Falling through Stars by Staci Olsen

Author:Staci Olsen [Olsen, Staci]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-17T22:00:00+00:00

While easing Tikonee’s canoe off the bank into the river, we came too close to a spruce with a red squirrel in it. Offended, the squirrel squeaked and swore at us, throwing bits of bark down on our heads.

I laughed. “That’s the cutest angry animal I’ve ever seen.”

Tikonee picked up a stick and began beating the trunk of the tree as if it were a drum. He sang, “Angry squirrel, don’t fear me. I won’t be climbing up your tree. I’ll mind my business, do some carving, and only eat you if I’m starving!”

Giggling, I danced to his song, making up moves as he went along. His last line doubled me over in laughter.

With a cheeky grin, Tikonee jumped into his canoe and paddled it out into the current. “Goodbye, Ts’ellbah,” he called. “I’ll be traveling for the rest of the summer. Maybe I’ll see you this fall.”

I waved, smile shrinking.

But it wasn’t long before he was back again.

Every time Tikonee left our fish-camp, he stated that he would be leaving the valley to get away from his father and travel, yet a short time later, he would show up again with some excuse as to why he was still around.

“I started off, but realized I had forgotten my axe, so I had to come back.”

“My mother asked for help with gathering firewood.”

“I need to make new boots before I leave.”

With every departure, I felt the pang of loss and each time he returned filled me with happiness. The river began to draw my attention as I worked because I hoped to see his canoe coming against the current.

“I wonder why he doesn’t leave,” I said to my aunt one time as we watched him paddle up the river toward us.

“It’s obvious,” she replied. “He’s staying for you.”

I flushed. The idea pleased me. Tikonee was handsome, kind, funny, and inexplicably seemed to admire me despite knowing about my flaw. A match between us would bind our two clans together, and though we were already friends with Lynx Clan, a marriage would encourage the sharing of resources and would strengthen all of us.

After seeing him off in his canoe each time, I took to climbing up the hill and standing on the edge of the bluff to watch him pass around the farthest visible bend in the river, a mere dark speck on the water.

So it happened that I was on the bluff, watching Tikonee’s distant canoe, when I noticed movement in the forest. A group of animals emerged from the trees at the river’s edge, a single bend closer than Tikonee was in his canoe. They moved like a heard of caribou but were dark brown or black-furred. Thinking they were bears, I watched them closely, having never seen bears move as a herd before. There were about twenty of them. They drank from the water and then one stood up onto two feet and pointed across the water in the direction of our fish-camp. The others also stood, and they waded into the water to cross the river.

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