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 t
oo 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.”
Bonesetter 2 -Winter- Page 5