Blooded Ground (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 2) by Bills C. S

Author:Bills, C. S. [Bills, C. S.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: action, children's adventure
Publisher: Highest Hope Publishing
Published: 2014-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Rovek stood in the firelight, his skin shiny with oil and his hair braided. The people stood around the twin fires built this night in the largest clearing. Ubantu had spoken with Paven, and although he would not tell Attu what the two men had talked about, Paven had relented and begun preparing Rovek for his hunter’s ceremony. He stood now, admiring his son, as if finally having the ceremony had been his own idea.

Fresh tattoos Paven had given Rovek gleamed dark against the young hunter’s wiry arms as he stood before the fire. Paven had cut his son’s hair and braided it into the single braid worn by men. Rika had oiled his skin, and Rovek now stood alone in the center, between the two fires, while the others encircled him. Everyone chanted the words and when it was time, Attu danced with the other hunters.

The night was clear and cold, but the men of the Clan were soon covered in sweat as they danced. Attu was stripped to the waist like the others, clad only in a hide strip drawn up in the front and back and held tightly around his waist with a sinew cord. He leaped in and out of the shadows with his spear poised to strike as they danced the dance of first nuknuk strike, and then slid into a new dance, one Tingiyok had created, the dance of the seal hunt by skin boat.

The Clan shouted and called out as the dancers paddled through the imaginary water across the ocean and into a group of seals. They flung their arms as if throwing spears, and balanced on one foot as if balancing in the skin boats as they reeled in the speared seals. They leaped back and forth as if fighting to keep their small boats from tipping as the large seals were lifted into the boat and shouted in triumph as they paddled back to their Clan. Paven shouted with the rest, although he could not dance with his wound and had never been on a seal hunt. Attu found the dance exhilarating.

Rovek stepped forward. He had grown at least two hands taller since Attu had first seen him and had begun to fill out, his shoulders broadening, his voice deepening. It was past time for him to take his place among the hunters. He had proven himself agile in the skin boats and good with a spear, bringing home both seals and otters, as well as many fish to Paven’s shelter.

Since Paven had no woman and Rovek’s sister was already bonded, the eldest woman of Attu’s Clan, Nuka, whose man had passed into the Between long ago, stood in for her. Nuka’s wrinkled hands were bloodstained from Rovek’s latest kill. She stood before him, and he spoke the words. “I will protect all the unbonded women of this Clan as mothers. I will hunt for you until I take a woman of my own.”

Attu looked toward Paven. By allowing Rovek

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