Read Online Death in the Time of Ice by Kaye George - Free Book Online
Authors: Kaye George
Tags: Mystery
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sisters planned the preparations for the morning, then shuffled off to their tents. Again, the New One had disappeared.
* * *
Jeek inhaled the comfortable aroma of his wipiti. It smelled of the furs they slept on, and of his birth mother. The scent of his absent birth brother, Teek Pathfinder, lingered, too. And the smell of smoke from their fire permeated everything. The sound of the wind flapping against the skins walls made him feel cozy inside the warm dwelling, out of the cold night.
Jeek’s mother pulled his tattered bearskin over him, smoothed his tangled locks, and put her cool hand on his head.
Tell me again, Mama, how Panan lost his eye, Jeek begged. He wanted to take his mind off Hama’s death.
Zhoo of Still Waters gave him an affectionate smile, but answered that it had gotten too late and he had heard the story of the stray spear many times already. Maybe at the next dark time, tomorrow. I am tired now.
Do you think I displeased Hama when Kung quarreled with me at the council before the hunt?
No, I do not think so. But, my son, you must not quarrel with Kung and the likes of him. Kung and his friends are young and do not know the way of everything. She ran her soothing hands through his light brown mane. I know you are too young to bear the sneering attitude of someone like Kung. Yet I hope for you to grow straight. Not to be defiant, as Kung sometimes is.
I do not want to ever receive those somber thoughts, the ones that the Elders sent to Kung that night, thought-spoke Jeek. He displeased our Hama. He caught her hand and rested his cheek on her palm.
Yes, I believe he did. Now I must get some water for Ung Strong Arm. She is sending me a message of thirst.
The thoughts of Jeek at the pre-hunt meeting had not been at all somber for the most part. Jeek had watched pretty Gunda in the shadowy firelight this night, too, as he did at every gathering. She was small and thin, but her light green eyes were huge and deep, the color of forest moss in the twilight, with long lashes that lay on her round cheeks when she looked down. She wore her lustrous red hair braided in the fashion of a girl her age. Females became adults at the age of twelve summers, males at the age of fifteen summers. They also received their descriptive names at that time, at the Passage Ceremony. Gunda had passed ten summers now, and Jeek one more than that. He feared fifteen would never come.
Gunda sometimes looked up and watched Jeek. This pleased Jeek very much. He knew he was not old enough to couple yet, but he yearned for Gunda to choose him as a mate when she became an adult. Kung had jeered at Jeek the other night, thought-speaking that he was sure Gunda would prefer a more mature male like himself. Jeek was proud he had not carried the altercation into a fight.
Pleasure radiated from the warmth Gunda sent him. He hoped they would couple and be as happy together as his own birth mother and father had been before his father had died. Tonight, nestled in his bearskin bed, Jeek forgot about the latest gathering and the troubles of the tribe and fell asleep, feeling warm.
* * *
At new sun, after another restless night, Enga Dancing Flower scooped up her possessions, the ones she had lined up the night before, and dropped them into her pouch. She left it next to her bearskin and slogged to the Hama’s wipiti where she helped dress the body in a soft camel skin garment, made by the New One. The New One seemed to have a large supply of camel skins. The Hamapa had not been on a long expedition to where the camel dwelt for many seasons. Camels roamed far in the direction of last sun.
Enga was not a birth daughter of Hama, but she and Ung were considered her daughters since she had raised them. The rest of the birth family of Hama helped ready her body. All but Fee Long Thrower, still away hunting, and Ung, healing in the wipiti of the Healer. Enga joined her mind with Ung’s so she could almost be there. Others communicated with
* * *
Jeek inhaled the comfortable aroma of his wipiti. It smelled of the furs they slept on, and of his birth mother. The scent of his absent birth brother, Teek Pathfinder, lingered, too. And the smell of smoke from their fire permeated everything. The sound of the wind flapping against the skins walls made him feel cozy inside the warm dwelling, out of the cold night.
Jeek’s mother pulled his tattered bearskin over him, smoothed his tangled locks, and put her cool hand on his head.
Tell me again, Mama, how Panan lost his eye, Jeek begged. He wanted to take his mind off Hama’s death.
Zhoo of Still Waters gave him an affectionate smile, but answered that it had gotten too late and he had heard the story of the stray spear many times already. Maybe at the next dark time, tomorrow. I am tired now.
Do you think I displeased Hama when Kung quarreled with me at the council before the hunt?
No, I do not think so. But, my son, you must not quarrel with Kung and the likes of him. Kung and his friends are young and do not know the way of everything. She ran her soothing hands through his light brown mane. I know you are too young to bear the sneering attitude of someone like Kung. Yet I hope for you to grow straight. Not to be defiant, as Kung sometimes is.
I do not want to ever receive those somber thoughts, the ones that the Elders sent to Kung that night, thought-spoke Jeek. He displeased our Hama. He caught her hand and rested his cheek on her palm.
Yes, I believe he did. Now I must get some water for Ung Strong Arm. She is sending me a message of thirst.
The thoughts of Jeek at the pre-hunt meeting had not been at all somber for the most part. Jeek had watched pretty Gunda in the shadowy firelight this night, too, as he did at every gathering. She was small and thin, but her light green eyes were huge and deep, the color of forest moss in the twilight, with long lashes that lay on her round cheeks when she looked down. She wore her lustrous red hair braided in the fashion of a girl her age. Females became adults at the age of twelve summers, males at the age of fifteen summers. They also received their descriptive names at that time, at the Passage Ceremony. Gunda had passed ten summers now, and Jeek one more than that. He feared fifteen would never come.
Gunda sometimes looked up and watched Jeek. This pleased Jeek very much. He knew he was not old enough to couple yet, but he yearned for Gunda to choose him as a mate when she became an adult. Kung had jeered at Jeek the other night, thought-speaking that he was sure Gunda would prefer a more mature male like himself. Jeek was proud he had not carried the altercation into a fight.
Pleasure radiated from the warmth Gunda sent him. He hoped they would couple and be as happy together as his own birth mother and father had been before his father had died. Tonight, nestled in his bearskin bed, Jeek forgot about the latest gathering and the troubles of the tribe and fell asleep, feeling warm.
* * *
At new sun, after another restless night, Enga Dancing Flower scooped up her possessions, the ones she had lined up the night before, and dropped them into her pouch. She left it next to her bearskin and slogged to the Hama’s wipiti where she helped dress the body in a soft camel skin garment, made by the New One. The New One seemed to have a large supply of camel skins. The Hamapa had not been on a long expedition to where the camel dwelt for many seasons. Camels roamed far in the direction of last sun.
Enga was not a birth daughter of Hama, but she and Ung were considered her daughters since she had raised them. The rest of the birth family of Hama helped ready her body. All but Fee Long Thrower, still away hunting, and Ung, healing in the wipiti of the Healer. Enga joined her mind with Ung’s so she could almost be there. Others communicated with
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