Walking Bear feigned fear and ran toward Lina. “Help me, Lina. This vicious pack of wolves intends to kill me.”
“Lucky for me that won’t happen.” Walking Bear slid into her, and they both fell in the last visible patch of snow.
“Walking Bear!” Lina molded the snow into a ball, throwing it at his head. He dodged it and made his own snowball, hitting her in the back as she ran.
“No fair. I need help.” The spirited wolves stood back watching until Lina motioned them forward. Walking Bear lobbed snowballs at them, and, after taking a few cold, wet shots to the head and snout, they changed their strategy, dodging and regrouping.
“Lina, come help me make snowballs.”
Lina dropped to her knees and scraped up the rest of the snow. “That’s all of it.” She straightened up and as she did she noticed one of the wolves bounding down the hill, chasing a rabbit.
“NOOOOOO! Leader! NOOOOOO!” Walking Bear dropped the snowball in his hand and reached for his bow and arrows, swinging them on his back as he ran.
“Walking Bear. COME BACK! IT’S A TRAP.” He was too far away from her to hear her words. The alpha ran after them, and the rest of the tribe followed, albeit at a slower pace. Stronger wolves held back and watched the perimeter of the flight route.
She heard the howl before they reached the fight.
“Ahh-woo, Li-na, Ahh-woo.”
“I will KILL YOU!” She screamed the words. She slowed to a walk and called out.
“My friends. I once again need your help. Please.” Her eyes closed and then opened frantically searching. “There is no time. You are too far away. You will not make it.” She picked up the pace joining the other wolves.
The sounds of growling and howling grew stronger as she arrived. The alpha was calling orders to the pack. The alpha, the young wolf, and Walking Bear had their backs to the mountain rock. The alpha stood in front of the smaller wolf and Walking Bear stood by his side, his bow raised. Two of the bigger stronger males hurried to stand by his side. The Skin Walker noticed their movements, and he leapt on the alpha. They rolled around and around on the rocky ground, snarling and biting as fur flew around them. It cleared for a second as the alpha backed off and then made another attack. Blood dripped from his mouth and his neck. Lina eyed the Skin Walker.
“He’s bleeding! The Skin Walker is bleeding!” The alpha rammed into him and once again they rolled around until a final yip ensued, and the alpha dropped motionless to the ground. The Skin Walker stood on his wolf hind legs and turned to them, howling in victory. Blood seeped out of teeth marks on his neck and head and large patches of fur and hide were missing on his face, neck and chest. Instinctively, the other wolves dropped their gaze and lowered their heads. He had killed their leader, and he was now the alpha.
“No!” Lina faced the pack. “You can kill him. He is bleeding and weak. He cannot take on all of you! Trust me. Trust me!”
She caught Walking Bear and the young wolf easing out behind the Skin Walker.
“Now! Attack!” She pulled out her knife and ran forward as the other wolves followed. Walking Bear and the other wolf jumped on the Skin Walker from behind, and Lina and the other wolves hit him from the front. Lina slid into the Skin Walker knocking him off his feet. The wolves sailed through the air tearing at any part of him that they could find. Blood flew like rain covering all of them. Walking Bear lifted a large rock waiting for an opportunity to bash the Skin Walker’s head as the wolves spun back and around with him. Lina on her hands and knees stabbed out with her knife at every opportunity, hoping to distract him, the puncture wounds closing immediately as she pulled the knife out.
The Skin Walker shook the wolves off and stood up on his hind legs, flinging the lone clinging wolf against the rocks. He cast one last longing look at Lina before he dropped back to all four legs and with tremendous speed dove through the wolves.
“Stop!” Lina commanded the pack. “Do not chase him. He can pick us off one by one if we do.”
“Lina, come here.” Walking Bear was by the alpha’s side. “He is not dead.”
“Leader.” She breathed the words as she examined his wounds. Blood pooled around him and settled on her knees as she knelt by his side.
The guttural sounds came from deep in the alpha’s chest as blood flowed out of his mouth.
“I will make it so. Your time has come, my companion. Go in peace.” Lina bent down holding his bloody head against her chest. “You are loved. Go.” One long ragged breath came from deep inside of him and then his body went limp. Lina rocked back and forth, crying and moaning. The wolves raised their muzzles to the air as one they howled in a haunting mourning cry.
“Let me.” Walking Bear picked up the still warm body of the alpha and carried it to a depression in the rocks. He closed its gray eyes and laid his wolf skin over the body. He picked up rocks, pushing onto the body. Lina came and helped until there was only rock and no trace of the alpha.
“EE-YAYA, EE-YAYA.” Walking Bear chanted over the body as the wolves joined in, howling and yapping.
Lina sat at the grave long after everyone else had walked away. Her shoulders hunched, with her hair streaming on the grave in front of her. The wind picked up and changed direction coming again from the north. Still Lina sat, unmoving.
“Lina.” Walking Bear laid his hand on her shoulder. “Lina, we have need of your help. Several in the pack are severely injured, and one has a broken leg. We need to get away from here. Lina come back to me.”
“He died because of me, because of us, Walking Bear. I promised him the Skin Walker would not hurt him. Instead he killed him! Again and again I bring death to whomever I am with. I cannot keep on. I must go to the Skin Walker and let him kill me.”
“No. We need to find out what you can’t remember. We need to figure out how to kill him. We know more now. We know the animals can hurt him. Maybe they can kill him.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. I think the same animal he has become can hurt him. When he is a wolf, the other wolves can hurt him, weaken him, and maybe kill him. I doubt they can kill him though. He could change into another animal before they could kill him.”
“What happens now?”
“I have to talk to the pack and tell them what the Leader wanted. We will stay long enough to help the hurt wolves and to make sure they are safe. The Skin Walker will not return to them. He will not want to fight them again since they now know they can hurt him and possibly kill him. He realizes we will move on, he will be loathe to follow us for fear the wolves will protect us.”
“Will the wolves protect us? I thought we were leaving them.”
“I will not ask them to do anything else for us, but I will not stop them if they do.”
Walking Bear found a secluded hollowed out area on a creek bank, and he carried the injured wolves to Lina.
“I need the moss off of the base of the trees, and small branches about the same length. Four of them and deer hide from your pack. Cut it in long strips. And a fire, I need a fire.”
“Anything else?” Walking Bear asked smiling, as he shook his head.
“That will do, for now.”
Lina drew water from the stream, boiled and cooled it, and then washed out the wounds of the wolves, packing them with clean moss and tying deerskin around it. The broken leg was another matter.
“This is bad.” She whispered under her breath to Walking Bear. “The bone is sticking out of the skin. The leg may never work again.”
“Just try your best. He will not survive if we leave him like this.”
“Hold him.”
“My brother, this will hurt. Try not to move.” She grabbed the leg and twisted the bones back in place. The wolf bucked and howled beneath Walking Bear’s tight grasp. When she finished and tied the branches around the leg, she and Walking Bear were covered in sweat. The wolf was unconscious.
“Do you think his leg will heal?”
“I did my best. He has a chance. He is
young and strong.”
“It’s hard to believe that we were playing with him this morning. It seems like a long time ago.”
“Stay with him. I need some air.”
Lina walked to the top of the creek bank and stood straight and tall as the wind lifted her hair in a swirl around her head.
“Run, you coward. I will find you next time.” She chanted in every animal language as the moonlight dappled her hair and face.
“Run.”
Chapter Seven
“This is what the Leader wanted, and I am to make sure it happens.” Lina spoke to the wolves assembled like a fan in front of her. “I will point out the new alpha as the Leader wished. He will assume his role as the new Leader of your tribe. Walking Bear and I will leave today.”
Several of the wolves yipped while others made harsh noises in their throats.
“QUIET!” Lina’s voice rose. She made a deep noise in her chest and then howled. The wolves were silent.
Lina and Walking Bear walked out in the midst of them, until they stood in front of a tar-black colored wolf with a white patch on his right front leg.
“Leader.” Lina and Walking Bear sat on their haunches, lowered their gaze, and bowed their heads. The wolf looked surprised. Lina raised her eyes to his dark eyes and repeated the word.
“Leader.” The wolf straightened up, narrowed his eyes, and watched the other wolves with heads lowered in front of him.
“Ah Ah AhRoo.” He howled as the pack joined in.
“It is time to us to go.” Lina caressed the heads of the wolves as they crowded around her, tears falling from her cheeks into their soft fur. She walked over to the wolf with the broken leg.
“Chew off the strips of hide when the moon is at its smallest. Walk only as you must until then.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him. “The leg will be weak as first.” The wolf laid his head in her neck, his eyes gloomy.
The new Leader walked up to her. “Rest with the pack until all are well. Then find new territory north of here. You and the pack will be safe there.” She bowed her head to him.
“We will always be one of you.” She laid her hand over her heart as Walking Bear did the same. “We will never forget you, our friends.”
The Leader walked with them to the top of the hillside, and as they descended, his melancholy yowl shadowed their footsteps.
“Let’s go home, Lina. It’s been too long.”
“I’m ready to meet your people.”
“You will like them. They will like you.”
“I hope they do, but I would be happy to be anywhere with you Walking Bear.”
“Anywhere?” He teased. “Like on the moon? Or in a cave? Or in a lake?”
“It wouldn’t matter to me. My heart will only be where you are from now on.”
Walking Bear slackened his step and turned to face her. “And my heart will only be with you, Lina. Forever.” His warm lips kissed her cool lips until the chill left her body and was replaced by a fire deep in her belly. She put her hands under his shirt, stroking the contours of his hard muscles.
“Lina.” He groaned against her lips as he pulled away. “I think I need to walk ahead of you for awhile.”
“And why would that be?” She teased.
“You know why!” He hollered over his shoulder.
“I love you, Walking Bear.” At the exact instant she said the words a freak chilling wind swept them out of her mouth and away from him. Lina pulled her hide tightly around her as she shivered uncontrollably.
The wind grew wicked and snow flurries floated around them. “We must stop.” Walking Bear pointed to a half-frozen creek. “We can get out of the wind.”
A curve in the creek afforded them shelter from the wind, and Walking Bear piled debris around the bank. They made a small fire and fell into an exhausted sleep. Sometime during the night, the storm died away, and the purplish-red daybreak greeted them.
Lina dragged Walking Bear out of the shelter and pointed to the sky. “Isn’t it beautiful?” But Walking Bear was not looking at the sky.
“Yes, it is,” he replied as his eyes lingered on her light brown skin and high cheekbones.
“I wasn’t talking about me,” Lina chastised him.
“I was. This sunrise isn’t nearly as beautiful as you are.”
“I love you, Walking Bear.”
“And I you, Lina.” He picked up her hair and held it to his nose. “I love how your hair smells like sunshine and wind.”
“Not now it doesn’t. I need to clean up before we reach the winter campgrounds. How much farther?”
“Four or five sunrises, maybe less if we push hard.”
“Let’s do it. I’m ready to be back with a tribe and have some girls to talk to.”
“What do you want to talk to them about?”
“You, of course. It’s what all girls talk about.” Her face was carefree for the first time since Walking Bear had met her. She looked like a young girl instead of a woman.
“How old are you, Lina?”
She paused and counted with her fingers. “Over the winter I turned 16 years old. Why?”
“You looked so lighthearted and youthful. It made me realize that I have never seen you look carefree. I like it. I will do whatever I can to make sure you always look like this.”
“I have hope again, and love. I had thought I would never find hope anymore.”
“I’m here to make sure no one ever steals hope from you again.” Walking Bear drew her into his arms, and they watched the sun spill over the horizon, painting everything yellow.
Walking Bear’s prediction was spot on, and on the morning of the fourth day, they stood looking down at the colorful tepees nestled in the valley between the mountains.
“We are being watched.” Walking Bear whispered in Lina’s ear. "Follow me.” He pivoted and turned and faced the trees behind them.
“You can come out now, Fast Arrow and Thundercloud. I smelled you this morning when you caught our trail. How many times have I told you not to eat wild onions? The stench is overpowering.”
“Walking Bear. It is really you?” Fast Arrow came out from behind the tree.
“Yes. Did you think I was dead and what you were seeing was a ghost?”
“No, no, of course not.” Fast Arrow was not a proficient liar.
“He did so think you were a ghost. It’s all he talked about for miles. ‘Do you think Walking Bear would die if I shot him with an arrow? How long do ghosts live? Is the girl a ghost too?’” Thundercloud mimicked Fast Arrow’s voice.
“I did not,” he said indignantly. “You make up stories.”
“Yes, I do, but I didn’t make up that one.”
“Lina, I would like you to meet Fast Arrow and Thundercloud.” Lina stepped forward.
“Hello, I am Lina.”
Thundercloud pushed Fast Arrow out of the way. “Hello, Lina. Will you be staying with us long?”
Her melodious chuckle delighted Thundercloud. “I hope so.”
“You can stay as long as you like,” Fast Arrow interrupted.
“Step away from Lina. She will be staying here as my bride.” Their faces fell, and Thundercloud muttered something intelligible under his breath.
“Tough luck you two.”
“Next time take us when you go hunting so we can bring a lovely girl back!”
“It would take more than a hunting trip to find either one of you a girl.” Walking Bear laughed, but the look on his face was one of affection. “Where’s Nine Fingers?”
“Waiting for you with the council. He sent us out here to find you. He had a vision that you would return today.”
“He could have welcomed us himself and not sent you children.”
They charged him simultaneously, and the three of them wrestled for several moments until Walking Bear stood up with one of them in a headlock under each arm.
“I can see you have learned nothing since I left. I will have to fix that.” He let go of
them, and they ran down the mountainside, yipping and yelling.
“I like them.” Lina smiled at their antics.
“Well, I should say they liked you.”
“Walking Bear, are you jealous?”
“NO! Well maybe just a little.”
“You will never have a reason to be jealous. The only man I will ever want is you.”
The sweet smell of burning herbs escaped out of the door to the round council hut. Walking Bear ducked his head and entered, pulling Lina in behind him.
“My brother!” Nine Fingers stepped forward and hugged Walking Bear. He released him and turned to Lina. “My sister. There is not a sunrise that went by that I didn’t miss both of you.”
“We missed you too, Nine Fingers.” His eyes searched her face.
“You encountered the Skin Walker?”
Lina nodded.
“Come in and sit. The council would like to ask questions of you. Are you hungry?”
“No, we just ate, but thank you.”
Nine Fingers motioned for them to sit in front of the council. Lina looked at the weathered, wrinkled faces of the elders. She bowed her head to each one of them.
“I will introduce you, Lina. He started at his left side. “Dog Leg of the Beaver Clan, Red Feather of the Eagle Clan, Lone Man of the Owl Clan, Black Tongue of the Wolf Clan, Many Scalps of the Bear Clan and father of Walking Bear.” Lina cut her eyes at Walking Bear. He had never mentioned his family.
“On my right, Spirit Talker of the Coyote Clan, Hard Head of the Buffalo Clan, and Fear No Man of the Mountain Lion Clan. Lina gasped when she realized that Fear No Man was a woman dressed in male clothing. Nine Fingers kept talking. “The final member is our Chief, my father, Cloud Walker of the Osprey Clan.”
Fear No Man spoke first. “Welcome to our tribe. We would like to ask you a few questions. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. I will answer them if I can.”
“Tell us of your confrontation with the Skin Walker,” Many Scalps commanded.
“Where do you want me to begin? After we parted ways with Nine Fingers?” Walking Bear nodded at her. “Walking Bear and I joined up with a pack of wolves. After the Skin Walker attacked Walking Bear and Nine Fingers and the animals saved them, I suspected that the Skin Walker would not attack us in the middle of a pack of animals. I was partially correct. He followed us for many days, but the pack was impenetrable. That is until one of the younger wolves broke away, chasing a rabbit, and we were all drawn into the fight.”
Darkness Echoes: A Spooky YA Short Story Collection Page 19