Killbird

ny moons now, the Seer of Things Unseen.» «Welcome,» said Logan, son of Logman, coming up to us and looking at us with his head cocked. «Gods of man,» he said. «Yes, Logan,» I said. «It cannot be. The killbird got you, along with Strabo and the others.» «No, I fell beyond his death,» I said. Logan's face was grim. «Eban the Hunter,» he said. «Yes. I have done penance. I have traveled far, and the gods of man have seen fit to forgive and give me an opportunity to repay my debt to my people.» «How can that be?» Logan asked. «For you are the bringer of death.» «Honorable father,» I said, giving him his due as family head, «did you not tempt the gods of man as I did?» «You were chosen,» he said. «And then you dived straight toward the dome where the family waited.» «I was merely exercising the right to take evasive action.» «I retract my words of welcome,» Logan said. «Go from us, bringer of death.» «I ask a hearing, and I bring gifts,» I said. I looked over Logan's shoulder, and there stood Yuree, more beautiful than I could remember, her body grown into adulthood, thick, short, desirable. She carried an infant on her hip. «It is his right,» said Bla the widow, now Seer of Things Unseen. «So be it,» Logan said. Before the family, which had not, of course, had time to grow to its former size, I stood. I looked and saw the faces of Yorerie the Butcher and by his side a young woman who, when I left, had not been of age. There were Cree and Young Pallas and all of them, but half the family was missing, and the remaining ones looked glum and unhappy, and there were, in their bodies, in their faces, the looks of hunger and winter sickness. «Speak, haired one,» Logan said. I drew a knife of dragonskin from my clothing where I had hidden it and presented it to Logan. «For you, honorable father,» I said. He examined it and reluctantly let the others hold it. There was much excitement. I saw that some of the younger males had stone axes. Had they looted the dragon which I had slain? From the stock which I had carried—I was rich in dragonskin, with the dragon of the hole to loot at will—I presented each male who had none the material from which to fashion a hardax. «Now speaks Eban the Hunter,» I said, when the gifts had been examined. «I have traveled far and I have prayed to the gods of man and they have told me to come, to share my good fortune with my people, for I have found a land of plenty, and there are dragons, some which I have slain, for looting, for hardax and other treasures. There is game so fat that a man can live well, and there is magic which I, Eban the Hunter, would share with my people to repay a little what I, in my youth, brought down upon the heads of my own family. I have suffered and I have paid penance, and now it is time for me to atone. I beg of you to come with me to this land of plenty and share, with me and my pairmate the gifts of God.» «We be of the Valley of Clean Waters,» Logan said. «We have not always been of the Valley of Clean Waters,» I said. «Had we hunters enough, the game is gone,» said Yorerie, his speech not much improved. «In the land beyond the mountains to the south there are deer so numerous that a chance arrow slays,» I said. «The family of Logan, son of Logman, does not follow a haired one,» Logan said. «The family of Logan the son of Logman hungered during the winter,» Yorerie said. «I, for one, will listen to the tales of Eban the Hunter.» I told of my land, of the sweet valley. I did not tell of the magic of our cave, but hinted that I had magic to feed a family in time of need or in the dead of winter. I could see that some were interested. Yorerie, for certain. Cree the Kite. Young Pallas was obviously tempted, but Logan's old running mate, Teetom, was sneering. We ate. The fare was meager. «It was a young deer,» Yorerie said, «small and of little meat, and I was lucky to find him.» I told them that we could, by leaving soon, arrive in my land of plenty with time to build, to set up camp before the snows. «And we would be without food for the winter, with no time to hunt, to kill, to have the butcher do his work, to dry the meat,» Logan said. «We kill and dry along the way,» I said. «And I have ample stores to feed all the family for the winter should we not accumulate enough.» «I hear promises,» Logan said. «You hear the word of Eban,» I said. «For I have never lied.» «We will speak, each to his own,» Logan said. «Teetom, how say you?» «I stay,» Teetom said, with a scowl at me. «Cree?» «I would hear more.» «Yorerie?» «I will go with the Hunter,» Yorerie said. «You will do as the family decides,» Logan said. And he went around the fire. Young Pallas would go. But of all the rest of the sadly diminished family, no one spoke in my favor. «So be it,» Logan said. «All but Yorerie and Young Pallas vote to stay in our homeland, in the Valley of Clean Water. Thus, we all stay.» «I beg to have a hearing and a decision by the elders,» Yorerie said, «for that is my right. Every man has the right to leave and start his own family.» «Every man has a duty to his family,» Logan said, «and you are the last of the Butchers. I ask the elders to consider this and order you to stay and do your duty.» «I, too, would have a hearing,» Young Pallas said. «The family's in great need of hunters,» Logan said, «To lose one hunter is more than the family can bear, since many of our great hunters were slain by the killbird which Eban the Hunter brought down to us.» The elders withdrew from the group around the fire and talked among themselves. The new Seer was the spokesman. «It is sad,» she said, «to take a man's freedom which is his right by custom, but the family head is right. To lose the strong arm of Young Pallas and the skills of Yorerie would not be in the best interest of the family.» I stood. «I beg you,» I said. «I did not come to plant the seeds of division among my family but to lead all to a land of ease and plenty. Logan, I offer you my services. I am no mean hunter. Come with me. All of you. You will see.» «If you are willing to serve, you may build a hidehouse near us—» «But not as a member of the family?» I asked, my face burning. «And earn your way back into the family by serving,» Logan said. «Not even a great hunter could serve well in this place,» I said, «for it is as Yorerie says. The game is hunted out, as is often the case when a family stays in one place too long. You will have to move on soon, so why not follow me to the best hunting range of all the mountains?» «It is for the family head to decide when it is time to move a family,» Logan said firmly. «And I say that the game is not hunted out, that the Valley of Clean Waters is our home.» «So be it, then,» I said. «I will seek elsewhere, among the families to the south, who will listen and who will follow me to the land of plenty. I grieve for you.» There was only one more incident before we withdrew from the family to camp far away along the lake. I went to Yuree and, prostrating myself at her feet, said, «Yuree, honorable mother I beg, before I leave forever to have your forgiveness.» She took a long time to answer. I looked up. She was weeping silently. She spoke at last. «If it were only me I would forgive, and gladly. You were the bravest of the brave, Eban, and you did not willingly bring death to my father and mother and the others, but…» «Cannot you say it? I care not for the others now. But I would like your blessing, your forgiveness.» «I cannot,» she said. «So be it,» I said. We slept apart and traveled with the sun, leaving as we had come, alone, just our little group of four. Now we were both eager to be back in our sweet valley as soon as possible, so we did not dawdle, and thus it was several days before I heard, as we made camp, the sound of approach and a voice crying, «Ho, the campfire.» «Come near, friend,» I said, standing with my longbow at the ready, expecting to see a stranger, for we were crossing the range of a family with whom we had visited on the trip to the north. Instead it was Yorerie the Butcher who came into the glow of my fire. «Ha, Eban, you travel swiftly,» he panted. «Welcome, Yorerie, my friend,» I said. «What brings you?» «I have exercised my freedom,» he said. «My pairmate and my child are on the trail behind us, along with the group of Cree the Kite. We will join you, Eban, if you will still have us.» «Gladly,» I said. «But did the elders reconsider their decision?» «No,» he said, looking somewhat shamed. «To go against the wishes of the family is a serious matter,» I said. «Have you considered the whole of it? You can never go back, Yorerie.» «Logan is a bad family head,» Yorerie said. «He takes the best portions of the meat for himself, unlike the old days when Strabo the Strongarm shared and shared alike with the entire family. And he is lazy and frightened, scared to move the family to new range lest he be wrong and be challenged for his position by one of the men in the family.» I was saddened to see my family, what was left of it, punished further because of me. Better if I had stayed in my valley. And yet there were Yorerie and Cree and their pairmates and children to consider, for life was obviously not good in the Valley of Clean Waters. I made my decision. «You and all the others are welcome and will have my support and help,» I said. We slept, and on the morning I went back along the trail and, after a full day's march, found the small group trudging along. They were heavily laden, even the young ones, the oldest of which could scarce walk, carrying a share. And in addition to Cree the Kite, his pairmate and his two children, there were two others. «Seer,» I said, bowing to the woman who had become the Seer of Things Unseen, «it is a surprise.» «I ask your blessings,» the Seer said. «And for my daughter.» She motioned, and a tall, thin girl well past the coming of age came forward, her thin shoulders bowed under a heavy pack. «My daughter, Ouree,» Seer said. «It is because of her that I desert my family and cast my fortunes with you, Eban the Hunter, for the stars and the ashes of the ceremonial fire have spoken to me and they say that Eban is a man of greatness and generosity and will help my daughter.» «Your words make me blush,» I said. «I will do all that I can. What is it you wish?» «For you to erase the shame which came to us, my daughter and myself, when she came of age and no preman spoke for her,» Seer said sadly. «That is a problem,» I said, «for in my land there are no men.» «You have a son,» Seer said. «Yorerie has a son. They will come of age. I ask only that when they do, one of them, at the pleasure of the family head, give Ouree a child to comfort her in her last years.» «So be it,» I said. It is a thing which I had never seen, the temporary pairing of an unclaimed woman solely for the purpose of giving child, and I was shamed for both Seer and for the girl, Ouree. And, indeed, I did not understand why she had gone unclaimed. True, she was not beautiful. She was, I realized with a shock, much like me, without the short, thick and beautiful limbs of the people. But she was strong, as witness the load she bore without complaint. I led them, slowly because of the young ones and the women, to join my pairmate and Yorerie, who rested after his run to catch us, and then we traveled as a group, and it was good, so good. Yorerie and Cree were good hunters. As the new family unit marched, they went into the hills and returned with game, and thus our carry loads increased with the hides of the deer and our pace was slowed. We were thirteen—three hunters, two pairmates, five children, the Seer and her unclaimed daughter. Of the children, two were boys. My Egan and Yorerie's boy, named Boulee. Three hunters to provide for ten others. But in my range it would be easy, especially with our magic cave of the food. I had no worries and, in fact, was happier than I'd ever been, for there was no close blood claim between the families of Cree, Yorerie and myself, so mating could be accomplished among our children. We reached our home without incident, and before we entered the valley through the dragon hole I carefully showed Yorerie and Cree the dangers of the dragons of the hilltops, warning them never to make approach to the valley save through the dragon hole. I took them all into my valley, discarding my former plans to place them outside the valley in the unclaimed and rich range there. Mar, who had been doubtful at first, was happy, too, and became great friends with the females, especially the unclaimed Ouree. The first few days were spent in hunting. Then I led Cree and Yorerie in the making of log houses, after the instructions of my magic eye. They were astounded. I told them I had seen log houses in my travels, not willing as yet to share my magic, knowing the superstitions of my people. I feared that they would consider my magic tainted and turn against me. It was but the work of a half moon to build housing for the family, three houses of logs on high ground near the creek and outside the marshy growth which hid our magic cave. Our days were spent together, and at night Mar and I left them to their houses to retreat to our cool cave. One night after the log houses were finished and meat was drying in the sun and the women were working hides to warm them during the coming winter, Yorerie the Butcher reminded us that it was time for the rite of the changing year, the family celebration of the end of summer and the beginning of the time of colored leaves. With Seer of Things Unseen at her post on the hollowed logdrum, the females danced. I could not help but notice that Ouree the Unclaimed was unusually graceful. Indeed, Ouree was, in my opinion, a rare and valuable female, for she worked harder than any of us and, to the amusement of Yorerie and Cree, fashioned a longbow for herself and spent long hours in practice until, in the last of summer, she went forth alone and came home, a deer carcass dwarfing her as it was slung over her shoulders. In addition, she was our best cook, our best fashioner of hide garments, a tireless chewer of skin to prepare it, always willing to relieve one of the mothers of the care of the young. She was wonderful with our poor Egan, who walked now, but weakly, tiring quickly. It was Yorerie who put a part of my thoughts into words that night of the end of summer rites when he leaned close and said, «We were all blind, Eban, to let that one go unclaimed.» «She is different,» I said. «As you are,» he said. «But look how she sways. Look how gracefully she dances.» «I see,» I said. I grinned at him. «I do see, my friend.» When the dancing ended, it was the Seer who spoke. «We have been led into a land of plenty,» she said. «We have been shown new and wonderful things. We have homes which are warmer and stouter than the hidehouses, and we owe it to one man, to Eban the Hunter.» Cree the Kite stood. «We have spoken, the rest of us, in your absence, Eban the Hunter, and it is our wish that you serve us as family head.» «Ha, Eban,» Yorerie said. «I am honored,» I said. «But we are as one, are we not? Why do we need a family head? Later, perhaps, when our family is large. In the meantime, we have the wisdom of the Seer to guide us in traditional things, and we work equally.» «Honorable father,» Cree said, «my pairmate is with child. You cannot help but notice.» We all laughed, for Roden, mate of Cree, was, indeed, far with child, her belly round and plump. «I notice it now and then when he kicks,» Roden said. «Who, then, will bless my child when it is born?» Cree asked. I nodded. A child needed the blessing of a family head, true. Still, I was selfish. I wanted to live in my cozy cave and have the companionship of my family when I wanted it. However, I could see my duty. «Would it be good if I suggested either Cree the Kite or Yorerie the Butcher for the honor?» «You honor us,» Yorerie said, «but we have spoken. Honor us truly, Eban.» «I honor you,» I sighed, «as I am honored.» «Honorable father,» they all said, and then we danced until the moon was low and the fires burned to embers. I was happy. And then the dragons spoke, on a chill end of summer morning. Chapter Seven We were gathered as a family that morning. The sun was over the hills trying to dispel the night's chill, and the skies were blue and we ate of the ripe nuts and the dried fruit of the harvest from the wild trees and lazed about, a family well prepared for the winter. The sound of the dragon spitting came. A short burst of sound which set my hair to rise, and then, a bit later, more, and then a whole chaos of sound as half a dozen of the dragons to the north of the dragon hole began to spit. At first, when one dragon spoke, I thought of a