A Mountain of Fire

by Marius Thue

  “Thank you. My name is Ferv,” he answers before devouring the meat in an impressively short time.

  “I'm Dorkas. Perhaps we could help each other, Ferv.” Dorkas grabs more meat and gives it to Ferv, handing it to him this time. “There's not much prey in the area, so I'm thinking about making a move for the coast. You can join if you want.”

  “I'd like that,” Ferv answers, smiling.

  Dorkas's time alone seems to have come to an end. They pack some of the things from the camp into a couple of sleds. Most of the sleds contain pelts and food, the most important things needed to stay alive. Spears and daggers are kept on their person, but they keep some flint tips in the sleds.

  Ferv is skinny to a sickly degree, which means they cannot afford to go hungry. Dorkas's unmatched hunting skills will come in handy.

  Some days later, they arrive down by the sea, where they set up camp. The place is perfectly hidden inside a small valley, with a mountain on one side and a fjord on the other. Between the valley and the mountain, a large stream runs down to the sea.

  Not far from here, there's a large plain, which they passed on their way. It's crawling with caribou. This place will feed them for a long time, as long as there's not too many other tribes around.

  One night they sit around the campfire, eating. The waves splash lightly at the beach below. A lot of sand gets washed here, creating unusual amounts of dirt. Their campfire soon burns out, and only a few embers remain, giving off a weak glow.

  Fish seems to be abundant in the fjord, seeing as how they've caught plenty with little effort. Ferv has already begun to look better. They've set up a rack where six cod already hang to dry. Were it summer, they would have used the warm rocks near the valley to cook it in the sun.

  Ferv gets up to clean his hands in the snow, but before he manages to rise, they’re surrounded by four men. They're holding wooden spears, which are simply sharpened at the ends. These men clearly haven't had access to proper quality stones, but their spears look sharp enough to do some real damage. Dorkas and Ferv remain silent and calm while they helplessly watch as the men steal all their food and gear.

  They're gone as quickly as they arrived. Dorkas and Ferv look at each other in denial before Ferv pulls his gaze away.

  “This happens sometimes,” Ferv says, clearly being used to such treatment.

  “This shouldn't happen to us,” Dorkas growls. “They won't get away with this.”

  As soon as the sun pulls away its last rays, Dorkas and Ferv are on the trail of the thieves. If they somehow can attack them unaware, they might get their things back.

  Way up and into the plain, Dorkas and Ferv finds the thieves’ camp. The sun disappears behind the mountains in the distance, and darkness falls on the plain. Dorkas judges there's no more than five men and a couple of women in the camp. Only two huts of wood and caribou skins have been raised. There might be people inside, so they must be careful.

  In between the huts is a small campfire crackling, where people have gathered around. Dorkas and Ferv sneak over to a large rock close by and watches them for a while. They will need to take their time with this.

  After having watched for a bit, they see one man leaving the camp. Probably off to make a contribution to nature, Dorkas judges.

  Ferv remains behind the rock while Dorkas follows him. The man doesn't go far before starting to undo the straps near his crotch. Dorkas sneaks up behind him, picks up a jagged rock, and smacks the man in the back of the head with it. He makes sure life has fled his eyes before pulling the body behind a bush. Dorkas then grabs his spear, which will come in handy.

  On his way back to Ferv, he spots one of the men heading for the large rock. Did they discover Ferv? The man walks straight past Ferv, however, who reacts fast and throws himself on the man’s back. With a tight grip around the man’s throat, Ferv squeezes the life out of him, barely making a sound.

  Now only five people in the camp remain alive. Ferv grabs the spear off the man he killed, now arming both invaders. The people in the camp are completely unaware they’re under attack.

  Dorkas gets over to Ferv and helps him hide the corpse behind the rock. Still, the people in the camp haven't noticed the men’s absence.

  A man and a woman begin to lock lips. They fumble around on the ground, as if they were attached to each other. It doesn't take long before they disappear into a hut, giggling and growling.

  The other woman has fallen asleep by the campfire while the other two men sits playing some game. They're tossing stones and twigs on a pelt between them. Dorkas remembers having played something similar himself. Throw a twig on a pelt and whoever manages to get their stone closest to it wins. There's more rules, but that's the gist of it Dorkas assumes.

  The two inside the hut are becoming loud, which Dorkas and Ferv take advantage of. Under the cover of darkness and the sounds of moaning lovers, they sneak closer. Dorkas moves all the way to the other side of the camp.

  They attack at the same time. Ferv goes up behind one of the players, and Dorkas behind the other. Dorkas and Ferv come out of the darkness, and with well-placed spear thrusts, they remove the men from this world. The men could only watch the other get stabbed as they were stabbed themselves. The light of the fire has made their night eyes weak.

  The woman by the campfire jerks awake. She screams, but Dorkas jumps on to her, holding his hand in front of her mouth. The sheer terror in her eyes gives Dorkas pause.

  Inside the hut, the lovemaking continues. The lovers are oblivious to what's happened just outside. While Dorkas keeps the woman’s mouth shut, Ferv enters the hut. Sounds of pleasure and joy quickly turns into screams of pain and suffering. Silence falls on the plain while the wind feeds the campfire, making it the only sound within earshot.

  A bloody Ferv climbs out of the hut, making the woman in Dorkas's arms scream in terror. He notices that she keeps looking to the other hut every now and then, making Dorkas think there must be someone in there. He lets her go and moves to investigate.

  Inside there are two little children, no more than one or two years old. They're wrapped in furs and are sound asleep. Ferv grabs a jagged rock and begins walking toward the woman.

  “Wait!” Dorkas yells, holding his hands out. “She comes with us and so do these ones. The children won't survive without the woman, and she won't survive on her own.” Dorkas judges that she must be the mother of one, considering the children's close ages. “We'll take what we need and head back to our camp.”

  Ferv obeys and drops the rock. Over the next few days, they move every last scrap from the camp down to their own. The huts will come in handy as they can easily be taken down and raised back up.

  Unwillingly, the woman helps them carry what she can. She will no doubt die unless she stays with Dorkas and Ferv—and so will her child. One of the men could have been the child's father, so Dorkas never turns his back to her in case she's looking for revenge.

  Suddenly, Dorkas finds himself the chief of a small tribe. It feels strange, but he enjoys having more people around again. Food is a plenty this winter as the tribe they attacked also had some. Meat stores well in the winter, which means there's no pressing concern to hunt fresh meat.

  Days pass and winter comes close to its end. Rarely do they have to travel far for prey as the sea seems to give them an unlimited supply of fish. The large streams keep them with plenty of fresh water. Dorkas judges they can stay here for quite a while.

  One day, a warm wind blows in from the ocean, which Dorkas takes as a sign that spring has arrived. Ferv comes running into camp. He's begun to get some muscle on his body now and looks a lot better, still as bald as ever, though. Breathing heavily, he struggles to speak.

  “Come on now,” Dorkas says, seeing the man has something urgent to say.

  “A tribe!” Ferv gasps. “A tribe has set up camp on the other side of the mountain. They're hunting on the plain,” he takes a deep breath before sitting down.

  This is dire news t
o Dorkas. The other tribe might drive the herd of caribou away, which Dorkas cannot allow. Ferv explains the tribe consists of over twenty members, a lot more than they're humble number of five. Dorkas makes him point him in the right direction before heading out to check for himself.

  Around midday, Dorkas gets to the top of a ridge. Down on the other side, he sees the camp, a torn and ill-made thing. The tribe members seem weak, sick, and unfed.

  Without fear, he steps into the camp, looking around at the people who don't even attempt to get up. They simply gaze up at him as he passes by them.

  “Who's the chief here?” he asks, demanding.

  Dorkas's words are met by silence, so he tries to yell it out again louder and more firm. Before he can finish, a pale man with bloodshot red eyes comes walking out of a hut. He looks sick and strong at the same time, making Dorkas twitch his nose in confusion. The man is different than anyone he's ever seen before. He stares at Dorkas with those bloody red eyes.

  “What do you want here?” he asks with a hoarse voice, sounding almost like a harsh whisper.

  “You're the chief, then, I guess,” Dorkas says hesitantly. “These people look starved. Shouldn't you be doing something about this?”

  “I feed them when I feel like it.” The man wears nothing above the waist, showing off his pale, lean, yet somewhat muscular upper body. His skin is white, not too many shades away from snow. “Now get away,” he snaps.

  Out of the hut comes a young woman with a long black braid hanging down over her shoulder, down to her belly. Her beauty makes Dorkas's legs shake. She holds her hands folded in front of her stomach and looks down in submission. On her shoulders and neck, she has something resembling bite marks.

  “All those who want to eat, come with me,” Dorkas declares. “Join my tribe and you will never go hungry again!”

  Only a few react to Dorkas's shouts by simply looking up and then back down. The pale man looks furious. His eyes seems to be dripping blood as he begins to shake.

  “How dare you?” He hisses like a snake.

  The beautiful woman looks carefully up at Dorkas, their eyes meeting for the first time. Then and there, he's lost. A smile begins to stretch uncontrollably across his face. The woman smiles back for a heartbeat but quickly looks down again as the pale man takes notice of the exchange of looks.

  With the palm of his hand, he smacks her in face, making her fall to the ground. Dorkas feels rage building inside him. He runs up and punches the man in the jaw, but the punch doesn't even make the pale man flinch.

  He looks at Dorkas as if he wants to make him catch on fire. With a pounce, the pale man jumps on him, revealing two thick fangs dripping with spit from the corners of his mouth. He takes a deep bite into Dorkas's shoulder. In a jolt of pain, Dorkas somehow manages to kick the pale man off.

  “You sick monster!” Dorkas screams, trying to stem the blood flowing down into his pelts.

  With a face covered in blood, the man smiles a cruel smile. Dorkas finds his spear and throws it at him. The pale man strikes it away midair and runs at Dorkas, punching him in the gut. Dorkas goes flying several steps through the air.

  Slowly, the man walks toward him, while Dorkas tries to get back to his feet. Dorkas swings for him a few times, but hits nothing but air. The pale man pulls back his arm for one final punch, when he suddenly stops with a gasp. The beautiful woman has placed a dagger in his neck. Furious, he turns around and kicks her along the snow. Dorkas jumps on him from behind, grabs the dagger, and begins stabbing him multiple times. The pale man crumbles to the ground, but Dorkas keeps stabbing until he knows the man must be dead.

  At last Dorkas stands up, bloody and battered. The others in the tribe have gotten to their feet as well, looking at Dorkas with hope in their eyes. The woman walks over and spits at the body of the pale man.

  “Everyone who wants, follow me,” Dorkas says before beginning to limp back to his camp. After walking for a bit, he turns to have a look. Everyone has followed him as he expected. That is, all but one. To his disappointment, the beautiful woman has walked the other way. One day he will find her.

  Dorkas's tribe keeps growing in size. With his remarkable hunting abilities and the bountiful fjord, they have been able to stay at the same camp for years.

  Ferv has gone out to scout like he always does. He lets Dorkas know if there's any other tribes in the area so that they may assess the threat. This time he's been gone for too long, so Dorkas decides to look for him. Before he left, he told Dorkas roughly where he intended to go. Summer's in full bloom, so it's not going to be as easy to track him down.

  Dorkas wanders the area for days without finding any trace of his friend. Over the mountain, across the plain, and further, he still searches. Ferv usually follows certain patterns when he's out scouting. It's these patterns that Dorkas attempts to follow. He looks for places that would suit campsites for the most part but also places that hold high amounts of prey.

  One day, he comes across a hill and discovers something down in the forest. It looks like a hut has been pushed up against a tree. It's a more solid construction than a usual camp hut with raised platforms inside and thick isolation. Someone must have stayed here for a long time but has since left. Ferv would have passed through here if he was ever in the area.

  Dorkas moves past the hut and over to a rocky cliff some ways away. Perhaps he might get some overview from up there. By the foot of the cliff, he finds some kind of cairn, making him assume someone has been buried here.

  Some of the stones have been pushed over, probably by scavenging animals. The smell of death seeps out from between the stones and some of the corpse’s upper body can be seen. It appears something has been nibbling on its flesh. Dorkas was raised to believe that the dead should be respected, so he decides to cover the body up properly.

  As he moves a large stone, another tumbles to the ground. A bald head comes into view, and Dorkas has to take two looks at it before he realizes he's looking at his friend.

  He removes a few more rocks, and from the marks on his neck he concludes it must have been violently broken. Dorkas covers Ferv back up with stones, pondering how such a thing could have happened. Ferv knew to keep his distance and not be discovered. He was skilled above all else.

  From this day, Dorkas will never allow anyone to go scouting alone anymore, now that he knows what kind of people are out there.

  Several years go by and the tribe keeps growing in numbers. They have just put the finishing touches on the palisade. They have been struggling with attacks from other tribes, but now no one will get to them so easy. Dorkas traveled far south to learn the secrets of walled villages, and now he has one for himself here in the north.

  They are now the mightiest tribe these lands have ever seen, and even the gods can look down on them in envy. Now they can try and bring their storm. It will do them no good here.

  One day while Dorkas is out scouting, defying his own rules about walking out alone, he spots the beautiful woman frying meat over a fire. She's all grown-up, but her looks have not faded. They get to talking and it turns out she's been wandering the mountains alone. It doesn't take Dorkas long to convince her to come with him; he’s attractive and charismatic. Now she lives with him in his magnificent chief’s hut. From there they rule the mountain, plain, and sea together.

  CHAPTER 19

  Thoke takes a deep breath, trying to take in what Dorkas has just told him. His first thoughts go to the tracks Dorkas saw in the snow by their old camp, the ones that led out into nothing. This means someone else made it as well, which might as well mean they all did.

  “That was one great story, Dorkas,” Thoke says. “So this might mean Father, Mother, Skarn, Tseena, and all the others might still be alive somewhere!” Thoke stands up in excitement as if he hadn't heard anything else from the story.

  Eventually it comes to him, though, and his excitement gets extinguished. Ferv, Dorkas's bald friend who went out scouting was buried under a pile of st
ones. He also described a solid hut built up against a tree and the hill where Ferv was buried. Thoke's thoughts go back to the ravage who attacked Neera and Rhekir all those years ago. The man Thoke killed and buried. I makes him wonder what these scouting trips actually intended to accomplish. Neera and Rhekir couldn't possibly be thought of as threats to their village.

  Thoke feels Dorkas's eyes on him as he sits back down, pondering it all. The man Thoke killed was painted in black stripes of coal, that's for certain. Dorkas never mentioned that, so what else did he leave out of his story? Dorkas wasn't cold when he came out of the snow, and the footprints he followed must have been Thoke's. This would mean Dorkas was stuck in the snow for longer than Thoke himself.

  Dorkas must have the same abilities, he realizes, which would be a massive thing to keep silent about. Thoke looks around on the impressive village Dorkas has built. It would be possible to do such a thing, if you had the speed and strength of the gods, Thoke thinks.

  Why would Dorkas lie to him? Thoke shakes his head, trying to get the confusion out. Ferv was the ravage who attacked Neera. He had to be. It's too much of a coincidence.

  “I need to rest,” Thoke says, standing up. “I need to process all this.”

  “The hut's still yours for the night. You deserve the rest,” Dorkas answers with a crooked smile. Maybe he notices Thoke's suspicions. “Perhaps you want someone to warm yourself on tonight? Pick a woman, any one and she's yours.” Dorkas's words seems almost like an insult. He must know Thoke would never accept such an offer.

  “I have a woman, and she's not here,” Thoke says before stomping off toward the hut.

  The flames of the fires have shrunk, and the torches are about to flicker out. Most of the feasting folk have gone to sleep. He can see Teemo get his wounds cleaned by a woman outside one of the huts, meaning he was once again victorious in the pit.

  Halfway to his hut, he stops and looks up at the chief’s hut then down at Dorkas, who is talking to one of his men. A heavy feeling settles in Thoke's chest, and his thoughts suddenly fall to his daughter. Little Larii, his precious ray of sunlight.