The First Jumper (first draft version)

The First Jumper 24: Cave Bear

Reinvigorated by all the meat from the night before, the tribe resumed marching the next morning.  They broke through the snow out to the treeline, then turned right to continue their trek.  The air smelled of more snow, perhaps two days away.  Cave Bear pushed the tribe for all the speed it could manage.

They could not run in the snow, but they hiked as quickly as they could.  Two of the warriors went first, wearing the rabbit furs on their feet, stamping down and breaking through the snow as they went.  When they got tired and cold, they traded places with two others.

Willow and Little Bear walked at the front, with Tiger.  Tiger continued to try to talk to Willow at every opportunity, and Willow did her best to avoid conversation.  Little Bear finally said to Tiger, “She does not want to talk to you, Tiger, and she has chosen me.  Leave her alone.”

Tiger’s eyes glittered, and his face darkened with rage.  Then he said, not to Little Bear, but to Willow.  “You can change your Choice, Willow.  It has been done before.  If you do not, then the day your time comes, I will kill Little Bear.”

Willow looked at Little Bear in fear, and he smiled grimly back.  “You made the right choice, Willow.  It will be all right.”

“Yes,” Tiger said, mockingly.  “Perhaps the rabbit you ate will protect you from a spear in your guts.”

“Perhaps it will,” said Little Bear, looking him in the eyes.  “It has so far.  Have you noticed nothing?”

Tiger swelled, but then set his jaw, and turned forward, and did not attempt to engage Willow in further conversation.

Little Bear sighed.  He did not want to kill Tiger, and he did not want to die, but it was looking as if one or the other of those things were going to happen, as soon as Willow came of age.

With the immediate crisis averted, Little Bear set his attention to the varied animal life in the forest.  He noticed that they could have speared another rabbit every few hundred yards; the creatures were everywhere.

He was slowly learning how to be aware of many different types of animals, yet without letting himself engage with any of them.  He did not want to recreate the connection with that rabbit, no matter what.  Each type of animal had its own flavor, as if its particular sort of energy broadcast in a different spectrum.  It was tiring to sense the creatures around him in that way, but he could manage it.

When he sensed a different type of life up ahead, Little Bear hissed, and Tiger motioned a halt.

The cold wind was blowing out of the forest on their right, toward the canyon on their left.  It carried the various smells of the forest, but the sounds up ahead had gone away.  The area right beside them was fairly quiet, but contained occasional sounds of birds.  Up, ahead, they could hear no sounds at all, other than the light wind in the trees.  Whatever was up there was dangerous, as dire wolves were dangerous.

Yet Little Bear sensed that this was one creature, not many.  He couldn't tell any more than that, but he was almost stiff with fear.

Tiger, Willow, and the two warriors in front just watched Little Bear.

"What is it?" whispered Cave Bear, who had come up from the rear.

"I don't know," said Little Bear.  “I sense it is something large.”

Then they heard a sound carried across the wind.  It was an unmistakable bleat.  A few seconds later, the wind brought them certainty that sheep were ahead.

Cave Bear snorted, and Tiger quietly laughed.  The warriors readied their spears.  One giant sheep would feed the entire tribe, giving them meat to carry through tomorrow.  Not only that, its thick wool would provide badly needed warmth, for several people at once.