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tribe members, all the way down to the smallest children, had gathered around their dead leader.
    “In the morning, at sunrise, we shall set her on her journey. We need to choose a new chieftain as well, as there are many things to be done before the winter comes.” Eera’s voice was tired. She would spend most of the coming night negotiating with the spirits. The chieftain deserved the best possible help on her journey to the underworld.
    The honored leader was carried to Eera’s hut, which was forbidden to anyone else for the night. Vierra sneaked to the scene like the hunter she was. She didn’t want to raise any attention.
    “Finally, the Fargoer arrives,” said Aure with scorn in her voice.
    “What would I have accomplished here? Would your mother be alive if I had wandered around aimlessly here like everyone else?”
    Aure did not reply, she just turned her back on her cousin. Her tear-lined face looked even more dirty than it was in the swaying torchlight.
    The women’s hut was nice and warm. The bed skins were dry, and the firewood was gathered into a fine pile near the entrance. In the hut lived the unmarried women, of which there were only two in the tribe besides Vierra. Rika was still helping Eera conduct her matters, but Launi, who took care of the women’s hut, had already gone to sleep in her own spot. She was a simple and silent girl, but took care of the hut remarkably while Rika spent time learning with Eera and Vierra wandered around wherever. Such was Launi’s spirit that she never had complained to the other girls of her assignment. Rika finally arrived at the hut and went to her spot close to Vierra. There was fatigue and evidence of withheld tears in her face. She was an emotional girl, and the day spent with the dying chieftain had not been pleasant. As she lay down to go to sleep, she asked:
    “Will you tell me now how you used the medicine?”
    “It’s better that you don’t know, so they cannot blame you.”
    Normally, Rika would have persisted for a long time out of her curious nature. But tiredness and being so close to death had debilitated her thirst of knowledge, and she was content with the answer she got, at least for now.
    “Tomorrow, a new chieftain will be chosen.” Rika was silent for a moment. “You would make a great leader for us.”
    Vierra laughed, dryly and coldly, as was her style.
    “You know very well that Aure will be chosen. That is what her mother has prepared her for. She cared for nothing else.” Vierra’s expression turned grim.
    Rika opened her mouth to say something but decided against it and turned to lie down on her back. It wasn’t long until Rika’s even breath joined Launi’s heavier snore.
    Vierra could not catch sleep, even though the day had been strenuous. She added firewood to the hut’s fireplace one more time. The embers would keep them nice and warm into the long hours of the morning. Her thoughts wandered fast from Aure and the dead chieftain to the lean-to in the forest, and to the new and mysterious inhabitant in it. The night went slowly, and finally Vierra dozed off in the morning hours, carried by restless dreams of blue-eyed men, black blades, and dark-haired persecutors.
    Despite being very tired, Vierra left the camp when the first ray of light could be seen in the eastern sky. Others were deep asleep, and even the dogs were not aware when she had sneaked to the dark forest. She brought with her a big serving of dry fish and some cooked deer meat from last week’s hunt. Vierra stepped through the forest as fast as she could.
    The morning unraveled, cold and clear. There was a thick layer of frost on the ground; the rain of the last few days had frozen onto the ground and to the trees. Here and there were leaves, bright in color, but most of them had changed to a brown, even mass. Even the evergreen conifers looked bleak in the cold light of the autumn sun. In the northern horizon, there was a dark, ominous front of clouds,