Evolet

I was sitting here looking at the river as the children were fishing and others slightly older than me was looking for edible plants. My job today was to ground the wheat for our breads. It was a tedious job but one that was as needed as the next. We were very low on supplies as winter had come early and our stores were low to start with because of the lack of able-bodied people in our tribe anymore. We were but a small people and getting smaller yearly as people leave or die but that had not always been the case. The small River clan is mine and we had so many I was told but old mother. She was our medicine woman and lead us now that there were not that many.

"You seem troubled today my child." Old Mother asked me as she had slowly sit down and faced the fire. I knew she was looking for the future and to see what bothers me. She was one of the few who had always protected me and had taken me in when my tribe had been killed by the night.

"I dreamed of my family again last night. I see my mother in our garden singing and laughing with my siblings. A brother and sister who are older. My father surprises us coming in from a hunt early and then things changed. I see fear and then my family all fall around me with their throats ripped out or holes through their chest. The last thing mother said was to run and hide. I was so small I could not move fast and the night caught me lifting me by my hair. I remember the icy blue eyes that glow in the dark and then nothing else until I woke in the arms of the River Clan leader. The dream changed though, I was back in a garden but with tall grey stone walls with all of our clan and we were laughing and enjoying food and drinks that tasted so different than what we have ever had. There was a man there as well who I think is my husband. I have seen him before, but we always miss each other in this life until now. I do not know what has changed." I tell her as I continue adding the wheat berries to the stone mortar as I use a flat rock to ground it down.

"I to have seen things changing but I do not know how yet. The dark approaches again after so many years and we are in danger. Tell me what you have seen of the night monsters?" Old mother inquires finally turning to look at me.

"I do not see my captivity and death as the only path, I still see an attack and hundreds die but the other path with this man I saw who is to be my husband shows is with a tribe from the lands south of the wall. If they show, most will be saved, I will be saved, and we will defeat the night for good after a long war." I explained the changes. I had always accepted that the Night monsters were suppose to kill me with my family and would right after I became a woman flowered. It was my destiny but that seemed to be changing now.

"Have you seen the summit, or anything related that far out or do you still only see our deaths?" Old Mother asked and I thought over the dreams that I have been having.

"No, nothing; it is the same dreams over and over but now his face and a new path are showing clearly. It is confusing most nights." I explained and she sighed buy patted my hand as I moved to dump more grain on the stone to mill.

"We need to start preparing for the summit, you are a woman grown now. Many will seek your hand. You need to adjust to that idea young one. Finish this and start the bread, I need to go and talk with Ni'ah." She tells me and I nodded and went about my work thinking over her parting words. I wasn't ready to be married off and most likely to someone with a wife already. I was to strange and once they learned of my sight, they would shun me if not kill me outright for being a witch.

If I was lucky, I would be able to find this man in my dreams and he will want me as his wife. We would be happy but only if he comes. Otherwise I fear that death is all that would be coming for my people and I and marriage would mean little anyways.

Finishing the bread flour up and placing what little we had left into storage pots I sighed. This would not even get us through half a year, and I knew our other dried goods were just as low. We would need to trade all of our goods to get half of what we needed for the year. After that I went to help the children lay out the fish to dry and gathered herbs and some edible plants on the way back to camp where I handed off everything to one of the few females we had in camp anymore that had not been married off to other tribes.

Slipping away unseen I made my way to the dogs that we keep as a tribe. We were a poor tribe so only had domesticated wolf dogs to help us move things from camp to camp or as guards of camp. All the bigger tribes had horses, polar bears, mammoths and such. It was said at one time we to had mammoths and bears but as we lost power and then people so too went the animals. Our huts were made from the mammoth bones and dried hides passed on for generations now. When needed patched we would try and find a stag or even smaller things like fox or rabbit. Most now are to young to remember the attack by the Night walkers as they were just babes or small children like I was but before when they were older ones still in the tribe I was always blamed for it, for bringing the misfortune to their tribe and the loss of lands, members, power in the North. Our leaders had been almost kings here but that was almost a generation pass now since the decline I just wish I could do something to change it for my people.

"Hey Na'kilana." I said to my pup that I had raised since I found her in the woods alone with two siblings. Her mother had most likely been killed or had abandoned her whole litter for some reason. There had been six pups but only three were still alive when I had found them. I brought them back with me and nursed them from pouches until they were big enough for meat. Each was mine but this one was special because she was the runt and had needed extra help in the beginning. I kept her on me in a pouch from rabbit fur for a few weeks just to keep her warm and alive. She had not developed fur like the other pups and was almost bare skinned. Now she was the largest with almost pure thick black fur. They were much bigger than our regular wolf dogs and most were scared to feed or train them. I however loved them and knew they would never hurt me.

I brushed her coat out and then sit as the other two came in from hunting and laid part of their kill at their sister's feet with a huff and a head rub before slinking over towards me and laying next to me. "Good hunt boys. I think we should go and see what we can find for the tribe. We are going to starve to death this true winter if we do not find something soon to stock back up on." I whispered out to them and laughed at the way Braga jumped up and licked my face ready to run again. He was the biggest of the males and the one with the most energy. Aikine was the most laid back of the litter, but he was the fastest and I figured would be the most fierce if we needed the protection. Laying back I fell into a deep sleep surrounded by the warmth of my wolves with visions of a dark-haired man with troubled eyes.

Four long weeks later we were finally ready to travel to the summit. Between the others catching fish and many late summer fruits and vegetables that we found in a valley next to a small creek and my wolves who had helped the few warriors we have get a few larger animals and some foxes, rabbits, and even a river otter. It would give us a good start on skins for trade. I feared it would still not be enough but it was better than what we had and while we would be short on bread and a few other things we had enough to eat until the summit if we rationed it well.

"Grand daughter we need to pull down the last three huts and attach it to the wolves to pull. The other dogs are waiting to be hooked to the pulls as well. Leave one of the wolves free so the children can be pulled in the cart." Old mother tells me and I moved around to hook the first sled up with six dogs to pull the youngest of the children whom I placed on it with thick blankets around them as the days were getting much colder now. There were only a few things in the loads so I moved them off of the sleds and loaded onto the larger wolfs who could pull more.

It took us almost a week to get to where the summit would be held in an old abandoned fort of the first men. Once there we found our place right next to the main River clan branch. They were now our leader even if we broke off from them and the Middle River clan during the springs, only rejoining in early winter. They treated us like slaves and incapable of having input into anything related to the clans. It had always been this way only those tribes who held the clan leader was in power. However, I was told when our old leader was in charge our clan was never mean to the others and made life fair for all. As we were sitting things up and arranging our goods for trade I watched as a man approached Old Mother and my gut turned as she looked over at me with a frown upon her lips.

"Evolet, come here child." Old Grandmother called and I slowly went over to them and was not unhappy when Na'Kilana followed me and let out a low growl towards them all. Placing my hands into her fur I held on to pull strength from her as I knew what was coming now and it was breaking my heart.

"T'Hue has come to ask for you as a wife. I have told him that his gift for your hand is not enough. I noticed he had brought only a few furs and a simple old cloak which was not even in the best of shape. "but he wanted to inspect you first before he makes a larger offer." She tells me and I wanted to growl at him. I was not some animal to be looked over and sold to breed with. I would never submit to someone such as him and his views on our tribe and how women should be treated.

"You are untouched?" He asked reaching his hand towards me to touch me until Na'Kilana growled low in her throat and he snatched his hand back looking the wolf over.

"I am, but you will refrain from touching me if you want to keep your hand." I said back to the man who wanted to take me as not even a first wife. I wanted and prayed to all the gods there was that the man in my dreams would come. He would save not just me but my family, my tribe. He and I were soul bound many lifetimes ago and we keep missing each other in the new lives that we live. If we missed this time, we would never find the other again.

"That beast needs to go, it is not allowed in my camp when you come. I will take in your whole tribe, and they can serve mine until they are married off. But the beasts go. That is my only and final offer, and you cannot refuse it." He said gruffly and I frowned. I would never turn my wolves out and I would never let him make my family into slaves to his tribe. But I was not sure how I could stop it as women. In our society women had no real say in things and with our leader dead no protection either from this man. Old Mother could only do so much as a medicine woman and in the end if this dark haired man did not show, I would have no choice and the Night will come for us all.

"You have seen her and looked, we will think about your offer and if no others are put forth better we will accept at the end of the summit." Old Mother tells him and he huffed and bowed up like he was ready to demand her change her mind and if he really forced it he could take me right then; but when my wolf growled and stepped closer to me moving more between us he backed off and spit on the ground before leaving the way he had came.

"I would rather die than to marry him and I will never send my wolves away." I said turning to the woman that raised me defiantly.

"You have no choice but to. However, we will see if someone better comes along and if not we will try putting it off for a year or two. It is the most I can do for you child with no tribal leader or male family member to speak on your behalf. Now let us not worry over this, we need to see what we can start getting for our trades. We need food mostly but seeds and weapons as well, we also need medicines and herbs." She tells me and some of the others who had hidden when T'Hue had came up. There were two other unwed women in our tribe who had went the last two seasons without being spoken for mainly by hiding; but the summit will make it much harder for them as well as me. Once they were gone, we would be left with five couples who are in range of my age and a bit older none with children and a few orphans that I watch over with old mother. She is the only older member of the tribe left.

It was the third day of the summit, and we were still peddling our goods when we heard a horn that strangers approached and there was danger to non-warriors. Rushing to pick up the children we ushered them inside the hut with Old Grandmother and picked up the few weapons we had, and I called to my wolves getting their attention. The smaller dogs were all tied down and safe. It was a long time before we heard the horn letting us know it was safe and I relaxed.

"Go hunt and run for a while we are fine." I tell the wolves as the others moved to let the children out of the hut and we moved around to start food for the feast that evening. Each tribe would bring food for their people to eat while the leader of the summit would bring the animal meat part of it.

That evening as everyone walked around the feast and talked I sit back in the shadows with the others of my tribe trying to hide us from the men who would take us for wives when I saw him. The dark-haired man from my dreams, the one meant for me who maybe would want me and claim me for his. Maybe he would save us all like I had seen. All I knew was I finally had found hope.