Half-Breed

by Anna L. Walls

  “What’s so important about that long knife? What good is it? Don’t get me wrong, I like to watch you do what you do with it, but other than that, I don’t see the point.”

  “The point is,” he explained, “where we are going, people use these against other people. It is their primary weapon. You should know how to use it in order to defend yourself.”

  “You mean to say the plainsmen fight each other?” said Cepheid.

  “Yes, they do,” Canis said, “and I do not want you to be defenseless.”

  As soon as she started to work with the sword, he could see that it fit her smaller hand far better than it fit his. He’d had that sword made for him when he was a child. He would have to buy another one as soon as they reached a town big enough to support a blacksmith who made swords.

  Crossing the Divide

  The day came when the mountains loomed over them and they would leave the tall trees behind, Canis went through their gear one last time. They would have to hunt again before they started up the last hard grade. He was running head long into winter and he didn’t want to count on hunting there if he didn’t have to. He wanted to be able to travel as fast and as hard as he could. The sooner they were back down into a more habitable altitude, the better he would feel.

  He checked his supplies to make more arrows. He made sure their bows and their snowshoes were in good repair. He sharpened their knives. They each had two furs to roll up in at night and even Rrusharr had one to lie on with her small family. That, cooking supplies, tools, and the meat from another kill would make for a very full sled, and from now on, they would be climbing hard.

  He looked up at the heights, would they need to take firewood too? Would they need to choose between heat and food?

  He took to shooting most anything that moved since it seemed they had left big game behind. If they didn’t eat it all, so much the better. Their pace was slowed with the climb and Cepheid took to helping to pull the sled. She wasn’t as strong as Canis by any means, but she helped.

  Just as Canis feared, they ran out of firewood. If there were any trees in the area, they were either buried under hundreds of feet of snow or had been broken away, who knows, nothing was visible above the vast expanse of white except the occasional rock that had been scoured clear of snow by the wind.

  They took to eating their meat much like the Wulfen did, though they let their portion bleed out on the snow and become partially frozen. It was in the stories and Cepheid was familiar with that, but she had never tried it before. She found the taste to be oddly invigorating, something she would fight over, well…perhaps. For Canis, it was merely a necessity.

  Inevitably, despite his best rationing, the time came when there was nothing more to eat and still they climbed. Cepheid fell behind as the trail narrowed through a ravine. Near dark, she slipped and fell, but she climbed to her feet again quickly. She fell again a few yards later, then again shortly after that.

  Canis stopped and let her catch up. “Are you all right?” he yelled over the howling wind.

  She nodded and yelled back, “I can’t feel my feet. I’ll be fine until we stop.”

  Canis didn’t say anything else. He unlaced her snowshoes and dropped them in the sled, then despite her protests, picked her up and carried her, looking for a place out of the cutting wind. Half a mile farther on, he found a small cleft that gave them some shelter.

  He set her down and pulled one of her boots off. What he saw horrified him. “How long has it been since you could feel your feet?”

  “I don’t know, last night I guess. I get warm at night.”

  They had long since started to share their sleeping furs in order to be warmer without a fire.

  Canis pulled her other boot off and threw them in the sled too. “Find us some shelter,” he whispered to the Wulfen.

  “We mustn’t stop here,” said Ggrrawrr.

  “I know. I just need a few hours out of this wind.”

  “This may be the best we have,” replied Ggrrawrr.

  “Maybe.” He pulled out the big tiger pelt and went back to Cepheid.

  She was crying. “I’ve done it, haven’t I? I’ve succeeded in messing things up. If it weren’t for me you’d be down on your plains by now.”

  “Stop crying. You are wasting water and it will freeze on your face. You have not made a mess of things. I did that. I checked everything with us except your boots. They were not made for this kind of cold. They were made for a woman who lived in a village.” He wrapped her up in the hide like she was a baby and picked her up again.

  Out in the wind again, she buried her face in his shoulder. He set her down for a moment while he slung the strap to the sled over his shoulders, then he picked her up again.

  He stopped only when he couldn’t see the trail any more. He spread out the other furs near the edge of the cliff wall and sat in the middle of them with Cepheid in his lap then he pulled the furs around both of them.

  He hadn’t intended to sleep. He’d intended to start moving again as soon as he could see the trail well enough not to lose it in the dark. He was wakened by Cepheid crying again.

  She had been trying her best to be quiet so Canis could get some rest. He had such dark circles under his eyes.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked and gave her the water skin.

  She pushed it away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you, but my feet hurt. They hurt a lot.”

  Canis frowned and pulled the fur open around her feet. They were angry, red, and swollen. He touched them then closed his eyes.

  When he opened his eyes again, the day was bright and Cepheid was sobbing openly. He was aware of holding her tightly and he let go abruptly, almost dropping her.

  She clutched at him and continued to sob, begging, “Please don’t do that again. It hurt so much, please don’t do that again, please.”

  “I am sorry,” he said and covered her again and hugged her close. Her feet were still red, but they weren’t swollen anymore. I must have done a healing. I hope I saved her feet.

  He set her aside and rolled up the furs. He stowed the puppies back in their pouches hanging at his sides, slung the rope over his shoulder again, then picked Cepheid up once more.

  “You can’t keep carrying me,” she said through her sniffs.

  “You do not weigh as much as these two fat puppies. If you had been a man, we would have been stuck here. You, I can carry.”

  “You would have put a man in the sled,” said Cepheid

  “I suppose I could put you in the sled too, but then we could not have this conversation. Would you rather ride in the sled?”

  She looked up at him. Tiny creases were at the corners of his mouth. A crinkle was in the corners of his eyes. “This is warmer,” she said, and suddenly shy, she ducked her face back into his shoulder.

  They stopped about every hour to rest and drink some water. Some stops were longer than others so the puppies could come out and attack their mother. The bitter cold didn’t seem to bother them much; then again, they weren’t out in it all that much.

  About half way through the afternoon, the Wulfen located a small crack in the side of the cliff that almost qualified as a cave. They all fit in, and though it was tight, they were most thankful to be out of the bitter wind for a while.

  Canis immediately went to work. Sacrificing their smallest hide, he started to make boots for Cepheid. They weren’t real boots, all they were was another layer over the boots she already had. He wouldn’t be able to make her a proper pair of boots until they probably wouldn’t need them any more. It was too cold to do much more than a quick stitch, but the extra layer around her legs and feet would keep them from freezing again and not encumber her walking very much. She wouldn’t be able to tell the difference wearing snowshoes.

  By the time he was finished, darkness had almost fallen, so there was no point in trying to continue. One night out of the wind would be welcome.

  The next day, Canis made Cepheid walk in front o
f him. Until her feet were completely better, she would set the pace. The cold, the wind, and the lack of food were already slowing them down, so she didn’t slow them any more, and Canis was proud of her for being so brave. He caught up with her at a wide stretch in the trail. “Are you sorry you came with me?”

  She looked up at him in surprise, but the look she saw in his eyes was soft and gentle. “No, though I don’t think I’ll want to cross these mountains again.”

  “We will cross them again someday, but we will do better next time.” He was forced to drop back again as the trail closed in again.

  Two days later, he felt a difference. They weren’t climbing any more; they had made it over the top. They were also starting to feel the effects of no food for too long. They rested more often and stopped for the night sooner. During the other crossing, Canis and Rrusharr had been able to follow the hunt pretty much wherever it led as long as it was remotely west. During much of this crossing, they had been confined to this ravine with a high cliff wall on one side and a deep cleft on the other. Nothing else came here. There was nothing to come for.

  Canis began to despair making it at all. Cepheid was so thin and she hadn’t been very big to begin with. The Wulfen were also growing too thin, and he knew he was in no better shape. Only the puppies stayed fat, though it drained Rrusharr.

  There was no choice but to continue. With his concentration set on putting one foot in front of the other and keeping Cepheid in sight, Canis missed the change in Ggrrawrr and Rranggrr as they lifted their noses, then disappeared.

  By the time their doings penetrated his dull mind, they were well involved in the hunt. He struggled to string his bow while Cepheid untangled his arrows from the sled. Fine hunters we are, thought Canis by the time he had things ready.

  Leaving Cepheid with the sled and the puppies, he sprinted ahead toward the hunt. The trail opened out of the ravine into a wide flat area and what he saw out in the middle of it brought him up short. He had never imagined such a creature in his wildest dreams. It was huge, standing at least six feet at the shoulders, and perhaps taller, depending on how much was obscured by the snow. It had course hair covering a body that looked to have been made of several massive chunks of stone, and aside from arrowheads and such, he’d never tried to shape stone. Its face was long and heavy, sporting a massive horn in the center of its snout. Its size and strength made traveling in this snow possible, but it wasn’t very fast, though it might have been if it was on dry ground.

  A gentle prod in his mind recalled him to his task and he took aim. He fired eight arrows into the neck and shoulder before the creature huffed to a halt. It had trampled a wide circle several feet deep in the snow. The Wulfen were out of reach and it was spraying blood from its nose with every huff. Canis took careful aim one more time, taking advantage of the fact that it stood still, amazed that it still stood at all, the arrow flew true and the creature sank ponderously to the snow with an arrow securely imbedded in its brain through its small eye.

  Cepheid came into sight around the last bend pulling the sled. The puppies were in their sling, but on her, they bumped against her knees with every step. She cried out in joy and wonder at the sight of the massive kill, breaking the spell that held Canis immobile.

  He went back to her and helped her to the edge of the trampled circle then they started to work on the odd creature. The hide was indeed hard and thick which told why the strange creature had been so hard to drop. The arrows had only penetrated a hand’s breadth at best. With the ones in his neck doing the most damage, it would have bled to death eventually.

  He was able to recover the arrows, but three of them had broken in the shoulder. Only one of those tips was reusable.

  He worked hard to peal back the heavy skin and its layer of fat. As he worked, he cut away generous chunks of meat and tossed them to the hungry Wulfen. He even cut a couple chunks of fat and offered them to the puppies who wrestled over them happily, though their milk teeth were doing little damage. Then he pealed away another chunk and handed it to Cepheid.

  It was still hot and bleeding, but she devoured it hungrily. With everyone chewing on a hunk of hot meat, Canis took time to feed himself. He never wanted to be this hungry again.

  They spent the rest of the day and the night there next to the kill, gorging themselves in an effort to drive away the memory of hunger that had haunted them for far too many days. Even the puppies took an interest and tried to tug at a bloody leg bone that dwarfed their chubby bodies. They could scarcely get a tooth hold, but that didn’t stop them from happily licking the blood from their baby faces and trying again.

  By the time darkness had set in, they were all lying around with distended stomachs, and there was a sled load of meat lying out to freeze. Still there was more than half of the creature left that they couldn’t possibly handle.

  “It’s a shame to waste it,” said Cepheid.

  “I agree, but we can’t take any more with us and we can’t stay here,” said Canis. He smiled to watch the puppies play tug of war with a strip of fatty hide he had cut for them. “Eating our meat raw is fine I guess, but I hunger for cooked meat.”

  Cepheid didn’t long for cooked meat, but she wasn’t ready to reject Angela’s teachings either, so she nodded and snuggled deep into Canis’s warmth.

  Canis lay awake, though he thought he was the only one, exempting perhaps Ggrrawrr. He didn’t know how many more nights he could lie next to Cepheid without doing something more than sleep. It had been a long time since he had slept for an entire night. She seemed so young and he felt so old, yet he had never had a woman. He didn’t know what to do. Well, he did, but he didn’t want to be clumsy. He didn’t want to do it wrong. He didn’t want to hurt her and he couldn’t bear to frighten her.

  A full stomach and warm furs, the winds whistling far overhead all contributed to wiping Canis’s cares from his mind. He dreamed of wild and crazy canine sex and dimly knew that in a few more months there would be another litter of puppies. If he hadn’t been so tired and so full, Cepheid might have felt his attentions anyway, but he was already asleep.

  Cheyenne Mining Town

  With full bellies and a sled full of meat, they made good time once again. They were able to make their first campfire three days after killing the nameless creature and once again, they gorged themselves, though not nearly like before.

  The descent out of the mountains was much steeper than the long slow climb up the western side had been, and hunting improved just as quickly. They saw two more of the strange creatures, so Canis decided to call them ‘one-horns’ for lack of a better name, pared down from ‘one-horned mountain of rock’.

  With plenty of other game, they didn’t need to try for another one, and as the snow depth decreased, they gave them a wide berth. Rranggrr, ever impetuous, had approached the next one they saw and she was nearly trampled. They did indeed move quickly when they weren’t mired in deep snow.

  Rranggrr came upon the humans from upwind. They were the first she’d seen since leaving Cepheid’s village. She was delighted to see people again, and broadcast this news to Canis who spotted the danger long before she did. His warnings unheeded, he dropped the sled and sprinted ahead as fast as his snowshoes would let him. He was in time to deflect at least some of the missiles the men launched at her.

  He took two already launched chunks of ice on his back while Rranggrr dodged back to the others and out of sight with a yelp. Then he turned to face the men.

  “Hey mister,” said one of them. “That wolf belong to you? Ain’t never seen one so big before.”

  “Yes, there are others with me as well. We mean you no harm. How far is it to the nearest town?” Canis was reminded of their teeth, which they bared simply by speaking. He had forgotten the difference. It was another reminder that they were venturing into dangerous territory.

  “It’s only a few hours from here. We’re fixin’ to leave here shortly. You can come with us if you like.”

  Canis
studied the men gathered. There were two slave drivers and a chain gang of eight slaves. They were all burly men out here mining glacier ice. “Fine,” he said and went back for the sled. When he reached Cepheid, he said, “These are big, rough men. Stay close to me and try not to let them know you are a woman.”

  “Why?” asked Cepheid.

  “I do not trust them,” was Canis’s response.

  This surprised Cepheid. In all of her life, trust had never been an issue of concern.

  When they rejoined the men, they were already packing up in preparation for leaving. The two wagons were loaded to overrunning with snow and ice carved from the base of the glacier and the drivers had chained the slaves, four behind each wagon. One of the drivers helped Canis load his sled onto one of the wagons and they started out.

  The horses and the wagons churned the snow into a knee-deep, shifting mire that made footing difficult, so since there wasn’t room for both Canis and Cepheid to ride together, he declined the offer to ride the wagons and walked well off to the side of the road where the snow was relatively undisturbed.

  With slaves chained behind the wagons, they couldn’t travel very fast. With the exception of Rrusharr, who was glued to his side, he admonished the Wulfen to stay out of sight. They did as he requested, mostly, but not so far as to be totally unseen. A watchful eye would be able to pick out a shape moving along the edge of the trees, and if he was very watchful, he might be able to discern that there was more than one of the massive creatures.

  Canis also warned them, especially Rranggrr, to stay away from the horses. They might be placid creatures, but they could still bolt if they were pressed by a large wolf. Such a happenstance could cause the deaths of the slaves chained helplessly to the wagon and could even cause other damage, all of which was trouble Canis didn’t want to cause so soon after meeting the plainsmen again.

  Cepheid took in this arrangement with wonder. She tugged on Canis’s sleeve to get his attention. She could feel his unease at being around these men, but she had to ask, “These men must be incredibly rich to display so much metal, why are they so…so sad?” Sad wasn’t the word she wanted to use, but she couldn’t think of a better one.