Chapter 3

As he stared at the ford, Taima wondered if he was following the right path. He had successfully followed the directions. From the heights of the mountain he had seen the river and the great bend in the distance. Perhaps he should have kept walking northward and ignored the old man. He said his name was Askuwheteau but he acted like one of the ancient spirits of the mountain.

"Great-granddaughter?" Taima asked the caterpillar on the leaf where he was crouching. Scanning the area, he had seen no signs of human activity. The old man's words felt otherworldly, looking out at the empty landscape. Watching a silver fish with a snapping jaw leap out of the water stirred thoughts of an empty belly.

Maybe Moonshadow Blessing would have something to eat and he wouldn't have to expose himself in the river. He pinched the head off of the caterpillar and then chewed the crunchy bug. The taste was slightly bitter, but food was food. Normally Taima would thank the gods, but Askuwheteau's words had him spooked.

He trotted to the edge of the river and shed his moccasins. He couldn't quite see the bottom of the river though even at it's deepest the water only came up to his thighs. He tested each step with his toes before he put his weight down. He filled his goatskin canteen as he crossed.

On the other side, he quickly slipped into the bushes and sat down. Keeping an eye on the banks for trackers, he brushed the sand off of his feet. He stood and started counting trees. To his surprise there was some sort of order; the trees, maybe a hundred rings apiece, were spaced at some sort of regular intervals. Planted trees usually meant sacred groves.

Taima had never been in a sacred grove but he had heard about them. They were supposed to be places of power for priestesses but dangerous to unsuspecting warriors. The priestess would lure a man into her magic web of living woven branches and suck all the water out of man's body while he struggled helplessly. Taima was worried.

Gathering his courage but keeping an eye out for snaking branches, he counted the trees while walking further into the woods. The underbrush forced many detours but he always made his way back to the imaginary line. At the eighteenth tree, he saw the outcropping. At twenty trees he stood at the foot of the thrusting rock, just as the old man had said.

Taima thumped the butt of his spear on the hard packed earth and softly called out "hei."

He waited but got no response. He repeated his call and this time a young woman stepped out from one of the rock shelves above him with a cocked bow pointed directly at him. Taima stared at her hair, which was neither black nor brown as the people he had known and seen. Her hair was more red than brown, like the color of the wood of the giant trees on the mountain.

"What do you want?" the woman snarled. "Who are you to dare enter the sacred grove?"

Her accent was thick like her great-grandfather's, but her voice was pleasant to his ears. He smiled.

"You are Moonshadow Blessing," he said.

She looked startled but didn't lower her bow and arrow.

"What if I am?"

"Then I was sent to find you by the old man on the mountain," Taima said. She was wearing fringed pants like his instead of skirts like women were supposed to wear. She had her hair in a leather thong much like his own. "He sent me with a present for you."

"Show me what he sent you," she said, trying to sound harsh.

Taima withdrew the bear claw necklace from his jerkin and pulled the entire piece over his head. He held it out for her.

"Askuwheteau said that you would know what it means."

The woman let out a sob and lowered her bow. Her hand left the bowstring and covered her mouth.

"Grandpapa is dead?"

"He was alive when I left him and I left him with meat," Taima said.

"Give it to me," she suddenly demanded. "Give it to me!"

Taima was leery of her and her behavior which seemed a little unstable to him.

"I will give it to you as I promised the old man only if you promise not to hurt me."

"Give it to me!" She said, stamping her foot.

"Not until you swear," Taima insisted.

"Men are such useless and infuriating creatures," she said, fuming. Nonetheless she took the arrow out of the bow and placed it on the shelf of rock on which she was standing. "I swear. Now give me the necklace."

Taima started to climb the rock when she screeched, "What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you the necklace, just like I said," Taima said. "I can't throw it to you. The claws are old and yellow. If you missed, the claws would shatter because they are brittle. Do you want a broken necklace?"

"No, but I don't want you to come near me either," she said, reaching for her arrow. "You have the accent of the savages in the eastern mountains."

"Your great-grandfather sent me with the necklace and told me to protect you," Taima said.

"I don't need protection," she said, brandishing the arrow in her hand.

"Fine with me," Taima replied. "I'll leave the necklace right here and continue on my way without you. Women slow a man down. Stupid women slow a man down even more!"

Taima placed the necklace on the first rock ledge and turned to leave. He had taken two steps when a pinecone whacked him on the back of his head.

"What was that for?" he said, turning in anger.

"I'm not stupid," she said.

"Antagonizing an armed savage with a pinecone is stupid," Taima said. "How many more examples do you need?"

Secretly he was pleased, but he wasn't going to admit it. She reminded him of the black squirrels who scolded him when he invaded their territories.

"Why would grandpapa send me a savage?" she said.

"He sent me because I came to him. Apparently no one from your pathetic tribe had the courage to climb the mountain. Even so, I don't think there is any reward waiting for me here because I did Askuwheteau's bidding."

He was baiting her, savoring the moment because she was so easy to provoke. Unlike the young women of his tribe, she didn't intimidate him and he feared no judgment from her.

"You deliberately insult me," Moonshadow Blessing said. "Do you not know that you should fear the priestess of the sacred grove?"

Taima had to scratch his head for a moment. He wasn't afraid but he hadn't figured out why. He looked her up and down, taking in her rich figure with her tall, straight back. She was pretty enough with her strange colored hair but nothing more. He glanced out at the outcropping itself and the trees to his left, recognizing that he and Moonshadow Blessing were alone in this little bit of the world.

"As your grandpapa said, the gods are dead or gone from this world. You have no power," Taima said. "I can insult you all I want and all you can do is throw pinecones at me."

"So you did sit at grandpapa's feet and learn something. Maybe you are more than you seem. What is your name?" She said.

"Taima."

"Taima, you have passed my test. Are you hungry? Do you want to come up and eat?"

A small bird whickered past with a brief thrust of speed and settled into a nearby branch. The blue-winged, black-capped bird with the thin curved beak seemed to be oblivious to the humans below its new perch. Taima looked at the bird, envying its lack of burdens, and then back to the woman on the ledge. Back and forth he went several times wondering which one was the better choice.

"I was sent to you and you think I need to be tested?" Taima said with a hint of disbelief. "I hunt for the old man. I cook his meat and retrieve his water. No one climbed up to his mountaintop until I came along and you think that you should test me?"