Mammoth Hunters (71 page)

“How is she, Frebec?” Tornec asked.

He was vaguely startled by the friendly question. “I wish I knew,” he replied.

“I know how you feel,” Tornec said, with a wry smile. “I never feel more useless than when Tronie is giving birth. I hate seeing her in pain and keep wishing there was something I could do to help, but there never is. It’s a woman’s thing, she has to do it. It always surprises me afterward how she forgets the trouble and the pain as soon as she sees the baby and knows it will be …”He stopped, realizing he had said too much. “I’m sorry, Frebec. I didn’t mean …”

Frebec frowned, then turned to Mamut. “Fralie said she thought this baby was coming too soon. Crozie said babies that come too soon don’t live. Is that true? Will this baby die?”

“I can’t answer that, Frebec. It is in the hands of Mut,” the old man said, “but I do know that Ayla isn’t giving up. It depends how soon. Babies born early are small and weak, that’s why they usually die. But they don’t always die, especially if it’s not too early, and the longer they live, the better their chances are. I don’t know what she can do, but if anyone can do anything, Ayla can. She was given a powerful gift, and I can assure you, no Healer could have had better
training. I know from firsthand experience how skilled Clan medicine women are. One of them once healed me.”

“You! You were healed by a flathead woman?” Frebec said. “I don’t understand. How? When?”

“When I was a young man, on my Journey,” Mamut said.

The young men waited for him to continue his story, but it soon became apparent that he was volunteering no further information.

“Old man,” Ranec said, with a broad smile, “I wonder how many stories and secrets are hidden within the years of your long life.”

“I have forgotten more than your full life’s worth, young man, and I remember a great deal. I was old when you were born.”

“How old are you?” Danug asked. “Do you know?”

“There was a time when I kept track by drawing a reminder on the spirit skin of a hide each spring of a significant event that happened during the year. I filled up several, the ceremonial screen is one of them. Now I am so old I no longer count. But I will tell you, Danug, how old I am. My first woman had three children.” Mamut looked at Frebec. “The firstborn, a son, died. The second child, a girl, had four children. The oldest of her four was a girl, and she grew up to give birth to Tulie and Talut. You, of course, are the first child of Talut’s woman. The woman of Tulie’s firstborn may be expecting a child by now. If Mut grants me another season, I may see the fifth generation. That’s how old I am, Danug.”

Danug was shaking his head. That was older than he could even imagine.

“Aren’t you and Manuv kin, Mamut?” Tornec asked.

“He is the third child of a younger cousin’s woman, just as you are the third child of Manuy’s woman.”

Just then, there seemed to be some excitement at the Crane Hearth and they all turned to look.

“Now, take a deep breath,” Ayla said, “and push once more. You’re almost there.”

Fralie gasped for breath and bore down hard, holding on to Nezzie’s hands.

“Good! That’s good!” Ayla encouraged. “Here it comes. Here it comes! Good! There we are!”

“It’s a girl, Fralie!” Crozie said. “I told you this one would be a girl!”

“How is she?” Fralie asked. “Is she …”

“Nezzie, will you help her push out the afterbirth,” Ayla said, cleaning mucus from the infant’s mouth as she struggled to take her first breath. There was an awful silence. Then a heart-stopping, miraculous, cry of life.

“She’s alive! She’s alive!” Fralie said, tears of relief and hope in her eyes.

Yes, she was alive, Ayla thought, but so small. She had never seen such a tiny baby. Yet, she was alive, struggling and kicking and breathing. Ayla put the baby face down across Fralie’s stomach, and reminded herself that she had seen only Clan newborns. Babies of the Others were probably smaller to begin with. She helped Nezzie with the afterbirth, then turned the infant over and tied the umbilical cord in two places with the pieces of red-dyed sinew she had prepared. With a sharp flint knife, she cut the cord between the ties. For better or for worse, she was on her own; an independent, living, breathing human being. But the next few days would be critical.

Ayla examined the baby carefully while she was cleaning her. She seemed perfect, just exceptionally small and her cry was weak. Ayla wrapped her in a soft skin blanket and handed her to Crozie. When Nezzie and Tulie had taken away the birthing blanket, and Ayla made sure Fralie was clean and comfortable, packed with an absorbent padding of mammoth wool, hen new daughter was put in the crook of Fralie’s arm. Then, she motioned to Frebec to come and see the first daughter of his hearth. Crozie hovered close.

Fralie unwrapped her, then looked up at Ayla with tears in her eyes. “She’s so little,” she said, cuddling the tiny infant. Then she untied the front of her tunic and put the baby to her breast. The newborn nuzzled, found the nipple, and from the smile on Fralie’s face, Ayla knew she suckled. But in a few moments, she let go, and seemed exhausted from the effort.

“She’s so small … will she live?” Frebec asked Ayla, but it was more a plea.

“She is breathing. If she can suckle, there is hope, but to live, she will need help. She must be kept warm, and she must not be allowed to use what little strength she has for anything but nursing. All the milk she drinks must be for
growing,” Ayla said. Then she gave both Frebec and Crozie a stern look. “There can be no more fighting at this hearth if you want her to live. It will make her upset, and you cannot let her become upset if she is to grow. She should not even be allowed to cry, she does not have the strength to cry. It will take her milk away from growing.”

“How can I keep her from crying, Ayla? How will I know when to feed her if she doesn’t cry?” Fralie said.

“Both Frebec and Crozie must help you because she must be with you every moment, just as though you were still pregnant, Fralie. I think the best way would be to make a carrier that will hold her to your breast. That way, you will keep her warm. She will be comforted by your closeness and the sound of your heart, because she is used to it. But most important, any time she wants to nurse, she need only turn her head to reach your nipple, Fralie. Then she won’t use up strength she needs for growing with crying.”

“What about changing her?” Crozie asked.

“Coat her skin with some of that soft tallow I gave you, Crozie; I’ll make more. Use clean, dry, dung packed around her to absorb her waste. Throw it out when she needs changing, but don’t move her too much. And you must rest, Fralie, and not move around too much with her. It will do you good, too. We need to try to keep your cough calmed down. If she can survive the next few days, then every day she lives will make her stronger. With your help, Frebec, and Crozie, she has a chance.”

A feeling of subdued hope pervaded the lodge as the drapes were closed on a red sun settling into a bank of clouds hovering on the horizon. Most people had finished their evening meal, and were stoking fires, cleaning things up, putting down children, and gathering together for the evening conversation and company. Several people were sitting around the fireplace of the Mammoth Hearth, but conversation was held down to a low murmur, as though loud voices were somehow inappropriate.

Ayla had given Fralie a mild relaxing drink, and left her to sleep. She would get little enough sleep in the days to come. Most infants settled into a routine of sleeping for a reasonable time before waking up to be fed, but Fralies new baby couldn’t nurse very long at one time, and therefore didn’t sleep much before needing to nurse again. Fralie would have
to get her sleep in a series of short naps, too, until the baby grew stronger.

It was almost strange to see Frebec and Crozie working together, helping each other to help Fralie, and being exceedingly courteous and restrained. It might not last, but they were trying, and some of their animosity seemed to be draining off.

Crozie had gone to bed early. It had been a difficult day and she wasn’t so young any more. She was tired and she expected to be up to help Fralie later. Crisavec was still sleeping with Tulie’s son, and Tronie was keeping Tasher. Frebec sat alone at the Crane Hearth, looking at the fire, feeling mixed emotions. He felt anxious and protective over the tiny infant, the first child of his hearth, and fearful. Ayla had put her in his arms to hold for a few moments while she and Crozie were making Fralie comfortable. He stared at her, awed that someone so small could be so perfect. Her diminutive hands even had fingernails. He was afraid to move, afraid he would break her”, and was greatly relieved when Ayla took her back, yet he was reluctant to let her go.

Suddenly Frebec stood up and started down the passageway. He didn’t want to be alone on this night. He stopped at the edge of the Mammoth Hearth and looked at the people sitting around the fire. They were the younger people of the Camp, and in the past, he would have walked by them on his way to the cooking hearth to visit with Talut and Nezzie or Tulie and Barzec or Manuv or Wymez or, lately, with Jondalar, and sometimes Danug. Even though Crozie was often at the cooking hearth, it was easier to ignore her than to face the possibility of being ignored by Deegie or disdained by Ranec. But Tornec had been friendly earlier, and his woman had given birth, and he knew how it felt. Frebec took a deep breath and walked toward the fireplace.

They broke into laughter just as he reached Tornee, and for a moment, he thought they were laughing at him. He was tempted to leave.

“Frebec! There you are!” Tornec said.

“I think there is still some tea left,” Deegie said. “Let me pour you some.”

“Everyone tells me she’s a beautiful little girl,” Ranec said. “And Ayla says she has a chance.”

“We’re lucky to have Ayla here,” Tronie said.

“Yes, we are,” Frebec replied. No one said anything for a
moment. It was the first good word Frebec had ever said about Ayla.

“Maybe she can be named at the Spring Festival,” Latie said. Frebec hadn’t noticed her sitting next to Mamut in the shadow. “That would be good luck.”

“Yes, it would,” Frebec said, reaching for the cup Deegie gave him, and feeling a little more comfortable.

“I’m going to have a part in the Spring Festival, too,” she announced, half-shyly and half-proudly.

“Latie is a woman,” Deegie told him with the slightly condescending air of a big sister informing another adult who is knowledgeable.

“She will have her Rites of First Pleasures at the Summer Meeting this year,” Tronie added.

Frebec nodded, and smiled at Latie, not quite sure what to say.

“Is Fralie still sleeping?” Ayla asked. “She was when I left.”

“I think I will go to bed, too,” she said, getting up. “I’m tired.” She put her hand on Frebec’s arm. “Will you come and get me when Fralie wakes up?”

“Yes, I will, Ayla … and … uh … thank you,” he said softly.

“Ayla, I think she’s growing,” Fralie said. “I’m sure she feels heavier, and she’s starting to look around. She’s nursing longer, too, I think.”

“It’s been five days. I think she may be getting stronger,” Ayla agreed.

Fralie smiled, then tears came to her eyes. “Ayla, I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’ve been blaming myself for not coming to you sooner. This pregnancy didn’t feel right from the beginning, but when mother and Frebec started fighting, I couldn’t take sides.”

Ayla just nodded.

“I know Mother can be difficult, but she has lost so much. She was a headwoman, you know.”

“I guessed as much.”

“I was the oldest of four children, I had two sisters and a brother.… I was about Latie’s age when it happened. Mother took me to the Deer Camp to meet the son of their headwoman. She wanted to arrange a union. I didn’t want to go, and I didn’t like him when I met him. He was older, and
more concerned about my status than me, but before the visit was over, she managed to get me to agree. The arrangements were made for our joining at the Matrimonial the next summer. When we got back to our Camp … oh, Ayla, it was awful …” Fralie closed her eyes, trying to control herself.

“No one knows what happened … there was a fire. It was an old lodge, built by Mothers uncle. People said the thatching, and wood, and bone must have been all dried out. They think it must have started at night … no one got out …”

“Fralie, I’m sorry,” Ayla said.

“We had no place to go, so we turned around and went back to the Deer Camp. They were sorry for us, but not happy about it. They were afraid of bad luck, and we’d lost status. They wanted to break the agreement, but Crozie argued before the Council of Sisters and held them to it. The Deer Camp would have lost influence and status if they’d backed out. I was joined that summer. Mother said I had to. It was all we had left, but there was never much happiness in the union, except for Crisavec and Tasher. Mother was always fighting with them, particularly with my man. She was used to being headwoman, used to making decisions and having respect. It wasn’t easy for her to lose it. She couldn’t give it up. People started thinking of her as a bitter, nagging corn-plainer, and didn’t want to be around her.” Fralie paused, then continued.

“When my man was gored by an aurochs, the Deer Camp said we were bad luck, and made us leave. Mother tried to arrange another union for me. There was some interest. I still had my birth status, they can’t take away what you are born with, but no one wanted Mother. They said she was bad luck, but I think they just didn’t like her complaining all the time. I couldn’t blame her, though. They just didn’t understand.

“The only one who made an offer was Frebec. He didn’t have much to offer”—Fralie smiled—“but he offered everything he had. I wasn’t sure about him at first. He never had much status, and he doesn’t always know how to act—he embarrasses Mother. He wants to be worthwhile, so he tries to make himself important by saying nasty things about … other people. I decided to go away with him for a trial. Mother was surprised when we came back and I told her I wanted to accept his offer. She never has understood …”