As several knives begin cutting the great beast open so that the entrails and some of its best parts, like the liver, could bloody roll out to Shin's excited barking steaming hot in the chill of the late afternoon, a large sack with two small bodies appeared.
It was baby bears, a boy and a girl. Tor had not only killed one great bear, he had killed three! The babies were particularly tasty when compared to the older mother's rather tough and gamy meat. They feasted that night like they hadn't in a very long time. And there was salmon on the side. The women were catching them in their nets on their way upstream to spawn. The fish eggs were another delicacy. The only thing missing was strong drink. So they settled for some fermented apple juice squeezed from rotting apples.
Alt was jubilant and raised his vessel by firelight in a toast to Tor. Gesturing with his other hand he declared Tor, "Our hero, our savior from this scourge from the Black Forest!"
Tor returned the gesture. "May we overcome the evil that is so close nearby and prosper through the winter." He wasn't sure his gesturing was fully understood but he did believe everyone got his earnest offering of help. They really needed it.
And help he did. First on the agenda was to take the hunters with their best arrows to the local salt lick and teach them the finer points of stalking and ambushing the game they needed to keep alive throughout the winter. With his help, they were able to kill wild boar, bison, red deer, elk, beaver, badger and a number of other smaller creatures like squirrel, grouse, rabbits, hedgehogs, weasels and others to dry or smoke the meat for the long winter ahead. Inside the cave, it was generally safe from predators except wily ones like weasels, mink, fox and worst of all, the wolverine, fierce and sneaky at the same time. They knew not to confront one or stay in one's path.
With Tor's example, they began to cut into the Black Forest for the first time, overcoming their fear of the evil that lay within. After the great skull of the bear was boiled in a giant pot to make a wonderful stew with many roots, mushrooms, wild onions and seeds from the fields, it was removed and placed on the butt end of the first limb that Tor cut off that first massive tree, signifying that they would no longer be subject to the evil of the dark depths of that forest, but use its resources for their needs. Hoping against hope that the skull would convince the gods that the evil of the place could not get them. At least, Tor hoped.
They dismantled part of their encampment, and using the materials, enhanced the set of shelters in the cave with mud and leaves to keep out the cold that crept in with the night on the wind. None too soon, because the first storm of the season brought snow that reached to their knees. Even Tsen retreated to the shelter of the cave at night when the wolves prowled nearby but did not dare to venture where arrows reached out to them when they tried to follow Shin inside.
The women continued to come to the shelter that Tor chose as his. He welcomed their warmth. But he missed the warm pool that he bathed in the winter before in the camp of the coppersmith. Without leaving the cave, back in one passage some distance that required carrying a torch, one could go and get rid of bodily wastes in a spot downstream from where they got their water and bathed, a lesson all clans learned from experience. Still, he knew that his odor was strong. Somehow, it attracted the women even more.
Between the storms that brought more snow than Tor that ever experienced before, the temperature dropped down where going out to hunt with any bare skin exposed would result in frostbite and there wasn't enough cured hides made into clothing for everyone to leave the cave if they wanted. Occasionally disputes arose, some of them over who would be lying the closest to Tor. He hated that squabbling. But, the continual darkness and cold worked on everyone. And the smoke, when it didn't leave the cave by the right breezes, filled their lungs with coughing. Past the solstice celebration to the gods, the rest of the season was hard and trying, everyone hoping for spring. Even the nightly stories to the children and the games they played by firelight grew tired and old.
Two of the four women that visited Tor almost nightly developed baby bumps after solstice and the fertility offerings and chants to the gods. He learned quickly and joined his hardy voice with them although we did not know what those words were saying. And they allowed him to introduce chants from his clan that he tried to explain through gestures. He was getting good at gesturing, but had difficulty getting the meaning of his gestures understood.
Tor sensed that some of the young men were not grateful for his presence. Particularly since the young women were so drawn to him. He made every opportunity that he could to offer a woman that he sensed liked another to share her with him. So he did not know if those two babies were going to be his. They needed more children than those two if they were going to survive. Hopefully, the evil in the forest had been subdued with the bear killing and some of this clan would become elderly and experienced enough to become mentors and teachers for the youngsters. Without growth, there was only death. Tor sensed that the clan would die without new blood and wise elders. He hoped that Alt would become an elder and not wander off into the Black Forest to disappear like the others had.
Tor worried more than the others because of what he knew, wise beyond his years. He didn't preach it through gestures, but tried to teach them, around the long winter campfires, what he knew of the world and what they needed to grow and prosper. In the end, when their food supply was running low and the last wood they cut in the fall was burning on the last campfire, reality arrived and they spent many cold nights until the sun came around and spring started forcing its green shoots up through the snow. The last of Tor's wheat seeds that he had showed them how to plant in the fall. The last visage of his mother he had retained.
When the warm days came, the ice broke up and moved downriver. The snow rapidly disappeared except where shaded mightily by the great trees. Everyone rejoiced and began to move outside of the cave again, both to absorb the sun's rays and to reestablish the summer camp. But two of the young women were heavy with child, and the anticipation of the birth. Tor would not stay to see them born, he needed to be on his way, his never-ending quest, until he found his mother.
None of the young women were experienced midwives, but Tor knew that nature would take its course and sometimes the baby or the mother or both would die the way the gods ordained. Regardless of what incantations were said and what sacrifices were made. His being there would not change that and he wanted some of the young men and young women to form a bond protecting the children from the predatory nature of man to take advantage of the weaker for sexual desire. Something that he, himself, possessed, but remembered what is mother taught him about treating others, especially children and women, with respect. Why his mother had stayed by his father. Tor wept thinking of it.
Already, Tor privately mourned for the clan. At the last campfire before he left, he urged them to follow the Rine downstream to the coppersmith clan where they would find others and two elders to guide them. Gesturing, "And do not fear the Black Forest along the way. If you stick to the river no harm will come to you. I have come that way and you can do it, too."
Alt responded, "We will consider it. But we will use what you have taught us for now to see if we can overcome our fear of our neighbor and prosper here. It all depends on whether these two babies we are expecting are as strong as you, our hero." There was an uproar of positive gestures to big smiles of those around the campfire.
Tor did not stay around to find out if they decided to leave or not. Before midday the next day he was already down that tributary on the other side and continuing upstream on the Rine. Tor's two companions once again eager to be on the move after a long, hard, winter.
Copyright 2021 © Ronald W. Hull
4/5/21
