Bonesetter

by Laurence Dahners

  As he rounded the bend into the little valley below the cave, Ginja began to growl. A low, rumbling, angry growl it was. She turned and looked back down the path behind them. Pell looked and was dismayed to see one of the big cats following the scent of the deer’s blood. What should he do? He knew he should leave the meat and run, but thinking of the hungry people in the camp, he couldn’t bring himself to give the deer up.

  He began to trot down the path carrying his travois poles high so that the deer didn’t drag the ground. Pell called out, “Gontra! Bring fire! Hurry!” He was pleased that his voice didn’t break, but looked back and realized that the lion had stopped following the scent trail and recognized him visually. It loped after him a moment then stopped to roar. His heart pounded in his throat but he kept running, reasoning that if it attacked it would pounce first on the deer. He could always leave the deer to the lion at that point. He really wanted to have his spear in his hand though, and he couldn’t, not with both hands already dragging poles. The spear was stuck into the bonds holding the deer in place. A quick look back assured him that the spear remained close to hand.

  Unfortunately, the big cat’s ground eating lope soon brought it close. Pell dropped the travois poles, grabbed his spear and stepped back. Ginja, snarling and howling with her hackles raised, backed slowly away from their deer alongside him. The lion stopped to let out another roar, then eyes on Pell and Ginja, lowered its head to snuffle the deer. Pell thought of casting his spear but was afraid to give it up. He picked up a rock and threw it, but missed. However there were a lot of rocks available. He picked up a handful and began throwing them, calling out to Gontra again and again. He was surprised to realize that he was throwing better than he used to! He hit the big cat a couple of times and it snarled, looking about but not recognizing Pell as the source of its irritation. A couple of more strikes and it threw its head back and roared, hoping to drive the irritant away. He seemed to hit it just about every time it lowered its head to feed, though it had managed to get a couple of mouthfuls. The lion would leap back, slashing about with its fangs and paws. Finally in a fury, it charged toward Pell and Ginja. However, when they scurried back it turned and returned to the carcass it obviously thought of as its own.

  Pell decided to go get Gontra, thinking that he must not be within hearing distance. Perhaps he could get back with fire in time to drive the lion away before the entire deer was consumed. As he turned to go Gontra and Tando rounded the bend, each carrying burning brands in their hands. “Pell! What do you need fire for?”

  “Quick, we’ve got to drive that lion away before it eats the whole deer,” Pell said ripping up a big armful of dry grass from beside the trail and holding one end to Tando’s brand. As it burst into flames he trotted back toward the lion.

  They looked where he was headed, seeing the big cat for the first time, “Great Spirit Pell, look out! There’s a lion there! Look out!”

  “Come on Gontra, Tando! Lions are afraid of fire. Start some more grass burning. We can drive it away.”

  They thought Pell had completely lost his mind. Nonetheless they also ripped up some dry grass, lit it with their brands and started warily after Pell. Pell approached the big cat, yelling and waving the flaming grass at it. He bent to light the dried grass that stood beside the trail. The lion eyed the flames warily. After a few moments it bent and, grasping the deer’s hindquarter in its jaws began to back away. The travois poles, still bound to the deer, promptly snagged between a tree on one side of the trail and the rocks on the other, anchoring it firmly. Pell stalked toward the lion, waving flaming bundles of grass in both hands. The grass burned his right hand and he threw what was left toward the cat stopping to tear up more. Unfortunately, when he cast it, the bundle of grass blew apart without really threatening the big cat. Tando lit another big bundle of burning grass for Pell. This time when he approached waving the flaming bundle, the lion finally gave up and loped away.

  Gontra stood about twenty paces back; Tando a little closer, both goggle eyed. “I can’t believe it! You chased a lion away from its kill?”

  “No, I chased a lion away from my kill,” Pell said, sticking his spear back under the bindings and picking up the travois poles again.

  As he turned to start back to the cave, Gontra began a constant stream of questions. “How did he kill the deer? How did he think of the travois idea? What made him think he could chase a lion away from the carcass once the big cat was in possession?” Tando said little but was obviously in deep thought.

  Pondering an answer, Pell looked ahead. His eyes lit with delight, Gia stood just up the trail a little, smiling shyly at him. As he approached, she ran up and threw her arms about him, “Oh, Pell! Chasing a lion away from a deer! What if it had attacked you?”

  Pell was suddenly overcome with emotion. He bent slowly to set the travois poles down, then stood to put his arms around Gia. She had not let go while he was lowering the poles. Powerful feelings washed back and forth over him. For a moment, relief at escaping the big cat, then wonder that Gia was holding him, then dismay that the lion might have killed him and he would have missed this moment. He whispered, “I’m sorry Gia.”

  She looked up at him and said in a choked voice, “Pell, I know you hardly notice me, but… I, I… I don’t know what I would do without you. I’ve dream of living with you and being your mate. I don’t think I could live if you had let that lion kill you. She pushed her head against his chest and squeezed him, hard.”

  Pell ears were ringing and he felt a little dizzy. She wanted him? He said nothing for a moment as his eyes rimmed with tears, “Gia, I have been unable to speak… my mind certainly… any of my feelings truly… since first I saw you at the trading place … I would be honored. Honored to have you as my mate and to share your hearth.” She wrapped her arms about his neck and pulled his head against hers. After a pause and in a small voice Pell said, “I won’t chase any more lions.” Gia stifled a little giggle against his neck.

  Gontra cleared his throat. When Pell had blinked his own eyes clear and looked over, Tando’s eyes were moist and Gontra was staring off into the distance. Gontra said conversationally, “Uh, maybe we should get back up to the cave with this deer before the lion returns. Could I drag the poles for you?”

  Pell found himself walking up the trail behind the travois, a firebrand in one hand and Gia’s hand in the other. Chills and goose bumps ran over his body, still wracked with powerful emotions. Tando walked on the other side of Gia. Pell asked them why they had come to the Aldan’s cave. Tando said he had come back with Belk, who was much better but didn’t seem fit to travel alone. “For some reason Gia just had to come along,” he said, winking at Gia, who punched him lightly on the arm. “She had a lot of reasons, ‘the children might be sick, Belk might get worse, I’d like to see that area,’ but if you ask me, she just wanted to see a certain young man…”

  Gia ducked her head, “It’s true,” she whispered.

  “Besides,” Tando continued, “it seemed to me that they might need some help from some of your new ideas. Knowing how pigheaded I had been about not sharing your ideas and how honorable you have been to me, I was afraid you might not feel free to share the ideas that, after all, were really yours. So, I came to remind you that they were, after all, your ideas and to free your conscience to share them if you felt it to be right. Maybe we should swear them as a sister tribe and ask them to keep the secret too, but now that I’ve seen them, I know they won’t make it through the winter without your help.”

  Gontra was beside himself with joy and apprehension, “Will you teach us Pell? Tando says it’s OK with him but that it’s actually up to you. Will you?”

  Pell pondered his answer. In view of his hate-fear regarding Pont and dislike of Exen and Fellax, the decision seemed not as simple as he had thought it would be before Tando set him free to decide for himself.

  As if he were looking directly into Pell’s mind, Gontra said, “I know you’re probably still worr
ying about Pont and how you could live around him, even for the brief time that would be required to teach us some of these things. Right? But Pont solved that problem himself, just this morning! He said that he and ‘his people’ were going to leave because they didn’t want to stay here with me leading and doing whatever you said. I think he thought that a bunch of others would go with him, but even Lessa refused to go. When it came right down to it, it turned out ‘his people’ were he and Fellax. But, he and Fellax did pack up and leave—he says that he has a friend who’s the medicine man in the Oppo tribe and they’re going to go join them.”

  Pell’s mind whirled. The only person left in the Aldans that Pell had a problem with was Exen. He didn’t want to complain about Exen to Gontra. Pell was torn between feeling that the right thing to do was to teach the Aldans and still wanting somehow to teach Exen a lesson. Before he had decided anything they drew close enough to the cave that they were seen. People poured out to surround them and the deer, sparing him the need to answer right away.

  It was apparent that Gontra considered the entire episode with the lion to be nothing less than a miracle. He began to expound on the events he had just witnessed, seriously embellishing the story. Pell’s own earlier answers to Gontra’s questions about the lion attack became almost unrecognizable. At first Pell was embarrassed by all the attention, then flattered by everyone’s awe, then embarrassed again. His kill of the deer amazed them. They were astounded that he hadn’t run when the lion appeared. They couldn’t believe that Ginja had stayed with him to face a lion. They were dismayed that he had charged the lion with nothing more than a couple handfuls of burning grass for protection. Pell could see awe in all the faces except Exen’s. Exen, on the other hand, showed first anger, then grudging respect, then jealousy, and finally anger again.

  Pell, embarrassed by all the attention, started trying to get them back to work on his projects, preparing food storage, completing the flap to close of the cave opening etc. This attempt was derailed when Ontru, who had just begun to move the deer carcass to start preparing it for roasting, discovered the rabbit and three squirrels in its abdominal cavity. Astonishment flared anew. “You killed a deer, a rabbit and three squirrels in one hunting trip?!”

  Pell grunted, “Sometimes you get lucky you know.”

  Gontra guffawed, “That is waayy beyond luck, Pell. Hey Exen, what do you think of our mighty ‘tuber hunter’ now?! Maybe after he teaches you how to hunt tubers you might be able to learn how to hunt animals like this, eh?”

  There was no answer and Pell looked out of the corner of his eye at Exen, expecting once again to see the hate or anger in his eyes. Instead he saw Exen staring at the deer, rabbit and squirrels in awe. Exen’s eyes shifted to Pell, still with undisguised amazement in them, then they dropped to the ground in shame. He shuffled his feet a moment then slowly made his way over to Pell. He stood a moment, staring at Pell’s feet. “I’m sorry,” his voice was almost a whisper, nonetheless it carried well in the sudden dead silence that had pervaded the cave, “I’m sorry for the terrible things I’ve said… I’m sorry for the times when I took Denit’s side against you. I will be grateful for the rest of my life if you taught me to hunt like that.”

  Pell felt his face flush, “First… First I’m going to make you learn to hunt tubers you know.”

  A flush of embarrassment rose on Exen’s face but he looked up into Pell’s eyes and then in a strong voice, a voice that resounded about the cave he said, “I would be proud, forever proud, to one day tell my children that I learned to ‘hunt tubers’ from such a mighty hunter as ‘the Bonesetter.’”

  The End

  Hope you liked the book!

  If so, please give it a positive review on Amazon or other distributor.

  Try some near future, science fiction,-techno thrillers by the same author, the Ell Donsaii Stories

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Jack Gilman and Nora Dahners, each of whom significantly improved this story.