The Mammoth Hunters ec-3 Read online

  Crozie studied Frebec, who was hovering around Fralie's bed looking helpless and worried. Maybe he did, she thought. Maybe she should try again, but wouldn't do any good talking to Fralie?

  "Frebec!" Crozie said. "I want to talk to you."

  The man looked surprised. Crozie seldom addressed him by name, or announced that she wanted to talk to him. She usually just screamed at him.

  "What do you want?"

  "Fralie is too stubborn to listen, but it must be obvious to you by now that she is having the baby…"

  Fralie interrupted with a choking coughing spasm.

  "Fralie, tell me the truth," Frebec said when her cough eased. "Are you having the baby?"

  "I… I think so," she said.

  He grinned. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Because I hoped it wasn't true."

  "But why?" he asked, suddenly upset. "Don't you want this baby?"

  "It's too soon, Frebec. Babies that are born too soon don't live," Crozie answered for her.

  "Don't live? Fralie, is something not right? Is it true this baby won't live?" Frebec said, shocked and stricken with fear. The feeling that something was terribly wrong had been growing in him all through the day, but he had not wanted to believe it, and he didn't think it could be this wrong.

  "This is the first child of my hearth, Fralie. Your baby, born to my hearth." He kneeled beside the bed and held her hand. "This baby has to live. Tell me this baby will live," he pleaded. "Fralie, tell me this baby will live."

  "I can't tell you. I don't know." Her voice was strained and hoarse.

  "I thought you knew about these things, Fralie. You're a mother. You have two children already."

  "Each one is different," she whispered. "This one has been difficult from the beginning. I was worried that I might lose it. There was so much trouble… finding a place to settle… I don't know. I just think it's too early for this baby to be born."

  "Why didn't you tell me, Fralie?"

  "What would you have done about it?" Crozie said, her tone restrained, almost hopeless. "What could you do? Do you know anything about pregnancy? Childbirth? Coughs? Pain? She didn't want to tell you because you've done nothing but insult the one who could help her. Now the child will die, and I don't know how weak Fralie is."

  Frebec turned to Crozie. "Fralie? Nothing can happen to Fralie! Can it? Women have babies all the time."

  "I don't know, Frebec. Look at her, judge for yourself."

  Fralie was trying to control a cough that threatened, and the ache in her back was starting again. Her eyes were closed, and her brows drawn in. Her hair was tangled and stringy and her face shiny with sweat. Frebec jumped up and started to leave the hearth. "Where are you going, Frebec?" Fralie asked.

  "I'm going to get Ayla."

  "Ayla? But I thought…"

  "She's been saying you were having trouble ever since she got here. She was right about that. If she knew that much, maybe she is a Healer. Everyone keeps saying she is. I don't know if it's true, but we've got to do something… unless you don't want me to."

  "Get Ayla," Fralie whispered.

  The excited tension communicated itself through the earthlodge as Frebec marched down the passageway toward the Mammoth Hearth.

  "Ayla, Fralie is…" he barely began, too nervous and upset to worry about saving face.

  "Yes, I know. Ask someone to get Nezzie to come and help me, and bring that container. Careful, it's hot. It's a decoction for her throat," Ayla said, hurrying toward the Crane Hearth.

  When Fralie looked up and saw Ayla, she suddenly felt a great relief.

  "The first thing we have to do is straighten this bed and make you comfortable," Ayla said, pulling at the bedding and covers, and bolstering her with furs and pillows for support.

  Fralie smiled and suddenly noticed, for some reason, that Ayla still spoke with an accent. No, not really an accent, she thought. She just had difficulty with certain sounds. Strange how easy it was to get used to something like that. Crozie's head appeared next above her bed. She handed Ayla a piece of folded leather.

  "Here's her birthing blanket, Ayla." They opened it out and while Fralie shifted, they spread it beneath the woman. "It's about time they got you, but it's too late to stop the birth now," Crozie said. "Too bad, I had an intuition that this one would be a girl. It's a shame she will die."

  "Don't be too certain of that, Crozie," Ayla said.

  "This baby is coming early. You know that."

  "Yes, but don't give up this child to the next world, yet. There are things that can be done, if it's not too early… and if the birth goes well." Ayla looked down at Fralie. "Let's wait and see."

  "Ayla," Fralie said, her eyes shining, "do you think there's hope?"

  "There is always hope. Now, drink this. It will quiet your cough, and make you feel better. Then we'll see how far along you are."

  "What's in it?" Crozie demanded.

  Ayla studied the woman for a moment before replying. There had been command implicit in her tone, but Ayla sensed that concern and interest motivated the question. The tone of her request was more a style of speaking, Ayla decided, as though she was accustomed to giving orders. But it could be misunderstood as unreasonable or demanding when someone who was not in a position of leadership assumed a commanding tone.

  "The inner bark of wild black cherry, to calm her, and to calm her cough and relieve the pain of labor," Ayla explained, "boiled with the dried root of blue cohosh, first ground to a powder, to help the pushing muscles work harder to hurry delivery. She's too far into labor to stop it."

  "Hmm," Crozie vocalized, nodding approval. She had been as interested in verifying Ayla's expertise as she was in knowing the exact ingredients. Crozie was satisfied, from her reply, that Ayla was not just dispensing a remedy someone had told her about, but that she knew what she was doing. Not because she knew the properties of the plants, but because Ayla did.

  Everyone stopped for a few moments to visit and offer moral support as the day progressed, but the encouraging smiles had a quality of sadness. They knew Fralie was facing an ordeal that had very little hope of a happy outcome. Time dragged for Frebec. He didn't know what to expect and felt lost, unsure. The times he had been around when women were giving birth, he didn't remember that it took so long, and it didn't seem to him that childbirth was this difficult for other women. Did they all thrash and strain, and cry out like that?

  There wasn't room for him at his hearth with all the women there, and he wasn't needed, anyway. No one even noticed him sitting on Crisavec's bed, watching and waiting. Finally, he got up and walked away, not sure where to go. He decided he was hungry and headed for the cooking hearth hoping to find leftover roast or something. In the back of his mind, he thought about seeking out Talut. He felt a need to talk to someone, to share this experience with someone who might understand. When he reached the Mammoth Hearth, Ranec, Danug, and Tornec were standing near the firepit talking to Mamut, partially blocking the passageway. Frebec held back, not feeling like confronting them, to ask them to move.

  He hesitated, but he couldn't just stand there forever, and started across the central space of the Mammoth Hearth toward them.

  "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 h
ands 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 Manuv'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, her 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 Fralie's 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 h
is 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 Tornec, 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.