Chapter 14

Two Bears was tired, cold and hungry. He looked over at Broken Stick and watched as his friend breathed in a painful sounding manner, taking labored shallow breaths, and continually shivering from the fever that wracked his body. For the past three days and nights Stick had been like that, sleeping most of the time, too weak to care for himself at all. Two had been feeding him the broths that he made on the cooking skins from whatever foods they were able to gather. He was concerned that his friend wasn't going to survive the illness that had come upon him. Of the original war party of eighty hunters, less than forty still survived. Many had been killed in battle, but infections and fever illnesses had carried off the rest.

The battles themselves were not going that well either. Even though there had been no single skirmish that had been a big victory for either side, the nature of warfare among the tribes dictated that it would be a war of attrition rather than a single, decisive battle. The raids on defenseless villages hadn't been slowed down, not even with the coming of the war party, and their engaging in open warfare against the raiders. If anything, the attacks against the villages had increased, both in number and in severity. The attackers seemed even more harsh and brutal than before. Two Bears had killed several of the raiders in the skirmishes and had been fortunate to not have been wounded or killed in return. He had been out hunting for game once with three others in his war party, and they had been accosted by a group of fifteen or more raiders. Two Bears had watched as two of his fellow hunters had been felled with arrows before any of them even knew that they were under attack. He had been fortunate to have been able to make his escape, and had even managed to shoot, and kill, two of his pursuers. The other surviving hunter from his group had fled by a different route and had escaped also, but only after avoiding the raiders that had followed after him.

With Broken Stick so ill, Two Bears had been left behind by the war party to care for his friend. Not having managed much rest himself, Two Bears finally passed out from the cold and the lack of adequate food and rest. When he regained consciousness, his friend had slipped further down into unconsciousness and was talking in a way that made no sense to Two Bears. He would repeat the names of people from the village, calling for them to help him. Two Bears wiped Stick's brow with a dampened fur, and when he felt Stick's head, it was so hot to the touch that he drew back his hand in alarm.

Stick opened his eyes and looked at Two Bears, his friend, the brother of his wife, and a hunter he knew as well as he knew himself. He was having a moment of awareness and clarity, a moment where he knew that his sickness was too strong to defeat. He could feel his life force draining away.

"Two, you need to leave me and get back to the war party. I can fight no more. Tell Shadow and my sons that my final thoughts were of them and of the happiness that we shared together. I leave you to take over my duties to my sons. Teach them what I would have. Make them welcome at the hunter's fire, and act in my place when it is time for them to bind their wrists and to become members in the tribe. You have always been a good friend to me, and I have enjoyed your company on all of our hunts and journeys." Two Bears was going to make some encouraging comment about how Two Sticks was soon going to be well again, and how they would travel together back to the war party. When he looked down at his friend though, he soon realized that his friend's spirit had departed. He felt an anguish inside that was greater than any that he'd ever known before. In spite of the fever and the desperately curtailed breathing, Two Bears hadn't been prepared for his friend's death. He spent many hours with Stick cradled in his arms as he sang to the spirits for his friend's safe journey back to the spirit world.

Two Bears caught up with the war party after a few more nights, and they went about trying to accomplish the task that they had all traveled far to perform. There was fiercer fighting now, because both sides were angry over their cumulative losses and sought to retaliate in kind. When the war party was reduced to twenty two hunters, and the raider's numbers had been cut to little more than that figure, the local villagers began to find the resolve to fight for what had been taken from them. It was soon after that decision that the remaining raiders disbanded, and began to flee North in small groups, back to the safety of their home villages. The "victorious" war party began their journey back to their own villages, angered that the people that they had come to protect had waited so long before taking a stand beside them, and thus defeating the enemy that had been treating them so harshly.

It was late Spring before the remnants of the war party found themselves back at the assembly point that they had started from more than two complete cycles before. The twenty that had survived the journey, the war and the return journey home, had all changed considerably from when they had first started out. Two Bears felt these changes, in himself, and in those that had come from his village. During the long journey back, he had thought of how he would need to tell Still Shadow and her two sons that Broken Stick lived no more. He looked upon the lodges of his home village and still had not found the words to say what needed saying.

When only four hunters stepped from the woods in sight of the village, word quickly spread. Each of the returning hunters had someone close that had died and left them with the burden of telling their story at the council fires, and at the hunter's fires that would extend out from now until their own days had ended. People began coming to the edge of the village, watching as the returning hunters drew near. There was excitement as each hunter was identified and recognized. Soon, wails of anguish could be heard when family could see that their loved one was not among those that had returned. Tradition had always demanded that all who returned from a war party would return together.

Two Bears watched as Still Shadow parted the villagers that had congregated ahead of her. In her arms was another young child, obviously born after the war party had departed. He saw his sister turn and hand the baby off to another woman, before she started running towards him. He saw the look in her face and in her eyes as she closed the distance that separated them. Once again he felt the sharp pain of loss and sorrow. It was as if he was living again the experience of Broken Stick's death. Shadow stopped in front of him, seeing the pain on her brother's face before she collapsed to the ground and lost all consciousness. She had seen enough to tell her that her beloved husband was gone. Her mind was unable, as of yet, to accept that information. Two Bears bent down and lifted her in his arms and began carrying her to the lodge of his parents.

He had taken only a few steps when he saw Bent Willow pushing her way through the villagers. Seeing Two Bears, her face started shining with all of the brightness that happiness can give. She then saw that Two had Still Shadow in his arms and she immediately knew what that had to mean. Her happiness was quickly diminished, but she still felt joy in seeing that her Two had safely returned. Now though, her every thought was tinged in the sorrow for the loss of Broken Stick. Her immediate thought was that Stick would never get to see his third perfect son, Walking Bear. She saw the woman holding Shadow's baby and went to retrieve the child. She noticed Straight Arrow being led towards her by his older brother, Little Hawk. In spite of the embarrassment it caused them, both boys were weeping uncontrollably. No one noticed it though, for to do so would have been even more of an embarrassment for the one doing the noticing. When Stick's two oldest sons reached her, Willow took the older boy's hand and led all of them back towards the lodge of Two's parents.

Still Shadow regained her senses inside her father's lodge. Her mother was holding her and rocking her gently in her arms as if she were again a little child. Her first instinct was to get up and go in search of her children who would need their mother at such a time. Her mother prevented her from leaving, telling her that Willow and Two Bears were with the boys, and that Two Bears was telling them about their father's death. Shadow, knowing that her children were safe, let herself go and submitted to her grief. Her wails of anguish and pain could be heard from far away, as she started the process of accepting her terrible loss. It was dark before her mother laid her sleeping daughter on her own sleeping furs and went out to see about some nourishment for when she awakened again. Willow had prepared a meal already, and others from the tribe had stopped by to leave many small bowls containing the best of what they had prepared for their own cook fires. The loss of six hunters was a large one for the village to accept, but of the six that were lost, none was held in a higher regard than Broken Stick.

After he had eaten, Two Bears walked over to the Hunter's fire to tell Stick's story. Eagle Claw held the hand of Little Hawk and led him to the hunter's fire as well.

"In all of the season's of my life, I have never met another hunter who was Broken Stick's equal. His arrows were straighter, flew farther and faster, and he almost always hit where he aimed. No truer friend than him have I met either. He saved my life several times, at the risk of his own. He hated the taking of another hunter's life, but he did it when it meant saving my life, or when it was necessary to protect our war party and to further our cause. No enemy arrow killed Broken Stick, it was a fever that came in his sleep and took him by surprise. His last words were to try to comfort me, as well as his woman and his children. He was a hunter who could always be depended on, a friend to be missed. I stand here by this fire to say that it was his wish that I help his sons to become tribal members and hunter's for this village. They are my sons now, and will look to me for future help and guidance. I stayed by his side and sang him into the spirit world, and I plan to hunt with him again when I have made my own final journey there."

That night, Two Bear's lodge was filled with five children. There would be no physical joining taking place between Willow and Two Bears that night. She held him and comforted him while he tried to deal with the emotional pains of losing his friend, and the conflicting gladness that he felt at surviving the war. He knew that a part of him hadn't survived, but he was determined to make a contribution to the tribe and to the village that would pay honor to his fallen friend. In his father's lodge, Still Shadow came awake before the rising sun. Her movement caused her mother to also awaken, and the two of them went to spend some time at the Brook of Sorrows. Shadow went to mourn the loss of her man, her mother went to protect her daughter and to be quietly thankful for the safe return of her son.

True to his promise to himself, Two Bears helped his sister raise her three sons. He taught them the same as he did his own children. He trained all of the male children in metal making, and took great joy in every forward step on their journey to becoming hunters and tribal members. When Little Hawk and Wolf Fang became the closest of friends and more like brothers, Two Bears knew a moment of great satisfaction. It was Straight Arrow, Stick's second son, who reminded Two the most of Stick. Like his father, he was very good with fashioning things and soon surpassed Two Bears in the making of arrows. While his older brother and cousin spent as much time as they could hunting and planning adventures, Arrow stayed close by the foundry and made amazing progress in shaping metal, and in making metal do things that no one else had thought to try. His knives were famous throughout the valley before he was even an acknowledged hunter himself. He combined his skills to fashion metal that was functional and also artistic. He carved his own handles for the knives that he fashioned.

Still Shadow spent several cycles of the seasons in a deep sorrow over the loss of her Stick. It was her sense of duty about being a mother that kept her from simply giving up and laying down somewhere to hasten her own journey to the spirit world. There came a day though that she once again resumed living for her own sake as well. She again started noticing the world around her and enjoying the beauties that the area surrounding the village had to offer. She saw the birds and heard them sing, and noticed that life was still going on around her. She would always have this empty place inside her, but she could face each new day again.

Into the village one clear Spring day came a stranger. He was tall, and good looking, and he carried himself with a proud and almost arrogant bearing. He had come in search of the metal makers of the village he said. He'd come a great distance to find out if someone would teach him the secrets of making metal from rock. In his hand he showed a knife that had been fashioned by Two Bears, and which had been traded away some time before. The villagers that first spoke with him took him to Rising Waters as was proper, while others ran to the foundry to seek out Two Bears, to make him aware that a stranger had come seeking the secrets of metal making.