End of Innocence
Part 1 of the Fargoer series
Petteri Hannila
Translated from the Finnish short story ”Aikuisuuden Taakka”.
Copyright 2012 Petteri Hannila
Jyväskylä, Finland
Translation: Miika Hannila, Petteri Hannila
Cover art: Anne Petelius
Editors: Joanne Asala (CompassRose.com), Ben Gold, Jenny Peräaho (Kirjalabyrintti), Danielle Smith-Scott
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events, and locations are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or events, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
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I Walkers in the Forest
Summer sun scorched the wilderness beyond the unknown expanse. Two girls moved through the forest with sure steps, although no trails or signs of men were visible to guide their way. The girls looked so much alike they could have been sisters. Both were slim and short, as women of Kainu tended to be. Their long hair was as dark as the autumn evening and stood out from their pale, clear skin. Only their noses and cheekbones were slightly tanned by the scorch of the summer.
The girls were sweating despite only wearing light shoes and belts made of deerskin. From their belts dangled roughly chiseled stone knives sheathed in leather. The Kainu knew iron, but its use was inappropriate for the task at hand. So they’d been given the stone knives for this age-old tradition, a tradition that dated back a long way, to the gloom of history. Countless girls before had carried those same knives on the same path that led them now. The girls had both seen thirteen summers. As they had each started to bleed, they were now ready to draw blood and reach maturity.
Despite their many similarities, the girl running ahead was more heavily built, and her brown eyes shone with a sense of nobility befitting a chieftain’s daughter. Even at her young age, Aure was used to giving commands and getting what she wanted. Not too far behind her ran Vierra, and what she lacked in nobility and stature she made up for with tenacity and sheer stubbornness. In her deep-green eyes glimmered a determination and optimism typical of the young. The girls had played together since they were babies, and through their childhood had remained best friends.
Normally a trip to the woods like this would have been filled with the girls’ endless chatter and the occasional laugh. Now, however, they were silent, and the girls were filled with anticipation and excitement. They had waited for this day as the deer wait for the spring. Finally, they would take the crucial step that would bring them from their childhood play into the world of adults.
The hot afternoon sun forced them to slow down their pace. Summer had been exceptionally warm, and the region was as dry as dust. Gray rocks, yellow shrubs, and tussocks, some still green, were mixed among murky tree roots. Rays of light beamed through the branches, scattering the colors into a flickering and tattered shambles. The buzz of the horseflies and the singing of the birds made music for the spectacle.. The forest floor was pocketed with islets of musty air and the strong, suffocating stench of plants. Nature was slowly withering, waiting for rain.
The girls’ eyes were looking for signs of water in the dry woods. Finally, they found a river that had dried out to a meager stream. It slowly snaked in between the large rocks and drew the girls irresistibly. The sound of the trickle and the soft breeze tempted them to rest. The plants near the stream were lush and verdant, and Vierra and Aure had to clear their way through the bushes to reach the water.
Between the rocks, in the knee-deep waters of the creek, was one of the few places that the relentless heat couldn’t reach. The girls drank greedily and drenched themselves in the cool water. Normally a hot day like this would have been spent swimming, fishing, and maybe even bickering over who had the larger catch. Now there was no time for swimming, nor would it have been possible in the shallow stream.
But something else in the forest was also thirsty. While the girls were drinking, a bear cub emerged from the thicket. It came from upwind and didn’t notice the bathing girls until it was only twenty paces away. It froze, too afraid to run away or come closer, and let loose a miserable call.
The girls felt the cold whisper of death shiver up their spines as they saw the cub. Where there was a cub, the mother was never too far away. They crept to the opposite shore, keeping their eyes on the animal and the thicket from which it had emerged. It was hard to walk backwards in the rocky stream. Painfully, slowly, and carefully, they ascended from the bottom to the bank, until they reached the border of the nearby thicket.
The bushes started to rustle, and all of a sudden the mother bear came rushing up, head down, through the shrub to its offspring. It ran to the creek and, upon seeing the girls, rose on its hind legs and released a roar that froze the girls’ blood in their veins. Unfortunately their escape options were few; darting headlong into the woods would have been hopeless, for no one can outrun a mother bear in anger. On the other hand, staying put was equally dangerous, since a stone knife in the hands of a young girl wouldn’t stop the beast.
Luckily the bear didn’t attack, at least not immediately. It towered above the girls on its hind legs in the stream and snapped its jaws menacingly. The girls were trapped, too afraid to move, in a heart-pounding stalemate. The bear was puzzled; these people were small and didn’t stink of fire and death. They had no spears, either, which the bear knew to be a threat.
“We can’t stand here forever; I’m going to retreat to the thicket,” said Vierra finally.
“Don’t go… let’s sing a soothing song,” replied Aure. The confidence that normally filled her voice was gone, replaced by panic and fear.
“Alright, let's try.”
They started. At first the sound was pitifully weak, and the girls felt that their fear and the riverside rocks swallowed it whole. But the bear stopped its attack, and slowly the girls grew brave enough to sing louder. Harder and harder they sang until the sound was echoing among the rocks, feeding their courage.
Ruler of the darkest forest
Wanderer of hidden path
Sister of the humankind
Spare us from your deadly wrath
Do not grab with paws so mighty
Fasten not your jaws
Show us not your immense power
Rest your fangs and claws
Let the fellow-dweller pass by
Release us from this bind
Whether it was the power of the song or something more mundane, the girls couldn’t tell. Nevertheless, the bear dropped down on all fours and herded its young back into the thicket. Soon after the mother disappeared, silence fell over the forest once more as though nothing had ever happened. It took much longer for the girls’ hearts to calm down.
“There’s something to tell over the home fire,” said Vierra with a look of relief on her face.
“You will tell no one,” Aure snapped. “We're not allowed to tell anything of the journey, not a word. Don’t you remember?”
“I know,” Vierra sighed.
When their legs could carry them again, they continued their journey through the sweltering forest.