Danug felt like such an idiot. He knew his gestures must be barely understandable, worse than Clan baby talk. Very little Clan contact had occurred in the years since Ayla taught them to speak the Clan way. Using the signs among themselves, they added their own nuances and variations--and undoubtedly lost some of the original. That would change now, he thought, suppressing his strong urge to smile.
Mut take it, he was excited. So was Frebec, you could see it all over him. But the older man had it well under control. He had trained himself along with his wolf--Chac sensed a person's feelings before they knew what they were feeling, sometimes. The wolf licked the hand of the young half-Clan man now.
"We'd better get back and help with the butchering," he said.
Frebec glanced up and nodded, then signed to Durc, "We go cut bison. Come."
Durc nodded back. He gave Danug a questioning look, though. Danug nodded. "Come. Durc with us come to hearth," he signed, hoping it came through well. It must have; Durc picked up his dropped spear, holding it butt-foremost, and walked beside Frebec. Chac ran ahead, his mind back on fresh meat.
"Do you think he really is Ayla's son?" Frebec spoke quietly aside to him.
"Yes, I do. He looks about the right age, and the name... she said it wasn't common, she got it from that old story about the man who left the Clan."
"Like he has, apparently."
"Yeah."
"We'll know soon enough. But I expect you're right."
Danug sighed. "He looks so much like Rydag... like he would have, I mean." He glanced over Frebec at Durc. Looks dazed, he thought. We'll have to be a bit careful. I hope he gets used to our smiling before long. Thank Mut he turned up here, and not-- By the look on Frebec's face, he was thinking the same thing.
And, thank Mut that Aurochs Camp had not gone to the Summer Meeting! Their run of odd luck--Tarneg breaking a leg, Deegie not fit to travel now in the late stages of pregnancy after the illness that had knocked them all on their tails... Branag sick too and worrying himself sicker over her... No one had died, though half of them had been in poor condition and took over a moon to get back in shape. Thanks to Frebec's coming to help with the hunting for a while, they'd likely be in better shape than ever this winter. They would get the lodge enlarged in plenty of time too. It seemed as if the Mother had held them back just to wait for Durc.
Lomez and Abaren had begun skinning the animal, though obviously distracted by curiosity. Thalarie had brought up the travois poles. She was watching him--and their visitor--instead of setting it up. Danug barely suppressed a smile. His mate had not met Ayla, but she had heard enough about her. Too much, maybe, he thought with a little chuckle that made both Frebec and Durc give him a funny look. Now she would meet Ayla's son.
Durc held himself tightly in control. He wondered how these Others had learned Clan speech. That first group he had encountered had no knowledge of it, or made no effort to communicate if they did. He looked at the wolf, chewing busily away at the bison's entrails. Chac had only used wolf-speech so far.
Danug introduced him to the woman first. She was his mate. Durc carefully pronounced all of the exotic names. He had begun to realize that his hardest test still lay ahead--to learn the ba-ba-la-la talk. Well, learn it he would. The Grey Wolf had led him here, greeted him through a living wolf. He would learn the ways of the Others.
One of the men offered him a piece of liver. Durc asked what it was called; Danug saw his question and understood, repeating the word several times. Then Thalarie offered him a drink from the waterskin that she carried. It irked him that she acted so like a man, but he let it pass. That is the way they are, he told himself. Watch and learn. Listen and learn.
He felt like a little boy again, trying to figure things out for which he had no Memories.
"Hola! Tarneg," Danug called, "we have a visitor!" He gave his travois pole over to Lomez and hastened ahead.
"Bring him on," the headman of Aurochs Camp called back. "I could use some entertainment!" Tarneg sat on a low bench built against the south side of the lodge. He pulled himself up by his crutch. Branag came around from the other side with Luzie and Toben. The children must have been "helping" him clean the roasting pit, because all three were a sight.
"The others aren't back yet?" Danug kind of hoped not; it would be easier on Durc to meet a few at a time.
"No. Hunt went all right, I see..." Branag shaded his eyes from the sun with a dirt and ash-blackened hand.
Tarneg squinted at the approaching group too. "Who is--say, he's Clan? No, mixed?
"Yes," Danug said, nodding. "Listen, you're not going to believe this--but I'm pretty sure that this is Ayla's son. His name is Durc, and he's come a long way."
Tarneg's eyebrows went up. "Ayla's son? Deegie will--hey, you'd better go tell her, but hold her down." He shook his head, grinning. "Danug, we're having some of that bouza you brewed up tonight, ready or not."
"You'd better not have too much, you can't dance yet." Danug clapped him on the shoulder and they both laughed. "Seriously, though... could you try not to grin too much? Clan don't, and Frebec near scared the hair off him already, showing his teeth like Chac. Uhm, he's embarrassed about it, so don't tell him I said anything."
"Ah, that's right--but if he's Ayla's son..."
"He's been with the Clan all his life, far as I know. He'll need some time to adjust. I hope he can. He can talk, though. He's learned a few words already."
"That's good. My signing stinks. It's a good thing you stayed with us, Danug."
"Hey, I'm still going back. Next year, I guess."
"That's what you said last year," Branag interjected. "I'm going to get us cleaned up. Come on, you kids. Mama will skin me if we mess up the hearth with a visitor coming."
"A visitor? I woke up just in time." Deegie came out of the lodge, brushing her hair back with both hands. She burst out laughing. "Oh, Branag! Yes, you'd better wash. Who's here? Oh--" She gazed wide-eyed at the young man who stood next to Frebec. "Danug, he looks so much like..."
"Like Rydag would have, if... yes. Deegie, it's Ayla's son, Durc."
Deegie's mouth went wider than her eyes. "Durc? Ayla's son? How did he get here? Thank Mut you got meat, we have to have a feast."
"Now you take it easy," Branag admonished her.
"Ouff! That's what I've been doing so far today. I've had enough of napping."
Danug laughed at Deegie's eye-rolling protest. "Hurry up and wash, Branag. Then you can sit on her while the rest of us have a bath."
Branag and Deegie's twins took off running toward the river. Tarneg and Deegie waited while Danug brought Durc closer. The rest of the hunting party was unloading the meat. "I can't believe it," Deegie said. "Ayla's son! If only she knew."
Durc greeted Tarneg--whose name he first rendered as "Targ"--and Deegie. They spoke in Clan gestures too, though poorly. The man was their leader, their "headman". Durc had trouble understanding that Deegie was not Tarneg's mate but his sibling and co-leader. Great Ursus, these Others were different. After a short and somewhat confusing but fairly rewarding exchange of signs, names, and scattered words, Danug asked Durc if he would like to go to the river and wash.
"Hunters want clean, wash body, hair, have clean wrap," he said. "You want wash, come with this man."
"Yes, this man would like to bathe," he replied. "But this man regrets that he has no clean wrap." Indeed, laundry had been one of Durc's least concerns. He realized to his great chagrin that he was dirtier than the blood- and sweat-streaked hunters. It had been many days since he had last crossed a river.
"Not sad wrap. This clan have many wrap. You have wrap. Wait." Danug spoke to his mate, the woman with the name that tangled Durc's tongue, who had accompanied the hunters. She went into the "lodge" and came out carrying an armload of hides. Some of them seemed to be cut in strange shapes.
Off to the river they marched. Durc enjoyed bathing in the quiet eddy at a bend in the river. It felt good to soak his head and pull the tangles out of his hair. The other men splashed water at each other, and ha-ha-ed and made angry faces at the same time. Durc thought that they did not notice that he watched them in woman-fashion. There was something different about the way they pulled back their lips and bared their teeth. He would ask Danug about that, or maybe Frebec. He was hesitant to speak to Frebec, though the man seemed very approachable and friendly. One did not want to displease a powerful mog-ur.