Page 108 of Circle of Days
“But last winter we had a cow.”
“Perhaps we could get another.”
She shook her head. “You’ve left the herder community. Zad won’t give you another cow. And if you steal one you might get shot by a herder’s arrow.”
“A deer, then. A red deer would last us all winter—it has as much meat as a cow.”
“You’ve never hunted deer. They’re hard to catch and hard to kill. When the woodlanders hunt them, it takes the whole tribe.”
He looked wounded at her lack of faith in him.
She tried to soften her argument. “Look, if it was just the two of us, as it was last winter, I’d say let’s take the chance, and if we die, we die together. But we can’t think only of ourselves now. If we starve, Olin starves, and I’m not willing to risk that—are you?”
There was only one answer to that. “No, of course not,” said Han, but he looked cross.
Olin grizzled, and Pia moved him to the other breast.
Han said: “We could move into West Wood, and live as part of Bez’s tribe. He more or less said that.”
“I’ve thought about that.” She decided not to mention the woodlanders’ distinctive sexual arrangements, but she had another objection. “West Wood is dangerously close to Farmplace and Troon.”
Han nodded. “Well, we don’t have to make the decision yet. We’ve got the summer ahead of us. We don’t know what might happen.” He brightened. “Troon might die!”
“All right,” she said. “Let’s stay until the Autumn Halfway, when the night is as long as the day. If at that point we haven’t got enough food to last us through to spring, we’ll leave.”
“Agreed.”
Thunder stood up and growled softly. Someone was coming, but he did not consider the visitor dangerous. He was looking north, so it was probably someone crossing the river. Han picked up his bow and arrows and went to look. Pia stayed with Olin.
To Pia’s astonishment, Han returned with Fell. This was the first time Pia had seen him without his brother. However, the dog with the white patch was with him.
Fell was carrying over his left shoulder the carcass of a roe deer, gutted but not skinned. In his belt was a large flint axe with a bloodstained blade, clearly having been used on the deer. He lowered the beast to the ground with a sigh of relief. “For you,” he said.
“This is a wonderful gift!” Pia said. She was not sure how much Fell understood of the herder language. Bez usually did most of the talking.
“Very generous,” Han said. “Thank you.”
“Sit down,” said Pia. “Will you drink some water?”
Fell nodded, and Han brought water in a wooden bowl.
Pia said: “How is Bez, your brother?”
“Bez is well,” he said. “And Bez is happy, for he has Gida and I am gone.” He laughed, as if his remark was not to be taken too seriously.
But Pia was curious. “So you and your brother share Gida?”
He smiled. “She loves us both. We are lucky.”
Clearly Fell was content with the arrangement, but Pia did not think she could ever get used to that kind of thing.
Thunder barked. He was pointing in the same direction, north, but clearly this arrival had him worried.
Han said: “Could this be Bez?”
“No,” said Fell. “He’s in the high hills.” He pointed to the carcass. “Hunting these.”
“Could someone else be following you?”
