Talking at the Woodpile Read Online Free Page B

so the cubs would not catch cold, then said a prayer of thanks and headed in the direction the dream bear had pointed.
    When he arrived back in camp, his family and friends greeted him. Some grasped his arms and gave them a friendly rub. “Good to see you, Angunatchiuk!”
    Ayauniq and his children embraced him. His wife had tears in her eyes. “Where were you? I was worried.”
    His in-laws gathered around, and their relief and happiness puzzled him. “Why the long faces?” he asked. “I was gone only four days. Surely you knew the storm would hold me back.”
    Everyone began to speak at once. “There was no storm! You’ve been gone nine days!”
    Suyuk stood apart with his arms folded, looking away, barely able to contain himself while waiting for his chance to voice his opinion. “See! I told you not to go. Look at all the trouble you’ve caused. I should have sent Malak with you. And where is the caribou you promised Alak?”
    The crowd around Angunatchiuk went silent. Ayauniq shot Suyuk a glance and took her husband by his arm, herding him toward their tent. “You must be hungry. Let’s go now, and I will make food for you.”
    Angunatchiuk tried to answer Suyuk over his shoulder, but Ayauniq pushed him harder.
    Learning how long he’d been away troubled Angunatchiuk, so he sought out Yugunvaq, who said, “Tell no one of this adventure, especially Suyuk and Malak. They burn with jealousy and go cold with hate. We will talk later.”
    A week later Angunatchiuk was awakened by Yugunvaq shaking his shoulder. Yugunvaq gestured to him to follow him up the hill to his tent. Alak slept peacefully in the corner, and a small fire burned. Yugunvaq dropped a handful of spruce pitch onto it and the smoke cleared their lungs as they inhaled deeply. Yugunvaq leaned forward peering intently at Angunatchiuk.
    â€œSomething has made me curious,” Yugunvaq said. “How did those needle holes come to be about your eyes?”
    Angunatchiuk told the story, beginning with the day he left to hunt caribou. When he described the suckling bear cub, Yugunvaq laughed so hard he fell over onto his side and woke Alak. He told her the story, and their peals of laughter flowed down to the camp, where those who were still awake left their tents and stood out in the cold looking up in curiosity, asking each other, “What is so funny?” They wanted to know what had happened.
    Yugunvaq listened intently, and his eyebrows shot up when Angunatchiuk told about his dream. He nodded, smiling. “This was a good thing. You have been given much, but much will be expected of you in your care for your people.”
    Yugunvaq reached into the corner of his tent and pulled out a small bundle wrapped in bearskin. It contained a tattoo kit, a pouch of soot that he mixed in a bowl with a little water and grease.
    â€œThis story is important, so I will tattoo it on your skin. It will be with you forever.”
    Beginning at Angunatchiuk’s right shoulder, Yugunvaq drew the outline of a standing bear. As he worked, he told his son-in-law what the bear meant. “Grizzly spirit is powerful. Few men acquire it, for fear they would be unable to control it. Few shamans have it. But you, Angunatchiuk, were given it. The bear in your dream was your grizzly spirit.”
    Yugunvaq deftly pierced Angunatchiuk’s skin with a sharpened grouse bone, working in the soot until the drawing was complete.
    â€œThe only spirit greater than bear is mammoth, but I have never heard of a man taking on a mammoth spirit. An old shaman from the Old Crow flats told me, ‘The mammoth spirit should not be taken on, because one day all mammoth will disappear. If you have its spirit, you and all your people will disappear with it. I heard of a squat, heavy-browed people who disappeared with the mammoth in a faraway place.’”
    The next day Angunatchiuk told everyone why he and