Excerpt
…fruit so that birds and animals eat and spread their seed. But if the animals also eat
the green leaves, some plants will die. So the plants protect themselves with thorns
or sharp leaves. Other plants protect themselves with poison. We watch to see which
plants our four-legged brothers and sisters eat.”
On dryer ground, Yamka pointed out nut grass. She dug down with a stick and
pulled a handful of small, hard, nut-like tubers. “These roots are often bitter, but we
can eat them raw or cooked. They are also good for treating coughs and colds and
are even chewed for snakebite.”
Rordan found garlic in the woods. The bulbs, best tasting in the autumn or early
spring, would be very strong but the juice would be useful for treating wounds and
to ease and prevent colds throughout the winter months. They also came across a
pawpaw tree by a stream. The pear-shaped fruit, black or yellowish-green when fully
ripe, was now overripe but could still be skinned and eaten raw.
While they squatted, digging roots, Rordan rubbed shoulders with Yamka. She
looked up and smiled. Rordan felt his heart skip a beat. Neither said a word.
With plentiful fuel and game, the travellers settled in their cave home. Occasionally,
groups of bats fluttered overhead, dropping excrement on their clothing, even
on their food. Despite these and other annoyances like smoke and rats that still came
to find shelter and left droppings around their food, they made themselves comfortable.
Before long, they fell into a routine. With the aid of story telling, prayer, hunting,
and friendship, the winter passed well enough.
Father Finten struggled to get the Brothers back to regular devotions and meditation.
He preached lengthy homilies on the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and the Death
and Resurrection of Jesus, Son of God. Bjorn, Ari, and Ula left the cave to escape the
sermons whenever weather permitted. Brother Rordan listened to Finten’s sermons
with only half an ear. His meditations centred on the beauty of God’s creation, in the
four-legged creatures of the forest, in the birds that scavenged through winter snows,
in the myriad buds that promised spring and new life, and in Yamka, most beautiful
and mysterious of God’s creations.
Father Finten noted only the Brother’s frequent absence from community
prayers. Because he felt wounded by Rordan’s earlier blowup over his association
with Corn Mother, he refrained from saying anything about his growing association
with Yamka. What he felt uneasy about regarding Yamka, he couldn’t identify, yet
he didn’t feel the least concern about the Brother’s apparent friendship with Ula.
Maybe that was because Ula seemed more boy than girl and was well able to fend for
herself. Meanwhile, Finten tried to assure himself that Rordan would return to his
religious duties, once the long trip ended and Yamka, probably no more than fifteen
or sixteen, was back among girls and boys of her own age and culture.
Though he did try to speak to Keallach and Ailan about Rordan, he accomplished
nothing. Whatever they might have thought privately, they didn’t wish to interfere.
They only replied, despite any doubts of their own, that their colleague was well able
to take care of himself.
Often, while the monks attended chapel, Rordan wandered the forest trails with
Yamka and Ula, composing hymns to nature, and sharing them with his two best
friends.
