Good Signs and Bad
? Chapter Eight
THE STORY SO FAR: A creaking sound awakens Rainera, who has fallen asleep in the Gathering Hall while waiting for Eagle Mother to give her a sign that it’s OK to sneak up the mountain.
“Rain? Rainera?” whispered a tentative voice.
“What?” Rainera answered. “Eagle Mother, is that you?”
“Eagle Mother? Rain, it’s me! Dalton! What are you talking about? And what are you doing? They’ll punish you – us! – if we’re found in here. You need Elders to enter this room. Let’s go.”
“Dalton? What are you doing here? I thought …” Rainera’s words trailed off. She saw no need to reveal everything.
“I didn’t like your idea of going alone,” Dalton replied. “I saw you go around to the side of the Gathering Hall. I figured I’d better keep tabs on you.”
“You followed me,” Rainera said accusingly.
“For your own good. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He looked up at the gigantic figure of Eagle Mother hovering over them. “And I do mean now.”
Rainera reluctantly rose. But all at once, a charge of excitement surged through her. She had been given her sign. Dalton wasn’t going to abandon her! He would take her up the mountain! She was sure of it. Silently, she thanked Eagle Mother.
Rainera and Dalton refolded the cloths she had used and put them back on the shelf. Then, as they left the storeroom, she turned confidently to him and said, “Tomorrow we’ll go and see the Eagles, right, Dal? You’ll take me. I know you will. You came for me. Together we’ll see what they’re like.”
Clearly uncomfortable, Dalton scratched his neck. Then he answered, “I guess. To be honest, I’m curious, too. But I’m scared, and with good reason. I saw them, Rain. They’re big, and they’re strange. So you’ve got to follow my instructions exactly. We’re not going to do anything risky. We’ll go slow and stay hidden. We’ll watch, then sneak away and go home. And that’s it. Deal?”
Rainera nodded. Then she threw her arms around her friend and gave him a hug, “Thanks,” she said huskily. “Thanks, Dalton. You’re the best friend ever.”
Dalton blushed. “Let go,” he said. “You’re making me nervous all over again.”
As Dalton and Rainera walked back to her house, they worked out the details of their plan. They knew that the next day, at first light, the Elders would head for the mountain trail.
“We’ll leave a few hours after,” said Rainera. “I’ll have to disappear while out on some errand … I’ll leave a note for Mother so she won’t be too worried. That will be the hardest part, I think. Not worrying her.”
“I drew them a map and marked everything,” Dalton said. “But I’ve got it all right up here.” He tapped the side of his head with his forefinger. “We’ll get there.”
“I’ll bring cheese and bread,” said Rainera.
“I’ve got barrel-stored apples, maple sugar, and a smoked trout. We’ll eat fine. But you know,” said Dalton, turning to her, “you really don’t need me at all.”
Rainera looked sheepish, and smiled. “I couldn’t do this alone, Dal. Really. I couldn’t.”
“I could draw you a map, Rain. You’d find it.”
“Maybe,” said Rainera, “but this way I’ll be sure. And I won’t blunder into my father and the others, as I might have just poking around, trying to follow your map on my own. Besides, trails can be treacherous in winter. It would be no picnic trying to climb up without help. It really takes two to do it safely. You were lucky to make it up and back alone.”
“Well, I was so excited about bringing the news, I couldn’t let anything stop me. But do you mean to say that you look more confident than you are?” Dalton asked, eying his friend quizzically.
“I guess so,” admitted Rainera. “Half the time I know what I want. But the other half?” She shrugged. “The other half I’m just trying to convince myself.”
“I’m glad,” he said.
“That I’m foolish?”
“No. That you’re actually thinking. I’m relieved.”
“But if you felt I could go alone, why didn’t you just draw me a map?” Rainera asked. “You could have, and been done with me.”
Now it was Dalton’s turn to look sheepish. He tugged at the collar of his jacket as if it were suddenly too tight. “I didn’t want you going off on your own and making a mess of things,” he answered. “I’m older than you. I have to think about the possibilities. I have to be responsible. You’re right about the trails, of course. They are dangerous this time of year, so I figured I’d better go along to make sure you’d be okay.”
“I will be, with you there. Eagle Mother sent you. You were her sign to me that my plan is going to work.”
“Eagle Mother, huh? This just keeps getting more complex and stranger by the minute. I don’t know anything about any signs. I came because I was worried. I couldn’t just stand by and let you get into trouble.”
Lightning sizzled from the cloud-covered mountaintop behind the village. Thunder rumbled.
“There’s your sign,” said Dalton, pointing with a gloved hand up at the mountaintop. “Something’s brewing on the mountain. Something unnatural. They’re up to something up there. Thunder and lightning don’t normally come with snow.” He shivered uneasily and then, to make it seem as if he were just chilled, turned up his collar and hunched his shoulders. “It’s going to be cold at dawn. Dress warm.”
“Yeah. You, too,” said Rainera.
Snow began to fall again. Dalton nodded to his friend, then turned and trudged off, his footsteps crunching as he went.
Rainera watched him disappear into the curtain of whiteness now falling steadily from the sky. She was thinking of how alone he looked. And of how quickly he had vanished.
• NEXT WEEK: On Their Way