At the far end of the lake, the opposite side from the village, they pulled up and milled around. It was as if they were waiting for some kind of sign, then they proceeded along the river coming out of the lake, riding through a long meadow land that covered the distance from the river to the forest along the mountain slopes. Over a rise to shortcut the bend in the river, we came to a stand of trees alongside a quite pool of water in a slow part of the river. Further downstream, not far, I could hear what must be either heavy rapids or a waterfall. The land was teeming with game and abundance for living off the wild. Even more than we had known on the other side of the mountains where there were people. This was almost like virgin land, as yet unspoiled by the advances of man.
Tupac put out his hand and I grabbed it. He eased me off the horse to the ground. This was where we were staying for at least some time. It was also a location they had used numerous times in the past. The fire area was well used, a lean-to shelter stood to the side, and makeshift table and wood stumps for seats.
From hiding places everywhere, they started pulling containers, baskets, and then they pulled some matting off and opened up a cool storage underground. Dried meat and fruit. Herve didn’t seem real pleased, though. “We could have stayed in the village a few more days, Tupac. Get some good meat and food. Some alcohol, maybe.”
Tupac looked at me, then the sun. He looked at Herve, “You want fresh meat for dinner?”
“Yeah, I think that would have been good.”
“Maia, there is hours left of the sun. You think you can get us some meat to cook?”
“What do you want? Fish, deer, turkey, anything I find?”
“Not just anything you can find, but the best you can find.”
I looked at them and smiled. Another challenge. I grabbed my bow and the quiver, put both over my head and shoulder and left at a jog up to the edge of the forest and made my way downstream. I edged around a stand of trees running further into the meadow and gazed over the rise. There was what I really wanted. A small herd of deer. Several fawns that I ignored. Mostly doe that were promising. A few bucks and a large buck. The large guy would be tempting but I eliminated him, too. It would be flashy to down a large buck, but it would be too much and even skinned and butchered he might be too big for me to get back to camp. The doe were the most promising. Chances are that the meat would also be better. I got down onto the ground and started crawling along edges of brush, small ravines in the ground, etc. But, I kept silently cursing the dress. I was forever crawling into the dress and having to pull at it. Finally, I took the quiver off, then the dress. I put the quiver back over my head and shoulder. There, that felt much better and more familiar from the hunting expeditions with Rayner.
Soon, I was within easy distance of them. I crouched on my knees, took an arrow out of the quiver and put it onto the bow string and peeked over the grass. They were right where they should have been if they weren’t spooked and they weren’t. I knelt on one knee and went through my ritual of aiming, seeking hints of the wind, adjusting, breathing, exhaling, and … the doe staggered for a moment as if it didn’t know what had just pierced its heart. Then she dropped to the ground. The others seemed just as bewildered at first, then became wary. When I stood, content with the one that I had, the others run away from the river and into the forest.
I approached the doe, first retrieved my arrow, then went to work gutting, taking the hide, and laying it in the sun. It would have to be scraped and worked before it could be used for whatever we would need: moccasins, clothing, bags, or a blanket. Then I went to work on the meat, slicing off large chunks and placing them on the hide. After rolling the carcass and trimming off every decent piece of meat I could find, I wrapped the hide over the meat. I then went to the stand of trees and found two saplings large enough for the job. With them I quickly constructed a travois. I used my ever present cordage to tie the ends together at one end, then with several others tied across them to form an ‘A’, I rolled the hide of meat onto it. I raised the peak end, got inside and pushed against it and moved it a hundred yards before I remembered that I had left my dress behind. I put the travois down and ran back for my dress. I hated to even put it on.
As I came out from a small stand of trees and brush, Dreng spotted me. All I could tell was his pointing and the others coming to him to look. I could see Tupac smiling and he pushed Dreng, the youngest, in my direction, too help, I hoped. The load had become heavy.
With his help, the travois was dropped by the fire pit, which Herve was busy getting started. Tupac moved the hide pack off the travois, then inspected my construction of it. He stood and opened the hide, seeing the cut up meat he looked my way, again. He stood and moved to stand directly in front of me, “Maia, you are a constant source of surprise. You were during The Hunt, then in actually making a good kill, and finally in getting it back to us without help. Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Of course, I suspect a lot. I am not as big or strong as you three so there will be plenty that you can handle that I would struggle with or not be able to manage. But, in terms of wilderness skill, survival, hunting, tracking, and evasion, I am expert as you should know by now. You can certainly continue to challenge and test me or we can start working together as a team.”
That was spoken boldly for a new member and such a small one compared to them, but it seemed I was constantly being tested and evaluated. It was time to make the point that I belonged. Both Herve and Dreng watched with sideways glances at the exchange, now waiting for Tupac’s response and reaction. He looked off into the distance over me, then at the smiling other two before returning his attention back to me. I looked up at him and he was now smiling, too.
“Good for you, Maia. You have spunk and ability to back it up. You’re right.” He called the other two over to us, “We made the decision we needed to make it rough on you to see if you really belonged out here. But, frankly, that was before we couldn’t capture you in The Hunt. As I said, you continue to surprise. So, the challenging and testing ends. Life out here is enough of a challenge. There are things that she can do better because of her skills or size and there are things we can do better for the same reasons. Those aren’t better or worse, they just are and we will take advantage of being able to combine them into a more functional unit.”
Herve let out a long breath and we all looked his way, “Well, that’s a relief to have out of the way. Now, let’s get some of this meat cooking.”
I looked around the area, “Is there something to put the meat onto? I want to start on scraping the hide.” They looked at me like it would not have occurred to them to actually use the hide. While others worked over the fire and around the camp, I spread out the hide on a packed section of ground and started pulling the edge of my knife over the surface of the inside of the hide. Cleaning the residual fat and muscle from the hide was a necessary first step in preparing the hide for tanning and eventual use.
After an early evening meal of venison, some boiled roots, and nuts, I returned to the hide. I soon felt the others watching from a discrete distance. “It will make it go faster if you help rather than watch. Each one of you take a corner and we’ll work into the center. That way we are pulling against each other and it will keep the hide taunt.”
Dreng went to an opposite location from me, took his knife out and started duplicating my actions. “What do you do with the hide when you are done?”
I looked up at him. I took off my moccasin and flipped it to him. “Compare my moccasin to yours.” He caught mine and felt it, then looked at me. He took his off and compared them closer.
The others were looking over his shoulder and Herve asked, “You made this? It has ties on it. To hold it to the foot better?”
“Yes. Dreng, what happened to your moccasins when you were in the river and got into trouble?”
“They came off. How did you know?”
Tupac was watching the exchange, “The branch that trapped his foot didn’t just suddenly move away from the rock, did it?”
I smiled at them, “No. It never would have. The pressure of the water on both sides had it secured where it was. I had to pull with everything I had to get the pressure unbalanced onto his side so it would float downriver.” They kept looking at me and I kept smiling. Another surprise, Tupac?
They were quiet but moved to separate parts of the hide and we were now all scraping the hide. It remained quiet for some time and that was fine with me. I had given them enough to think about over the past days. Wolf came from somewhere and lay down next to me, his big head nudging me periodically so that I stopping pulling the edge of the knife long enough to give him a long pet. Then he settle down for a time. There was a topic that had not come up for consideration or discussion since the tease when Tupac gave me his shirt this morning. It needed to be out in the open or it was going to be a very large, preoccupying distraction. Quite possibly for all of us.
It had been even more time without any significant discussion about anything important. I also knew that the way my dress was on me, my legs crossed, knees spread, that the bottom of my dress in well up my thighs and all three of the men were looking my way frequently. I decided to give them a test, I shift several times in quick succession and got the bottom of my dress pulled up to my hips and I continued to act like there was nothing wrong or that I knew how much I was exposing. That move brought all scraping to a stop except for mine. I let it continue like that for a little while longer before confronting it.
Leave a Reply