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Clancreb

Chapter 10: Wand

Creb observed that in spite of how different things had been when Luna led the Clan, Ayla had been able to return to the way things normally were for the most part. She still did all the work expected of a girl of the Clan and the extra work of a medicine woman. In fact, she spend most of her free time brewing potions, not hunting. But still, having a woman-who-hunts meant that Ayla could guard the women when they were gathering, or while they were observing the hunt from the distance. She still brought meat to Creb’s hearth. But she contributed in other ways too. One day, Ayla approached him carrying a bundle of sticks and sat down before Creb waiting to be acknowledged. Creb tapped her on the shoulder so she knew he would watch her signs.

“This girl has brought some thing to you,” signed Ayla. “This weech made these wands for you.”

Creb was flabbergasted. How did she learn to make wands?

“How did you learn to make wands?” asked Creb.

“This weech had a daughter, Mariza, who broke her wand and had to live without one for several years,” explained Ayla. “She learned to focus on other kinds of magic. But when Luna’s son, Zeen heard about what had happened to her, he invented a way for make single use wands. This weech took a hair from a magical creature, herself, and glued it to the stick. This turned the stick into a wand that could only be used once. So she made many (12) of them.”

Creb took one of the wands from her and waved it, trying to silently cast a light charm. The tip of the wand lit up for several seconds before the hair burned up and the light went out.

“This is amazing!” waved Creb. “This Weez-Ur thought he would have to wait for Luna to do wand magic. But with these, we can do magic today!”

Taking another wand, Creb cast a levitation charm on a cup. It rose for several minutes before the hair burned and the charm canceled, causing the cup to fall to the ground. Creb could tell that the limited use of these wands would be frustrating. But he was happy anyway that he could now do wand magic!

“Why have you not put the hair inside the wand?” Asked Creb.

“Luna’s son, Zeen, did that when he started making wands for us,” explained Ayla. “But this Weech is not skilled enough at form changing magic (transfiguration) to be able to do that.”

“This Weez-Ur wonders . . .” signed Creb as he stared at the wands. He picked another wand up and set it on the ground, then grabbed another one and waved it over the wand. As they watched, the hair Ayla had glued to the wand sunk down into the wand and disappeared. In the process, the hair on the wand Creb was waving burned up. Setting the burned up wand aside, Creb picked up the other wand and tried a lighting charm. The wand lit up and stayed lit as long as he held it! He extinguished the light and tried it again. The tip of the wand lit up again!. “Do you realize what this means? We can have wands again!”

“This Weech believes that every man that you taught to do sling magic, could be taught to use a wand,” signed Ayla. “When Luna’s son, Zeen, started making new wands, he found that different kinds of wood and parts from different people and magical creatures had different results. This Weech recommends that you make many wands from different woods and different people’s hair find the best wand for each weez-ur. This weech would grateful if you would make her a wand too.”

“This Weez-Ur shall do so,” signed Creb.

But teaching wand magic was not a priority. For now, the whole Clan needed to prepare for winter. So Creb divided his time between Hunting and his Mog-Ur duties. But he did spend some spare time making wands, trying out different wood combinations with hairs from different people and putting them in the hands of those who had magic to see what the effects were.

When Iza’s baby came, the women were concerned. None of them felt qualified to help if there was a problem with the delivery. They were used to relying on Iza for that. Ayla stepped in and tried to take command. But the women were not inclined to follow the orders of a girl of the Others who looked 5 years old to them. In the end, Iza had to direct the women in her own delivery and she ended up commanding them to let Ayla perform certain tasks for her, like cutting the chord. Once the baby was born, while the women were still admiring the baby, Ayla walked over to Brun’s hearth.

“This medicine girl is grieved to report that the Medicine Woman, Iza has given birth to a girl,” reported Ayla.

Brun had an amused look in his eye at the little girl trying act like an adult Medicine Woman. But nevertheless, he went over to see the child. Like in Ayla and Creb’s past life, the girl ended up being named Uba, after Iza’s mother.

As the seasons progressed, Ayla was surprised at how well Broud treated her. Zab was the one who constantly made demands on her and cuffed her when she was too slow. He seemed to have taken the old Broud’s place in her life. He was especially offended at her hunting, using a sling, and being able to learn sling magic.

Finally, winter came. By now, Creb had made a variety of wands with different woods containing the hair of a member of the Clan. As it turned out. A yew branch with one of Ayla’s hairs was wand that worked best for Creb. Ayla was surprised that her wand turned out to be willow with a hair from Broud of all people. Once all the weez-urs had a wand of their own, Creb spent the winter teaching wand magic. With Creb as their example of the Weez-Ur, the other men who had magic tended to regard the fields of magic that Creb could not do well or even at all, like: Runes, Potions and Herbalogy as women’s magic, weech magic. And there was even a meeting amongst the men were they debated taking Ayla’s wand away! But Creb successfully argued in favor of letting Ayla continue to use her wand, even though she had to say her incantations out loud, like an Other. She’d never gained the knack for silent casting, which was the only kind the men of the Clan could do.

Ayla had harvested extra ingredients, thinking that she could make potions over the Winter. But it was not to be. While in the Summer she could leave the cave to gather ingredients, now she was trapped in the cave with Zab, who would interrupt her potion making to demand he perform some task that his mate, Breba could easily perform for him. Worse, she had learned from her mate and now Breba was making demands on Ayla too. But potion making demanded strict timing. Ingredients had to be added in a precise way at a particular time, or the magic wouldn’t work. And those to were causing her to ruin potions repeatedly! Eventually Ayla gave up on making potions over the Winter and instead, started carving runes in things. This was a magic that she could interrupt and pick up where she left off. The Clan were amazed when she finished charging the stones of Creb’s fire circle and the entrance of the cave so that a ribbon of smoke formed carrying the smoke from Creb’s Hearth, out of the cave. She didn’t use pleasures to charge the runes like her daughter Mariza had. After all, she was only 5 years old. Instead, she used her wand to charge the runes. Once Broud saw this, he wanted magic done on his hearth to do the same. And after Brun asked for it to be done for his hearth, everyone wanted it too. Except Zab, who was even in a fouler mood since he had the only smokey hearth left.

When spring arrived, the Clan finally started venturing out of their new cave. Creb had spent the winter teaching silent wand use to all of the men that could do magic, which was most of the Clan. Most of what he taught was charms and transfiguration. Creb was more skilled at both of those than Ayla and could do them silently. This was changing the Clan beyond recognition, which angered Zab all the more.

Brun judged that Goov was old enough to have his manhood hunt. So the first hunt of the Spring was his. Goov did not have magic and Brun was keeping with the tradition of running down prey and using spears in the traditional Clan way for manhood hunts. Goov was successful and joined the ranks of the men of the Clan. Now that he was a man, he needed a mate. As it turned out, several men already had more than one mate. Zeen, who believed that Goov would treat them right, agreed to give up his identical twin mates: Vooga and Drora. But in this new time, Goov was not Creb’s acolyte. Aba’s son, Zeen had taken that roll. Instead, Goov was simply a Hunter of the Clan.

After that first hunt, the weez-urs of the Clan started using their wands to hunt, which made hunting easier than it had been when those same men had channeled their magic through their slings. It was too easy. Which is why Brun purposely had occasional hunts in the old way, to keep everyone’s skills up.

Now that they weren’t all confined to the cave, Ayla had more time to brew potions. Dorv was already starting to lose his sight as his eyes were in the early stages of clouding over. A potion from Ayla restored the clarity of his sight. This made Dorv extremely grateful since it made him better able to contribute to the Clan. Zoug and Creb were also more physically able to aid the Clan due to Ayla’s potions. And the two men often had Needs to be Relieved. In Zoug’s case, Iza was taking care of his Needs, and he was giving Needs to her in turn and Relieving them.

Although Creb was more skilled with his wand that Ayla, She in turn, was more skilled than any of the other men. At this point, Creb had not been able to teach them is much as Ayla already knew, even if she couldn’t do her charms silently. But even a leg locker jinx will slow down prey and aid in their hunting.

When the women would go out gathering, often Ayla would guard over them if Dorv or Zoug were not available. This left the rest of the men more time for hunting. It was before Summer when the Clan had set aside enough meat to last next Winter. Ayla gathered food plants with the women and often more for use as a medicine woman and potion brewer. She also hunted, sometimes alone, and sometimes with Zoug or Creb. She was even allowed to hunt with the men, provided she stayed far away from the large animals and picked them off with her wand or sling. But Zab always made the men’s hunts unpleasant for her, so she preferred not to hunt with the men. Even trying to help with the butchering, Zab’s mate, Breba would make things unpleasant for Ayla.

After arriving at the new cave, a lot of the women’s totems were defeated. Many of them were due around the same time. And with Ayla’s skills as both a medicine women and a weech, more of them were surviving to the naming day and beyond. Childhood illnesses and injuries that normally saw that most people didn’t survive to adulthood were no longer fatal, thanks to Ayla. However, it was hard for the Clan to accept a 6 year old as a medicine woman. Iza often had to intervene and the woman of Ayla’s hearth often asked Ayla in great detail about the effects of one of her strange potions.