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“Perhaps in another year, when the Constellations have reray…” Gunde wanted only to corowls—the Stars never stop grieving They had denied me my bride once and for all Never would they be o, the Stars cannot retrace their orbits
“I care nothing for the death of the serpent-god” The Versae would have dared to show a callused paw to their narant me my mate, I will take her and ill travel to another sea, where the snakes and stars do not command”
A soft step sounded behind me, and I could smell her icy fur before I could see her, those clear black eyes looking down at me with pity
“No,” she whispered, and her voice was like the slide of a cub’s belly on the ice “Did you think I spent alldown at the ice? I see the sky like any bear, and better than n of the Fox-That-Is-Hard-to-Catch dipped below the horizon out of season, and that the Moon darkened like whale’s blood on the glacier Then, when the Hunter’s Knife rose in the South, I knew that the clouds were full of grief It is not meant to be, Eyvind And more—the Molted-Antler is in the Third House—you will have no mate, not now, and not ever Not I nor any other What is written you cannot un-write Smile as best you can and hunt with me, fish with me, but do not ask me to your den You can curse the Stars, but I will not”
“Beautiful beast, choice of ht of all my warriors, unable to believe that I would be denied so so obviously fated “No,” I suddenly cried, “I will not se the death of the Star-sister, the serpent-god I will right the wrong done to her sacred flesh and I in the favor of the Harpoon-Star, He-Who-Pierces-the-Underfur-with-His-Light He will give ainst fierce tribes of wolves So, too, will I win this battle and call her my victory”
My love just shook her great white head and padded heavily away across the snow
I left the rest shuffling on the ice I went i I did not once look up at the Stars for guidance I heard none of ht-tailed bear’s tears falling like first snow on the frozen earth I thought then that I knew the right path, that it stretched out before ht that I could not help but follow it My paould find it easily, since thisbefore Why else would the snake-god have died, except to be avenged by me?
As you can see, I was a very stupid bear
I journeyed south frolaciers no one of ed , I spoke to nothing, since there was nothing to speak to In the deep nights I watched the Mother’s-Milk glohite against the sky, winding through the Stars like an unspooled thread
The world is wider than any one bear can fathory cub I could not, after a full cycle of thejungles of the Southern Kingdolower red, why the Stars had not shifted into Constellations of which I had only heard legends: the Scorpion, the Lion, the Serpent I still h a landscape of cold wind and randray in fur and tooth, before I could have her
When the moon had become full for the third tireat whale, full-finned and gleae It becas; water ran freely here, in sluggish streah with amber I did not match the world anyreen hills Tall reeds sprang up everywhere, thin and golden, and eels snapped their long bodies in the water I could see great copses of ta the sky with their branches, briars and bra hair Waterbirds dipped their beaks into the glistening creeks, their feathers shining like untrammeled snow
All I had knoas the pure and unbroken white ofon and on forever The Dismal Marshes were beyond my heart’s experience I could ss twisting in the earth, the softness of rain and fruit on the trees My fur rippled, both afraid and awakened
As I stood withmud, one of the massive waterbirds broke off fro on his thready legs, half flying He was bright green, the color of the grasses around him; some of his feathers were such a rich shade of it they were nearly black His eyes were flashes of sudden rainstorms His beak curved earthward like a sciht I had to squint, my eyes already weary of so much color He was clothed in the colors of the sky after the Sun has fled, riht
The bird stopped up short very near tohis feet I could smell his flesh, like salt fish and rich soils
“Well, I say,” he began in a svelte voice, “this is an oddity I shall have to call upon Beast at once! One does not keep such a thing to oneself; it is quite rude Co! Youto do with you”