Bonesetter (42 page)

However, after returning to the cave he remained angry enough that he drove them relentlessly for the remainder of the day.
It had warmed enough to make it a good day for building the wall to close the cave.
He set some of the Aldans to getting more poles and mud, some to digging a little trench for the bottoms of the poles, others to stacking the poles in place and lashing them together.
When most of the staves were in place he set groups to slathering on the mud, small sticks and straw.
The stones that contained the fire were moved over beneath to an upsloping part of the cave roof.
This upsloping area rose to their new wall, where they left a hole at the top of the wall for the smoke to exit.
Some of the women were put to work stitching together a heavy drape of old skins to
cover the entrance
.

He took time to explain to each of them, including the men, what the leaves of the new tubers looked like and how to find them.
When the new wall was nearing completion, he sent a small party out to find some.
He enjoyed ordering Exen to join this group of “tuber hunters.”

Pell especially enjoyed driving Pont as hard as possible.
Initially he had been angry when he realized the healer was untied, but Gontra explained that he thought that the healer should work as hard as all the rest of them.
At the outset, Pont had sullenly tried to refuse some task Pell assigned him as too menial, but before Pell had a chance to react to Pont’s insolence, Gontra had cuffed the medicine man to the ground, threatening to cast him out or kill him immediately.

Lying on the ground, Pont had tried to bluster and threaten as in the past, “Gontra, you don’t want to treat your Medicine Man this way.
Who’ll care for you when you’re ill?”

“Pell will.
He’s a better healer than you ever dreamed of,” Gontra rasped out in a barely contained fury.
Pell
thought
to protest that he wasn’t a healer but a bonesetter
, but kept his peace
.

Still lying on the ground Pont made some finger motions at Gontra and began to chant.
Though Pell had no respect for Pont, he still felt a chill run up his spine at this “casting of an evil spell.”
Gontra, however, was not intimidated.
He stepped forward, delivering a huge roundhouse kick to Pont’s ribs that left him gasping for breath.
“Chant around that, you boar’s turd!
Try it again and I’ll
cut
your throat.” Shaking his head he muttered, “Should’a done it last night.”

It took Pont a while to recover, but since then he had complied immediately with Pell’s every demand.
Pell had made a point from then on to assign him the most menial tasks he could think of.
Pell pitched in and worked alongside the Aldans, though carefully far from the healer, wanting to provide no opportunities for an attack or even an “accident.”
His excellent physical condition allowed him to work easily, even after the others were exhausted. They began to look on him with more and more awe.
Soon the wall and door were in place.
The cave was much darker and somewhat smokier, but already much warmer than before.
The others noticed the difference before it was finished, exclaiming in delight.
Pell showed them how to use a brand from the fire as a torch to
see into
the darker areas when necessary.

They finished a hard day of work with a feast composed of more of the small boar from the day before and a roasted version of the new tubers.
While they ate Pell found himself giving them a little philosophy lesson about his concept that
everyone
should know how to gather and
everyone
should understand hunting and cooking well enough to do a little if pressed.
When the men protested that the women couldn’t possibly have the strength for hunting he pointed out that they could still act as beaters, driving the large animals toward the men.
They would certainly need such tactics in their decimated
tribe
. He also reminded them that not all animals were large and dangerous.
“
If
I teach you my new methods for hunting, you will soon find that they work as well or better for small animals and that women can employ them as well as men.
This is something that a small tribe like yours, with few men, should appreciate, not
fight against
.”

After eating, they spoke
around the fire
.
First they talked of old times, then of plans for the future.
Ginja, sitting at Pell’s side and being fed bits of roast pork was a source of unbridled curiosity.
Questions about how he controlled her and how he communicated with the Great Wolf Spirit abounded and had to be dealt with.
The
Aldans’
conversation regarding the future
contained
some
hope; hope instilled by a long hard day of work where
everyone
had pitched in and something of significance had been accomplished.

As the tribe prepared to sleep, Gontra tied Pont back up despite his protests.
Initially they were protests of his innocent intentions, then of his importance.
Finally, it degenerated into threats of what his magics would do to those who dared tie him.
Pell worried that Gontra might buckle under the threats as so many had in the past but Gontra seemed unfazed, reminding him of his earlier threat.
“Pont, you
go ahead,
start a spell on me, like I promised before, I’ll cut your throat before you finish.”
Pell wondered what was to keep Pont from cursing Gontra during the night while he was asleep but apparently Gontra didn’t consider this to be possible with Pont’s hands tied behind his back. Hobbled and led to the back of the cave Pont shot Pell a venomous glance that chilled his blood.

When Ginja lay down to sleep
she lay
direc
tly in contact with Pell’s legs.
He
found her presence reassuring.

The next morning Pell awakened feeling well.
He secretly delighted in rousting the others who were obviously sore from the previous day’s hard labor.
He told them that he was going hunting again but that he expected them to be working while he was gone.
When they protested he lambasted them about their laziness.
“
You tell me you’
re worried about surviving the winter.
You whine about how hungry you will be and cry about the children who might starve.
Yet, you lie
around
as if you were a bunch of
fat pigs.
If you
a
re fat, fine, but then don’t ask for my help.
If you’re starving then work
like you’re
hungry
pigs.”
He set them to gathering firewood and, after criticizing Exen’s party of the day before for only bringing back a few of the new tubers, sent out more tuber parties.
He explained his theory of dryness and air circulation as regarded the rotting of food and had some of the Aldans begin making shallower baskets to store food in, both their current stores as well as anything new.
He even put the children to work, restacking their tubers and turning the grain that they had stored that summer, admonishing them to dry out any moist areas.

When he set out to check his traps with Ginja bounding at his side, he was in a banner mood.
It was a brisk Winterfall morning and their breath puffed out before them.
There was a little frost on the ground, but he remained warm in his thick new moccasins, furs and leggings.
He even felt as if most of his old tribe members might survive the winter, with a few gifts of “magic meat” and some coaching in some of his new ideas.

He had been worried that the traps might not yield much so late in the fall.
Hunting had always been hard late in the year except for the occasional bounty from the big herds migrating through on the high plains above the cave.
Sometimes they could be trapped in a location where it could be driven over
the
cliffside into one of the ravines.
Usually several large animals would break their legs and could be killed.
If the winter freeze had already occurred or occurred soon thereafter, the meat might keep almost all winter.
Of course he had never had any experience trapping in the late fall, but
had
feared that the success rate would fall off drastically as some species began to hibernate and fewer animals were out and about.
He was gratified to find a rabbit in the very first snare.
The next several were empty but then he found that he had snared three squirrels who had used the previous warm afternoon to try to collect a few more nuts for winter.
Finally one of the two large nooses he had made from his traveling rope had a young deer in it.
The deer had broken its own neck trying to get away, so he didn’t even have to spear it.
Finding that it was very difficult to carry all of the animals at once he cleaned all four animals, then put the hearts, livers and smaller animals into the deer’s abdominal cavity.
He thought to sling the deer over his shoulders as he had the young boar several days before, but didn’t want to get blood all over himself from the wound he had made to clean the deer.
Remembering the one-ended stretchers from the move they had planned at Cold Springs, he cut two poles and tied the deer between them.
He started back
, dragging the poles behind him down a game trail.
This
is
surprisingly
easy
, he thought
.
He was almost back to the cave when he thought to stop and stick his spear into the deer’s ribs to cover his “hunting” story.
Then he struck the smaller animals with rocks, thinking to himself that he had
never
even
heard of someone killing three squirrels with thrown rocks in one day.

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?”