The weather had calmed down. Only the slight shimmer on the wood of the old rowing boat revealed it had rained heavily only some hours ago. The oars creaked softly, but still audibly. Nothing I can do about it now, but I have to remember to oil them. The Beast has a keen hearing. It could be hunting somewhere else, but just in case I began the chant for Vellamo asking for safe passage through the waterway. The rhytm of rowing fit the song, and since both were familiar I really didn´t needed to think much about them.
My thoughts turned to tonights “case”. She was not a young one. Almost thirty, and with her first baby. It had not been easy, but both were alive and well. And that is all that counts in the end. She had come a few months ago and would be gone soon. Probably without the baby boy. Her family will take care of him. That child will not end up in my care at least. I had seen that fire in so many eyes, the need to leave homestead, see the world and do great deeds. She might stay with her family until the boy was weaned, but as soon as the ice melts she will head first to Keuruu and then onwards. Finnish scouts are in high demand, she had told me. And expeditions to Silent Worlds are no place for a child. With that I must agree.
Hietasalo was left far behind and I passed my birth-island; Kaijansalo. It was covered with fresh saplings of holy rowans. They grew straight and pure in the soil cleansed with fire. Memories long gone surfaced.
I had been about five when the people started getting sick. It was the feared, incurable Rash-disease, that left it´s victims either dead or turned them into Trolls. It was so sudden nothing could have been done. The boats from other islands stopped coming and our wooden boats were destroyed by arrows set on fire. Anyone trying to leave our infected island was also killed. We were trapped. My mom, a widower with me as an only relative fled out of our small fishing village, taking me with her. It was not a bad living; we stayed away from trolls and had a lot of edible roots and berries to eat. There were no large beasts, the villagers had killed all pet and farm animals before the final fall. The village cats had escaped with us and took care of all the small beasts.
As a small child I soon adapted to a life of “Stand still, Stay silent”. I sincerely believed mother would save us, and that things would turn back to normal some time soon. How wrong I was. Mom cried in the middle of the night and I tried to ignore it, since I did not want to give her more worries. Beside hiding and trying to survive we wove baskets from all kind of floating substances. For the cats, she answered, when I asked what they were for. I didn´t understand her answer, but it was something to do, so we wove a lot of baskets. A few times she sneaked to the shore to test how they floated. Once she came back with a nick from an arrow in her arm. Someone from the boat guarding our island had shot at her.
Summer turned into fall and the cleansers came. Not real, trained cleansers, just men from nearby islands. Kaijansalo was too near other inhabited islands and had to be made safe. Fire arrows rained on the island from all directions. The dry autumn hay caught fire explosively and soon flames were roaring all over the place.
Mother had anticipated this. She took me to a small spring in the woods. This was the place we had fetched our drinking water. She gave me a mask with a long breathing tube. I remembered seeing it in the village. Before the beast of the lake had emerged, it had been used by kids to breath underwater, mom told me. To keep me under the water she gave me a vest lined with heavy rocks. The buckle holding it on was simple enough for me to open, even with fingers numb from the cold spring water. I saw tears in her eyes when holding me gently in her arms she dived to the bottom. She had told me to stay hidden for as long as I could. She needed to take care of the cats, too.
I don´t know how long I stayed in my hiding place. The fire finally died down, after there was nothing left for it to burn any more. I waited and waited, but mom never came back. Finally I could wait no more. I fumbled open the icy buckle and surfaced, gasping leaving my vest at the the bottom of the spring. Shaking from cold I clambered out of the water. My limbs were so cold I did not even feel the sting of a spear going through my thigh. I just fell on my face, completely helpless. The boy holding the spear lifted it again, but was stopped by a woman. I could see the disappointment in his eyes as he retreated.
This is how I met my foster-mother, Saara.
Saara took care of my wound and took me to live with her on the main island, Säyneensalo. After a while she gently told me what had happened to my mom. Mom had had the baskets stored under water, laden with rocks, like my vest. She had emptied them to make them float. Then she had placed all the pitifully mewing cats into the baskets and launched them off. She had always had a special connection to cats, but I still don´t know how she managed to do it. Alas, it took a lot of time and was very loud. She was killed by an arrow shot through her eye and fell to the waves of Kallavesi.
The coast of Säyneensalo rose before me. I had been so immersed in my reminiscence that I hadn´t paid any conscious attention to my rowing. The boat slid silently to the sand and I pulled it out of water. The beast rarely attacked inanimate objects, but better to be safe than sorry. Wearily I trudged towards my hut in the pale morning light. I was glad of its location. The foresight of one of my predecessors had placed the “akanmökki” well outside of the actual village. The kids would know to keep quiet, preferably leaving the hut to a sleeping me. Mika was asleep, like all the others when I silently entered the cabin. I pushed him and some cats towards the wall, to make room for myself in our bed. My five year old son didn´t react to this, but one of the cats went to look for a less crowded sleeping place. Although I was dead tired, I didn´t fall asleep right away. I let my thoughts roam free. Sleep would find me in due time.
I had not been the only child living at Saara´s simple hut. There were always at least a few other girls and boys around. Orphans or fosterlings. She was not the only healer-woman or midwife on the islands, but by far the most experienced and respected. She had a lot of work on her hands and we had to do our share of it. After I had healed a bit she tested my natural skills and decided to train me in healing. If I became good enough she might take me as an apprentice and finally her successor. There was some grumbling about her decision. Even if a healer woman had no official authority, she was a very powerful woman by the nature of her profession. A lot of families had wanted this power for a daughter of their own house. Saara overrode the complainers by reminding them that the cleansers had killed my mom, a woman surrounded by cats. I was not a useless beggar like they said, but a person who had been wronged terribly and deserved a good life as much as anyone else.
Years went by, filled with learning and hard work. Life was a bit dull, but peaceful. The year I turned 12 changed the course of my life again.
It was mid-summer festival, Juhannus. The young men and maidens had disappeared somewhere earlier. The older men from several islands had been drinking at the beach all day and the women had their own celebration with smaller children at our hut. I was playing with the children to let their mothers have a good talk with each other. One of the young men remaining with the drinking party, Urho, came to us. Arrogantly he told me to come with him. I had never liked him. He was the one who had speared me seven years earlier. He never spoke to me, but I could sometimes feel his malicious eyes following me. When I didn´t obey him right away he tried to grab me. That was the second mistake on his part. The first one, of course, was to put forth his demand in front of all the women. The following interrogation was brief and revealed that some of the men at the beach party thought the local prostitute was too old and wanted to have someone younger to play with. The women were enraged. Prostitution is a legal profession, but it is strictly monitored to avoid any exploitation. Nobody was forced to that position. And in addition I was clearly a child, which broke another one of the island laws. I heard later that there was an unusually low count of babies born next spring. I was not there to see it since Saara decided to send me to Keuruu for further medical studies. Her decision was caused by the fact that Urho had taken to stalking me. Alone or with some of his friends. They would pop up whenever they thought I was alone at home. I was not really scared since the other houses were nearby and in living with a household like ours one seldom was truly alone. Trips to the forest were trickier. He tried to ambush me a few times, when I went to collect herbs. My wilderness skills were better than his and he did not even find me, but it left Saara shaken. Urho never actually did anything he could be blamed for, but we were sure he was just biding his time.
So on one rainy morning I stepped to a large boat heading south. I was on my way to a new and exciting life.
I slept till late afternoon. The villagers knew not to bother a midwife day after delivery. Later on one of the women would come and inquire about last night. Mika was awake. He was sitting in our bed silently staring at me. I went to give him a good morning hug, and as always he failed to hug me back. I wondered, like every day, what he was thinking if anything at all. I began my daily routines and waited for my visitor. Kirsi appeared in an hour. I was glad, since I kind of liked her. She had lived with me and Saara for a two years before being adopted into a new family. We had grown quite close after Saara passed away a year ago. Kirsi had brought her son, Voitto, with her. I liked seeing other boys with Mika, even if they didn´t actually do anything together. I told all official information to Kirsi and she left to spread the word. Increase of population was a common concern on these sparsely populated islands. The tale I had told Kirsi resembled in some parts my own.
I had returned to Säyneensalo heavy with a child. Saara had welcomed me with open arms and asked no questions about the 23 years I had been away. My pregnancy was problematic and the doctor in Keuruu had told me one of us would die, if I let it proceed. Instead of killing my child I chose the long and hard way home. I was just in time. My labour started in a week and was horrendous. My trimmed and trained fighter´s body refused to flex and relax. The baby was a big one and ready to leave, but my body would not let it go. Saara worked for two days using up her herbal medicines to the last leaf. She also sang her voice hoarse, repeating all the chants to pray for safe delivery. Her hard work paid out. Morning of the third day found me suckling a live baby boy. At first all was well, but gradually I started to suspect there was something wrong with my precious bundle. Mika, as I had decided to call him, never cried. Sometimes he smiled, but it was never related to anything outside him. I kept him to myself, as long as I could but it was inevitable, that others would notice he was not developing normally. One day we were called to see the village council. I had to let them examine him and he was judged to be retarded. The island laws were harsh; he would be given to the Beast. He would not be a sacrificial offering, the Beast was only a clean way to be rid of a body. I tried to fight them, but failed miserably. Urho and his friends locked me up until the deed would be done. The next five hours were the worst of my life. Losing my child this way was so much more painful than anything I could think of. But a few hours later Mika was returned to me and we were told to go home. Saara came with me and explained what had happened. She had been present so I had to believe her tale even though it sounded so amazing.
The council had prepared a boat for taking Mika to the Beast. Saara was present to sedate the boy before the deed. When they got to the shore there was a visitor´s boat coming in and they had to wait for the other people to move their belongings. Suddenly Mika had let out a long loud scream. While everybody was marveling at his sudden loudness, one of the village cats ran to the boats and started making alarm noises. The newcomer´s boat was thoroughly searched and a small mousebeast was found hidden in it. As soon as the beast was killed Mika stopped his screaming. Saara had immediately thought that Mika had somehow known about the beast and had tried to warn about it. The village council had not agreed right away. The hours I had waited in anguish had been used by the others to track down some small beasts in nearby “not safe”-islands and see how Mika would react to them. Without a fail he would recognize their presence without having to see them. His sensitivity towards beasts was even estimated to be a little better than a cat´s.
So now my child was not an useless mouth to feed, but a valuable weapon against the ever lurking fear of rash-disease. Mika´s talent proved to be a blessing to our and other nearby islands. As he grew older he accompanied the men when needed. He would trudge along with them and point out the beasts for them. A trained cat could do the same, but all the island cats were practically untrained and often unreliable. The Beast was the only large one around. The ancient ring seal had somehow managed to travel to Kallavesi from it´s original Saimaa area. During it´s stay it had just about consumed all other water mammals. Nobody ever hunted it since it still kept all bigger swimming beasts; elk and bear included, away from the islands. Mika developed a special sensitivity towards it. Before we had to see it to know it was around, now we only needed to look at Mika´s strained face. The islanders knew his worth and accepted him now as he was. The cleanser crew practically adopted him. Urho had taken a full turn, too. Marrying Kirsi and having a son with her had already made him less hostile towards me. With Mika´s talent all traces of his grudge disappeared. It was all right he had failed to kill me all those years ago. By a council decision Mika´s talent was decided to be a secret. Which meant, that everybody living in the Kallavesi region knew about Mika´s talent, but they kept it secret from outsiders. I agreed wholeheartedly; I had a healthy suspicion of southern authorities. I didn´t want my son shipped to some research laboratory as an interesting case. For now we were safe, but I was sure it would not last. My past would definitely find me sooner or later.
