Sisters of the Wolf

by Patricia Miller-Schroeder

  Together, Sabra, Kreel, and Keena pull Shinoni and Tewa to safety, struggling with their combined weight. Tewa strains against Shinoni’s arms, but the girl hangs on. Working as a team, slowly and painstakingly, the three friends haul Shinoni and Tewa safely up onto the ridge.

  “I thought you were gone, sister.” Shinoni’s arms remain tightly clamped around the wolf, tears freezing on her face. “You saved me, Tewa.”

  “Thank you, Leeswi, for sparing our brave wolf friend,” Keena shouts into the wind. Then she throws her arms around both Shinoni and Tewa. She buries her face in the wolf’s fur, her voice muffled. “Thank you, Tewa. You’ve freed us from Haken.”

  Kreel and Sabra join in, gingerly rubbing their hands over Tewa’s back and sides as her tail slowly waves. Then they all look back over the ridge, searching for any sign of Haken’s broken body. The wailing wind whips between the rock walls, stirring the dense shrubbery far below them.

  Kreel and Sabra step back from the edge and sit on the ground, propping each other up. “I have never been so sore and exhausted,” groans Kreel.

  “I can’t believe we all survived that,” gasps Sabra.

  Keena and Shinoni still peer over the edge. Their view of the cliffside blurs as a veil of sleet and snow descends over the crevice. Shinoni struggles to keep her eyes open as the icy needles sting her face. Soon the white curtain closes in, burying whatever lies below. It seems as if Haken’s howl of rage echoes in the shrill howling of the wind.

  “He must be dead,” Keena says. “But my fear of him remains.”

  Shinoni, chilled to her marrow by the furious wind, turns and guides both Tewa and Keena from the ridge. She, too, struggles to shake her uneasiness. They’ve seen no sign of their enemy, but it’s a long way down. No one, not even the mighty Haken, could survive such a fall.

  42

  SNOW CONTINUES TO FALL, hiding the signs of battle on the mountain ridge. Shinoni, Keena, and their friends huddle together for warmth behind the shelter of a boulder, trying to regain their strength before continuing their search for the snow pass.

  “We must find shelter.” Shinoni rouses the others. “We’ll freeze if we don’t build a fire and get out of the wind.” Tewa shakes the snow from her body and stands beside Shinoni.

  “You’re right.” Keena brushes her hand across her eyelids, which are freezing shut. She gets up, brushing the snow off her tunic. Sabra and Kreel rise painfully, nursing their injuries.

  Suddenly they’re startled by shouts coming through the wind. Keena’s stomach lurches. Who could this be? Surely Haken or his hunters aren’t returning?

  The wind slows its howling blast and they can see people emerging on the cliff across from them. More people join the others, shouting and waving from the far ridge.

  “Who are these people?” Shinoni asks.

  “I can’t tell from here.” Keena squints and struggles to shield her eyes from the snow. There’s something familiar about them.

  To the friends’ dismay, as the blowing snow begins to clear, a connecting bridge of land between the two ridges is revealed. “They can reach us. They might be more enemies.” Shinoni begins to load a rock into her sling.

  Keena puts her hand on Shinoni’s sling hand. “I don’t think these people are enemies, Shinoni.” She peers across the distance. Yes! She’s not mistaken! Happiness shoots through her as she recognizes her father’s distinctive limp. “Mother, Father. You’re here!” she calls in disbelief. Her shouts echo joyfully from the rock walls.

  Atuk, Ubra, and members of Sabra’s band have arrived through the snow pass. They wave frantically as they struggle through the freezing snow showers to cross the bridge between their two ridges. Keena, Kreel, and Sabra rush to meet them. Shinoni and Tewa follow more slowly. The snow showers end and the sun peeks out from the clouds and smiles on the reunion. Keena’s heart leaps in her chest as her parents rush toward her. Sobbing with joy, she runs to meet them.

  “Keena, daughter.” Ubra embraces her. The mother Keena has been seeking for so many suns is now hugging her tightly in her arms.

  Keena’s father, Atuk, is clearly troubled as he stands beside her. She looks at his lined face. He doesn’t look like the powerful leader she knew as a child. He’s the father who sent her away with the hated and feared Haken.

  “Father, you sent me with Haken, but I couldn’t do what you wanted and stay with him,” Keena says. “I’ve travelled a long way to come home. Will you have me back at your hearth now?”

  “I’m so sorry, Keena. I never should have sent you with that savage bear.” Atuk stretches out his mighty misshapen arms. “You’re my daughter and now a strong Krag woman. You can stay at any hearth you want, but you’re always welcome at ours.”

  Keena nods and blinks back tears. Kreel hovers nearby. He touches her shoulder. “It’ll be good to have you home, Keena.” He smiles his huge sunshine smile.

  Shinoni watches Keena’s joyful reunion with her parents. Her heart is heavy and she wonders what she will do now, with no home and no people of her own.

  Keena links arms with her parents and pulls them toward Shinoni. Sabra and his father, Luka, come and stand with them. The other Kula band members gather around.

  “This is Shinoni, my friend. Haken destroyed her band. Without her I’d never have escaped or survived.” Keena throws her arm around Shinoni, drawing her friend close to her parents.

  “How can we thank you?” Ubra looks into Shinoni’s eyes. She touches her large brow to Shinoni’s smooth forehead.

  “I wouldn’t have escaped or survived without Keena’s help as well.” Shinoni squirms a bit under the scrutiny of the strangers surrounding her.

  “You travel with a wolf?” Atuk looks doubtfully from his daughter to Tewa.

  “She’s our friend, Father,” Keena responds quickly. “She’s helped us many times.”

  “You’re lucky these fine young hunters were able to find you and bring you to us.” Luka beams at his son and Kreel, placing one hand on each of them.

  “Father, it was they who saved us from Haken,” Sabra says.

  “They travelled most of the way themselves and faced many dangers before they found and rescued us,” Kreel says.

  “These are indeed remarkable young women, then.” Luka shakes his head, his weathered face puzzled as he looks at the two females. “They may be smaller than you, but they must be strong.”

  “You’ve helped my daughter, and if your people are gone you’re welcome at our hearth as long as you would like to stay,” Atuk says.

  “You’re welcome to stay with our band, too, Shinoni,” Luka says. “I don’t have daughters and would be happy to have you at my hearth.”

  You’ll be a great leader of the Kula people one day. Shazur’s words echo in her ears. She looks from Keena’s familiar, smiling face to the brown faces of Sabra, Luka, and the other Kulas. Hazy images of their journey float in Shinoni’s mind’s eye: Keena’s joy at lighting a fire, their riding the mammoth and running from hyenas together, Keena’s face smiling over the edge of the pit, Keena calling her friend.

  Shinoni hears her father’s voice again in her head. The Krag woman-child is a brave and true friend. She’ll also be a leader of her people.

  Everyone stands respectfully waiting for Shinoni’s answer.

  “Luka, I’d like to live with your band for awhile, but I must be free to visit Keena and her people whenever I wish,” Shinoni says.

  “Then you’ll be like Sabra, who spends half his time with Kreel,” Luka says.

  “Tewa must be free to join me when she wishes — wherever I go.” Shinoni takes a deep breath as she realizes how important this is to her.

  Luka hesitates, but only briefly. “Such a brave beast will be welcome.”

  “If Keena says the wolf’s a friend, she’s welcome.” Atuk shakes his head at the wonder of this relationship with a beast.

  “There may come a time when I want to leave and travel to search for my lost people. I must be
free to go when the snows have melted under the sun, if I choose to.”

  “If that time comes, I’d like the challenge of travelling to a new land with you,” Sabra says.

  Shinoni smiles but ducks her head. She’s not willing to commit to taking any companion with her on her travels except Keena.

  Snow begins to fall, spiralling down lazily at first, then faster and heavier, cloaking the hillside in a frigid white blanket. The soft flakes turn to icy pellets, stinging exposed skin and freezing eyelashes. The ominous reality of their present situation sinks in and pushes all else from the minds of the group clustered at the glacier’s foot.

  “We must get into shelter while we can still see.” Luka points in the direction of the trail that he, Atuk, and Ubra took through the snow pass. “There’s a large cave back there where we can spend the night and regain our strength before travelling home.”

  The group moves as one, Krags and Kulas, through the snow. That night they share stories around glowing hearths, and in the morning they gather for the dangerous return journey into the high country.

  Before they leave, Shinoni, Keena, and Tewa walk to the back of the cave for a moment alone. Shinoni takes out her precious red ochre and mixes it with water from her bag. Both girls prick their thumbs and mix drops of their blood into the pigment. Tewa cocks her head and watches as first Shinoni, and then Keena, places a hand in the pigment and presses it onto the stone. They smile at the red handprints floating high on the rock wall.

  Shinoni draws two red circles underneath the handprints, then dips her finger into the pigment again and outlines the pointed ears, eyes, and snout of a wolf. She smiles at Keena. “When we return here, we’ll see our marks and know this is our cave.”

  “When will that be, Kula?” Keena asks as they turn to leave.

  Shinoni smiles. “Only the spirits know.”

  Shinoni of the Kulas and Keena of the Krags link arms and follow Tewa out of the cave to continue their journey.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  SISTERS OF THE WOLF is set in prehistory, a time for which we have no written records. However, we do have other types of evidence about prehistoric peoples, and this record is growing all the time. Scientists have found traces of them in ancient rocks, fossils, and artifacts. They’ve even found DNA in some of the fossil bones of our ancient relatives. We now know that modern humans have the same DNA as the early modern humans called Cro-Magnons. Recently, we’ve discovered traces of Neanderthals and Denisovans, two other prehistoric human species, in our own DNA. Some fossils with DNA from more than one group have also been found, which leads us to think that some of them had families together. We weren’t always the only humans on the planet.

  Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals, and Denisovans were named for the places where we first discovered their fossils. They are all in the genus Homo, which means “human.” As scientists found more fossils, the Cro-Magnon people were called early modern humans. They and the Neanderthals split from a common ancestor and evolved in different places. Neanderthals developed in the cold of Ice Age Eurasia, and early modern humans developed in the heat of Africa. They first met in the Middle East, and by 48,000 years ago, several waves of early modern humans had travelled north and then west. In Sisters of the Wolf, Shinoni is from the Cro-Magnons and Keena is from the Neanderthals. The areas they live in represent the places where the original fossils of their peoples were discovered. Kula and Krag are made-up names for what they might have called themselves.

  The early modern humans were hunter-gatherers. They depended on the animals they hunted, following them into the fertile plains, steppes, and mountain valleys of Eurasia. By 40,000 years ago, they were in what we now call France, Spain, and Italy, as well as in other European countries. In many of these places, they met the indigenous people who had lived there for hundreds of thousands of years. These, of course, were the Neanderthals, who were also hunter-gatherers.

  At that time, the climate was erratic, swinging between long glacial periods and milder periods. The Neanderthal people were shorter and heavier, and their bodies were adapted to the cold. They had distinctive brow ridges, broad noses, and light-coloured skin. They had various eye and hair colours, and at least some had green eyes and red hair like Keena. The early modern humans were taller and slimmer, with long legs and arms. They had dark hair and brown skin and eyes. Even though the Neanderthals and early modern humans looked somewhat different, they were, in fact, very similar to each other — and to us today.

  As mentioned above, there is evidence that these two peoples had a third relative, another species of human they sometimes interbred with. They are called Denisovans, named after the cave in Russia where their fossils were first discovered. We know they had dark skin, eyes, and hair. In Sisters of the Wolf, Deka is likely a Denisovan.

  Scientists sequenced the Neanderthal genome in 2010, and since then there has been an explosion of discoveries about the Neanderthals and early modern humans and how they lived. We have learned how they made and used fire, sophisticated tools, and bedding. We know they had spoken language and they used body decorations, symbols, and cave paintings. They also used plants for medication and to make thread. We are learning more about them all the time.

  We also have evidence that humans and certain wolves made their first connections about 40,000 years ago. These early relationships would lead to the close bond between humans and domestic dogs that we enjoy today. In Sisters of the Wolf, Tewa is one of these wolves.

  We’ll never know for sure what happened when the different groups met each other. We can assume that at least some meetings were friendly and the groups traded knowledge and customs. At other times, they may have avoided each other, or even fought and killed each other. There’s evidence that Neanderthals and early modern humans competed with each other for caves, and both groups competed with cave bears, cave lions, and cave hyenas. Fossil bones of Neanderthals and early modern humans show that some died violent deaths. However, some skeletons were intentionally buried, showing signs of care during their lives and after their deaths.

  Sisters of the Wolf incorporates many of the most recent discoveries about our ancestors into its story-line. Since it is a work of fiction, it imagines what the interactions and relationships of Keena, Shinoni, and the other characters would have been like, and it lets us look into the lives of our ancient ancestors.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I’M OF COURSE GRATEFUL that Shinoni and Keena chose me to write their story. From the first day they appeared, one sat on each of my shoulders and they guided my writing and the development of their story.

  However, there are many people I want to thank for help, guidance, support, and inspiration along the way. I first thought about writing a prehistoric fiction novel when I read Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear in the early 1980s, and her Earth’s Children series has remained an inspiration to me over the years. Sisters of the Wolf is set in roughly the same time and place as Ms. Auel’s stories unfold.

  I started researching and writing Shinoni and Keena’s journey when I was a graduate student in biological anthropology at the University of Calgary, and all three of my children were born during that time. I was nine months pregnant when I walked across the stage to get my degree. Without the help and encouragement of my family I would not have been able to keep writing and researching during this time.

  A big thank you to my husband, Curt, and my children — Michelle and her husband, Nathan; Hartley and his wife, Kristy; and my writer son, Winston — for their support and encouragement over the years. You enriched my life and inspired my writing. Also, thanks to Curt for sharing his knowledge of bush-craft and tracking and our trips to wilderness areas in Banff, Jasper, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, and Yellowstone (the best place to observe wild wolves in winter). Those images and experiences enriched my writing.

  A special thank you to my friend Judith Silverthorne, who always encouraged me and helped me delve into my family links in parts of Europe where
Neanderthals and early modern humans lived. I appreciated you travelling with me in the Ukraine and sending me links to articles and information on Neanderthals and prehistory.

  I’m proud to be a member of the Children’s Round Robins’ Writing Group. You provide me with support, readings, advice, critiques, retreats, and friendship. Thanks to: Judith Silverthorne, Alison Lohans, Sharon Hamilton, Sandra Davis, Dianne Young, Anne Patton, Myrna Guymer, Paula Jane Remlinger, Linda Aksomitis, and Gillian Richardson.

  When doing research, I visited some of the actual caves where Neanderthal people lived in France. I had an exceptional guide, Bart Vranken, who took me on a private tour of several caves in the Les Eyzies area, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. I saw firsthand the cave painting, etchings, symbols, and, in one, cave bear sleeping beds hollowed out of the cave floor. It was magical for me. I can’t speak French, but Bart spoke English and we were able to have good discussions about our views on Neanderthals and early modern humans and the links between them. Bart also provided me with English translations to the displays in the National Museum of Prehistory, with its wealth of displays, bones, and artifacts. It was a wonderful and inspirational experience and important to my research for Sisters of the Wolf. Thank you, Bart.

  Two people instrumental on the journey to get my book published were my agents from Transatlantic Literary Agency. Marie Campbell saw me pitch my manuscript at a CANSCAIP Saskatchewan Prairie Horizons conference. She felt it had potential and took me on. When Marie retired, my present agent, Amy Tompkins, worked hard to find a home for Sisters of the Wolf, which she did at Dundurn Press. Thank you both!

  Good editors are worth their weight in gold. I’ve had the honour of working with three editors during different stages of writing Sisters of the Wolf: I want to thank Carla Jablonski and Emma Dryden, both in New York, who helped me start off in the earlier stages of writing in a good way. A special thank you to Susan Fitzgerald, my substantive editor, who really got inside my characters and their world to the extent that she even dreamed about them.