She rolled away from Walking Bear, grabbed her knife and opened the flap to the tepee. She looked from side to side. Nothing. She stepped outside. The wolf was illuminated from the dying fire outside the tepee. He edged closer to her. She noticed one of his legs. He had a slight limp. This was the pup with the broken leg! He was no longer a pup but a full-grown wolf. She held out her hand laying it on his head, then wrapping her arms around his neck.
“My friend. It’s good to see you.” The wolf buried his head in her neck for a moment and then pulled back, grabbing her breeches leg with his teeth and pulling her forward.
“Where do we need to go?” The wolf ran out of the village up the side of the hill. Lina trailed careful on the dark path. She saw the wolf pack before she heard them.
“Leader.” The great wolf with the white flash on his leg stepped in front of her.
“Why are you here?” He yapped in a singsong tone.
“He’s here? We have to warn them. I have to get to Walking Bear!” The first flames shot up in the sky and forced all eyes on the carnage below. Lina half ran and half slid down the hill. The wolves passed her, the strongest hunters heading for the burning village, the other wolves slowing to lead the frightened escapees out of the hills.
“Follow the wolves! Tell everyone to follow them,” Lina screamed to the panicked people.
She ran back to the village, searching desperately for Walking Bear. Nine Fingers ran by her. “Get out, Lina!”
“Walking Bear?”
“He left with the other warriors on horseback, chasing the Skin Walker. He has Mai. The Skin Walker has Mai!”
Lina’s heart sank. She knew what she had to do. The Skin Walker wanted her, not Mai. She would exchange her life for Mai’s.
“Get the people to the safe place. I will find the others and meet you there.” Lina managed to grab the reins of an escaping horse, whinnying to it, asking it to help her. In seconds she was galloping away from the fiery village, on the trail of the Skin Walker.
The birds aided her on her journey, flying reconnaissance in the sky above her, directing her. Through them, she learned that Walking Bear and the others were but an hour’s ride ahead of her. The dawn broke in what promised to be an overcast day. Lina pressed on, hoping to overtake Walking Bear before they tangled with the Skin Walker.
The trees were dense as she continued up into the mountains. She smiled to herself. The mountains offered her many animals. She could find many of the all of same animals that the Skin Walker could turn into. He would not be able to escape this time. She would make sure of it. She spoke to all the animals is a swirl of animal sounds. It wasn’t long and the hills were alive with movement as the exodus of animals drove toward the Skin Walker.
Lina was concentrating deeply and when her horse almost stumbled, it took a moment to register that it was a body her horse faltered upon. She slid off her horse.
Fast Arrow lay face up, his neck broken and his trachea ripped open. His sightless eyes were fixated on the sky.
“Fast Arrow. Oh, Fast Arrow.” Lina dropped to her knees, laying her hands on his cold face, pulling his eyelids shut. Her tears fell on the soft ground as she relived the first day she met Fast Arrow and Thundercloud, smelling of wild onions and playfully running down the hill.
She pulled the downed branch of a tree over his body. “We will be back for you, Fast Arrow. I promise.”
She steeled herself, expecting that this would not be the last body she would find. “Please, protect them. Bring Walking Bear back to me. Please. I have nothing left. I can’t lose him.”
Chapter Eleven
Lina found Thundercloud next in much the same way. Her heart grew heavy with anger and rage. Each death brought tears to her eyes until no more tears would fall. By the time she found Walking Bear’s body, she was numb, in a state of panic. She tried to see but her eyes were cloudy. She tried to hear, but the roar drowned out everything.
“Walking Bear!” She rolled him onto his back. His unseeing eyes stared beyond her. She laid her hand on his chest. She felt the slightest of movement. With her head on his chest she heard the slow heartbeat. She looked for an injury, running her hand across his head, neck, chest, and legs. She rolled him on his stomach. The only wound was a deep cut on the palm of his right hand, but it wasn’t even bleeding. No bumps on his head. “What happened to you Walking Bear?” She held his head in her lap, mindlessly stroking his hair. “Walking Bear... Walking Bear.”
“His spirit is not there.” Lina looked up at the unexpected voice. “Nine Fingers... how?”
“I tracked you as you tracked them.”
“The Skin Walker killed them, one by one.” Lina’s voice broke with emotion.
“Walking Bear is not dead. His spirit has shifted.”
“To where?”
“A bear, it is his spirit family and his spirit animal. He shifted to fight the Skin Walker on equal terms. When we find the bear, we find Walking Bear. Come!”
“How do you know this?”
“Trust me, I will tell you more when we have time.”
Lina laid Walking Bear’s head gently back in the shade of the trees, kissing him gently on his cool lips before rising.
“I’m ready, Nine Fingers. I’m ready to kill the Skin Walker.”
They were not far from the area where two great bears stood on hind legs, roaring with such power that the trees around them shook.
The bears were matched in size and ferocity. As one would roar with a reverberation, the other would answer. Nine Fingers held Lina’s arm as she moved forward.
“Now while they are distracted, you must get Mai. I will help Walking Bear.”
“I am the only one who can end this, Nine Fingers. I am the only one who can help him. Take Mai, ride like the wind. Find your family and go north until you are under the stars of the bear. You will be safe there. Take the wolf pack with you.”
Nine Fingers hesitated. “I can’t let either one of you die.”
“You do not possess the power to control death, Nine Fingers, but you can control life. Now GO!”
Lina ran forward into the area where the bears were now slashing and clawing at each other. She made a series of grunting sounds, a distress call to the bears that she had assembled. The trees seemed to spew bears from all sides as Lina directed them toward Walking Bear and the Skin Walker. The two bears were locked in a battle of life and death. Blood flowed freely from them. Lina paused with the other bears as she determined which bear was Walking Bear. She caught a glimpse of golden-rimmed eyes as the bears backed off, flinging saliva and blood.
“That one is Walking Bear. Protect him!” She pointed him out to the other bears before the two charged at each other again. As a united sloth, the bears pushed forward with Lina at the head. Lina turned her head catching a glimpse of Nine Fingers as he picked up Mai’s tiny still body, turned, and ran.
The bears were on their hind legs lashing out with claws the size of antlers when one of them swiped the other’s underbelly. As the bear fell forward, it took a vicious blow to the head and fell to the ground motionless.
The other bear roared and turned to the descending sloth of bears. He charged through them with great speed knocking them to the ground one after another. Lina turned and ran. The bear loped after her, and she ran as if her feet had wings. She glanced back to see the bear morph into a mountain lion.
Lina went deep into the trees, breathlessly calling her mountain lion friends. They dropped from rocks and trees onto the Skin Walker. Lina kept running, making a circle, trying to get to Walking Bear. A wolf now stood next to the downed bear, matching her movements, a wolf with coal-black eyes. Lina took out her knife and walked back and forth in front of it.
“You want me? Come and get me.”
The wolf ran to her and at the last second before he made contact with her, it morphed back to a man. Lina fell backward with the man on top of her, his hands around her throat. She made one last desperate attempt to bury her
knife in his side, but it was an inept endeavor that did nothing.
Lina’s struggled to breathe, the light around the Skin Walker becoming dim.
“Now all will be mine. You gave me quite a fight, Lina. Who could have predicted that my sister would be the last one to stand against me?”
Lina came out of her fog. In a burst of superhuman energy she threw him off and bounded to her feet. Everything became clear to her. Her past opened up like a flower in the sunshine.
“Bisahalani predicted it. Bisahalani predicted it when he trained me as he trained you.”
“Ha! He said you were weak and would never kill. I don’t fear you, sister.”
“You should, brother. Bisahalani told me how to kill you.”
“You won’t do it. If you kill me, your brother, a person who loves you as no other, then you become a Skin Walker.”
“You don’t love me! If you did you wouldn’t have killed our family and our people!”
His dark eyes softened for a second and his voice was low. “I still love and care for you, Lina. You are my sister and all I have left in this world.”
“Yet you would kill me? You have a fine way of showing love. You know nothing of love. All you know is hatred and power and destruction. I denounce you as my brother! I denounce you as my family! I denounce you as a member of our tribe! You are dead to us!”
“There is no tribe or family, and you are not the chief of our tribe. Only the chief can denounce a member or evict them from the tribe.” His lip curled derisively.
“Oh, but I am the chief. Father bestowed it on me before he died.”
“You lie! He had no time!”
“But he did have time. I told him what I heard in Bisahalani’s tepee that night of the fire. He assembled the elders and Bisahalani in the middle of the night and made me the chief. The Bisahalani told me how to annihilate you.”
“You are weak! You could never kill your brother!” He taunted her.
“I have no brother. Hashkeh Naabah.” She said it softly almost like a prayer. Then she screamed his name.
“HASHKEH NAABAH!”
The ground rumbled beneath them, and the sky above filled with dark clouds flinging lightning in a brilliant white wave. Lina could make out the individual faces of her departed people in each lighting bolt. The lightning bolts struck Hashkeh Naabah’s frightened face illuminating him from within before he exploded in dazzling array of white sparks. Lina shielded her eyes. When she opened them, all of her people from her tribes stood before her.
“You are free now. I will see you when the Spirit Warriors come for me.”
“Lina, our brave child. We will be back for you, when you are old and gray and have a lifetime of memories.” Lina’s eyes filled with tears.
“Mother, Father.”
They stood in a ring of light with an unquestionable palpable love that stretched out to Lina. She blinked the tears away, and they were gone. The skies cleared and the sun shone with an intensity that Lina had never felt before.
“I LOVE YOU,” she shouted to the heavens.
Chapter Twelve
Walking Bear opened his eyes. “Where are we?”
“In a bear cave.”
Walking Bear sat up. “My mouth feels like the fluffy part of a rabbit’s tail. Why are we in a bear cave?”
Lina put her finger to her lips. “He needs rest.” She motioned to the massive bear laid out beside Walking Bear.
“What happened to him? To us?” Walking Bear lowered his voice as Lina helped him to his feet. He leaned on her as they walked toward the warm light. She sat down on a sun-dappled rock and patted the empty space beside her.
Walking Bear drank deeply of the water bag. “Are we free of the Skin Walker?”
“Yes.” Lina reached for his hand, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“For forever? Or just until he finds us again.”
“For forever, my love.”
“How? How could you possibly defeat him? He was immortal.”
“He was my brother.” Lina ran her hand over her eyes.
“WHAT? Your brother died in the fire.”
“No, he caused the fire. He killed our parents and decimated our village. When he and I were young he became an angry boy, always wanting what others had but not wanting to work for anything. He quarreled often with father. He thought that as the son of the chief, he would become the chief. He yearned for that power.”
“Wait. Your father was the chief? When did you recall all of this?”
“As my brother choked the life out of me. I looked in his eyes, and I remembered him. I remembered our tribe. The memories flowed like water back into my head. My father had Bisahalani, the medicine man, train both my brother and I in the mystic ways of our forefathers.”
“Why did he have you trained? Medicine men are men; no women are allowed to know the skills.”
“No woman until now. I was born with the speaking power. My father knew there was no other like me. He wanted me to learn all I could about my abilities. When he realized my talent, my brother hated me for it. He thought Father and Mother loved me more than they did him.”
“Did they? Love you more?”
“No, they loved him, but in a different way from me. I knew he was jealous of me, so I went out of my way to show him how much I loved him. I pointed out all the good qualities that he had. I defended him when his actions were mean-spirited, and even when he did wrong I made excuses for him. I loved him, and I was probably the one person he ever truly loved. I think he cared for my parents, especially our mother, and though she loved him, he didn’t love her back. His anger and jealousy took over the good parts of him. One day he turned and leveled his hatred on all of us... even me.
“The training the two of you received turned you into Skin Walkers?”
“No. Not the training by itself. In order to become a Skin Walker you had to kill a person who loved you unconditionally with the purest of love, a member of your family. Each person killed imparted more power to the Skin Walker, more abilities with different animals and eventually the ability to turn into another human. That was why he needed to kill me. I was the last person of his family and the one who loved him above all others. Killing me would allow him to transform into other human forms.”
“How did you stop him?”
“He didn’t know the most important of facts. He closed his ears to what Bisahalani spoke, opening them only to learn the evil. I listened to it all. I heard Bisahalani when he told us that shouting the full name of the Skin Walker when he was in human form was the only way to kill him. Saying his name brings all the death and evil deeds flowing back to him and eats him from the inside out, consuming him with all the hatred he has shown. I watched him explode in front of me.”
“I’m sorry.” Walking Buffalo laid his hand on her hair, drawing her on his lap.
“Killing your brother was not an easy thing to do. It took great courage.” As he said the words, his mind grasped what she had said. He pushed her away and looked in her face.
“You killed your brother! One who loved you above all others. You are a Skin Walker?” His eyes beseeched hers hoping what he had just said was not true.
“It could have been true had it not been for one thing. I denounced him as my brother, and I expelled him from our tribe. He was no longer my brother when I killed him.”
“Only our chief can eject a member from our tribe, Lina. I’m afraid that even if you said it, it means nothing.”
She smiled with a secretive look. “It’s the same in our tribe, and I am the chief. My father bestowed chieftain status on me in front of the council on the night he died.”
“I’m married to a chief! Oooeeee.”
“Don’t you forget it either!” Lina leaned forward and touched her lips to his, drawing his head close to hers. The kiss they shared was one of relief and joy and of love so strong it actually hurt.
Behind them they heard the rumblings of the bear stirring about.
>
“I think our injured friend is waking up. I’ll need your help, Walking Bear.”
Lina grunted and huffed to the bear. It rolled on its side and lifted a huge paw.
“I know the routine. Boiling water, moss and deer hide. I’ll be back.”
Lina examined the belly wounds and then ran her gentle hands over the grizzly’s gnarled head.
“You have some deep wounds, but none deep into the guts, and you have a knot the size of my fist on your head. You were lucky.”
The bear rumbled. Lina’s tinkling laugh carried deep into the cave.
“No, I bet you don’t feel that lucky right now.”
Walking Bear carried the water in a piece of hollowed out wood.
“I’ll get more when you need it. Here’s the moss and the strips of rawhide.”
Lina looked up at his muscled torso and chest. “Where’s your shirt?”
He pointed to the strips. “Where else can I get strips of rawhide that quickly?”
They worked as a team. Lina cleaning the wounds, Walking Bear fetching the water, Lina stuffing the moss around the wound, and Walking Bear tying the strips of rawhide around the girth of the bear.
Lina stood up and wiped her brow. “Now he needs food.”
“Me, too.” Walking Bear hopeful expression was not wasted on Lina.
“No, I don’t have food. We need to get some fish.”
They crept out of the cave, Walking Bear holding his spear in front of him.
“Where are the horses?” Lina pointed to makeshift corral of rocks and large branches.
“You made that?”
“No, just dragged the branches up here behind the horses. The rocks were already in place.”
Walking Bear counted the horses. “Ten horses and two people. Are the others dead.”
“I’m sorry, Walking Bear.” Lina pressed her head against the warmth of her horse’s neck.
“Where are they?”
“Tomorrow, I will take you to them so we can give them a proper burial. It will be dark soon.”
Darkness Echoes: A Spooky YA Short Story Collection Page 22