Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains (18 page)

Attu told Elder Nuanu everything, about Rika across the open water, drifting away as he called to her, tried to reach her, and about the ridges between which he found himself walking, night after night. He even told her about the voice Rika had heard in her dreams, telling her to show mercy when judgment would be the Nuvik way instead, and how he knew he should not expect to see Rika again, but somehow felt that he must, that somehow their dreams must be linked, they must be linked in some way. Attu felt his face flush as he shared, but it felt good to tell someone.

“What does it all mean?” Attu asked.

“Let me ponder these dreams a while. We will speak again of them after I have thought about it. I, too, was surprised when our clans parted. It seemed to go against the spirits. I felt this as well. And look what tragedies have happened since.”

Attu nodded.

“Is there anything else wrong?” Elder Nuanu asked, her face troubled.

I won’t shame myself by exposing my fear of the ice swallowing me
. “Tell me about the times of Warming, and the place we’re headed.”

“You know all about those, mighty hunter Attu; you’ve heard about them since you were a child.”

“But I listened as a child to a tale for enjoyment. Tell me now, not to entertain me, but to teach me.” Attu cleared his throat, realizing his emotions had thickened his voice. “Please,” he added.

“Very well,” Elder Nuanu said. “Where do I start?”

“Start with the stories of the New Green, after the Cold. Tell me everything you know about the land to the south when that time comes.”

“Thank you, spirits of the protectors,” Elder Nuanu whispered, raising her hands up to the sky. She lowered her arms and began her tale.

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oward dusk, Attu walked, this time at the back of the clan, guarding the rear and ruminating on Elder Nuanu’s words.

Elder Nuanu had told the story of the New Green. She told of how the people had come first to the land because the Great Frozen was melting, and they could no longer hunt and live on the Expanse. When they reached the shore of this land, they saw that everything there was new and strange. There were large plants they called “evergreens” because they were green all the time. There were many small animals that lived in and near these plants. At first, they were able to live much like they had before, eating mostly fish and staying close to the rotting ice, where they felt safe.

But one day the good spirit of fire was tricked by a Moolnikuan spirit into burning the evergreens of this new land, and many animals and plants were destroyed. Elder Nuanu told how the spirit of the wind had come then, bringing water that fell unfrozen from the sky. It was called “rain,” and it put out the great fire and saved the rest of the evergreens and animals. This was the beginning of the New Green, the Great Warm, for the fire had warmed Nuvikuan-na and melted the last of the rotten ice of the Great Frozen. It was now open water. It did not freeze again for a very long time.

But the rain had brought great wetness upon the land, and the people could no longer wear animal furs; they rotted. They had to learn to wear plants, woven into clothing. And some grew sick with the cold of the rain, for the plant clothing was not as warm as furs. There was no more nuknuk oil. The people grew desperate.

Then the spirit of Shuantuan took pity on them. She hurled a great spear of fire from the sky, striking a dead evergreen standing alone amongst some rocks. A bold woman among them all took the dead arm of another large plant, one that shed its leaves, called a “tree,” and she brought the burning tree arm into their camp and hollowed a place in the ground for it to burn, along with other tree arms, in a depression in the ground like a soft stone bowl. The fire brought warmth and light to the people. They thanked Shuantuan and promised to always follow all ritual for this wonderful gift. Shuantuan was pleased, and ever since has chosen to dwell in a bold woman from amongst the clans who follow all ritual.

As he continued walking now, Attu thought of Elder Nuanu’s words again, and he imagined the fire, and the open water, and the brave woman who brought Shuantuan’s gift of the spirit of fire from trees to their people. Then he considered what clothing out of plants might look like. In his mind’s eye he saw everyone dressed in rock moss, the only dry plant he had ever seen. He laughed in spite of his anxiety.

“What are you laughing at?” Meavu said. Meavu and Yural had been walking a few steps in front of Attu, but now they paused until he caught up with them.

“Elder Nuanu said that in the place where we’re going, we will wear plants.” Attu winked at her. “We’ll all wear a little rock moss here,” and he pointed to a spot below Meavu’s parka, “and...” he grinned, “someday you will also wear a little rock moss here and here,” Attu pointed to the left and right sides of his own chest.

“Oh, Attu,” Meavu cried, and she ran ahead of the two of them, her cheeks flaming.

“Attu,” his mother scolded him. “It’s not for a brother to tease his sister about becoming a woman.” She slapped his arm, and he stepped out of her reach as she tried to slap him again.

“Don’t embarrass your sister like that, Attu,” her mother scolded him. He knew she was serious when she added, “Or your belly will be growling for the rest of the journey.”

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s the clan traveled south over the next several suns, hunters went ahead and behind, some guarding and all hunting. Game was growing scarce, and Attu wondered if the Great Frozen clan had traveled this way, depleting the resources as they went. On the tenth day after the full moon, they found evidence that a group had passed that way, blocks of ice arranged in a circle upon the Expanse with signal strings attached indicating Paven’s clan had come this way and stopped here on the night of the last full moon.
They had made it this far, at least, in safety and are ten days ahead of us.

“Thank you,” Attu whispered to the spirits and to Paven. “We’re going the right way.”
And Rika is still all right. At least she had been ten days ago.

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hat night, Attu had the nightmare again where the chasm opened with Attu trapped on one side, and the beautiful light-eyed Rika out of reach on the other side. But this time, she spoke, and although she looked like Rika, her voice was deep, that of a man’s.

“When you reach the other side of the rock mountain, we will be here waiting for you, people of the Expanse clans. We have not forgotten. We’ll keep the promises of our elders, the people of long ago, written on the Rock for all to see and remember.”

Attu was no longer on the ice now, but was standing on ground, filled with small growing green things as far as he could see. The green at his feet was thick, like countless green fur pelts laid across the land. Above him was a tall Rock with sheer sides, like the ice mountains. He saw a huge circle, as big as the floor of the large clan shelter, carved into its face, and he saw patterns carved into the rock, into the circle. He had no idea what they meant. Attu felt frustrated and confused, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

The man WAS speaking out of Rika’ mouth, for she stood before him now, just a spear length in front of him. Attu reached for her, but somehow he was turned instead, away from Rika and toward a path, a natural cut between two large mountains of rock, taller than any ice mountains he’d ever seen. It was the path between two ridges of rock he had been dreaming about. But this time he could see it clearly all the way to the top, without the haze, and he was amazed at the height of the mountains above the ridges on either side he had seen before.

Attu heard the voice behind him say, “See the odd-shaped rock at the top of that mountain, the one on your left? The one that looks like a double-pointed spear?”

Attu felt himself nod in the dream.

“Find that rock, and follow the path through the mountains. Then you and your whole clan will be safe.”

Attu struggled, trying to force himself to turn around in the dream. He needed to see Rika, HAD to see Rika. What did he care about a path through the mountains? She was right there behind him, if only he could turn around. Attu’s heart pounded as he willed himself to turn back, to face her again, and suddenly, he was. Attu opened his mouth, fighting to get out his question, forming the words, “Rika, is that really you?” over and over again in his mind. But try as he might, no words came out. In the dream, the man-Rika smiled, an odd smile, and Attu saw two faces smiling at once, as if the man’s true face had begun showing through Rika’s. He saw Rika, and he saw an old man whose hair flowed freely from his head, white as snow falling across his shoulders. His eyes sparkled, and they were blue like the sky... which, of course, was impossible...

Attu suddenly awoke from the dream, and as he did, he thought he heard a whisper, soft and light, a whisper belonging to the dream still, to Rika, not the white-haired man. Just as he was jerked from the Between of sleep to the Here and Now, Attu heard Rika’s voice. “Soon,” she said. “Soon.”

A
ttu said nothing to Elder Nuanu about this new dream. He couldn’t bring himself to try to explain what he knew he’d experienced in the Between of sleep, but which he didn’t understand. He knew Elder Nuanu or his mother would listen to him if he chose to share what he’d seen, even his father would, especially after he’d dreamed about the ice bear and it had been proven real.

But Rika was mixed up in the dream again, and Attu couldn’t even face Elder Nuanu with the truth about how much he still cared for the girl. He could barely face it himself. He knew that by now she’d be bound to Banek. Perhaps she was already expecting his child.

The thought of Rika with Banek made Attu’s stomach twist, so he threw all thoughts of the dream aside, concentrating on getting his people to safety, off the ice.

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wo suns later, the clan was walking along an unusual series of undulations. It was as if the wind had sculpted the ice as the people of the clan carved out the soft stone, making it into lamps for burning fat, dishes, bowls, and even small trinkets, toys, and amulets. The ice had been carved, it seemed, so that first they walked downhill, then through a concave valley much like a bowl before the ice rose up again, sometimes quite steeply.

It was difficult to traverse. The ice was slick, like nuknuk holes after they refroze and before snow covered the new ice.

“Wait, Attu,” his father called from a spear throw to his left. “Tulnu has fallen.”

Attu stopped his uphill climb and braced himself with his spear butt against the ice, turning to look back down at the clan.

Tulnu was sitting up, holding her ankle.

“Wait here, Father, I’ll see what needs to be done,” Attu called to Ubantu and half ran, half slid down the bowl of ice he had just climbed. He didn’t want his father to have to climb this slippery stretch again.

“She’s twisted her ankle,” Moolnik said as he examined his woman’s leg. He glanced up at Attu, and Attu saw a glimmer of fear flicker across Moolnik’s face before he hid it with a scowl.

Does he think we’d leave them behind because his woman can’t walk?
Attu thought.
Perhaps, that’s what HE might do in my place, but you, Moolnik, are not leader now. Father and I don’t abandon our people.

“I need three lamps lit to melt ice,” Attu called to the others, and Yural, Elder Nuanu, and one of the other women reached into packs to get their lamps.

Moolnik sighed, relief evident in his voice. “I’ll get the hide and rope,” he said and began digging through the heavy pack of furs Kinak had been carrying.

Soon the clan had a large hide spread fur side down on the ground. The women took turns pouring small bowlfuls of water onto the hide, allowing it to freeze, building up a slippery coating of ice on it and stiffening it as well. The water seemed to take a long time to freeze, not like Attu remembered from when he was a child. Then, he had played games of spitting with the other boys and girls, watching their saliva freeze in the air as it fell, shattering onto the ice, or sometimes even bouncing like a hide ball. Like the clan children did now, he had used the old ruined hides from shelters and made small sleds to slide along the ground or down the hills around the clan’s camps.

Ubantu had made his way back down the slope by now and suggested they combine the stop with the mid-sun meal, and so the men took over the task of freezing the hide while the women got the food ready and fed their families.

When the bottom of the new sled was coated with a thick layer of ice, spear rope was used to tie the ends of the hide, and a harness, complete with fur padding, was tied to the ropes, enabling a hunter or even a woman to pull Tulnu easily along. Sleds were rarely used on long journeys or for hunting trips unless much game was taken. They required constant re-coating of new ice every few hours, or the bare hide would begin to freeze to the surface ice, making it harder and harder to pull. Stopping to gather and melt snow, then coat the sled, then let it refreeze again used up a lot of time and more energy, most hunters thought, than simply carrying a pack. Besides, the constant freezing and rubbing ruined the hide after a few days, and it was difficult to keep enough good hides to shelter and clothe the clan without using them for sleds, too.

There was also the possibility of falling into a hole in the ice while wearing the sled harness. The weight of the sled would drag its wearer down so fast no one could save them. Most considered a sled too dangerous to use unless absolutely necessary, especially now, with such treacherous ice usually surrounding them.

Suka volunteered to pull his mother first as the clan started out once again.

Wanting to show his bravery,
Attu thought.

Suka pulled his mother a few feet, quickly picking up speed, and then stopped. Tulnu and the hide kept sliding. They struck him in the heels, and Suka fell sideways hard to avoid falling backward and landing on Tulnu.

“Ow!” Suka cried as he hit the ice.