came in I was holding her naked against my shoulder. I thought Amets might be angry that I was making preparations for my baby even though she had no name. Amets met my eyes.
He took his daughter from my arms. She lay still between his hands. He looked into her eyes. She felt safe. Amets said to his little daughter, ‘I didn’t recognise you at first, grandmother. I last saw you long ago, far away under the Sunless Sky. You are Esti. You’ve come again to bring sweetness into our lives.’
Because Amets recognised his daughter she was able to live. As the days grew longer she grew with them. She’d always be a newcomer among the Auk People because she had a name that was new to us. But she was welcome, just as Amets was welcome when he came to Gathering Camp looking for a wife. And now Esti is a name belonging to our family as well.
But all the while my mother was becoming Go-Between and I was losing her.
I hated it. But if she hadn’t, I don’t think you Auk People would be sitting round this fire listening to us now. That’s why this story we’re telling you is so important. Listen, and you’ll hear how fiercely the spirits tested the Auk People. You’ll see how close we came to being broken apart for ever.
But when my mother went Go-Between it was hard. Usually women who live to be grandmothers want to help with a new baby. Itsaso, you’re always complaining that your mother wants to help too much! I think you’re lucky. Even a woman who doesn’t like her daughter often wants to love her grandchild. My mother became more distant than ever. Even if she was present in body she was often far away from us. And sometimes even in the body she had to travel, so we saw little of her.
Haizea said:
I think Amets should speak next.
Everyone knows Amets, of course! But perhaps some of you younger ones don’t know how Amets came into our family. Amets came to us from the Seal People under the Sunless Sky. He met my sister Alaia at Gathering Camp. Amets could have found a place in any family among the Auk People where there was a daughter looking for a man! Lots of Auk men wanted my sister too, but it was Amets, the stranger, who finally got her.
Alaia’s hair is thick and curly like mine, only, as you can see, mine is the colour of dead grass while hers gleams like the seaweed forests that shine gold in the Sun at low tide. While I was as skinny as a stick, Alaia was all curves – but for all she seemed a soft armful, I can tell you she was hard to please! If her face is good to look at, why then so must mine be, because women always say how alike we are. Men used to make fools of themselves just looking at Alaia. She’d look back at them out of those clear blue eyes, pitiless as the sky at noon in the middle of a drought. Except when she smiled – only I never saw her smiling at any men. But then, I was too young to go to High Clearing Camp. That’s where she found Amets. She brought him straight back to our hearth at Gathering Camp. She didn’t ask anyone; she just brought him. And he’s been in this family ever since.
Amets said:
I last hunted with my wife’s brother Bakar at River Mouth Camp, three Moons before my daughter Esti was born. We left Gathering Camp at the beginning of Yellow Leaf Moon. The Sun was getting old, but he wasn’t tired yet. It was mild when we arrived at River Mouth Camp. A circle of hills shelters it from all the winds. For those of you who’ve not seen it, our River flows down through many little gorges into a wide valley where it winds among the marshes, always heading for the Sunless Sky, until it reaches the salt flats and open water. River Mouth Camp lies on dry ground at the foot of a craggy hillock. Every Year we clear the saplings from the top of Lookout Hill so we can see out over the marshes, through the Narrows to the Open Sea, and the islets off Sand Island.
There were still plenty of berries, hazelnuts and crab-apples when we arrived. There’d been a lot of rain, and on our first day the women’s baskets were overflowing with every kind of mushroom. It looked as if we were going to live well. Our family was very small – too small – but I was looking forward to hunting with Bakar through the winter. We needed meat to store and furs for our winter clothes. He and I planned to hunt in the hills, as much as the Winter would let us, between Swan Moon and Moon of Rushes. The best hunting grounds I know for winter pelts aren’t far from River Mouth Camp, and you can trap small Birds and Animals from River Mouth Camp itself. That was just as well because I had to stay close to home after Bakar was gone, and yet I also had to get enough furs to clothe the whole family. My wife’s father said we should never let River Mouth Camp go out of our hands because the hunting was so good. He was right, and I’ve kept my word to him.
Bakar and I had hunted together for a Year and two Moons. Haizea just told you how I took his sister Alaia when I first came to the Auk People’s Gathering, and after that I went with her family. I come from the Seal People under the Sunless Sky, but I couldn’t find a girl there – I’d plenty of cousins but not one that was far-off enough. Though Bakar and I first met as strangers, by now we knew each other well. We trusted each other.
Two days after we got to River Mouth Camp Bakar and I set off before dawn. We took spears and knives, a bark-rope to make a trap and a basket of broken mushrooms. We left the marshes behind us and turned towards the Morning Sun Sky. We climbed through oak-woods, and followed the course of a small stream rushing to join our own River. We had my dog – the one who came into Alaia’s family with me – he was a great hunter. He’d soon made himself the leader, but now he was getting old, and wasn’t so fast any more. We had Bakar’s good dog, two bitches who were reliable and a young dog in training. First we went to the marshy pond where the pigs wallow to see if there were any around. Sometimes when we arrive at River Mouth Camp the wolves are in our hunting territory and the pigs have gone inland to get away. The wolves always retreat when we come back with our dogs.
Above River Mouth Camp there’s a hollow like two hands cupped together where the trees begin to thin. It holds a shallow lochan in its palm. Some pigs had drunk at the lochan the day before. We followed the path they’d made. Three sows had passed that way, heading uphill, yesterday afternoon, with a couple of half-grown piglets. The boar’s tracks were fresher; he’d come down to the pool in the evening, and gone back a little later. We found a good place for a trap under an overhanging birch tree. We hung the noose across the path, and fixed the weighted rope to the branch. I scattered the mushrooms I’d brought as bait. Then we went on very quietly, taking the pigs’ path uphill, the old dog leading. The path led over rocky broken ground, crossing swollen streams and bright mosses.
We came to a clearing. Saplings were shooting up in the light where an old birch had fallen. Brown fungi grew out of the dead tree, and it was all overgrown with brambles and old man’s beard. Flies danced in the patch of sunlight. We skirted the thicket, following the pig path.
The lead dog barked.
The other dogs cocked their heads – so! The thicket was still.
When the first dog barks to the stillness, he barks to wake the sleeping Animal – that’s when the Hunt begins. In one heartbeat we all wake to the Hunt at once: dogs, men and the still-hidden Animal.
That dog was the bravest dog I ever had. He knew what was in that thicket – he could smell it plainly. If I’d known what he knew, I’d have hesitated – this wasn’t one of the great hunts of Deer Moon. This was just Bakar and me, and a hand-full of dogs. But that brave dog of mine never held back. As soon as I raised my hand – like this – he ran round the thicket to flush the pigs out. Bakar’s dog and the two bitches followed. I kept the young dog with me. I didn’t trust him. One to the left and one to the right, with the thicket before us, Bakar and I crept in close – like this – spears ready. Bakar whistled. The dogs barked. They pushed into the thicket. A pig crashed in the brambles. The dogs barked, but
