People - People of the Wolf Part 14

Someone's dog whined. But then, someone's dog was always whining. Dogs were that way. Either whining, or fighting, or eating up the food.

He shook his head, trying to clear the hunger haze. Dog? They'd eaten the dogs!

"Imagination," he grumbled, and looked up into a black dog face staring down the tunnel at him.

One Who Cries blinked, hearing with his own ears the sniffing of the animal. Food! He reached for his darts, feeling the trembling in his muscles. Cursed hunger robbed a man of .. .

"Get back, Black," a sharp voice called as One Who Cries shifted to free his darts. Green Water sat up, desperate hope in her eyes.

The black dog backed out in a new cascade of snow. One Who Cries mustered his strength to crawl up, only to be met by a hooded face looking in. "Hungry in there?" an old woman asked. "Thought it was a nice storm. Not the kind to be wasted sitting home by the fire, so I threw a couple of guts full of fat and took a walk."

One Who Cries stared. "Are you a spirit trying to suck my soul into the Long Dark?" "Hush," Green Water called, pulling him back to the side.

The old woman wiggled in, the black dog leaning forward to fill the s.p.a.ce, blocking the little light.

"Black!" the old woman growled. "Get out of here." She motioned and the dog backed hurriedly out. "Where's Broken Branch?" the woman asked--a wicked light in her eye.

"Next shelter, I think. You know her?" One Who Cries asked.

She studied him for a second. "Know her? Twenty-five Long Darks ago, I promised I'd kill her if she ever came into my reach again. That's a long time to keep a promise."

One Who Cries looked sharply at Green Water. Cold. Nothing else existed but the hunger knot in Dancing Fox's belly. Only Talon's weak raspy breath reminded her that she wasn't alone, that other humans existed, that the world had once held warmth, sunshine, and laughter.

Wind Woman ravaged the snow around them, rattling ice crystals off the worn caribou robe they snuggled under. So little body heat left to share, so little energy. Despite the hide they'd wrapped in, despite the double layers of hair-on parkas, the cold ate at them."Who will sing us to the Blessed Star People?" she wondered aloud.

"Maybe Mammoth, huh?" Talon murmured, not even moving her old gray head where it lay pillowed on Dancing Fox's shoulder.

"Four days we've lain here. I wonder if anyone but us is alive?"

"My greatest worry," Talon whispered, "is that you might have to pee again. You get up and I'm gonna freeze."

"I might have to. You're warmer if you don't keep that extra water. It sucks the heat out of you. Wastes what little's left."

"Ah, I know that. But I can't get. up again, girl. Can't do it. Bare my b.u.t.t to the blowing snow? No, it'll kill me. My thread's weak .. .

weak...."

Dancing Fox closed her eyes. "Thank you, Talon, for spending time with me. I don't think I could have made--"

"Bah," Talon hissed softly. "I wanted to be with you." Then she turned her ancient face up and stared at the ice walls. "Wish we'd both gone with Runs In Light. Wolf Dream. There's Power in that."

"I tried."

"I know." The old woman's head moved as she swallowed. "I ... know."

Dancing Fox lifted the corner of the caribou hide, seeing the wraiths of snow rushing past. Here, on the ground, the whole world hazed white.

Even in this little bit of day, she could see nothing. What a terrible way for her soul to leave its body.

"Runs In Light?" she called softly. "One day, perhaps among the stars we'll find each other. I'll hold you then. Love you." She closed her eyes, blinking back the tears, pain from the loss lancing her very heart.

"Still calling after my idiot brother?"

Even through dreams of death, Raven Hunter's voice penetrated. She willed his knowing tones away.

"Come on, my dearest Dancing Fox," the voice called again, insistent, real. "Raise your flap and eat this."

Talon shifted next to her as the caribou hide lifted, and despite the cold snow that blew in, she stared up into his handsome face.

"I found Sheep Whistle's camp a day from here." He handed her strips of meat. "They're setting up a shelter now. We'll have a fire going in a couple of minutes. Heat some fat up. It'll be hard, but I think we can save the ones still alive. Until then, stay warm."

"We'll live," she whispered. Oh, Runs In Light, I'm going to live!

"Good boy, that Raven Hunter," Talon whispered. "You could do a lot worse than him, Fox. A lot worse."

Dancing Fox winced, shuddering.

Chapter 16.

Ash-colored rays streamed down through the ice cave's narrow opening, accenting the sallow cheeks of the People pressed close together inside.

Clutching robes tightly around them, they spoke little, or not at all, despair a palpable thin gall hope fled.

"Grandmother?" Red Star, a five-year-old girl with wide brown eyes and a cadaverously thin face, called. She weakly tugged the hood over Broken Branch's head.

"Hmm?"

"Grandmother, I'm cold." She tightened her hold on the fish-bone doll clamped in a death grip against her cheek.

Broken Branch roused herself, rubbing fists into her eyes before staring down at the child. Red Star looked up, blinking slowly, lashes crusted with ice. She lifted her arms, begging to be taken.

"Come on, child," Broken Branch murmured tenderly, picking the girl up and sitting her in her lap. She wrapped ice-stiff robes around them both and squeezed Red Star hard, kissing her forehead.

"Thank you." The child sighed, leaning tiredly against the old woman's chest. She took off one mitten to tuck a finger in her mouth, sucking softly. "I'm hungry."

"I know you are. But it won't be long now. Wolf Dreamer's coming back real soon. He'll get us out of this mess. He's probably out talking to Wolf right now."

Red Star frowned disbelievingly. "Are you lying to me because I'm little?"

"Of course not," Broken Branch protested with hurt pride. "He's coming back. You'll see."

"Maybe he's dead and can't."

"Who told you that?"

Red Star tilted her head awkwardly as though hesitant about telling.

"Well ..."

"Come on. Who can you tell if not me?" Broken Branch wheedled.

"Singing Wolf said maybe Grandfather White Bear ate him and we were all going to die for following him."

Broken Branch puckered her lips disdainfully. "Well, Singing Wolf's a fool. You listen to me. I've lived twice as long as he has and I know the way the world works. Wolf Dreamer's coming back."

Red Star's stomach rumbled and she dropped a tiny hand to pat it. "It's been growling and knotting up."

"Maybe one of the Monster Children came down and crawled in there, huh?"

Red Star laughed weakly, incredulous. "You know they never come out of the sky.""Don't they?"

The girl shook her head. "No. That's why we don't have to be afraid of them. They're trapped in the rainbow lights, locked there for all time."

Broken Branch patted her frigid cheek, smiling. "You remember the old stories pretty good, don't you?" "You told me I had to. "Member?"

"Did I?"

"Uh-huh. When I was little. You told me you'd beat my b.u.t.t if I forgot any of them."

"Good for me. It worked."

Red Star nuzzled her cheek against the old woman's furs, something else clearly on her mind. Broken Branch lifted a mittened hand to trace the furrows in the young forehead.

"What are these? You trying to look like me?"

The girl glanced up timidly, eyes dark and brooding inside her gray fur hood. "Grandmother, what's death like?"

A tight band constricted around her heart. She spewed an exhale and hugged the child fiercely. She'd wondered that herself a time or two.

"Oh, it's not so bad. Unless some old--"

"But what if a bear comes and swallows me while I'm still alive?"

Broken Branch took the stone knife from her belt, twisting it so the obsidian blade glinted menacingly in the dim light. "If a bear did that, I'd slice his gut wide open to get you back."

"But, what would it feel like ... if ... if the bear ran away and you couldn't find me?"

"Well," Broken Branch whispered, contemplating the cold blue shadows clinging to the irregular patches in the ceiling. "It feels like going to sleep. You know how you kind of drift off. One minute you're awake and the next you're not?"

Red Star nodded. "It doesn't hurt real bad?"

"No, child, not for long."

"Maybe it just lasts a minute?"

"Oh, less than that even. You'd hardly know."

Red Star heaved a small breath of relief, sucking her finger again as she rubbed the painted muskrat fur of her doll's face against her itching nose. "I was worried about it."

"I could tell." "Salmon Tail said it hurt fora long time, that you screamed and screamed until the Soul Eaters came to get you."

"He's only seven," she growled. "What does he know?""Throws Bones was his uncle. He said he could hear him groaning for days after the bear got him."

"Bah! Throws Bones was such a pain he probably gave old Grandfather White Bear indigestion and that's what Salmon Tail heard."

Red Star sighed patiently, as though she was thinking about it while she blinked at Broken Branch's hide-booted foot. "What happens afterward?"

"You mean after death?" The girl nodded. "Well, when you wake up, you're flying among the stars, soaring just like Eagle. You get to--"

" "Cause I'm one of the Star People again?"

"Sure."

She c.o.c.ked her tiny head seriously. "Grandmother, do you believe Wolf really came to Runs In Light and gave him a Dream?"

"There's not a doubt in my whole body, girl. I've seen Dreamers--real Dreamers...." Her voice faded as her thoughts drifted to bittersweet days twenty-five years before. "Real Dreamers ..."

Up the slanted tunnel to the opening, a sibilant rustling of furs sounded, dogs barking. Red Star jumped, a short cry of joy erupting from her bluish lips.

"It's him!" she cried shrilly, scrambling up the tunnel. "Runs In Light!

Runs In Light!" .

Broken Branch closed her eyes, offering a soft prayer of thanks to Wolf before dropping her head to her mittens.

"h.e.l.lo," she heard Red Star say, as if she didn't know the person she spoke to.

"You hungry, little one?" an unknown woman asked.

"Oh, yes, my stomach's been howling." "Well, here. You eat some of these and you'll be fine."

"Thank you!" Red Star moaned gratefully and slid back down the tunnel with a long stuffed rope of intestine.

What is it about that voice that stirs .. . With it came tremors of fear and regret, tears welling in Broken Branch's wrinkled old throat. She swallowed with difficulty.

"Broken Branch?" the woman's gravelly voice demanded. "You in there?"

"I'm in here," she answered in shock. "Who--"

"Well, come out before I come in to get you."

"Who are you?"