“Nine Fingers needs to stay and take care of the tribe. They need an escape route and supplies and a safe place to re-convene. You are supposed to be doing that, Nine Fingers.”
“I left other trusted ones who will do it and take care of our people.”
“What of your son? You would risk leaving him?” Walking Bear stood in front of Nine Fingers blocking the path.
“My son will die if you fail. I am worth more to you on this journey than I would be if I stayed here.”
“You’re not coming.” Walking Bear crossed his arms.
“Who will stop me?” Nine Fingers glared at him.
“Stop it! Both of you stop it! You are acting like children. If Nine Fingers feels he must come with us, then who are we to stop him? He is a man and capable of making his own decisions.”
“What if something happens to him? I won’t forgive myself for robbing his son of his father.”
“It’s my decision, Walking Bear. Better that my son should be able to grow up without me than for him to die.”
“Then there’s nothing I can say to make you stay?”
“No, brother, nothing.”
“It’s time for us to go.” Lina pointed to the rising sun in the east. “We have many mountains to cover before dark.”
Nine Fingers followed behind her horse, and Walking Bear took the rear position, looking carefully in the darkness around them. Lina positioned the rising sun to her left side, and they trotted to the south.
“How many moons will it take to reach your birthplace?” Nine Fingers asked as he pulled his horse next to hers.
“One to reach it and one to get back, if the weather holds.”
“A late snow in the mountains would be rough.”
“We lived through it once, Nine Fingers, and all of us survived. We are survivors. The three of us are survivors.”
Nine Fingers turned back to Walking Bear, and he nodded.
“Lina’s right. We are survivors, and we will be back.”
She tapped her horse’s side with her heels. “The faster we go, the sooner we get to come back home.”
Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Home.” She whispered it under her breath.
Chapter Nine
“We are close.” Lina pulled the buffalo hide around her neck as Nine Fingers turned the roasting rabbit from one side to the other. Walking Bear watched Lina nervously twisting the edges of the hide. The closer they moved to her tribe’s village, the more withdrawn and sad she became.
“Lina, I won’t make you go. If you can’t do it, I’ll understand.” Walking Bear sat next to her and pulled her to his side.
“I must go. The answer lies there. It’s the only chance we have to stop the Skin Walker.”
The landscape was different from anything Walking Bear and Nine Fingers were accustomed to. Instead of towering mountains and clear ice-fed streams, the terrain was dusty and dry with multi-hued hills.
“What’s this strange-looking thing?” Nine Fingers reached out to touch it. “Ouch!” He glared at the plant as if it had feelings. “Ugly plant.”
“It’s a cactus.” Lina pulled a prickly pear off of the cactus, cut off the prickly spines with her knife and then peeled it, handing pieces to Nine Fingers.
“No way. I’m not eating that. It’ll tear my guts open.”
Lina handed a section to Walking Bear. He bit off a small bite, chewed, swallowed and nodded. “It’s delicious.”
Nine Fingers relented, and they stuffed themselves on the juicy sweetness of the pears as they rode in the heat of the barren land. The desolation finally turned into sparse areas of fragrant pine trees where a river loomed in the background. Lina held up her hand, motioning for them to stop. The nervous horses stomped and snorted.
“We walk from here.” They tied the horses in the trees, Nine Fingers agreeing to stay with the horses.
“You have about two hours of sunlight left. Be back before dusk or I will know to come looking for you.”
Lina strode ahead of Walking Bear parting the tall rushes next to the water and pointing across the river.
“How do we get across the river? Swim?”
“No silly. Follow me.” Lina removed her moccasins from her feet and tied them around her neck. She rolled up the legs of her breeches. Walking Bear did the same. Lina walked up and down the bank feeling the rocks with her feet.
“Keep up with me. The rocks will be slippery, take your time.”
“Rocks? What rocks?” Walking Bear looked across the river. “There aren’t any rocks, not a one.”
“Do you trust me?” Lina turned to him.
“With every beat of my heart.” Walking Bear’s eyes bored into Lina’s. “Until the day I die and even after that.”
Lina stepped into the rapidly moving water. Walking Bear held his breath expecting to watch his love washed away in the current. Instead she stood straight as the water went around her shapely legs. She moved forward again standing on what appeared to be nothing but water.
“Stand where I was.”
Walking Bear slid his toes across the flat top of a rock and stood up. His legs wobbled beneath him as the water pushed trying to knock him down.
“Good! I’m going to the next.”
Walking Bear balanced his weight on his left leg and reached out with his right leg, gliding his weight onto the next rock. His undivided attention was on each rock. In the middle of the river they paused. Walking Bear wiped the sweat off of his forehead. His legs felt weak like a newborn baby.
It’s amazing!” Walking Bear looked around. He and Lina stood in the middle of the wide swift river. The bank was far behind them and far ahead of them. “It goes all the way across?”
“No, only halfway, and then we swim.” Lina’s tinkling laugh carried back on the breeze. “Of course it goes all the way.”
At the other side, they fell exhausted in the grass. “When I was a child, my brother and I would run across the rocks from side to side. Can you believe that? Of course, it was summer and not like now when the melting snow has swollen the river.”
“You have a brother?” Walking Bear sat up. “Did you just remember that?”
“Yes! I did.”
“Think. What else do you remember about him?”
Lina scrunched her eyes shut. “I remember chasing him and us playing in the water by the river. He is bigger than me. He must be older.”
“Do you remember his name?”
She was silent for several moments. “No.” She opened her eyes. “All I could recall was a few happy times when we were children.”
“Do you have any idea of what happened to him?” Walking Bear’s tone was gentle.
“He is dead. I am the only survivor from my tribe. They all burned in the fire. It’s time to go.” Walking Bear helped her with her moccasins, his hands stroking her leg.
“I am here. I will never let anyone hurt you.”
“I know that, and I love you for it.”
Walking Bear smelled it first, the strong sting of sulfur. He covered his nose with his hand. The smell didn’t seem to affect Lina, and she continued walking. Walking Bear coughed and gagged. Out of the fog of the stench the scorched area stood out starkly against the green backdrop of trees. A hot breeze blew over them. A moaning sound waxed and waned as they stood there.
“This place is cursed. The souls of the lost demand revenge, yet none comes. Stay back, Walking Bear. To step where my people once walked will cost you your soul.”
“After all these years, nothing grows here?”
“Nothing will ever grow here. It was a hidden treasure nestled between the river and the cliffs. No attack had ever been successful until the one that destroyed
everything.”
“Do you remember any other attack? Anything else?”
“No, but somehow I do remember certain reminiscences—the laughter of children as they ran through the village, the sun catching the reflection of the tepees in the river, the quiet
ness of the night, and the safety of my parents’ tepee. They loved me.” Tears rolled down her face.
“Of course they did, Lina.”
She stepped her foot into the burned area as the moaning wind became intense. Lina walked slowly stopping to crouch and run her hands through the dirt. She looked up at the sky and then back to the area as if she were looking for something. She turned and backed up, dropped to her knees and dug with a fanatical strength. Powdered red dirt filled the air. Lina leaned backward screaming and covered her face with her hands.
“Mother! Father!”
Walking Bear could see the bones laid out in front of her.
“Lina!”
“Stop! Walking Bear, no, stay there.”
Walking Bear stood on the outside of the area, one foot hanging over the edge when the spirits rose up and charged him. They were warriors, or rather were once warriors. Now they were white-eyed apparitions descending on him at an inhuman swiftness.
“NO!” Lina ran through them until she stood in front of Walking Bear. “He is my partner, my love. He belongs to me and because of that, he belongs to you. You will not hurt him.” She raised her hands to them. The spirits floated in front of her as she walked among them.
“Father!” She placed her hand against his, hoping to touch him, but her hand passed through his and through him. He laid his hand on his heart and pointed to her. She did the same back to him and then in a gust of red dirt they were gone.
“They are guarding your village, even now,” Walking Bear said.
“They are trapped, between this world and the next.”
“How can we free them? Kill the Skin Walker?” Walking Bear asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“You don’t remember anything more?”
“Nothing. This was a mistake. We need to go home. The Skin Walker will come there for me.”
“Before we go, Lina, I would like to perform the Lamenting Ceremony for your people. I want them to know they are missed.”
“I would like that.”
This time Walking Bear walked in the blackened area with Lina. He helped her cover the remains of her parents. There were more bones there than just her parents, and Walking Bear was saddened at the thought of her parents and brother, lost between worlds.
When they finished the gruesome job, Lina gathered flowers and berries, scattering them around as Walking Bear chanted and called on the ancestors and Spirit Warriors to help them find their way home. His mournful cries carried a great distance, and Nine Fingers felt a cold chill down his spine as the lamenting sound carried on the wind.
Darkness was upon Walking Bear and Lina by the time they found Nine Fingers. He stood at the bank watching them cross over the river.
“It’s like you were walking on water,” Nine Fingers said excitedly.
“It’s really just huge rocks under the surface of the water,” Lina explained. “My people placed them there, many years ago. Only our people know how to find the rocks.”
“I wish we had more time. I would like to cross the rocks.”
“We don’t Nine Fingers. We must get back before the Skin Walker comes.”
“Did you find out anything while you there?
“I did remember a few good things from my childhood. I remembered a brother although I don’t recall his name, but nothing that will help us fight the Skin Walker.”
“Her people are trapped between this world and the next.”
“I would want to be trapped.” Nine Fingers said it with hostility. “I would want to stay here until revenge and honor were returned to my people. How else do you know that it has happened?”
“I haven’t thought of that. Perhaps you’re right, they aren’t trapped, but hanging around to make sure they exact revenge. Thank you Nine Fingers, I feel better now.”
“Thank you for easing her mind,” Walking Bear murmured.
“I didn’t make it up. It is the truth. They are waiting for vengeance.”
Walking Bear helped Lina back on her horse. “Maybe we should camp for the night?”
“The moon is bright. I would rather keep going.”
“I agree,” Nine Fingers added. He didn’t tell Walking Bear that he only agreed to get them out of the area. Nine Fingers was fearful and felt the weight of the cursed in the air around them.
They galloped the horses off in the direction they came from.
The massive moon behind them illuminated the wolf as it jumped from rock to rock in the water from the bleak charred village to the other side of the river. It stopped and howled. “Ahh-woo, Li-na, Ahh-woo, Li-na, Ahh-woo.”
Chapter Ten
Mai was the first one to greet them when they returned home. “Lina! Walking Bear! Nine Fingers! I knew you would make it back! I knew it!”
“Mai, give me hug.” Mai barreled into Walking Bear pulling on Lina’s arm as she hugged them tightly to her chest.
“Don’t leave me again. Every day I thought of you and wished you back here, and it worked!”
Mia swung their hands as they walked back to the village. The tepees emptied as everyone rushed out to greet them. Nine Fingers called out to the council members.
“Come to the meeting hut.”
Once the council was assembled in the circular hut, Cloud Walker spoke. “Did you find what you searched for?”
“No.” Lina bowed her head. “We found my childhood but not the answer we sought.”
“The Skin Walker will come to us.”
“Yes.” Lina’s voice shook with emotion. “I wish I could tell you what to do to stop him. I wish I knew something, anything. I can slow him down, but that will not stop him from destroying our village and people.”
“Then we must go, quickly before he catches us. It is almost time to move to the summer grounds anyway.” Black Tongue motioned his arms around the room. “Who goes with me? For I will not stay and be slaughtered.”
Hard Head, Dog Leg, and Lone Man stood. Many Scalps hesitated and then stood.
“Father, No!” Walking Bear jumped to his feet. “We must not separate the tribe. It will weaken us.”
“You yourself have said, my son, that the Skin Walker is immortal and cannot be killed with any of our weapons. If we stay together, we will all be killed.”
“If you leave, he will kill us, track you down, and kill you.”
“What other choice do we have?”
Nine Fingers spoke. “I think we may have come up with an answer. It may only prolong the inevitable, but it might work. We will split the tribe, the women and children and Lina going with Hard Head, Dog Leg, Lone Man, and half of our best warriors. Many Scalps will be the leader. The rest of us will stay here and hold the Skin Walker off for as long as we can.”
Lina stood with her hands on her hips. “I’m staying here. I won’t leave Walking Bear, and I won’t be relegated to the leaving with the women and children. He wants me, and if I’m here and he can get to me, he may leave the others alone.”
“I agree. Lina stays with us.” Walking Bear lifted his head to Cloud Walker.
“So be it.” Cloud Walker bowed to Lina. “You will find the life within.”
He addressed the council. “Tomorrow. In the darkness, we split the tribe. Speak of it only in whispers and only to your family. Take what is necessary and do not burden the animals or people. They must be able to move quickly.”
That night Lina curled up in Walking Bear’s arms in their beloved tepee. Walking Bear stroked her hair as she stared in the fire mesmerized by the shifting of the flames.
“Sleep, my love.” Lina closed her eyes and drifted off. Walking Bear wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. The fire died down to red-hot coals at some point in the night. Lina’s head rocked back and forth. She was in her village as a child peeking through an opening in the skins of a tepee. Two men stood with their backs to her. “I do want to learn more. I want to know of all of the powers. What must I do?”
“You desire to b
e immortal and hold the power of life in your hands?”
“Yes! What must I do?”
“You must kill someone who loves you like none other. You must kill a member of your family and watch them die. Only then will the Skin Walkers recognize you and give you control of life and death.”
“I must kill...my...family?”
“I can teach you no more. The rest is up to you. You must kill to know the ultimate power.”
“If I kill more than one of my family, my abilities increase?”
“Yes. Every death brings more dominance to you.”
“Are there others who you have taught these powers?”
“Only one other, besides myself.”
“This person could be a Skin Walker as I can?”
“No, they love too deeply to kill.”
“I will get the Skin Walker power before that person does. I will be supreme. I will exact revenge on those who have wronged me. None can kill me!”
“You can be killed.” The older man stopped speaking and motioned to the other side of the tepee. “We are watched.”
Lina fell backwards on her hands and knees and ran quickly through the village until she came to her tepee. She looked around before she lifted the flap and slipped back into the safety with her parents. After several hours she escaped in sleep.
The smell of smoke woke her. “Lina!” Her mother’s arms pulled her close. “Get out of here.” She pushed her out the flap. It was chaos outside the tepee as women screamed, clutching babies and pulling toddlers as they ran. Lina hesitated as her parent’s tepee was engulfed in flames. She pulled her mother clear of the tepee. “Father?”
He lay surrounded by flames. “Father!” He struggled to his knees as an arrow struck him in the back.
“Lina! Run! Go to the bear in the sky. Run!”
Lina ran away from her dying parents and crawled in the tall rushes in the riverbank. She watched horrified with her hands over her ears, as the flames consumed everything and everyone until finally there were no more cries.
She jerked awake, her breathing ragged and her heart racing. The darkness was an impenetrable blanket over the inside of the tepee. There was sound. What was it? Scratching? Lina heard it again, the sound of claws against the hide of the tepee.
Darkness Echoes: A Spooky YA Short Story Collection Page 21