The Far-Hunters Return

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The next couple of days passed without much excitement. Given everything that had happened to me over the course of that week, I was perfectly fine with that.

Shade and I had begun settling into something of a routine. We'd wake up together in the mornings, I'd get the fire going and find us something to eat, and then we'd figure out what needed to be done for the day. Sometimes it'd be work around the hut. Other times, I'd take him with me as I scoured the village for anyone who looked like they needed a hand.

There was plenty to do at home still. Every time I thought I had finally gotten the hut into decent shape, I'd notice something else. A loose peg that needed fastening. A draft coming through a gap in the wall that I had missed during my last nesting session. Another worn-out pelt I'd somehow overlooked. Something that we could use, but still didn't have.

I wasn't entirely sure when I started thinking of Thorn's hut as my own. I tried not to dwell on it too much. Somewhere in my mind, I believed that this was all still temporary. That something would eventually happen to me. That something would change. That, one of these days, I wasn't going to be here to come home to it.

Shade didn't seem to share in my uncertainty. As far as he was concerned, he'd been allowed back in, and that was that. His things had steadily begun finding their way inside again, and an empty corner that he had claimed for himself looked a little more lived in every morning.

That morning, though, we'd barely managed to finish breakfast before Echo strolled in and stole him away from me. Not literally, but judging by the way the two of them took off together, I don't think Shade would have objected if she had.

I had managed to press a promise out of Echo that she'd keep an eye on him, along with what she had referred to as an unnecessarily long list of instructions about making sure he'd have something to eat around midday, keeping him away from the nearby lake, and not letting him wander off anywhere without her.

She endured the whole thing with an increasingly amused look on her face. Then she reminded me that she'd managed to keep herself alive this long and was fairly confident that she'd be able to do the same for Shade.

Shade, naturally, found it all to be hilarious.

I let them go. Mostly because I promised Echo I would.

Later that day, I went down into the village, and by the time I had realized Bone had put me to work at his hut again, I had already been there for the better part of an hour.

Not that I minded. There were worse ways to spend an afternoon than sitting outside with a pile of half-mended hunting gear at my feet, and Bone had long since learned that I wasn't very good at sitting around when there was work within arm's reach that needed to be done.

"You missed one."

I looked up from the leather strap I'd been working through my fingers.

Bone sat across from me, hunched over a length of netting with intense concentration. Without even looking up, he pointed towards the strap.

"Where?" I asked.

"Near your thumb."

I turned the strap over. Sure enough, one of the holes along the edge had begun to split.

"Ah."

Bone snorted, "Good thing I'm still keeping an eye on you."

"Good thing you're so humble about it." I chuckled.

I reached for the awl beside my leg and continued tending to the strap.

We'd fallen into a steady rhythm over the course of the afternoon. Bone worked on the netting while I worked on whatever he slid my way, neither of us feeling much need to fill the quiet between us. Every now and again he'd point out something that I had done wrong, or something that he thought I had done wrong, and I'd adjust it. Or I'd just tell him to mind his own work.

It reminded me a little bit about working alongside Grandpa on the homestead. Not enough to hurt, but enough for me to take notice.

Just as I had finished stitching around the hole in the strap, I heard a horn sound out somewhere beyond the village.

My hands stopped working. Bone's hunched posture straightened.

The long, low note reverberated through the trees, far enough from our position that I couldn't tell where exactly it had come from. For a moment, I thought I had just imagined it.

Then it sounded again.

Faster than I had ever seen him move before, Bone got to his feet, letting the netting in his hands drop into the snowy dirt.

"What is that?" I asked, staring up at him.

"Far-hunters," he replied, stepping around me and heading for the path.

I set the strap down and hurried after him.

"Far-hunters?" I echoed.

"A hunting party's come back."

There was something different in his voice. An urgency that I'd never heard from him before.

People were already moving around us by the time we stepped out from between the huts. A woman abandoned the basket she had been weaving beside her doorway and was calling her children into her hut. Farther down the path, two men stopped in their tracks and made a beeline towards the edge of the village. Someone shouted for water. Another person was calling for Flower.

Even the children seemed to know what the sound of the horn meant. Several of them came running out of their families' huts to see what was happening, only to have an adult quickly usher them away from the path.

Nobody stood around to ask questions. They just moved.

I had to jog a couple of steps to catch up with Bone.

"Is the village like this every time a hunting party comes back?" I asked him.

"More or less," Bone grunted.

Another horn sounded through the trees, and his pace quickened.

People came pouring out from between the huts now. Some carried warm hides and pelts. Others carried stacks of baskets, lengths of rope, waterskins - anything that might be useful. A few healers hurried through the crowd with bundles tucked under their arms.

It didn't look like much of a welcome. It looked more like everyone had just been given a job all at once.

"Do they always need this many people?" I inquired.

"Depends what they've brought home," Bone replied.

I looked towards the trees again as the horn sounded yet again. This time, my pace quickened alongside Bone's.

"What do you need me to do?" I finally asked.

Bone glanced back at me. He looked me over for half a second before he nodded towards the gathering crowd.

"Whatever needs doing."

I nodded. I could work with that.

The crowd thickened the closer we got to the edge of the village.

I followed Bone through it as well as I could, maneuvering around people while trying not to get in anybody's way. The horn had stopped sounding, but the urgency that had come with it remained. Everybody seemed to be looking towards the same stretch of trees.

I stood there and did the same. There was nothing yet. At least nothing that I could make out.

"How far out are they?" I asked.

Bone let out another grunt, "Not far."

I nodded, glancing around at the people that were gathered nearby.

There was an odd mixture of excitement and worry among them. Several people craned their necks eagerly, trying to look past the heads and shoulders of those in front of them. Others stood more quietly as they held furs and waterskins against their chests.

"You said these were far-hunters?" I asked, looking at Bone.

"That's who the call came from."

"What's the difference?"

"Far-hunters leave the mountain. They follow the herds into the valley and the plains, staying out for weeks at a time and bringing back what they can before the weather turns."

Weeks.

That got my attention.

"How long have these guys been gone?"

Bone frowned as an uneasy look settled onto his face, "Not long enough."

My brow furrowed, "What does that mean?"

"It means they're early."

That explained some of the tension.

I looked around again. "How early?" 145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX4drM352JI

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Bone didn't answer immediately.

"A few weeks," he finally said.

I felt my stomach tighten. "And they don't normally come back this early?"

"They can," Bone said, crossing his arms, "But they normally don't unless they've been given good reason to."

I didn't need him to explain what some of those reasons might be. Bad weather. Injuries. Running low on food or supplies. Something going wrong so badly that a party of experienced hunters decided that whatever they were hoping to bring home wasn't worth staying out for.

I stared out into the trees again.

This time, I caught movement. A shape passed between two trunks in the distance, followed by another. Then more.

Someone near the front of the crowd shouted, and the entire village seemed to rush forward all at once. People started calling out names before the hunters were even close enough for me to make out their faces.

Bone pushed his way forward, "Come on."

I followed.

As the first hunters began to emerge from the trees, I could tell something about the trip hadn't gone according to plan. They looked exhausted. Mud and old snow clung onto their legs. Packs sagged from tired shoulders, and several people carried bundles of hide or roped-up catches between them. I could see one hunter limping heavily with one arm slung over somebody else's shoulders. Another had a strip of cloth wrapped tightly around his forearm that was stained dark near the middle.

The mood of the crowd changed the moment they were close enough to see.

People rushed forward, questions flying from every direction. I barely had enough time to step aside as two healers hurried past me and headed towards the limping man. A woman ran up to one of the hunters and practically threw herself into his arms. Another person took a pack from someone who looked too tired to argue.

Within seconds, the crowd had dissolved into controlled chaos.

Bone was already moving towards it.

I started after him, then stopped.

The far hunters had been gone for weeks.

A pair of memories surfaced - Rain mentioning the far-hunters in the valley back when we were in the healing den. Flower telling me where she had gone on my first night inside of Thorn's hut.

My eyes snapped back towards the people that were still emerging from the trees.

Raven.

She was with them.

I hadn't thought much about it up until that second.

Somewhere in that crowd was Thorn's wife - Shade's mother.

I searched the faces moving between the trees, and I immediately came to the realization that I had no idea who or what exactly I was looking for. I had never seen her before.

A woman. A wolf. That was all the information that I had to go off of.

"Bone!" I called out.

He turned to me.

"Raven's with them, isn't she?"

Something in his stony expression changed, "Yeah."

I looked past him towards the returning hunters. Another group had started making their way towards the village. Some carried supplies. Others helped support one another as they walked.

"Do you see her?" I asked.

Bone scanned the crowd for a moment.

"Not yet," he said.

For some reason, that wasn't reassuring. I knew that Raven would come back eventually, but until now she'd only existed mostly as someone people told me about. Thorn's wife. Shade's mother. A woman who wanted to get away from Thorn so badly, she had decided to set out on her own to meet up with the far hunters.

I had been told pieces of their life together from everyone else, and now she had come home and was somewhere in front of me.

And sooner or later, I was going to have to meet her.

"Thorn!"

I flinched as I heard the name being shouted out from somewhere in the crowd.

A hunter a few yards away was struggling to lower a heavy pack from his shoulders as another man tried to take the weight from him. The man trying to assist looked at me, desperation pleading in his eyes.

Whatever thoughts I'd been having disappeared as I pushed Raven from my mind and headed over to help.

"Here," I said, reaching for the pack, "I'll get this. You get him."

"No..." the hunter suddenly growled, staggering away from me, "Don't need your help!"

My hands froze as I looked down at him. He looked like he could collapse at any second. The tribe member that had called for me looked at him, then to me.

I pulled my hands back.

"If he doesn't want my help, I won't force it," I told him.

I called back over to Bone and gestured to the pack. Bone's eyes narrowed at the hunter briefly before he turned to meet my gaze.

"They've been gone a long time," he said, "They don't know you yet."

I gave him a nod as I focused my attention on the next person that looked like they needed help.

Yet.

They didn't know me yet.

The next hunter I approached shot me a wary look after I'd offered to take the bundles of hides he was struggling to hold onto. I didn't bother trying to ask twice, stepping aside and letting somebody else tend to him before I moved on.

The next hunter refused to even look at me.

The third looked as though he wanted to refuse, but the pack on his shoulders seemed to make up his mind for him.

"Here," I said, reaching for one of the straps, "Let me take that."

His eyes narrowed at me as he shrank back slightly.

For a moment, neither of us moved.

Then his shoulders sagged.

"Fine..."

He didn't sound the least bit enthusiastic, but I'd take it.

I helped him slip the pack off of his shoulders before he had a chance to reconsider. It was heavier than I expected. Whatever was inside of it shifted as I slipped it on and adjusted the straps.

The hunter watched me the entire time, never once taking his eyes off me.

"Where do you want it?" I asked him.

He pointed towards a growing pile that had started to form near the edge of the village.

"Over there," he said tiredly.

I nodded and carried it over without another word.

When I set it down and turned back towards him, he was still looking at me. He didn't seem to be angry with me. Just confused.

I pretended not to notice. There was enough work surrounding me that I didn't have to.

One person needed water. Another had dropped a bundle of spears and didn't have enough free hands to collect them again. Bone waved me over to help him drag a sled off of the path so people could get through.

Every time I saw something that needed doing, I did it. It was easier than looking around and trying to figure out who wanted me there.

The strange part was that the people I'd seen around the village - the people who had stayed behind - didn't seem to think twice about it.

"Thorn!"

Rain ran up to me, shoving two waterskins into my hands.

"Take these to Flower," he panted.

"Where is she?" I asked.

Rain nodded towards a group of injured hunters, "Where do you think?"

Fair.

I carried the waterskins through the crowd and found Flower kneeling beside the man I'd seen limping out of the forest. She barely looked up as I approached.

"Water," she said flatly, holding out a hand.

I passed one down, "And the other?"

"Keep it there. I'll be needing it."

I nodded, setting it beside her before stepping back to give her room to work. One of the returning hunters that sat nearby stared up at me. Then he looked over at Flower. Then back up at me.

Flower didn't seem to notice. Or maybe she just didn't care.

"Thorn," she piped up, pointing beside her, "Pelt."

I followed her finger to one that had been dropped a few feet away.

I stepped over and grabbed it, the hunter's stare following me all the while.

By the time things started to calm down, my arms were beginning to ache.

Not that the village had gone quiet and begun to settle back in. Far from it. People still called to one another as hunters got themselves checked over, supplies were sorted, and families tried to pull stories out of people who looked like they wanted nothing more than to have a good meal and get some sleep. But the majority of the chaos had passed.

I found myself scanning the crowd again.

Raven.

I'd almost forgotten.

Almost.

Bone stood a short distance away, helping another hunter move a stack of bundled hides.

I made my way over to him.

"Have you seen her yet?" I asked.

"Who?" he inquired, glancing up at me, "Raven?"

"Yeah."

Bone straightened himself, and I followed his gaze as he started searching the crowd.

After several seconds, his expression changed. He tapped the back of his hand against my shoulder to get my attention as he pointed at a woman that was standing by one of the sleds.

"That's her."

My stomach tightened as my eyes settled on her.

She was shorter than I expected. Although, I wasn't really sure what I'd been expecting in the first place. Her light olive skin was smudged with dirt and dried blood. Her furs were matted with mud below her knees, and the long locks of her jet black hair were tangled and messy.

My gaze lingered on her for several seconds as I watched her untie one of the bundles from the sled. Her movements were slow with exhaustion, but they were steady. No limp. No obvious signs of injury.

Despite that, unease prickled at the back of my mind as I continued to watch her.

"Is she hurt?" I eventually asked.

"Doesn't look like it." Bone answered with a grunt.

Somehow that still didn't reassure me.

I wasn't sure why I felt as strongly about this as I did. Raven wasn't my wife. Not really. I'd never even met her...

But she was Shade's mother.

And the stern look that she had on her face told me that she had nowhere near enough patience left to be suddenly roped into the mess that I'd been thrown into.

I watched her for another moment.

"So..." I said slowly, glancing up at Bone, "That's Raven?"

Bone looked back at me, smirking slightly as he nodded, "That's Raven."

I rubbed the back of my neck.

So that's Raven. Now what?

I'd known that this moment was coming ever since I'd first heard about her. Eventually, Raven was going to return. Eventually, we'd have to see each other. Eventually, I was going to have to explain myself to her. And I still struggled with finding a way to explain the aspects of my current predicament to average villagers like Echo.

How was I supposed to explain this to Raven?

'Hello. I'm not actually your husband. I woke up in his body after falling through a frozen lake.'

Yeah... That'd go over well...

"Well?"

Bone's voice pulled me out from my thoughts.

"Well what?" I asked.

"Are you just going to stand there?"

I shrugged, "I might as well. I don't think she has enough patience to be seeing Thorn right now."

Bone snorted, but said nothing.

Raven finished with the bundle and stretched her back a few times as she straightened herself out.

For a second, I considered following my initial plan of just leaving her alone. She'd just gotten back from what had obviously been a difficult trip, and she was dirty and exhausted. There was no reason for us to deal with any of this right now.

Then another thought occurred to me.

The gossip around the village was still running rampant. She was bound to hear about her husband's strange behavior at some point. If I ignored her completely, that might even look worse.

I turned back over to Bone, who had apparently decided that this conversation was over and had returned to work.

How helpful...

Slowly, I took a deep breath and started across the path.

The closer I got, the stranger it felt. There was no nervous flutter in my chest, or any feeling that resembled what I imagined somebody should feel while approaching their wife after she'd been gone a long time.

Mostly, I just felt uncomfortable, like I was approaching somebody else's family.

Raven didn't notice me at first as she crouched down next to another bundle and worked to loosen the knot in the rope.

I stopped a few feet away from her.

"Raven?"

Her hands immediately stopped and her head snapped up to look at me. For the briefest of seconds, there was nothing on her face but exhaustion.

Then her eyes met mine, and that expression changed. Her shoulders went rigid, and whatever tiredness her face held hardened into a stare that was as cold as the steely grey color of her eyes.

I almost took a step backwards.

"Hey..." I said cautiously, "Glad to see that you made it back."

Her eyes narrowed before she dropped her head back down, focusing on the knot that still rested between her fingers.

"Don't talk to me."

Her voice sent a shiver through my shoulders. There wasn't any anger there. Not the loud kind, anyway. She hadn't shouted or bared her teeth. From my perspective, she hadn't really needed to.

She just said it like there was nothing more left for us to discuss - quick, direct, and final.

Raven freed the bundle from its bindings and stood, taking it into her hands before stepping around me and walking away.

For a few seconds, all I could do was stand there.

I wasn't sure what I'd expected to happen. I was wearing the face of her husband after all, and I couldn't imagine her eagerly greeting somebody like him.

But even so, something about hearing those four little words come directly from her landed differently than anything else I had heard anybody say about Thorn.

This wasn't like Rain's bitterness from the healing den, or Flower's hesitance, or Bone's aloofness.

This was a complete and total rejection.

"Thorn!"

I was shaken from my thoughts as I heard somebody call out from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder. One of the villagers was struggling to adjust the end of a loaded sled that had slid off the path and into a drift.

I glanced one last time in the direction Raven had gone before I turned away. She had told me not to talk to her, so I wouldn't.

For now, there were still people that needed help, and that meant I still had work to do. 145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZTvk4SHLg

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