by C. S. Bills
“Veshria, there’s no need,” Attu said, stopping Veshria with an upturned hand.
The woman had been through enough. Losing her unborn child, and now almost losing her boy. But Attu knew that he could help Veshria see what she needed to do.
“Keanu saved your boy because she could. Her Gift is a difficult one to have. It has been misunderstood in the past. And in the wrong hands it could be misused.” He made quick eye contact with Veshria to emphasize his point. “But Keanu is part of our Clan now, along with Soantek and Bashoo, and she needs your help in feeling welcome here. Honored here, even. You know what I mean. Just as we welcomed you and Rusik to our Clan from the Seers.”
“I will do my best to make her feel one with us,” Veshria said, her eyes firmly fixed on Attu, bright with unshed tears. Then she lowered her eyes and added, “From now on.”
“I will make sure Keanu is treated with respect,” Rusik added. He looked to his woman and she dipped her head, her cheeks reddening from remembrance of her tirades over the last days, and before that, the arguments she’d had with her man about Keanu being among them. Attu had heard enough to know much more had probably passed between the two of them even before Veshria had lost her mind to guilt over her child’s death, blaming Keanu for it.
But Ganik was alive this night because of Keanu. And Veshria would never feel the same again about Keanu, or about anyone with Gifts, I hope, Attu mused.
“We have also thanked Soantek,” Rusik added. “It is hard for us to understand why Attuanin obeyed his wishes and calmed the waves, but we know he did.”
It was a mystery to Attu as well, that Nuvik and Nukeena beliefs could exist side by side in this ever-expanding world of Nuvikuan-na. His people had seen so much since they’d headed out over the Expanse to find the land Elder Tovut had promised them. So many new people and so many different ways of believing. It was a great mystery to Attu how the spirits worked among them all. But Soantek had calmed the water. Of that, Attu had no doubt.
Attu smiled at Rusik and Veshria and took another sip of his drink.
The winds and waves had both died down, and the Clan made good progress for the next several days. “I think we are nearing the broken rocks of the bay,” Rovek said one afternoon as the Clan was watching for a place to camp for the night. “This area looks very familiar. I think mid sun tomorrow.”
Attu could hear the excitement in his voice. It mirrored his own. Word spread. Everyone talked, planning, telling each other what they wanted to do first when they got to their new home and where they wished to explore. It felt good to be almost there. Attu found himself praying, as he had been doing so much along this journey, for safety for his people and to find this new place a place of safety and abundance, where his people could live out their lives in plenty and in peace. And he prayed that what he’d seen in the future would never come to pass.
Late that afternoon, Suka spied a good place to camp, and Attu called a halt for the day. The weather was mild and dry. After the days of rain, it was a welcome evening, and with the excitement of the next day on everyone’s mind, the camp was as busy as a school of minnow fish, darting first this way, then the other. Children ran, calling to each other in their games, women washed a few garments, hanging them in the breeze to dry, and a few of the hunters went into the woods nearby, coming back with a small animal like a paddle antler, but with thin sharp horns. It was light brown, and the women said its hide would be very soft when cured.
“I wonder if there are more of these in the forest near the Broken Rock Bay,” Bashoo said. “Sabotta!” he said later, upon tasting the meat. “Good!”
The animal was split among the families, and everyone pronounced the flesh “good to eat, if a bit dry,” as Meavu had put it.
“Blended with some fat from a nuknuk, it would be very tasty,” Yural added, and the women discussed ways to cook this new meat, while others marveled over the short brown hair on the animal’s hide and what they might use such a hide for.
“Practice?” Keanu asked as they sat later by the fire.
“No. Rika said her back was hurting again. I need to see that she’s comfortable for sleeping.” Attu hurried away. He was in a good mood this night and didn’t want to ruin it by having Keanu spear his ‘leaky’ thoughts over and over again.
She nodded and turned to Soantek. Attu pushed back his jealousy toward this Nukeena hunter who would soon be bonded to Keanu and become a member of Attu’s Clan, and who seemed to have such control over his own thoughts.
“It’s a good thing,” Attu told himself, then concentrated on trying to think up new ways to make his woman sleep without their poolik kicking her and keeping her awake all night.
“There must be something I can do.”
They set out the next morning, skin boats in a line, some mingling beside others then dropping back. Attu and Rika were last, as usual, Tingiyok first in his craft with Nuka, followed by Suka and Farnook. Bashoo followed closely behind with Suanu and the baby. Meavu and Rovek were in the middle with the rest of the skin boats, including Rusik and his family and Soantek and Keanu.
At almost mid sun, a Nukeena whoop rang out over the water, followed by the sound of Attu’s people picking up their ululation call. Attu and Rika paddled faster, closing the gap between their skin boat and the rest.
“Up ahead,” Rovek called back. “We can’t see it yet, but the others say the bay is just around that last point.”
“Finally!” Rika said. “Finally, we will be home!” She paddled faster, splashing water in her hurry.
“The bay isn’t going anywhere,” Attu teased, but he paddled faster as well.
They were drawing even with the cluster of skin boats about to round the peninsula when Tingiyok’s mental cry seared Attu’s brain. Rika yelped and put her hands to her ears as if she could shield herself from his mental shouting.
Killer whale fish!
Attu felt his stomach lurch as Tingiyok’s mental shout cut him like one of the Nukeena’s iron stone knives.
“Killer whale fish!” Attu’s people shouted. And with their shouting, panic overtook several of the hunters, and they paddled furiously toward the shore, their only thought to get out of the water before the killer whale fish could reach them.
Everyone had heard the stories.
Everyone knew what would happen next.
Attu turned. Soantek’s face was pale. He grabbed up his paddle and stroked like a mad man, causing the craft he and Keanu were in to careen wildly to the left and right, letting water in at the sides. The craft wasn’t sturdy to begin with...
“Stop it!” Attu said. “We must not panic!”
“Stop paddling!” Farnook yelled. “Bashoo says it’s our only chance. See, the young are feeding along the shore. The others are protecting them. We are a threat if we continue moving toward their young.”
“Stop!” Ubantu yelled as Rusik kept paddling toward shore, right into the midst of where the young killer whale fish were feeding. Veshria was screaming, and Rusik couldn’t hear the rest of them as he moved into increasing danger.
“Quiet!” Tingiyok’s voice echoed over the water. It faded to silence. No one moved. Paddles were raised, balancing on the knees of the men and women. Even the children were quiet. Within a few waves, the boats appeared to be drifting like dead trees taken out to sea in a storm, floating on the water.
It won’t be enough, Tingiyok mind spoke. See, they are starting to circle.
Keanu? Attu asked what Keanu must already know she must attempt.
I’m trying. Their minds are difficult to penetrate. They are very intelligent. Their wills are strong... I can’t...
Attu couldn’t hear anything now. He knew Keanu was trying. He knew she would work to make the killer whale fish stop their attack.
Have them simply lose interest in us, move down the shoreline to the south, Attu thought.
She will, Rika said.
Attu! Attu turned to where Farnook had risked raising her a
rm, pointing at Rusik and his family’s skin boat. A huge killer whale fish had blocked their path to the shore, and now the others circled the craft. The Clan watched in horror as the boat tossed in the center of the circling killer whale fish, riding on the tumult of waves coming at them from all directions.
Keanu! Attu shouted. Do something!
The killer whale fish circled more closely. Any moment now and one would rise up out of the water, crash down on that little skin boat, and plunge the hunter and his woman and his two younger children into the depths of the ocean where they would be eaten. Then those same animals would turn on the rest of them.
My people are about to die, and I’m doing nothing to stop it.
Attu reached out with his mind toward the killer whale fish. He could feel Keanu pushing at the whale’s mind as if she were trying to roll a heavy rock up hill. But the whale still circled Rusik’s craft.
Attu! Rika shouted into his mind. No!
Attu heard her as if from a great distance as he threw his mind toward the largest of the killer whale fish, the one that seemed to be the leader.
Instantly, blackness surrounded him. His connection to Keanu’s mind was gone, and Attu felt an urge to kill. Bubbles, not his mental bubble, but real bubbles, were rising all around him. He knew what the killer whale fish was thinking. He was the king of all of his kind, and no one was going to hurt his young.
No! Attu shouted into the killer whale fish’s mind. Don’t touch them. Swim away.
But Attu felt himself rising up, readying himself to crush these small creatures who thought they could swim here in that funny, flat, smelly way and get near his sons and daughters. Attu could feel his own thoughts brushing against the killer whale’s thoughts like a light wind against a full-blown gale.
Move in. Kill them all.
Attu heard the killer whale fish’s thoughts. He knew he needed to turn the whale fish away from the skin boats, but his own thoughts were becoming confused.
Kill the intruders.
No, he was Clan leader of the people, not the whale fishes.
Protect my Clan from the intruders.
Who is the threat here? The whale fish? Or the people? Attu struggled within the whale fish’s mind. The people. Why am I trying to protect them?
Because they are your people! Attu recognized Keanu’s voice and came back to himself.
Keanu!
Attu, get out of this mind. It’s too dangerous!
Attu felt Keanu’s frustration as she pushed at the killer whale’s mind but couldn’t seem to influence it. He knew she was not going to be able to do this without his help, and she knew it, too.
Strengthen my power with your own, Keanu directed him. Push your will at the leader like I’m doing. Together, maybe we can turn him.
Swim away. Attu felt himself again, strong behind his mental bubble. He was the leader of his people, and he must convince the leader of these underwater creatures that the humans knew best.
Tell him a wind rises to the west and brings a great school of sunset fish, Keanu’s voice urged him. Soantek brings them with the spirit of the water.
Fish. He called into the leader’s mind. Good fish. He sent a picture of the sunset fish swimming rapidly toward the shore, just to the south of where the killer whale fish now circled the small skin boat. Call your children. Smell the fish. He could feel his mind and Keanu’s, joined and pushing, beginning to influence the killer whale fish’s thoughts.
He is too strong for us to control his will, but if we can push this alternate opportunity for food at him strongly enough... Attu felt Keanu straining with the effort. He pushed even harder and felt the killer whale fish starting to consider this new idea. Attu sensed the whale fish smelling the oncoming rush of sunset fish.
Attu felt a niggling within himself, like a memory. The taste of human flesh. It was tough. And humans smelled bad.
Attu gagged as the memory of human slaughter began playing in his mind. He almost pulled away from it. But Attu forced himself to stay with the whale fish. He felt Keanu’s presence as together they strengthened the leader’s thoughts about the tasty sunset fish and the toughness of humans, even as the whale fish was remembering killing the humans and eating them. The blood. The carnage...
Then suddenly he felt a mental snap as Keanu’s mind rushed past him, and he had a sudden image of her, back in the skin boat, being violently sick over the side.
Attu. He heard her calling to his mind, weakly. Then nothing.
Attu felt his mental strength waning as he tried to continue to push the whale fish away from his people and toward the sunset fish.
I have to be sure we’ve succeeded.
Then Attu was no longer pushing, but he was being drawn to the sunset fish, desired the sunset fish.
No. I am not a killer whale fish.
Attu...
Keanu? Who called to me? Why are you calling? Why do you need me now, when there are fish to catch?
Attu.
What a strange sound. It echoed like the calls to his women and children. He heard it again. And then it was gone.
Without another thought of the humans, Attu the killer whale fish dove deep, calling out to his people to leave this game and swim with him where the better game lay. He heard the answering cries of his women, his younger ones, and with each cry, Attu saw a mental image of the one who called. And he knew each one. He led them to the sunset fish.
Oh, sweet fish! Attu the whale fish ate and ate and ate until his stomach could hold no more. He swam back, giving the younger ones their turns. He looked with pride upon his Clan.
I am strong! We are strong!
When everyone had eaten their fill, Attu, leader of the killer whale fish, called again, a long high-pitched call, filled with all his feelings of pride and happiness. He turned and started swimming slowly back out to sea.
Back out to sea... Something is wrong with swimming back out into the deep deep waters of Attuanin’s world. Relying on his instinct as he always did, Attu, the leader of the greatest Clan of killer whale fish ever to swim in the great wet, swam along the shore instead, near the large broken rocks at the edge of the large bay. They swam and they ate and they slept when it grew dark, then swam some more. And Attu the killer whale fish lost all sense of time. Life was light and dark and eating the fish and protecting his Clan. That was all. That was enough.
Chapter 23
It was another time of brightness, the waves far from shore sparkled, and Attu the killer whale fish had the urge again to swim with his Clan out into the deep waters far below the shining waves. He had a memory of some large prey he enjoyed hunting there, prey that dove deep when the waves were glistening, deep swimmers with sharp teeth, but no match for his hunting skills. To hunt them would be exciting. It would teach his children. It would help them grow strong.
He called to his people and swam for the deep. But as he swam, a thought began niggling at the back of his mind. There was something wrong, again. Something he should know...
Attu!
Attu felt a sudden jerk and realized he was aware of himself once again, back in the protective bubble of his own mental power.
I’m still in the killer whale fish!
Attu felt the great mind of the killer whale fish surrounding him as if he were a small hide ball floating on the great ocean. And surrounding the killer whale fish was a greater mind, a mind that encompassed the ocean itself.
Attuanin? Attu tentatively whispered the name that had popped into his mind, the name of the great spirit, ruler of all the ocean. The name of the only being Attu could imagine could be as great as the entire ocean.
Yes. A voice like huge waves rolled into Attu’s mind. Attu felt, rather than heard, this answer, and the being it came from was like no other Attu had ever encountered. There was strength in this being, great strength that far surpassed the tremendous strength he felt within the whale’s body. And there was a patience in this mind, a presence of unchanging will, as if as many
Nuvik hunters as there were stars in the sky had resolved to wait over the nuknuk hole for the resurfacing game, even if it took an eternity of unblinking stillness before they gained their quarry.
Attu. Listen.
Attu knew the whale fish was somehow strengthening him so he could listen to the voice of his spirit namesake. Attu felt like he had never really understood anything about the spirits of Nuvikuan-na before this moment. He had just been a child, playing at believing in them. Now he knew better.
Then the killer whale fish’s mind flashed a memory at him, a memory from his own mind, of a time when another great whale had risen up from the ocean, looked Attu in the eye, and slapped its tail at him, sending the ice hunk he and Rika were on careening toward the shore.
He knows you deem him and all of his brother whale fishes as worthy hunters. He saw the memories while your mind was lost in his. Attu saw himself striking his spear across his chest, dropping his head in respect.
Attu was overwhelmed. He mentally prostrated himself before the great spirit of Attuanin and the whale, hoping they could both see it.
He felt their approval.
And then it was as if the killer whale fish were the one communicating with Attu, and Attuanin was listening. Attu felt the whale’s presence pressing against his mental bubble, but not breaking it. The killer whale pushed, and Attu felt the leader’s encouragement for him to push back. So he did. Attu felt the whale fish’s approval. Then the leader pushed again.
This is how you maintain your protection within the mind of an animal as powerful as he is. Attuanin was speaking now. This is what your push must feel like.
Attu tried it again, and the whale pushed back. He could feel the whale’s reaction if he pushed too hard, and he felt the pressure of the whale’s thoughts, painful on the edges of his consciousness, if he didn’t hold his mental bubble strongly enough. A few more times and Attu felt a sense of balance between his mind and the whale’s.
You must enter the minds of all other beings with respect. Do not push too much, just enough to gain an equal place with them, as you have gained with this great leader whale. With your initial push into any creature’s mind, you must think about the honor you feel for the animal. As you enter its mind, explain to it that you are not there to hurt it.
