Hunt blood pounded through Seeker’s head and drove the coldness down to his hands where the ax trembled in his grip. Across the plain only a faint glimmer teased the mists from the grasses. The cold of the night still ruled his flesh.

A dust trail marked Runner’s dash across the grassland, his faint screams like a big-tooth cat. Waving lines cut through the tall grass as the deer bolted from Runner and the scent of his wolf. The lines snaked across the plain, coming closer and closer. Seeker wiped his cold hands over his worn cover hide and keeper pouch.

The whisper of the deer moving through the grass grew louder. Now he could hear the drumming of their hooves. Seeker slowly turned his head from side to side, listening to their fear.

Big Tree and Blossom guarded a game path into the trees, their wood shafts poised. The strange one, Sky Looker, waited with a skinning knife in her hand. The polished flint glittered for a moment until she stepped back into the shadows, hidden from the search of the rising sun.

A family of deer burst from the grass and through the narrow opening between the trees. Seeker landed a glancing blow to the first, a small buck. It stumbled to its knees, then turned and charged, his ax snagged in its antlers. Front legs stiff, the buck twisted, jerking the axe from Seeker’s grip, and lunged toward him. An antler tip scraped across his throat, burning like a stick from the fire. The buck snorted and sour deer spittle splattered into his mouth.

Was this the taste of the hunted?

Seeker grabbed the buck by its rack, squeezed his eyes shut to guard his soul, and flung the buck to the ground. It lay trembling, then climbed to its feet and stumbled toward him, head lowered.

Seeker snatched his second axe from the ground and swung again, a great circle that brought him up on his toes. The buck’s eyes went big, each with a great moon of white around the dark, its soul so close to escaping. Sharp hooves slashed Seeker’s arms as his ax crunched against the buck’s head.

Runner burst into the clearing with his snarling wolf on his heels. With a scream, he speared the collapsing buck as he loped past, then turned to stop, chest heaving from the long run. Runner picked up the short-handled axe.

“I could run faster and kill more deer if I had your short sticks.” Runner motioned toward Sky Looker slicing a doe’s throat. “You do not need them. She kills better than you.”

Runner handed Seeker the ax, pulled his spear from the buck and licked the blood from the flint head.

The ax still trembled in Seeker’s hands.

Runner sneered at him. “You should stay in the flint camp with the old woman.”

Big Tree held a small deer up by its antlers and peered at the trickle of blood running down Seeker’s neck. “Be glad Runner only find deer. A big-tooth cat would throw you to the top of the tree to eat after the sun rested.”

Sky Looker, stronger than Seeker had thought, walked past with the doe across her shoulder. “Bring the kill and I will make you a new cover.” She hid her face behind the carcass. Was she laughing at his weakness?

She was an odd one. Her hair was the color of grass and she spoke like the birds of the highlands, all tiny and soft.

Runner shoved Seeker aside and followed the girl back toward the flint camp. Seeker heaved the buck on his shoulders and staggered in their footsteps.

Seeker could not keep his eyes from the girl squatting by the fire, the firelight floating sleep pictures of blood and flowers across her face, hiding the inside of her head. He rubbed his hand along the smooth hide of the new cover she had cut, scraped, and tied together for him while he had helped the others dress out the kill.

The old woman slid her callused hand over the girl’s eyes. When Seeker continued to stare, the old woman threw a stick into the fire between them. The wet wood crackled and flames danced, drawing their pictures across the gathering.

Seeker sat motionless as the sparks showered his feet. He looked around the fire at the others of the Bear Gathering.

Bear Killer pulled a strip of flesh from the haunch lying in the fire and slowly chewed, looking first at Sky Looker, then at Seeker. Bear Killer licked his fingers and picked up a stick from the fire. He pointed the glowing end at Big Tree, his son, then nodded toward Seeker.

“Warn him.”

Big Tree leaned toward Seeker and spoke softly over the crackle of fire at his feet.

“Do not search for Sky Looker’s soul. She has none.” Big Tree waited until a sharp whistle of steam from the stick turned to a low whisper.

“After the battle, Blossom found her hiding in the dark and brought her to me. She and Runner were the only ones left alive from the far gathering.” Big Tree showed his teeth and looked across at his father and mother. “Now the old woman keeps the girl, showing her how to tie rock points to the spears.” Big Tree laughed, a low rumble. “Even if Sky Looker has no soul, when it is her blood time, Maker will give her to Runner. But she will not be a good mate, not like Blossom.” He hugged his mate close to his side and she smiled from under Big Tree’s muscled arm. Blossom’s moist lips moved like flowers in the wind as she whispered in Big Tree’s ear.

Seeker felt the heat grow in his loins.

Big Tree continued. “If you look in the girl’s eyes you will see only sky. Take care, or you may lose your soul.”

Blossom curled up closer to Big Tree’s side, sucking the marrow from a bone as she ran her hand over his leg.

Seeker quickly turned his face back to the fire. His seeking was for a mate as well as a gathering, but now he needed hunters by his side, not a mate, and certainly not a fight.

And to be strong again. He had barely stopped the buck before it had captured his soul.

Bear Killer lifted his head to let the firelight fall on his dark eyes, half-hidden under bushy brows. “Seeker, why is your hair like the morning mists, not dark like the night?”

Seeker looked around the fire. They looked at him, waiting for his answer, all except the girl. He pointed to the sky, not a star in sight. “Once my hair was dark as tonight’s sky. Then the cold rock water crawled into my lay from the highland. Every new sun it slipped closer to my gathering, bringing the cold wind as its mate.” The night air chilled as he spoke. “One morning I woke with cold rock water on my face.” He looked at the gray hairs on his arm. Seeker shivered as he remembered that cold morning. “The others were all still, their hair the color of new ash. Their souls had been stolen from their bodies in the night. So I ran toward the high sun. It led me here, to Flower Lay.”

“What is cold rock water? Did it tear off your gathering’s heads to get their souls? Is that why you are afraid of the darkness when the sun sleeps?”

Seeker looked toward the sound of the voice. Runner sat by a tree with his wolf at his feet. His jaw jutted toward him, and his spear was in his hand.

Seeker slid closer to the fire. “The warm water of your lay gave me new life.” He looked across the fire. “Bear Killer let me sleep beside your gathering fire and fill the hollow under my bones.”

Seeker looked down at his legs, still thin and pale in contrast to the others of the gathering.

He had lain in camp while the women fed him and covered his shivering body with hides when the sun rested. His soul was theirs to take for the suns of both hands, Big Tree had told him later. But they had guarded his eyes, and now his soul belonged to the Bear Gathering.

He patted the keeper pouch tied to his side and glanced down at the two short axes, all that remained of his old life.

The wind moaned across the tops of the trees, around the fire and down his back. He looked up. The trees swayed in the blackness overhead. Had the cold rock water followed him to Flower Lay? A wet mist fell into his eyes, growing quickly to large, cold drops that soaked his hair and ran down his back.

The old woman pulled a big-tusk hide over Bear Killer and huddled close to him. Big Tree flung a bear hide over Blossom and they left the fire for their sleeping bed.

Sky Looker splashed through the growing puddles, and tossed a worn hide over Seeker’s head. As Seeker pulled the hide around his shoulders, he blinked the raindrops away and looked up at Sky Looker’s face. The rain had beat down the fire and darkness hid her eyes. He held up a corner of the hide, offering her cover.

“Looker. Come here.”

Sky Looker spun and hurried back to the old woman glaring across the fire. She pulled Sky Looker under the big hide and hid her away from Seeker’s stare.

Suddenly Bear Killer stood, shucking the big hide to the ground as he stepped to the fire. Runner was poking the sputtering flames with a stick, but his eyes followed Sky Looker.

“Watch the flames, Runner. They are dying.” Bear Killer’s voice was like a roar. “Rain is killing our fire.”

Runner snatched a dripping skin from the ground and held it over the sputtering flames. Smoke billowed up from the wet wood, swirling sparks and ash into his face.

The rain beat down harder and the wind whipped the skin from Runner’s grip.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the rain stopped. The old woman and Runner got on their knees, using their hands to sift through the ashes, stirring with their fingers for the sting of an ember.

Bear Killer stood over the dead fire, the lines of his face hard. Seeker shivered in the damp chill and watched. The gathering was silent. Even Tall Tree and Blossom had returned and joined Bear Killer around the ashes.

Seeker could see Bear Killer’s breath steaming from his broad nose in the faint cloud glow.

Seeker wrapped his fingers around his keeper pouch, waiting to see what Bear Killer and the gathering would do.

Bear Killer pointed at Runner with his spear, the sharp flint point only a hand-width from the boy’s face. “You are the gathering fire keeper. Go. Find new fire.”

Runner stood and faced Bear Killer. “Where do I find fire?”

Bear Killer waved toward the sky. Overhead a handful of stars burned their way through the darkness. “Fire comes down from the sky. Search until you find a fire tree.”

Runner sat back down. “Send Seeker. He is the one who travels.”

“The one goes that I send,” roared Bear Killer.

Runner jumped to his feet. His spear stirred the smoke lingering over the dead fire. “I am not your son. I go where I want.”

Bear Killer’s spear was a blur in the darkness until it struck, buried in the center of Runner’s chest.

“Now you are no one.”

The wolf whimpered, then howled to the stars.

Bear Killer turned the spear toward Seeker. “You go.” He grabbed Sky Looker by the hair and held her out in front of him. “You speak many words. How good do you seek?” He shook Sky Looker so that she danced on her toes in his grip. “This girl belongs to you if you find fire.” He threw the girl back into the old woman’s arms. “Return without it and you join Runner. Be gone when the sun comes.”

Seeker left before light and loped down the trail toward the big water. When the sun was at the top of the sky he stopped by the water flowing down from the hills.

A large pair of eyes watched, the tip of the terrible’s tail swaying in the current the length of two men away. Seeker backed away from the dark water, dropped his axes and slowly chewed a strip of cooked meat.

Should he keep to his seek and follow the trail to the high sun, or stay within scent of Sky Looker and the shadow of Bear Killer?

A bird twittered in the branches, soft and sweet.

He looked all around, then kneeled by the path and pulled up a handful of grass. He selected a piece of flint and a glittering chunk of fire stone from his pouch.

Seeker struck the flint against the fire stone, driving a shower of fine sparks into the wad of dry grass. He blew gently into the grass until tiny flames flickered.

He waited until dark, then walked into the center of the gathering with the fire held high on a slab of damp wood.

The old woman took the fire, placed it in the center fire place. For a moment, she held a strip of meat from the cold haunch over the flames before giving it to Seeker.

Bear Killer pointed to the fire. “Now you are the fire keeper.”

Seeker smiled in the growing light as Blossom and Sky Looker carefully piled dry sticks over the flames.

When the fire roared, Sky Looker came to Seeker. “I wished you would return for me. I have made a dry bed ready for us.” She took his hand and led him to a pile of hides.

She lay so close he was warmer than he had ever been before.

When it was light, he led Sky Looker to the high ground over the flint camp and looked deep into her eyes. At first he saw only the color of the sky. And as he felt her warm touch on his arms, he smiled. Big Tree was right. Deep behind her eyes was his very own soul.