by Gabi Moore
Finding a safe camp was a little longer in doing. In the end, their group settled below a shallow outcropping. Another avalanche would hopefully tumble safely over them, if it came to that. All of them hoped in silent unison that it didn’t come to that.
They’d built the largest fire they could manage, and combined the two tents into one larger one. It wasn’t quite as effective as two smaller ones; there were large gaps in the hide walls. But they allowed entry and exit, and were fairly easily covered. Besides, with the fire inside the shelter, heat was plenty. They had all removed their outer layers within an hour of settling in, and the rest were going piece by piece. Soon the little chamber was warm enough for all of them to sit about in their inner cloth layers. The aim was to keep the ones who had nearly been buried alive warm. There was no telling if one had taken sick from such circumstances, but the best thing was to help prevent it.
For almost having died, their mood was rather jovial. Perhaps it was the breaking of tension, or the feeling of immense luck. There was more joking and laughing around their fire that night than there had been in weeks, and when Rell and Laova sat together to complete the ritual part of the evening, even their stoic Hunt Leader was grinning like a girl.
“Well, what did you learn today, Laova?”
“I learned that avalanches are a lot faster than I am.”
Laughter answered this response; Laova caught herself gazing at Nemlach. She loved to see him laugh. Rell nodded. “Yes, they are. Anything else?”
“In such a circumstance, it’s best to find a rocky shelter, if I can. If not, swim with it. Climbing a tree can be… risky.”
More chuckles, and Rell smiled. “I’m glad that lesson was well-learned.”
“I also learned that an avalanche is devastating to a successful hunt,” Laova continued.
There was no laughter this time, all grew still. Rell looked at her seriously.
“What do you mean?”
“A wise huntress knows when a hunt is over,” Laova replied. She looked around. “I believe it’s time to move on. The tracks of the wolf are fully lost, if it survived the avalanche at all. Even a mountain wolf has its limits. If it ran, it could be miles away in any direction by now. And there’s no way to figure out which.
“But, there are still a few days of the long night left, and if we head down soon, we can bring down a buck elk, or something that lives somewhere where avalanches don’t reach so easily.”
She gave a sad smile. “A wise huntress doesn’t waste her time. She doesn’t waste her fellow hunters’ time. She does what’s best for the group, and for the village. My life, our life.”
Laova looked up at Nemlach; his face was blank with surprise. Rell recovered first, and took Laova’s hand.
“That is the wisest thing I have ever heard you say,” she breathed.
Without warning, she reached out and drew Laova into an embrace. Shocked, Laova hugged her back, looking around to see if this was normal behavior. Rell drew back and held Laova at arm’s length.
“Welcome our new hunter,” she announced. “It’s rare that one so spirited can also see the greater good. It’s rare that one so young can choose what’s best for her clan. It would have been a great thing for you to slay a mountain wolf on your first hunt, Laova. But believe me when I say, it’s greater still to let it go for the safety of your brothers and sisters.”
It was dawning on her; Laova began to grin, looking around.
“You’re one of us, Laova,” Rell told her. “For life.”
She reached out a hand. Laova took it, tears welling up in her eyes. Rell and Laova both kissed the back of each other’s knuckles fiercely.
“Laova the Hunter!” Khara shouted to loud approval from the others. Nemlach was smiling, also, now, and moved closer to pull Laova again into his arms.
No one noticed Taren. He watched uncertainly, smiling but not joyous. He watched Laova’s face, watched her kiss Nemlach and smile for the others. He noted the stiffness of her eyes, the careful motion of her limbs. The way she kept tossing back her hair, and how her pale face had whitened even further.
And the tears. That was unlike her. True, much of what she’d done lately was unlike her, but still, something was amiss.
Taren let them celebrate. There was no need to draw attention yet. He’d wait for Laova to move first.
Chapter 8
The trees were few, now. There was little to block the vision of the glowing sky and the bands of waving color. Vivid color rained down on her and reflected off the snow.
“Why are you calling me?” she asked. The figure was closer now. Perhaps close enough to hear her. But the wind was blowing the wrong way. Her voice surely didn’t carry up against it.
She stumbled on through snow that was up to her knees. If she followed the footsteps of the figure ahead, it was a little shallower, but she still couldn’t seem to close the distance by more than a pace or two.
Even now, with the sky circling her on all sides, Laova couldn’t feel the cold. The air seemed no more or less full here than below, as if she weren’t practically on top of the world. Stars gleamed through the ghostly lights above. She knew them well, because they were the same ones she saw in the waking world.
The wolf padded back and forth through the trees around her. She felt no fear at all for his presence now. He’d gotten her this far, and would continue to aid her.
“Wait!” she called. The figure might have slowed; she couldn’t make out a single feature, not from all the way down here. He, she, it. Laova could just barely discern the flexing steps of long legs pushing stubbornly up the increasing slope. “Wait!”
It slowed this time, she knew.
“I’m trying to reach you!” she shouted, oblivious to the threat of avalanche. It seemed impossible here. Perhaps it was.
And again, no answer in words. The god lights swirled onward as the figure bent back into the work of ascent. But on the air floated a reply, a feeling, an instinct.
You’re almost here. Come to me.
***
Laova woke to the feeling of another body near, very near.
For a moment, she was afraid it was Taren. But then, the lips at her collarbone were bearded, and she knew Nemlach’s scent well enough by now to recognize it instantly. She sighed happily and ran her fingers through his hair.
In response, Nemlach’s hands slipped to her waist. He hooked a finger in the ties of her trousers and tugged their ties loose. They felt insecurely draped across her hips, now, and Laova’s heart raced as he dragged them lower by miniscule notches.
Her entire body wanted this; the racing of her heart pumped hot blood through her veins, making the place between her legs, where Nemlach was drawing closer and closer to, burn. Her skin was alive with sensation.
Nemlach leaned over her. With one hand, he still teased the waist of her trousers lower. With the other, he reached up and exposed one breast, then the other.
Laova gasped, but her breath caught in her lungs altogether when Nemlach lowered his mouth to her chest and took one nipple gently between his lips and teeth. His hair fell over the other, teasing it ecstatically, wildly, obliterating every Laova thought she knew about mating. About men and women. About life, maybe.
She was shaking so badly, she hardly heard the awkward cough of Bamet, two feet away.
Nauseating embarrassment turned her desire sour. Nemlach saw it immediately and chuckled.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” he whispered in her ear. “He and Khara used to fool around, before she got married.”
“We don’t talk about that,” Bamet hissed briefly. After this outburst, he immediately fell back and continued to feign sleep.
“See?” Nemlach lowered his mouth back to her breast, and Laova drew a sharp intake of breath.
“Wait.” She stopped him. Nemlach looked up, waiting.
Laova tried to formulate words around what she felt. On the one hand, she knew this was normal for the hunters. On the o
ther, she didn’t really want to start out her sexual life with an audience. Did anyone want that? She didn’t think it was so much to ask for privacy. Moreover, Bamet was within arm’s reach, and Taren was just around the campfire. Laova didn’t even want to think of the scene if he woke up and saw her and Nemlach copulating like rabbits in the corner.
“I…” she leaned up to whisper to Nemlach. “I’ve never done this before. And Taren… I’m worried he’ll…” Laova trailed off. She didn’t know any other way to say it. She was expecting Taren to be childish about this.
Nemlach nodded; it was only now that Laova realized he was sweating, and his breath was raking in a little shallow. Laova felt his cheeks and forehead. “Are you all right?”
He nodded again, and rested his weight next to her. As he did, his groin pressed against her thigh, and Laova realized for the first time how… immensely aroused he was. And she wished Taren could be counted upon to be less of a child.
“Nemlach?”
“Hmm?”
Laova reached down and caressed the bulge in his trousers. She felt the shape and size of it through the material. Every touch seemed to pleasure him, so touch him she did. It wasn’t until he held her close, burying his face in her neck that she paused.
“Nemlach, your face is hot.” She felt his forehead and neck again. “You have a fever.”
“I’m fine—keep going,” Nemlach rasped.
Laova was tempted to, but concern was beginning to elevate into alarm. His eyes were bright and glassy in the dying firelight.
“Rell?” Laova called. Nemlach tried to stop her, but Laova shook him off irritably. “Rell, Nemlach’s feverish.”
The Hunt Leader roused awake, blinking.
“There’s no need for this,” Nemlach tried to protest.
“You’re just saying that because now you aren’t getting any loving from your woman, here,” Bamet teased him as they made Nemlach lay with his feet closer to the fire. Khara went out and brought more wood to lay across it, most of it abysmally fresh. It took some time to catch properly. “Any other night, you’d know better.”
Nemlach grumbled but didn’t argue, this time.
“Get some snow, Laova.”
With one of their packs, they arranged a pillow of snow for Nemlach’s neck. He clenched his teeth and his fists when they laid snow on his forehead, but didn’t try to move.
“Dammit that’s cold,” he muttered. Laova had never heard him curse before; her heart went out to him, but she kept the snow fresh, anyway, more concerned that the fever might rise.
Thankfully, it did not. This was lucky; he’d probably die up here, with hardly any supplies, in a temporary shelter, if his body grew any hotter. Laova tried not to think about that.
“It’s a good thing you were already awake, isn’t it?” Khara chuckled.
Laova rolled her eyes; she’d grown accustomed to the teasing already, and they hadn’t even lain together yet.
Hours passed, and Nemlach’s low fever disappeared before long. Laova sat up for a while, watching him. But as the night drew on and the others fell deeply into slumber, she looked out the tent flap, out into the night, thinking, praying, planning.
***
Nemlach stretched awake, feeling cold.
The darkness was everywhere; the fire was low, as there was no one tending to it. That was strange. Laova had been sitting up last, but that had been hours ago. Surely someone had relieved her by now.
The tent flap rustled and Nemlach looked up to see Ghal struggling through with an armful of firewood.
She must be sleeping then, he reasoned. Nemlach felt about beside him. The space was empty and cool. How long had she been gone?
He sat up and looked around the tent, but didn’t see her. “Where’s Laova?”
Ghal looked up from poking at the fire-coals. “She went out with me to find firewood. Should be back any minute now.”
Nemlach relaxed back. His mind, however, was not settled.
“How long ago?”
“Not too long. We went out at the same time. Too soon to be worried, I’d say.”
Nemlach looked around, trying to place why he felt so anxious. Something was wrong. Maybe it was merely the bone-cold place where she was supposed to be laying, next to him. His eyes landed on his pack.
“Where’s Laova’s pack? And her bow?”
Ghal stared at him, confused. Understanding dawned over his gray face, and he and Nemlach came to same conclusion at once.
Laova had left, and taken her gear.
“Rell!” Nemlach shook her awake, still clad in only his trousers. He couldn’t imagine why Laova had left, and it was making him frantic. Rell sat up, clearly annoyed to be awoken in a dither twice in one sleep.
“What?”
“Laova’s gone.”
“What!”
Rell leapt to her feet. Khara and Bamet were awake, now. They all stood around, trying to puzzle out why she might have left; in the end, it was clear that whatever she was doing was ill-advised. There were still several nights to go before sunlight would return, and after one avalanche, another was not hard to imagine. There were mountain wolves, pitfalls, ravines. Nemlach was growing clearly agitated by the time Rell glanced once more around the tent.
“Dammit,” she hissed. “Now where’s Taren gone?”
Ghal swore Taren had been lying by the fire when he and Laova had exited the tent. Rell looked at Nemlach.
“Do you think they might have left together?” she asked.
The question caught Nemlach off-guard. The others looked at him sheepishly, and he glared back.
“They might have,” he admitted. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Whether or not it means anything, two younglings are out in the dark and the snow, and I’ll tell you, it’s picking up,” Ghal interrupted. “When I went to get firewood, the snow was coming down, but not like this.”
They all peered outside. Ghal’s light snowfall had thickened into a blinding flurry.
“I’m going to find her,” Nemlach announced.
As one, the group turned a stare both incredulous and admiring—in varying balances—to Nemlach. Rell was the first to recover.
“You’ll never be able to follow her tracks in this snow. I can’t let you kill yourself out in this storm.” Rell exhaled and shook her head tiredly. “There’s nothing you can accomplish except throw your life away.”
“So we let two young hunters die as we hide in our safe little enclave?” Nemlach asked quietly.
Rell bristled, her red hair almost visibly rising. “Going out alone in the dark in the mountains in the snow is foolish enough,” she snapped. “Going out in a snow storm is something different entirely. I don’t pretend to know what in this world made Laova leave the tent by herself. On the other hand, it’s clear Taren followed her. Or maybe they left together. Maybe they planned to meet out in private.”
Nemlach’s stomach flipped and a wave of flushed dizziness assaulted his senses. He was still a little unsteady, and the picture in his mind of Laova going with Taren, of secretly stealing away with him like hushed lovers, was threatening to bring on a whole different kind of fever. It hadn’t happened that way. Even Ghal confirmed Laova had left on her own. Taren had clearly followed her, because unlike Nemlach, Taren had been healthy and awake enough to notice her leave. Because unlike Ghal, Taren had been wary enough to see her collect her belongings before she departed.
If it had been Nemlach, he would have stopped her, not followed her. A writhing, wiggling doubt wormed through his thoughts, and Nemlach tried to bat it away. Laova had been hesitant to mate with him because she was shy. And also, because Taren was within hearing distance.
“That isn’t what happened,” Nemlach insisted, calm and rational, even as his mind did cartwheels and odd sideways jerks and tried to right itself while all the time, the thought of Laova in Taren’s arms was bringing his usually cool blood to a simmer. “You know how he is. He must have seen her
leave and followed her out.”
“Why follow her?” Khara asked, exactly as Nemlach wished she wouldn’t. “He should have stopped her.”
“Maybe he heard what she was saying in her sleep,” Bamet suggested.
They all looked at him. He looked back.
“What?” he shrugged. “I thought all of you heard it, too. But then, she was really just whispering…”
“What did she say?” Nemlach swallowed, his throat muscles working against the dryness. He was a patient man. He’d never had a natural inclination to rush anything. But this… he felt like if Bamet didn’t speed it up, he might just shake the words out of him.
Bamet spread his hands. “She was just whispering things like, ‘I’m coming’ and ‘wait for me’ and I heard a lot of ‘why’s’ and so on, but I thought she was just dreaming.”
Nemlach could almost feel Rell go very still, very tense beside him.
“A wolf,” she muttered wryly. Nemlach glanced at her carefully; her expression was neither happy nor understanding. Her eyes were hard and blazing as she glared around the shrunken group. “It seems we’ve come to Star-Reach for more than hunting a wolf.”
Chapter 9
The wind was deafening, drowning. Laova had to fight just to stay upright, forget making any progress.
She hiked through the trees; they provided some shelter from the snow—a growing storm, surely—but her steps were achingly small and staggering. She thought it might help to rest and wait for the snow to subside, but she feared to stop. She’d revealed herself to the others, and by now they would have discovered her treachery.
Laova’s heart twisted. They wouldn’t know why she was gone, but Rell wouldn’t let any of them go out alone after her. Not after the freezing death of Rell’s husband. She was notoriously cautious of snow storms ever since. Rell would keep them all safe in the shelter, perhaps even long enough for Laova to do what was needed at Star-Reach and return. To try to explain.
A sob slipped out of her, quite surprising Laova, who hadn’t realized she was crying. Nemlach would wake from his fever dreams to discover her gone. What would he think? Would he worry himself back into another fever? Laova hoped and prayed not. It was all she could do now.
