’s always been using that basket! He turned to Donte, “So I’m guessing the Falls-people use these kind of basket traps to catch fish and Woday taught you guys how to do that. Then you had the bright idea to make a smaller basket trap to catch mice?”

Donte grinned at him, “You’ve almost got it. Actually, Pell came up with the basket traps to catch grouse,” She glanced at Gia who’d just walked by, then winked at Yadin before saying quietly, “since Gia really likes to eat grouse. Then he realized you could use the same thing to catch fish. When he and Woday were working it out, they accidentally caught a crayfish, but now they put a trap where the stream is rocky and the water is slow moving and deep to catch crayfish. They put a trap where the waters are flowing when they’re trying to catch fish.”

Belatedly, Yadin remembered that he’d seen Pell pulling a basket trap out of the water when he and Woday had first arrived at Cold Springs. When they’d first met him, Pell’d had a couple of fish that he must’ve caught with the basket. Obviously, since he’d just arrived, Woday couldn’t have taught them how to use a basket to catch fish. “Pell’s just full of good ideas, isn’t he?” Yadin said musingly.

Donte snorted, “You’re just now noticing?” She turned to grin up at him, “His crazy ideas turned him from a cast out boy who was about to die, into a young man who’s saved…” her voice got throaty, “all kinds of other people!” She moved over to the area on the ledge where she frequently sat, then gave him a smile, “Now, if you want to make yourself useful, teach me how to skin and clean these mice so we can put them in the stew.”

Yadin frowned, “That might be more trouble than it’s worth, don’t you think? The skin’s too small to make furs and there’s not enough meat to make it worth slicing the stuff off those tiny bones. If we were starving, we could roast them and eat them, bones and all, but since we’ve got plenty of other meat, I don’t think anyone will want to chew up a bony mouse.”

Donte looked at her little basket full of mice and chewed her lip for a moment, “I guess you’re right, but I really wanted to eat my first kill.”

Yadin lifted an eyebrow, “Well now, if I’d known it was your first kill… That’s an entirely different matter. Give them to me, I’ll clean them, skin them, and spit them to roast over the fire for a midday snack.” He grinned at her, “We can’t throw away the results of your first hunt!”

Donte gave him a huge smile as she passed the basket to him. “Thanks!” She pointed to some ties on the far end of the basket from its little one-way entrance. “When you want to get the mice out, you untie these ties and the end of the basket comes off. Then you can reach in to pluck them out. Don’t…” she gave him a stern look, “let them get away! We don’t want them getting back into the cave to eat any more of our grain.”

Yadin watched admiringly as she walked over to the spot on the cave’s ledge where she usually worked on her projects.

***

Sidean looked about with some disbelief. He and Wenax had returned to the Oppos, hungry but grateful to have made their journey without encountering snow. They’d reported that Pell currently resided at Cold Springs. Yadin, they both thought, appeared to have joined the Cold Springs tribe of his own will. They’d detailed their impression that no one appeared to be enspelled by any evil spirits, either in the Aldans, or at Cold Springs. The Aldans were in fact, thin, as Pont had said, but he and Wenax had seen two men carrying the carcasses of rabbits, suggesting that their days of bad hunting were behind them.

Sidean had expected that upon receiving this news, the Oppos would breathe a sigh of relief and get on with their own lives. He’d thought they would be able to do so without any more worry about what might be happening in neighboring tribes than they’d had in the past.

When he’d looked around the faces of his tribe at the end of his account, he’d had the impression that his tribesmen, appearing relieved, felt much the same as he did.

What he hadn’t counted on, was the reaction of Nosset and Pont. The two medicine men acted as if they hadn’t been listening to the same story Sidean thought he’d been telling. Their response had started with some of their ominous chanting and degraded into diatribes filled with vitriol.

Sidean had felt quite surprised when he learned that the evil spirit had apparently kept him from being able to see clearly. Or, somehow had allowed him to see people apparently happy, eating well, and going about normal business, who instead were actually hungry, miserable, and engaged in depravities he’d been unable to witness.

He’d listened to the medicine men, initially with wide-eyed surprise, and later with narrow eyed suspicion. But then, he’d wondered what reason the medicine men could possibly have for painting such a bleak picture right over his pleasant description. Surely there was no benefit in it for them. Eventually he began to wonder if indeed his eyes had been deceived. Then he wondered how the medicine men could see the true picture when their eyes hadn’t been on the journey with Wenax and himself.

By their description, the two medicine men had engaged some of their clairvoyant powers to enable them to travel to Cold Springs in spirit form. There, they claimed to have witnessed the agony and suffering of the people of Cold Springs. Torments that were limited to the depths of the Cold Springs cave where no one from the outside could see it.

Nosset shook his head mournfully, “It’s our sacred duty to these beleaguered neighbors to free them from this oppression.”

Staring, Sidean looked at Nosset, “How would we do that?!”

Pont turned his gaze on Sidean as if he thought Sidean was particularly dense. “The evil spirit resides within the fading husk of the boy Pell. We need do no more than kill what appears to be a boy, but is actually only the boy’s shell. Without the support of the boy’s remaining life force, the evil spirit will fade back whence it came.”

Wenax spoke at last, “If Pell’s the one I think he is, he doesn’t look like no ‘husk.’ He’s big and healthy lookin’. I know I wouldn’t want to challenge him!”

“That’s why we need to go after him with all six of our hunters,” Nosset said.

Pont said, “He may be big, but he was always a clumsy and inadequate hunter. He won’t be able to stand against six of you.”

“Pont and I will be right behind you,” Nosset said, “using all of our powers to restrain the evil spirit so that you’ll just be fighting the human boy. With our restraint protecting you, a spear will kill him just like it would any other boy.”

Pont intoned ominously, “Not only do we owe this to our neighbors the Aldans and the Cold Springs tribes, but we owe it to our own people here. If this evil spirit isn’t stopped now, it will only become more powerful. Soon it will spread its power over all the tribes in this area, wreaking its foul and malevolent will on people everywhere!”

Sidean felt chills run over his body at Pont’s words. To his surprise he found that he wanted the boy dead! So did the others apparently, after some raucous shouting and raised fists they made plans to set out in the morning.

That night, as Sidean lay on his bedding waiting to fall asleep, he wondered what had happened. He’d gone into the Oppos’ meeting feeling sure that there was nothing to fear from the Aldans, nor any evil in Cold Springs. He’d believed firmly that Yadin had simply decided he’d rather live in Cold Springs. Sidean’d certainly felt that he knew better than anyone here in the Oppos what was going on in those two tribes, after all, he’d actually gone there and seen what was happening.

Yet, somehow, the two medicine men had managed to muddy his thoughts! He’d come to believe that what had seemed so clear to him in the light of day, was merely a deception brought on by an evil spirit. What if that wasn’t true?

Well, if it’s not true, the worst that will happen is that we’ll kill that boy Pell. He may never have brought us any harm, but he hasn’t done us any good either. Better that the boy lies dead in error, than we fail to kill him only to later find that he truly is possessed of an evil spirit. An evil spirit seeking to destroy us and our children.

Gritting his teeth against a sick unease roiling his stomach, Sidean wished that sleep would overtake him.

***

Yadin set his flint knapping equipment up out on the ledge in front of the Cold Springs cave. Choosing a spot next to where Donte usually worked, he brought out a stack of ten of the huge pile of small furs the tribe had to sit on. It was still kind of cold, and Donte hadn’t come out yet, but he hoped when she did she’d wind up sitting down next to him and they could talk. He’d been worried that she was going to think he was just following her around like a young boy with his first crush. This way, she would be coming to him.

As he sat, idly turning a nodule of flint this way and that, seeking the tool that might be hidden in it, his mind turned to the things he’d learned since joining the tribe. How to make spirit meat. How to make traps for mice, grouse, and fish. He suspected the tribe used the same traps for rabbits and other small animals as well. Though he’d never thought of knowledge as a prized possession before, he’d realized that if he left here and went to join another tribe, the ability to do these things would make him very welcome. This kind of knowledge was a kind of wealth just as concrete as a well done spear point.

He found it hard to believe the assertions of the people here; that the boy-man Pell had come up with almost all of these ideas. However, he’d witnessed the “handled axe” come into being himself. The axe wasn’t perhaps on the same level as the traps which brought you food without effort, but it was something he could make which would—at least until others learned to replicate it—trade high at the summer meetings.

Suddenly, his mind’s eye saw the head for another handled-axe head in the nodule he held.

A hard blow with his antler hammer sheared off the first piece of flint.

As Yadin worked, chipping off flake after flake on the way to shaping another axe head, his mind settled into the routine. After a bit, his consciousness began to roam and he thought about his old tribe the Oppos for the first time in days. His first thought was how he should ask permission to go back to them and teach them some of the things he’d learned here at Cold Springs. When he’d left the Oppos, he’d been unhappy. He’d wanted to leave, but now a little distance had left him feeling more benevolently toward some of the people back at his home cave. Not Nosset. Nor the new medicine man, Pont; but some of the others. He couldn’t help but think how much better their lives would be if he taught them to trap small animals and make spirit meat.

After thinking about how he’d like to visit them, he considered guiltily that he’d said he’d return long before now. After all, they’d sent him on a mission to scout out the Aldans and Pell, a mission he’d finished… except for the part about reporting back.

Uneasily, he realized that he really should have reported back to ease their fears. Otherwise, they might think that he’d been taken over by the “evil spirit” Pont claimed inhabited Pell.

He snorted to himself, thinking that hardly anything could be farther from the truth than the idea that an evil spirit controlled Pell.

What if Pont, and that idiot Nosset, talk Jalgon into doing something regrettable? Jalgon had always been aggressive, ever since he’d been young. He liked to fight, and though he didn’t exactly seek out confrontation, he was never one to back down from it. Yadin worried that perhaps the kind of tales Pont had told would be just the kind of thing to give Jalgon an excuse to… Yadin wasn’t exactly sure what Jalgon might do, but somebody would probably get hurt.

Yadin wondered whether he should explain his concerns to Pell, but decided the boy was too young to burden with such issues. He might have had some good ideas, but he surely wouldn’t have any idea what to do if another tribe decided to attack Cold Springs. Yadin didn’t consider speaking to Agan about it. Although he’d heard the people calling her their leader, the whole concept of a woman leader was foreign to him.

He saw Tando walking his way.

“Tando,” Yadin called out.

Tando’s eyes turned to Yadin’s direction, and he came over. Looking at the nodule and Yadin’s hand, he frowned and said, “What’re you working on?” Then his forehead smoothed as Yadin turned it and Tando recognized the underlying form. “You’re making another axe head!” he said with a grin. Then his look changed to dubious, “Does Deltin need two?”

Yadin said, “Probably not. But that first one may break, and even if it doesn’t, eventually it’ll have to be sharpened. After I sharpen it enough times, it’ll be too small to be much good.”

Tando said, “True, but why not just make another axe head when you need it?”

Yadin grinned, “Well, I thought someday we might go trading.” His eyes twinkled, “Then I thought, if Deltin mounted some of these ax heads on handles, we might trade them dearly.”

A smile spread over Tando’s face, “Oh… Yeaahh! That’s a great idea!”

Tando stood there pondering a minute. Then, saying, “Good idea,” he turned to go.

Yadin said, “Hold on, I was wanting to talk to you.”

Tando turned back. Taking a deep breath, Yadin picked his way through a description of what had happened back in the Oppos. The arrival of Pont, his depiction of what had happened to the Aldans, his blaming of Pell, and the claim that Pell was inhabited by a demon spirit. “So, our leader Jalgon, dispatched me on a mission to find out what’s really going on. I wasn’t actually supposed to talk to any of you, just observe.” He shrugged, “And, I was supposed to be back quite a while ago.”

Tando didn’t look alarmed, but he did look unhappy. “Pont!” He said in a disgusted tone, “That bandy legged… I swear, he didn’t enter this world through his mother’s birth canal; he passed through the opening right behind it!” Tando shook his head as if to clear it, “What’re you thinking might happen?”

Yadin pursed his lips in thought, “I don’t really know…” he said hesitantly. “But Jalgon, our leader, he became the leader because he’s a fighter, better than anybody else. He tends to think that the solution to every problem is a fight of some kind. Nosset, our medicine man, who by the way is completely useless, seems very enamored of Pont.” He paused for a moment, then continued sadly, “I’m afraid that Pont and Nosset will convince Jalgon that something must be done and that Jalgon will think the best solution involves a spear.”

Dawning horror spread across Tando’s face, “You think they’ll try to kill Pell?!”

Yadin nodded slowly, “Or maybe…” he looked grim, “the whole tribe. Jalgon’s fond of a story by one of our best storytellers about two tribes fighting each other until one of them has killed all the hunters in the other tribe.”

Aghast, Tando said, “Leaving the women to starve?!”

A little shamefacedly, Yadin said, “No, taking the women as slaves.” He shrugged, “As I say, it’s only a story. But the fact that Jalgon likes that story…” he trailed off as if he didn’t think it needed to be explained any further.

“Spirits!” Tando said vehemently. Then he astonished Yadin by turning to leave, saying, “I’ve got to go tell Agan about this!”

Agan? What in the world could she do about a problem like this? Yadin wondered. After a few moments thought, he decided he’d done what he could and turned back to his axe head. He looked up again when Woday went by carrying his crayfish basket.

Minutes later Gurix hurried past, her eye on Woday’s retreating form. He frowned. Is she following him? I thought she loved Pell.

Woday walked the familiar path down along the stream. He wondered how his two fish traps had done overnight. The water, always chilly, seemed to be getting even colder and slower. He knew from growing up with the Falls-people that crayfish were harder to find in wintertime. Ordinary fish could still be speared occasionally, but they were seen less frequently as well. He wondered whether the basket traps would stop working as winter arrived.

As he walked on, he thought about this and wondered whether the fishing would be better down in the main river. After all, the stream here in Cold Springs ravine was colder than regular water. If crayfish and regular fish didn’t like the cold, perhaps there were more of them in the warmer water of the big river.

Woday glanced up at the sky. Though the day was cold he didn’t feel too chilly since he was walking steadily. There weren’t many clouds, so he didn’t think the weather would suddenly turn worse. After I empty the traps, I think I’ll take them on down to the main river and see how they do there. Behind him he heard a girl’s voice, “Woday?”

Startled, Woday turned and saw her on the path behind him, “Gurix! What are you doing down here!”

She gave him a sly smile, “Stalking you! You’d better be glad I’m not a lion!” She waved at the forest around them, “You really should pay more attention to what’s going on around you.”

“I’ve been told that too many times to count,” Woday grimaced, “I get to thinking about something, and I lose track of the world around me.” He smiled at the pretty young girl and continued, “You still didn’t tell me what you’re doing down here.”

She shrugged, “I like eating your fish, even those funny things you call crayfish. I thought I’d come with you and see how you catch them.”

“Well, we’re just about where I put out the traps.” He looked around, then pointed to where one of the ropes came out of the water. “Over here.”

He walked her over and they pulled up the fish trap. There was only one fish, though it was a good-sized one. Shortly they pulled up the crayfish trap from an area that Woday had thought would be good, but it only held twelve crayfish. Gurix said, “I thought you usually got more fish than that?” She glanced further down the river, “Or do you have more traps to pull up?”

Disappointed not to have a huge haul to show the girl, Woday said, “No, only the two traps so far. Usually they bring in plenty, so there hasn’t seemed to be much of a reason to build more.” He shrugged, “I think that as the weather and the water gets colder, the fish stay in their homes… Or burrows, or wherever they live.”

“Oh,” Gurix said with a disappointed look. “Does that mean that you won’t be feeding us fish all winter like I hoped?”

“Maybe not, though I did have this idea to try putting the traps down in the warmer water of the main river.”

Gurix gave him an admiring glance, “That’s a great idea! Are you going to set traps down there now?”

“I was going to,” Woday said, feeling very proud that she liked his idea, “but it’s quite a bit farther downstream. I should probably get you back to the cave.”

“I don’t mind walking on down to the main river with you,” Gurix said curling her hand into the inside of Woday’s elbow, “I think it’d be fun.”

“Um, okay…” Woday said, wondering if it really was. Would the people of Cold Springs feel like it was a little too dangerous to take a young girl all the way down to the main river? Maybe they wouldn’t think he should be alone with her so far from other people?

Gurix tugged at his elbow to start him on his way.

His guilt gave way to the enjoyment of walking with a pretty girl…

***

Tando walked over to Pell where he sat at the dinner fire. With Gia sitting close on one side and Woday next to him on the other side, there wasn’t a place beside Pell for Tando to sit, so he squatted in front. Pell and Woday were talking about making a trip to get some honey in the morning, but Pell turned his eyes to Tando, smiled and gave him a questioning look. Tando said, “We need to talk about some news Yadin gave me today.” Pell merely lifted an eyebrow, so Tando went on to explain what Yadin had said about Pont and the Oppos.

Pell lost his happy look, gaining a grimmer and bleaker expression as Tando told what he’d learned. Finally, he said, “What are we going to do?”

Tando felt taken aback. He’d come to think of Pell as the one with the solutions, even though his rational mind realized that Pell was young, inexperienced, and couldn’t possibly have a solution to everything. “Um, I talked to Agan…”

For a moment Pell looked pleased. As if he hadn’t been thinking about the fact that the tribe had a leader who should decide those things. When Tando paused uncomfortably, Pell tilted his head and asked, “What did she say?”

Tando shook his head, “She reminded me that Aganstribe hadn’t been in any fights. She hadn’t known what to do when the Aldans came to attack us and she wouldn’t know what to do if the Oppos did the same. She, uh…” Tando looked embarrassed.

Pell frowned, “What?”

“She said that fighting was a thing for men and that I should organize the men so we’d be ready if the Oppos came.”

“Oh, okay. What should we do?”

“Well, um, I was hoping you’d have some ideas.”

Pell grimaced, “The only fights I’ve ever been in were Denit beating the crap out of me. I don’t know how to win a fight.”

Tando drew his head back in surprise, “You won the fight against the Aldans when they came to attack us! I was thinking that the first thing you would do would be to ask the ‘trap spirit’ to be ready to attack again in case they came.”

Exasperatedly, Pell said, “There wasn’t any ‘trap spirit’! I just tried to set up a human sized snare like we make for animals!”

“But the trap spirit sent down all those rocks to attack the Aldans!”

“But… but…” Pell spluttered to a stop, then shook his head as if realizing he’d never be able to explain what had happened so people understood. Resignedly, he said, “Okay, I’ll set it up tomorrow afternoon. Woday and I are going to get some honey in the morning.”

Tando said, “What if the Oppos come tomorrow?”

Pell got an obstinate look on his face, “Pretty soon it will be too cold to travel to where the honey is. Besides we have no idea when or even if the Oppos are going to come. We can’t stay here all the time just in case they do.”

“But you could set up the trap spirit in the morning and go for the honey in the afternoon.”

Pell shook his head, “In the morning it’s cold and a fast walk to get the honey will keep us warm. Climbing the cliff carrying cold rocks for the trap would be miserable in the morning. It’ll be better in the afternoon when the cliff’s a little warmer.”

Tando looked unhappy about it, but he said, “Okay.” He stood back up and waved for the attention of everyone in the tribe. “We need to talk about a possible danger.” He went on to explain Yadin’s concern that they might be attacked. “Agan has asked me to help us prepare in case the Oppos come and try to do us harm.”

He looked around at the tribe. They stared at him with expressions ranging from anger to apprehension. “The first thing is, no one should go out by themselves anymore. Each man should always carry two spears with him and preferably there should be at least two men with every group that goes out.”

“I’m not taking two men with me every time I have to pee!” Ontru said.

Tando looked frustrated, “This is for trips away from the cave. Further than just where you go to piss.” After some argument and discussion, everyone came to some agreement about what to do if the Oppos came, but Tando still felt like they were woefully unprepared. He decided he’d feel a lot better once Pell had set up the trap spirit.

***

Sidean lifted the fur off his head and peered up into the sky.

Gray.

Gray everywhere without a touch of blue. The air that greeted his exposed face felt icy. It’s going to snow, he thought frustratedly, if not today, tomorrow. And here we are, far from our home cave, going out of our way to attack someone who’s never caused us any harm.

We should turn back and hope the spirits forgive us!

Jalgon, however, had other thoughts. He was soon rousting the Oppos and assigning them tasks. Sidean, as usual, found himself assigned to cook them a porridge because he had more skill for it than the rest of the hunters. He wasn’t surprised to see that Pont and Nosset were the last ones up. Nor that they didn’t actually do any work.

Unsurprised, yet angry nonetheless.

As everyone sat about eating, many of them glancing uneasily at the sky like he had, Sidean said, “It’s going to snow. We should turn back and hope we make it to the cave before the weather gets really bad.”

“No!” Pont said angrily, “this weather is just the evil spirit’s way of trying to slow us down. Nosset and I’ll perform a ceremony to soothe the weather spirits.” His eyes swept the group, “We’ve got to kill Pell and the evil in him now, before that spirit gains even more power. If we wait till spring, the spirit will be too strong!”

Sidean turned his eyes to Jalgon, hoping he’d see reason. Instead, Jalgon looked furious, “I’m the one who decides these things,” he barked, standing and stepping toward where Sidean sat so that he towered over him. “Are you getting some idea that’s not the case?!”

Noticing that Jalgon’s hands had curled into fists, Sidean dropped his eyes and shook his head, “No, no, whatever you say Jalgon.” A feeling of dread rose up inside of him and a tremor ran over his body.

He hoped Jalgon thought it was fear.

He also hoped what he’d foreseen wasn’t a true premonition…

***

Woday looked out the flap over the mouth of Pell’s cave and saw bleak gray skies. Icy coldness swirled in around him. We won’t be going for honey today, he thought.

Behind him, Pell said, “Don’t just stand there holding the flap open, let’s go take our piss. We need to eat and get on our way after that honey or Tando’s going to be upset.”

Soon enough, Woday found himself heading down the trail with Pell and Pell’s wolf, Ginja. They walked quickly to keep themselves warm while the wolf ranged ahead. Woday kept glancing at the sky, thinking that the weather was going to get worse. He felt fairly confident they could make it back with their honeycomb before it got too bad, but it didn’t keep him from feeling uneasy. To his surprise, Pell chattered pleasantly as if neither the weather nor the Oppos were anything to worry about. Woday wondered if he’d never been caught out in a blizzard.

When they crossed a stream, Pell stopped, staring at the round stones washed up on its edge. “What?” Woday asked.

“I think these would make good throwing stones,” Pell said, “let’s try a few.” He bent over and picked up several, hefting them to check their weight. Satisfied, he dropped a big one and several small ones, then picked up more the same size as the one he still held.

Woday had only been watching, when Pell noticed, he tossed Woday one of the stones, “Try throwing that one.”

“Um, I’m not a very good throw,” Woday ventured.

“Never gonna get better if you don’t practice,” Pell replied. He pointed at a boulder on the other side of the stream, “See if you can hit that big rock over there.”

Suppressing a sigh, Woday threw the rock. To his surprise, he did hit the boulder, though up on its upper left corner. He’d missed his aim by an arm’s-length, but from past experience he knew he’d been lucky to hit it at all.

“Good!” Pell said. “If that rock felt about the right weight to you, find some more and we’ll each get in ten throws.”

They crouched and sorted through some rocks until they each had ten. Woday threw first, happy each time he hit the boulder and cursing in embarrassment the four times he missed. At the end, he shrugged, “I’m terrible. Even though I hit the boulder sometimes I usually didn’t hit the spot I was aiming for.”

Pell blandly said, “Don’t worry, just keep practicing. You’ll get better.” He stepped up and started throwing his rocks.

Woday felt relieved when Pell hit the boulder on the upper left much like Woday had with his first throw. Then the upper right. Maybe he wouldn’t prove to be much better than Woday was.

Pell hit the lower right, then the lower left, then the top, then the left edge, then the bottom… With dismay, Woday realized that Pell was working his way around the boulder, probably only missing the center so as not to embarrass his apprentice, but nonetheless hitting exactly where he wanted to with every throw! It became obvious he was trying not to embarrass Woday when he threw his last stone and it struck the boulder exactly in the center. He said, “Well, I only hit the middle once. We could both use more practice.” He turned to Woday with a grin, “Maybe at the next stream?”

As they started off, Ginja lifted her dripping muzzle up out of the stream and bounded ahead. She’d been trying to catch something in the shallow water but Woday hadn’t seen her succeed.

They did practice at the next stream, though Woday didn’t think Pell needed any practice. After a bit, they reached the beehive in its hollowed tree. In the cold, the hive showed no life. When Woday had explained that the bees did little in winter, Pell said, “So can we just scoop out the honeycombs while they’re sleeping?”

Woday looked at it uneasily, suddenly aware that he didn’t know as much about bees and their honey as he’d thought. “Maybe? I think I’d rather use smoke too. It’s not any fun getting stung.”

They’d soon used their ember to get a little fire going. Woday dug up a wad of mildly damp pine needles and got them smoldering. He held them so that the smoke rose around the hive to further settle the bees.

Hoping he’d smoked them enough, or that the cold would keep them quiet, he gave Pell the signal. They cut into the hive and scooped a substantial quantity of dripping honeycomb into the clay pot they’d brought with them. When the pot was full, there was still quite a bit of honey left in the hive. Pell said, “What can we put the rest in?”

Woday shrugged, “The people who get honey for the Falls-people say not to take it all. The bees need to have some so they can live through the winter and make more honey for us next year.” He shrugged again, “I don’t know if that’s true… but it seems like a good idea to me, unless we’re desperate for more honey.”

Pell said little, but looked very thoughtful as they rescued an ember from their fire and got ready to return home.

***

Hands on his hips, Gontra stared at the empty snare. A sick anger had risen in him when he’d come to it. It’d been empty yesterday as well. Every one of his snares was empty today! Only one had had a rabbit yesterday.

When the Aldans had first started putting out snares, they’d caught lots of animals. But then there’d been fewer and fewer. He’d prayed to the spirits of the small animals without success. Now today, not a single snare held anything!

It might just be winter, he thought, hunting’s always bad in wintertime. But if we can’t catch anything anymore, we’re not going to make it through the winter.

He looked around. The day was cold and gray. Normally they’d be thinking the big freeze was coming. They’d be trying to plan a big hunt for large animals, hoping the carcasses would freeze and keep for months into the winter.

But with only three hunters such a hunt would be… problematic.

Maybe I could talk Tando and a couple of the Cold Springs hunters into coming over and doing a big hunt with us. In repayment I could help them do a big hunt when I visited them to ask.

He mulled it over for a moment, then decided, I’ll go now. With the weather looking like it does, there’s no time to waste.

I’ll just go tell Belk or Tonday where I’m going.

***

Sidean, leading the Oppos, turned to follow the stream leading up to Cold Springs ravine. Behind him he heard the irritating tones of Pont’s voice. Suspiciously, Pont said, “Wait a minute. Are you thinking this is the way up to Cold Springs?”

Trying not to sound sullen, Sidean said, “Uh-huh, you can feel the water if you want, it’s cold.” He tilted his head thinking, I thought Pont had been here with the Aldans?

Jalgon had come up behind them to listen. He crouched and put his hand in the water, giving Pont a nod.

Pont stared at Sidean for a moment longer then turned and walked toward the back of their little group. He stood talking to Wenax for a minute then came back up to the front. Speaking to Jalgon, he said, “Wenax says this is it as well.”

Irritated, against his better judgment, Sidean said, “What, you don’t trust me? I thought you’d been here yourself?”

Pont gave him a cold stare for a minute, then said, “It’s not that I don’t trust your original intent, but you’ve been too close to the evil spirit. When you came back you’d seen none of the evil things going on at Cold Springs. Your report was bland and reassuring, just like the evil spirit wanted it to be. I don’t think you got close enough to the demon for it to take you over, but maybe close enough for it to sway your judgment. Maybe, close enough for it to try to lead you the wrong direction.” He gave Sidean a false looking smile, “But, Wenax and the cold water both say you’re right. Now that I think about it, I remember that big boulder,” he pointed and produced a large false smile. “It’s just that the leaves hadn’t all fallen when I came here with the Aldans. Sorry I doubted you.”

As Sidean stood, straining to keep himself from saying something he’d regret, something cold splattered on to his forehead. Foreboding struck before the second splat hit him. With sleet coming down, it’s going to be miserable out here so far from a cave. He glanced at Jalgon and saw their headman glance upward anxiously. Then Jalgon’s eyes came back down and angrily flashed at Sidean.

Sidean knew better than to say, “I told you so.”

Jalgon said, “Let’s get going. We need to get there and win the battle quickly in case this sleet gets bad. Then we can stay in the Cold Springs cave tonight.”

Sick at heart, Sidean started up the trail.

***

They’d walked quietly for quite some time. Woday, bored, decided some conversation was in order. “How am I going to learn bone setting, if nobody comes to us with any broken bones?”

They were walking side-by-side on a wide part of the path, so Pell was able to glance sideways at him. “Sorry, but I pointed out that this could be a problem when you said you wanted to be my apprentice.” He shrugged, “Besides, I really have no control over when people break their bones, you know?”

“I’m just frustrated. The way the tales were told to us back at the Falls, I thought you must have several people a day arriving with something broken.”

“Spirits! I hope not! That would be terrible—all those poor people…” After a moment, he shook his head and said, “If that were to happen I’d have no time to set traps or gather. I’d starve.”

“No, no! They’d bring you food or other things in trade for your services! You’d want for nothing.”

Pell turned wide eyes on him, “How?! People with broken bones can’t hunt! They can’t make things. If there’s anyone in the world with nothing to trade, they’re it. They don’t have any food to bring. They have to beg other people to feed them.”

Woday frowned, “Their families. Their families would have to bring you food.”

“Their families might.” Pell shrugged, “They also might not. Not everyone has a family that loves them, you know?”

“Almost everyone has somebody that loves them enough. They may just not want to pay. You just have to tell them you won’t set their bones until you get your payment.”

Pell drew his head back in horror. “The bones would probably heal in the wrong place by the time you got your payment! Then you wouldn’t be able to put them back and the person would be crippled forever.” Pell stopped walking. When Woday had done the same, he gazed concernedly into Woday’s eyes. “Would you really do that? Refuse to help someone until they’d paid you?”

Suddenly Woday felt terribly ashamed. The dismayed way Pell was looking at him made him feel even worse.

Like a bug or insect of some kind.

Woday’s eyes dropped to Pell’s feet and he swallowed hard as he recognized Pell’s compassion and just how strongly Pell felt about doing what he could for his fellow man. After a moment in which Woday found he couldn’t speak, he finally managed to croak, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was a time limit on when you could set someone’s bones successfully.” He blinked, realizing without looking up that even this wasn’t good enough, “Whether or not there’s a time limit, it was still wrong of me to think I shouldn’t do my best to help someone if I could.”

Silently Pell turned and led off down the path, leaving Woday to walk in humiliation behind him, stewing in his own feelings of guilt. How, when he’s younger than I am, has he made me feel like a naughty child?

Pell stopped so suddenly that Woday ran into him from behind. Woday found a finger pressed to his lips entreating him to silence and heard the wolf make a low rumbling growl off to one side. They both turned to look ahead. Woday saw eight men standing where the path turned north up the stream toward Cold Springs. It looked like the men were arguing about something, but they settled whatever it was and started up the path toward Pell’s home.

With a smack, a drop of slush sleeted out of the sky and smacked Woday on the back of the wrist.

Woday turned worried eyes toward the sky. He leaned into Pell a little, trying to urge his master onward. He said, “We need to get home. If this is a bad storm we could be in trouble out here.”

Pell whispered, “Shhh! Those are the people Tando was warning us about last night.”

Woday immediately took a step backward and crouched down, heart thumping hard in his chest. “How do you know?!”

“Pont is with them.” Even though his words had a worried tone, when Pell said “Pont” he sounded disgusted.

Woday’s first wish was to find a huge drift of fallen leaves and burrow into it until the storm and the unpleasantness was finished. Fortunately, before his mouth could express what his hind brain was thinking, his conscience rallied. He owed it to his new tribe… to do what? I’m not a fighter! What can I do to help? Unable to answer his own question, he leaned closer to Pell’s ear and whispered quietly, “What are we going to do?!” Then, thinking better of it, he immediately rephrased, “What can I do?”

Pell stayed motionless another moment until the Oppos trooped out of sight over a little rise. Then he said, “Let’s hide the honey, we can come back for it later. When we cross the stream we’ll get some rocks.”

Rocks? Woday thought, but he didn’t say anything while they found three saplings growing close enough together that they could wedge their clay pot full of honey high off the ground between them.

Pell led Woday down to the stream and crouched to start picking up rocks, “Let’s get twenty each this time. Fill your pouches.”

Woday squatted down and started getting rocks himself, “I thought Tando said we were to use spears?”

“If we use spears, the Oppos might die of their wounds. A rock hurts really bad, but it doesn’t usually kill a person, only small animals. Besides, I throw rocks a lot better than I do spears. If I have to fight with a spear I’m not going to throw it.”

Woday knew some hunters stabbed animals with spears while they still held the weapons in their hands. You were more likely to make a kill that way, but you could easily get hurt.

Most people he knew threw their spears, at least at large dangerous animals. Woday didn’t think he wanted to get within a spear length of another hunter who was carrying his own spear. “Um…” he said.

Pell looked up at him and gave him an odd smile, “Besides, we only have four spears. We’ll have forty rocks.”

The Oppos had stopped in the brush just on this side of the stream running along the meadow in front of the Cold Springs cave. Woday and Pell had stopped up the hill on the path behind them. Sleet had been coming down intermittently since they had turned up Cold Springs ravine. Now it started coming down steadily. Woday shivered and could see Pell shaking as well. He leaned forward to a whisper, “What are they doing?!”

Pell shrugged, “I don’t know. I think they’re arguing about what to do.”

“Do you think we can cross the stream back here, then walk up the other side of the meadow to the cave and join our tribe?”

Pell looked down at the stream, “The water’s deep here. I’m pretty sure it’d be up to our chests. I’m cold enough without wading through that.”

Reflecting that up to Pell’s chest would be up to his neck, Woday said, “I don’t want to wade it either, but if we stay here much longer we’ll freeze just the same.”

“I know,” Pell said, sounding frustrated.

“Hey,” somebody said behind them. Woday’s first thought was that the Oppos had sent somebody to work his way around and attack them from behind. However, as he was turning in a panic, the man continued, “Pell, what are you doing out here?! Let’s hustle down to your cave and get warmed up!”

Pell had spun around too. He pressed a finger to his lips to shut the man up. In an urgent whisper, “Gontra! There’s some people here from another tribe. We think they’ve come to attack us.”

“Oh,” Gontra said craning his neck to see, then narrowing his eyes. “Pont! I’d recognize that boar’s turd anywhere!”

Woday turned his eyes back to where the Oppos had been gathered. They’d stepped out of the brush and were picking their way from stone to stone across the stream. He saw one of them slip and suspected that the icy slush falling out of the sky was making the rocks even slicker than usual. Maybe several of them will fall into the water and get hurt, he hoped.

Pell said, “Come on,” and started down the path.

Gontra followed him.

Heart thumping, Woday walked behind Gontra. With disappointment, he saw that all eight of the Oppos had made it across the ford without injury. Now he started to worry that he might get hurt trying to cross the stream.

The Oppos started crossing the meadow and one of them started some kind of chant. Soon, the rest of them had joined in and the chant developed a threatening tone. Pell looked like he was dancing from rock to rock as he crossed the stream. Gontra moved much more gingerly. Woday’s first step slipped off a rock plunging his foot into the icy water. At first he was certain he was going to catch his feet between some stones and get a serious injury or be trapped, but he managed to pull the foot back up. His leg was numbingly cold, but he managed to step on the rock without slipping the next time. Taking even greater care, he picked his way slowly across the stream. He didn’t see Pell and Gontra looking back at him, frustrated by his slow pace because Woday never lifted his eyes from the rocks he was walking on.

When Woday reached the other side, he didn’t have time for a sigh of relief. Pell said urgently, “Let’s go!” and they started out into the meadow behind the Oppos.

Woday lifted his eyes to see what was going on and saw that the flap of the cave had been pulled open. Tando was looking out.

Tando stepped back inside, but a moment later he came back out with a spear in each hand. Manute, Deltin, Yadin, and Boro followed him out a minute later, each carrying two spears. A minute after that Falin timidly stepped out carrying a small spear of his own. Tando said, “What do you want?”

Woday felt Pell step up beside him. The young man leaned near his ear and said quietly, “If you don’t mind, I think it might be better if you handed me stones rather than throwing any yourself.” Woday nodded gratefully.

One of the Oppos stepped toward the cave and said, “We’ve come to rid you of the boy Pell, who’s possessed by an evil spirit. In return, we only ask that you give us shelter for tonight.”

Sidean’s head swiveled to stare at Jalgon. He was so shocked by the man’s words his shivering actually stopped. He can’t really think they’ll give us shelter in return for killing a member of their tribe, can he?!

Jalgon didn’t give Sidean any time to wonder, or even to consider hopelessly trying to interject some sense into this encounter one more time. Instead, Jalgon danced forward a step and cast his spear at the young boy-man who’d been the next to the last one to exit the cave. “Kill him!” Jalgon shouted, evidently thinking that the slender, timid appearing young man must be Pell. “Kill him now and we’ll have this done!” His first spear skimmed the boy’s side and shattered against the wall of the cliff behind him. Jalgon cocked back his second spear, then fell down.

Sidean thought he must’ve slipped on an icy spot. But then Ventus pulled back his spear and also fell, in his case, before he could even throw. This time, Sidean saw a rock skip off the left top of Ventus’ head. Sidean and Pont both shouted, “That boy’s not Pell!” Sidean turned to look behind him. Without surprise he saw the tall young man he’d thought had to be Pell when he’d been scouting out the Cold Springs tribe. A huge wolf and two other men stood with Pell. One of the men held two spears, one at the ready. The other man held four spears though he looked as if he were paralyzed with fear.

Pell cut a magnificent figure, holding a rock in his right hand and a look of vengeance in his eyes. “Pont!” he said, the word dripping with loathing, “You couldn’t be satisfied to have escaped with your life, could you?”

Sidean realized with awe that the tall young man had made two perfect throws with rocks so far. He laid his spears down and put his hands up, empty palms showing. He turned his eyes on the other Oppos. Jalgon lay thrashing while Ventus lay motionless. The rest of the Oppos stood wide-eyed. Wenax bent and laid his spears down as well, then stood, showing his empty hands.

Pont, though he hadn’t been touched by a rock, had fallen onto his buttocks and turned as white as snow. He shook. Not just a shiver, but the wracked trembling of someone in fear for his life.

Sidean glanced back toward the cave and saw the men there climbing down off the ledge and starting across the meadow toward them. The boy Jalgon had thrown the spear at had apparently been injured. A couple of women knelt beside him.

Sidean looked back at his own group. Nosset had dropped his spears. Pont, still on his buttocks, was skittering sideways on his heels and hands as Pell advanced toward him. He suddenly leapt to his feet and, dashing around Pell, began running back the way they’d come. Pell took a few steps after him, but then stopped. He called, “If I see you again, I’ll kill you!”

To Sidean’s astonishment, Pont kept a running pace when he got to the stream. He began jumping from one icy rock to the next.

Then he fell into the water.

Ashen, Ingis turned to Sidean and said, “What happened to Jalgon and Ventus?!”

Sidean tore his eyes away from Pell and turned them to Ingis, “He,” Sidean indicated Pell with a tiny wave, “knocked them out with stones. I saw the stone bounce off Ventus’ head.”

Ingis’ brow knotted together, “He threw rocks?! We’ve got spears!” He lifted his spirit a little as if considering an attack.

Sidean’s eyes shot back to Pell and saw that the young man had focused intensely on Ingis. The arm holding the next stone was cocking back a little. Speaking out of the corner of his mouth to Ingis, he said, “If I were you, I’d put down that spear.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sidean saw Ingis almost convulsively cast down his spear. Nonetheless, Pell’s arm cocked the rest of the way back and he lunged forward and threw his stone. For a moment, Sidean felt relieved that Pell had missed Ingis and reassured by the realization that the young man could miss. Then the stone hit something with a wet crack like a rotten stick breaking.

Sidean’s eyes shot around and saw Haida’s spear falling from nerveless fingers. The spear was falling from a grotesquely deformed arm which had obviously been cocking back to throw that spear. In his peripheral vision Sidean saw the stone that had struck Haida’s spear arm tumbling across the ground.

Haida’s knees bent as he crouched, his face twisted in a rictus of pain. His left arm rose to cover his right arm where it’d been broken between the shoulder and elbow.

Sidean barked at Doran, the last Oppo holding a spear, “Save yourself! Drop that spear!”

After a moment, Doran complied.

Sidean surveyed the situation with a feeling of despair. Pont was floundering in the stream. Jalgon and Ventus lay sprawled, though Ventus had rolled over and started to moan. Haida had sunk to a sitting position on the ground, his broken right arm cradled by his left. Nosset sat on the ground like a soft pile of bison shit, looking pale as ice. He shook so hard he looked like he might come apart. A moment later Nosset pitched forward and threw up.

Of the eight who’d begun this ill-conceived mission, only Sidean, Wenax and Doran were still standing. Wenax and Doran were looking to him, he thought for leadership. Sidean turned to Pell, his open palms still raised, and said, “We surrender. We surrender and apologize for what our leaders brought us to do. Will you let our healer tend our wounded?”

Behind and to Sidean’s left, someone barked a laugh. Sidean turned and saw one of the Cold Springs tribe kneeling beside Jalgon. The man said, “What you should ask, is whether Pell, there, will treat your wounded. Best healer you’ll ever see.” The man’s eyes dropped to Jalgon, “Though I think this guy’s a goner. Back of his head’s smashed in and probably even Pell can’t fix that.”

Sidean turned his eyes back to Pell, “May I see to our men? If you can help them that would be a great blessing.”

Pell nodded, “Sure. I don’t know what to do for the two that were hit in the head, but I might be able to help the man with the broken arm.”

Sidean turned, going first to Jalgon. Absently, he noted that the sleet had stopped falling. A good thing since trying to care for wounded men out in a snowstorm would be almost impossible. He knelt next to Jalgon. The man from Cold Springs pointed to the back of Jalgon’s head. “Skull’s crushed. You can see he’s breathin’ funny. Waste of time tryin’ to help him, I think.”

Sidean touched the back of Jalgon’s head which was, in fact, dented inward. It felt soft. Jalgon’s color looked bad and his breathing had an odd rhythm. “I think you’re right, though we’ll do what we can. Let me check the others.”

Sidean’d turned to look at Ventus when he heard the irritating and demanding tones of Nosset’s voice, “First, you need to go get Pont out of the river! He’s going to die of the cold even if he doesn’t drown!”

Sidean closed his eyes in an attempt to control his anger. He didn’t want to start shouting at Nosset and perhaps make this Pell angry but… He heard a loud thump and opened his eyes in time to see Yadin kick Nosset a second time. Yadin’d had hated Nosset ever since he’d decided that Nosset had killed his mate Uva. Yadin bellowed, “Go help him yourself, you worthless turd! I’m sure you and Pont are the reason Jalgon brought the men here to attack us. You’re why men lie dead or injured today! Personally, I think if Pont drowned it would do all of us a great favor. But, if you want him saved, you need to do it yourself, not order other people around!” He paused, “And if you drown helping him, that would do us all a great service.”

With a small grin to himself, Sidean knelt next to Ventus. It looked like Ventus had only been knocked out. There was a bloody crease in his scalp, but he was continuing to moan and as Sidean touched the bloody area, Ventus’ eyes fluttered open. “Wha’ happened?” he mumbled, eyes rolling wildly.

Sidean let out a relieved breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. If Ventus recovered, Haida would be their only invalid. At first he’d thought they might have three cripples on their hands, a devastating blow for the Oppo tribe. Though it seemed a cold way to think, Jalgon would be better off dead than impaired. So would his family. Caring for a Jalgon crippled by head injury would suck the life out of those that loved him.

Sidean turned to check on Haida and found Pell kneeling next to him, probing gently at his arm. Pell quietly said, “I’m sorry to have hurt you, but I thought you were going to throw that spear.”

Gritting his teeth, Haida didn’t try to deny it.

Pell, standing, turned his eyes to the man who’d said Jalgon would die. “We need to get these men in to the cave and warm them up.”

The man nodded.

To his astonishment, Pell helped Haida stand. He eyed Sidean and gave a jerk of his head toward Ventus, “Why don’t you help that guy?” Pell started leading Haida toward the cave.

Sidean helped Ventus to his feet and led him in a clumsy shamble behind Pell. As he entered the cave he heard the young boy excitedly telling the women, “Pell stopped them! He just threw three stones, but he knocked down a man with each one!” The boy shook his head in amazement, “He never missed!”

They sat inside a surprisingly spacious cave. Even with six extra people, it only felt a little crowded. Some of the women had helped Sidean lay Ventus down on bedding near one of two fires. Ventus still shivered, but seemed less confused.

The young man that Jalgon’s spear had injured lay nearby with a poultice on his side. From the murmurs Sidean had heard, the wound was superficial. If it didn’t get a wound fever the boy should do well.

Even though no one thought he’d make it, a couple of the Cold Springs men had carried Jalgon in and laid him on the bedding as well. So far he still breathed and twitched, but his breathing was irregular and Sidean didn’t think he’d last much longer.

Sidean would have sworn he’d seen Pell look over at Jalgon several times like he felt guilty. Why anyone would feel guilty for taking down a man actively attacking his own tribe, Sidean didn’t know.

Pell and two other Cold Springs men, Woday and Deltin, were sitting with Haida. They were having an intense discussion on the best way to care for his arm. Sidean didn’t understand why, but the other two men seemed to be calling Pell “Bonesetter.”

Yadin came over and squatted down next to Sidean. He shook his head sadly, “I guess I should’ve gone back and told Jalgon that Pell wasn’t possessed by spirits. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

Sidean sighed and shook his head. “It wouldn’t have done any good. When you didn’t return, he sent Wenax and me to scout the Aldans and then Cold Springs. We reported back that we didn’t see any evidence of an evil spirit or of anything bad happening, but Nosset and Pont told Jalgon that the evil spirit just kept us from seeing the terrible things that were actually happening.” He shrugged, “How can you argue with that? It was crazy. They sent us to look, then didn’t believe what we told them. Anyway, Jalgon chose to believe two medicine men who hadn’t been here over those of us who had.” He glanced over at Pell, “Pont really wanted Pell dead.” He looked up at Yadin and asked curiously, “Are those guys calling Pell ‘Bonesetter’? Or are they talking about someone else?”

Yadin snorted, “Pell. Just one of the many things he can do, apparently.”

Sidean tilted his head curiously, “But he’s still practically a boy! Who taught him to set bones?”

“Taught himself, they tell me.” Yadin’s eyes wandered the cave, then he pointed to the wall with his chin, “Did you notice the wall of the cave isn’t natural?”

Sidean turned and looked. Though dried mud covered the wall, he could still see that it consisted of upright poles, sticks, and grass. “Oh!” He looked around, “This was one of those really shallow caves before they built the wall, wasn’t it?” He turned back to Yadin and frowned, “I’d like to meet the guy who thought of that!”

Yadin gave him a little grin, then turned his eyes on Pell, “Even though he’s practically a boy?”

“Really?!” Sidean breathed, his eyes also going to Pell.

Yadin shook his head as if in awe, “That’s not all either.” Yadin described a number of other amazing things that Pell was supposed to have thought up. Deciding some of the things Yadin depicted weren’t possible, and that the quantity of things attributed to the boy, even if possible, were too many for any one man, Sidean wondered if Yadin’d taken leave of his senses.

The flap covering the opening of the cave drew back and Nosset stepped in. The pudgy little medicine man stood just inside the opening, shaking. He looked cold, so part of the shaking was probably shivering, but Sidean thought he was quaking in fear as well. Everyone in the cave had turned to stare at him. His throat worked for a moment before he got any words out, finally, he said, “Pont’s ankle is broken. I got him out of the river, but I can’t… can’t start a fire… I don’t know… don’t know a way to get him warmed up. He’ll die outside.”

Yadin snarled, “You two are just gettin’ what you deserve!”

Sidean looked around at the other people in the cave. He thought their eyes all showed agreement with Yadin’s sentiment. He expected at any moment someone would usher Nosset back outside at spear point.

Pell unfolded gracefully from where he’d been squatting by Haida. Sidean had known the young man was tall, but something about the way he’d stood so smoothly to tower over everyone made him seem… splendid. Pell stepped toward the opening of the cave and Nosset shrank back. Sidean expected Nosset to turn and run at any moment, but then Pell said in a weary tone, “Let’s go get him.” Pell and Nosset ducked under the skins covering the opening of the cave and went outside.

Sidean didn’t know what to make of what had just happened, so he turned and looked around at the people in the cave again. He thought they looked just as startled as he felt. Maybe Pell’s going out there to finish the bastard off?

Yadin got up and walked over to peer out the opening of the cave. He sat by Sidean when he returned. Sidean asked, “What’s Pell doing?”

Yadin said, “Can’t tell, the light’s fading pretty fast.”

Sidean thought about asking Yadin if he thought Pell had gone out to kill Pont, or maybe even Pont and Nosset, but he didn’t. Instead, he was distracted by sizzling from the direction of the fire. When he looked that way, he saw some of the women suspending skewered rabbits and birds to roast above the flames.

What kind of hunters were these, who’d gotten so many small animals on a cold day like today?! Sidean turned to pose that question to Yadin, but before he could Nosset stepped back through the furs over the entrance, this time lifting them high so Pell could enter behind him. Sidean didn’t think he was any more dumbfounded than the rest of the people in the cave to see Pell carrying Pont in his arms like one might carry a large child.

From the look on Pont’s face, he’d nearly been overcome by the cold before Nosset had developed the courage to come ask for help. Sidean could see the man was breathing, but he looked unconscious. Pont’s ankle was twisted grotesquely to the side. Sidean thought to himself that it would’ve been kinder to leave him outside to die rather than bring him in to survive as a cripple.

Pell gently laid Pont down on some bedding near what appeared to be the cave’s night fire. He waved the young man named Woday to his side, then turned Pont onto his stomach. The two young men spoke for a moment, then Pell bent Pont’s leg up behind him so that the shaft of his lower leg pointed straight up into the air. Pell placed his own foot on the back of Pont’s knee and grabbing Pont’s foot bent it even farther. Is he trying to torture the medicine man?! What had looked like a horrible deformity suddenly looked so bad that Sidean expected the bone to burst out through the skin! Then Pell heaved up straight, pulling mightily on the foot and ankle, all the while talking calmly to Woday as if he weren’t straining with all his strength.

Pont awakened and began thrashing and squealing like a speared rabbit. Sidean glanced around at the others and saw them all staring wide-eyed. If the others thought, like he did, that Pell was torturing or trying to kill Pont, they apparently thought Pont deserved it. No one moved to stop him.

Then, with a squelching thunk, Pont’s ankle slid back into place. Gripping it with both hands, Pell squatted down to look at it from several different angles. Then he shifted his hands around so that four fingers were curled around the inside of the shaft of the bone just above the ankle and his thumb was pushing from the other side just below the ankle. He didn’t seem to be straining, but the ankle stayed straight. It looked like Pont had either passed out again or was having less pain. He’d stopped thrashing around. Deltin got up and went over to look at the ankle. He and Pell discussed something at length.

Eventually, Pell showed Woday how to hold the ankle in place while he and Deltin went to the other side of the cave to begin carving some wood!

***

When Sidean woke in the morning, he lay silently considering all the ways the previous day had confounded him.

He felt ashamed that his fear of Jalgon had brought him here, to attack people who’d done him no wrong.

He found it hard to believe how the Oppos’ strong band of six accomplished hunters and two—perhaps useless—medicine men had been laid waste by a boy with three stones.

Well, three stones and a wolf! Though he’d seen the wolf with Pell on several occasions now, he still found it hard to believe.

Sidean would have counted the previous day amazing, simply because he’d witnessed a crippling injury to a man’s ankle corrected so that the bone now lay straight. The people here in Cold Springs seemed fully confident that, because Pell had treated him, Pont would walk again. Sidean had gone over to look at Pont’s ankle himself. It lay trussed up between two pieces of wood that Deltin and Pell had shaped to fit it. He thought the ankle really did seem straight enough that, once the bones healed, Pont might walk once again.

It seemed almost impossible to believe that Pell had worked so hard to put Pont’s ankle back in place. Especially if he’d actually understood that Pont had been the driving force behind an Oppo mission to kill Pell. When the little medicine man had awakened from his swoon, it’d seemed to Sidean that Pont himself was astonished to see his leg back in place. That the Cold Springs medicine women had brewed teas for his pain left Pont looking dumbfounded.

Then, the Cold Springs tribe had cooked a veritable feast for their dinner! Something like you would prepare for an honored visitor, not the meager fare you might consider furnishing to a vanquished foe. They had the rabbit and grouse that’d been roasting; and a stew with sliced tubers, beans, and grain. The food had even been salted! Sidean had only had salted food on a few occasions when someone in the Oppos had traded dearly for salt brought up from the sea. He would never have expected the precious condiment to be found on a meal served to him as a member of a defeated war-band!

And Pell! Pell, the very man they’d come to kill, was the kindest of all the people in Cold Springs. After he’d treated Pont, Pell had worked with Deltin to fashion sticks to bind around Haida’s arm and with their leather worker, Manute, to make Haida a sling. When Jalgon had died late in the evening, Pell had apologized to the rest of the Oppos, saying he hadn’t meant for the stone to hit him so hard!

Sidean had asked Yadin why Pell was being so nice to them, especially to Pont. Yadin had shrugged as if he also felt completely mystified. “He was cast out of the Aldans you know. Perhaps he swore some pact with himself to do what he can for others.” Yadin’d snorted, “If I were you Oppos, I’d just be grateful that he’s so kind. I wouldn’t ask any more questions.” He’d grinned and lifted an eyebrow at Sidean, “What if he comes to his senses?!”

Sidean’d said, “So you no longer consider yourself an Oppo?”

“No!” Yadin had exploded. Then he’d sighed, “Before Jalgon sent me to scout them out, I’d already been thinking about leaving.” He’d shot a disgusted glance at the Oppos’ medicine man, “I hate being around Nosset.”

Sidean’d nudged him, “It looks to me like you’ve got a thing for one of their women too.”

Yadin had looked a little embarrassed, but had nodded. “I do,” he’d said looking over at her. Then he’d glanced back at Sidean, “Believe it or not, she’s Pell’s mother.”

Sidean lay there on the bedding, wondering about the previous day’s events a moment longer. Then he lifted his head and looked around the dark cave. Dim red light from the glow of the low fires lit a man who sat upright. Sidean turned to his side and pushed himself up. When he looked toward the man again he felt the guy staring at him even though he couldn’t see the man’s eyes in the dimness. Sidean rose and slowly picked his way amongst the sleeping bodies over to where the man sat. Leaning down and warming his hands over the glowing coals, Sidean recognized Tando. He said quietly, “Couldn’t sleep either?”

The man snorted gently, “I’m on watch. In case one of you Oppos takes it into your mind to finish your mission while Pell’s asleep.”

Aghast, Sidean said, “We’d never…” Then he remembered Nosset was still there with them and uninjured. His eyes inadvertently tracked to where the pudgy medicine man lay next to Pont.

The watchman grunted, “Yeah, he’s the one I’m watching the most. But I don’t think I should trust any of you guys yet… Would you?”

Sidean shrugged, granting the truth of the statement. “Where do you guys go for your morning piss?”

***

As they ate their morning porridge, Gontra turned to Tando. “After all that happened yesterday I’d almost forgotten why I came. With the cold, our snares have stopped catching anything, so I’d thought I’d offer to help Cold Springs with their big winter hunt. In return for that, I was hoping a few of your hunters would come help the Aldans put away some meat for winter as well.”

Tando frowned at him, “Your snares aren’t working?”

Gontra gave him a surprised look, “Yours are?”

“Sure,” Tando shrugged, “that’s what we ate last night,” Tando said matter-of-factly. “I think they’ll probably stop working sometime during the winter, but so far we’re still catching things.”

Gontra shook his head in dismay, “At first, our snares were bringing in quite a bit, but they quickly tapered off. I decided to come talk to you about a big hunt yesterday when not a single snare caught anything.” He gave Tando a bleak look, “Do you think we’re cursed?”

Tando shrugged, “I don’t know. Let’s go talk to Pell, maybe he’ll have some ideas.” He glanced to the east, “Maybe he’d even go with you to check out your snares if the weather’s not too bad.”

They got up and went over to where Pell and Woday were working on Pont’s leg. Gontra and Tando squatted down to watch. Pell and Woday were loosening the leather straps binding the splints to either side of Pont’s ankle. Pell was saying, “The broken part keeps swelling for a while. While it’s doing that, you have to loosen the straps. Eventually, the swelling starts to go down and you need to tighten the straps.” He shrugged, “For the first few hands of days, you usually need to loosen or tighten the straps at least one or two times a day.”

When they’d finished adjusting the straps, Pell looked up at Gontra. “Thanks for coming to visit Gontra. How did you know we were going to have trouble and need your help?”

Gontra shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “I haven’t been much help really. I’d like to claim that I came to help you guys, but actually I came to ask you to help us with a big hunt. Our snares stopped working so we really need to put away a few big animals to help us through the winter.”

Pell frowned, “Our snares are still working.” He turned his gaze on Tando, “Or at least I thought so. Weren’t the rabbits and grouse we ate last night from yesterday’s snare run?”

Tando shrugged, “Yeah, it was a good run or we wouldn’t have eaten so well when we had so many people. But,” he shrugged, “some days are better than others.” He looked at Gontra, “Maybe you just had a couple of bad days?”

Gontra shook his head, “No, I swear it’s gotten a little worse every day since you left. Two days ago we only got a single hedgehog and yesterday nothing at all!”

Musingly, Pell said, “And you’re putting them on animal trails narrow enough that the animals can’t slip past the noose?”

“Of course,” Gontra said indignantly. “We’re still trapping exactly the same trails you helped us pick out when you were there. We’re putting the same size nooses in precisely the same places! I swear, we’re not doing anything different!

Tando bit down to suppress his reaction. He saw Pell struggling not to laugh, though a grin certainly threatened to break through.

Gontra looked back and forth from one to the other of them, “What?!”

Pell cleared his throat, then said, “You don’t remember me telling you that you should move your snares to a different location each day?”

“Well, yeah. But just until we found a location that works… right?”

Unable to suppress it any longer, Tando barked a laugh. “What, Gontra? Do you think after you’ve eaten the rabbit that travels a particular trail, another one just pops up out of nowhere to replace him?!”

Gontra stared back and forth from Pell to Tando, “I don’t know! I guess so. Where do they come from?”

Tando slapped him jovially on the back, “Where do people come from Gontra?”

“Oh,” Gontra said, looking embarrassed. “I’ve seen some of the big animals doing it out on the plateau or down in the meadow. You think the little animals do the same?”

Tando grinned, “Well, I’ll admit I don’t go around watching the animals fornicate like you do, but I assume so!”

For a moment, Gontra looked sheepish. Then a smile dawned, “So you think we just need to move our snares to different trails?”

Pell nodded seriously, “Every time. We go out every day, picking up the snares from the day before, then putting them out in a different location. Sometimes farther away, sometimes on a different trail on the way back. We try not to put them back in the first location until moons have passed, so we wind up putting them pretty far away sometimes.”

Gontra grinned, “I guess it’s going to be a little more work than I’d thought, but it’ll be worth it if we get the food.”

Pell said, “Have you plaited a big enough rope to catch goats yet? That could help a lot.”

Gontra looked embarrassed, “I keep meaning to…”

Pell said, “I know working leather is a man’s thing, but women braid their hair all the time. They already know how and there isn’t much gathering for them to do right now…” He shrugged and shook his head a little despairingly, “I can’t believe you guys would rather starve than let the women do some of the men’s jobs.”

Woday and Pell were adjusting the splints on Haida’s arm. Woday said, “I thought you hadn’t treated anyone with a broken arm before?”

Pell shrugged, “No.”

“Then how do you know what to do for this man?” Woday knew Haida’s name, but was having a hard time calling people who’d come to attack them by name.

Pell chewed his lip, “I guess I don’t. I’m just treating it like we treated Panute’s leg. Splints like these seem to work well enough for her.”

Frustrated, Woday said, “But this is an arm! What makes you so sure it’s going to work the same way?”

Pell shrugged, “I’m not sure. But neither is anyone else. All we can do is the best we can do, right?” He looked Haida in the eye, “You heard that Haida. Do you want us to take these off?”

Haida gave a sharp little shake of his head, “No! It feels better with them on. Besides, Yadin says you’re really good at this so I trust you.”

Pell tilted his head, “I haven’t really treated very many broken bones. Everybody seems to think I’m good at it because the ones I took care of turned out well, but I might’ve just been lucky those times.”

Haida said emphatically, “I’ll take your luck and be glad of it.”

Pell turned to Woday, “I think this is better than nothing, but if you can think of a better way to do it…”

Woday shook his head as well, “No, no, I don’t have a better way. I’m not someone who comes up with… Whatever it is you do.”

“Sure you are,” Pell said, slapping him on the shoulder, “you had the idea to put the doors on the fish traps.”

Haida frowned, “Fish traps?”

Pell winked at him, “If you want to learn about fish traps, you’ll need to ask Agan.”

“Agan?”

Pell pointed her out.

“The old woman?”

Pell nodded, “She’s the leader of our tribe.”

Haida turned to look at Agan again, then back to Pell with a look of disbelief on his face, “Why would anyone do what she told them?”

Pell smiled, “Because she’s wise.” He turned to Woday, “Let’s look outside. Maybe it’s warm enough to go get our honey and check your fish traps.”

They stood and started toward the mouth of the cave, but then behind them they heard the irritating tones of Pont’s voice rise as he demanded, “… more hemp and more of that poppy seed tea. Now! I don’t want to have to wait until it really starts to hurt again!”

Pell’s spine stiffened and he turned slowly. Woday turned with him and saw that Pont had been speaking to Gia. Woday glanced up at Pell and for the first time saw him with rage on his face. However, Pell closed his eyes, took a deep breath and after a moment, his face relaxed. He shook out his tense shoulders then started across the room to where Pont lay on the bedding.

Pont glanced at Pell coming his way and shrank away from him. By the time Pell arrived at his side Pont’s haughty and demanding look became a look of terror. Despite the fact Pell had calmed himself before starting toward Pont, Woday still expected him to do something terrible to the medicine man. A vision of Pell undoing Pont’s splints and re-displacing his ankle flashed through Woday’s head.

Instead, Pell squatted down in front of Pont and smiled at him… though Woday thought the smile looked forced. In a calm tone, Pell said, “Pont, are you at all surprised you’re still alive?”

Pont stared at him for a moment, then his head made a jerky, spastic nod.

“Have you considered that we might still decide to throw you out… and if we did, you’d almost certainly die?”

Pont swallowed and gave another nod.

Pell shook his head as if he just couldn’t understand, then continued, “I want you to think about the fact that Gia only brings you hemp and poppy out of the kindness of her heart. If she doesn’t bring it to you, you can be sure no one else will. You can’t make her do it, neither she, nor anyone else here is afraid of you or the magic you claim to have. If you want your medicine, you’re going to have to ask nicely.”

Pont nodded.

“If you want food, you’re going to have to hope people like you enough to give you some.”

A look of fear shot through Pont’s eyes and he nodded again.

Pell shrugged, “In fact, you’re going to need favors from all kinds of people if you want to live. I don’t think you’re going to get any favors if people hate you, so I’d suggest you start being friendly and courteous to everyone in the hopes you can change the way they feel about you.”

Pont’s eyes had dropped and to Woday’s surprise he looked chagrined. He nodded again, then after a moment he said an even more astonishing thing. “Thank you for what you did for my ankle… Bonesetter.”

Epilogue

Deep in thought, Yadin sat leaning against the wall of the cave. By his estimation it was well past midwinter, though certainly not yet spring. He wished there was some way to know more accurately. He knew that the sunrises and sunsets moved north for the winter and south for the summer. Sunrise, which was the easy one to see from their east facing cave, had started back toward the south a while ago, so he thought spring must be approaching, but he didn’t really know how many more days it would be. He wondered sometimes whether someone who was good with the counting words could figure it out so they could actually know. Being sure when spring would actually arrive might ease some of the anxiety everyone had during winter.

The trapping that Pell and the others had taught him, amazing as it was, hadn’t been sustaining them for some time now. He’d been as surprised as anyone by the number of small animals they managed to catch once winter came on, but eventually the yield had diminished to a trickle. Surprisingly, fish traps placed down in the main river continued to bring in the occasional ordinary fish though they seldom brought in crayfish anymore. However, walking all the way down to the main river was difficult when the weather was bad.

He’d been expecting Agan to cut people back on how much they ate, after all she was supposed to be wise. He’d certainly expected the wolf to be chased out of the cave rather than fed whenever it seemed hungry! They’d been eating the “spirit meat” jerky, at first a little to supplement what they’d caught, then, eventually it became the main meat in their diet. When the hunting hadn’t picked back up, Yadin had looked thoughtfully at the amount of spirit meat they had stored up. He’d decided he was pretty sure it wouldn’t last through the rest of the winter at the rate they’d been eating it.

However, by this point in the winter the tribes he’d been in before would already have been hungry for quite a while. People would be losing weight and worrying about whether someone would get sick and be too weak to fight it off. He thought the Cold Springs tribe was going to get through the winter much better than his tribes had in the past but… if he’d been leading the tribe they would have been cutting back their eating already in order to make sure they had some food to last until spring.

As hands of days had slowly passed, Yadin had begun to worry more and more. He didn’t want to eat well up to a certain point, then suddenly find himself completely starving for the remainder of the winter. He’d never heard of a tribe doing that, but he had a sick feeling that it would be much better to be a little bit hungry for a long time than to have to go completely without food for a moon or two.

He’d watched the stores of food in the cave dwindling day by day with more and more concern until he wanted to shout, “We’re going to run out!” Finally, deciding that he couldn’t trust the supposedly wise Agan to figure out what was going to happen, he’d taken Tando aside. He’d glanced meaningfully over to where the food was stored, then said, “I’m sure you realize that we’re running low on food?”

Tando had looked that way as well, then with an odd expression which looked as if it might even conceal amusement, he’d only said, “There doesn’t seem to be much left, does there?”

Trying not to sound exasperated, Yadin had said, “We should be rationing our food so it’ll last the rest of the winter, otherwise we’ll have absolutely nothing to eat toward the end of winter.” When Tando simply gave him a bland look, he’d continued, “I’d rather be somewhat hungry for two moons, than completely without food for one.”

Tando’d nodded calmly, “So would I.”

Yadin had waited a beat for Tando to say that he’d do something about it, but when that didn’t happen, he said, “Can you talk to Agan?”

Tando had tilted his head curiously, “You’re a member of this tribe, don’t you feel like you can talk to Agan yourself?”

Yadin’d shrugged, “I’m new. I don’t want to be overstepping my bounds or suggesting I know more about running a tribe than she does.”

Tando winked, “I don’t want to suggest that either.” He patted Yadin on the shoulder, “But try not to worry. I think Agan probably has a plan.”

A plan?! Yadin had thought angrily. In the names of all the spirits, what kind of plan can stop the stores of food from running out?!

His thoughts stumbled. Maybe we’re going to eat the wolf?

Being told not to worry hadn’t worked. Now, as he sat there he saw Ontru watching anxiously as Donte picked up the last bundle of spirit meat and took it over to put it in the stew. So, no more meat, he thought. By Yadin’s estimation they had enough roots and beans to last another hand of days. They’d already run out of grain. They had part of a basket of dried grapes and some dried apple slices. So, in five to ten more days they’d have nothing to eat. They’d be down to drinking lots of water and chewing on bits of leather and old furs. He’d been in that situation toward the end of an occasional winter in the past, but it had only been for a few days until a hunt had finally been successful. Yadin had no way to be sure, but he thought it might be more than a moon before they started seeing animals again.

He didn’t know what it would be like to have no food for multiple hands of days. He wondered if perhaps the trapping would pick up before winter was really over. Perhaps Woday and Pell would have some lucky days with the fish traps if the weather was good enough to walk down there to check on them. But, all that’s wishful thinking. It’s going to be horrible! Even if Tando wouldn’t talk to Agan, I should have. He shook his head. How could I have been such a fool!

In the midst of his self-recriminations, Yadin saw Pont struggling to his feet over on the other side of the cave. Pont was pushing up with the forked sticks that Pell had made for him. They seemed simple, just forked sticks that were long enough to reach the ground from Pont’s armpits. The forked end at the armpit was wrapped in furs. Simple or not, their effect was amazing. With a stick in each armpit Pont could use them to hold his weight instead of his broken leg. Using them, the bandy-legged little medicine man could travel almost as fast as a man with two good legs! Of course, when he arrived, he had to sit down to free up his hands before he could do anything, but the freedom he had using the sticks was amazing. No one had to carry out a pot when he moved his bowels or passed his water. In fact, no one even had to help him go outside to do it himself!

Yadin shook his head. Pretty much everyone in the cave had despised Pont at first. No one had really had more reason to hate the little medicine man than Pell, yet Pell had been the one to bring him in, repair his leg, and teach him how to contribute despite his broken leg. After a few intense conversations with Pell, Pont had started doing anything he could to contribute to the tribe, though they had to be things he could do while sitting. At first, he’d assumed that he’d work as a medicine man, but he’d seemed to quickly realize that Agan and Gia were much better with herbs than he was. Instead, he’d learned to stitch together the many small furs in the cave to make blankets, clothing and decorations. He’d become—sometimes exceedingly—polite, asking “please” and thanking people profusely when they helped him or brought him food. He spoke respectfully to everyone and had actually taken time to apologize to each member of the Cold Springs cave for his role in bringing the Oppos’ war-band to attack them.

Yadin couldn’t help but wonder if such an immense transformation was real, or a false front put on for Pont’s own gains. Nonetheless, even Yadin’d come around to feeling as if he kind of liked the little man. With a snort, he thought, I wonder if Pell could talk to Nosset and straighten that bastard out? The rest of the Oppos had headed back home a couple of days after the attack when it’d briefly warmed up again. They’d left Haida and Pont at Cold Springs, another thing that made Yadin uncomfortable.

He’d certainly expected the Cold Springs tribe to object to taking on two invalids right before winter. Two more mouths to feed during the hungry months! Yadin couldn’t help but think about the fact that they’d still have some food if Haida and Pont hadn’t been here eating their share.

Well, and the wolf too.

He tried not to think about the fact that they’d have even more food if Yadin hadn’t been there eating some of it himself.

Pell and his apprentice Woday had spent a great deal of time adjusting the splints on Haida’s arm and Pont’s leg. They’d carved new ones for Haida a couple of times, trying to make something that would fit an arm better. They’d been the ones to nurse Pont at first, bringing him the bowl to void into and taking it out to empty it. Yadin shook his head, still finding it hard to believe how much effort Pell had put into taking care of a man who’d treated him badly as a child, contributed to his being cast out of his tribe as an adolescent, and brought people to kill him as an adult. With an enemy like Pell, who needed friends?

Yadin’d gone with the Cold Springs tribe’s hunters over to help the Aldans do a big-freeze hunt which, to everyone’s delight, had brought down an aurochs. Unfortunately, it’d warmed for a couple of days shortly after the hunt, so Yadin wondered whether the Aldans had succeeded in keeping the aurochs packed in snow until the real cold came. When they’d returned from that hunt, the Cold Springs hunters had gone up on the plateau to do their own big-freeze hunt, but the animals had mostly moved on by then. The team of hunters had chased a horse for a little while, but it’d gotten away. Yadin had been distraught, but Tando and Pell hadn’t seemed worried.

Yadin sighed, his brain was going in circles. He got up and put on the rabbit fur poncho Pont had made for him. He picked up his spear. Maybe if I go out for a while, it’ll clear my head. Even to himself he didn’t admit the ridiculous hope floating in his subconscious… that he might find something to hunt out in the snowy landscape.

On his way out, he encountered Woday and Gurix snuggled together against the cold, kissing. Yadin still saw Gurix look yearningly at Pell on occasion, but she seemed to have decided on Woday and to be happy with it.

Looking at Woday, Yadin didn’t think the man knew what’d hit him.

Yadin didn’t get back to the cave until the sun had set and the sky was beginning to dim. He’d seen a snow hare in the distance and scared up a grouse wearing its white winter plumage, neither of which he’d had a chance at. However, it was more than he’d seen the last few times he’d been out. Though it was cold, the wind was still, so tramping around hadn’t been too oppressive. He tried to hope that winter might be fading, but knew in his heart it wasn’t.

When he’d given up and started back for the Cold Springs cave, he’d started thinking about whether they could send Haida and Pont back to the Oppos. They both seemed to be healing and their limbs were well aligned. Both of them were capable of traveling on a day like the one Yadin had just been out in, though Pont’s crutches didn’t do well in snow.

Unfortunately, it was too late. If they were going to send the two men away, it should have been long ago, before almost all the food was gone. In addition, the Oppos had little reason to feel responsible for Pont, though Yadin felt sure they would take Haida back. Haida looked like he’d be a good hunter again by summertime. Nonetheless, the Oppos had to have been on short rations and getting thin for quite a while now. Yadin had to believe they wouldn’t take kindly to having a well fed man show up and expect to share their meager rations with them.

Even though Yadin liked Haida, he’d still have argued to throw the man out and force him to hike to the Oppos if he’d thought it would keep the Cold Springs tribe from going hungry long enough to make a difference. If we live through the rest of this winter, I swear I’ll take a more active role in rationing the food next winter! He wondered if he should make a push to become the leader.

Yadin pulled the flap back over the cave mouth and stepped inside to wait for his eyes to adjust to the dim light.

He heard Boro’s voice excitedly say, “Yadin’s back!”

An eager murmur rose from the tribe. Yadin began to see in the dim light. The tribe seemed to be gathered near the sleeping campfire, but all the bedding straw which had covered the floor in that area had been swept up and piled to one side. Several people were sitting on the big cushiony pile.

Yadin tilted his head curiously. The tribe had taken all the bedding straw out and replaced it shortly before everything got really snowy. Apparently Agan had them change their bedding straw fairly frequently to get rid of the vermin that lived in it. But at this time of year, they wouldn’t be able to find straw to replace it so, as he walked over; he wondered why they’d swept it up.

Agan spoke from atop the big pile of straw, “Finally! Everyone’s here so we can have our little surprise.”

Yadin looked around seeing excited anticipation on the oldest members of the Cold Springs tribe and complete mystification on the faces of Woday, Ontru, Gurix, Boro, Haida and Pont—those who were relative newcomers like himself. Essentially the newcomers seemed to have no idea what was going on. Perhaps this was some kind of celebration the Cold Springs tribe had only rarely so that only the old-timers had been around long enough to know about it?

Gia stood and walked to the fire, holding her little lamp high in the air. Silence fell over the crowd as it became obvious that a ceremony was in progress. Gia knelt before the fire and dipped a long splinter in the flames. She used that splinter to light her lamp, then waited calmly until it was burning well.

Gia stood, turned slowly, and gracefully walked back into the depths of darkness on the far side of the cave. There, Yadin could tell from the flickering glow outlining her in the light of her lamp that she’d knelt again. She stood, holding something in her left hand, and walked slowly back out into the main cave stopping at the edge of the sleeping area. She stood, straight as an arrow, lit by the glow of her lamp while silence continued to reign in the cave.

Just when Yadin thought his curiosity would burst, Agan intoned a brief chant. Then she said, “We ask that the new members of the Cold Springs tribe move over to stand with Gia.” After a moment’s pause when nobody moved, Agan began calling out names. She’d started with Ontru who stood and moved over to stand by Gia. Eventually she’d called out, one by one, all of the people who’d appeared mystified when Yadin had been looking around earlier. Yadin took his place, standing a couple of people down from Gia. He glanced to see what it was that Gia had in her hand and realized she held a couple of aurochs shoulder blades, like one might use for digging. Next he looked around to see if anyone appeared to have any better idea than he did about what was going on. They all appeared completely bewildered. I can’t believe they’re wasting time on this crap when we’re all about to starve!

Agan said, “Gia?”

Gia stepped out in front of them and took the two scapula shovels to the person on each end of the line. “We’d like you to dig down about a hand’s depth along this line,” she scraped a line in the dirt with her toe.

There were some spluttered, “Whats,” and “Whys?”

“A little ceremony, welcoming you into one of the secrets of the tribe. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did when you’re finished.”

There was a moment when they all stood stock still, but then they all knelt and began digging. Most worked with their hands while waiting their turn with the scapulas. Haida couldn’t do a lot with just one hand, but he did what he could.

To his astonishment, when Yadin got his turn, the scapula quickly hit something hard. When he scraped at it, it proved to be a log. Looking to the right and the left he saw that everybody was uncovering the ends of logs, a long row of them. Glancing up, he saw excited looks on the faces of those who’d been Cold Springs members for a long time.

It didn’t take terribly long to clear the dirt off of what appeared to be a buried raft, though Yadin couldn’t fathom why anyone would have buried a raft, nor why they would think it an important ceremony to dig up a raft in the middle of winter when no one could ride it on the river anyway. Then they heaved one end of the raft up out of the ground and Pell propped it there with another log.

Gia moved in with her lamp, shining light so that they could see down into a large hole beneath the raft. At first, Yadin had no idea what he was looking at, but then he recognized stacks of baskets. The same kinds of baskets that the Cold Springs tribe kept their grain, beans, and roots in! Yadin couldn’t know that they’d buried it against the possibility of a raid by another tribe, nor that they had other hidden stores.

Pell stepped down into the pit and handed a large leather bundle up to Yadin. At first he wondered what it could be, but then he saw a stick of spirit meat poking out of the corner.

Pell handed him another bundle.

Realization dawned then as Yadin wonderingly surveyed the wealth of food that the Cold Springs people had buried in the pit. It was a wrenching moment when he realized he wasn’t going to go hungry this winter after all.

Donte stepped around the pit to hug him—hard. She leaned up to give him a kiss.

A glance at the others who’d helped him dig up the raft showed glazed looks all around.

Several were wiping at tears of ecstatic relief.

The End

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Author’s Afterword

This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel (many would consider this “prehistoric fiction,” but as an important part of this story is the discovery of new—to them—technology, I think it also fits into science fiction). I’ve always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Instead Bonesetter 2 -winter- poses “maybe” and “how” kinds of questions in regards to how things might have been worked out in ancient times.

Surely geniuses like Einstein, Newton, Galileo, Da Vinci and Pythagoras have not merely graced the human race since the onset of recorded history. What innovations might such a brilliant mind have been responsible for back in prehistoric times?

When most of us think of fishing, we think of lines and hooks, but many primitive peoples use various fish traps. Even now, most shellfish are caught in traps.

In the Stone Age, hand axes were plentiful. Adding a simple thing like a handle allows you to strike harder. Much harder. It must’ve been an innovation that would have brought expressions of “eureka!”

Preserving food had to have been a huge advancement for primitive people. How did they learn to do it?

And of course, humans have always looked for ways to help the sick and injured. Unfortunately, all too often they’ve been unsuccessful or fastened on things that didn’t actually help (bloodletting etc.).

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Nora Dahners, Elene Trull, Gail Gilman, Mike Alsobrook, Hamilton Elliott Kat Lind, Jan Mattei and Abiola Streete, each of whom significantly improved this story.