Half-Breed

by Anna L. Walls

  Canis took a bowl of stew up to his father and made him eat it. Signs were evident that he had done little of that when left to his own resources. After eating his own bowl of stew, he filled and lit a lamp since the day was fading rapidly. With the lamp in hand, he went upstairs and found another mound of furs. He shook them out and promised himself that he would give this place a thorough scrubbing tomorrow. He was tired, but he was still hungry, so he went back down to split the rest of the cold stew with Rrusharr who daintily licked the dish clean.

  He woke in the middle of the night to the sound of his father coughing again, so he went down and poured him a mug of water into which he sprinkled a pinch of salt. The man was dehydrated and the salt would help.

  Once again, he needed to make the man drink all the water. His depression was taking its toll on him.

  Canis was just drifting off to sleep again when a wail went up around the stockade sending a chill down his spine. It was an eerie sound as the Wulfen population broke into a howl that traveled around the stockade in a wave that began and ended at one of the houses to the right of where Canis was staying. He could see nothing from his window; it wasn’t glass, it was covered with a thin membrane to let in light, not to see out of, so he went outside to investigate. Three doors over was another break in the wall with another well-used trail leading out into the surrounding mountains. Coming in through that gate was a blood trail, and a few yards farther around the way, at the end of the blood trail, was the body of a Wulfi. It had been able to drag itself this far, but it was alone and it could go no farther.

  Canis could hear the lookout on the roof spreading the alarm as he knelt down by the Wulfi. It raised its head to look at him. When those eyes locked on his, a tremendous wash of despair came over him, then the pain-filled story flooded into his mind. It was a story of a hunt gone bad and a man lost. A giant bear cornered the rest of the hunting party, and this member was doubly sad that he had not the life left to lead anyone back to save them.

  “Show me where to go,” whispered Canis as he gripped the bloody pelt. “Show me.”

  A flood of trail markings and scents filled his mind. It was all topped off by a life and death fight with a mountain of brown flesh and foot-long claws swung by paws big enough to knock down most any tree Canis had ever seen before coming here to the mountains. Rramerr fed him his last memories in reverse and ended his touch with his hopes before he sighed out his last breath.

  For one of the few times in his life, Canis was overcome with emotions and he tipped his head back to voice another wail. As it too was carried around the stockade, he opened his eyes to find several people standing around him. He couldn’t distinguish any familiar faces through the tears that caused his view to be sparkled in the lantern lights many of them carried.

  Canis was infused with Rramerr’s desperation. “They are in trouble. We have to help them,” he said as he struggled to blink the tears from his eyes.

  Ursa rested a hand on his shoulder. “We can’t do anything. We don’t know where to go.”

  “Yes we do, we have a blood trail, and we have what Rramerr told me. We have to go now. Capricorn was wounded before Rramerr left and Gemini is dead, that leaves only Corvus to get them home; that is if the bear does not kill them all if they try.”

  A murmur went around the gathering. “How do you know the names of the hunting party? You have only been here half a day,” said Ursa.

  “I told you, Rramerr told me. He told me everything he could before he died.”

  “Wulfen can’t speak to anyone but their joined companions,” said Ursa with a gentle tone that came very close to saying ‘you must be mistaken’.

  “Fine, I will go alone,” said Canis and he strode back to his father’s house to get his things.

  As soon as he was alone along the path, Rrusharr spoke to him, “He is right. It is not possible for us to speak to anyone but our joined companion and each other.” After Canis gathered his coat and sword, Rrusharr spoke again. “Do I need to remind you that we are pups? We do not stand a chance against grown men. It will take many men to bring down the bear you have seen.”

  Canis headed upstairs to tell his father where he was going. “You do not need to remind me. It is my hope that the others will follow, if only to protect an idiot like me.”

  “This could anger them.”

  “I am willing to risk it.”

  “What are you risking so soon after coming here?” asked Orion from his nest just as Canis pushed aside the curtain to his room. He sounded sleepy, but Canis was glad he wouldn’t have to wake him.

  “I am risking my welcome. I am going to hunt bear.” He tested the memory of the trail he would be following. “I will be gone for at least a couple days.”

  “That is risky for a boy your age,” said Orion, speaking calmer than Canis would have expected. “Take my bow. You do know how to use a bow, don’t you?” He waved a hand to a rack on the wall and yawned hugely. The rack held an elegant composite bow made of hard wood and shaved horn and polished to a fine sheen. Hanging with it was a quiver full of long, black-fletched arrows. When Canis had taken them down and strung the bow, Orion continued. “The red ones have poison on the tips; be careful with them. Make sure of your aim.” He rolled over with a sigh.

  “I have learned,” said Canis. “Thank you. And you, I expect you to eat everything you are given while I am gone. I will know if you do not. I will be back soon.” Orion just mumbled and rolled over again. He was snoring by the time Canis had his blanket rolled up.

  At the bottom of the stairs, he tried the draw of the bow. He was thankful for all the farmers and their wood-splitting chores. He could barely draw the heavy bow. He would have to aim quickly; there would be no holding and picking the perfect target. He added wood to the fire and headed for the door.

  As he was leaving, he saw his father’s snowshoes hanging by the door near his own. They were better. He grabbed those too.

  Hunting Bear

  Though the trail was freshly burned into his mind and the blood was sharp in his nose, the path he followed left him feeling incredibly small and foolish, coming out here all by himself, at night, and especially on this mission. What did he know about hunting bear? He’d never laid eyes on a bear before.

  He was forced to move slowly, belying the tragedy still ringing in his mind. Only the bright stars that glittered overhead lit the trail; a misstep could halt his hunt before it could even begin. Knowing what may still wait at the end of this blood trail, he couldn’t risk it.

  When the sun began to lighten his surroundings, he was able to move faster and took up a trot, a move made ungainly by the unfamiliar snowshoes and yet he knew he would not have done as well using his own.

  By noon, he was forced to slow again as the blood trail dimmed to the occasional bloody footprint. Five men and what looked like the entire pack of Wulfen caught up with him soon after and pulled him to a halt for a much-needed break that included food and water, which he had neglected to bring. Their much longer legs once again made him feel small, but he was so glad they had come. They brought with them three long sleds with furs laced inside of them.

  The original three men Canis had met were here, and with them was another man by the name of Gemini who was the twin of one of the men they were looking for. The fifth man was a man named Herculis. He was a somber man who looked wide enough to be two men.

  Gemini came up to him; he was uneasy about something and seemed reluctant to speak, and yet bursting to say it. Finally, it came out. “Did Rramerr really speak to you?” asked Gemini.

  “Yes, he did,” said Canis. He was very much like the man in Rramerr’s memories.

  Gemini turned and went to look at the bloody footprint at the edge of their resting place.

  “He was very close to his brother,” said Aries who brought him a water skin.

  “I would think so since they share the same name. I think I would find that confusing,” said Canis.

  “When
twins are born who are alike, it is common for them to share a name. It is thought that since the ancestors caused them to share a soul, it would be presumptuous of us to separate them by a name.”

  Rested, fed and impatient to be off, Canis headed down the path again, this time he didn’t feel so alone. Two Wulfen preceded him with their noses following the bright red drops in the snow. Rrusharr trotted at his side and the rest fanned out all around them. Everyone was on the alert; a bear that attacked humans was serious trouble, and a wounded one was worse.

  They pushed their pace as hard as they dared, but it was still near sundown before they reached the area where the hunt had taken place. When the blood trail gave out, they were forced to rely on Rramerr’s memories. Canis led them unerringly to the place where Gemini had been cornered when the bear had first come upon them during the hunt. With bear sign everywhere, the hunters spread out.

  They saw, in the growing darkness, the bulk of the moose at the base of a tree almost on top of the body of a man. Before the moose had succumbed to the many arrows that protruded from its side and neck, he had managed to crush Gemini against the massive tree.

  On the other side of the tree were clear bear prints in the snow. Each one could hold six men’s footprints side-by-side within its width. Wide claw marks ripped at the bark of the massive tree as the bear had reached for the man on the other side. The hunter had been forced to choose which death he faced. An enraged and wounded moose or a hungry bear big enough to carry away the moose. The bow still in his hand showed that he had been given only a few seconds in which to choose, and the empty quiver said that he had gone down fighting.

  Broken arrow shafts littered the trampled snow around the tree showing the number of arrows the other hunters had fired into the bear only to draw the infuriated beast after them after it swatted away the shafts. This is where the blood bath began. The snow was trampled and churned by the bear and the Wulfen that had harried him in an effort to give their hunters time to launch more arrows or find safety if they could.

  Canis barely had time to take in the thousands of tracks, splatters of blood, and wads of torn hair scattered around the scene before he heard a rumbling whoomph followed by an echoing popping sound, and then the snow was crunching and squeaking under something moving quickly. He spun and readied an arrow, pulling the string tight against his cheek.

  Despite the darkness, he spotted the charging mountain of blackness instantly as it contrasted starkly with the white snow. He knew that its enraged speed would never be stopped, just as he knew that the arrow in his hand was a pitiful weapon against such a mountain of charging rage.

  If he were going to die here, at least he too would go down fighting. In the seconds that he knew were all that remained of his life, he loosed the arrow at a glint a fraction to the right of center of the charging blackness, then he drew his sword; it felt like a toothpick in his hand. The other hunters had fanned out around him and were firing arrows as well. In a replay of a scene that had already failed once, the Wulfen were closing in, ready to pull the bear’s attention away from its charge to give the hunters vital time to continue the attack. Rrusharr was at his side, ready to throw herself at the bear’s face at the last moment.

  All of their efforts were unnecessary; without a sound, the massive beast was dead long before it ceased to move. It careened to a sliding halt less than a foot from where Canis stood transfixed.

  As soon as his numb mind could comprehend the fact that the mountain of bear laying in front of him was never going to move again, he saw the red-painted arrow; the glint he had targeted had been the bear’s left eye. The poison hadn’t even had time to act; the arrow had penetrated the brain bringing its agony and rage to an abrupt end.

  As soon as this realization sank in, Canis wilted to the mangled snow, his extremities quite numb. The sword dropped from his hand. It looked so small lying there only a few inches from the massive nose of the bear. He found the arrow once again, it was nearly level with his eyes, the crown of the head loomed higher, and the mound of its shoulders would have been taller than Aries standing. He reached out and pulled the arrow from the bear’s eye. It slid out as if it hadn’t had a point on it at all, and yet the flinthead was almost as wide as his palm.

  The other hunters were not so indisposed. With the bear no longer a threat, the Wulfen quickly located the hunting party where they had managed to hole up. The fallen bow broken by a bloody paw print told of at least one stand before the entrance of the cave had been seen.

  The mouth of the cave was low and small enough for a man to crawl in. The cave then opened up into a fair sized chamber, though the ceiling was too low for a man to stand up.

  The bear hadn’t been able to break away the stone, but the numerous gouges all around the entrance told of his unceasing drive to get at those inside. Capricorn lay in the center of the chamber. His chest and arm had been sliced to ribbons when the bear knocked the bow from his grasp. It was his fall that had revealed the mouth of the cave. Rramerr had attacked the bear from the back, thereby buying the others time enough to get into the small cave. Then when the bear’s attention turned back on the men in the cave, Rramerr had been able to make his way back to the stockade hoping to be able to return with help.

  The hunters bundled Capricorn and the body of Gemini in two of the sleds. In the third sled, they put two of the Wulfen that had been injured during the fight. Aries, Gemini, and Ursa pulled the sleds while the other two men set about dealing with the now frozen moose.

  Aries ordered Corvus and Canis to return to the stockade as well. Though neither of them was injured, both of them were young and quite shaken by the experience. With them went those Wulfen who had accompanied the hunting party; they were exhausted and had earned a respite as well as a large dish of meat. Also with them were the companions of the men who pulled the sleds. The rest would guard the battlefield until help could return to retrieve the meat. With such a high price paid for meat, nothing would be wasted.

  They traveled throughout the rest of the night and all the next day, but since their burden was more delicate this trip, they didn’t reach the stockade until it was nearly dawn again.

  The sled bearers dispersed to take their burdens to their homes. Ursa made sure Canis found his way to his father’s house before he took Corvus home. Word of the hunt passed through the camp like wildfire and every able-bodied man in camp packed up a sled and went to help retrieve the kill.

  When Canis entered his new home, he was pleased to see his father was up. He was also relieved that he didn’t have to try to find something to eat on his own. Orion pulled a covered dish from the hearth stove. In it was a heavy slab of meat and a heap of greens. It was delicious, but Canis was so hungry it could have been gruel and he would have eaten it with relish.

  As his stomach filled with food, his eyes became heavy, and it was all he could do to climb the stairs to the pile of furs that had been his nest for half a night a lifetime ago. As he slogged toward his destination, Orion pulled at his coat and shirt dropping each article as it came loose. Canis was sound asleep before the man could pull the first boot free.

  Canis slept the next day and the following night to wake with the dawning of the next day. When he went downstairs, he found his father by the hearth oiling his bow.

  “They tell me you were able to draw this. Few boys your age can draw their father’s bows,” said Orion.

  “Then why did you tell me to take it?” asked Canis.

  Orion dropped the bow to his lap. “I don’t remember saying such a thing. I woke to find you gone with my bow and my snowshoes. When Nike came with food, she told me about the arrival of the Wulfi and your insistence that he spoke to you. This has never been, not in all of our existence; how is it you can hear another’s companion?”

  “So I have been told as well. Perhaps it was merely the desperation, the need to tell someone of the disaster and I was the only one there willing to listen. No other Wulfen has spoken to me.” />
  Orion resumed polishing his bow. “Perhaps, but if it wasn’t for you, more than one hunter would have been lost in that debacle.”

  “I must see Capricorn. Do you know if he is well?” asked Canis, though he didn’t know why he wanted to see him.

  “Nike informed me that, as of last night, he burns with a fever, but his soul still clings to his bones. Lyra’s house is four doors to the left from here.”

  “Father,” said Canis “something puzzles me. Do the women rule here?”

  Orion put the bow down again. “Rule is not the correct word. We don’t live like the humans on the plains. We hold our women in very high esteem; without them, we would cease to exist very quickly. Therefore, women are the mistresses of the home. They choose their mates and decide the details of our lives. It is a man’s obligation to protect her and see that she has a house to be mistress of, as well as plenty of food and children.”

  “That explains a few things,” said Canis. “I will go see Capricorn now. When I return, you are going to get a bath,” said Canis as he rose.

  “What?” said Orion with indignation.

  “You stink,” said Canis with a grin, as he stepped through the door.

  Remembering to scratch rather than knock, Canis called on the home of Lyra and Capricorn. A small girl opened the door and Canis was reminded of another little girl, though there was no resemblance other than size. “I have come to see Capricorn. May I come in?”

  The girl turned and hollered into the house. “Mom! The new guy is here to see daddy.”