"Yes," said Imnak.
"I see that your shoulders are heavy with game," she said.
"No," said Imnak.
"I see," she said. "You made many kills in the fields and have marked the meat. You will later send out your girls to cut steaks for all of us."
Imnak hung his head.
"You surely do not mean to tell me that you have returned to the camp with no meat," she said, disbelievingly.
"Yes," said Imnak.
"I cannot believe that," she said. "A great hunter like Imnak comes back without meat! It is just too hard to believe!"
Imnak looked down, shuffling.
"Can my father be wrong?" she asked.
Imnak looked up, puzzled.
"He says Imnak is a great hunter! I think it is true. It is only that Imnak is not too smart and leaves all the meat out in the fields for the jards."
Imnak looked down again.
"It is fortunate," she said, "that you are only a miserable fellow with no wife. Think how embarrassed she would be. She speaks to her guests, "Oh, no, Imnak has forgotten to bring back the meat again." "Not again," they say. "Yes," she says. "He is a great hunter. Only he always forgets to bring the meat home. He is not too smart. He leaves it in the fields for the jards.""
"Are you sure she expects to be carried off?" I asked Imnak.
"Of course," said Imnak. "Can you not see she loves me?"
"Yes," I said, "it is certainly clear."
Then Poalu looked at me. She whipped a knife out from her furs. "Do not think you are going to carry me off," she said. "I will cut you to ribbons!"
I stepped back, in order not to be slashed with the knife. Imnak, too, leaped backward.
Poalu then turned about and walked away.
"She is moody sometimes," said Imnak.
"Yes," I admitted.
"But she loves me," he said, happily.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes," said Imnak. "She cannot hide her true feelings." He nudged me. "Did you not notice that she did not stick the knife into us?" he asked, secretively.
"Yes," I said, "she missed."
"Did Poalu not love me," he said, smiling, "she would not have missed."
"I hope that you are right," I said. "She did not miss Naartok," he said. "Oh," I said.
"He was in his tent for six weeks," he said. "Who is Naartok?" I asked.
"He is my rival," said Imnak. "He still loves her. He may try to kill you."
"I hope he is not good at throwing harpoons into the eyes of sleen," I said.
"No," said Imnak. "He is not so good a shot as Kadluk."
"That is good," I said.
"Yes," said Imnak.
14
The Courtship Of Poalu; What Followed The Courtship Of Poalu
It is not easy to knock at a tent.
"Greetings, Kadluk," I called.
A coppery face poked itself outside the tent. It was a very broad face, with high cheekbones, and very dark, bright eyes, a face framed in cut, blue-black hair, with bangs across the forehead.
"Ah," beamed Kadluk. "You must be the young man who has come to carry off my daughter."
"Yes," I said. He seemed in a good mood. He had, perhaps, waited years for this moment.
"She is not yet ready," said Kadluk, shrugging apologetically. "You know how girls are."
"Yes," I said. I looked back a few yards to where Imnak stood, lending me moral support. He smiled and waved encouragingly. Reassured I stood waiting outside the tent.
I waited for several minutes.
Another figure emerged from the tent, a woman, Tatkut, or Wick-Trimmer, the woman of Kadluk, the mother of Poalu. She smiled up at me and bowed slightly, and handed me a cup of tea.
"Thank you," I said, and drank the tea.
After a time she returned and I handed her back the cup. "Thank you again," I said.
She smiled, and nodded, and returned to the tent.
Imnak sidled up to me. He was looking worried. "It should not take this long to carry a girl off," he whispered. I nodded.
"It should not take this long to carry a girl off," I called. Imnak backed away, expectantly.
Inside the tent then we heard an argument in course. There was much expostulation. I could make out Poalu's voice, and that of Kadluk and Tatkut. They spoke in their own tongue and I could pick up but few of the words. I did hear the expression for Bazi tea a few times. I gathered that Kadluk had little intention, or desire at any rate, to return Imnak's quantities of Bazi tea, or other gifts, to him.
After a time Kadluk's head reappeared. "She does not want to be carried off," he said.
"Well, that is that," I shrugged. I turned to Imnak. "She does not want to be carried off," I said. "Let us return to our tent."
"No, no!" cried Imnak. "You must now rush into the tent and carry her off by force."
"Is Kadluk armed?" I asked.
"What possible difference could that make?" asked Imnak.
"I thought it might make a difference," I said. I still remembered the harpoon and the sleen.
"No," said Imnak. "Kadluk!" he called.
Kadluk came outside the tent.
"It seems your daughter must be carried away by force," said Imnak.
"Yes," agreed Kadluk. This reassured me.
"Go ahead," said Imnak. "Go in and get her."
"Very well," I said.
"She has a knife," said Kadluk.
"Go ahead," urged Imnak.
"We need not make haste in this matter," I observed. "Are you sure you really want to have Poalu in your tent? Perhaps you should subject the matter to further consideration."
"But we love one another," said Imnak.
"Why do you not go in and get her yourself?" I asked.
"I am too shy," said Imnak, hanging his head.
"Perhaps she will listen to reason," I said, hopefully.
Kadluk turned about, holding his sides. In a moment he was rolling on the ground. Red hunters are often demonstrative in the matter of their emotions. In a few moments ho had regained his composure, wiping the tears from his eyes.
I lifted aside the tent flap, cautiously, Inside was Ponln. She was dressed in feasting clothes. Near her was her mother, Tatkut, beaming her pride in her daughter.
I dodged as the knife sailed past my head, narrowly missing Imnak outside.
"You will never carry me off by force!" she cried.
"I grant you the likelihood of that," I said.
She seized a heavy iron pan, of the sort used out of doors across stones for cooking.
It would not be pleasant to have that utensil beating on my head.
"Look," I said, "I am supposed to carry you off."
"Don't touch me," she said.
"The arrangements have all been made," I pointed out.
"I did not make them," she said.
That seemed to me a good point. "She says she did not make the arrangements," I called out to Imnak.
"That does not matter," called Imnak in to me.
"That does not matter," I told her.
"It does matter," she said.
"It does matter, she says," I relayed to Imnak, outside.
"No, it does not matter," he `said.
"It does not matter," I relayed to Poalu, from Imnak outside.
"She is only a woman," pointed out Imnak.
"You are only a woman," I told her, relaying Imnak's point. It seemed to me a good one.
She then rushed forward, striking down at me with the heavy, flat pan. I removed it from her. I did this that I not be killed.
She then fled to the back of the tent. She looked about, but found nothing else which seemed suitable as a weapon. Kadluk, I then understood, had wisely removed his gear, such as knives and arrows, from the tent before Imnak and. I had arrived.
His daughter was as well known to him as others, of course.
"Would you please hand me the blubber hammer behind you," asked Poalu.
Obligingl
y I handed her the hammer. I thought I could probably avoid or fend its blows. The object, wooden-handled, with a stone head, is used for pounding blubber to loosen the oil in the blubber, which is used in the flat, oval lamps.
"Thank you," said Poalu.
"You're welcome," I said.
She then faced me, holding the hammer.
"If you do not wish to be carried off," I said, "why are you wearing your feasting clothes?"
"Isn't she pretty?" asked Tatkut, smiling.
"Yes," I admitted.
Poalu looked at me, shrewdly. "I am not your ordinary girl," she said, "whom you may simply carry off."
"That seems certain," I granted her.
"Where is Imnak?" she asked.
Surely she knew he was just outside the tent. "He is just outside the tent," I said.
"Why does he not carry me off?" she asked.
"I wish that he would," I said. "He is shy."
"Well," she said, "I am not going."
"She says she is not going," I called out to Imnak.
There was a pause. Then I heard Imnak say, "That is all right with me."
Poalu seemed startled. I was relieved. I turned about to take my departure.
"Wait," she said. "Aren't you going to carry me off?"
"I would be content," I said, "if it were up to me, to leave you in your father's tent forever."
I heard Imnak outside. "Yes," he said, "it is all right with me if she does not come."
"I will give you back your gifts, Imnak," said Kadluk, rather more loudly than was necessary.
"You may keep them," said Imnak, expansively.
"No, I could not do that," said Kadluk. I found myself hoping that he would indeed return Imnak's gifts. We in Imnak's tent could use that Bazi tea, those furs and the tabuk steaks.
"It will be amusing to hear the songs they will sing in the feasting house about Poalu," said Imnak, loudly, "how no one wants her."
"How can you carry me off?" called Poalu. "You have no sled."
"There is no snow," I said to her.
"There is a proper way and an improper way to do things," said Poalu to me.
"Oh, look," said Imnak, "here is a sled."
Poalu, still clutching the blubber hammer, poked her head outside.
There was indeed a sled there, that which Imnak had built at the wall, and which the girls had drawn, that sled by means of which his supplies and gear had been transported across Ax Glacier.
Harnessed to the sled, in their full furs, were Thimble, Thistle and Arlene.
"Ho! Ho!" called Poalu, derisively. "You would expect to carry a girl off in a sled drawn by white-skinned slave beasts! What a scoundrel you are! How insulting!"
"I will borrow a snow sleen," said Imnak. "Will that be sufficient?"
I thought a snow sleen, one of those long, vicious animals, would surely be puzzled to find itself attached to a sled where there was no snow.
"Perhaps," called Poalu.
Imnak unhitched Thimble, Thistle and Arlene. They stood about, puzzled. He then turned and left the vicinity of the tent. "Would you like more tea?" asked Tatkut.
"Yes, thank you," I said. I was at least getting some of the tea back which Imnak had given to Kadluk.
In a few minutes Imnak returned with a snow sleen on a stout leash. Soon it was hitched to the sled. It was Akko's animal, and he, in the fashion of the red hunters, had cheerfully volunteered its services.
"Someone has a snow sleen hitched to a sled outside of the tent of someone," called Imnak.
"It is a poor beast," said Poalu. "Find a better."
"Someone has not even looked at it," said Imnak.
Poalu stuck her head out the tent. "It is a poor beast." said Poalu. "Find a better."
Imnak, for no reason that was clear to me, scouted about and located another snow sleen.
"That is worse than the other," said Poalu.
Imnak angrily unhitched the second animal, and rehitched the first one, that which belonged to Akko.
"Surely you do not expect me to ride behind so poor a beast?" inquired Poalu.
"Of course not," said Imnak. He made ready to leave.
"What are you doing?" asked Poalu.
"I am going away," said Imnak. "I am going to my tent."
"I suppose it will have to do," said Poalu.
"You could strike her heavily along the side of the head." said Kadluk to me. "That is what I did with Tatkut." Tatkut nodded, beaming.
"It is a thought," I said.
"Will no one protect a girl from being carried off!" cried Poalu.
She still carried the blubber hammer. If struck properly with it one might be brained.
"Is there no one who will save me?" wailed Poalu.
Kadluk looked about, anxious should anyone interfere. There were by now several bystanders about.
"Naartok," cried Poalu, "will you not save me?"
A heavy fellow nearby shook his head vigorously. He still carried his right arm high and close to his body, his shoulder hunched somewhat. I recalled that Poalu had in the past driven her blade into his body somewherer in that vicinity. Imnak had warned me that Naartok, his rival, might try to kill me, to prevent my carrying Poalu off. Naartok, however, seemed competely willing that I should undertake that task. It was clear that I had his best wishes for success in this endeavor. Naartok, like many of the red hunters, was not a fellow to be bitter about such things.
"Come along," I said to Poalu. "It will soon be dark." That was true. In a few weeks the Arctic night would descend.
She hurled the blubber hammer at my head and I slipped to the side. It sped past me and struck Naartok a cruel blow on the forehead.
She fled back into the tent and I nimbly pursued her. In the tent I scooped her up and threw her over my shoulder. Her small fists beat rapidly on my back.
"Will you stop that?" I asked.
"I do not want to go," she said.
"Oh," I said.
I put her to her feet and turued about, leaving the tent. "She says she does not want to go," I told Imnak.
"Go back," urged Imnak.
"Nonsense," I said. "Look, Imnak," I said, "I value your friendship but I have really had enough of this. I frankly do not think Poalu wants to be carried off by me."
Imnak looked at me, miserable.
"That is my considered opinion," I told him, confirming his fears.
"You will just have to carry her off yourself," I said.
"I am too shy," he wailed.
"Well, let us go home then," I said, "for I have drunk enough tea at the tent of Kadluk and evaded enough missiles to last me for several years."
"It is true," said Imnak, glumly. "You have endured more than one could rightfully ask of a friend."
"Too," I pointed out, "I was of aid in freeing the tabuk at the wall."
"Yes," said Imnak. "Forgive me, my friend, for imposing on you."
"It was no imposition," I said. "I would cheerfully carry off a girl for you, but it is one thing to carry off a girl and quite another to carry off Poalu."
"Poalu is a girl," said Imnak.
"I am not at all sure of that," I said.
"Do you think she may be a she-sleen?" asked Imnak, concerned. His metaphysics allowed this possibility. Sometimes men took the form of animals, and animals the form of men.
"Quite possibly," I said gravely.
"That would explain much," mused Imnak. "No," he said, seriously. `That cannot be true. I have known Poalu for years. When we were children we would gather eggs together at the bird cliffs, and hold hands, and, together, fight the coming of sleep." He looked at me, intently. "Too," he said, "she is the daughter of Kadluk."
"I guess you are right,' I said. "She is not really a she-sleen."
"But she acts much like one," said Imnak.
"Yes," I said.
"Some girls are like that," said Imnak.
John Norman - Counter Earth12 Page 28
