Raven lived with his adopted clan in a lovely small village by a lake. There were plenty of fish in the lake: nice fat trout, and beautiful salmon....... the forest teemed with game: deer, elk, rabbit, moose, bear, buffalo, porcupine........ and the clearings between the trees were full of berries and seeds growing wild. Life in the village was generally peaceful but there was one little nagging problem: it's pretty hard to chew frozen raw meat; the old ones and the little ones had a very bad time with it: and in winter that was all there was to eat.

And there was that other problem: winters were very cold, and the ice stayed and stayed, even in summer there were places that had icewalls on them and the People never went there. It was worse in the winter: the little ones had chilblains and frostbite on their faces, and the old ones ached and shivered. The People stayed sitting close together all day long, trying to stay warm.

Raven, with his lovely black wings, could sail high into the sky and see what went on in the world around the People: he would come and tell them about the bison in the sunset place; and he would see when the icewalls came towards them........ and sometimes he could see smoke. He loved to ride the warm wind from the smoke, and see the lovely red flames dancing among the trees below him as he rode...... and he could smell the wonderful mouthwatering smell of the animals that gave their spirits to the FireWalkers. He could even see that Bear and Wolf loved the meat from these animals: the gift was much appreciated when Raven brought news of it back to the People. Everyone would follow Raven's slow flight back to where the animals were......... and even the old ones and the little ones could chew the meat.

But this wasn't enough for Raven. He often thought about how he could bring a bit of the FireWalkers' black wood back to the village: but it proved too difficult: the black wood was always cold by the time Raven got it back to the People.

So Raven wandered the skies and watched and thought... and one day the winds carried Raven far from the village..... and he saw the mountains ahead of him. Overcome with curiosity Raven flew on: he'd never seen such huge mountains: there was icewall on the tops of them...... and yes: there in the distance was smoke! The attraction proved too much for Raven: maybe he'd meet a FireWalker, he thought, and flew on towards the place of smoke. It was getting pretty dark by now: and Raven's black wings blended into the sky as he approached the fire unseen.

He quietly lighted onto a nearby branch: and saw a woman sitting beside a small pile of black wood: but this had to be very special wood: because the FireWalkers didn't dance around it: it stayed inside the circle of stones the woman had made.

Raven sat in his tree all night: it was quite pleasant, even though snow and ice was piled three men high all around, and the day was so short. The warm air from the fire kept Raven toasty warm all night while he thought. And what he thought about was how to steal some of this black wood......... But by morning the fire was cold: nothing but pieces of black wood lay there in the circle of rocks while the woman slept on........ Sadly Raven shook his feathers and decided to fly on..... when.......

The woman woke from her sleep: she shivered and pulled her furs around her: and then came the magic! Round-eyed and amazed, Raven watched the woman as she took two flat black stones from her medicine bag...... banged them together and made sparks fly....... and oh! there was a flame: a tiny flame: but Raven's sharp eyes could see it! and when the woman took plain birch wood and plain birch bark and put it on top of the flame the fire ring jumped and laughed with lovely hot flames! Raven immediately resolved to steal those magic stones. He sat waiting for his chance for three whole days...... then....... the woman woke the fourth morning, made her fire, put the magic stones in her medicine bag. But a little breeze came up just as she was putting more birch pieces onto the little flame. The woman dropped her medicine bag so she could cup her hands around the flame. And Raven saw she wasn't paying attention to the bag! It lay unprotected on the ground beside her!

Quick as an eyeblink Raven flew down from his perch: grabbed the stones in his beak (oh how awkward and heavy those stones were! made poor Raven fly sideways and upside down before he managed the knack to it!) and began his long journey home.

At the village the People were very upset: Raven had carelessly (they thought) and irresponsibly (they said) gone off and left them all hungry: how to find rabbit or deer, elk or moose in all that snow, and the hunters so cold and hungry! Where was Raven all this time they demanded when at last they saw him in the sky! Now he comes back, now that nobody is strong enough to follow and hunt! Off playing when there was work to be done!

But Raven, in his excitement to show where he'd been, tried to tell the whole story at once. But in his enthusiasm the medicine bag slipped from his beak: bag and stones fell to the ground: a spark flew and the bag caught fire and started to burn. And as luck would have it the bag had landed beside the longhouse........ and the nearest support branch caught the flame! And then the next stick caught fire too!

And pretty soon the whole longhouse was burning!

Now the People were really furious with Raven! "Nothing but a troublemaker!" yelled one man, aiming a stone at Raven's tail! "Lazy careless good-for-nothing bird!" screamed a woman, chasing Raven around the place where the longhouse used to be! "Stupid bird!" shouted the medicine man, waving his Spirit Stick at Raven as Raven sat panting on the ground! And so it went all that day........ and part of that night: and the People wouldn't let poor Raven even under the trees with them........

Until.... Raven, exhausted and bedraggled, missing feathers and down, bruised and bleeding, dragged and pushed the two magic stones to the Spirit Woman. Too tired and hungry and cold to do more, he whispered the secret of the stones to her: and Spirit Woman, being a gentle kindhearted woman, agreed to try...... anything was better than being out there in the open, freezing to death, trying to chew on frozen meat.......

She laid round the circle of stones, and put the birchbark in the middle. Then she put the small pieces of twigs around and on top ..... and then she hit the stones: a spark flew...... and the fire caught!

"Oh Raven! You've trapped a FireWalker!" she exclaimed. And the People, hearing her voice, got very quiet..... watched what was happening...... and then they saw: the circle, the stones, the dead wood: and the trapped fire.......

And now they all loved Raven: even though everyone agreed Raven was a troublemaker, and irresponsible, and a nuisance, everyone decided that Raven could stay with them after all: because Raven meant well and Raven did after all do something good........

"If you ever do anything like that again you'll be one sorry bird!" the Oldest Elder scolded, shaking his finger at Raven. But of course, Raven being Raven he did...but that's another story...