The four wendigo from above them fell on the men behind Ashiwut. Their inhuman snarls where mixed with the cries of surprise and fear coming from their intended victims. Ashiwut dropped his mittens into the snow and reached into his sleeve for one of the stakes he had brought. Mandokee was on him before he could get it out. They fell together into the snow.
There was no skill in Mandokee's attack. He was like a wild animal ripping at Ashiwut with his hands and his fangs. The only thing that saved Ashiwut from having his throat ripped out was his heavy parka. Mandokee's fangs weren't long enough to penetrate its hood, and Ashiwut's neck as well.
Ashiwut gave up on trying to get his stake clear. He concentrated on just keeping Mandokee's fangs away from his neck. They rolled together in the snow, their tangled snowshoe bindings making it impossible for either of them to regain their feet. Ashiwut was aware that the others were all engaged in a similar desperate struggle all around him. He wondered where Nahanni was. He heard a high pitched shriek, unlike anything he had ever heard before.
Nahanni knelt on the river bank overlooking the struggling men and wendigo. She wanted to rush forward, to attack them directly but all of Grandmother's and Ashiwut's training had emphasised that she must remain hidden, if at all possible. No one from the village could see her, so she nocked another arrow, and took careful aim, looking for a clear shot into the heart of another wendigo. Grandmother had told her that the wendigo would vanish into dust when their hearts were pierced, but she had still been surprised by the way the first one had exploded, clothes and all, and no one had told her about the shriek it made when it died. She loosed her arrow, and a second wendigo exploded into dust.
Ashiwut saw the second wendigo die, and now he knew what that first shriek had been. Nahanni was out there somewhere, staying hidden as she had been taught. She had killed two of the wendigo. The men who had been fighting with the wendigo that Nahanni had slain leapt onto the backs of other wendigo, still attacking their comrades.
Mandokee stopped trying to get at Ashiwut's throat, and tried to pull away to look for whatever was killing the wendigo. The sudden shift of his body saved him. Ashiwut saw one of Nahanni's arrow heads suddenly protruding from Mandokee's chest, but this arrow had missed his heart.
Mandokee still howled in pain, and tried to pull away. Ashiwut held on and they rolled together in the snow. Ashiwut felt himself falling, and then a sudden shock of icy coldness hit his whole body. He wanted to gasp for air, but his face was submerged in the black, fast flowing water.
Nahanni saw Ashiwut and the wendigo he was fighting go into the river, but she was too far away to do anything for him, and there were still three wendigo attacking the men on the riverbank. She took aim at the only one she could get a clear shot at, and waited. She didn't want to miss again. She waited until it looked like the wendigo was finally in a position where it was able to make its kill. The man under it had stopped struggling, and the wendigo's entire concentration was on his throat. It bent down toward him. She loosed her arrow, and the wendigo exploded into dust.
The two wendigo remaining broke away from the men they had intended to kill. They knew there was something in the darkness that was hunting them. Something they couldn't see. They ran away up the trail. Nahanni shot another arrow, and there was only one wendigo left. It vanished around the bend in the river before she could kill it too.
The five men on the riverbank looked around in confusion. "What happened?" they asked each other. "What were those things?" "Who saved us?"
"Where are Mandokee, and Ashiwut?" asked Pamaswek.
"They went into the river," said Tokopaw. "Mandokee…Mandokee was with the things that attacked us."
"No!" said Pamaswek. "He is my brother! He would never ally himself with such creatures!" He turned to the river. "Mandokee! Mandokee! Where are you? Ashiwut!"
Nahanni was scanning the river too, looking for any sign of Ashiwut or the wendigo. She could only see the black, fast flowing water. She rose to her feet and started to run downstream.
Ashiwut struggled in the icy water. The river was shallow here, shallow enough that he could push his face above the surface to gasp for air, but the current was too strong to allow him to stand. Every time he tried he was knocked off his feet again. The cold and his struggles were quickly sapping him of strength. The only good thing about his situation was that he had become separated from Mandokee. The wendigo was somewhere else in the icy darkness.
The current slowed as the river deepened. Ashiwut tried to swim toward shore, but his heavy clothes and the snowshoe still bound to one of his boots made it nearly impossible. He saw a line of white approaching from his left and swam harder. If he got dragged under the ice, he was dead.
The current brought him to the ice before he reached the shore. He tried to grab the edge but the thin ice crumbled. He tried again, and this time the ice held for a moment, but it broke away again when he tried to pull himself up. He could feel the current inexorably pulling at him, trying to drag him under the ice, and tried again. This time the ice held longer. He had half dragged himself up onto it before it broke again.
Ashiwut tried to grab for the edge of ice again, but his strength was nearly gone. He felt it slipping from his grasp, and the current pulled him under.
Something grabbed at his collar. 'The wendigo has found me!' thought Ashiwut. He tried to struggle, but he had no strength left. He felt himself being hauled up out of the water. He heard the ice groan and crack under him, but it held. He felt himself get pulled a few inches across it and looked up. He saw Nahanni.
Nahanni saw Ashiwut's eyes open, and look at her as she pulled him back along the ice. She kept herself down flat on it, spreading her weight as much as possible as she pulled him a few more inches from the broken edge. She backed away, and pulled him again. Ashiwut started to move, helping her pull him across the ice, and they started to make better progress. She pulled him up onto the shore at about the same time they heard the other men coming down the trail.
"Go!" said Ashiwut. "They mustn't see you! They can help me get back to the village from here." He could see Nahanni hesitating. "Go!"
Nahanni pulled Ashiwut to her for a quick kiss, and then vanished into the darkness.
Ashiwut crawled up to the trail, along the path Nahanni had made to obscure her footprints. He knew that there was no hope of hiding that someone had helped him out of the river, but he hoped he could obscure the traces enough that even skilled trackers wouldn't be able to identify who had left them.
The returning men saw Ashiwut lying on the trail, and ran toward him. "Ashiwut! Are you okay?" asked Pamaswek. "Where is Mandokee? Did he pull you from the river?"
"Mandokee is dead," said Ashiwut. He was shivering uncontrollably. "He has been dead for some time. It was a wendigo that came to our village this evening."
"No!" said Pamaswek. "It was Mandokee! I know my own brother!"
Ashiwut showed Pamaswek the tears in his parka, at the base of its hood. "Would your brother do this?" He pointed to the similar tears in Pamaswek's parka. "You saw the creature that did that. Mandokee has become a wendigo. No doubt the rest of the hunting party as well. They are all dead. If you see any of them again, they will try to kill you."
"Who pulled you from the river?" asked Tokopaw.
"I don't know," said Ashiwut. "It was a stranger. I'd never seen him before."
Tokopaw held up a couple of arrows, Ashiwut recognised them as Nahanni's. "It must have been the same man who shot these." Tokopaw turned them around in his hands. "I don't recognise them."
Ashiwut took one of the arrows in a trembling hand and pretended to look at it more closely. "There is magic in them." He handed it back to Tokopaw. "Give them to Grandmother when we get back to the village." He was suddenly wracked by a wave of more uncontrollable shivering.
"Come," said Tokopaw. "We must get you back to the village, before you freeze." He smiled at Ashiwut. "Let Nahanni warm you up." He helped pull Ashiwut to his feet.
"What became of the wendigo?" asked Ashiwut as they moved down the trail.
"Our mysterious saviour killed four of them," said Tokopaw. "One got away." He looked toward the river. "Perhaps Mandokee drowned."
"No," said Ashiwut. "Wendigo can not drown, but with luck, it may be trapped under the ice. We must hurry. Warn the village about what has happened."
Nahanni watched from the trees as the men disappeared down the trail, then she started to move herself, as fast as she dared without making too much noise. She had to be back to the village ahead of them. She moved quietly through the trees.
Nahanni slowed. She felt something watching her from the darkness. She felt its evil, as she had felt Mandokee's evil in the village. She slowed her pace and looked around.
A shadow separated from a tree up ahead of her. The shape of a man appeared in front of her. Nahanni stopped and reached for a stake.
"Hello Nahanni." said the wendigo with her father's face.