Chapter 10: A New Tribe

As I prepared for my daily rounds, Khea stood across the fire, looking down at me. At the same time, Neta sat beside me. I’m not sure what language this was—tribespeople, tribeswoman, or cavewoman—but it translated to “we have something to talk about.” At the risk of putting my foot in my mouth, I found this ironic as I’ve never met a woman who had a problem saying those words out loud. I might have confused Khea’s stare with anger only a week ago, but I have since learned that she didn’t have a setting between ‘friendly’ and ‘aggressive.’ In her black-and-white world, I didn’t completely fit into either friend or foe, so I got to experience both approaches seemingly at random.

“Chet? We need you to hunt.” Neta led off.

“Okay...” I said curiously. “Are we low on meat? I remember seeing plenty of bear still in the pantry.”

“No, we don’t need the meat, although some venison would be good. We need more hides.” I must have looked more confused because she explained, “We only had a few supplies we brought, and we’re running out. We don’t have any weapons to hunt big animals, but you killed the bear, so you must have some way.”

The conversation led exactly where I didn’t want it to go—yet. I couldn’t think of an efficient way to hunt large animals without the girls’ help, and that meant showing them my guns.

“The problem is that I don’t know where to hunt. Even if I did, I’m not good at cleaning the animals, so even if I did bring one back, the skin would either be ruined or take me too long to drag the entire carcass back. I need you to show me where to hunt and probably come with me to prepare the animal.”

Neta and Khea shared a confused look, “We can do that.” Neta confirmed.

“That’s not what I’m worried about. My way of hunting is a secret. If we go hunting together, you will learn that secret. Also, once you see my way of hunting, you will know enough to be dangerous to yourselves and me.”

I decided they had shown enough trust, and it was my time to make that leap.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I think the best way I can describe it is: we need to form a tribe.”

“A Tribe?” Khea jumped in. “With you as chief, I guess.”

“No ... I mean, not necessarily. I need to know that you won’t run away with my secrets. Right now, we just happen to be living near each other. I want us to be working towards something bigger. Maybe, someday, we become a real tribe, but we need to start now, even if it’s small.”

I sighed, “If we are a tribe, then we trust each other and work together. We need that, or we need to go our separate ways. If Khea needs to be chief to do that, that’s fine.”

Neta laughed, “Khea can’t be a chief!”

“Why not?”

“A chief is a man!”

I looked at Khea, and she nodded.

“Well then,” I chuckled, “I guess you’ll have to teach me how to be a chief.”

Neta nodded, and Khea grimaced.

“Khea, I don’t know what it will take for you to trust me, but can you at least acknowledge that I’m not trying to hurt you? Can we promise not to try to hurt each other? Can we try to work together and stay together? That we are a team until we decide—as a group—to do otherwise?”

I stood and extended my hand.

Neta also stood and awkwardly held out her hand, which I moved over to shake. She looked confused, and I chuckled again. “This is how we finalize agreements on Earth— I mean, in my old tribe.”

Then I moved to Khea, “Khea?”

With another look at Neta, Khea rose and shook my hand.

“Good. Let’s go hunting. We can work out the details as we go.”

This would be my first real hunt. I had shot a doe when I stumbled upon it during one of my long walks and deemed it small enough to drag back, but other than it and the bear, we had been satisfied with trapping small game. In addition, I had no idea how the ladies would approach a hunt.

We gathered our equipment, this time with me carrying my rifle in addition to my revolver. I took my pack with everything else—first aid, rope, ammunition—even the fishing equipment. We all carried some food as well as the two canteens. We let the fire burn low and covered the cave entrance after we left. The women described the route; the grassy flatlands were on the other side of the hills, “behind” our cave. The easy path was to head downstream and double back around the point, but that would put us just across the river from their tribe’s territory for much of the hike. Instead, we were heading upstream on the cave side of the point to try to find a gentle path through the hills into the grassy plains above. The girls were confident about the general area, even though they hadn’t been there themselves.

The hunting plain was a vast area that spanned the river. The Riverpeople hunted primarily on their side of the river, where most of the grassland was. They avoided the plains on the other side of the river simply because it was far to travel, and carrying game back across the river wasn’t easy. However, some hunt the far side when looking for rarer game or during the leaner months. In the middle of summer, as it was now, the girls assured me that there was minimal chance of seeing anyone on this side of the river. In their words, there were simply no reasons to warrant the trip.

So, most of the middle of the day was spent exploring the hills, looking for an easy path that avoided heavy inclines, rocks, dense trees, or brush and wasn’t too far out of the way. We finally found a usable path in the late afternoon; it wasn’t perfect, but it was usable now and could be improved with time.

As late as it was, anything caught now would have to be carried back in the dark or left overnight. We decided to camp overnight and hunt first thing in the morning. We then spent some time marking the path for future use.

Once we made camp and ate a quick dinner, the two of them dragged a few small deadfalls from the undergrowth and began cleaning them. They worked quickly and without discussion, making it obvious this was a regular task. I was again fascinated by their ability to work together without talking.

“What are you building?” I asked the girls when I could not stand the curiosity anymore; Khea was now stripping branches, and Neta was binding them together.

“A travois; it lets you carry heavy loads more easily, especially over long distances,” Neta, the explainer, answered.

“This is for the deer you expect me to kill tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“That’s great, I wasn’t looking forward to carrying an entire deer back to the cave.”

Neta laughed, “You wouldn’t carry it; that’s my job. That’s why we’re building one.”

“You!” I interjected without thinking.

“Yes, me.” Neta said, her look cloudy, “I can drag a deer just as well as you.”

“Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I only assumed that I would be carrying it. But if this lets all of us carry it just as well, then we can take turns. No need to burden one person.”

“No.” Khea corrected. “You and I will keep our hands free in case we need to protect the group. Neta is the least capable fighter, so she carries the kill.”

I thought about that. “I can see how that would work in your old tribe. However, I’m the least capable tracker in this group. You or Neta are going to notice danger first. Also, my weapons don’t need preparation, so I don’t need to keep my hands free.”

Khea looked unconvinced.

“Tell you what. Teach me to build one of these travois. We can each build one; that way, we can all carry a kill home.”

“That would mean you plan on killing three deer tomorrow,” Khea said; somehow, it was an accusation.

“Well, I don’t plan on it, but if we can bring three back, there’s no reason to take additional trips. Besides, we can store what we don’t eat right away.”