People of the Wolf(4)
Runs In Light sagged, looking up at the Star People overhead. "Thank you, wolf. Father Sun, are you listening?" he shouted resentfully. ' 'Wolf has just given his life to save your people. He cared about us."
His hands shook as he sliced the gut cavity open, releasing a rising puff of steam. It swirled around, caressing his head in the warm odor of blood. He tore the heart loose and gratefully sucked the life-hot blood from it. With the razor-sharp points of his darts, he cut the thick heart muscle into strips and choked them down, almost enjoying the sudden cramps twisting his stomach. The acrid unpleasantness of wolf-taste filled him—Power in its own right.
Wolf's strength coursed through his body. A warm feeling spread along his limbs like ice melting at the dawn of the Long Light.
Softly singing a spirit song, Runs In Light turned to the high drift wolf had tumbled down and began pawing into the crusted snow. Within minutes, his skilled hands had hollowed out a shelter.
Looking to the night sky, he shouted, "Get away! I've shown honor! You have no claim on my soul. Go! Leave me alone!''
The malignant powers of the Long Dark pulled back, respecting him and his courage.
Praying Grandfather White Bear wouldn't find him, he pulled wolf's carcass up to block most of the entrance from Wind Woman's seeking fingers and curled into a ball, dropping into an exhausted sleep.
The long hunger mixed with fatigue, while the strength of wolf's blood warmed his stomach to run strong in his veins. The Dreaming swept in from the blackness of slumber, catching him off guard with its strength.
In the Dreaming, he and Wolf walked side by side. Father Sun no longer hid behind Cloud Mother. Here, in the Dream-, ing, hunger didn't ravage his limbs or make his head light. He walked strong, Wolf in a swinging gait at his heels.
"There!" Wolf indicated with his nose. "You see? There to the south?"
Runs In Light lifted a hand to shade his eyes from the searing glare of Father Sun's rays on packed snow. He looked, seeing what Wolf saw. The Big Ice sparkled before him, a forbidding wall of cold and blue ice under mountains of snow. Water ran from the huge wall, carrying gravel and rocks out into the light before freezing into odd shapes in the frigid air. The massive wall crackled, groaned, and squeaked before him.
No wonder Crow Caller feared it. Runs In Light swallowed as he and Wolf trotted closer.
As they neared the wall a wide braided river spilled out, glacial cobbles stacked and piled in the broad valley as the ice retreated from drainages and hills. They walked along the crystal waters, Runs In Light seeing salmon and char—red with the spawn—fighting their way up the river while grayling darted here and there.
"Through here," Wolf whispered. Together, they scram-
bled along a giant crack. Looking up, Runs In Light could see Blue Sky Man far above in a jagged line where the ice had been sundered. Then he walked in darkness. Black, eternal, the night closed around him. Only his fingers tracing Wolf's coat reassured him that his soul hadn't been forever buried.
After a time, a pinpoint of light twinkled, growing ever stronger. The walls spread wider, allowing more of Blue Sky Man's expanse to become visible. Fear slipped away like caribou's winter coat in spring. For a long time, they ran through blue shadow, gravel crunching and shifting under their padded feet, until at last, a ridge of water-smoothed boulders blocked the way.
Wolf jumped lightly from each, turning at the top to stare down over his shoulder. Wind Woman ruffled his long gray-white fur with her fingers.
"This is the way, man of the People," the beast's voice echoed from the walls. "I show you the way to salvation. I should've come here first. I wouldn't have needed to chew on Flies Like A Seagull and you wouldn't have shot me,. Now, take my flesh. Eat it and grow strong so you can come this way . . . this way. ..."
Wolf jumped from rock to rock, bushy tail catching the silver sunlight as he balanced and disappeared over the top of the ridge in a flying leap.
Runs In Light chewed his lip, sudden loneliness closing around him where he stood in the pale blue shadows of the ice-piled rocks. He followed, attacking the rock. Pulling himself slowly up, he flopped a knee to lever his straining body. Bracing off the polished surfaces of granite, he climbed higher, higher.
Father Sun bathed his face with light as he sweated his way—lungs heaving—to the top of the ridge. Half-blinded, he looked out and sucked in a sudden awed breath. Thick grasses waved under the caress of Wind Woman. Brown hair shining, Mammoth turned, raising his head, trunk curling up around ivory white tusks to sniff the air. Caribou snuffled, antlers nothing more than nubs under a new growth of velvet. Musk Ox pawed, dropping his nose to present horns in his age-old defensive posture. Far out into the grass, Wolf ran, greeting Fox, and Weasel, Crow, and others.