"Doesn't seem right, all that digging in the ground." Hungry Bull chuckled to himself. "Not more than a couple of weeks ago, I told my son the same thing." "So what happened?"
"Rattling Hooves came into my life. For the first time since I saw White Calf up on the ridge that day, the sun shone. Now, well, look around you. It's pretty up here. The wind isn't as bad as down in the plains. There's color up here in the rocks and soil and trees and the flowers. And we can still trap. The sheep trap worked fine. We're after elk. What's better for hunters than to hunt, eh? And no Heavy Beaver is Dreaming trouble for us here."
"But it's so different from the old ways." "Anything new is different. So learn and enjoy it." "Like Rattling Hooves teaching you how to trap sheep? Blood and dung, if Heavy Beaver could hear that! A hunter learning to hunt from a woman?" He slapped his leg, laughing.
Hungry Bull lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "I don't care. I'm happy. Let me tell you, I thought I'd never live again, that my soul would rise to the Starweb like the black smoke from burned fat. Now Rattling Hooves has come, and she's warm, thoughtful, and she cares about me. I care about her.
The hole in my heart that opened when Sage Root was murdered, well, it isn't gone completely, but there's a part of me that's full where I didn't know it was empty. I feel whole now.''
Hungry Bull undid his pack, slinging it over a chest-high log the elk had jumped. "Give me a leg up here."
With Three Toes' help, he scrambled over, reaching back to pull his friend up. "Besides, your children like it here. I watched Two Moons, Laughs A Lot, and Grasshopper up with Black Crow's get. They were all rolling rocks down the hill, laughing and shrieking to wake the ghosts."
"They like it. We lived so far east with Seven Suns' band they didn't get many chances to roll rocks. Young ones should get that chance."
"And Meadowlark and Makes Fun will like it better, too. Work's not so hard up here. They won't have to go so far for firewood in winter. Water's almost everywhere. Food's easier to find. You don't have to pack as much on your back."
They cleared the trees, walking out into one of the lower meadows. Underfoot the snow crunched. A raven rose with a rasping of wings on air, sliding out of sight.
"I'd say—there." Three Toes pointed to a narrow break in the trees that separated their meadow from one above it. Near the break the snow had been dimpled by elk beds and stitched with tracks. The place stunk of the rich musky odor of elk. Piles of scat and urine discolored the snow.
"They cross through there, I'll bet." Three Toes kicked urine-crusted snow loose and sniffed, grinning like a fool as he exhaled a frosty cloud.
"Think those trees are strong enough to hold an elk?"
"Think our rope is?" Three Toes countered.
"Guess we'll find out." Hungry Bull plodded his way across the clearing.
"So, how sensitive are elk to man smell?" Three Toes wondered. "Will they pass through there even though everything smells like people?"
"Rattling Hooves said we should piss on either side of the passage through the trees. She said elk sniff and leave their mark on top of a man's."
"You're joking!"
"No joke. She told me that when she was married to Elk Charm's father, he used to backtrack and find elk had followed him for half a day.''
"Hunted and hunter, huh? Like silver bears." Three Toes stared over his shoulder at the somber line of trees.
Hungry Bull stepped into the first elk bed—and almost fell. The animal's warm body had frozen the snow and coated the bed with a glaze of ice. "Frozen solid. They've been gone a while." He picked up a pellet from the pile, squeezing it between thumb and forefinger.
The passage through the trees looked excellent. The trail had been packed down by elk feet.
Hungry Bull boosted Three Toes as high up the tree as he could to tie off the end of the snare. Together they hung the loop just so, at the right angle to catch an elk's head.
Finished with their handiwork, Three Toes slapped the snow from his mittens and chewed at his lip. "So that's an elk snare? And I did it all on my own?"
"You trapped sheep, too. And knocked pine nuts out of trees."
"And liked them," Three Toes agreed. "Yes, I suppose I could get to like this life. But it's a little lonely. I miss hearing the old tales." He frowned. "Maybe we should have brought Little Dancer. He could have made a sign or something that draws elk better than urine."
Hungry Bull shrugged. He started to turn and froze, reaching to pat his friend on the shoulder. Three Toes turned and stopped short.
The wolf stood in the shadows of the trees, eyes burning curiously yellow, as if lit from a fire inside.