Erell came back from the healer with the poultice and gave it to a thankful Keri, then headed back to the hut. The nooning meal would be upon them soon, and she needed Liro's help to prepare it; she hoped his friends wouldn't tease him about that, since they had the same duties with their families. Erell chuckled. Boys will be boys, she told herself, but the truth was that the teasing bothered her.
It had been enough of a burden raising her brother on her own, for their remaining grandmother had been too frail from a fever many seasons past to help even when their father had been alive. But when Father died, the responsibility for Liro, for keeping the hut, for taking part in the hunt, for mending and weaving and storytelling, had all fallen on her barely teenaged shoulders.
Erell had already taken a great deal of those duties when her mother died, but it had been the combination of grief and the fact that there was no other choice that had made her grow up so quickly. The other families had offered to help, especially that first winter, but it was a hard season and they had had barely enough for their own offspring. Erell had struggled, and Liro had cried, and Grandmother had tried to keep their hopes up. And they had survived.
They continued to survive all the seasons after that, as Erell taught herself to hunt and track, and finally achieved the support of one of Father's friends. They survived even after Grandmother died and Erell and Liro were truly alone. They had friends, and the other families in the tribe, but in truth both children knew that one another were all they had. So it pained Erell as much as it pained Liro to know of the taunts and jibes, of the typically adolescent but no less hurtful remarks and challenges. Erell smiled slightly as she approached their hut, deciding to enlist Liro's aid in collecting supplies for his favorite meal tonight, and maybe going to their favorite stargazing spot afterwards -- that should make the boy feel better.
Erell called her brother's name as she ducked through the hide-covering entrance of the hut, but there was no reply. Erell frowned, but she was ready to dismiss his absence as caused by extended play with his friends or at the worst a bout of sulking. Then she saw his bed. More specifically, what was not on his bed. Erell frowned and looked around the hut carefully but she could find no trace of Liro's hunting weapons, only her own. A hard knot of anxiety formed in her belly.
"Oh no," she murmured. "Oh Liro, please don't have been so foolish . . ."
She ducked back out of the hut and called to the first person she saw, asking if they had seen her brother. Norik frowned at her and answered, "I thought I saw him . . . a little less than an hour ago. With Shiri and Bes' boys."
"Where?" Erell asked urgently.
Norik shook his head. "Headed out to the forest, best I could see. Figured they were going on a practice hunt."
Erell swore. She entered the hut again and grabbed her own weapons, then she was out the door again. The first rule her father had taught her: never enter the forest unarmed, even if you're only going to gather herbs. Always prepare for "just in case." Erell followed that advice stringently, and she had a terrible feeling it would serve her well this day. She launched herself towards the forest, running as fast as she could.
She found their tracks quickly -- there was no reason to hide them. And beside their tracks, almost destroyed under the other boys' feet, the tracks of Liro's prey. That big stag, the one we saw last seven-day, Liro had said. From what she remembered, and what she saw in the tracks, that big stag had a family. A big stag like that had killed their father, and for the same instinctive reason. Erell's anxiety grew and she flew through the forest, following the tracks easily, almost not needing to look. Her Father, and then his friend Alrin, had taught her well. Instinct took over, taking in details and information, processing, and translating them into directions for her body.
Erell ran, and concentrated on fighting the growing fear in her heart. Something was wrong. She could feel it in her very bones. Something was terribly, horrendously wrong.
She found the stag and doe first. An arrow through the eye-socket of each. First try, instant death. Just like she had taught him. Some part of her felt an immense burst of pride at her brother's aim. The rest of her yelled in anger at his foolishness and waste. Then she heard the screams, and all thought fled.
"LIRO!"
She yelled his name and then she was running again, leaping over intervening roots and rocks as she followed the sound. Boys' screams, terrified. Too terrified to tell if her brother's voice was among them. She yelled his name again, and nearly careened into the running figure that came through a screen of trees. Erell caught the boy's arm and wheeled him around, trying to see his face long enough to identify him. Meika. He stared at her for a panicky moment and then tried to run again. Erell didn't let go.
"What's happened?" she demanded, yelling it to get his attention. The boy was in shock, fighting to get away. "MEIKA! What happened?! Where's Liro?!" The boy shook his head, tears streaming down his face; Erell could smell the bitter scent of piss on him. "Where is Liro?!" she demanded again, and allowed herself the pleasure and necessity of slapping him sharply across the face.
Meika stared at her, but only a bit of the panic left his eyes. "The demon," he whispered. Erell stared at him, willing herself to have heard wrong. Meika took advantage of her loosened grasp and spun away, heading off without true direction. Just getting away.
Erell stared after him for a heartbeat, then turned to face the direction from which the boy had come. She called her brother's name as she started running again, repeating it with growing despair. She reached the fallen yearling in moments, saw the crippling leg wound and then the hole where the spear-thrust had split its heart in two. But no sign of her brother. Erell turned a slow circle, trying to calm herself enough to use all of her senses. "Liro?? Liro!!"
She called his name again, and again, and then faltered as her eyes fell on something draped carefully over a tree-branch. Something pale and flat, dressed in familiar clothes. A spear leaned against the tree trunk, blood still dripping down the shaft, pointing up. Erell's heart tripped and then almost seemed to stop. Her voice barely emerged as a whisper.
"Liro . . ." She took a shaky step forward, then another. She knew those clothes. She had mended them a dozen times in the past season, trying in vain to keep up with her brother's growth spurts. "Oh gods . . . Oh no. Please . . . please, no. . ."
She reached the tree and reached up, slowly, numbly, to pull it down. It was slick, soft, and it dropped from her fingers as she released it abruptly. The skin landed at her feet, an empty face looking up at her with flattened features that had once resembled her own. Erell shook her head, shock settling firmly over her mind, padding the grief with disbelief . . . and then with fury.
"NO!!!"
She barely recognized her own voice in that hoarse scream. Erell turned, trying to find the one she knew had done this, the entity whose rules her tribe -- her family -- had been so careful to follow for generations upon generations. The demon they had been warned of in stories since they were children. Erell called her name now, pain and fury lacing her voice, making it a banshee's wail.
"Curupira!! Why?!! You didn't have to do this!!"
"He broke my rules. The penalty is death. You humans should know that by now." The voice came to her from the trees, surrounding her, its source invisible.
"He was a child!!" Erell screamed.
"He was a human." Curupira remained invisible, her voice tauntingly calm. Nothing so calm could have done this -- and if she had, then she was all the more monstrous. "A selfish, worthless human who cared only for his pride. Just like all humans."
"No!"
"Do you deny that he killed my animals?"
Erell screamed again, wordlessly, frustration in her tone now. "He was a child," she repeated. "He could have learned! You didn't have to kill him!"
"But I did." The words came from behind her, abruptly. Erell spun and felt an invisible wall slam up against her, sending her flying backwards. She landed several feet away. When she blinked the tears of pain from her eyes, she saw a girl who looked barely older than Liro.
She was a thing of terrible beauty, golden hair pulled back from her face, blue eyes fierce and shining. Skin tinted the mottled green of foliage about her neck and down her chest, matching the garment of vine and cloth that clung snug to her lithe body. Her feet turned backwards at the ankles but she still stalked smoothly towards Erell. "Leave now, human," the girl snarled. "Before I decide that you should share his fate."
Erell glared at her and struggled to her feet, panting. "Before you choose either way," she spat, "why don't you ask how you’re any different?" She advanced on the girl, some part of her, deeply buried, screaming at the sheer stupidity of the act. "You didn't kill him out of self-defense, or need. You killed him for pride! For daring to break your rules!"
Curupira hissed, and once again the wall slammed up, knocking Erell even further back. "Watch your tongue, human, or I will rip it out!" She stalked forward again. "The Mydlands are MY domain. You live here by MY grace only. My rules are not to be broken. And I . . ." She leaned down and grabbed the human woman about the throat, dragging her up. Their eyes met and Curupira continued in a hiss, ". . . am not . . . to be trifled with." She threw the human back down and turned. "Leave here. Take the skin back to your tribe. As a warning and a reminder. Hunt without cause, and the penalty is death."
Wind blew through the trees in a hard blast. Erell shut her eyes instinctively against the flying debris, and when she opened them again, the demon Curupira was gone.
Erell stared at the spot where the "girl" had been and pushed back her tears. "This is not over, Curupira," she whispered. "You cannot kill my brother and then just walk away. If I die in the effort, I will make you pay for his death. I swear it."
She picked herself up carefully, then went to the place where her brother's remains had fallen. She folded the skin without allowing herself to think of what it was, then took up the bloody spear and the discarded bow and quiver, crossing them over her own on her back. She headed for the village, to grieve and to plan.
~*~*~*~
Erell came back to the village only a few minutes after Meika, Tasli and Roren arrived, the boys screaming about demons and skins. There had been mass confusion until Erell walked silently down the central path, a folded bundle in her arms and her brother's hunting weapons alongside her own. Talk faded and then disappeared entirely as she neared the center of the village, where the boys were still gibbering. But even their shock pushed slightly back as Erell approached. Where there had usually been humor or at least fond aggravation in her eyes, there was now emptiness.
Erell reached the boys and stared each of them down, none of them able to meet her gaze. They knew as well as she did that an equal portion of the blame lay on their shoulders. Meika attempted a feeble, "We're sorry, Erell," but lowered his eyes when her gaze turned to him.
Erell waited until complete silence reigned, and the three boys were nearly ready to piss themselves again in fear of her, then spoke. "The stories are true. The Demon Curupira is real." Her voice rang clearly through the village, and the murmurs of shock lasted only an instant, until she spoke again.
"For generations we have followed a rule made for fairness and sense, harmony between ourselves and nature. Liro broke that rule. He did not wait until the hunt, and when he killed, he killed not only a stag in his prime, but a doe and a yearling fawn. This --" She raised the bundle so that everyone could see it clearly. "--was his punishment, as was promised in the stories." She looked to the three teenage boys. "He broke the rules, because three boys who called themselves his friends challenged him to it."
The three looked away, shrinking in on themselves. Erell paused for a long moment, fury clear in her eyes, then looked around at the crowd. "No more," she stated plainly. "No more breaking the rules. No more stupid challenges. No more children die for pride."
She met every eye she could, then turned and walked back to her hut. There was silence for a long moment, then the whispers began, slowly becoming cries and accusations. Erell ignored it all, ignored everything but the things she needed to do in order to give her brother a proper burial, and to make things right again. She had warned her tribe as Curupira had demanded, but it was mainly because no matter the outcome of her quest, she wanted no more innocent deaths. As she had said, no more children would die for pride.
Two nights later, the tribe was still in shock. No one knew how to act towards Erell, what to say or what to do. In all of their memories, there had never been a situation like this one. Erell's coldness did not set them anymore at ease. They knew she was in as much shock as -- probably deeper than -- they were, but no tears were ever seen in her eyes. It unnerved everyone, even old Keri, who had seen more years than anyone else in the tribe. But it was Keri to whom Erell came the second night, entering the old woman's hut with a polite knock and a face set in ice.
The old woman looked at the huntress and clucked in worried sympathy. "Come in, my dear. Sit. Sit down and let me get you something to eat."
She stood from where she had been mending a sleeve, and started towards the small store of food, but Erell's voice stopped her. "I'm not hungry."
Keri turned to look at her, frowning. Erell's face looked haggard in the firelight, and Keri had a suspicion that the girl had not slept or eaten well since the day of her brother's death. "You need to keep up your strength, dear Erell. Else you'll waste away, like your father did."
"My father died at a stag's antlers."
"He died because he was too weak to move quickly," Keri told her, bright eyes glinting with worry. She had watched this girl grow up, become a strong young woman, the tribe's best hunter. Erell was her mother's child in looks, and her father's in spirit. Keri hoped that the latter would not be overly true now.
Erell looked at her and for just a moment, as Keri clucked and set herself to getting some bread and cheese, the tiniest of smiles flickered at her lips. The huntress hesitated as the old woman set the food before her, then shook her head and ate. The food tasted dull to her senses, not from lack of seasoning but because her spirit hurt too much to taste anything more than the ashes of her heart.
After a long while, with Keri carefully watching her until she had eaten everything, Erell pushed away the rough-worked plate. "I came to ask you a question," the huntress said.
Keri eyed her for a moment, then nodded. "Ah. What do you wish to know?"
Erell was silent for a moment. "Aside from my grandmother, you've always known the most stories. From our tribe, from others . . ." She met the old woman's eyes and asked, "In any of the stories, does it tell of any way to hurt her?"
Keri frowned. "Her?" Erell tilted her head slightly and Keri's eyes widened. ". . . Her," she murmured. She stood and walked across the small hut, suddenly intensely uncomfortable. "Why do you ask this?"
Erell raised an eyebrow. "You know why," she answered coolly.
Keri sighed. "Yes. Yes, I suppose I do." She sighed again. She considered for a long moment, then asked, "What kind of hurt do you mean?"
Anger flashed in Erell's eyes, as hot and fierce as the fire in the pit. "Any kind."
Keri winced slightly, then answered. "She is immortal. You cannot harm her physically."
"But there are other ways?"
Keri sighed. "The most effective way to hurt someone, my dear, as you should know well by now . . . is to harm something they care about."
Erell nodded. "And for Curupira . . ."
"For Curupira, according to the stories . . . that would be her animals, and her BeastMaster."
Keri looked away, fearing what she would see in Erell's eyes. She heard the huntress stand. Quietly, the young woman said, "I thank you for your food and your aid, Keri." There was a hesitation, then with a different softness to her voice, Erell added, "And I thank you for all that you have done, since I was a child."
Keri turned, frowning. "That sounds like a goodbye, Erell."
Erell looked away. "It is," she answered. She turned and headed for the hide-entrance. "Whatever the result of what I seek . . . I will not return again."
Keri stared after her as the hide swung closed again. Blinking tears out of her eyes, the old woman said softly, "Then travel safely, my dear. And whatever your path . . . blessed be."
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