Sisters of the Wolf

by Patricia Miller-Schroeder

  Shinoni quivers and rubs her icy palms together. Should she go? She holds her breath, then releases it with a whoosh. The pull’s too strong. Her face flushes and her chest pounds as she turns her footsteps toward the rock wall and its hidden secrets.

  5

  NEANDERTHAL (KRAG)

  CAMP

  HAKEN AND HIS HUNTERS struggle up the steep path toward the camp. They’re still far below, but even at a distance they remind Keena of predators relentlessly stalking their prey up the hill. She presses close to her father’s side as their faces come into view through the trees. Black patterns cover the hunters’ cheeks and brow ridges. The teeth of bears and wolves around their necks and woven into their hair clatter in the wind. Skin bags loaded with furs are slung across their shoulders, giving them the look of a pack of wild beasts advancing on Keena’s camp.

  “Which one’s my uncle Haken?” Keena whispers. Atuk points to a hunter who wears a cave bear skull as a headdress. A vivid red scar slices across one side of his face from eye to chin. He raises an ibex horn to his lips and blows another strident call to announce their arrival.

  “What does that bloodthirsty bear want with us?” Atuk mutters.

  Ubra joins them and turns Keena away from the ledge. Her mother’s cheeks have flushed red as her hair. “Take the young ones to the cave, daughter.”

  “Why do you call him a bloodthirsty bear?” Keena looks from her father to her mother. If Haken is family, why must she stay away from him? What terrible thing has he done to upset her parents? She’s full of questions, but Atuk and Ubra aren’t listening. They’ve turned their attention back to the hunters in the valley.

  Keena gathers the youngsters playing nearby and shoos them toward their mothers. Once they reach the women, she heads back to the ledge to ask more questions about her dangerous uncle.

  “Atuk, he’s my brother.” Ubra’s voice, high and anxious, reaches her ears. “I’d rather he kept on going, but we must welcome him.”

  Keena slows her steps. Perhaps now isn’t the best time to rejoin her parents.

  “Keena, wait up.” Keena jumps at her friend’s voice. Kreel and Sabra join her, and Kreel holds out a pendant made from an ibex tooth. “From my first kill. It’s for you.” He beams proudly as she takes it.

  “It’s nice, Kreel.” Keena has never had an ornament before. She smiles and slides the cord holding the tooth over her head.

  Her mother’s shout breaks the spell. “Sabra must leave before Haken arrives!”

  Keena whirls around to see her father hurrying toward them. Atuk brushes past her and hands Kreel a spear, then pulls both boys toward the open meeting place and the forest beyond. Keena rushes to follow them, mouth gaping. What’s possessed her father? Atuk is always calm and in control. She’s never seen him behave this way before, not even with the lion.

  “Ubra’s brother, Haken, is coming. He’s powerful and he hates Kulas,” Atuk says through clenched teeth. “I won’t be able to protect you, Sabra.”

  The boys try to pull away, but Atuk’s like a charging muskox and they can’t stop him.

  “I’m not afraid of this Haken. I can defend myself,” Sabra protests.

  “He can’t tell us what to do here, Atuk,” Kreel says. “You lead this band.”

  “He’s Ubra’s brother, but he cares for no one.” Atuk pulls them to the forest edge. “Haken’s killed many Kulas. And Krags, too, who stand in his way.” He pushes them toward the trees. “Our band has trouble enough now. We don’t need more.”

  “You think Sabra’s safer in the forest with the lion than here in our camp?” Kreel shakes his head in disbelief.

  “Stay together and go to Sabra’s band.” Atuk turns back toward camp. “You are hunters,” he calls over his shoulder. “Keep your eyes sharp and your spears ready. Thank Luka for letting Kreel stay with him awhile.”

  Keena gasps. What is her father thinking? He knows Krags are safer together.

  “How tough can this hunter be that he has a man like Atuk so worried?” Kreel clutches his spear firmly and slings a stout wooden stick from the forest floor over his shoulder.

  “I’d like to meet this Haken someday. Then he won’t be so tough,” Sabra growls.

  “Be careful in the forest, Kreel,” Keena says as she fights back tears.

  “Don’t worry, we can take care of ourselves. You be careful with this Haken.” Kreel’s smile is the last thing Keena sees before she rushes back to camp.

  Haken and his hunters emerge from the bushes at the top of the twisting path. Keena moves closer for a better look. His scent comes to her, familiar but troubling. She shivers and her skin prickles as it does when a predator is near.

  Atuk approaches Haken and his men, Ubra behind him. Keena has seen rival wolf packs approach each other this way near her camp, their leaders, stiff-legged and with teeth bared, sniffing each other for signs of weakness.

  Her father stands his ground. Relief floods through Keena’s body as Atuk’s hunters form a tight line behind him, still clutching their spears intended for the lion hunt. She’ll be safe here, close to her parents. No need to join the women and children clustered by the cave. This is her uncle. Still, the hairs along her spine bristle, warning her to flee and hide.

  Atuk and Haken now stand face to face. Keena holds her breath, trying not to draw attention to herself. Atuk raises one hand in greeting but clutches his spear in the other.

  “Welcome, Haken. Much time has passed since we stood together.”

  “Yes, much time. I thought you might be dead, Atuk.” Haken’s eyes wander over her father’s bent body and his grey hair. Keena seethes at the insult. She’s never heard anyone speak to her father this way.

  Ubra steps protectively beside Atuk. “Why have you come, brother?” Her red hair dances like sparks and she clutches a spear, which she points toward Haken.

  Keena glares at Haken. She can be brave like her mother.

  “You were just a girl when you left our hearth to follow this one.” Haken spits in Atuk’s direction. His hair, red as Ubra’s, falls around his shoulders. The bear-and wolf-teeth ornaments gnash together, hurling a threat in the wind.

  “I’m not here to talk about old times.” Haken faces Atuk. “We have furs for you.”

  Atuk pulls back suspiciously. “You bring us furs? Why?”

  “We’ll give you the furs in exchange for females.” Haken watches her father closely, like a forest cat playing with its prey before eating it.

  Keena’s jaw drops. Surely her father won’t do this.

  “Many from our band have died because the brown devils kill our animals,” Haken snarls. “They take our food with their magic, and our young ones starve.” He shifts his gaze around the group and points at Keena. “We need females like this one to give breath to small ones.” He smiles and the scar on his face wrinkles and puckers, obscuring his eye. “She’ll give us strong hunters to crush the brown ones.”

  Run! The urge is strong, but there’s no place to hide. Keena locks her knees and meets Haken’s smirk with a scowl. Ubra steps in front of her, blocking Haken’s view.

  “She’s my daughter. Keena’s grown since you last saw her, but she’s my blood and Atuk’s blood. She belongs here.”

  “We don’t need furs and we have no females to spare.” Her father also moves in front of her. “We lost one to a lion only a few suns ago. It was full daylight when the beast took her from our camp.”

  Haken squints his good eye at Atuk. “Has this lion taken others from your band?”

  “Two others, one a child just last sun time. The creature comes and goes like a spirit.”

  Haken throws back his head and howls. He brings his face close to Atuk. “It’s no spirit. I saw lion spoor on the trail in the valley. I saw its tracks.” Haken thumps his chest and raises his spear. “I can solve your lion problem for you.”

  “My hunters were about to track the beast when you arrived.” Atuk stands firm.

  “You said it’s a s
pirit, so how will you hunt it?” Haken sneers. “I know it’s an animal and I’ll kill it.” He pounds his chest.

  Atuk’s band members draw closer.

  Haken motions to his men to drop the skin bags from their shoulders. Lush furs of fox, otter, lynx, wolf, and even bear spill out on the ground. He raises his spear in the air, then circles round the furs, thrusting the blade deep into the pile, skewering the pelts, tossing them into the air.

  “I’m Haken, killer of beasts and men. No beast can survive if Haken’s on its trail,” he shouts. “I’ll go now and track this lion for you and kill it. I’ll bring you its head and you’ll give me the females I choose to take to my camp.”

  Keena gasps and backs away into the group of Krags. Many of their faces shine with hope at this offer to rid them of a dreaded threat.

  “Agreed?” Haken eyes Atuk impatiently.

  Atuk looks at the faces of his people. He avoids looking at Keena or her mother.

  “Agreed.” Atuk sighs. He and Haken lock muscled forearms and bring brow ridges together to signal agreement, then spring apart as if they’d embraced hot embers.

  Haken and his hunters disappear into the forest at the edge of camp. Startled crows fly from the trees. Caw, caw.

  Another warning, but Keena has no more power to stop Haken now than she had to stop the lion last sun time.

  6

  CRO-MAGNON (KULA)

  CAMP

  SHINONI CROUCHES on a rock ledge deep within the recesses of the sacred cave. She shouldn’t be here, but the dancing light beckons her on. She hears a rustling in the stillness. Are the spirits whispering her name? Are they angry? If so, why do they keep calling her here?

  She bends her legs and wiggles in among the rocks, behind a row of stalagmites pointing upward to the roof of the cavern. Her hair comes loose from its leather tie and falls around her shoulders like a cloak, obscuring her view. She pulls it back and slides along the stone wall, hiding in the shifting shadows. Faint drumming from the floor below vibrates in her chest.

  Barely daring to breathe, Shinoni leans over the edge of a stalagmite and peers down on a wondrous scene. Bathed in the glow of a bear-oil lamp, paintings of animals live on the sleek rock wall below her. Mammoth and reindeer, horse and ibex parade before her eyes, bursting with life and energy. She’s been in the forbidden cave before, but she’s never dared come this close to the images.

  A tall figure draped in reindeer skins and antlers carefully applies red pigment to the belly of a pregnant horse. On the wall, his shadow looms over those of two smaller figures mixing pigment on bone plates at his feet. The murmur of their voices rises in the stillness. Shinoni strains, trying to catch the words. Words a girl is not supposed to hear. If only she could touch the images, feel if they breathe.

  She squirms closer. Sharp rocks scrape her arms and legs. A stone slips under her foot and clatters into the space below. She ducks as three startled pairs of eyes search the ledge. Did they see her? Surely they can hear the wild hammering of her heart.

  Shinoni slithers with practised speed down the narrow tunnel leading to the cave’s back entrance. She scrabbles through a hole hidden by brush, high on the hillside. The cool autumn breeze licks sweat from her face. Sunlight stings her eyes.

  Below her, the camp sprawls in a grassy clearing near the dense forest. She hurries. No one must see her. She leaps, nimble as an ibex, down the rock-strewn hillside. Fox and otter teeth sewn onto her tunic jingle with each bound.

  Shinoni skirts the edge of the camp and ducks behind some shrubbery to catch her breath. She peers through the rustling grasses, then drops to the ground, pulling in her arms and legs, making herself as small as possible.

  High on the rock face near the hidden entrance, the shaman in the reindeer-skin robe emerges. Shazur removes his antler headdress and searches the clearing below.

  Father has the eagle eyesight of his clan. Shinoni lies still as a fawn hiding in the grass.

  7

  NEANDERTHAL (KRAG)

  CAMP

  THE RAYS OF the late afternoon sun filter through the trees, sending shadows into the outer camp. Keena and Ubra tend the line of fires at the cave mouth, as they often do. Keena loves these times when her mother shares stories and lessons. This time, though, silence thick as mammoth hide lies between them. Questions buzz in Keena’s mind, clamouring for attention. Finally she can’t contain them.

  “Why do you and Father fear him, Mother?” Keena asks.

  “Haken? He takes what he wants. He uses others for his own purpose.”

  “He said he wants me,” Keena whispers. “You’ll stop him from taking me, won’t you? Father will stop him?”

  “I’ll try, my girl. I can’t say what Atuk will do.” Ubra looks away.

  “Maybe he won’t kill the lion,” Keena persists. “Maybe the lion will kill him.”

  “They’re good trackers and hunters. You saw their furs.” Ubra hugs her.

  Keena nestles in her mother’s arms. “Why does Haken hate the Kulas?”

  “Fewer animals come to our spears now and many Krags are hungry. Haken blames the Kulas.”

  “You don’t hate them and you’re his sister. Father and Kreel like Sabra.”

  “Long ago your father tried to stop Haken from killing a Kula mother and her small one. He thrust his spear between Haken and the little one just as Haken lunged forward. He couldn’t save the child, but Haken’s face was torn on Atuk’s spear and he wears the mark to this day.”

  A queasy wave of vomit churns in Keena’s gut. How could this happen? Her band protects small ones and mothers. They don’t kill them. She wants to ask Ubra more questions, but the sound of shouts and breaking branches at the forest’s edge interrupts them.

  The mournful call of an ibex horn announces the arrival of Haken and his hunters. They emerge triumphantly, crashing through the bushes, carrying the large and bloody carcass of a lion.

  Keena and Ubra join other band members gathered in silence around the beast’s body. Even in death the giant cat is fearsome. Keena shudders. Its blood-spattered fur is golden, mottled with darker splotches to blend into the woods and grasslands where it hunted and killed her people. Stretched out full length, the lion is longer than Atuk and Ubra together, and it would’ve eaten both her father and mother if it could have. If it were to stand up on all four legs now, Keena would have to look up into its eyes.

  She shivers, remembering how those yellow eyes watched her, challenged her, as she ran to rescue Tat as he hung lifeless in the lion’s jaws. She half expects the beast to leap up now and drag her into the forest. The great jaws lie empty and open, the long pink tongue draped over dagger teeth waiting to sink into her.

  “It can’t hurt you now, Keena.” She jumps as her father touches her shoulder.

  A small boy standing beside them overhears Atuk’s words. He pushes forward and kicks the lion’s lifeless body. “You can’t hurt me now,” he hoots gleefully. The boy winds up for another whack, but Atuk pulls him away from the carcass.

  “The lion was a great hunter. If you disrespect it, you’ll anger Leeswi and then others of its clan might come to seek revenge.” Atuk lets the boy go.

  Keena tries to stop the shakes wracking her body. She wants to kick the lion herself or stab it with her father’s spear.

  Haken swaggers around the carcass, his face and hands smeared with the lion’s blood. He throws back his head and howls into the wind.

  Atuk approaches him warily. “You’re a mighty hunter, Haken. You’ve killed the lion, a great and fearless hunter, too.”

  “Yes, I’ve killed the lion for you.” A smirk wrinkles Haken’s face, as nasty as it is triumphant. “Now I claim my reward. Three strong young females.” He whirls around and points at Keena, who is backing toward the safety of the cave. “She will be one of them.”

  8

  CRO-MAGNON (KULA)

  CAMP

  SHINONI CRAWLS ON HER STOMACH, intent on closing the gap between her and
the two red-coated foxes she’s stalking. They’re young, likely hunting on their own after leaving their mother. No match for such a mighty hunter as her. Thistles stab her hands as she creeps forward. No matter. Her hair falls across her eyes, blocking her view. She brushes the strands away.

  Her movement in the grass isn’t lost on the ever-present crows. Caw, caw.

  The foxes raise their heads and squint suspiciously in Shinoni’s direction. She lies still. The wind blowing in her face brings their musky smell to her and hides her scent from them. They resume searching for mice among the bones and other debris of the Kulas’ refuse pile.

  Shinoni draws her sling from the pouch at her hip and reaches for stones on the ground beside her. What’s this? She freezes as the stones begin to move. She’s not alone. A large snake coils its grey-and-brown-dappled body upward, the black slits of its pupils unwavering in the red ovals of its eyes. The serpent’s black forked tongue flicks, just a finger’s length from Shinoni’s face.

  All thoughts of the foxes disappear. Shinoni gasps, her eyes wide with fear. Sweat slithers from her brow and drips off her nose.

  The snake draws back its head, ready to strike.

  “Don’t move,” a calm voice whispers behind her. “It won’t harm you if you stay still.” Shazur slowly reaches into the grass, grips the snake behind the head, and flings it away. The serpent swiftly disappears into the bushes. “Snakes don’t hunt us. They’d rather hide in the grass or between the rocks, but they’ll hurt you if you threaten them.”

  Shazur extends his hand but Shinoni can’t control her trembling legs. Her strength has wriggled away with the snake.

  “I know, Father. I could’ve handled it.” She plucks a thorn from her thumb.

  “You’re supposed to be with Reza at the lake.” Shazur pulls Shinoni to her feet.

  “I was practising my sling. I almost had a fox, and soon I’ll bring down a deer. I’m getting better every —”