Here’s an excerpt from my upcoming story, “Winter Spirits.” It’s a post-apocalyptic fantasy, a coming-of-age story…and also the first in my War Shaman series. It’s scheduled to be released at the end of August, 2025. After that, the second book in the series, “Run Hard, Run Fast,” is scheduled for the end of September, 2025.
The next morning, Kateri stood in a line of women while scattered snowflakes fell out of a gray sky. The gate was open. About twenty hunters filed past the line, collecting hugs, blessings, and a satchel of supplies before passing through the gate. Almost everyone else in the tribe was gathered to watch the Leavetaking. To one side, Amado, in his new role as the tribe’s shaman, danced, badly, and chanted the verses of the ceremony.
Kateri grinned as Dahbo stepped in front of her. She pulled the strap of the satchel she’d made up for her brother off her shoulder and presented the satchel to him.
“You did this?” he asked, looking dumbfounded.
“Yes, little brother,” she said, chuckling, and looking up to meet his gaze. “I made it up. And I included some of the shoo nuts you like so much, too.”
“I thought those were all gone?”
“Not if you know who has their own little stash…and they owe you a favor.”
“Awesome,” Dahbo said.
“May the Spirits be with you,” Kateri said. Eying his spear, she added, “And remember, the pointy end goes toward the prey.”
Dahbo laughed and then continued down the line.
A short time later, she watched as the last of the hunting party passed through the gate. She kept watching until the hunters disappeared into the woods, feeling unsettled. Somehow, she knew—and she didn’t understand how she knew this—that not all of the hunters would be returning.
As some men laboriously closed the gate, her mother grabbed her by the ear and twisted hard.
“Owwwww!” Kateri exclaimed.
“You’ve got work to do, girl,” Vita said, dragging her away while Amado, smirked at her humiliation. She was still being punished for
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Vita had an array of chores lined up that made the day before seem leisurely in comparison. Chopping up edible roots in the long house transitioned to sewing rawhides with a bone needle, which only reinforced how much she disliked sewing. Then it was time for the mid-day meal, with Kateri pressed into service passing out food.
“Looks like we’ve found something you’re actually good at,” Amado told her, while Rigz and his other cronies snickered. He seemed disappointed when she simply ignored him.
She managed to wolf down some leftovers, and then Vita sent her to help carry heavy bags across the compound. After that, it was folding the washing. At one point, she found herself folding a white cloth the size of a blanket, but much more delicate. It was a burial shroud, a specialty of one of the other tribes and something they’d traded for at one of the Gatherings. It folded into a bundle much smaller than she was expecting. When nobody was looking, she slipped it under her tunic.
She thought she’d get a breather after that, but then Haloni showed up, handed her a wooden shovel and a digging spear, and sent her to dig a new privy hole.
The hole was knee-deep and she was loosening up more dirt with the digging spear when Chilliam said from behind her, “I never thought I’d see you so into digging a hole.”
“I’m pretending it’s somebody’s grave,” Kateri answered.
***
Despite her tiredness after the long day of chores, Kateri lay awake under her furs until everyone else in her mother’s teep was asleep. When she was sure everyone was soundly asleep, she got up and quietly began putting on her winter gear.
Not quietly enough, as it turned out. She was startled when Vita sat up and said drowsily, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to try out the privy,” Kateri answered.
Vita lay back down. “By the spirits, girl, you’ve got to learn to hold it. Well, don’t be long, or you’ll freeze your ass off out there.”
By the time Kateri lifted the flap and exited, her mother had settled back into sleep.
Outside, a very light snow was falling. Kateri trudged over to the privy, waving at the lookout perched in one of the tree’s that made up the stockade’s perimeter. When he looked away, she grabbed her hidden satchel. Heading back to her mother’s teep, she checked and saw that the guard was watching her again.
She waved again, then rounded the teep to the entrance, where she was out of his view. It took a bit of wriggling, but she managed to extract a white square from underneath her knee-length coat. She unfolded the burial shroud she’d stolen earlier and wrapped it around herself. It had been the best option she’d come up with for camouflage.
She grabbed her snowshoes from a snow drift where she’d hidden them. Boots might be fine inside the compound, at least if you kept to the paths that had been beaten down over the winter. But outside, she’d definitely need the snowshoes, especially with new snow falling.
Kateri peeked around the teep and verified that the guard was no longer looking in her direction.
She slowly made her way to another teep, hoping the camouflage worked. She took a spear from a rack. She hoped her brother Aulikko wouldn’t mind that she’d liberated one of his best spears.
Still moving slowly—nothing draws attention from a hunter like movement—Kateri made her way across the compound to the far wall. As much as possible, she held the spear in front of her so that her hopefully camouflaged body hid it from view. She stopped next to a tree which was part of the stockade, almost directly opposite from where the lookout was. A rope ladder hung down, providing easy access for a someone to climb into the tree if a second lookout was needed. Fortunately, there was only one lookout on duty tonight.
No alarm yet, so that was good.
She threw the extra satchel she’d made up over the stockade wall. It thumped into the snow, making more noise than she’d expected.
She waited to see if the lookout noticed anything…but there was no reaction.
Next, she threw her snowshoes, the wadded up shroud, and the spear over the wall.
Still no alarm.
Kateri climbed the rope ladder into the tree. She’d liberated a stretch of rope during her chores, so in a matter of moments, she set the rope with a quick release knot and shimmied down it. Then she reached up with a spear to a hanging loop, pulled the knot loose, and stepped out of the way as the rope snaked at her feet.
She put on her snowshoes, then picked up the satchel and spear. She wrapped the shroud around herself and then shuffled away from the compound. Once she reached the woods, she looked back at the camp, partially hazed out by the falling snow, one last time.
She was on her own now.
This was the beginning of her spiritwalk, her time to journey as others in her tribe had done. To commune with the Spirits, to figure out who she was, and what path she’d follow in her life.
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