It was a little before mid-day that we saw them coming. We had been keeping a watch at the edge of the tundra during daylight for several days, since the time that the Elders thought it possible Atutxa might get back, with or without the ice giants.
The sentry waved the agreed signal that they were coming and everyone young and strong enough went up to join her. It can’t be said that I was either young or strong, but I was determined so Sinotsu helped me where I needed it. We had a long wait, or it seemed so. Then we could distinguish individuals. I could pick out Atutxa in the front with Tlez, and walking beside him must be Groohk. He looked to be the only man. All the rest at the front were women carrying babies. It was well done, a very obvious gesture that they were peaceful.
The new Chief Elder went forward then and, assuming Atutxa’s father was their Chief Elder addressed him with welcoming signs. I went forward to join him and hit Atutxa and Groohk on the back, hoping to make the ice giants feel they were among friends.
"Where’s Miklin?" I asked Atutxa.
"She’s further back somewhere. She said only the babies were riding on Tlez."
She was right I think except for one obviously very old woman. I wondered if she was the person who had worn the wicker cape and I wondered too how she would get down from there.
Then I just happened to be looking in the right direction to see something most unusual. An ice giant woman - they had loosened their clothing in the heat so it definitely was a woman - was gazing in a very fixed manner at Sinotsu. I would guess that she was quite young but she had the biggest legs I’d ever seen on anybody, man or woman. I turned to Sinotsu to see what he made of it only to see that he was gazing at her in just the same way. They were all moving off down the hill now towards the camp and I stayed with Atutxa and Groohk to take Tlez down the easy way, but when I could look again Sinotsu and the woman were hurrying downhill hand in hand.
It could only mean one thing, which was confirmed when Groohk, Atutxa, Oskol and I got back to our shelter. From Sinotsu’s shelter were coming the woman’s very loud grunts. They could be heard all over the camp. I know for certain it wasn’t Sinotsu making that noise, but there’s no need to go into that.
We all raised our eyebrows at each other and laughed. A good moment with no language difficulties.
People who I took to be the parents of the tiny ones on Tlez’s back came clustering round to reclaim them. There was a lot of shouting and laughing as Tlez sat down on the ground to make it easier and they got bumped about. Then more giggling about her fur getting up their noses and her trunk swinging each one to the ground or into the arms of a waiting parent. Though the most giggling was done by the old woman who seemed to take it as a big adventure to be picked up by a woolly mammoth’s trunk, carried through the air and set down on her feet. She seemed remarkably lithe and didn’t even stagger. Chief Elder had made himself understood that they were to put up their shelters wherever they pleased and they went off to do so. Groohk was putting his up where he had put it before, near to us. As the shelters went up I noticed that there were two or three larger ones in which two people were living together, so they did sometimes live in pairs. The great majority were singles though or mothers with their children.
Oskol was trying to help Groohk get his shelter prepared, but as far as I could gather he was only hindering. The design was different from ours. When it was erected and his stuff inside we all went over to see Mother and Father. Father greeted us warmly and made us a drink, but Mother looked flustered. She tried to pretend she knew who everyone was but it didn’t work, though of course we pretended that it did. We left as soon as we could so that Oskol and Father could calm her again. None of the spirits was able to do anything about old people’s memory loss.
We called Sinotsu and his girl in to share our meal and were all eating when a lad came in to say that a meeting was called for that evening in the cave and please bring extra torches for the ice giants. Atutxa told Groohk what was happening.
Before the daylight faded all the ice giants had their shelters up and their belongings stored in them. Except Sinotsu’s girl who seemed to have decided to share his.
Getting some of the larger ice giants through the low entrance to our cave wasn’t easy. It only made them laugh even more than they did normally. They must have thought us a very sober lot. The ice giants all seemed very struck by the paintings on the walls and roof, some didn’t want to look away. Groohk went to pay his respects to the mammoth and he seemed satisfied with his honeysuckle. Then we all gathered round the fire.
It became obvious that a treaty of friendship was being drawn up. Our Chief Elder spoke, with Atutxa as his appointed interpreter - partial probably - for longer than I thought was necessary. When he sat down I saw him looking at Groohk obviously thinking that he was his equivalent among the ice giants. It wasn’t until the old woman who had ridden on Tlez got up and spoke that our people started to realise that they had no leaders. Atutxa did his best but I suspect he was guessing in places, I certainly couldn’t follow all her gestures. When she sat down I thought I had better say something as our group’s Enchanter. I said the usual flowery stuff about how we welcomed them and so on and hoped for joint hunting, trade and exchange of skills. Then I went on to say that Atutxa personified our friendship and hoped that the spirits blessed our meeting, then sat down quickly because I wanted to hear from the ice giants again. A young ice giant stood up then and told the story of meeting Atutxa and seeing the claw of the white bear. He said that Atutxa was a fine young man and the claw made it obvious that the spirits wanted us to co-operate.
I kept one ear on him and tried to quietly say to Groohk that the Chief Elder was our leader and it would work well if he, Groohk, acted as theirs. He followed my meaning eventually and when the young man sat down he stood, made a slight bow to the Chief Elder, and said that he spoke for his group in saying that they would all be happy to be friends with our group. The Chief Elder made a much longer and more formal reply and that settled it. We ate and drank, sang and danced together and then all went back to sleep in our respective shelters. Some of us were in our own shelters anyway.
The next few days were spent getting to know each other. It went well overall, one or two fights broke out but everyone seemed determined to stop them. It seemed very hard to provoke the ice giants to fight, though that didn’t stop our rowdies from trying.
On a suitable day we held a hunting ceremony in the cave. It was explained to the ice giants that anyone going on the hunt should come to the ceremony and nobody else. It was an alien concept to them but they were quite happy to do what we normally did and the ceremony went well. Sinotsu’s big leg girl was there, I wasn’t surprised, she was bigger than half the men, the ice giant men I mean, she was about twice the size of our men. She and Sinotsu went everywhere together and a funny-looking couple they made. Sinotsu was thin even for one of us, it was lucky he was quite tall or they would have looked even odder.
The hunt was a big success. Atutxa was full of praise for how brave the ice giants were and Groohk was very pleased with the way the wolves worked.
There were all sorts of surprises about the different ways of the two groups. The biggest one to me was that the ice giants had never tasted honey. It is so much a part of our lives, half of us would never get going in the morning at all without it I’m sure. When Groohk first tasted it his face was wonderful, he looked like a child that has finally got some longed-for treat.
"What is it?" he asked, and I was even more surprised that he had never even seen it. I tried to explain and ended up drawing a bee on a honeycomb and pointing to the cells. Atutxa came up at that point and suggested a honey-gathering trip. Oskol was off somewhere so us three and Sinotsu and his girl went. I’m not going to try for her name, it was very long and as well as clicks had coughs and barks in it. We only went to our local trees because we thought it rude to take strangers into the wester group’s territory. Groohk was stung early on and refused to go up any trees, but Sinotsu’s girl was first up them all and didn’t seem to notice whether she got stung or not. We got a good catch but were feeling quite high-spirited and ate it all ourselves at the foot of the trees.
Groohk started rummaging through his things when we got back and came out of his shelter looking pleased. He handed me the most wonderful thing I had ever seen. It was about the size of a duck’s egg, a similar shape too, a shiny substance the colour of fire so I knew it must be amber. Light shone through it in the most beautiful way showing the thrilling centre of it where there was a bee. What power it had. I fell to my knees and touched my forehead.
"Yes." he said, to say he felt it too.
I gazed at it for a long time then, unwillingly, tried to give it back to him. He wouldn’t take it and indicated that it was a gift for me. But how could I take such a thing? We nearly fought about it. I took it in the end, though I didn’t know how I could thank him enough. As I held it I had the strange feeling that I had always owned it, though I had never seen such a thing before.
The organisation, which I thought would be so difficult, sorted itself out. It could have been more difficult under the previous Chief Elder but the new one was more easygoing and willing to try new ways. We still held Elders’ meetings but the formality was relaxed so that anybody who wanted to discuss anything could come to them. They were long at first with so much interpretation needed.
The children were soon speaking each other’s languages, but the adults never got really fluent. Our group always had problems with the ice giants’ clicks. A pidgin slowly grew up though which we could all understand. It had started with the hunters as lives depended on being clearly understood during the hunt, and I suspect myself that a great deal of it was invented at the drink and boasting sessions that followed. After that the Elders’ meetings went better. The ice giants continued to do the bustard and ruff dance before any meeting.
The living arrangements of the two groups worked well on the whole. They kept a communal fire to the south of the main shelter area and some of our group would join them there. That never became a habit with us because the ice giants were more inclined to wander than we were. Sometimes they would just be gone and their fire would be out. I wasn’t the only one who found it a bit lonely without them. They would be away sometimes for a short time and sometimes for a long time, but they always came back and we were always glad when they did. Sinotsu and his girl would never be parted, so when the ice giants went he went too. I would never have guessed that he would become such an enthralled father. His girl proved to be very fertile. Neither of them could resist going on the hunts though, so I was used as child minder on many occasions. They could be naughty sometimes, like all children, but usually I enjoyed myself with them. Atutxa would pretend to be cross, that soon quietened them.
Once Groohk and I could understand each other, I asked him how he thought the ice giants felt about not getting to vote on everything.
"Most people seem to be relieved. Our meetings used to get boring you know. They seem only too glad for somebody else to do it. The few who think it’s important, or want a say in everything, just go to all the Elders’ meetings. Good luck to them. I think there are better ways to spend my time."
"Yes, I know what you mean. Some people can talk forever and not always about things that matter at all. I have to go as Enchanter, and I’ve got used to it, so it’s alright. But I think about other things sometimes I admit."
"Having special people to be enchanters still seems strange to me. But we just ignore that and contact the spirits ourselves as we’ve always done."
"Do you all have spirit-guides?"
"Yes, of course."
"So really you are all enchanters."
"Looking at it your way, yes. But from our viewpoint there is no such thing as an enchanter, it’s just the way everybody is."
"That’s right, yes. Do you tell each other about your spirit-guides or is it a personal secret?"
"No, we don’t really have secrets. We would speak about our spirit-guides if the subject came up."
"Would you tell me who your spirit-guide is?"
"Yes, of course, but I thought you would have guessed."
"No…I….no."
"It’s Mammoth." I had to think for a moment.
"Yes. Oh, that’s perfect. How could I have been so stupid as not to see that?" He laughed.
"Well I don’t like to agree with you but I have to."
"Mammoth. I’ve always loved him."
"So have I."
I told him all about Hare then. Hare said
"If I could blush I would."
Then I asked Groohk how the ice giants thought the world began. He told me their creation story in a sing-song voice.
"The Great White Bear who lives beyond the sky made the world, then he made all the mountains and tundra, and last he scratched the rivers into place with his great black claws. He made it all bind together by encircling it with honeysuckle. But he couldn’t see it well so he created the sun. That made the world warm too, so he created Mammoth to enjoy the warmth. Mammoth danced the first dance and sang the first song. Then he saw the trees and trumpeted their beauty. But there was nobody to hear him, so he thought about how Great White Bear had made him and he thought that in honour of that making he would make a wonderful flying being, because he could not fly himself. It was white as a sign of respect to the Bear and that was Snowy Owl. But there was nothing for Owl to eat. So Mammoth made a white Hare. He loved Hare when he had made him, so he made him a very fast runner in order that Owl would not be able to catch many. He made all the different animals and last of all he made Man so that he could love all the animals. But Hare found that it was too dark at night, so he made the moon.
That is how it all came about."
I said "I’m not sure that I love Mosquito." He laughed loudly, as he so often did.
"Mosquito dances in Great White Bear’s dance like the others."
"I think I begin to understand now about a battle I was once in." I explained at length about the spirit world fighting with Ice Giant. I thought I understood to some extent the effect the black claw I raised at them must have had.
"That would have been an easy victory once Ice Giant saw that." he said.
"You may have the claw if you would like it. It is more significant to you."
"No. No, I don’t even want to look at it. There is too much power in such an object. I trust you to guard it well."
"I will."
"You should not think so harshly of Ice Giant Spirit. He acts before thinking and can be aggressive but it is from fear. He sees you as a threat."
"That is strange. You are so much stronger than we are. And our men are in awe of your bravery in hunting."
"We think your hunters are good too. We have been learning to use your spear-throwers. I don’t know why he is afraid for us. There is plenty of food for us all now."