Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (27 page)

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.”