SPIRIT WALKER

Chapter 15: Dark Kwea (part 2 of 2)

Tull looked at the coins in wonder. Scandal had ostensibly borrowed money for the trip, yet here he had enough for a man like Scandal to live comfortably for the rest of his life. With such wealth, he could have bought a fine ship. The innkeeper could not plan to spend more than a night or two in Denai, yet in that short time he would spend his life's fortune on whores!

"Let's find our mastodon," Tull said.

Ayuvah offered hopefully, in that Pwi way of his, "Perhaps Snail Follower escaped the Mastodon Men and needs someone to show him the way back to camp."

Phylomon nodded. "I think that would be prudent, but not everyone should go."

"What?" Scandal said. "You'd leave me here with Wisteria?"

"Actually," Phylomon said, "I think Tull should stay with his wife. I'm not so sure the woman is safe with you."

"But, but-" Scandal objected.

Tull looked at the camp, the food on the ground. He could not help but recall the perverse kwea the Mastodon Man had emanated. The way he had felt so helpless and weak before it. He suddenly felt that he knew what Chaa had wanted from him, why the wizard had let his son die. "I must come with you," he said. "To face the Mastodon Men."

Shortly after breakfast, Tull and Ayuvah went down to the pond to prepare for the hunt by performing a Neanderthal hunting rite. It seemed only right to have Ayuvah lead the hunting party.

Ayuvah threw three stones into the water and watched the ripples move over the pond. Then he squatted by the bank and closed his eyes. Tull did likewise.

"Think only thoughts of kindness for the Mastodon Men," Ayuvah counseled Tull. "Let peace emanate from you, just as the ripples emanate from the stone. You must hunt with this attitude. If your prey smells your bloodlust, they will hide from you. Also, it does not help to be picky. Many times I have gone to hunt for grouse, only to find a silver fox in the bush. Animal Spirits give themselves as they will, and we should not be choosy. This day, we hunt for Snail Follower, but perhaps another mastodon will give itself to us. If that is what the Animal Spirits decide, so be it."

Ayuvah sat with his eyes closed, and Tull wondered at his strength. He could tell that his friend grieved for Little Chaa, yet Ayuvah held it in. They sat for nearly half an hour.

Tull watched the water and tried to cleanse his thoughts. A giant green dragonfly with a two-foot wingspan hovered over the pond. Tull looked up, startled by the buzzing of its wings, and saw on the other side of the pond, at the edge of the forest, a dark gray dire wolf watching them, panting, its tongue hanging out. The wolf yawned.

Ayuvah opened his eyes, looked at the wolf. "My Animal Guide is with me," he said. "It is time for us to go."

Tull looked back at the wolf. It stepped back into the trees, and was gone.

A few moments later, the men began tracking.

The Mastodon Men had battered Snail Follower, leaving a trail of ripped ferns and bloodied tree limbs. The mastodon had scored the thick humus of the forest floor, running blindly one moment, turning to charge its attackers the next. There had been fourteen Mastodon Men in the band. For some arcane purpose, the Mastodon Men had also taken the group's beer keg, and one of them rolled it along behind the party, obscuring the tracks.

"They are driving him," Phylomon said in Pwi at one point, jutting his chin in a northwesterly direction. "No matter which way the beast tries to run, they turn him north."

"Where are they taking him?" Tull asked.

"The Mastodon Men are not smart enough to fashion spears," Ayuvah answered, "so they club the animal, making it bleed from small wounds until it is exhausted. They will make Snail Follower walk to their camp so they can eat him." Ayuvah leaned on his spear as he knelt to put his hand in the track of a Mastodon Man. "Even if he broke free, his pain will be great. He will be as crazy as that rogue bull that crushed Shezzah's house a few years back."

Tull said, "Perhaps he will smell us and remember his friends."

"Do not raise your hopes for Snail Follower," Phylomon answered. "He has been hurt. Even should we catch him, we might not be able to harness him for weeks." Phylomon did not say anything for a moment. "How far would we have to go to get another animal?"

Tull said, "Scandal got Snail Follower from a miner down in White Rock, but that was the only mammoth in town. The loggers down in Wellen's Eyes have a few. Two hundred miles. That's the closest."

Phylomon did not say anything. Two hundred miles south, a journey that would easily take a month. They did not have a month to spend.