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Snow Wolf liked his new toy. After he played with it, he demanded that Raven carry the world back to their lodge, their kamak, while he took a nap.

Raven took the world up in her beak, but on the way she dropped it. The warm heart of the world splintered into a million small, sharp pieces that sprayed up into the Big Empty and hung there, glowing. Raven didn't have time to gather them all, so she dipped out a single beak-ful and re-built the world's shell around that small scoop of frozen stars. Then she flew on to their kamak.

Snow Wolf never noticed the crack in the skin of the world, and Raven knew he wouldn't. But he was furious that there were shining things in the Bigt Empty and demanded that Raven make him a light to see them by. While Snow Wolf slept, Raven rolled the stars together into a glowing ball which lit all of the Big Empty. Snow Wolf searched from one side of the Big Empty to the other but didn't find a single star. Disgusted, he threw the ball away. When it landed it shattered into a million stars again. Snow Wolf was furious.

He demanded that Raven make the light again, which she did. She does it each morning so that Snow Wolf can search through the Big Empty for the truth. But he never finds it, because although he is Snow Wolf, Raven is always more clever than he.

He dug a great hole in Bear's path. Bear tumbled into it and Snow Wolf taunted him. Bear grew as his anger grew, until he burst up from the trap, scooped up Snow Wolf, ate him whole, and went home.

Raven found Snow Wolf's blood on the snow. She took it up and breathed on it, and it told her what had happened. She went to Bear's house and said, "This will not do, brother. I need Snow Wolf and you must give him back."

Bear said, "I won't do it until he promises to leave me alone." Inside Bear's stomach, Snow Wolf laughed.

Raven said, "If I give you something so that you will always see Snow Wolf's night tricks, will you give him back?"

Bear agreed. Raven fashioned two perfect balls of snow. She blew on them so that they glowed, and took them back to Bear. She showed Bear how to hold them up before him, one in each paw, to light his way.

Bear was pleased and vomited up Snow Wolf, but Raven's gift made Snow Wolf furious with jealousy. He raised his leg and pissed on both of the white balls. One shrank more than the other, but both had great dirty spots on them from the piss. Bear flung them into the sky and ran after Snow Wolf. Snow Wolf fled, laughing, back to his kamak where he was safe. In his anger Bear took up his kamak on his great broad back and moved it to the very end of the world, where the mountains hold up the Big Empty. This made Raven so mad that she refused to lay with Snow Wolf, which made Snow Wolf angry, and for a long time they fought. They scooped dirt from the land to throw at each other, and where they scooped there were valleys. They piled stones together to make walls against each other, and where they piled the stones there were mountains. Raven pissed in the snow to wash away Snow Wolf's mountains, and her piss became the great rivers. Snow Wolf shat in the river to make dams, and the shit became green islands, and between them in their anger they made Uruk.

In time, as always, Raven's lust spoke louder than her anger and Snow Wolf forgot what he was mad about. They came together again but Snow Wolf still howls curses at the moons.

The winter came and Snow Wolf grew bored, as he often did, and annoyed Raven with his constant complaining. He followed Raven from one end of the lodge to the other, carping and bellyaching and getting in the way. Especially he said he was bored with the dried meat and stored fat that they had to eat through the months of winter. Raven was bored too, but she remembered the barrel of apple juice that she had hidden during the autumn. 

When Snow Wolf was asleep, Raven crept from their bed and went around the hill to where she had hidden the barrel. She dug it out of the snow and dragged it against the side of the lodge so that the juice could melt a little bit, and when a cup full of the juice was liquid, she drank it.

It was sweet and heavy and bitter all at once, and it made her throat and stomach burn and it made her head very happy. Raven drank all the juice in the cup and curled up by the fire and made up songs until she fell asleep.

When Snow Wolf awoke he knew something was different but, as usual, he didn't know what it was. He prowled around the inside of the lodge, knocking things over and shouting until Raven brought him a cup of the applejack.

Snow Wolf drank the applejack and became so happy that he rolled around on the floor of the lodge, singing and shouting and trying to fuck the furs on his bed. At first Raven thought this was very funny, but soon Snow Wolf began to annoy her. She made some dough and put it into his hands.

"Here," she said. "Sit quietly and make people."

Snow Wolf sat by the fire and made people out of dough. But because he was very drunk, he made some people with too many legs and some people with not enough legs; he made some people of one color and some people of another, and some people who were many colors all at the same time. He made some people so tall they could not fit under the Big Empty, and others so tiny that they fell from his fingertips like grains of sand and disappeared into the floor of his lodge. All the while Raven kept his cup full of applejack, until Snow Wolf had filled the lodge with people and the liquor was gone. When  the sun began to glow a little bit on the horizon Snow Wolf finally fell asleep. Raven took her broom and chased all his people out into the world to make lives for themselves in the Great Empty. As usual, most of them froze.

The igaruku fruit grew inside Raven and soon she gave birth to a girl, whom she loved very much. Snow Wolf was jealous that Raven had given birth to something he had not started. He wanted to make something himself. He couldn't reach the last fruit, so he cut down the tree and swallowed the fruit whole. 

Instead of turning into a baby inside him, the igaruku fruit turned into shit. Snow Wolf tried making people out of the shit, but they smelled so bad that Raven swept them out of her lodge and most of them froze in the snow. Raven went back inside and nursed her daughter. Snow Wolf didn't care. He always forgot about the things he made the minute he turned his back on them.

One day Snow Wolf was digging beside a stream, trying to capture tunnel worms. The worms dug faster than Snow Wolf did, and soon he gave up and sat beside the hole on a pile of pale mud. The mud stuck to his fur. When he tried to brush it away it kept the shape his fingers made. Snow Wolf gathered a great basket of the mud and took it into his lodge, where he sat beside the fire making people from the pale mud. As he finished each person he put it down. The ones that he put by the fire baked firm and hard, but the ones he put behind him stayed wet and soft, and when he lay down to sleep, he squashed them. But the baked ones soon stood up and moved around, talking to each other and poking things. They were full of mischief and they soon made a great mess inside the kamak.

Raven came with her broom to sweep them away. Unlike Snow Raven's previous people, these people ran away from her and hid in places where she could not reach them. They laughed and sang rude songs about her.

It is never wise to tease Raven. She went outside and sat under a tree to think, and soon she had a plan. She took some of the pale mud and ate it, and within a short time she gave birth to Hunger. She put the baby inside a painted box, and left the box in the kamak near where the people were hiding.

That night, as soon as Raven and Snow Wolf were asleep, the people opened the box. Hunger leaped out and slid down their throats. They ran to the food cache but Raven had locked it away so they rushed out into the world to try to satisfy themselves. 

Raven was delighted to be rid of them, but they were so hungry and pitiful and helpless, rolling about in the snow, not knowing whether to eat dirt or drink snow or fuck, that she took pity on them. She made animals and fish for them to hunt for food  and other animals to hunt for furs, she taught them to make traps and clothes and knives and spears. Lastly, she gave them a spark from her fire, and then she sent them away.

Snow Wolf didn't care. He was already busy with other things.

Snow Wolf cleaned the baby and gave it to Owl to feed. Then he cleaned his kamak. At last he came to Raven's body. He said to it, "Come on, old woman. It has been very peaceful with you dead, but it's time to be alive again." Raven didn't move. Snow Wolf jumped over her body four times and Raven opened her eyes.

"Go away," she said. "I like being dead." She closed her eyes and died again. Her spirit went into Bear's cave and hid in the farthest corner. 

Bear wouldn't leave his cave while Raven was in it because he didn't trust her. Without Bear, nothing in the world could die. If plants and animals didn't die, they could not be eaten. People and animals began to starve, but even so they couldn't die. The ill and old and wounded lived on in pain.

The people appealed to Snow Wolf, who traveled to Bear's cave and told him that he must bring death back to the world. Bear said that Raven had to leave his cave first, but Raven remained stubbornly dead.

Snow Wolf had an idea. He had applejack left from the last time Raven had made it, and fine cakes and a haunch of u'niktu, snow deer. He prepared a feast and to it he invited the most handsome men and the best minstrels. Then he jumped over Raven's body four times. She opened her eyes. "Why did you do that?" she demanded. "I want to be dead." Before she shut her eyes the minstrels began singing praise-songs about her. Raven loved music and flattery. She smelled the cakes and meat and applejack. Raven loved to eat and drink. Lastly she saw the handsome men and her lust awoke. So she shook herself back into her feathers and joined the feast, and when her spirit went out of his cave, Bear returned death to the world.

She searched for a long time, up and down the spine of the world and across the Big Empty. When at last she found Bear's cave she washed her face and brushed her feathers, and stood calling for him.

Bear said, "You have traveled many years for nothing, sister Raven. The mortal spirits in my cave can never leave again."

Raven said, "Take me, then. I am a greater prize than some puny girl."

Bear laughed. "You cannot trick me, sister. Your time is not yet come. My cave would spit you out and I would lose you both."

Now clever Raven said, "You are right, brother, my quest is foolish. But I am tired. Let me warm myself beside your fire, and look on my daughter one last small time before I leave."

Bear agreed, for he was fond of Raven despite her trickster ways. He made her an honorable seat beside the fire and brought the girl out of the cave. She blinked and sat beside her mother. Raven took the girl under her wing and held her close.

Raven and Bear talked long into the night, about the things that old friends talk about. Bear's sweet tooth is famous, so his round ears pricked up when Raven told him about the bee maidens of the south, who make the sweetest honey in the world. A great hunger kindled in Bear's belly as Raven talked.

"Sister Raven, I would like to taste that honey," Bear said, licking his lips.

"It is dangerous and difficult to find," Raven said, pulling at her beak. "If I bring you southern honey, what will you give me for it?"

"Anything that I can trade, sister," Bear said. "Do you want my winter coat, or my fishing skill, or my magic that brings the snow?"

"I do not know, brother. But I travel far and wide around the world, and perhaps I will travel to the southern lands someday, if you swear to a trade." So Bear swore. Bear is powerful and stalwart, but he is not very smart.

Raven rose and said, "Well, my brother, I thank you for your hospitality, but I must leave." She kissed her child and took her leave of Bear.

Raven flew directly south, past the mountainous borders of the world and into the land of the bee maidens. When she arrived at their unmown meadows they welcomed her as a sister, but they would not give her any honey.

"It is sacred to our mysteries," they told her. "We cannot give it up to a greedy bear."

"Well, I am sorry that my long journey was for no end," Raven said. "Perhaps you will let me sit by your fire and rest my wings before I go home again."

"Of course, sister," said the bee maidens.  They made an honorable place for Raven by their fire and fed her honeyed wine. But first they made her swear that she would not steal their honey, for her reputation was known even in those distant lands.

When the day ended and the bee maidens fell asleep, Raven rose silently and went to the hive. She scooped out a handful of bees, which she hid in her feathers. She hid the Queen Bee under her wing and she flew toward the mountains. The bee maidens woke and pursued her, furious, but Raven was faster and they fell far behind.

Raven made a hive for the bees and set it in an unmown meadow, and there the bees made honey of surpassing sweetness. When they had filled a large honeycomb, Raven took it and flew to Bear's cave.

"Brother," she called into the cave. "Come sample this sweet southern honey, that I have stolen for you."

Bear came from his cave. Raven reminded him of his promise. "Yes, yes, of course I remember," Bear said with impatience. "Please, sister, give me the southern honey."

She gave him the honeycomb. He licked it once, then bit it, then pushed his face into it, trying to eat as much as he could. While he ate, Raven went into the cave and found her daughter and brought her back to the fire.

"This is what I will take in return for the honey," she said.

Bear was furious but Raven kept him to his oath. He said, "You may have her back, then, but she must not eat or drink until you have brought her into your kamak."

Raven took the girl on her back and began the long flight home. As they passed over the kamaki of people they smelled the cook-fires. The girl whimpered with hunger.

"Be patient," Raven said.  "When we reach home you can eat your fill of rich meat."

They smelled a haunch of u'niktu, of snow deer, roasting. The girl cried out. 

"Be patient a while longer," Raven said. "When we are home you can eat apples fresh from the tree."

They smelled ripe apples in an orchard. The girl wept.

"Wait, wait but a little bit, my daughter. We will be home soon, and you will have the sweetest honey in the world."

The girl tried to hide from hunger by snuggling deeper into her mother's feathers, and there she found three drops of honey, fallen from the bees that Raven had stolen in the south. As quick as thought she licked them up. Before she could even taste them she became smoke and disappeared in the wind of her mother's flight.

When Raven felt the weight of her daughter lift away she knew what had happened and rushed back to Bear's cave. The cave was gone and all the sleepers in it, for now the true death had come into the world.

So Raven brought us honey, but even honey cannot sweeten the truth that we are as smoke in the wind, here for but a little time and then forever gone.

He was a good hunter, providing for his family and for his parents, who were not yet ready to walk into the ice. Every year he brought many pelts to the Ice Fair. His name was known and respected as far as his tribe wandered, and farther.

One summer, on his long hunt, he saw the largest u'niktui, snow deer, he had ever seen. An old bull led the group, huge and tall and proud. The hunter stalked it with all his skill but he could not trap it. Instead he killed another u'niktu, smaller than the old bull but still larger than any taken before. He built an ice cairn over the u'niktu so that his family, traveling behind him, could find it to dress it out. It would amaze them - its antlers alone could shelter two people. Great honor would come to his family; the u'niktu's meat would feed them for a long time. Still the hunter burned to kill the old bull itself. He cut a piece of the u'niktu's flank to take with him and he tracked the herd further into the tundra. 

That night, as he sat before his fire, Jaybird dropped down to sit across from him. 

"Why are you tracking the old u'niktu?" the bird said, cocking his head. "You have killed his oldest son and your fame will be as great as your ukame-agku. Go back to your people now."

The hunter frowned. "Who will believe me, that there was an u'niktu larger than the one I killed? And if they do believe me they will disparage my skill, that I could not kill the greatest one but had to settle for second best. Be gone! Jaybirds know nothing of a hunter's spirit."

The bird flew away, laughing.

The hunter found the herd again. The old bull was wise with age and still strong, and led the hunter far from the herd into a maze of thorn bushes and standing stones. Any other Inguruk would have abandoned the chase, but after a week the hunter brought down the old bull and covered him, too, in an ice cairn. He built a fire and over it he cooked the old bull's heart, and ate it, and rejoiced. But the next morning as he left his camp, he found the body of an u'niktu even larger than the old bull. A bear had killed it with one blow to the head. The hunter knew that the bear was a greater hunter than he. His pride and contentment fled.

As he sat before his evening fire, Jaybird returned.

"I know what you are thinking," Jaybird said, cocking his head to one side. "You have killed two great u'niktui but the bear is greater and more powerful than you."

The hunter nodded. "This is so."

Jaybird cocked his head to the other side. "You are already the best hunter in your tribe. Is this not enough?"

"If I kill two great u'niktui and a bear in one long hunting, my name will never be forgotten. I will forever be the best in Uruk."

Jaybird's head moved again. "How long is forever? Your family had meat to last throughout the winter and now they have enough to share. They had hides enough to barter and now they have enough to share. There is no need for more."

"Be gone," the hunter said. "What do birds know of the needs and glories of the Inguruki?" He threw a bone at the bird. It flew away, laughing at him.

After many days, he trapped the bear against a rock wall. He put aside his spear and pulled his slingshot from his belt, and when the moment was right he slung the rock against bear's head and brought him down. As the bear lay stunned the hunter leaped forward with his knife..

"No need for more," Jaybird shrieked from the sky. "No need for more." The hunter turned his back on the bird and slid his knife into the bear's brain.

In that instant the bear and the two great u'niktui became nothing more than parched bones rattling on the ice. From that day forward anything the hunter killed turned to dried bones. His great reputation became ashes, for he was known through Uruk as the man who had destroyed his own spirit through greed. When his aged parents, in shame, walked early into the ice, he in his shame went with them, as did his name, and no Inguruk has known what it was from that day to this.