Nine Fingers pulled him to his feet. “I will not return without you. Come.” He put his arm under Walking Bear’s arm and supported him as they trudged forward.
The following day dawned clear and warmer as if the Great Spirit realized that they were nearly defeated and sent them hope.
“Isn’t the sun wonderful? Look the snow is melting.” Nine Fingers smiled and raised his face to the sky. “HeeYee! HeeYee!” He playfully ran ahead and just as quickly ran back. “RUN!”
Walking Bear did not hesitate. He followed Nine Fingers across the open prairie. In the distance he could see a butte, a secluded hill with steep sides and a level top. He felt the hot breath on his neck, but dared not look back. Adrenaline carried him up the side, his breath ragged.
“Argh!” He screamed as the monster’s teeth sank into his ankle. He flipped to his back and kicked at the beast. There was no doubt this was the Skin Walker. While he had all the attributes of a wolf, there was still a human element about him. It wasn’t anything decent; rather a sense of a human consciousness in the way the Skin Walker lunged at him. Walking Bear grabbed his lance and steadied it against the rock as the massive wolf reared back. He charged forward, and the head of the lance disappeared in its massive chest. The beast reached up and broke the spear off, casting it aside like a twig. Not a drop of blood seeped from the wound. Walking Bear crawled backward as the wolf edged closer and dripped saliva on his chest.
“Die!” Nine Fingers jumped on the back of the wolf and buried his knife in its neck. The wolf stood as a man would, his dark eyes shining, and shook Nine Fingers off his back. He lifted Nine Fingers’ flailing body above his head throwing him down the sharp hill. His body bounced and then lay still, broken at the base of the butte.
The wolf dropped back to all four legs on the ground and snarled, showing large white canine teeth dripping with blood. Walking Bear struggled to stand and put weight on his damaged ankle.
“I will not lie down and let you kill me!” Walking Bear made a screaming chanting cry and charged at the wolf. He had the advantage of surprise on a downhill slope. His weight knocked them tumbling, one over the other, down the hill. The wolf recovered first, and Walking Bear writhed under the wolf, trying to hold the gory, sharp teeth from his neck. The smell of rot and decay permeated his senses. His arms shook with the effort as the teeth came ever closer.
In the last moment of life, every sense seems heightened. Every breath was loud, every smell was sharp, and the sound of a mountain lion roaring was overwhelming. The mountain lion has come to take me to the Spirit Warriors in the sky thought Walking Bear.
“Lina.” He breathed. “Good bye, my Lina.” Instead the mountain lion bowled into the wolf knocking him off of Walking Bear. The mountain lion was joined by another mountain lion and then another, and then a coyote, many coyotes...and...bears. Then Walking Bear’s vision went dim.
“Walking Bear.” The soft lips against his brought him back around.
“Lina? Lina!” Walking Bear’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “Am I dead? Are you a dream?”
“No you are very much alive, and I am real.”
“I love you Lina. I will always love you. I loved you from the moment I saw you all dusty and dirty that day with the buffalo herd.”
“Shhh, I know.” Walking Bear reached for her hand and laid it against his heart.
“Don’t leave me, Lina.
“Never again. I won’t ever leave again. Rest.” Her cool hands stroked his face until he contentedly slipped back to sleep.
Over the next few days, he would come around, burning with fever, vomiting, and thrashing.
“Shhh I’m here. Rest.” Her hands dripped blessed cold water in his dry mouth.
“I love you, Lina. Marry me?”
“The fever has you talking out of your head. Sleep now. We can talk later.”
Walking Bear woke one morning, and the fever was gone. He heard voices. He crawled to the edge of the overhanging rocks. Snow blew the words back to him.
“You gave your word, Lina.”
“Saving your life and Walking Bear’s life means nothing to you? It was me who saved you. I followed you. If I hadn’t, both of you would be dead now. I nursed him back to health. I set the bones in your arm. I cannot leave him again, no matter what I promised.”
“Lina, sometimes I see things as they appear in the future. My father also has this gift. I see you returning to our tribe, and I see our village in flames, people—women, children, elders—all dead. Then my vision ends. I can only imagine that means I die, and that is why my vision ends. If you return with us, our tribe will cease to exist just as yours did. Can you really do that? You say you come to help us, but to me, you came to destroy us.”
“I will leave with Walking Bear, and we will not come to your tribe. You will return without us. That way no harm will come to your families.”
“Just like freeing the horses kept the Skin Walker from finding us?” The derision dripped from his words. “I put no trust in your plans.”
“He wants me, not you. Walking Bear and I can keep him occupied for as long as it takes until we can figure out a way to kill him.”
“There is no way to kill him! Walking Bear’s lance is buried in his heart, and yet not a drop of blood was removed from him. He is immortal. He cannot be killed!”
“You are only guessing at that, Nine Fingers. We don’t know for certain. There must be a way to kill him. Why else would he want to get me first? And another thing
I’ve noticed. Why can the animals drive him away? If he was truly immortal, he would stay and fight them, kill them off one by one. He doesn’t.”
“It does us no good, Lina to speculate. You don’t even remember enough to help us destroy him, and you may never recall it in time to save any of us. Your power with animals and whatever power they have over him will not keep him at bay forever. He will be back.”
Lina glanced up catching sight of Walking Bear.
“Walking Bear! It is good to see you up. I hope the fever is gone. Nine Fingers and I were just discussing what we needed to do. I would like to hear your thoughts.”
Chapter Five
In retrospect, the decision made that day in the blustery cold of the northern wind might not have been the wisest. As it was, it became the beginning of the end.
“We are all good with the plan?” Walking Bear looked from Lina to Nine Fingers. Nine Fingers held his eye contact and then nodded his head.
“My brother.” Walking Bear grabbed Nine Fingers’ arm and locked forearms with him pulling their heads together. “Be safe. Trust nothing that moves.”
“My brother. We will be together again. I have seen it.” Nine Fingers put his arm around Walking Bear’s shoulder. “I will see you when the first yellow flower appears on the mountain.”
He turned to Lina. “Keep him safe. Keep yourself safe. Come back to me.” Lina reached out her hand and laid it on his broken arm.
“Keep the branches wrapped around it until the moon is full in the sky. It will be weak after that. Treat it like a baby.” She lowered her head. “It won’t feel right, being here without you.”
“My sister. I will miss you.” Lina’s head snapped up, and she raised her eyes to his, searching for any malice or mocking in his expression. When she found none, she bent forward and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek.
“I too shall miss you, my brother.”
Nine Fingers turned and spread the wolf pelt like an invisibility cloak about his head and shoulders.
Walking Bear took Lina’s warm hand in his, and they walked away from Nine Fingers. Neither one could endure watching him leave them.
“How long before he reaches your tribe?” Lina asked as they made camp for the first night without Nine Fingers.
“Our tribe, Lina. Before the next full moon, he will be there.”
“Eat up, Walking Bear. We will need all the energy we can get tonight. I am glad to see your health returning.”
&n
bsp; “I hope this works, my love.”
“It will work. It will lure the Skin Walker from Nine Fingers. I can only keep the animal protection with him for so long.” Lina caressed the crease between Walking
Bear’s eyebrows. “It will work.”
“I cannot lose you!” Walking Bear pulled her hand from his face and kissed each of her fingers with a deliberateness and softness that made Lina’s skin feel like it was on fire. “I want you, Lina.”
“I won’t pretend that I don’t know what you are talking about Walking Bear, as I want what you want.’
“I don’t know that I can wait. But I think we must. To bring you into the tribe with child and without the joining ceremony witnessed by my people would bring disgrace to you.”
“And it would risk our task at hand, Walking Bear. I’m not worried about being disgraced. If I am with you, then I have no concerns.” The sliver of the moon caught her attention and reflected in her dark eyes. “It is time to go.”
Walking Bear held out his hand and, as she stood, pulled her to him, inhaling deeply of the scent of her hair, of her essence. He draped the wolf skin over her head and aligned the eye sockets on the pelt with her eyes. Lina shivered with revulsion.
“I see no other way, Lina.”
“I know. I hate it. It is not right.”
“Nothing the Skin Walker does is right, either.”
“That does not mean we should become what he is.”
“To survive, for now it does.” Walking Bear manipulated the other wolf skin over his own head.
The wolf pack watched them suspiciously as they moved stealthily closer and closer. Walking Bear identified the alpha and motioned his head toward him. They dropped to their hands and knees and lowered their eyes in front of the alpha. Lina peered out of the eyeholes. This wolf did not become the alpha by being the smallest or weakest. His head and neck were covered in scars, and his teeth were razor sharp as he bared them at her. She dropped her gaze and kept it directed at the ground.
“I come in peace.” As she spoke the words, they traveled like beams of light across the short space separating them and turned into phonic yips and yaps. The alpha’s light gray eyes hardened and guttural yipping sounds issued from his throat.
“No, you are right. We are not wolves, but we do not dress as your pack to trick you. Rather we ask to join your pack.” The alpha raised his snout and howled as the other wolves joined in.
“We can do things for you. We will hunt for you, and you, all of you, will grow fat.”
The alpha moved closer until his fetid breath blew on Lina’s head. His sounds were more like rumblings now.
“I promise, and you may kill us if we do not keep our word.” More rumblings emitted from the alpha, joined by yapping from another wolf. The alpha lunged at the other wolf and showed his teeth until the wolf dropped his head.
The alpha turned back to Lina, once again making a deep muffled sound.
“You are right. We are in trouble. But he will not harm you or the others. I promise you that.” Lina and the alpha locked eyes as several long moments went by.
“Until the warm wind blows. That is all. Please.” She again dropped her head in front of him gesturing for Walking Bear to do the same. The alpha turned from them and walked away as the pack followed. Lina and Walking Bear followed walking behind.
“Did they take us?” He asked Lina.
“As long as he does not drive us away, we may stay. Now comes the hard part, we must find food and lots of it.”
“And that’s not hard to do in the middle of the winter,” Walking Bear said cynically.
“Leader, we go to find food.” The alpha didn’t slow or look back at them, but he yipped, and several wolves hung back with them as the rest of the pack continued on.
They stopped near a rock formation to catch their breath.
“I can kill some rabbits.”
“It’s not enough. You saw the size of that pack.” She motioned to the wolves watching them. “They need something big that will last for several days.”
“Deer or antelope,” Walking Bear said excitedly. “I don’t suppose you happen to know where we can find some?”
Lina lips spread in a tight smile. “Well, of course I do.” She motioned for them to follow her.
The first light rays of the dawn were upon them as Walking Bear crouched in the dead weeds along the creek bank. His arrow sailed true through the air, and the large stag dropped on the edge of the water, his legs kicking for a few seconds before he finally went still. Walking Bear stood up and advanced slowly toward his kill, carefully watching the area around them. He mimicked the sound of a howling wolf.
Lina appeared on the creek bank with the other wolves. She spoke to them. “Bring your leader to us. We will guard it until you return.” They sped off.
“Stop!” Walking Bear stood over the carcass, his arm suspended midair with his knife overhead. “Do not touch it. It belongs to the alpha. He decides who gets to eat.”
“Will we get to eat any of it?”
“Unlikely. The alpha needs to have confidence in us.”
“We can’t continue to hunt if we have no food ourselves.”
“We still have some dried meat. There are frozen berries about a half-mile away. We will make do. Here they come. Pull the pelt back on. Come over here away from the kill. Get on your hands and knees.”
They were still, head bowed as the alpha circled the stag. He tore into the carcass, eating hungrily. The other wolves held back until he finished. As he walked away the next wave of wolves tore into the stag and finally the last wave of female and smaller, younger wolves were allowed to eat. Walking Bear and Lina made no motion to go toward what was left.
The wolves drank and then lay down under the protruding rocks on the bank keeping a careful eye on what was left of their stag below.
Lina gestured to Walking Bear to back up, and they slowly made their way upstream. They found the frozen berries and ate as many as they could. Lina handed Walking Bear a portion of the meat. She shook her head as he cut off a piece and handed it back to her.
“No, you are the hunter. You need your strength. Once we earn their respect, we can have part of the kill.”
When they had eaten their fill, they returned to the sleeping wolves. Walking Bear trampled down the weeds in the sunlight within sight of them and pulled Lina next to him. They did not see the alpha with one eye open, watching their every move.
The stag carcass lasted for many days. The wolves did nothing more than sleep and eat, conserving their energy in the snowy days. Walking Bear and Lina had dug out a lean-to on the creek bank, and they stayed there, except to hunt berries. Finally, all that remained was the antlers and a few large bones that had been picked clean of all flesh.
“Just in time.” Lina watched the alpha nose around the bones and then look over at them. “Our meat is gone, and we ate the last of the berries.”
That night the alpha howled, and the wolves moved away from the creek. When they were many miles away Lina once again spoke.
“Leader, we go to hunt.” The same wolves followed them as before. This time, Lina led Walking Bear to a herd of antelope, and he killed a good-sized buck with small horns.
As before, Walking Bear and Lina were on hands and knees with their head bowed, away from the kill as the alpha approached. He ate his fill and as the next group of wolves approached, the alpha growled and charged at them, driving them back. He made a half-growling, half-yipping noise.
“Thank you, leader.” Lina pushed Walking Bear to the carcass. He cut a large chunk of meat off of the hindquarters of the animal. That night they made a small fire away from the wolves and cooked and smoked the meat.
“A fire will attract the attention of the Skin Walker,” Walking Bear looked nervously around.
“Yes. It will.” Lina said it calmly. “Yes. It most certainly will.”
Chapter Six
The wolf that followed the pack’s every mo
ve was as large as their alpha leader, perhaps larger and maybe stronger. Lina never imagined that she would think of the alpha as her leader. She had come to care for the pack, the younger playful ones, the submissive females, the strong, and the weak. She knew them all.
The Skin Walker, as Lina predicted, found them the day after they lit the fire. She warned the alpha. “The evil one comes. Now we must all stay together. Only the strength of our numbers will keep him from any of us.”
He did as she said, and the pack moved in a tight group around Walking Bear and Lina. The strongest wolves were on the perimeter, the weaker and smaller ones in the middle. During the day, they slept as one unit, taking turns watching the Skin Walker wolf. At night Lina would watch the dark shadows.
“Ahh-woo, Li-na, Ahh-woo, Li-na.” The howling wolf would call her name, letting her know he was near.
“Don’t let him get to you.” Walking Bear reached for her hand. “He’s only doing it to scare you into making a dumb move.”
“I know that, Walking Bear. I yearn for the day when my name does not carry on the wind to me, taunting me.”
The tribe now hunted as a group, with Lina directing them to the location of game in the area. They prospered and grew strong as Lina promised they would. The days and nights drifted by in waves of blizzards and clear days. The Skin Walker never faltered, waiting for his chance. All it would take is one tiny mistake.
That mistake came as the first subtle signs of the implausable idea of spring was in the air. The mild warming had all of the pack feeling elated and frisky, especially the younger members.
“Look at them!” Lina pointed to some of the younger wolves, playfully chasing and wrestling with each other. They ran up to Walking Bear and grabbed his breeches leg with their teeth, pulling him off of the rock and onto the ground.
“They want to play. Go.” They ran, playfully knocking into one another and then wrestling, rolling around and around on the sun-warmed ground.
“Run, Walking Bear. They are ganging up on you.”
Darkness Echoes: A Spooky YA Short Story Collection Page 18