“I hope you find him worth your while,” Mud Stalker said with a casual shrug. He and Sweet Root had begun planning the moment they had learned of the bear tree. Though they had an uneasy alliance for the moment, Deep Hunter’s Alligator Clan would eventually challenge Mud Stalker’s growing influence. Thunder Tail’s Eagle Clan was now the unpredictable element—the clan could vote either way in Council.
“I have worked all of my life to achieve this!” Mud Stalker had declared to Sweet Root, his good hand clenched into a hard fist. “I am going to leave nothing to chance. Those I cannot cow, like Thunder Tail and Clay Fat, I will seduce!”
Sweet Root had nodded, smiling her encouragement. Night Rain, sitting to one side, had given him a curious look as she plucked feathers from a duck.
“Green Beetle remains unmarried,” Sweet Root had reminded. “Eats Wood needs a wife. No one else wants him. Given his attitude toward women, he doesn’t make himself particularly attractive.”
Night Rain had said, “I wouldn’t want him for a husband, and neither would anyone else I know. If you will recall, we were warned as girls never to be alone with him. Remember? You didn’t even trust him alone near his own kin.”
Sweet Root had shaken her head. “He talks too much about that Swamp Panther woman. He’s obsessed with her.”
“We need to bring Thunder Tail under our influence,” Mud Stalker had insisted. “I will have a talk with Eats Wood before we take Thunder Tail to the bear tree. If we can sway the Speaker to our perspective, Deep Hunter will have nowhere to go.”
“Eats Wood isn’t the sort of man to pin many hopes on,” Sweet Root reminded.
That might be true, but the young man was the closest unmarried male relative he had. Next was Water Stinger, a distant cousin whose family spent most of the turning of the seasons two days’ journey to the east over at Yellow Mud Camp. So, here he was, with two eligible young hunters for Thunder Tail to inspect. At Mud Stalker’s insistence, Eats Wood had been on his best behavior and doing a creditable job of entertaining Thunder Tail. To his relief, Eats Wood hadn’t made a single rude comment about either Salamander or his barbarian wife.
From their packs, Eats Wood and Water Stinger had taken a fire drill, tinder, and kindling. On the other side of the tree, Bitten Legs and Spread Thorn had likewise laid their atlatls and darts to one side, producing their own fire-making kits. While Eats Wood and Spread Thorn twirled the spindle in a hardwood block, Water Stinger and Bitten Legs dragged up old branches.
In moments, puffy gray smoke rose and was blown to flame in the tinder. Mud Stalker stepped back, cradling his maimed arm as the hunters added wood, spreading the fire around the tree bottom. He enjoyed the expression on Thunder Tail’s face, reading the Speaker’s growing excitement.
Winter bear hunting was always exciting. Bears tended to hibernate in standing dead trees like this one. The hollow centers, soft with rotten wood, made warm nests, protected from the worst of the weather. Setting fire to the bottom of the tree awakened the bear, causing the groggy animal to emerge at the top. There, clinging to the wood as smoke billowed past, he was an easy target.
Yellow tongues of flame licked up around the wood, popping and crackling.
“We need more wood,” Mud Stalker called. “Eats Wood, go drag in some of those big branches.” He pointed to the wreckage left by the fallen treetop. “We want this fire a lot hotter.”
“He’s a good young man.” Thunder Tail watched Eats Wood as he trotted off with Bitten Legs for more fuel.
“It is high time he was married. His mother, my cousin, is loath to turn him loose. He keeps her in birds, fish, and meat. When he marries, she loses that surplus. The excess in her household keeps the rest of the lineage obligated.” He said it offhandedly, watching Thunder Tail’s expression from the corner of his eye.
“Hmm, a young man like that is quite an asset.” Thunder Tail answered, his eyes on the top of the bear tree. Smoke was curling upward along the wood.
“You have a young woman, don’t you? The one who finds pearls.”
“Green Beetle.” Thunder Tail squinted up at the treetop as he fingered his atlatl and darts. One by one he fitted them to the spur in the back of the atlatl, testing their balance in anticipation of a cast. “The bear won’t know what’s happening for some time yet. The heat is still too far away, and the smoke going up the outside isn’t being drawn in with this wind blowing.”
“Green Beetle, that’s right,” Mud Stalker mused. “She’s an attractive thing. I’d have thought you’d have married her by now.”