Free Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains by C.S. Bills

she sat down beside him on the furs. “You haven’t eaten in days, and the meat will give you strength to heal.”
    “And the fever?” Attu asked through a mouthful of nuknuk meat.
    “It never came,” Rika replied. “I think we got the fever spirits out in time. You’ll be fine.”
    Attu grimaced as a wave of pain spasmed through his shoulders when he lifted the water pouch to his lips.
    “In a moon or so,” Rika added. She stared at him with interest while he ate. “Is it true what they are saying about your dream? That you dreamed about a mound of snow attacking you before the ice bear went after your sister and cousin?”
    “Yes. I didn’t know what the beast was, in the dream. Where I come from there are no ice bears. I thought it was a spirit warning, not a warning of something real, about to happen.”
    “That makes sense. Ice bears only live where there is ample game, and from what your mother tells me, far to the west and north there would not be enough meat for such large hunters as the ice bear. They also need some areas of ice thin enough for them to break through easily. They also swim, hunting nuknuks under the ice. They couldn’t do that where the ice is frozen thick everywhere.”
    Attu nodded. It did make sense. He shuddered as he thought of that huge beast falling on him...
    “Have you dreamed before?” Rika asked him, interrupting his thoughts. “Other warnings, other-”
    Attu’s mother opened the tent flap. She rushed in when she saw Attu sitting up, eating.
    “This is good,” she declared, and placed her palm on Attu’s forehead. “It’s cool,” she said, as if she needed to reassure herself that Attu was indeed healing without having to fight the spirits of burning flesh.
    “We got the salve on and the wounds stitched up in time,” Rika said softly. “And your pleas to Yuralria were answered.”
    “Yes, they were.” Yural nodded and added, her voice now strained as she spoke, “Paven wants you.”
    “Thank you,” Rika said. She jumped up, slipped into her fur parka, and was gone before Attu could even say goodbye.
    “Who is Paven?” Attu asked. “And who’s Rika? Where did they come from? Are there more, a clan? Do they live on the land we were headed toward when the ice bear attacked us?” His mind tumbled with questions.
    His mother put up a hand to silence him. “You’ve just had your first meal after many days. You need to lie down now and rest, let the strength from the meat begin healing your body. We can talk about Rika and her clan later.”
    Attu started to protest but yawned instead. He was tired, and he was no longer hungry, even though food remained on his plate. Attu allowed his mother to take it from him and to help him ease down onto the furs again. He groaned with pain as the stitches Rika had sewn into his back pulled. He thought of Rika, her sharp bone needle entering his flesh, and was grateful he had passed out before she’d stitched his wounds. Attu shuddered, thinking of the pain he would have had to endure.
    Yural, looking concerned, carefully covered him with another fur. “Once you’ve rested more, we’ll talk, and I’ll answer all your questions,” his mother reassured him. “Meavu wants to see you; Suka and the others do too, but I’ve told them they must wait. Your father will come in and sit with you soon. Rest now.”
    The last thing Attu felt before he slipped into sleep was his mother’s cool hand brushing loose hair away from his forehead.

Chapter 7
    A ttu awoke to the sounds of many men arguing outside the shelter. He started to roll over onto his back, but a sharp stab of pain stopped him, and he remembered his wounds and rolled carefully to his uninjured side to sit up.
    Sunlight lit the interior of the tent through the open flap. Attu saw many foot miks of men who were standing just a few feet from the tent’s opening.
    “I’m not leaving this land!”
    Attu recognized Moolnik’s voice.
    “We’ve traveled a great