Sisters of the Wolf

by Patricia Miller-Schroeder

  Keena turns away to hide her tears.

  “I don’t want to break things up,” Shinoni says as she pulls Keena away from Kreel. “But we need to find food or we’ll be too weak to travel much farther.”

  “She’s right. Come on.” Keena wipes away her tears and rubs her belly. “I’ll feel better after we eat something.”

  They walk toward the mammoth herd to say goodbye. Many of the giant beasts are drinking from the river, and the young ones shove and spray each other. One of the youngsters fills his trunk, then rushes toward them, trunk raised, ears flapping. The little long nose circles them playfully, spraying each of them with icy river water.

  “Eeeyaaa, little brat!” Keena shrieks. She shakes herself.

  Shinoni gasps with the shock of the frigid water but can’t help chuckling at the indignant, soaked Keena hopping about and shivering in the cold wind. “It’s not as bad as being carried away by the river,” Shinoni says.

  “You were swept away by a river, Keena?” Kreel’s face puckers with concern.

  “We need to start a fire or we’ll all freeze.” Sabra shakes water from his tunic.

  Shinoni takes Keena’s arm as they start to walk along the river bank, turning briefly to raise their hands in a salute to the long noses as they leave. Kreel, smiling from ear to ear, and Sabra follow close behind them. The young mammoth starts to follow them, too, but returns to the herd at his mother’s trumpet call.

  Before long, fast-moving clouds smother the sun and ice crystals glisten in the air. They flush a hare from bushes beside the trail as they near the cliffs. Shinoni drops it dead in mid-leap with a stone from her sling. She smiles as Kreel and Sabra exchange shocked looks.

  “She’s good with that sling, for a girl,” Sabra gasps.

  “You’re a good hunter, Shinoni!” Kreel pokes Sabra in the ribs.

  “How do you think we’ve been eating?” Shinoni rolls her eyes. You boys have no idea what we can do. She grins at Keena and hands her the firestones from her pouch, then takes out her knife and starts gutting the hare.

  “I’ll make a fire,” Sabra calls.

  “No need,” Keena laughs as she scoops up twigs and dry grass into a pile. “I can do it!” She sits and expertly strikes sparks with the flint and firestones, fanning them into flames. “See!”

  “Keena, when did you learn to build a fire?” Kreel asks, his eyes full of surprise. Shinoni looks at her friend with pride. They really are a good team.

  Shinoni and Keena finish their tasks, then share the meat with Kreel and Sabra. They all fill their bellies as they dry out near the fire.

  A rustling in the shrubbery as they’re finishing their meal announces Tewa’s arrival. The wolf steps into the open. There’s blood on her face and head, and her tongue dangles over her sharp fangs. She pants as if she’s travelled a long way.

  “Wolf!” Sabra leaps to his feet and grabs a stick. “The beast must be tracking us.”

  “Keena, get behind me. There might be a pack.” Kreel reaches for Keena, but she’s calmly scooping up the entrails of the hare.

  “What’re you afraid of? She’s only a wolf.” Keena offers the bloody guts to Tewa, who snaps them up in one gulp.

  “She’s our friend and guardian.” Shinoni ruffles her silver fur as the wolf rubs against her. Tewa turns with a yawn and settles down in the bushes.

  “But there’s blood on her head,” Kreel says.

  “She hunts and brings us meat sometimes,” Keena says.

  Sabra scoffs. “The wolf provides for you?”

  “She travels with us, and she’s saved our lives more than once,” Shinoni says.

  “We’re her pack,” Keena adds proudly.

  Sabra lowers the stick he still clutches and exchanges shocked looks with Kreel.

  Shinoni and Keena put out the fire and start back toward the riverbank. Tewa bounds after them, pushing her body between them as they walk together. Kreel and Sabra hustle to catch up but are careful not to get too close to the wolf.

  “Where are we going?” Sabra asks. “There’s just cliffs in this direction.”

  “Can you see the caves up there?” Shinoni points to openings in the steep sides of the cliff.

  “Yes, but why go there?” Kreel asks. “There are surely some lower than those, and closer.” He and Sabra hesitate, heads together, murmuring.

  “If we stay down here, it’ll be easier for Haken to track us,” Shinoni says.

  “We met women fishing by the river, and a grey hair told us those caves hold a shortcut into the mountains,” Keena says.

  “If that was the same old crone we met, I wouldn’t trust her words.” Sabra spits. “She’s the one who turned us over to Haken.”

  “We were trading for fish to eat when Haken and his men came by,” Kreel says. “We hid in the bushes, but she showed him where we were.”

  “She likely had no choice if she wanted to live,” Keena points out.

  “The crone said there are cave bears up there,” Kreel says.

  “The bears are likely all sleeping now for the snow time. They probably won’t even notice us,” Keena says.

  “Haken was going to sacrifice us to a bear so Leeswi would give him the bear’s power,” Sabra says. “He must not have thought the bears would be sleeping.”

  Kreel nods. “That’s where Haken was taking us when we found you in the pit.”

  “It’s dangerous going that way, but it’s even more dangerous going back and meeting Haken,” Shinoni says.

  “I agree with Shinoni,” Keena asserts. “It’s our best chance to ever get home, too. The snow pass through the mountains is likely up there.”

  Shinoni, Keena, and Tewa start walking along the rocky beach toward the cliff, but Sabra and Kreel still hang back. Shinoni sighs. It was so much easier when it was just their little pack.

  “Kreel, Sabra,” Keena calls. “Do you want to be Haken’s captives again?”

  “Come on, brother, she has a point.” Kreel nudges Sabra. They rejoin Shinoni and Keena, and they all head for the dangerous escape route through the gap yawning in the cliffside.

  39

  THE SUN ON HER downward path still fills the sky with warming rays as Shinoni, Keena, and the boys reach the lowest cave. The steep climb up the cliffside trail has left them winded. Tewa ran ahead, likely following an enticing scent trail left by a small herd of ibex that the travellers later passed. Now she rises from the cave entrance where she’s soaking up the heat reflected by the rock. She stretches and yodels a greeting. She mouths Shinoni’s and Keena’s hands, then sniffs Sabra and Kreel. They stand stiff and still as she inspects them. Tewa yips, then flops down again in the sunshine.

  “She’s accepted you into the pack,” Shinoni says as she lights a fire.

  “I suppose that’s a good thing,” Kreel says.

  “Yes, or she’d likely rip out your throats.” Shinoni chuckles.

  “The wolf’s lazy.” Sabra waves toward Tewa dozing in the sun. “She doesn’t look like she’d be much protection.”

  “She had to run a long way to find us.” Keena frowns at Sabra. He’s still as annoying as he used to be. “The long noses carried us a great distance, and her legs are much shorter.”

  “There’s still a tough journey ahead. We’ll need light in the cave to search for the passage into the mountains,” Shinoni says. “We need to make torches.” She scrapes resin from a pine tree with her knife and brings it to the fire to soften over the embers.

  Keena breaks four stout branches from trees growing on the hillside and smears the end of each with resin to create a torch. Everyone takes one and lights it in the fire before Keena stamps out the flames. The hole in the cliffside beckons her. Is it really the way back to her family?

  Tewa gets up and bounds into the cave. Shinoni follows closely behind the wolf, and Keena is right behind her. Sabra and Kreel follow them into the yawning mouth of the mountain. Once inside, the light from their torches pushes back the gloom. A faint d
raft from deep in the cave makes the flames flicker.

  Shinoni moves along the back wall, feeling for an opening. “There’s a break in the rocks here. I think it’s a passage. Come on.”

  “How do you know it leads out?” Sabra asks. “We could get lost in there.”

  “Would you rather wait here for Haken?” Keena demands.

  “She’s right, brother.” Kreel moves next to Keena. Keena sighs with relief. She can still depend on Kreel.

  “I’d like a fair chance to fight Haken and destroy him.” Sabra makes no move to follow.

  “Haken never fights fair,” Shinoni calls over her shoulder. “You couldn’t win.”

  “You don’t know me,” Sabra snaps.

  “I’ll never know you if you don’t come quickly.” Shinoni turns back to the passage in the wall.

  Shinoni is not going to wait for Sabra to make up his mind. Tewa looks back toward the cave entrance and growls, then lopes into the tunnel. Shinoni swiftly follows the wolf. Keena’s scent wafts close behind her and she hears the boys murmuring farther back. The passage is just high enough to allow her to walk upright, and so narrow she can touch the smooth rock walls on each side. Shinoni looks back over her shoulder. The torch flames throw dark shadows across the hills and hollows of the faces behind her. Living masks in this eerily silent place.

  Tewa sets a brisk pace, and Shinoni follows close on her tail as she leads them out of the passage into a large rock chamber. They all skid to a stop, mouths agape. The flickering light dances on cavernous rock walls, revealing lifelike pictures of woolly rhinoceros, mammoths, horses, reindeer, bears, and lions. Handprints and geometric patterns painted in red and yellow ochre loom out of the shadows around the pictures. Shinoni can barely breathe with the excitement flooding her chest. Her voice is a reverent whisper.

  “It’s a sacred chamber like the one my father painted and held ceremonies in.”

  “Is it a place of hunting magic?” Kreel reaches toward the beasts spread out before them, then pulls his hand back into the shadows without touching them.

  “Only hunters can attend ceremonies in such a place as this. How do you know of it?” Sabra asks.

  “I know many things,” Shinoni replies. “My father was a great shaman.”

  “We’ll all join him in the spirit world if we don’t move on quickly,” Keena says, taking Shinoni’s arm.

  “I’ll paint pictures like these someday.” Sabra touches the belly of a horse protruding from the rock wall.

  Shinoni silently moves along the rock wall, searching the floor for any sign of the artists’ tools. She spots a flat piece of slate an artist used as a palette to mix coloured pigment. Several stubs of red and yellow ochre lie beside it. She bends and picks up two small chunks of red ochre and slips them into her pouch.

  Tewa’s sudden furious growl draws everyone’s attention. There’s an answering rumble from the passageway, deeper and more menacing. They all turn to the opening in the rock.

  A cave bear’s huge head looms into the chamber. Shinoni and Keena back up against the wall, scanning frantically for another way out. The skin on Shinoni’s face tingles as a faint movement of air flickers her flame. She scrambles along a line of dancing horses that lead into a darker space.

  “Quickly, there’s air blowing,” she calls. “There must be another opening behind us.”

  “Back up slowly. Don’t run,” Kreel says.

  The bear steps into the chamber, its immense presence overpowering in the enclosed space. It’s as if a giant painting has leaped from the wall and walks among them. The bear moves slowly and deliberately toward them. Its knife-sharp claws click menacingly on the smooth stone of the floor. The bear doesn’t charge, but its massive head is lowered and threatening. Its small eyes, red in the torchlight, hold them in a steady stare. The heavy, musky scent of bear surrounds them, assaulting their noses and stinging their eyes.

  Tewa whines loudly and disappears into the wall. Keena backs up, following her. “Here’s the passage,” she cries. “There’s light at the end.”

  Shinoni, Kreel, and Sabra also back into the narrow passage, then turn and desperately head for the light at the end. Behind them, they can hear the bear’s heavy breathing and the scrabbling of its long, curved claws as it squeezes into the tunnel. The bear’s deep, rumbling growls feed their panic, pushing them to use every ounce of their strength to struggle up the narrow tunnel. They stoop over, torches at their sides, as they scramble, scraping exposed skin on the rough rock walls. A sudden gust of air blows out their torches as the tunnel widens and an opening beckons ahead of them.

  Keena, Shinoni, and Kreel stumble out of the opening and tumble down a small incline. Tewa is already at the bottom of the hill. Sabra emerges from the cave with the bear’s head right behind him. A mighty paw catches him and sends him flying down the hill. The bear stands regally in the opening. It woofs, nodding its head up and down and sniffing the air before turning back into the cave.

  Shinoni, Keena, and Kreel run to Sabra and help him to his feet. His heavy fur leggings have deflected some of the bear’s blow, but his thigh underneath is bleeding where two of the deadly claws sliced through the fur into his muscle. Shinoni cuts strips of hide from her cloak and wraps them tightly around the wound to slow the bleeding.

  Sabra is pale and dazed as Kreel helps him stand.

  “Listen to me,” Shinoni says. “The bear marked you and chose not to kill you. Now you, not Haken, will have the bear’s power.” She helps Kreel support Sabra’s weight as they slowly start down the hillside.

  “If anyone has the bear’s power, it’ll be you,” Sabra says. “You brought us through the cave.”

  “I think Keena and Tewa had a big part in that, too.” Shinoni smiles. “Maybe we’ll all have the bear’s power now.”

  “That’s good,” calls Keena, who is walking ahead with Tewa. “We’re all going to really need that power to escape from Haken.”

  “We must go faster to put distance between us and Haken,” Shinoni urges Sabra as he limps beside her. “You’re a strong hunter.”

  She looks for Keena and feels a twinge of longing to be walking beside her and Tewa, facing head on whatever comes their way, as they’ve done so often. She looks at the strange young hunters who’ve joined them. They’re Keena’s friends. Perhaps they’re safer together, but Shinoni yearns to have things as they were.

  She leaves Sabra with Kreel and slips in beside Tewa and Keena. Together again, they travel down the hill and into the mountain pass beyond.

  40

  THERE ARE FEW CAVES in the ravine, and day is ending by the time Shinoni, Keena, Sabra, and Kreel locate a shelter for the dark time. They’re exhausted, and the entrance, partially hidden behind thick shrubs, is a welcome sight. This cave seems to have not had human occupants for a long time, but a pile of dry brush along one wall near the entrance was possibly once a kindling pile. Wolves, foxes, and bear have used the cave and left their pawprints and scat. Still, the shelter is dry and empty now.

  “Kreel and I will get some wood from the forest for a fire,” offers Keena.

  They walk outside together and begin to gather tree branches broken by the wind, and limbs from dead trees. As they both reach for a downed sapling, their hands collide. Kreel smiles shyly and squeezes Keena’s hand gently.

  Keena smiles and squeezes his hand back. “I’ve missed you Kreel. I thought I’d never see you again.”

  They gather more kindling, working side by side. “We have enough wood. We should go in now.” Keena straightens up, and the ibex-tooth pendant Kreel made her slips out from under her tunic.

  “You still have it.” Kreel beams.

  Keena nods. “It makes me feel safe.”

  They share a smile and carry the wood they’ve gathered into the cave. Exchanging small glances, they quickly get to work starting a fire.

  Shinoni is tending to Sabra’s injured leg. She mashes up the remaining fever plants and applies the healing herbs to
the gashes.

  “Ouch. That stings.” Sabra winces and pulls back.

  “Come now, you’re a hunter. You’ll have a scar to be proud of here.” Shinoni holds his leg firmly and continues applying the herbs and re-wrapping the wound.

  The wind moans outside their shelter as night descends over the frigid land. Keena walks over to the brush pile in the corner. “I’ll build up the fire. Who knows what might be lurking outside.” She carries an armful of kindling to the fire.

  Tewa cocks her head and whines as she stares at the brush pile.

  “What’s wrong with the wolf?” Sabra asks.

  Tewa gets up and paws at the dry vegetation, growling deep in her throat. Then she backs off, hackles raised, and disappears out the entrance.

  Shinoni goes over to the pile to investigate. As she reaches forward, she hears a faint rustling from deep in the mass, and the pile begins to tremble from within. She hesitates, a warning tremor sliding down her spine. What’s hiding here? She withdraws her hand, overcome with a feeling of reluctance to touch the brush.

  Keena steps beside her and lifts a clump of the dried vegetation. Shinoni freezes. Brown-and-grey-dappled coils wriggle deep in the brush. There are too many coils to be one snake. The pile trembles in several places. Shinoni gulps and steps backward, smothering her scream.

  “It seems snakes curl up in this brush for their sleep during the snow time.” Keena carefully lowers the vegetation and moves away from the pile. “Our fire has warmed them, and they think it’s time to wake up.”

  “We should look for another shelter before they come out of their bed.” Kreel moves toward the back of the cave, away from the pile. “I don’t want to sleep with snakes.”

  “I agree. Even the wolf won’t stay here.” Sabra speaks in short breaths. Pain and fear twist his face. “One snake can be handled, but several won’t make good sleeping companions.”

  Keena looks at Shinoni with anxiety in her eyes. Shinoni stands frozen, staring at the brush pile. She feels like she will never be able to move again.

  Remember, the snake is not your enemy. Control your fear and use it to your advantage. Shinoni’s mother’s words from the dream world echo in her head.