Running with the Wolves

Apprentice

  Yanjmaa lifted her booted foot high over the threshold of the black ger. Smoke from unknown plants lazily swirled inside the tent, choking her. "Speak." the first woman commanded.

"I was... chosen?"

"Oh, but you did not speak of her beauty! Look at the hair! The skin!" the second woman exclaimed. Ragged and yellowed fingernails tore at Yanjmaa's braid. Beauty? Yanjmaa thought. I tried to make myself ugly. Is this woman blind?

"I was chosen because... maybe... I can talk to animals? Can I see?" Yanjmaa questioningly queried. "Gray, with flecks of gold," the first woman said, peering into Yanjmaa's eyes. "They... they can see! Oh, they can see! Finally, a qualified girl!" Yanjmaa literally thought the first woman would get up and start dancing with joy.

Days and nights of training passed. Yanjmaa knew the names of more herbs, trees, animals, and cures for diseases than even the shamaness. Her eyes no longer stung with the smoke from strange plants. Yanjmaa could make blue and purple sparks emerge from fires that bring good luck to all that pass between. She was learning fast, faster than anyone before her. Once she had seen eighteen winters, she would have to set up her own black ger, find her own herbs and cures, and travel with the village. Or she could become a solitary hermit, living alone.