People - People of the Wolf Part 10

"Let's go back!" Jumping Hare declared, looking from face to face.

Around them, the snow walls of the ice cave gleamed orange in the firelight.

"To what?" asked One Who Cries.

Green Water placed the last length of knotted willow ripped from the unyielding snow on the glowing coals. She could see her husband's eyes on her, waiting for her words.

"Back?" she asked calmly. "We've crossed nothing but rock. Maybe better land lies ahead?"

"Maybe, but--"

"At least here we find leaves and sometimes a handful of frozen berries.

We didn't have that at Mammoth Camp. There could be game ahead."

Singing Wolf gritted his teeth, waving both arms hostilely. "But we're too weak to hunt. It takes strength to kill."

"We'll manage," One Who Cries a.s.sured him.

"But even the mice are burrowed under the snow," Jumping Hare muttered.

"The rabbits are gone. The few ptarmigan we've seen fly too--"

"Raven Hunter warned us," Singing Wolf quarreled. "Runs In Light is just a boy."

"And we didn't listen."

Broken Branch, who'd been sitting quietly in the corner, suddenly leaned forward. "You young idiots," she said, sucking the remains of the wolf bone she continued to carry in her pouch. "What's the matter with you?

You think he's a boy? Look at you!" She snaked a bony arm out of her hide sleeve to point at each of them in turn. Hollow eyes stared back.

"Your stomachs knot up a little and you run to bury your heads in the snow."

"But, Grandmother," Jumping Hare said incredulously. "We're starv--"

"Bah! You're not worthy of Wolf's gift. Go on! Get out!" She sucked her bone loudly, glaring through wind-tangled strands of gray.

Jumping Hare closed his eyes, unwilling even now to chastise an elder.

"We might have to, Grandmother. To survive."

"I think we all forget," Green Water cautioned, "this Long Dark is different. Worse than any in memory. The Others lie to the north and west, blocking retreat. Here, we're in a new country. At least the ridges are blown free of snow. In those flats in the north, we'd walk all the way on snowshoes."

"But we might find a camp of the People," Jumping Hare pointed out.

"Would they have enough to share?" Green Water raised a cautious eyebrow. "Or would our arrival doom them .. . as well as us?"

"Survival," Singing Wolf muttered. "We sit here trying to figure a wayto save ourselves, and where is our great Dreamer!" He pointed to the opening in the snow cave. "He ran away because he couldn't stand to face us!" An uneasy silence settled, the only sounds the crackling of the fire and Broken Branch sucking her bone.

"He's trying to call the animals," Green Water said finally.

"Hah! He's hunger crazy. It takes a man with Spirit Power to call the animals. And what animal would be here? In these rocks?"

"Maybe some mice or--"

"I saw him stumble and fall today. He's lost his Power! He's going to kill us all!"

One Who Cries exhaled heavily. "I don't think--"

"Maybe the spirits of the Long Dark have already sucked his soul from his body, hauled it out there into the dark to give them strength so they can suck up ours."

"You ..." Broken Branch whispered, faded eyes glistening in the flickering light. Everyone held their breath at the hostile look on her withered face. "What have you ever done for the People? Eh? Nothing.

You're a complainer, not a doer. You wait for others to take chances, then you prance around condemning them. You're worse than the spirits of the Long Dark, you suck up all our souls with your jealous whinings."

Singing Wolf's mouth gaped, bitter words on his tongue. "You crazy old--"

"Don't you back talk me, boy. I'll skewer you with this bone." She lunged at him, striking his collar hard. He scuttled backward, slapping at her.

"Crazy old curlew of a woman! Crazy! Like that cursed Runs In Light!"

Broken Branch sidled toward him, bone pointing, eyes keen as she c.o.c.ked her head. "Let me tell you something, boy. You've never proved who you are! That's why you always sucked up to Crow Caller. At least, you did until he didn't sing for your little girl out there in the snow that day. Eh?"

"I don't know what you're--"

"That's what did it." She tapped the bone on his knee. "That's what broke your faith in Crow Caller and sent you following the Wolf Dream.

And before that? What broke your faith in Sheep Whistle, eh? Maybe the fact that he didn't make you hunt leader when you thought you deserved it?"

Singing Wolf dropped his eyes, staring at the compacted snow polished to ice. "You're all emotion, boy. You better think about that. You're always sniveling, never taking time to consider what you're doing or where you're going. If anybody will kill the People, it's you and your kind."

Singing Wolf's jaws ground so loud everyone could hear in the deepening silence. Heads bowed uncomfortably around the cave."And you want to be a leader?" Broken Branch clucked derisively. "You've got the makings deep inside, but you've always been too much of a coward to do anything with them."

"Grandmother, he tries," Green Water said softly. "This is a hard time for all of us. Singing Wolf--"

"He doesn't try very hard. The boy's got to get out and test himself--take some chances. Then he'll stop insulting people who try harder than he does."

Green Water smiled weakly. "When we look about us and see so many empty places where familiar faces should be, all of our hearts are stung. It's hard to want more tests. Don't blame Singing Wolf. This Long Dark has been particularly hard on him."

Broken Branch gave Green Water a cool stare from the corner of her eye, then turned to Singing Wolf. He sat, head down, apparently cowed. "Is that right, boy? You've had it harder than the rest of us?" In a sudden move, he crawled past the old woman and out the hole into the night.

Jumping Hare mumbled to One Who Cries, "Too much hunger. Makes the senses leave."

One Who Cries lowered his eyes. "None of us are all the way sane."

"Especially Runs In Light."

Broken Branch jabbed out suddenly with her bone, poking his arm. He yipped.

"What do you know of Dreaming? I saw it!" she growled, nodding, her battered hood creasing. "I saw it in his eyes."

One Who Cries, frowning at his cowering cousin, put a restraining hand on Broken Branch's shoulder. "He didn't mean it, Grandmother. He--"

"Maybe you saw it!" Jumping Hare defended. "Then again, maybe he's crazy like Raven Hunter said."

Broken Branch scowled, looking down at the hand on her shoulder. "Let me go, you empty-headed fool ... or you're next," she warned, waving her sharp bone. One Who Cries jerked his hand away as though burned. Glaring around the shelter, Broken Branch breathed, "We're not dead yet, are we?"

"No," Green Water softly agreed. "The Dream lives."

"Dream?" Singing Wolf called from beyond the crawl hole. "He's Dreamed us to death." "No!" Broken Branch s.h.i.+fted, bony fingers knotting in the nearest parka. One Who Cries tensed as she tugged feebly. "Didn't you see? Didn't you see his eyes?" Her gaze unfocused and she leaned back, grip loosening. "It was real."

"I believe, Grandmother," he said.

Green Water reached over, patting her rea.s.suringly. "I saw his eyes, Grandmother. He Dreamed."

Jumping Hare bit his lip, looking away.Green Water stirred, blinking awake. Through her robes she felt the chill play across her flesh. Father Sun would be rising soon. She struggled to sit up, limbs shaking.

They hadn't moved for two days. People huddled in their robes, eyes sunken with famine. No one had the strength to walk.

Our final resting, she mouthed silently.

She glanced to Runs In Light's robes; he was still gone. Carefully, she crawled over sleeping people to the opening. Squeezing through, she peered at the landscape. Above, the Star People twinkled while the long twilight grayed the southeast. Moon Woman's half-light gleamed from brooding peaks. Ponderous glaciers crept down their flanks, majestic mountains glowing blue in the clear air. Wind Woman, for a brief moment, had stilled her restless roar. To the east, a broad valley opened, stretching to rocky highlands beyond. Even in the poor light, Green Water could make out the piled mounds of glacial rock.

Turning slightly, she saw him.

He crouched, head slumped backward unnaturally. Snow had drifted up around him.

Heart in her throat, Green Water shuffled over, shaking him by the shoulder. He didn't move. She shook him harder, tears welling. "Wake up!

Runs In Light?" Fear etched her face as she looked at the thick frost lining his fur hood. Even normal breathing should have melted some.. ..

"No," she whispered. A yawning gulf opened within.

Settling on her heels, she clutched a mittenful of snow and slapped it into his face. "Wolf Dreamer? We can't come to this."

He remained stiff and silent.

Viciously, she slapped him again and again, screaming, "Don't you die!

Don't you leave us to starve! You led us here!""

Still he didn't move.

"No .. . no .. ." she moaned, dropping her face in her hands.

"Tired."

The whisper sank through her anger. Green Water gasped, falling on her knees beside him to brush snow from his cheeks. "What?"

"Tired. "

"Get up!" She beat him with her fists. "Get up, now!"

In a frantic gesture, she jerked his arm, dragging him to his feet.

Staggering along beneath his weight, she forced him to walk, hoping his body could still generate enough heat to keep him alive.

"You cursed fool! You'd stay outside to avoid our eyes? You could have died and then where would we all--""Food," he mumbled. "Found food. Got tired. Just needed to ... rest."

Green Water stopped, staring at him as though fearing she hadn't heard right. "Food?"

Runs In Light nodded feebly. With his chin, he gestured. "There, beyond the rocks. It was so heavy. I couldn't drag it."

"Go and get warm," Green Water ordered, leading him to the shelter entrance and helping him inside.

Following the scuff marks he'd left in the snow, she trudged up over the ridge. Below the outcrop--blasted clean by Wind Woman's fury--a matted lump of brown lay wedged in the rock. Green Water recognized the thick hair and heavy hoof: musk ox. The better part of a hind quarter. No feast for so many, but enough, perhaps, to get them off this high rock and back to country where game roamed. The wolves had been at it; slashes from their fangs scored the hide, ripping out long sections of hair. Carrion it might be, but in winter, in hunger, no one cared.

Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a hafted knife. Trembling, she chiseled at the frozen flesh.

Chapter 12.

Rejuvenated, One Who Cries, Singing Wolf, and Jumping Hare struggled to lift the hind quarter to the top of the rocks so the women could drag it down to camp.

"Sheeesh," Jumping Hare groaned, feet slipping down the icy ridge as he pushed on the slab of frozen meat. "How'd he get it this far?"

"The spirits must have given him strength," One Who Cries said through clenched teeth, pulling from the top.

"Spirits," Singing Wolf grunted. "Men just do crazy things when they're desperate."

"He said he followed wolf tracks."

"Who cares? You think we're saved?" Singing Wolf snorted. "Maybe we'll all have full bellies for one day from this slab. What then?"

Jumping Hare looked uneasy as he sank teeth into his lip. "Wolf Dreamer said there was more out on the plains." Heaving one last time, they shoved the meat to the top of the hill and leaned back against the rocks, panting. One Who Cries eyed Singing Wolf uneasily. The man grew more difficult and hostile every day, inciting people to squabble with one another, shoving them to criticize Runs In Light behind his back.

His manner had gone even more sour after Broken Branch's challenge that night. Singing Wolf acted like a man on the verge of coming apart. The Dreamer had stopped sitting around their nightly fires, fearing the whispered taunts.

"Let's go find the rest," One Who Cries said, shuffling down the Dreamer's back trail. Long dark brown hairs from the musk ox's hide marked the path. "Hope the scavengers haven't out scavenged us."

Singing Wolf grumbled, "We made the wrong choice. I knew better than to follow some crazy kid."

"Wait," One Who Cries said awkwardly, fleetingly meeting his cousin's hard eyes. "You'll see. Down on that plain, I'll bet we find--"