by C. S. Bills
Attu glanced up the beach. Yural was half crouched, her hands clutching her sides.
“Mother!” Attu cried and ran toward her.
“She’s resting. The cramps have stopped.” Rika spoke to Ubantu, who was sitting beside Attu and the other hunters. “I told her she needs to lie down at least three times for a short while each day, and no more lifting.” Rika sat beside Attu.
“I will make sure she follows your instructions,” Ubantu said. Attu heard the worry in his voice and the determination to make Yural take care of herself.
“I don’t think it will be hard to convince her to let you help her this time,” Rika said. “She admitted the cramps she had on the beach today were worse than any she had besides her time of delivery with Meavu or Attu.”
“I thought so,” Ubantu said. “She seemed frightened, and Yural is rarely frightened. Is there anything else I can do?” Ubantu’s eyes were almost closed under deeply furrowed brows.
“I’ve made her an herb potion to strengthen women with child. She is to make it as a beverage and drink it daily.”
Ubantu nodded. Then the group became quiet.
Three younger boys were fishing, and the girls were gathering some of the edible water plants growing at the mouth of the river. But Attu’s back was burning along his scar, and he knew it would hurt like a knife wound if he tried to stand. Looking around at the small group of hunters and Rika, it was clear he wasn’t the only one who’d pushed himself beyond his limits to save these strangers.
He looked out at the ocean where the waves still pounded the shore and resolved to watch Rika more closely from now on. She’d been doing better these last few days, but if he didn’t stop her, Attu knew Rika would overdo it working to help these men. He didn’t want her to have any complications. He reached for her hand, and she took it, resting her small fingers in his.
“To think these strangers we rescued might be part of a Clan also attacked by the Ravens,” Rovek spoke, breaking the silence. He’d obviously been thinking about the rescue and considering the circumstances. Rovek looked dazed by the possibility they’d helped hunters who had also experienced the vicious Raven Clan.
“If they are, I wonder how so many of them got away,” Attu said, thinking aloud. “Did they flee, leaving their women and children in the hands of the Ravens?” Attu shifted, trying to stretch his sore back without making it spasm in pain.
“The way those men who could still paddle were fighting to save the other hunters makes me think they would have fought at least that hard to save their families,” Ubantu said.
“Then why are any of them still alive?” Rovek asked.
“And to think that of all the vast distance up and down this edge of the ocean, the spirits led them here,” Ubantu added.
“It is strange that of all the beaches they could find after whatever ordeal they went through, they landed on ours.” Attu looked across the beach to the seemingly endless ocean that lay before them.
“Could they be another Clan like the Ravens and not part of the attacked Clan?” another hunter asked.
“Their canoes are huge like the Ravens’,” Rovek said.
“But did you get a good look at them?” Attu asked. “They’re better made, with boxes inside for storage and the paddles fixed into the sides. Did you see the dark stone the hook and paddle holders were made of? I touched them. They felt strange to my hand. Cold. As if they were not of the Here and Now.”
“I looked at them, too, when I removed my spear,” Ubantu said. “The Ravens had nothing like that dark stone. Not on the canoes, nor for weapons, either. We need to examine those again tomorrow.”
“All I know is after all we risked to save them,” one of the older hunters said, “they’d better hate the Ravens as much as we do.”
Heads nodded as the men regarded the surf, watching it crash along the beach below their camp.
Attu couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the strangers. They’d been in such bad shape, with so many gone Between before they’d been able to reach land. The damage to their canoes was extensive, and there had been many men in each canoe, as if there’d been more boats originally. Some must have been lost. It reminded him of the killer whale fish and he wondered...
Some of you must survive. We need to know your story.
Attu wished Suka were here and not gone up the river with Tingiyok and Rusik to meet Keanu and whomever she was traveling with. He wondered if they were all right. Tingiyok hadn’t spoken to him in a dream, and although Keanu could apparently mind speak over great distances, she had been silent as well, so no one knew what was happening with them. Attu remembered when the Seers and the rest of his Clan and Paven’s Clan had travelled far enough away that no one could contact them anymore, except through an occasional dream. Then the dreams had stopped too, until the night of Kinak’s death.
That was a dream I wish I’d never had.
Attu pulled his mind away from the vivid memory of Kinak, thrown against the side of the ravine and about to be trampled. It was too much to think about right now, while his body ached and his mind was tired.
Attu sat with the others, not listening to the conversation, his thoughts drifting, and glad Rika was resting, too. As he sat, Attu’s mind slipped to the other dream, the one he’d also been trying not to think about. The night with the bird... the flight, the feeling of complete freedom on the wind... the hunt, the feel of his talons in the prey...the taste of flesh and blood, warm and rich...
Attu started as Rika shook his shoulder. He realized she was saying his name over and over again. He felt his face flush with embarrassment.
“Always he has daydreamed,” Attu heard Ubantu say as if from far away. Then he heard his father laughing. Attu looked around. Ubantu was laughing with the other hunters and grinning at Attu as if he’d just made a fine joke. But the others were looking at him strangely as they chuckled along, and under his smile, Attu saw that his father was concerned.
How long was I gone Between, back in the world of the falcon and the dream? And I was so far gone you had to shake me out of it? It happened so fast... I didn’t even have time to resist.
You scared me, Attu. What is happening to you? Rika was trying to keep her face calm in front of the others, but Attu could see the alarm in her eyes.
“I was falling asleep, I think, like a poolik needing a nap,” Attu lied to the group, laughing as the others laughed with him. Attu allowed them to see his apparent embarrassment about a childish habit he’d not outgrown. But Ubantu knew differently. Attu saw his face, worry under his mask of making jokes.
A commotion started near the gathering of strangers and women caring for them. A woman left the group and ran toward them. “One of the strange hunters has awakened and is trying to talk.”
Attu leaped up, forgetting his stiffness and almost crying out as searing pain raced across his back. He bit his lip just in time to squelch his cry, but his body stiffened and he felt the blood drain from his face as he stood. He rested his hand on Rika’s shoulder, turning away from the others so they wouldn’t see his pain. The other hunters stood as well, and many of them groaned as they stretched, not trying to hide their discomfort as Attu struggled to hide the agony of his back.
“You need some of my potion for pain,” Rika whispered as they walked as quickly as Attu could toward the others and the stranger who had awakened.
“What is wrong with you?” Ubantu moved up beside Attu. “You are so pale now, and earlier–”
“My back has flared up from the paddling,” Attu said. “And we need to talk about what happened earlier. Rika and I are just as worried about it as you are, but this is not the time. I promise we’ll talk later.” Attu flashed his father a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m fine, now. We need to take care of this.”
“Farnook was resting, but Rovek is getting her,” Meavu said, turning back to the now conscious man as Attu and the others approached. The man who had awakened was a different hunter, not the
one whom Ubantu had helped to release his paddle or the one Attu had identified by his ear cuts. This hunter was younger than most of the others, a little older than Attu, and he was watching them all, terror in his eyes, as he struggled to remain stoic in the face of so many strangers crowding around him while he lay, helpless to fight back if needed.
“He is brave, like the other one.” Rovek moved to sit near the man on one side, Meavu next to him. Rovek smiled briefly at him, careful not to show his teeth, which Attu’s people knew might seem aggressive to the stranger. The Seers had taught them this, as well as to meet the eyes of others they did not know for just a moment before looking away again, not to stare at them face to face from a spear length away, grinning broadly, as was the way of Attu’s people upon meeting others of their Clans.
The crowd around the man parted, and Farnook moved into the light of the fire, crouching near the conscious man, opposite Rovek but not as close. “Owa, Nukeena ah ohokeen?” she asked, pointing to the man’s ear.
“Aha, ai.” The man’s face lit up. “Nukeena, Nukeena, Soantek. Owa?” he asked, pointing to her ear, his eyes widening until they looked huge in his starved face. The man brushed his hand across his forehead. He stared at Farnook, slowly shaking his head.
Farnook looks nothing like his people, with her darker skin and eye folds, yet she’s speaking to him in his tongue. I’d be shocked, too, Attu thought.
Farnook pulled back her hair, revealing a perfect shell-like right ear with no marks on it.
The man’s brows drew together and he frowned. “Oh, nadowna Nukeena. Nadowna, oh.” He slumped back on the furs and closed his eyes.
“Nadowna, Nukeena, oh,” Farnook said and reached out to touch the man’s arm. He was breathing heavily, and Attu was afraid he might be slipping to a place from which he might not return. His pale face was white in the twilight against the dark furs, and he didn’t move when Farnook touched him.
“Nadowna, Nukeena, oh,” Farnook repeated, “Ai, nadowna, oh, du Caanti. Caanti, Nukeena. Caanti... sutowno.” The man stirred again at her last word. Farnook placed her hand on her heart and spread her fingers as wide as she could. “Sutowno,” she repeated.
The stranger opened his eyes again and stared at Farnook for a moment before struggling to pull himself up. Farnook and Rovek helped him. The man pointed to one of his group beside him, a man who lay unconscious like the others, and who was also wrestling with fever spirits. “Caanti sutooka, sutooka, ai,” he said, pointing and gesturing to the man as he smiled at Farnook. She smiled back. Apparently exhausted by this communication, the strange hunter slumped in their arms, and Rovek and Farnook gently lay him back against the furs. He closed his eyes, and in a few moments he was snoring.
Farnook popped her lips lightly in amusement at the sound before turning to the others, her eyes bright. “They are men of the Nukeena,” she said. “That is what they call their Clan. His name is Soantek. The man he was pointing to had a woman named Caanti, but I don’t know if it’s the same person.” She looked hopeful.
“What else did you tell him?” Rika asked, sitting beside Farnook and adjusting the now sleeping man’s furs to cover him.
“That I am not Nukeena, but Caanti was my... my heart sister.” Farnook brushed a hand across her face, looking down for a moment before meeting Rika’s eyes again. “My friend.”
“And the man fighting the fever spirits is Caanti’s man?” Rika asked.
“We can’t be sure until I can ask him. I don’t know if Caanti is a common name among their people. But she could be. You must save him, Rika. I need to know. And if he is Caanti’s man, he needs to know.” Farnook grabbed Rika’s hands and held them tightly. “He needs to know his woman still lives. Still loves him. Still waits for him. He must know.” Tears flooded her eyes.
“We’ll do our best to save him, whether he is your friend’s man or not. Pray to the spirits to help us heal all these men.” Yural had stepped in and Farnook stood, released Rika, and turned to the older woman. She looked about to faint. Yural took Farnook into her arms.
“Meavu, Rovek, take Farnook into your shelter for the night,” Yural spoke gently to her daughter and her man. “With Suka not here, she’s already feeling unsettled, and now this.”
“We’ll keep her as calm as we can,” Meavu agreed.
“I’m all right,” Farnook said and pulled away from Yural. “I’ll stay here in case another of the Nukeena awakes.”
“No,” Ubantu said, stepping forward. He picked Farnook up in his arms before she could protest. “Woman of my son’s ‘heart brother,’” he teased, glancing at Attu then back at Farnook, “we have promised your man we will keep you safe. I’ll take you to rest now, and we’ll come get you if another of the Nukeena comes back from the Between of sleep.”
“But–”
“You will do this for me, my daughter.” Ubantu looked into Farnook’s eyes, and Attu saw her dark ones fill again with tears as Ubantu turned and strode away from the fire toward Meavu and Rovek’s shelter. He carried Farnook as if she weighed nothing, his steps sure in the sand.
Attu thought of his father so many moons ago, injured and unable to hunt. He almost gave up on himself. And now he is strong and soon to be a new father again, if the spirits are willing and Mother can carry this child to its time of birth.
Attu turned to Rika, who was sitting beside the feverish hunter. Could he be Caanti’s man? Attu walked to Rika’s side and sat down, determined to convince Rika it was time she, too, let others care for the survivors while she rested. But first he would walk her to his parents’ shelter so Rika could check on his mother again.
Chapter 7
“One of the Nukeena on the beach is alive.” Nuka had taken another turn at watching the dead Nukeena, and now her dry voice crackled in Attu’s ear, waking him. “He moved. You must come.”
Attu slipped out from the furs, careful not to disturb Rika, whose whiffling snores filled the shelter. “Alive?” Attu asked as he stepped out after Nuka, dropping the flap behind him.
“Yes. He moved and opened his eyes. I gave him several drinks from the water flask I had, and he smiled at me. I stood to come get you, and when I did he looked around and saw all the other dead men lying on either side of him. He grabbed some object out of his clothing and placed it on his chest, lay back, and mumbled something over and over again. He looked terrified.”
The old woman chuckled. “I told him he was not dead, but he took one good look at me and screwed his eyes shut even tighter than before and mumbled faster.”
“Did you not know that you, Nuka, are a great spirit from Between?” Attu teased. “Or a great shaman, calling back the spirits of those passed Between? I can’t believe one of those men was not gone... are you sure you didn’t call him back? Perhaps I should be afraid of you, too.”
Nuka slapped him playfully on the arm, and the two made their way, at Nuka’s slow pace, back toward the beach where the dead still lay beside one very alive and frightened Nukeena man.
Pale pink streaked the sky in the east, and smooth low waves washed up on the beach ahead. The pines behind them breathed a fresh scent, blending with the wood smoke smell that hung around the camp. Attu startled when Nuka tripped on a root, and he reached out to steady her.
“Thank you, my son.” Nuka flashed him a smile, showing her front teeth, worn down to the gums from a lifetime of chewing skins. Attu continued to hold Nuka gently at the elbow as they made their way through the sand to where the dead Nukeena lay.
“He’s gone!” Nuka broke away from Attu and hurried as fast as her old legs could carry her to the place where a man had been lying. There was a depression in the sand, and a space between two other dead, but no live Nukeena.
“He can’t have gone far,” Attu said. “I’ll get some hunters to search.”
The sun was well up when Attu’s men finally found the Nukeena who’d fled. Rovek had followed the man’s tracks up the beach and around the tip of the peninsula, but lost th
em when the beach turned rocky. The men were searching every outcropping when Ubantu shouted.
“Here he is!”
The others rushed to join Ubantu. The Nukeena man sat propped up against the back of a large rock, out of sight of the camp. He held a small pouch in front of him like a weapon, and his eyes were wild.
“Ohwoot! Ohwoot!” the stranger cried out. He scrambled back against the rock. “Soantek!” he cried, looking around himself, desperately searching for someone, or something. “Dran!”
“We won’t hurt you,” Attu said, reaching out to help the man up and wishing Farnook wasn’t with the group searching south of their camp instead of here. She could calm the Nukeena with a few words in his own tongue.
“Watch out!” Rovek cried as the man grabbed Attu’s hand and snapped at it with his teeth. Attu pulled back, but the man hung on like a tooth fish, leaning forward, trying to bite Attu. Attu pulled harder, wrestling his hand out of the man’s grip.
“He’s a strong one,” Ubantu said, and father and son looked with respect at this hunter before them.
“He thinks he’s dead, and we’re spirits,” Rovek said.
“Or maybe he’s just out of his mind from lack of food and water,” Attu said, “and we’re strange looking to him.” He turned to leave. “Would you stay with him?” Attu looked at Ubantu and Rovek. “I’ll go get Farnook. I thought we could convince him to return with us, but I’m not about to be bitten by some crazy hunter. Who knows what evil spirits he’s carrying with him after all he’s been through.”
Farnook? Attu called Farnook as he began walking back toward the camp. We’ve found the Nukeena. Walk north, and I’ll meet you and show you where he is.
I’m coming. What’s his condition? Farnook asked. Attu sensed the concern in her mind speak.
A bit confused, as you might imagine someone would be who awakens on a beach lying between bodies... Rovek says the Nukeena thinks he’s dead and we’re all evil spirits.
