Latie held her head up high, determined not to give in to the other girls' derision. She was not ashamed of her little brother Rydag, and not of her camp-mate Ayla's son either. Let the hyenas howl, she was of the lion hearth and would not back down. Little did she know that hyenas often killed lion cubs, and sometimes fully grown lions, if the numbers were in their favour.
Walking deep in thought around the Mamuti lodge, Tulie nearly stumbled over Old Mamut, who was sitting on a fur-covered stone outside the tent, with Vincavec squatting at his feet.
Before she could mumble an apology, the young man jumped to his feet and steadied her. „Tulie, dream of my lonely nights, I was waiting just for you this moment, I swear!" he exclaimed, exaggeratedly brushing her cheeks with his. „You still haven't told me of the bride price you'll charge for Ayla. Remember, I'm still willing to meet any demand."
Tulie remembered, and was still as surprised and pleased as in the first place that the Mammo... Musk Ox Camp's headman-Mamut was willing to pay any bride price she'd care to demand for the privilege to join with Ayla, even if it was only in name, when she'd live with Ranec at Lion Camp most of the time.
With a bit of envy, she thought he'd clearly been born with an amber necklace, and had been spoiled from birth. However, she had other tasks to consider right now. Why were those two sitting outside the Mamuti tent anyway, she wondered, when lively shouts and occasional uproars indicated a heated discussion inside?
Vincavec apparently sensed her question. „The mammoth hearth, in their infinite wisdom", he intoned, taking a dignified stance, „have found that their collective understanding of the person-animal-distinction shall be greatly enhanced if they turn the eldest and most experienced Mamut out." He gestured towards Old Mamut as to leave no doubt who was meant. „As for me - I am, myself, just taking a breath of fresh air and enjoying the broader view", he said with an exaggerated gesture and a quick leer at Tulie's cleavage, seemingly trying to make it sound as if he had not been turned out himself. He smiled wryly.
Tulie was again taken with the young man's charm and confident personality. She knew he could be fun to be around, also friendly and helpful - the Ma... Musk Ox Camp had been the first to side with the Lion Camp on the flathead issue - although there was an underlying craving for status and influence she understood all too well. For someone not long out of training as an acolyte, he had accomplished much, and was now gambling at high stakes by siding with them. He wasn't bad-looking either.
Old Mamut's knowing glance and soft chuckling went unnoticed when Tulie grabbed Vincavec by the arm and dragged him bodily towards the camp tents, explaining in walking that she needed someone for an important spiritual task, but had to verify he was up to it beforehand.
Deegie and Tarneg found Vincavec on the other side of his 'mammoth hearth' in Larch Camp, sitting in the lee of the tent on the feathergrass still intermingled with volcanic ash, a small fireplace in front of him and surrounded by an odd assortment of pouches, boxes, baskets with fresh herbs, and cooking tools such as ladles and a bone mortar.
He had just added cooking stones to a large bowl that apparently contained clean, rendered tallow and some water, then picked up a toad that lay seemingly dead on its back, legs outstretched, as did a few others beside it. Covering his left hand with a piece of leather so as not to touch the amphibean directly, he made a long cut along its belly, but then heard the onlookers' footsteps and looked up.
Tarneg, eyes wide with wonder, was just bending down to pick up and examine one particularly ornate wooden box with mother-of-pearl inlays. As if sitting on flint-chips, the young shaman jumped and spun around, dropping his work piece, and lay a heavy hand on the exotic box before Tarneg could touch it.
„You spill one crumb from this box" he said menacingly, his heavily tattooed face contorted with barely suppressed anger, „or anything else for that matter, and I'll make you journey to the riverpeople carrying an entire winter hunt's worth of furs to trade for henbane and mandragora every coming year of your miserable life. Did I make myself clear?"
It was not exactly the kind of curse one expected from a person dealing with the spirit world, but Deegie slowly realized they must have interrupted something other than an early dinner cooking.
Tarneg had apparently come to the same conclusion; he was standing slightly behind her, well away from the precious container, still at a loss for words and inching away further. Not being part of the musicians as Deegie was, her brother held the same fear and awe of anything magic as most of their people did.
A movement behind the still scowling shaman startled her. The toad he had cut open, which clearly was dead as it had not flinched, was coming to life again. Waving its legs and swallowing as if gathering air to scream, it finally managed to turn from its back to its belly and crawled away, tangling its entrails in the grass. The small animal's back was glistening with large drops of creamy liquid, like little pockets of pus. Another one of the dead toads that lay on their backs awoke to life and struggled up.
Deegie was speechless, she could only stare and point in horror, and keep the contents of her bowels in. Such things did not happen. The dead did not come alive again. Seeing her look, Vincavec spun around, jumped after the unharmed toad, caught it and gave it a long and solemn stare, layed it out on its back again and trailed its stomach with his finger a couple of times. It was dead again, or at least unconscious. Then he followed the injured toad, picked it up carefully and slit its throat. Waving the carcass, he angrily asked „So, what do you want?"
„Wha... wha... what's all this?" Tarneg stammered from behind.
„What's it look like?", the tattoed shaman asked, brandishing the butchered animal.
„That's a toad."
„So why do you ask?"
Deegie composed herself. She had some idea what he might be brewing shortly before the First Rites ritual, but she wondered. „Isn't that a woman thing to do, Vincavec?" she asked.
„No, it's a Mamut thing to do", he replied. „Can you imagine Lomie hopping after toads in the swamps?"
She could not, but the image was funny. The Mamutois' first healer was way to voluminous and asthmathic to do such a thing.
„Someone has to, so I did."
She had a feeling that there was more to it, in the everlasting competition for power, knowledge and prestige, but it was not her place to mention that. She had come with her brother for another reason.
Vincavec apparently guessed as much. „So, what do you want?" he asked.
„We are here on behalf of Nezzie", Deegie replied. He raised one eyebrow. „Nezzie wants you to know that Latie will wear a heandband of horsehair, freshly woven, from Whinney and Racer, and you can regognize her by that, the feel and the smell."
The young man nodded.
„We are also to tell you that if you hurt her, Talut will find you, rip your male parts off and make you eat them before he'll kill you."
At this, Vincavec threw his head back and loughed heartily. „So, why didn't the big bear show up himself to tell me that?"
„He is seeking out Chaleg to fill him up with bouza, so that guy at least will not show up", Deegie replied.
„Even Chaleg can't be so stupid as to fall for that ruse", he retorted, „after all, how often does Talut invite Chaleg to drinks normally?"
Deegie agreed grudgingly.
„Well, thank you for the tip with the horsehair, and please give Tulie my regards and tell her I can not be captured for the ceremony because I'm busy. That aside, Deegie my dear" he smiled suggestively, „if you don't trust your mother, I would so love to prove to you that I'm up to the task. Of course not today, as we'll be having the ceremony. But tomorrow, if you are of a mind?" His smile broadened still and he positivley leered at Tarneg. „Or how about that young man there? Know that I am always willing to honour the Mother."
Deegie looked back at her brother and felt he was ready to bolt.
„Off now, shooo! You are not supposed to see this.", said their opponent, who apparently sensed the same and had intended this, judging from his triumphant grin.
Deegie and Tarneg were all too happy to leave that place of creepy magic. Deegie wondered how Mammoth Camp could live with their weird headman. She had never given those nasty rumours credit that blamed him for his older brother's death, mostly because even in the most frightening stories told on long winter nights, never did evil shamans send spirits of illness to their own siblings.
It was undeniable, however, that Vincavec had stolen and swallowed some woman's life force in the past. But Deegie remembered Old Mamut's explanation of life forces to Latie and the discussion they'd had: It was the young woman's responsibility to stay under the protection of older women while her life force was vulnerable. A man couldn't help it if his own life force tried to steal that of a woman. It would give him some female desires if he succeeded - and power, if he chose to practice magic.
One thing was certain both for Deegie and Tarneg: For their own future camp, they wanted a harmless, friendly, motherly healer for a Mamut, and not one of them of great power in the spirit world. If only Nezzie would show an interest in working up from her household medicine knowledge, as many middle-aged women did, of whom several became Mamuti over the years, so she could take over from Old Mamut once his time would come.
Founding the new camp close to Lion Camp might be so nice. There was Ayla for healing and Old Mamut whom they trusted, since he was their insert-some-'great'-here-grandmothers' mate, and they had grown up under his protection.
They did not realize how exceptionally powerful he was, and how dangerous some of the things he did were. Not every Mamut would even believe it was possible to command and press a true evil spirit into a visible form for everyone to see, as the old man had done at the spring festival, and those few who had the knowledge would never dare try. Yet for him, it had been a simple cleansing ritual.