by A M Layet
Chapter Four
Magna led a triumphant Olgan and seven sulky boys back to the village. They had all completely forgotten the reason why they gone into the forest in the first place. All they could think about was the enormous reindeer Magna was carrying on her shoulders. It was big enough to feed the whole village. Magna and Olgan were both so proud they were almost singing. The rest of the boys were so jealous they were almost growling.
On their return, they found everyone gathered in the heart of the village.
Magna and Olgan, at the head of the procession, stopped short when they saw Dec and Ithil in amongst the villagers. Very quickly, Magna remembered why she had led her school into the woods. The men found the boys after all, thought Magna, surprised.
But the men hadn’t found Dec and Ithil. Just like Magna, as soon as the men had gone into the woods, they had forgotten all about Dec and Ithil and had tried to hunt. Clan Chief Ghun had been particularly keen to catch a woolly rhino. But unlike Magna, the men had been unsuccessful in their hunt, and they had returned to the village, tired, hungry, fed up and empty handed. Clan Chief Ghun had been even more annoyed to find Dec and Ithil waiting for him on his return. His first words to them had not been welcoming.
Now Clan Chief Ghun had to deal with the sudden, and for him, unwelcome reappearance of Dec and Lint, the even more unexpected reappearance of Ekk, and the always annoying and difficult presence of Magna. It was almost too much.
Then Ekk saw Magna with all his students, and pushed his way angrily through the crowd and stood next to Clan Chief Ghun. This was the moment the boys had been waiting for.
‘Me teacher,’ Ekk told Clan Chief Ghun. ‘School my school.’
Clan Chief Ghun looked Ekk up and down. Ekk was not looking good. Since he had last been seen in the village he had shrunk. His cheeks were hollow, his legs were bent, and he smelt even more strongly than before. He still had his woolly mammoth hide, but whereas before it had been combed regularly, now it was matted and half covered in twigs and dead leaves.
Magna, by contrast, was looking formidable. She was fresh back from a hunt with a reindeer slung across her shoulders, its antlers sharp as spears. Her face was flushed red, her forehead was wet, and her eyes were bright as stars. She had always been tall, but, since teaching the boys, she seemed to have become taller, her shoulders broader, her back straighter, her arms and legs longer. And she was smart. She hadn’t wanted to become teacher of the boys, but now she was enjoying herself. As teacher of the boys, she realised, she had gained a position of greater power. One of the boys in her school would one day be Clan Chief. That made her, in a way, the teacher of the entire clan. She liked that idea. She didn’t want to give up her position, especially not to Ekk, who she thought was about as intelligent as horse poo. Her pride would not stomach it.
So Magna lowered the reindeer to the ground and offered it to Clan Chief Ghun.
‘Today the boys went hunting,’ she told him. ‘They caught this reindeer. We offer it to you, as a sign of our respect and loyalty.’
Beside Clan Chief Ghun, Ekk grunted. He wished he had a whole herd of Woolly Mammoths to offer to Clan Chief Ghun. But he didn’t, and he had to say something, do something.
‘Magna woman, Magna teach girls’ he said, ‘Ekk man, Ekk teach boys.’
And this was about the best thing he could say. Clan Chief Ghun nodded his head, as did many of the other men and women in the clearing. This was what they all thought.
But Magna was not going to give up without a fight.
‘I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman,’ she said, which was plainly untrue though nice for the men to hear, ‘but I have the heart and spirit of a hunter. And look what we have caught today. Under my guidance, the boys will become strong, brave, and ferocious hunters. What has Ekk got inside of him? Is his spirit strong and fearless? He looks as if he has been living in the tree tops and feeding off roots and plants. Is that what he will teach your sons? How to live in the trees like the animals? I will teach them to hunt animals like true Homo Sapiens.’
It was a powerful argument but a little too long and complicated for Clan Chief Ghun. He lost interest half way through and instead noticed how strong Magna looked and how big the reindeer was. Beside Magna, Ekk did not look like a man. He looked more like an ape. This was somehow very worrying. It was not a direction Clan Chief Ghun wanted the clan to go.
‘Magna teach boys,’ he decided, and turned his attention to the much more interesting question of the reindeer at his feet.
The men mostly agreed with Clan Chief Ghun. They were impressed by Magna, and more than happy with the size of the reindeer. They could see she was doing a good job. But the women were not pleased. There were many women shaking their heads that night, and Ma, most especially, was not happy. She sent Olgan, Lint and Tan to bed with a pointed finger, and sat brooding before her fire, sharpening her tools.
The following morning, there was trouble straight away at school. But it wasn't Ma or any of the women. It was the children. They weren't going to put up with Magna, or her ridiculous line up, any longer. Before Magna had even appeared, the fighting had begun. Dec had cornered Olgan, determined to overpower her. Ithil was backing up Dec, as he always did, Ayat didn't want to be involved, and Jet, who was normally Olgan’s ally, stood back and cheered. Olgan was on her own.
When Magna arrived, Olgan had a split lip and was walking with a limp. Magna ordered the children to line up and watched with amazement as they lined up in their old places: Dec, Ithil, Ayat, Jet, Olgan, Hohn, Ban, Kelc, Unta and Lint. The only difference was that Olgan had to elbow Hohn sharply in the tummy to stop him from pushing in front of her. Before, Hohn would never have dared challenge Olgan.
Magna took one look at the line up and disappeared back inside the school cave. She reappeared with her wooden club.
‘Now do it again, and do it right,’ she told them. ‘Dec and Ithil, I’ll give you a place in the line when everyone else is in their proper position.’
Slowly, the boys moved back into Magna's line up. Dec’s eyes were on no one but Olgan.
‘That’s better,’ Magna said, without sounding remotely pleased. ‘Now, Ithil go beside Ayat, and Dec, next to Olgan.’
Dec immediately took his place at the top of the line.
‘NO!’ Magna shouted. ‘Not that side of Olgan, the other side. After her.’
Dec did not even flinch. He stayed, resolutely where he was.
‘Give me one good reason why Olgan should lead, not me,’ he said.
‘Because Olgan’s the smartest one in the school,’ Magna told him, raising her club and walking towards him ‘and smart leaders make good leaders.'
Dec watched her approach, his feet rooted to the spot. He had ambition. He had pride. He had skill. He planned to one day be chief of the clan. Also, despite what Magna thought, he too was smart. He knew Magna's club was harder than his head. So he moved, and began plotting straight away for a new way to oust Magna from power, and to humiliate and belittle Olgan on a daily basis.
He was not the only one busy plotting. Magna was determined to influence the future of the clan, away from relying on hunting. So, as before, she took the children nettle gathering. And Dec managed to push Olgan so she fell, arms outstretched, right in the middle of the nettle patch. She was stung so many times her arms turned red.
Once the children had harvested enough nettle fibres, they began weaving them into baskets. It took a long time for the children to finish. Olgan, to Magna’s surprise, was the last to finish. This was because every time Olgan almost finished her basket, it was stolen from under her nose and substituted with a pile of nettles.
Magna also tried to teach the boys how to encourage edible plants to grow and spread. She took them to a clearing where she had been working with the girls last year. To the boys' delight, the girls were there with Fen. Even better, the boys soon discovered that bending down, pretending to be busy pulling out weeds, was the perfect way
to remain hidden while stalking female prey. Lint enjoyed himself immensely. He staged one particularly successful ambush, where he surprised three girls, caught two of them and made one cry. He was so proud he told Ma all about it when he got home. Ma beamed from ear to ear.
The next time they visited the clearing, Magna made sure the girls were nowhere in sight. Then she taught the boys to pull out, by the root, those plants they couldn’t eat that were growing in amongst the wheat plants they could eat. Ayat found this idea very difficult.
‘Why picking if can’t eat?’ he asked again and again.
When Magna walked past Olgan, she found a pile of freshly picked wheat grains at her feet.
‘No, Olgan,’ Magna told her, a frown on her face. ‘You’re supposed to be picking the weeds, not the wheat.’
Olgan looked down at her feet.
‘I didn’t pick them,’ she said, and showed Magna the weeds in her hand.
Magna narrowed her eyes and looked to see who was closest. All the other boys were far away. They all liked to keep their distance from Olgan these days.
Magna also taught the boys how to hunt. She had to. There was no way she could have continued as their teacher if she didn’t teach hunting. But she didn’t teach hunting the way Dec expected and wanted. He was disgusted when they went hunting and took with them the nets.
‘This isn’t going to catch a deer or a boar,’ he sneered, dangling the net in front of him. ‘Their tusks will rip right through it.’
‘You’re right,’ Magna told him, ‘It won’t catch a boar. I wouldn’t suggest it, unless you want the boar to catch you. But it might catch foxes, hares, and land birds. All of which we can eat.’
She took them into the Hunting woods and showed them how to create traps using the nets. When they came back, another day, to check the nets, Olgan found her trap had been ruined. Her net was hanging from a tree branch. In it was nothing but the wind.
Olgan never said anything to Lint about her struggles. They never spoke much anyway. But he knew she was unhappy. Before Magna started teaching, Olgan had always run to school in the mornings. She had been one of the loudest, chasing and fighting in the clearing with Jet and anyone else who wanted to join in. He, Lint, had not wanted to go but Olgan had loved it; and been good at it.
Now everything had changed for Olgan. School was making her miserable. She didn’t want to get up in the mornings. She dragged herself to school. She never played with the others; she stood apart and alone. The only person she spoke to all day was Magna.
For a long time Lint did nothing. What could he do? Olgan hadn’t asked for his help. She probably didn’t want it. Besides, he had no idea how to change things. The problem with Magna, Lint saw, was that she really was a very good teacher, much better than Ekk had been. They were learning a lot with her, and their hunting skills were getting better. They had all gone home with foxes and hares the other day. Even Ma had been pleased to see Lint bringing meat home.
But Lint had the feeling that, sooner or later, something terrible was going to happen. Dec’s campaign against Olgan was getting worse. Lint had a nasty feeling that if Dec could not get rid of Magna, he might decide to get rid of Olgan instead, and, even though he tried to ignore the feeling, Lint felt he had to help his big sister.
‘It is time to start preparing for the annual school hunt’ Magna told them the following morning, ‘and time to start working on your tools.’
The boys rushed towards the back of the cave. As soon as Dec had his spear in his hand, he turned his gaze to Olgan. She only had a sharpened stick. Her flint stone needed a lot of work before it would be ready to haft onto a handle. She was far behind Dec. Lint could see the difference it made to Dec to have his spear in his hand once more. He flexed his muscles, lifted his chin, and narrowed his eyes. He was thinking about being top of the line once more.
The boys worked hard on their tools, and made great progress with Magna’s help. She took one look at Dec and Ithil’s spears and made the boys detach their flint blades and haft them again. At first, Dec had rolled his eyes and growled. But Magna had stood firm and insisted. She helped him too, once the blade was out, with the hafting. Both Dec and Magna were very pleased with the results. Once it was set, dry, and tied with fibre, Magna took Dec outside for him to try the spear out. It was his tool, so it had to be Dec who tried it. She wasn’t allowed to touch it.
They came back later, both smiling broadly. The spear was good. It was strong, and threw well. The hafting was secure and the blade was sharp. Dec had his first, complete tool, and it was a good one. He walked back into the cave with a swagger in his step. He was the first of all the boys to complete a tool. He was the nearest to manhood. He felt as if he was back in charge already. It was only a matter of time before he everything went his way.
After school, Lint followed Olgan. She didn’t go straight home but meandered through the village without purpose. Lint stayed back, and she didn’t seem to notice him shadowing her. He was waiting for the right moment. He didn’t want to talk to her in the middle of the village, where anyone could hear.
Eventually she walked beyond the furthest huts into the fringes of the woods. Lint quickened his steps at once. He caught up with her on the far side of a huge, dense oak tree, its trunk as thick as five men.
‘Olgan’ he told her, ‘we need to talk.’
She startled when she saw him, jumping back and hissing.
‘It’s me. Your brother.’
But Olgan didn’t look at him. She was too busy looking round to see if there were any others with Lint.
‘I’m alone,’ he said.
‘Just leave me alone,’ she told him, turning her back on him as soon as she was sure there was no one else.
‘I want to help you.’
‘You help me?’ Olgan scoffed. ‘And what can you do to help me? You’re bottom of the line, remember? And I’m top.’
‘I’m not bottom, not any more,’ Lint pointed out. ‘I haven’t been bottom since Magna became teacher and moved me into the middle.’
‘But she put everyone from the bottom in the middle, so that means you’re still bottom,’ Olgan sneered.
Lint tightened his fists, and scowled at Olgan. She was making this very difficult for him. Right now, he didn’t feel like helping her. He felt more like punching her.
‘Do you want my help or not?’ he demanded.
‘No, I don’t,’ she snapped back. ‘There’s nothing anyone can do to help me, least of all you. It’s too late.’
‘I have a plan,’ Lint offered. It wasn’t a very good plan, even he knew that. But it was, at least, a plan, and they had to do something.
‘A plan? Is it like last year’s plan?' She laughed but it sounded more like a high pitched, hollow cry. 'Let me guess, instead of hunting animals, we’re going to hunt Dec? Or Magna? No, Lint, that won’t work. Not again. This is totally different. Magna would never run away the way Ekk did, she’s too strong and too brave. And the others won’t help hunt Dec, because they all like him. The one they hate is me. If anyone's going to be hunted, it will be me!’
Lint could see the tears in her eyes as she spoke.
‘No, Olgan,’ he tried to say, ‘it’s a different plan…’
But she wasn’t listening.
‘Just go home, Lint. Go home to Ma. Very soon, apart from Tan, you might be all she has left.’
Lint gave up and left her. There was no point talking to her. He wondered whether he could manage the plan without her. Probably not, he decided. He had to have Olgan’s help. Magna would never listen to him.
On his way back through the village, he spotted Dec with all the other boys gathered round him. Dec was doing all the talking. When he noticed Lint, he stopped talking and whispered one word. Every boy looked round at Lint and watched him pass. Lint pretended he hadn’t seen them and hurried back home to Ma.
Olgan returned soon afterwards. She came in and sat right next to Lint.
‘Did you s
ee Dec and the others talking?’ he asked her.
She nodded. Tan had fallen asleep in Ma’s lap. Ma was trying to carefully transfer him to the furs, where she could wrap him up warm for the night.
‘I think we need a plan,’ she told Lint.
Lint smiled.
‘Then listen closely.’