Canis was taken to the house of Capella and her husbands, Almach and Auriga. Having just married, her house had the most space, and with winter coming hard on his heels, Canis didn’t have to tell them that he would need a place to stay for the winter; no one went for long trips during the winter.
Salt Lake Clan
Little of the meat from his kill remained to be brought into his new, if temporary, home, but what he did bring, he offered to his new hostess for their next meal; he was after all bringing four extra mouths into the house unannounced.
This was graciously accepted. Almach showed him where he could stow his sled and tools, and then took him into their home where he showed him where he could put the rest of his gear.
The house was not made out of wood like the other clans’ homes had been since there were no trees around big enough or straight enough for anything other than firewood, or perhaps tools and furniture. These houses were made out of stone. Like all the clan homes, this one had two stories. The main working area was on the upper floor while sleeping, eating, and cooking were all done on the lower floor below ground level.
Since the bitter winter winds always came from the north, all the houses in the village faced south. To conserve as much heat as possible, there were no openings at all other than the door located on the south side. The roof was slanted down to the ground on the north side, thereby diminishing the chances of the bitter wind taking the roof with it in passing. This design also created a storage place for things like the sleds and other items that might be useful in making tools or furniture. The eves on the south side extended almost six feet beyond the south wall of the house. This kept the snow that drifted in on the lee side of the house from blocking the door.
Four to seven houses were arranged in five neat rows along main pathways that led down to the river that fed into the lake. The lake itself was a wonder to Canis. He had seen running water wherever he went during the summer, but if it wasn’t running, it was frozen, and most calm water was frozen solid year around with any incoming water simply adding to the volume of ice in the area. This was the first body of liquid water Canis had seen since coming into the mountains. It was full of ice, but none of it was larger than a man’s fist and it floated in thick brine that refused freezing in all, but the coldest weather.
Despite protests to the contrary, Canis insisted on accompanying Almach on his next hunting trip. If he was going to be dipping into their supplies, the least he could do was contribute to them. Hunting trips from this clan were different from those of the Yellowstone Clan in that the hunting parties consisted of men from every house and they hunted herds, bringing down only enough to fill all of their sleds and no more.
During this first hunt, Canis had to force his own shot by not going where he was told to go, which is not where the game would go. His shots were telling and the hunt was finished that much sooner.
That evening, over the campfire, Canis learned some of the reason behind his new friends’ protective actions.
“You are our honored guest,” said Almach. “We didn’t want to put you in a position where you might be injured.”
“Why? I may be young, but I am an accomplished hunter. I have been hunting as head of my house for over four years. I do not need any more protection than any other hunter,” said Canis.
The men who sat across the fire from him couldn’t hide their discomfort.
“You don’t understand,” said Almach. “You are honored.”
“Honored for what? I am clan. I will hunt. I am not a child who needs to stay home until I am big enough to pull a bow. I have been using my father’s bow for two years now, and I even used it once two years before that. I am no weakling.” He did not tell them the story of the bear fearing they would ‘honor’ him even more.
The men looked even more uneasy, especially when the youngest of them, a fourteen year old by the name of Saiph, a nephew of Almach’s, blurted, “The legends said she would return to us one day, but we always assumed she would be a woman.”
“She? Who is this ‘she’? I have never been here before?” said Canis.
The ice had been broken. “Of course you’ve not been here before,” said Almach. “She has been dead for many, many generations. She was a small child when the first of us was set free under the stars. She taught us to build houses. She taught us to hunt and gather in preparation for the starving months. If it were not for her, we would have become little more than another wolf rolling up in a fur at night and following the hunt by day. If it were not for her, the starving months would have claimed us all long ago.”
“This is all very commendable, but I do not see how you could connect any of this to me.”
“You look like her. You could be her son,” said Saiph.
“We will take you to see her when we return,” said Almach.
“I look like her? How is this possible?” said Canis, he was definitely curious.
“We will take you to see Debhe. She’s our legends keeper. She can tell you the whole story,” said Almach.
True to his word, Almach took Canis to see the oldest woman in the clan, Debhe. She was a woman of only thirty some years, but like most of the people of the clan, the hard life seemed to shorten their life span. If nothing else happened to her, she would likely die of old age before her youngest daughter claimed her mates.
Debhe’s house was located at the farthest end of the third street from the north. These end houses were closest to the low cliffs that followed the river and offered another buffer against the brutal winter winds.
When news that the stranger was being taken to hear the legends reached the rest of the village, many of the others came too. The people all loved hearing the legend.
As soon as everyone had made themselves comfortable around the hearth and grew quiet, Debhe started the story. “When the first of us came into being, we were kept in separate rooms, not unlike our sleeping rooms, but we were kept…alone. The men who kept us did not know about our need to join with the companions who made us whole, so they were kept in another area and other than knowing of their existence, we never saw them. We were fed. We were housed and we were kept healthy, and yet we died before reaching the age of adult. We were taught many things about fighting and hunting, but the men who kept us were not happy with us. As children, we were not good enough.
“There was one man there who taught us other things. This man, called Brian, a name we must never forget, taught us compassion and tenderness. He taught us laughter and love. It pained him to see us struggle to speak to our teachers, but with him, it did not matter what we could, or could not, say. None of our problems mattered to him. He loved us all and showed us as much all the time he was with us. It is said that we learned as much or more from Brian as we did from all the other teachers put together. We all looked up to him like a father, though none of us knew what a father was then.
“One day, the sky started to fall and the ground began to shake – some among us believed that the stars we take our names from came down to punish those who imprisoned us – the great house where we were kept began to fall in upon itself. We were all so afraid. We were all going to die there in the darkness and loneliness.
“The man, Brian, he came to us. He braved the crumbling building to set us free, though the building claimed him for his efforts. We found our companions and left the clutches of the building. Some of us were suffering from the fevered death and many of us were still very small, but we brought us all out of that place and headed away from the people who had imprisoned us. We headed into the mountains, into the darkness and away from the stars that rested on the ground.
“Our path led us to his home where we found her, his daughter. Because of our love for Brian, we took her with us. She was such a lovely child.” Debhe paused in her story to reach out and touch Canis’s hair. “She even had this,” she touched the stone between Canis’s eyebrows. “Though hers was not hard nor was it white.”
After a pause whe
re Debhe gazed at him with a soft expression in her eyes, she said, “Come, we will visit her. I will continue the story there.”
She led them toward a thick hanging covering the eastern wall. The hanging was made out of a hide like he had brought into camp with him, but this one had been stitched and decorated extensively with colorful, shiny stones and equally shiny metals of all sorts. The effect was quite exotic and one could study it for hours and still be fascinated by its shiny patterns.
Debhe lifted the heavy hide aside to reveal a short tunnel leading off into the dark. An old man who might have been Debhe’s mate picked up a lamp and led the way. The tunnel led off under the cliff that bordered the village. Several hundred yards later, it opened up into a sizable room chiseled out of the frozen rock.
Scattered around the chamber were several tables, all of which had been lovingly made and intricately carved and polished. Displayed on these tables were many different things. There were more of the shiny stones, polished bones, and bits of metal. There were small things of all sorts, carved from pieces of wood that were twisted into intricate knots to begin with.
Many of the things carefully scattered across some of the tables had to be favorite toys of childhood and favorite tools of adulthood. There were the tools she had used for cooking and other work she had done as an adult. There were things she had used for painting, dying and even for carving. Among these things were many of the items she had created. She had been quite an artist. There were charcoal drawings of her friends, their homes, and their life. There was a striking painting of a man with silver white hair and pale blue eyes. If it weren’t for the hair, Canis could have been looking into a mirror of his own future. He had a sharp nose and wide cheekbones, but he knew that the profile would be just like Orion’s had been. The eyes were expressive and echoed of love for the painter and they were just as ice blue as his own. The mouth was the only other visible difference. The mouth of the man in the painting held a mischievous quirk at the corner that spoke of fun and play. Canis had never known much fun or play, and he seldom smiled.
Canis was shaken and yet mesmerized by that painting, so much so that he jumped when Debhe touched his elbow and guided him to the centerpiece of the chamber. “This is Angela,” she said simply. There, in what appeared to be a massive block of ice was a woman. She was old, but there was still a good deal of copper red left in the thick braid that rested down her breast. The ice blurred her features, but Canis thought he could see a resemblance to his mother. She might have looked much like this sleeping woman if she had lived longer and had a happier life.
Canis could pick out the smiling lines around her mouth and eyes. His mother had worry lines between her brows. There, between this woman’s brows, he saw the brown mark Debhe had spoken of. It almost looked like a thumbprint. Canis reached up and touched the white stone between his own brows.
Debhe brushed Canis’s hair behind his ear with a gentle caress and drew his attention back to her story. “It took us a long time to find this place. Somehow, we managed to miss the falling sky that smashed everything around us. With cloths over our faces, we struggled to breathe the dirt-filled air.
“As we traveled, those of us who had been ill from the lack of joining recovered their strength and were able to help with the hunting. Some of the youngest died; we just couldn’t care for them well enough. We didn’t want to mingle them with the humans who had imprisoned us. We decided to send them to the beautiful stars overhead, the stars that the humans had gone to such great pains to shut us away from, so we built great piles of wood and sent their souls up into the sky.
“While we traveled, we huddled together at night for warmth around the small fire we used to cook our meat. At first, most of us were willing to follow the example of our companions and tear our meat from the bones fresh from the kill, but she insisted on a fire where she cooked her portion. Angela refused to eat the meat uncooked. Many of the younger children followed her example; hot food is good when it is cold outside. By the time we reached this place, all of us were cooking our meat; it reminded us of Brian.
“By the time we reached this lake, the stars had ceased to fall, but the air was still filled with dust, and the nights were growing colder. At first, we sheltered in the remains of their battered down buildings, but that was only until we could build a place of our own here closer to fresh water.
“It took many years to build this place. This house was the first to be built and this chamber helped to house some of our numbers until stones could be brought in and more houses could be built. It took an entire summer to build one house so it was a long time before we all had houses of our own, and by then many of those who were babies when we came here were looking to make babies of their own.
“There were no children in Angela’s house, though, so she filled the emptiness with her drawings and paintings. She so loved to draw and paint, though only this much remains to show it.” She indicated the handful of drawings that were displayed among the other treasures.
“When the stars stopped pounding the ground, the clouds closed them off and the days grew colder. The winter snows stayed longer, hunting became harder, and our hunters were forced to range far in search of game. We lost many hunters in those days and despite our best efforts, we also lost many mothers to the months of starvation and they took their youngest children with them. We sent them all to find the stars. We hoped that, if they could find the stars and bring them back to us, we would be able to survive. They could also look after us from their lofty place among the glittering stars and help us find our way.
“Eventually they succeeded, and the stars came back to us. During the long cold winter, our numbers were reduced, but we became better hunters and gatherers. We followed Angela’s teachings and brought in enough to see us through the starving months and our numbers began to grow again.
“When the sun began to warm us again many generations later, some of us decided to divide our numbers. Hunting was very poor still and there were many mouths to feed. When this was agreed, the elders gathered together to decide which direction to go. It was decided that they would follow the brightest star in the sky for it must be her star, her soul watching over us. As you have discovered, young Canis, we have divided three different times since then and Angela has never led us wrong. Now she has brought you to us; you come away from her star. You are not Angela, but I believe you carry her soul and I know you bring us yet another gift.”
Canis looked back at the ageless woman imbedded in ice. She was perfectly preserved here. “You have sent all of your dead to the stars to watch over you. Why did you not do the same with her?” asked Canis, his hand wanted to touch her cheek, but there were too many inches of ice in the way.
“She was terrified of fire, especially the big fires we used to send our dead on their journey. She made her mate promise never to send her into the fire, so he placed her in the water until it froze, then he brought her out to rest here and surrounded her with all of the things she loved in life. This place stays cold and every winter we add to the ice so it will never melt away.
History in the Blood
The tale was finished and the villagers dispersed, leaving Canis standing in the chamber alone. Even Debhe left him to his thoughts. She didn’t notice that his hands were shaking and she didn’t see him sink to his knees as memories that were not his flooded his mind. Canis relived the story he had been told and found it coming to life for him as if it were something he had only to remember.
Canis remembered the crashing explosion when the meteor crushed his home. His mother had been in there fixing supper, daddy was due home soon; he always had such fascinating stories about the children where he worked. She liked hearing his stories. She wished he could bring them home with him.
Canis remembered being cold sitting on the rock. He was watching the mountain-sized fireballs fall from the sky throwing dirt and rock amazingly high into the air; then he saw movement on what was left of the road to their house
.
Canis remembered sitting on this very rock many times, waiting to spot her daddy’s car as he came home from work with new stories about the children he cared for, but it was late and what he saw was not her daddy’s car. Once he spotted one of the strangely moving spots, he could pick out others.
Canis remembered his deep smooth voice and his strong arms. He buried her face in his neck to hide from the falling sky. He was so terrified and fires were everywhere now. Avior’s strong arms protected her from all of it. He felt so safe close to him.
Canis remembered how they moved every day until they couldn’t go any farther, then they huddled together for warmth until they could go again. Game was plentiful and easy to come by. Creatures of all sorts were too panicked by the destruction around them to worry about a bunch of hungry kids or the pack of oversized wolves that roamed with them. Many creatures had been struck down and were already dead. Meat was plentiful; hunting the panicked animals wasn’t necessary, and the risk of separation was high.
Canis remembered watching in horror as her new friends fell upon a dead deer directly in their path killed perhaps only moments before by stray shrapnel from a nearby impact. Canis remembered the first and last time she had been afraid of Avior. He had fallen on the carcass with the others and the wolves. In minutes there was little left of it; it hadn’t been very big. He had looked up at her and his long face was covered with blood from the chunk of raw meat he was gnawing on with his suddenly very visible, very sharp teeth. Canis remembered the expression on his face when he saw that Brian’s daughter had eaten nothing. Out of respect for her and her father, they never let such a display happen again.
Half-Breed Page 21
