Chapter Five
He was glad. His husband was back from the hunt, unscathed as always. Ma’ki dragged Ay’len inside, away from curious eyes, so he could kiss him as he wanted to.
They did not need any words. Lifting his dear wife in his strong arms, he took Ay’len short and sweet, standing up, as their lips remained locked in the same all-devouring kiss. As he placed his delicate burden on the comfortable pelts, he whispered.

“I missed you,” and his confession was rewarded with shiny eyes and a beautiful smile.
Something rustled in a pelt bag Ma’ki had carried inside. Ay’len raised questioning eyes to his husband.
The hunter let his wife unravel the living thing hidden in the large bag. Ay’len’s eyes grew wide.
“They said I should leave him to die, but I couldn’t. He has a broken wing. Can you heal him?” Ma’ki let the healer get closer and examine the eagle chick. If the small cries were any indication, the bird was in pain.
“I fed him small bits of meat from my food, and he ate everything, so I thought he could live. What do you say, Ay’len?”
The healer gently touched the wing, and, to Ma’ki’s surprise, the chick did not make any move, nor did he try to use his peak to defend himself.

“I will take care of him,” the healer agreed. “I will do everything I can; he’s a son of our god in the sky.”
He searched through his bag for two small pieces of wood and some strong thread. With infinite care and his husband’s assistance, he immobilized the broken wing.
“I will look after our chick,” he said when they were done. “With his wing like that, he cannot fly, but I’ll make sure he eats enough. It will take a while to heal.”
Under Ay’len’s gentle touch, the chick went to sleep, in the nest put together by Ma’ki from an old fur. The healer drew a sigh.

“I have to talk to you about something, Ma’ki.”
“What, love?” the hunter asked, embracing his wife.
“You need to take a second wife,” Ay’len spoke quickly, and Ma’ki froze.
“What are you talking about? I have you; I don’t need another!” he squeezed the healer in his arms.
“You must,” Ay’len insisted, trying hard to ignore the sound of his heart breaking. “I cannot offer you any children, love,” he added with sadness in his voice.
“The moment I left … they came to talk to you. They cannot understand. How we can be so happy”, Ma’ki sounded bitter. “Well, I won’t have it,” he raised his voice and put Ay’len down to get up. “I’ll talk to my father. This is over. I have a wife, and I don’t want a second one!”
“Please, Ma’ki,” Ay’len caught his hand. “We all have a duty. And you must continue your bloodline. You cannot do it with me, you know it. Just bring a woman home, have children, and …”
“Do you hear yourself?” the hunter shook away his hand. “They said no one should come between us! They all come between us!” he raged, pacing through the hut. “Why do you turn against us, Ay’len? This is what I cannot understand!”
“Because I cannot make you happy by giving you children!” Ay’len almost yelled. “I don’t need children to be happy! I only need you! How can you be so blind, Ay’len?” Ma’ki spoke with reproach in his voice.
“You say this now! You’re young; you’re still many summers before you’ll have silver in your hair! As you will grow old, you’ll grow to hate me!” Ay’len sobbed, letting all his fears out.
Ma’ki hurried next to him. “I would never do that, Ay’len, you should know that,” he caressed the long black hair he loved so much. “I’ve loved you all my life, even when I was just a little boy. I’ve never doubt my love for you, please don’t be the one to doubt me. My parents … they knew, too. They should not bother me with this.”
“Please think about it, Ma’ki,” Ay’len continued. “They will be our children; we’ll take care of them together,” he pleaded.
“You’re a healer; you know how children are made,” Ma’ki’s voice became cold. “Do you want me to touch another as I touch you? For me, the thought of another man touching you made me crazy!” he boomed. “And you’re telling me that you won’t feel anything as I lay with another, under this roof?”
This time, he stormed out of their hut, ignoring Ay’len’s pleas.
“Father, how could you?” he spoke directly, looking Ta’yee in the eyes.
The chieftain urged the others to leave them alone. “It is what’s right. Ay’len knows it, too,” the proud man talked.
“Ay’len was born and raised to believe that he has to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. I won’t take a second wife!”
“Son,” Ta’yee’s stern voice made Ma’ki stop. “There will be a time, if Pala’ka gives you and Ay’len long lives when you will both be old and gray. Who will look after you? Who will look after Ay’len?”
Ma’ki remained silent for a while. That was a question he did not have a clear answer for. “Ay’len took care of Ma’iala. The next healer will look after Ay’len when I’m not around. And I can take care of myself!”
Ta’yee silenced him with a raised hand. “These are the words of youth, careless and foolish! Do you want to be a burden for Ay’len? In his kindness, he will sacrifice himself for you! Do you want to leave him without someone to lean on? What if Pala’ka calls you to him first? The children you will have, they will be Ay’len’s, too,” the chieftain tried to reason with his son.
“That’s what he said,” Ma’ki murmured through his teeth. He had never been a man of words as his father had always been.
“Ay’len is wise, not like you,” his father chided him. “He knows your family must grow so that it can be strong. You do not have to take a wife now. But think about it.”
Ma’ki turned and left without another word. He felt enraged. Why couldn’t they leave Ay’len and him alone?
He found Ay’len gathering herbs while walking on the riverbed, his naked feet deep in the moist soil, his dress gathered around his thighs. As so many times before, a familiar ache grew in his loins seeing the smooth skin, lighter than his. He sat on a rock, still warm from the sun, and waited for the healer to come to him.
“Have you talked to your father?” Ay’len asked, his eyes cast down.
Ma’ki gently grabbed his chin, making him raise his beautiful eyes. “I have,” he admitted.
Ay’len sat next to him, letting his bag so he could rest as well, on the wide rock. “We live in a tribe, Ma’ki. We cannot live outside it. We’ll still have each other,” he said, but his voice was slightly trembling.
“There will be a stranger in our home, a shadow between us,” Ma’ki spoke. “Is it wrong? Wanting nothing but to be happy with the one you love? Tell me, Ay’len.”
The healer knew the answer, but he could not say it. “We cannot think only of our happiness.”
“We should,” Ma’ki said stubbornly. “You are the one for me, Ay’len. You and me, we are a whole. How can you try completing something that’s whole? You’re only going to break it,” he added, shaking his head.
They sat in silence for a while. Their peace and happiness had been so short-lived. Ma’ki wanted to hold on to it. Ay’len knew it was not possible.
The eagle chick was quickly growing. Staying close to Ay’len, like he was his mother hen, he was getting stronger and stronger, but he showed no signs that he wanted to leave the healer’s side. One day, he started flying around, and Ay’len was happy.
“A little time and you can take him out in the mountains,” he spoke to his husband.
There had been no more talks about Ma’ki taking another wife. But no matter how sweet their lovemaking was, no matter how much they were lost in each other like before, poisoned words were slowly poured into Ay’len’s ears. First, the others preferred to talk behind his back, but now, more and more were talking to his face, asking about when Ma’ki was going to take a woman to his hut.
He had tried to ignore them, always telling them that it was Maki’s choice, and he had to obey, as a good wife. But not few were now the ones who dared to tell him to his face that he could not be a wife without children. And, the tribe rule was that a barren wife had to welcome another woman and her childbearing womb into the family. Of them all, Ay’len was going to trample on what the tribe said was to be done?
He could not tell his husband about all these. Ma’ki was already too angry with his father and other tribesmen who dared telling him the same things.
“Do I tell them how they should bed their wives?” he had said on more than one occasion. “Each man does what he wants in his hut.”
The eagle chick had been like a child for them. But now, that Ay’len knew he was going to leave, he was becoming weary.
“I will take him and let him fly free,” the hunter took the now almost grown up chick with him on one of his hunts.
What Ay’len had not expected was to see his dear husband returning with the majestic eagle on his shoulder.
“He did not want to leave. He flew, made a few rounds, then he came back. He even helped me hunt,” Ma’ki said with pride and rewarded his bird with a morsel of meat.
Ay’len was happy. His child was coming back to him.
The long summer was drawing to a close. Ay’len and Ma’ki were as happy as they could ever be, despite the displeased murmurs around them. It looked as if anyone was finally at peace with their unlikely union, and the confrontations between Ma’ki and his father were also growing thinner.
Until one day, when Ma’ki and Ay’len were summoned to the chieftain’s hut.
“I must talk to the both of you,” Ta’yee spoke.
With the hunter and the healer seated across from him, the chieftain looked each of them in the eyes, before continuing.
“I got word from Ap’tiac from the mountains. His daughter, Ci’tali, is of age now. He wants a strong man for her.”
Silence followed. Ay’len felt his chest constricting. It was never going to be over. Ma’ki, on the other hand, had a face as cut in stone. His eyes did not waver. He waited patiently for his father to continue.
“A union between our tribes would be a good thing.”
“Then why don’t you take her?” Ma’ki snapped.
“Ma’ki!” his father raised his voice, and Ay’len tried making himself little in his seat. “I would not dare insult Ap’tiac!”
“And wouldn’t be an insult for his daughter to be a second wife?” Ma’ki did not back down.
“She heard about you, from their hunters. She only dreams of you, her father says. They say she is breathtaking.”
“How many times do I need to tell you? I have a wife!”
“Son, think of the tribe. As winter comes, we need to be strong. They have more furs and better axes than us. They could give us some of their wealth, if only you take Ci’tali as your wife.”
“I didn’t know we were starving. Since when are we beggars?” Ma’ki snarled, showing his teeth.
“You are not to speak like this in my presence!” Ta’yee muted him. “Don’t you want our tribe to be stronger? Don’t you see anything besides yourself? Ay’len, make your husband see what he cannot!”
The healer touched his husband’s arm gently. “Husband, let Ci’tali come to our hut. The tribe will be happy.”
“But I will not be! Nor you!” Ma’ki shook his head.
He rose abruptly and taking Ay’len by the hand, he left his father’s hut, clouds hanging heavy on his shoulders.
Ay’len could barely keep up with him. There had been a while since he had last seen Ma’ki like this. They did not speak a word until they reached their hut.
“Ma’ki,” Ay’len started first. “This will never be over.”
“I know,” was the laconic answer.
“If it’s not this woman, there will be another. We should give them what they want. We must have our peace.”
Ma’ki remained silent, apparently brooding over it. “I wish I weren't my father’s son,” he eventually said.
“Don't talk like that! Your father is right and just!” Ay’len shook him, in obvious distress.
“We only had one summer,” Ma’ki took Ay’len in his arms. “We should leave this tribe, leave them behind, all of them. They don’t deserve you. Us.”
“What are you saying, Ma’ki?” Ay’len trembled in his arms. “We cannot!”
“I don’t want this! I don’t want this woman, whatever her name is!”
“You are your father’s first born. You have a duty, as I have my duty, to heal and ease our people’s suffering. They talk all kinds of things about us. I … I don’t want this, either, but, if it makes them stop …”
“Tell me who said what!” Ma’ki closed his fist.
“You cannot fight them all. They’re like the river. Their words never stop.”
The two lovers sat in silence. Ay’len spoke again, knowing Ma’ki could never take such a decision. “Go talk to your father. Have Ci’tali come. We will have our family, the family they want us to see having. Maybe they will stop then.”
Ma’ki said nothing. He stood like that for a long time, and Ay’len let him be. His heart was heavy, too.