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Longest Night was over once again, the fire kept well-fed all through the dark bitter cold against the demons who wished to swallow the sun forever. That, Jonh could do with one working hand. He’d enjoyed his share of the snared rabbits roasting at the blaze; and better still were the long reindeer bones roasted and cracked open to reveal their delicious, fatty marrow to keep his insides warm for that important work. He recited a prayer of thanks as the sun once again showed herself, warm and happy as a mother and the world saved once again from death. Exhaustion filled Jonh; now he could sleep while everyone else feasted and celebrated.
But he was not alone. A tall man approached the fire and stood before him, a stranger. Jonh glared at the man, groping for his carefully-chipped hand-axe. “Who are you?” he asked. “What family?”
The man swung his head side to side, meaning he did not pick up the meaning of the words.
Jonh jutted his lower lip at the man (You), swept his flat hand in a wide arc before him, horizon to horizon (Where from?), clasped his opposite shoulder (the one with the useless arm) with one hand in an embrace (family), lip-jut (you)?
The man bobbed his head – he caught that meaning of the gestures. A fist-thump at his chest (I), a jutted hand pointing back over the hilly ridge to the south) (from there), jut-hand at eyes, patted nose (see and scent), a hand spread like antlers atop his head (the reindeer). Both hands grasped opposite shoulders (my family), both arms dropped at sides (all dead). A blade-hand thumping his heart (I alone).
That happened – a whole family could be wiped out by wolves, an avalanche, a very cold night or overturned boats.
Before Jonh could make the clawed hand over his heart (I hurt with your pain), the tall stranger jutted his hand at Jonh. A clenched fist at his forehead (You Chief). One hand smacked the other at the shoulder and made the arm fall (Hurt arm), a flat hand pushed out and away (sent outside), blowing into cupped hands (fire-tender).
Jonh gaped at the tall stranger who’d just told the story of why a former chief of this family was now exiled to fire-watch duty while everyone else stayed warm inside the cavern. He jerked his head up and down (Yes). Then he gestured down and to the ground beside him, near the fire (Sit here and be warm).
The tall stranger bared all his teeth to show he did not mean to fight, and extended his hand to show no weapons hiding. Jonh grasped it with his own hand to prove the same. He held up the half-eaten carcase of a well-cooked rabbit; that, the stranger did not need translated, and he was eating before he’d settled himself near the hot blaze that had defeated Longest Night.
Jonh waited until the new man had finished eating and was licking the grease off his fingers before resuming the conversation. (You tracked reindeer for your family).
The man gestured, his slow movements speaking of his grief. (Yes. We followed the deer. We were on flat ground, no trees. I was away tracking when big ice-rocks fell on camp, put out fire, hit them on head like stone axes. I stayed under rock overhang and lived. I came back. They all dead. Three nights ago.)
Yes, hail got very big in the mountains, making ice-balls as big as fists that could crack a mammoth’s skull let alone a person’s. (You saw our smoke?) Jonh asked.
(Yes. I walked. I can track deer. I can find them from 2 days away.)
A person who could tell Jonh his story before Jonh could speak it was someone who could read the signs of the deer that would keep them from starvation. (Join our next hunt and show us), he signed.
***
Two days later Jonh helped the women gutting and skinning their catch – enough deer to feed the family for over a moon – by carefully re-chipping their knives to sharpen them. The tall tracker – Sharh, he said in his strange language – examined the contents of the deer’s cut-open stomachs. (Not for prayers to the deer-god,) Sharh explained with his gestures. (To see what they eat, where they have been, where they will go. We will find them again.)
Sharh had indeed found this herd faster than Dersah, whose eyes were going in his thirtieth winter; the old man was happy to retire to the rear of the cavern and help tend the children with the newcomer having proved his worth.
After, Sharh insisted on sharing fire-watch duty with Jonh. He broiled one of the deer’s livers he’d been given as his share, and held the tracker’s prize out to a startled Jonh. (Eat this with me.)
Jonh did not have to be asked twice. It was good to have a companion again.
(When Longest Day comes back), Jonh signed to Sharh, (I will go with you to your camp. We will find your family’s bones and bury them with flowers and prayers.)
Sharh bobbed his head up and down. “Y…yesss,” he said.
“Yes,” Jonh said.
They smiled.