People of the Wolf(33)

He remained stiff and silent.

Viciously, she slapped him again and again, screaming, "Don't you die! Don't you leave us to starve! You led us here!"

Still he didn't move.

"No ... no ..." she moaned, dropping her face in her hands.

"Tired."

The whisper sank through her anger. Green Water gasped, falling on her knees beside him to brush snow from his cheeks. "What?"

"Tired. "

"Get up!" She beat him with her fists. "Get up, now!"

In a frantic gesture, she jerked his arm, dragging him to his feet. Staggering along beneath his weight, she forced him to walk, hoping his body could still generate enough heat to keep him alive.

"You cursed fool! You'd stay outside to avoid our eyes? You could have died and then where would we all—"

"Food," he mumbled. "Found food. Got tired. Just needed to ... rest.''

Green Water stopped, staring at him as though fearing she hadn't heard right. "Food?"

Runs In Light nodded feebly. With his chin, he gestured. "There, beyond the rocks. It was so heavy. I couldn't drag it."

"Go and get warm," Green Water ordered, leading him to the shelter entrance and helping him inside.

Following the scuff marks he'd left in the snow, she trudged up over the ridge. Below the outcrop—blasted clean by Wind Woman's fury—a matted lump of brown lay wedged in the rock. Green Water recognized the thick hair and heavy hoof: musk ox. The better part of a hind quarter. No feast for so many, but enough, perhaps, to get them off this high rock and back to country where game roamed.

The wolves had been at it; slashes from their fangs scored the hide, ripping out long sections of hair. Carrion it might be, but in winter, in hunger, no one cared.

Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a hafted knife. Trembling, she chiseled at the frozen flesh.





Chapter 12



Rejuvenated, One Who Cries, Singing Wolf, and Jumping Hare struggled to lift the hind quarter to the top of the rocks so the women could drag, it down to camp.

"Sheeesh," Jumping Hare groaned, feet slipping down the icy ridge as he pushed on the slab of frozen meat. "How'd he get it this far?"

"The spirits must have given him strength," One Who Cries said through clenched teeth, pulling from the top.

"Spirits," Singing Wolf grunted. "Men just do crazy things when they're desperate."

"He said he followed wolf tracks."

"Who cares? You think we're saved?" Singing Wolf snorted. "Maybe we'll all have full bellies for one day from this slab. What then?"

Jumping Hare looked uneasy as he sank teeth into his lip. "Wolf Dreamer said there was more out on the plains."

Heaving one last time, they shoved the meat to the top of the hill and leaned back against the rocks, panting. One Who Cries eyed Singing Wolf uneasily. The man grew more difficult and hostile every day, inciting people to squabble with one another, shoving them to criticize Runs In Light behind his back. His manner had gone even more sour after Broken Branch's challenge that night. Singing Wolf acted like a man on the verge of coming apart. The Dreamer had stopped sitting around their nightly fires, fearing the whispered taunts.

"Let's go find the rest," One Who Cries said, shuffling down the Dreamer's back trail. Long dark brown hairs from

the musk ox's hide marked the path. "Hope the scavengers haven't outscavenged us."

Singing Wolf grumbled, "We made the wrong choice. I knew better than to follow some crazy kid."

"Wait," One Who Cries said awkwardly, fleetingly meeting his cousin's hard eyes. "You'll see. Down on that plain, I'll bet we find—"

"Nothing! That's what we'll find. In another week we'll be starving again."

"You're in a good mood." Jumping Hare's sarcasm cut as bitter as the wind.

"I'm no fool. I know when I'm-—"

"Stop it!" One Who Cries bellowed. "Wolf has provided for us. Quit trying to make everybody ..."

Singing Wolf's condemning laughter stopped him. One Who Cries glowered, then trotted ahead faster, not wanting the trouble he knew lurked just beneath his anger. If only Broken Branch hadn't goaded his cousin.

' 'If Wolf was really leading us," Singing Wolf yelled, voice undulating on the glacial wind, "you think he'd bring us a pitiful winter kill? Huh? He'd call a whole herd of mammoth for us!"

One Who Cries didn't turn, wading through a patch of swirled snow to the top of a ridge. His heart pounded with anger. If things didn't start going better, he'd end up slamming a fist into Singing Wolf's big mouth.

"I think I'll take my woman and go back. Why don't you come with me?" Singing Wolf asked in sudden hope, racing forward to catch up. "We know what's behind us. We can—"