by C. S. Bills
Keanu and Soantek must have the time and patience to work with them. Attu held his spirit necklace as he rocked his daughter in his arms. When an attack comes, I’ll need to lead the men. So it makes sense that Keanu and Soantek work with the animals and not me. I just can’t do it all.
His daughter stopped crying and looked at Attu, her eyes large and dark in her face. Attu knew he had to trust his people to do their part in preparing. He had family responsibilities now, as well as the leadership of the Clan. No matter how much he wanted to be the one to spend time mind blending with the animals, Attu knew he needed to let Keanu and Soantek do most of the exploration into these kips’ minds.
“Here, let me take him,” Attu said, as Rika finished feeding their son. “You get some rest.”
Rika smiled gratefully at Attu and lay back on the furs. She was asleep in moments.
“And now that the weather is warm again, I had to go back and haul all our meat out of the caves. This is the second time. Where are those men Attu said are supposed to attack us?” Attu walked around the corner of Veshria’s shelter to see her picking up a large piece of meat from the sledge they’d brought back from the caves. Trika and Tishria carried another. Veshria and Trika had become friends, and just like Ganik and Chonik, Trika seemed to go along with whatever Veshria said.
“Attu said the men would come when it was cold and snowing. He thought the weather would have changed by now,” Trika said. Attu was glad to hear the quieter woman object to Veshria’s comment.
“That’s what I was saying.” Veshria’s voice became shrill. “You need to listen, Trika. Here, help me with this big piece.” She glanced up and saw Attu, flashing an annoyed look at him before turning back to her work. Trika saw Attu, and her face reddened before she turned away.
Attu said nothing, but he felt his temper flare. It was as if the warm weather were a bad thing and somehow all his fault. The women should be glad it was warm. Warm weather meant no snow. They were safe for now.
“Don’t let Veshria get to you,” Suka said, moving up to walk beside Attu.
Attu jumped. He hadn’t heard his cousin approach. He took in a deep breath, working to release his anger. “I know,” he said. “Veshria just annoys me sometimes.”
“She annoys everyone. Besides, the Clan knows your visions come true. I know. And that’s what matters.” Suka grinned at Attu. Attu noticed his cousin was carrying his fishing spear. He motioned to it, his eyebrows raised in a question.
“With the bay still unfrozen, Mantouk said he thinks there will be fish feeding near the mouth of the river. Come with us?”
“Yes. Let me grab my fishing spear.” Attu walked back toward his shelter with Suka.
“It’s just that I wish there were no threat of attack,” Attu said, feeling the need to share with Suka. “I’d like to deny it’s going to happen right along with Veshria. But then where would we be when those men come?”
The two walked the rest of the way to the river in silence.
“I’m sorry, Attu, but Brovik wouldn’t let go of the kip. She’s with Suanu and Bashoo now, and I don’t think we’ll get her back.” Keanu shrugged and turned back to her cooking. “I’ll still spend time with them and work with her. I know it’s important.”
“But it won’t be as good as having the kip in your shelter all the time,” Attu said. He’d gone to check on Keanu and the kip two days after they’d brought the kips back to camp, only to find she no longer had it. “Rika won’t even consider me keeping one. I was counting on you, because you and Soantek are the only other ones who can mind blend with animals.”
“We told you it might be too hard to fly daily, have Soantek hunt, and care for the kip. You know I can’t be responsible for the kip when I’m mind blending. I think this is for the best. Go see for yourself. Brovik won’t let the kip out of his sight.”
Keanu is right, Attu thought as he sat by Suanu’s outdoor cooking fire and watched Brovik play with the kip. It was as if the kip were another poolik or Brovik was another kip the way the two of them wrestled, pushing at each other and collapsing over and over again in a pile. Brovik squealed with delight as the kip licked his face. The kip nipped Brovik’s ear with her sharp little teeth, and the toddler slapped her away, but did not cry. He grabbed the kip by something she was wearing around her neck and brought the kip’s face nose to nose with his own. The kip quieted, which surprised Attu. He’d thought the kip would pull away. In a moment it was over, and the two were wrestling again, but this time, the kip did not bite at Brovik’s ear. She bit at his clothing, instead.
“See, they’re working it out,” Suanu said. She was sitting near her fire, stirring her cooking skins. It was getting near the evening mealtime, and Attu knew he needed to get back to his own fire. But Attu had to be sure Suanu understood how important this kip was for the Clan, not just as a plaything for Brovik.
“What is the kip wearing around its neck?” Attu asked.
“It’s a poolik belt. I made it small enough for her. I’m thinking about adding a piece of rope.”
Attu laughed and nodded. “They are quick. It would give you a chance to catch her.”
“Before she gets into my dried meat cache again and starts gobbling it down as fast as she can.”
“She did?”
“Yes. But I told her ‘no’ in a firm voice the next time she headed for the meat, and she backed away. It was strange, Attu. When I looked into her eyes, I could tell she understood me. But when my back was turned later, she tried it again. She was too slippery to catch and got a few more scraps of meat before I got her out of the cache.”
“And that’s when you thought of the poolik belt?”
“Yes. Brovik is wearing a poolik belt so I can grab him before he gets too close to something he should not be touching. I figured it would work for the kip, too. I’ll tell the others. Veshria likes how their kip is keeping Ganik occupied, but he’s a big one, and if he heads for trouble she won’t be able to catch him.”
The kip and Brovik had stopped playing. Brovik glanced at the fire nearby and took a step toward it.
“Brovik,” Suanu called, reaching out her arms and smiling. The fire forgotten, Brovik’s fingers curled in the kip’s fur, and they both headed toward Suanu. Brovik looked like the kip was dragging him, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“I don’t think it will be hard to teach them,” Suanu said. “See how the kip follows Brovik? They’re both learning to come to me when I call them.”
“Suanu, I must tell you, when Keanu told me you’d be raising the kip, I was disappointed.”
“I know, Attu, but we all understand how serious this is. And you know I believe in your visions.” Suanu paused and looked toward the fire, her eyes growing misty. Attu knew she was thinking of Kinak.
“And besides that,” Suanu said, turning her eyes on him again, “think what this animal, once grown, might be able to do for us besides pulling a sled.”
“What?” Attu realized he’d been thinking of nothing other than his vision. But they already knew how to mind blend with animals, whether they knew them or not. Perhaps there was something more here.
“The kips might be able to be taught to guard the camp or hunt with the hunters, finding game with their superior senses of smell and hearing,” Suanu said. “That’s what I’ve been thinking all day as I’ve watched these two play together and nap together. These kips could change the whole way of life of our Clan.” Suanu looked at Attu, her face serious. “I’m not saying that working with the kips to mind blend won’t help us against the coming enemies. I don’t have Gifts, so I don’t understand all that. But I believe the spirits want us to have these kips. I believe they will make our Clan stronger than it is now.”
Attu sat with Keanu and Soantek near where Ganik and Tishria were playing with the large male kip.
“Brovik’s kip has been easy to mind blend with. She comes when I call her in my mind and is learning to sit for a treat, all with mind blending. S
he seems eager to please, not bothered with having me in her mind at all. But I haven’t had a chance to try it with Ganik’s kip.”
Keanu pushed her thoughts gently at the kip, and her eyes unfocused. After a few moments, she blinked, returning to herself.
“What happened?” Attu asked.
“I met no resistance,” Keanu said. “Just like with the female. This kip is feeling excited, playing, and I felt its keen sense of smell first. To him, we all smell very strongly,” she added, wrinkling her nose. “Ganik, especially. That boy needs a good washing.”
“Obviously,” Soantek said as they watched the two playing. Ganik was filthy, seal grease plastered in his dirty hair, and his hands and face grubby. He looked like a toddler instead of a boy old enough to have started his training as a hunter. The whole camp had heard Veshria threaten Ganik many times with a dunk in the freezing river when she made him wash and then he returned to his shelter later looking like he’d fallen into a greasy mud pit.
“But the kip likes the smell,” Keanu added. She chuckled. “You try it now, Attu.”
“Let me try something else.” Attu entered the kip’s mind, gently, as Attuanin had taught him to do, a question, an asking for permission to enter. The kip didn’t push back at all, but welcomed Attu into his mind with a fleeting image of one of the other kips, the female Suanu and Bashoo were keeping. It was as if the kip was asking a question. Is it you?
Attu sent an image of himself to the kip. The mind of the kip went still. Attu sensed something like surprise and saw through the kip’s eyes an image of himself, squatting nearby. The colors the kip saw were different than Attu saw. Attu felt himself, as the kip, swiveling his ears to hear this creature who’d entered his mind. He sniffed, and an overpowering array of smells hit Attu. He pulled back out of reflex, and was surprised when the animal pushed its own mind forward inquisitively. At the same time, the animal moved toward him.
“Yes, it’s me.” He sent an image of the kip eating meat from Attu’s hand.
The kip took another step, then another, and as he neared Attu’s side, Attu came back to himself. The kip stopped and watched Attu with caution as Attu reached into his pocket and brought out a bite of meat. Attu held it out and the kip relaxed. His tail brushed back and forth, and he took the meat, swallowing it in one gulp.
Attu reached out his hand, and the kip allowed himself to be stroked, leaning into Attu and looking at his face. Attu felt pleasure emanating from the kip as he looked into Attu’s eyes.
Ganik ran over to where they were sitting. The kip turned from Attu to nuzzle the boy. “He’s my kip,” Ganik said, frowning.
“We were just stroking him,” Attu said.
“Come on,” Ganik called, and slapped his thigh as he ran away from the adults and back toward his sister. The kip ran after Ganik. Attu felt a wave of delight wash over him and then something else. He felt both the kip’s pleasure in being called to follow the boy with the strong smell, and the pleasure he was getting from chasing the boy with the strong smell.
Attu pulled his thoughts back.
“Did either of you sense any of that?”
Soantek and Keanu both nodded. “The last part,” Soantek said. “It’s as if the kip has the Gift of mind speak, or its equivalent in an animal. I’ve never felt that with any other animal.”
Keanu said, “I wasn’t blended with the kip at all, and I felt its pleasure at eating the meat.” She paused, “And in the chase. Part of that animal would like to catch Ganik and eat him.”
“But the other part, the desire to follow, to be part of Ganik’s Clan, or whatever the image I saw was, all the kips running together with Ganik, that part is stronger,” Soantek added.
“An animal that can mind speak. I wonder if all of their kind can do that, or if it’s a Gift just this kip has?” Attu wondered.
“I’ll find out,” Keanu said. “And if they all can, then maybe the ones belonging to the attackers can, as well. Just think, if we could know their spontaneous thoughts without mind blending, it might prove very useful to us.”
“The weather is growing colder again. Why isn’t the bay freezing more quickly?” Tingiyok voiced the hunters’ frustration.
Most of the men had joined Attu and Tingiyok to check out the water before nightfall. Attu had wanted to talk to Tingiyok privately about his kip. Since Tingiyok could mind speak with people but couldn’t mind blend with animals, Attu was hoping Tingiyok could confirm the kips’ ability to share their feelings and thoughts like mind speak.
But no one seemed to be in a hurry to get back to the shelters.
And no wonder, Attu thought. Farnook’s and Yural’s pooliks had been sick, and everyone was worried about them, as well as about their own, wondering if the sickness would carry to the rest of the babies. And everyone was tired from being woken by the young ones crying off and on through the night. Mothers tried to keep their pooliks calm, but in the camp’s close quarters, one baby often set another to crying as well, and soon the whole camp was nothing but crying pooliks. When that happened, the kips howled, too.
“I need to get away from camp,” Suka said. “Our daughter is doing better now. I need to go hunting again. I’m as grumpy as a tired poolik. Farnook needs her man out of the shelter.”
The others laughed.
“But we can’t hunt on ice that won’t form. And there’s no moose around here right now. No moose, no deer, not even a rabbit,” Tingiyok said.
“So, nuknuks by skin boat tomorrow, or do we fish, then prepare to move into the caves until it snows and we can build snow houses?” Ubantu asked.
“We’ll need the warmth of the caves if we get no good snow in the next few days,” Rusik said. He looked to the others.
“Keanu has seen no one coming,” Soantek said. “I say hunt first. What do you think, Attu?”
“I agree. Hunt first. Soantek, do you think we’re ready to safely hunt the nuknuk on the open water?” Attu asked, turning toward the racks of skin boats sheltered in the trees nearest the beach.
“We’ve got the rigging set so we can secure the nuknuks we spear to one of the boats with an outrigger, like Suka’s, and paddle them to shore like the Nukeena did with the whales,” Soantek said.
“But nuknuks don’t always die from the first spear, or even the second,” Rovek said. “What if they don’t die, even if we spear them several times from several boats like you think will work?”
“That’s the dangerous part,” Soantek said. “A nuknuk could easily flip a skin boat. We’ll just have to be careful.”
Suka pulled Attu aside as they neared the fire. “As much as I want to go after the nuknuks, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Suka searched Attu’s eyes for understanding.
“Me too,” Attu agreed, “but I can’t tell if it’s just because this is all new to us or because we think it’s more dangerous than hunting on the Expanse. That was dangerous, too. I think we need to try it. What if the bay never freezes?”
“Then we’ll eventually need to head farther north, I guess,” Suka said. “We need to be where we can hunt on the ice.”
“I’m sure every hunter is thinking like you,” Attu said. “But I’m praying this is just an unusually warm winter sent by Attuanin to keep our enemies away, and not how this bay is every winter.”
“It’s strange. Having it be warmer than we thought seems a good thing because that means the strange men won’t come yet, but at the same time, we need cold and snow.” Suka took one last look out over the bay. “I need to check on Farnook and our daughter.” He grasped Attu’s shoulder, then turned and headed back to his shelter.
“Attu?” Tingiyok called. “Wait. The strangest happened today, and I wanted to tell you about it.”
“You heard your kip’s thoughts,” Attu said.
“How did you know?” Tingiyok frowned at Attu. “I’ve said nothing to anyone about it. It just happened this morning.”
“Because the same thing happened with the kip Ganik ha
s when Keanu, Soantek, and I worked with him today.”
“But you can mind blend with animals,” Tingiyok said. “I can’t. I-”
“We think the kips can mind speak somehow, like people with the Gift. If you heard your kip’s thoughts, then it must be true.”
Tingiyok let out a long whistle. “I thought maybe I’d just been imagining it. That’s why I didn’t come tell you right away. But then it happened again, just now. It’s almost too much to believe. Animals that can mind speak to people.” Tingiyok’s eyes filled with wonder.
Chapter 5
Darkness came early during this season. The men paddled back toward shore. Attu had speared a nuknuk, and it was lashed to the side of his boat, held out by two poles so its body stabilized Attu’s craft. The seals had returned with the warmer weather, and several others had speared them. It had been a good day’s hunt.
“This lashing is working well,” Attu said to Soantek, who was paddling next to him on the opposite side of the nuknuk. “My skin boat is slogging through the water, but it’s staying steady.”
“You wouldn’t want to navigate any tricky passages through those ice chunks with it, but there’s a clear path to shore.” Soantek looked ahead.
“Thanks for your help with that second spear throw; your spear killed it.”
“I didn’t want the nuknuk flipping your boat.”
“You should be the one to take this game,” Attu said.
“No, first spear takes the game,” Soantek said. “You’d speared it before I even saw it. I’m still thinking like a whale hunter and not looking for the more subtle signs of smaller game surfacing.”
Smaller? Attu looked at the huge nuknuk lashed to his boat. I guess to a whale hunter, a nuknuk is nothing. He grinned. “With your skill at spear throwing, you will surpass us all once you gain more experience. Soon you’ll be waiting over the ice hole, not looking out into open water from a skin boat. It’s easier to concentrate on the signs, then.”