Bonesetter 2 -Winter-

by Laurence E. Dahners

  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 g
oat 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.