Despite the wilder’s assurance that I didn’t need my herbs, I scrambled to retrieve what I could while keeping half an eye on the creature who had stolen my food.

Looking closer at him, I could see how thin he was. It was no wonder then why he was searching me for food and had discarded my herbs. The wilder was half starved it seemed. He was missing teeth and what teeth he had were black with decay. What I had at first taken to be hairiness was actually pelts of small animals draped over his body. He was in fact quite hairless and more thin than a man should be.

“You’re not a man,” I blurted.

“You see well,” the wilder said. “You must be a powerful healer since you can tell the difference between man and woman.” The wilder laughed deep in her throat with a sound that reminded me of a mountain cat.

Herbs forgotten, I asked, “What…how have you come to live out here like this?”

The wilder grinned, “Like what?” She gestured around her. “Alone in the forest?” She tore a piece of dried venison with her teeth and chewed loudly. “The spirits called to me.” She swallowed, “I answered.”

“How long ago? Where are you from? How did you find me?” The questions fell from my tongue before I could stop them. “Are you to sacrifice me to the spirits?”

She laughed again, that deep laugh for a long time. Wiping her eyes as her laugh slowed, she looked at me and began laughing anew.

Scowling, I stood. “Very well. Mock me if you will.” I pointed at her. “You were the one who slunk into my camp, attacked me and stole my food. At the very least, I should get some answers from you.”

The wilder immediately stopped laughing and fixed me with a hard stare. “Wrong, Healer. It is you who are not where you belong. Go back to your village before you anger the spirits for trespassing on their lands.”

“What? Their lands? Me and my people hunt this forest every day. Nothing has ever happened. We have never angered the spirits. We make the token barters.”

The wilder scoffed. “Token barters? You and your people take more than they give back. Animals, trees, herbs and more without ever giving enough in return. The spirits and the forest they protect are dying because of you. What need have the spirits of bread or fruit or the skins of animals you leave on a stone with a meaningless prayer?”

She stood and jabbed a bony finger into my chest. “You are killing them.”

“No! We follow the rituals! We abide by the ancient pact!”

“You do not!” she shouted into my face. Her breath smelled of rot and decay. “Your rituals are nothing more than empty words.”

“But…”

“No!” She jabbed me in the chest again. “They are the wrong words. The wrong sacrifice. You do not mean them!”

“So you do mean to kill me.”

She threw up her hands and turned away. “This,” she gestured to me, “is why I left my village.” She turned back and pointed at me. “You are stupid. You have left the path of your ancestors. You have left the path of the spirits.”

“You left…?” Something was itching the inside of my head. Some deep and buried memory.

“That is all you can say? I try to teach you how you have left the path and that is all you can say?” She turned away again and sat by the fire. “You are stupid.”

That memory was clawing at me now. From long ago. A First Memory.

She was watching me. “Yes, Healer. It is a First Memory. Grab it. Remember.”

I was staring at her. How could she know what I was thinking? Her bright blue eyes bored into me, seeming to beg me to find that memory. Those eyes, so much like my mother’s and my…

“Sister.”

* * *

“Sister?” the wilder looked amused. “I am not your sister, Healer.”

“But…”

“No,” the wilder sat, grabbed a stick and poked at the fire. “I am not of your village.”

“Your eyes,” I said quietly as I sat opposite her, the small fire crackling between us. “They are like my mother’s.”

The wilder nodded. “And like yours, and like many of the people in your village, if my guess is true.”

It was true. Bright blue eyes are a common trait among the river villages.

The wilder woman pointed the stick at me. “You saw what you wanted to see, Healer,” she whispered. “It is also a common trait among your kind and why you anger the spirits.”

I had nothing to say. This wilder, who I had thought was nothing more than a beast at first, was wise seemingly beyond her years.

“You have given me much to think about,” I said. Looking at her as she poked at the fire, I realized that we had forgone the most common of courtesies.

“What is your name, wilder? I am…”

“No!” the wilder shot me that look she was so fond of showing me, both horrified and angry. “There is a power in names, Healer. A power I am not willing to give to you.”

I sighed. “As you say.”

She nodded, “It is time to rest. Sleep, Healer. I shall ask the spirits to forgive you your indiscretions.” With that, she stood and walked out of the light of the fire.

I watched her go, my head filled with questions I knew would not be answered this night. As I lay down, pulling the wolf skin over my shoulders, I felt an overwhelming fatigue. My eyes were closed before my head hit the ground.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of the wilder singing. Opening my eyes, I watched as she knelt down opposite the firepit with a dead rabbit dressed before her. She was stripped of her furs, and I could now see that her body was covered with scars. Many thousands of dot-like scars arranged in intricate patterns. I recognized some of them as signs of the spirits.

She held her arms spread wide and her head was thrust upwards as she sang in the ancient tongue before the corpse of the rabbit. My guess from the night before was true, she was nothing more than skin and bones, though my own experience proved she was as strong as an angry boar. She was very unlike the soft but hardy women of my village in every way.

The wilder finished singing, and dropping her arms looked to me saying, “The spirits are agreeable. They have forgiven me taking the rabbit and will allow you to cook it.”

“Allow me to?” I asked.

“Have you learned nothing yet, Healer?” Gathering her furs, she stood, shaking her head.

I sat up and taking the rabbit, asked, “Those scars. What are they?”

Looking down at herself, she traced one of them over her belly. “Nothing you are ready for.” She turned and walked away. “Cook the rabbit. I am hungry.” She was gone.

After the rabbit was prepared, she came back with fresh water and we ate in silence. After breaking our fast and putting out the fire, she said, “Come,” and we continued along the animal track I had been following the day before.

“You mean to come with me, then?”

She scoffed and said over her shoulder, “That heartstone you carry is too important for your care alone.”

“The heartstone?” I was shocked. “How do you know about that?”

She laughed. “You must ask, Healer?”

The day began bright and true, but near mid-day the sky darkened. The wilder began mumbling things about the spirits being angry and that villagers were fools and that we were likely to drown because I was stupid. She was an odd woman.

When a few more hours of travel had passed, the sky opened it gates and we were drenched in seconds. Lightening flashed across the sky constantly and the thunder was deafening. The wind was fierce and threatened to blow us off our course. We ran, looking for someplace to shelter, but the country we were in was scrub and there was nowhere for us to hide from the storm.

Suddenly, the wilder stopped and spun around. “This way!” she shouted and she dashed off the path. I had no choice but to follow.

After perhaps another hour of struggling through the deluge, I thought I saw lights dancing before my eyes.

“Wilder! I must rest!” I shouted, rubbing at my eyes, the wind ripping my words away.

“No!” She pointed to the lights. “It is a village! You will find shelter there!”

“ I will? What of you?”

“I will come for you when the storm passes!” She looked to the village. “Be full of care, Healer! Villages are dangerous places!”

“What do you mean? I am from a village!”

“Yes!” She looked me in the eyes. “See how it has ruined you!” She glanced once more at the village and then dashed off, seeking her own shelter, I guessed.

With the wilder’s last words echoing in my head, I ran towards the lights.