Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (13 page)

They’d all stopped in front of the three women and Gia now said somewhat formally, “Agan, I present to you two strangers, come to visit the Cold Springs tribe. I would tell you their names, but they haven’t given them. One,” she indicated Yadin, “is interested in our secrets for preserving meat and hunting without spears. The other,” she flipped a hand at Woday, “has come to apprentice himself to the Bonesetter.” Evidently, she still found Woday’s aspirations humorous as she appeared to be stifling a grin.

Also apparently suppressing a smile, the old woman said, “Welcome, nameless ones.”

Yadin said, “I deeply apologize. I certainly didn’t intend to withhold my name.” He placed a hand on his chest, “I’m Yadin, of the Oppos, to the east.”

Agan glanced at Pell,” I thought the
Aldans
were east of us?”

Yadin said, “Even further east. The next tribe beyond the Aldans.”

“Ah,” Agan said, “thank you for introducing yourself.” She turned her eyes to Woday.

Woday straightened and placed a hand on his own chest. “I also apologize for not introducing myself. I’m Woday of the Falls-people,” he waved toward the descending sun, “far west of here. Beyond even Aganstribe. Are you Agan of Aganstribe?” Woday had heard of a very old woman who led that tribe and wondered if Agan could be her.

The old woman nodded, “Though, now, I’m Agan of the Cold Springs tribe. A terrible flood came to Aganstribe and there were few survivors. Those of us who remain have joined with the people here at Cold Springs.” She waved to her left, “I make Donte and Panute known to you.” She waved at the boy, “I believe you’ve already met Falin.”

Woday looked at Falin, saying, “Yes, Falin is why I came here. Rumors of how well he did after breaking his leg made their way to us at the Falls. We were told that his leg was twisted and badly bent?”

Agan nodded solemnly, “Several medicine men in our area tried unsuccessfully to straighten it.” Her eyes flicked momentarily to Pell, but then back to Woday, “The Bonesetter straightened it on his first try. As you can see it’s healed so well you can hardly tell there was a problem.” Her eyes went to Panute’s leg, “Panute also broke her leg when our tribe was devastated by a flood. The Bonesetter applied those healing sticks to it. It seems to be doing very well, though it’s not fully healed yet.”

Woday’s eyes shot to Panute’s leg. He hadn’t really looked at the leg. He’d been trying to take in her hand injury without staring and hadn’t even noticed the wooden splints that were tied to her leg.
Why,
he wondered,
would you tie sticks to a broken leg?
“We of the Falls-people had heard that something bad had happened to Aganstribe, but I didn’t know what it was. I’m sorry to hear that many of your people died.”

“It was awful,” the old woman said, her voice trembling with sadness. “Of our entire tribe, only six are left.”

Woday felt horrified. Six was far too few to form a reasonable tribe. “No wonder you joined with the people here at Cold Springs! It’s a good thing their tribe was small enough to accept new members.” Woday didn’t say it, but he found it hard to believe that any tribe would accept six new members just before winter. Six new mouths to feed at the beginning of the hungry times!

Donte laughed, “Our tribe was certainly small enough to accept new members. There were only
three
of us! Having new members from Aganstribe is a boon.”

Wide-eyed, Woday turned to Agan, “Did those of you from Aganstribe manage to salvage your winter supplies and bring them here?”

Agan barked a laugh, “No.”

Woday’s heart sank. If a ravaged tribe of six with a dearth of supplies had joined with a tribe of three just before winter, they’d be very lucky to make it through the starving months alive,
much less
willing to take on an apprentice who’d brought only knowledge and some shell jewelry as compensation for his training. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he mumbled, not knowing what else to say.

“So,” Agan said with a smile, “would you like to take your evening meal with us?”

“We would,” Yadin shrugged, then made it obvious he was thinking along the same lines as Woday, “but I’m afraid we don’t have any food to contribute and I’m sure you have little to spare.”

Woday’s stomach grumbled. He hadn’t had any food since early that morning and had little prospect of getting any this evening. However, he agreed with Yadin, they shouldn’t take any food.

Agan laughed, “Don’t worry, we have food. You can see that Pell’s got a couple of big, fine-looking trout. Deltin and Manute are coming up behind you, bringing some rabbits.” She looked at Woday, “If you’ve lived at the Falls, I’ll bet you can teach us how to cook the fish, can’t you?”

Woday turned to see a couple of young men walking across the clearing toward them carrying rabbits. He glanced hungrily at the trout and said, “I haven’t cooked them myself, but I’ve watched our women cooking them.” He licked his lips, “They’re really good.”

“Well then, stay, tell us how to cook fish, we have no experience.” Agan gave a broad smile, “You’ll tell us stories; we’ll tell you stories; and we’ll all become fast friends.”

Yadin and Woday went out to find a flat stone to cook the fish on. Woday had described the method which involved leaning a flat stone up next to the fire until it became very hot. Then you would tip it onto its back and lay the filleted fish on it to cook. He’d looked at the stones that surrounded the Cold Spring’s hearth and decided that none of them looked very good for this purpose. When he said he was going to go look for a better one, Yadin volunteered to go along.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Yadin said, “These people seem very normal to me. What do you think? Could they be in the thrall of a spirit?”

Woday shrugged, “I’ve never even heard of somebody being taken over by a spirit much less have any idea what it’d look like.” He paused for a moment as they walked along, thinking, “But, to me they seem completely normal. It’s hard to imagine that one of them’s being controlled by something supernatural.” He stopped and looked around, apparently wondering where he might find a flat rock.

Yadin pointed towards an outcrop of shale, “I’d think we could find some flat chunks of shale below that crag.”

Woday turned that way and said, “Oh, you’re right.” Feeling embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed an entire hill of flat rocks, he started that direction.

Thinking that Woday seemed more oblivious than most of the young men he’d tried to teach to hunt, Yadin followed behind him. He reflected that the young man seemed to be very much more of a thinker than a doer. Still, Yadin liked him and had the feeling that Woday was intelligent. Yadin said, “Do you get the sense that
anything
evil is going on around here?”

Woday snorted, “It seems to me like a lot of evil things have
happened
to these people. The flood that killed so many of Aganstribe’s people for instance. The fact that two tribes joined and still only have nine people. That one of the tribes had no stores to contribute for winter;
that
seems like an evil thing.” He shrugged, “But terrible things happen to people everywhere. I know for a fact that bad things happen to very good people—I’ve seen it happen far too many times. The Cold Springs people don’t seem evil to me at all. Even though they can’t have much food saved up for winter, they’re still willing to let us eat with them tonight. You’d have to have a very good heart to do that!”

They’d reached the outcrop and, as Yadin had expected, there was quite a pile of flat shale fragments that’d fallen from it. Woday bent and started turning fragments over, looking for the perfect cooking stone. As they’d approached, Yadin had been hearing thudding sounds coming from beyond the outcrop. He said, “I’ll be right back,” and kept walking past the profusion of shale fragments.

Wanting to see what was going on without being seen himself, as he went further Yadin quieted his steps and expanded his senses. A sharpening of the sounds told him he was about to come into line of sight of whatever was making the noises. He eased around the corner and saw a small tree shake, coincident to one of the thuds. Frowning curiously, he kept moving very slowly forward. The tree next to the one he’d first seen also shook with a thud. This time, Yadin saw a rock skitter away from it.
Someone’s throwing rocks!

As Yadin eased slowly forward, he saw tree after tree hit by rocks. It was a young stand of trees, their trunks smaller than his wrist. After a minute or so, he was astonished to realize that he’d probably seen 10 to 12 trees in the front row struck without a rock missing and hitting trees behind them. Finally, Yadin’d eased forward far enough to see the person throwing.

Somehow, he wasn’t surprised to recognize the young man called Pell.

He could really throw! Yadin had to admire the grace of his wind up and follow through. Sometimes he wound up, threw his left foot out and hurled the rock with the full force his body could produce. One of those throws actually broke one of the small trees. Most times he made a quick fling, as if he’d been surprised. These still hit their targets, though with less force. Yadin shook his head; the small stand of trees was taking a
serious
beating. Yadin slowly pulled back, then once he was out of Pell’s sight, thoughtfully turned and went back to join Woday.

Woday had picked out a large stone, several fingers thick and perfectly flat on one surface. Rubbing some dirt off of it, he looked up at Yadin, “What do you think of this one?”

“I think it looks fine,” Yadin said, puzzled that Woday would ask him when Woday knew Yadin had never cooked a fish.
He decided Woday might be bright, but he lacked self-confidence.

Woday stood, lifting the chunk of slate. “I guess we should try it then.” They turned to walk back to the Cold Springs cave. Woday glanced over at Yadin, “What was making the thumping noises?”

Thinking that this seemed to be the first time that Woday had been at all observant, Yadin said, “Pell was throwing rocks. Practicing.”

Woday frowned, “He was hitting trees?”

Surprised that Woday had guessed the targets from the sounds, Yadin said, “Uh-huh.”

“You think
that’s
his new spearless method of hunting? Throwing rocks?”

Yadin shook his head, “That’s not new. Lots of people hunt by throwing rocks, especially at small game like rabbits.”

Woday shrugged, “Yeah, but hardly anybody hits anything.”

Tilting his head thoughtfully, Yadin said, “Well, you’re right. But how could anyone invent a better way to throw? Some people
are
a lot better at throwing, and I can tell you that Pell’s very good at it, but that’s not a ‘method’ you could teach to other people. You’re either good at it, or you’re not.”

“The hunters in my tribe told me over and over that I’d get better if I practiced more.”

Yadin shrugged, “I’ll grant that you can get better with practice. But some people start as good throws and practice to become very good, while other people start terrible and practice only makes them average.”

Woday’s shoulders slumped, “That’s me. Lots of practice and not
even
average. That’s why I want to learn bone setting. So I’ll be of value to the tribe even if I’m
not
a good hunter.” They walked in silence a little farther, but as they climbed to the ledge in front of the cave Woday said, “Now I’m hoping that
Pell
can teach me to be a good throw.”

Yadin said nothing, but doubted there was any chance that Pell could teach Woday how to throw better. Certainly Woday would never learn to throw as well as Pell could. Yadin had taught a lot of young men to throw over the years and Pell had a rare kind of athletic grace. Yadin himself threw better than anyone he’d ever met, but he knew he couldn’t reliably hit trees as small as the ones Pell had been practicing on, even if he took his time on every throw. A bit of a sick feeling came over him.
Maybe an evil spirit
is
helping the boy?

Then they were up on the ledge and Donte looked up from her basket weaving to smile at Yadin. Though her words were addressed to both of them, her eyes remained on Yadin as she said, “Did you guys find a rock to cook fish on?”

Yadin glanced at Woday who tilted his piece of slate around for Donte to look at, “I think this one looks pretty good, do you?”

She glanced at it and Yadin had the impression she also wondered why Woday was asking her, when he was the only one with any expertise. Nonetheless, she said, “It looks good to me, nice and flat. Are you going to start heating it?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning and continuing into the cave.

Donte’s eyes followed Woday for a second, then turned back to Yadin, “So, you just met him on the trail?”

Yadin nodded, “He came from the west and I came from the east. He’d missed the turn off to Cold Springs. To tell the truth, I didn’t really know where it was either, but I’d been traveling a shorter distance and had a better count of the tributaries. We decided that he should turn back with me and we’d try this stream because he’d already noticed that it was colder than most.” Yadin shrugged, “Luckily, it turned out to be the right one.” Yadin felt a little surprised himself. He wasn’t normally talkative, but felt like he was practically burbling to this Donte woman. He thought she was pretty, and he’d already learned she’d been widowed. She was also more age appropriate for him than most of the other women he’d been meeting. However, he hadn’t expected to be feeling so eager… or whatever it was that he was feeling.