The First Jumper (first draft version)

The First Jumper 32: Snowbound

When Little Bear emerged from the cave, the world had changed.  None of it looked different, yet every leaf, every tree was different than it had been an hour before.  Apple hurried past him, down the hill.  Others were walking about, busy at various tasks.  All were the same as before, yet all were different.

A huge pile of firewood had been gathered at the base of the hill.  As Little Bear watched, Ringtail and Torchembri dragged small trees in from different directions, adding them to the fire.   Ringtail was the fire keeper, but Torchembri was one of Cave Bear’s wives.  Apple helped her drag it the last few feet to the pile, and went off with her into the forest.

Little Bear watched the two women doing a normal task, and the women were not walking differently than before, yet it seemed to Little Bear that he had never noticed how beautiful and how different their walk was from that of men.  Apple had come from far to the north, and her hair, nearly the color of snow, contrasted sharply with that of Torchembri, who came from far to the south.

It seemed that gathering wood was a high priority for everyone who wasn’t hunting.  Little Bear was wondering why, when a snowflake passed in front of him.  He looked back and to the left, and saw the mass of dark clouds that were hanging over the mountain.

The snow they had been smelling in the wind the past two days was almost upon them.

He looked down into the forest, and could see the tribal fire.  Pomegranate was still there, along with Willow and Blueberry.  They seemed to be busy with the spears, still.  Everyone else was still gathering wood.  

If this storm was as bad as the last one, they would be in trouble, down in the forest.  There were no hemlocks in sight, and that had been a poor option, in any case.

Little Bear ran down the hill.  He caught Ringtail just as he was starting to head back into the forest.  

“Bring all the wood into the first cave,” Little Bear said.  “We can all stay warm in there, through the storm.”

Ringtail stared at him, then looked up at the cave mouth.  It was not unheard of to shelter the tribe in a cave.  It was chilly, but if the cave was large enough, it would be much warmer than in the open under the snow.

“Cave Bear is hunting,” Ringtail said.  “There is no one to ask, but yes.”  

He nodded once, took a large branch off the pile, and began dragging it up the hill.  Little Bear grabbed another.  

In the cave, Ringtail looked at the bear nest, and said, “We can burn that, or sleep in it.”  He looked around.  “Too small.”

Little Bear explained about the larger cave, where everyone could easily sleep.

Again, Ringtail nodded once, and began walking out the cave entrance.

As they encountered others bringing back firewood, Ringtail and Little Bear told them to bring the wood up to the cave.  After two more trips, Ringtail had his younger son Leopard watch the fire, while his older son Fox accompanied him with the fire pot.  Dragging more wood up, he led Fox into the cave, where Fox showed him the large chamber farther in.  Little Bear followed them in, also pulling his large branch.

Ringtail was not content to stand at the entrance and look, as Little Bear had done.  He dropped his wood by the entrance, and then walked all around the cavern.  The floor was sand in most places, dirt in others, rock in a couple.  No stalagmites.  They could not see the ceiling.  They found several other exits, and a place where a slow-moving stream cut across part of the floor.

Ringtail picked a place in the deeper sand, about twenty strides from the entrance.

“Fire here,” he said.  He pointed to one side.  “Wood there.”