Bonesetter 2 -Winter-

by Laurence E. Dahners

  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.”

  He looked around at the tribe. They stared at him with expressions ranging from anger to apprehension. “The first thing is, no one should go out by themselves anymore. Each man should always carry two spears with him and preferably there should be at least two men with every group that goes out.”

  “I’m not taking two men with me every time I have to pee!” Ontru said.

  Tando looked frustrated, “This is for trips away from the cave. Further than just where you go to piss.” After some argument and discussion, everyone came to some agreement about what to do if the Oppos came, but Tando still felt like they were woefully unprepared. He decided he’d feel a lot better once Pell had set up the trap spirit.

  ***

  Sidean lifted the fur off his head and peered up into the sky.

  Gray.

  Gray everywhere without a touch of blue. The air that greeted his exposed face felt icy. It’s going to snow, he thought frustratedly, if not today, tomorrow. And here we are, far from our home cave, going out of our way to attack someone who’s never caused us any harm.

  We should turn back and hope the spirits forgive us!

  Jalgon, however, had other thoughts. He was soon rousting the Oppos and assigning them tasks. Sidean, as usual, found himself assigned to cook them a porridge because he had more skill for it than the rest of the hunters. He wasn’t surprised to see that Pont and Nosset were the last ones up. Nor that they didn’t actually do any work.

  Unsurprised, yet angry nonetheless.

  As everyone sat about eating, many of them glancing uneasily at the sky like he had, Sidean said, “It’s going to snow. We should turn back and hope we make it to the cave before the weather gets really bad.”

  “No!” Pont said angrily, “this weather is just the evil spirit’s way of trying to slow us down. Nosset and I’ll perform a ceremony to soothe the weather spirits.” His eyes swept the group, “We’ve got to kill Pell and the evil in him now, before that spirit gains even more power. If we wait till spring, the spirit will be too strong!”

  Sidean turned his eyes to Jalgon, hoping he’d see reason. Instead, Jalgon looked furious, “I’m the one who decides these things,” he barked, standing and stepping toward where Sidean sat so that he towered over him. “Are you getting some idea that’s not the case?!”

  Noticing that Jalgon’s hands had curled into fists, Sidean dropped his eyes and shook his head, “No, no, whatever you say Jalgon.” A feeling of dread rose up inside of him and a tremor ran over his body.

  He hoped Jalgon thought it was fear.

  He also hoped what he’d foreseen wasn’t a true premonition…

  ***

  Woday looked out the flap over the mouth of Pell’s cave and saw bleak gray skies. Icy coldness swirled in around him. We won’t be going for honey today, he thought.

  Behind him, Pell said, “Don’t just stand there holding the flap open, let’s go take our piss. We need to eat and get on our way after that honey or Tando’s going to be upset.”

  Soon enough, Woday found himself heading down the trail with Pell and Pell’s wolf, Ginja. They walked quickly to keep themselves warm while the wolf ranged ahead. Woday kept glancing at the sky, thinking that the weather was going to get worse. He felt fairly confident they could make it back with their honeycomb before it got too bad, but it didn’t keep him from feeling uneasy. To his surprise, Pell chattered pleasantly as if neither the weather nor the Oppos were anything to worry about. Woday wondered if he’d never been caught out in a blizzard.

  When they crossed a stream, Pell stopped, staring at the round stones washed up on its edge. “What?” Woday asked.

  “I think these would make good throwing stones,” Pell said, “let’s try a few.” He bent over and picked up several, hefting them to check their weight. Satisfied, he dropped a big one and several small ones, then picked up more the same size as the one he still held.

  Woday had only been watching, when Pell noticed, he tossed Woday one of the stones, “Try throwing that one.”

  “Um, I’m not a very good throw,” Woday ventured.

  “Never gonna get better if you don’t practice,” Pell replied. He pointed at a boulder on the other side of the stream, “See if you can hit that big rock over there.”

  Suppressing a sigh, Woday threw the rock. To his surprise, he did hit the boulder, though up on its upper left corner. He’d missed his aim by an arm’s-length, but from past experience he knew he’d been lucky to hit it at all.

  “Good!” Pell said. “If that rock felt about the right weight to you, find some more and we’ll each get in ten throws.”

  They crouched and sorted through some rocks until they each had ten. Woday threw first, happy each time he hit the boulder and cursing in embarrassment the four times he missed. At the end, he shrugged, “I’m terrible. Even though I hit the boulder sometimes I usually didn’t hit the spot I was aiming for.”

  Pell blandly said, “Don’t worry, just keep practicing. You’ll get better.” He stepped up and started throwing his rocks.

  Woday felt relieved when Pell hit the boulder on the upper left much like Woday had with his first throw. Then the upper right. Maybe he wouldn’t prove to be much better than Woday was.

  Pell hit the lower right, then the lower left, then the top, then the left edge, then the bottom… With dismay, Woday realized that Pell was working his way around the boulder, probably only missing the center so as not to embarrass his apprentice, but nonetheless hitting exactly where he wanted to with every throw! It became obvious he was trying not to embarrass Woday when he threw his last stone and it struck the boulder exactly in the center. He said, “Well, I only hit the middle once. We could both use more practice.” He turned to Woday with a grin, “Maybe at the next stream?”

  As they started off, Ginja lifted her dripping muzzle up out of the stream and bounded ahead. She’d been trying to catch something in the shallow water but Woday hadn’t seen her succeed.

  They did practice at the next stream, though Woday didn’t think Pell needed any practice. After a bit, they reached the beehive in its hollowed tree. In the cold, the hive showed no life. When Woday had explained that the bees did little in winter, Pell said, “So can we just scoop out the honeycombs while they’re sleeping?”

  Woday looked at it uneasily, suddenly aware that he didn’t know as much about bees and their honey as he’d thought. “Maybe? I think I’d rather use smoke too. It’s not any fun getting stung.”

  They’d soon used their ember to get a little fire going. Woday dug up a wad of mildly damp pine needles and got them smoldering. He held them so that the smoke rose around the hive to further settle the bees.

  Hoping he’d smoked them enough, or that the cold would keep them quiet, he gave Pell the signal. They cut into the hive and scooped a substantial quantity of dripping honeycomb into the clay pot they’d brought with them. When the pot was full, there was still quite a bit of honey left in the hive. Pell said, “What can we put the rest in?”

  Woday shrugged, “The people who get honey for the Falls-people say not to take it all. The bees need to have some so they can live through the winter and make more honey for us next year.” He shrugged again, “I don’t know if that’s true… but it seems like a good idea to me, unless we’re desperate for more honey.”

  Pell said little, but looked very thoughtful as they rescued an ember from their fire and got ready to return home.

  ***

  Hands on his hips, Gontra stared at the empty snare. A sick anger had risen in him when he’d come to it. It’d been empty yesterday as well. Every one of his snares was empty today! Only one had had a rabbit yesterday.

 
; When the Aldans had first started putting out snares, they’d caught lots of animals. But then there’d been fewer and fewer. He’d prayed to the spirits of the small animals without success. Now today, not a single snare held anything!

  It might just be winter, he thought, hunting’s always bad in wintertime. But if we can’t catch anything anymore, we’re not going to make it through the winter.

  He looked around. The day was cold and gray. Normally they’d be thinking the big freeze was coming. They’d be trying to plan a big hunt for large animals, hoping the carcasses would freeze and keep for months into the winter.

  But with only three hunters such a hunt would be… problematic.

  Maybe I could talk Tando and a couple of the Cold Springs hunters into coming over and doing a big hunt with us. In repayment I could help them do a big hunt when I visited them to ask.

  He mulled it over for a moment, then decided, I’ll go now. With the weather looking like it does, there’s no time to waste.

  I’ll just go tell Belk or Tonday where I’m going.

  ***

  Sidean, leading the Oppos, turned to follow the stream leading up to Cold Springs ravine. Behind him he heard the irritating tones of Pont’s voice. Suspiciously, Pont said, “Wait a minute. Are you thinking this is the way up to Cold Springs?”

  Trying not to sound sullen, Sidean said, “Uh-huh, you can feel the water if you want, it’s cold.” He tilted his head thinking, I thought Pont had been here with the Aldans?

  Jalgon had come up behind them to listen. He crouched and put his hand in the water, giving Pont a nod.

  Pont stared at Sidean for a moment longer then turned and walked toward the back of their little group. He stood talking to Wenax for a minute then came back up to the front. Speaking to Jalgon, he said, “Wenax says this is it as well.”

  Irritated, against his better judgment, Sidean said, “What, you don’t trust me? I thought you’d been here yourself?”

  Pont gave him a cold stare for a minute, then said, “It’s not that I don’t trust your original intent, but you’ve been too close to the evil spirit. When you came back you’d seen none of the evil things going on at Cold Springs. Your report was bland and reassuring, just like the evil spirit wanted it to be. I don’t think you got close enough to the demon for it to take you over, but maybe close enough for it to sway your judgment. Maybe, close enough for it to try to lead you the wrong direction.” He gave Sidean a false looking smile, “But, Wenax and the cold water both say you’re right. Now that I think about it, I remember that big boulder,” he pointed and produced a large false smile. “It’s just that the leaves hadn’t all fallen when I came here with the Aldans. Sorry I doubted you.”

  As Sidean stood, straining to keep himself from saying something he’d regret, something cold splattered on to his forehead. Foreboding struck before the second splat hit him. With sleet coming down, it’s going to be miserable out here so far from a cave. He glanced at Jalgon and saw their headman glance upward anxiously. Then Jalgon’s eyes came back down and angrily flashed at Sidean.

  Sidean knew better than to say, “I told you so.”

  Jalgon said, “Let’s get going. We need to get there and win the battle quickly in case this sleet gets bad. Then we can stay in the Cold Springs cave tonight.”

  Sick at heart, Sidean started up the trail.

  ***

  They’d walked quietly for quite some time. Woday, bored, decided some conversation was in order. “How am I going to learn bone setting, if nobody comes to us with any broken bones?”

  They were walking side-by-side on a wide part of the path, so Pell was able to glance sideways at him. “Sorry, but I pointed out that this could be a problem when you said you wanted to be my apprentice.” He shrugged, “Besides, I really have no control over when people break their bones, you know?”

  “I’m just frustrated. The way the tales were told to us back at the Falls, I thought you must have several people a day arriving with something broken.”

  “Spirits! I hope not! That would be terrible—all those poor people…” After a moment, he shook his head and said, “If that were to happen I’d have no time to set traps or gather. I’d starve.”

  “No, no! They’d bring you food or other things in trade for your services! You’d want for nothing.”

  Pell turned wide eyes on him, “How?! People with broken bones can’t hunt! They can’t make things. If there’s anyone in the world with nothing to trade, they’re it. They don’t have any food to bring. They have to beg other people to feed them.”

  Woday frowned, “Their families. Their families would have to bring you food.”

  “Their families might.” Pell shrugged, “They also might not. Not everyone has a family that loves them, you know?”

  “Almost everyone has somebody that loves them enough. They may just not want to pay. You just have to tell them you won’t set their bones until you get your payment.”

  Pell drew his head back in horror. “The bones would probably heal in the wrong place by the time you got your payment! Then you wouldn’t be able to put them back and the person would be crippled forever.” Pell stopped walking. When Woday had done the same, he gazed concernedly into Woday’s eyes. “Would you really do that? Refuse to help someone until they’d paid you?”

  Suddenly Woday felt terribly ashamed. The dismayed way Pell was looking at him made him feel even worse.

  Like a bug or insect of some kind.

  Woday’s eyes dropped to Pell’s feet and he swallowed hard as he recognized Pell’s compassion and just how strongly Pell felt about doing what he could for his fellow man. After a moment in which Woday found he couldn’t speak, he finally managed to croak, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was a time limit on when you could set someone’s bones successfully.” He blinked, realizing without looking up that even this wasn’t good enough, “Whether or not there’s a time limit, it was still wrong of me to think I shouldn’t do my best to help someone if I could.”

  Silently Pell turned and led off down the path, leaving Woday to walk in humiliation behind him, stewing in his own feelings of guilt. How, when he’s younger than I am, has he made me feel like a naughty child?

  Pell stopped so suddenly that Woday ran into him from behind. Woday found a finger pressed to his lips entreating him to silence and heard the wolf make a low rumbling growl off to one side. They both turned to look ahead. Woday saw eight men standing where the path turned north up the stream toward Cold Springs. It looked like the men were arguing about something, but they settled whatever it was and started up the path toward Pell’s home.

  With a smack, a drop of slush sleeted out of the sky and smacked Woday on the back of the wrist.

  Woday turned worried eyes toward the sky. He leaned into Pell a little, trying to urge his master onward. He said, “We need to get home. If this is a bad storm we could be in trouble out here.”

  Pell whispered, “Shhh! Those are the people Tando was warning us about last night.”

  Woday immediately took a step backward and crouched down, heart thumping hard in his chest. “How do you know?!”

  “Pont is with them.” Even though his words had a worried tone, when Pell said “Pont” he sounded disgusted.

  Woday’s first wish was to find a huge drift of fallen leaves and burrow into it until the storm and the unpleasantness was finished. Fortunately, before his mouth could express what his hind brain was thinking, his conscience rallied. He owed it to his new tribe… to do what? I’m not a fighter! What can I do to help? Unable to answer his own question, he leaned closer to Pell’s ear and whispered quietly, “What are we going to do?!” Then, thinking better of it, he immediately rephrased, “What can I do?”

  Pell stayed motionless another moment until the Oppos trooped out of sight over a little rise. Then he said, “Let’s hide the honey, we can come back for it later. When we cross the stream we’ll get some rocks.”

  Rocks? Woday thought, but he
didn’t say anything while they found three saplings growing close enough together that they could wedge their clay pot full of honey high off the ground between them.

  Pell led Woday down to the stream and crouched to start picking up rocks, “Let’s get twenty each this time. Fill your pouches.”

  Woday squatted down and started getting rocks himself, “I thought Tando said we were to use spears?”

  “If we use spears, the Oppos might die of their wounds. A rock hurts really bad, but it doesn’t usually kill a person, only small animals. Besides, I throw rocks a lot better than I do spears. If I have to fight with a spear I’m not going to throw it.”

  Woday knew some hunters stabbed animals with spears while they still held the weapons in their hands. You were more likely to make a kill that way, but you could easily get hurt.

  Most people he knew threw their spears, at least at large dangerous animals. Woday didn’t think he wanted to get within a spear length of another hunter who was carrying his own spear. “Um…” he said.

  Pell looked up at him and gave him an odd smile, “Besides, we only have four spears. We’ll have forty rocks.”

  The Oppos had stopped in the brush just on this side of the stream running along the meadow in front of the Cold Springs cave. Woday and Pell had stopped up the hill on the path behind them. Sleet had been coming down intermittently since they had turned up Cold Springs ravine. Now it started coming down steadily. Woday shivered and could see Pell shaking as well. He leaned forward to a whisper, “What are they doing?!”

  Pell shrugged, “I don’t know. I think they’re arguing about what to do.”

  “Do you think we can cross the stream back here, then walk up the other side of the meadow to the cave and join our tribe?”