Chapter 16: Along Came a Kang

When we took in our first set of party crashers they thought that it would take Kang two weeks to make the pilgrimage before they arrived at, what they hoped, would be an ‘already’ taken over camp. Well those two weeks had actually turned into nearly three weeks before they were able to get here in the neighborhood. Close enough, anyway, to send out advance scouts to get the lay of the land. And each day after Kang arrived here he sent out a group of four men, and each day those men were met by a welcoming committee of Asorian women. Kang sent out a total of three different teams for three straight days, before he thought he that should take a wait and see attitude, to see if any of his men returned to his camp. While he was waiting for the men to return his frustration continued to grow. Between his men having the surprise element going for them and the superior weapon in their spearcasters, Kang had no fear that his men were really in all that much danger. But as they had hunted, and food was no issue, Kang was not all that worried as one of his party of men should be back at any time with the good news that Kang was indeed waiting to hear all about.

Well Kang sadly wasn’t aware of the latest current events concerning the 12 men that he had sent out to have a look and see in our neighborhood. Meaning some of his 12 warriors had suffered catastrophic mortal casualties and now were only 7 warriors strong, although in Asorian custody. Those dreaded Blizuns had yet again performed their silent, but deadly work, with witnesses still alive to report all of the different ways that my camp can kill people. Hopefully Kang will come around to believing after a live demonstration or two that the reports he heard about, were in fact all very true. Like I said before, until you see that Blizun in action you just can’t believe in what it can really do. Combined with the fact nobody understands just how guns and bullets work together yet when people suddenly die after confronting me. Kang is a power-hungry madman who may have to die before the truth comes to him, or he may just realize that he should have just listened to what I had said from the get go. Or just believed what his lying eyes would be trying to tell him, or if and when he sees one or more of his men who just up and disappears without a trace before his eyes.

Finally Kang had the good sense not to send anyone else out to scout the area, since nobody that he had sent out in the previous days had yet to return since they left. After Kang had a couple of days of indecision about his next move, I told Tran. “Tran, please take the seven men that Kang sent out from his camp when he arrived nearby, and three men that have been here and three women, and go to your brother and tell him to camp at the edge of our camp, please. Yes, you need for him to understand that we want all of the spearcasters, and we will be searching to find every last one of those spearcasters, too. While you are talking to him, it is your job to make him understand that the men that he would be losing are men he would need to hunt for your camp, also to defend your camp from other camps, should that need arise also.” I said.

Tran could see the wisdom in not sacrificing any more lives on this foolishness of Kang’s great desire to take over our camp. Tran’s group set off armed with a few spears to both protect themselves, and to make it clear to Kang that we wanted all spearcasters under our control. And Tran was to make it clear to Kang we would get the spearcaster from anyone who has one with no exceptions, including Kang himself, too. I was hoping since Tran was Kang’s brother he might listen to Tran about the way our camp’s ability to kill is far superior to anything in their camp.

We were preparing to send Kang and company back home with some meat to ease their hunting issues. We had been smoking meat for both our camp and their trip home. To keep love in our homes I got on my job and turned out 3 grills a night, though I did not show the first one until I had all of them ready to go. (Thanks to Gazoo and his helpers, I was asked if I would let the ladies have their own grills.) Nobody seemed to notice that my trailer wasn’t in its normal parking spot, it was parked outside its door instead of inside of it. I was asked not to open the overhead door but go into my shop and pretend to be building these very same grills. I was actually watching different sports on my TV in the machine cave area that is not accessible to anyone else but me while this little deception was going on. Of course the question of what I was up to just didn’t stop, all them nosy women wanted some answers.

So while Tran was on his way to his brother I began rolling out the grills into a building that took only three weeks to put up, as it doesn’t have a lot of side walls as it had plenty of garage overhead doors along with a few extra-wide entrance doors, two special cement-lined pits that could be covered to roast meat underground, and the covers were obviously also for keeping people from falling into pits when they were not in use, too. This building had several covered vents in the roof for use with the doors closed on cold winter days, and for when all of the doors would need to be closed also for other types of inclement weather. The ladies like the ‘hot pink’ color that I was promised would not be cooked off, no matter how much the grills were used. Though they had all the same things that my five grills had going on, these pink grills for the ladies were visibly smaller than mine were. But there were 15 of these pink grills for the ladies to play grill master on, though.

By the time I had about four of the grills near the building, Challa had her truck helping to move grills, along with the Asorian vehicles pitching in too. I had installed new modified trailer hitches on their carts by fashioning the receiver to accept their connecter or our 2” ball. Men were beginning to drag the grills into the marked slots on the floor before we could get all of the grills to the building, while other men and women began loading Asorian trailers with wood from the dedicated wood building or the ‘Wood Shack’ as we liked to call it, it was filled with the different types of wood that the camp uses for firewood. The wood was pre-cut for immediate use in fireplaces, as well as for all of the grills to be used, including our larger black grills. We men would be using our grills in peace today. Hopefully we would not need to get any help from our ladies today while manning our grills.

Though our cooking establishment was just beginning to be built, right next door to the ladies cooking-hut, the women were all trying to look at all of the grills and decide just what they wanted to cook first, as well as who was in charge of each grill. I wasn’t in on any of those decisions, as I knew that I wasn’t welcome in their cooking arena, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near the inside of that building, either. Those women had proven to be very territorial when it happen to do with food gathering, storage areas, and the areas that they cooked, as well as the cooking process itself. I had hunted this morning, avoiding Kang’s campsite, so the meat processing crew was hard on the job getting the fresh meat. Aurochs, this time, carved and ground up for their date with the flames inside all of those grills. There was also half a Bison in both pits that had been cooking since yesterday morning.

It took Tran a little over an hour to reach one of Kang’s sentries, and Tran gathered all of the other sentries as they went on their way back to Kang’s improvised campsite. “Where the hell have you been?” Kang yelled at Tran.

“I have been trapped at the camp that you wanted to take over so badly.” Tran said.

“I had sent three teams out looking for you, but none ever came back until now. Obviously they were able to help you get free, though. Now we will go in there and kill them all!” Kang said.

“No, wait! Did these men I sent back to you tell you anything about why they’re carrying spears instead of spearcasters?” Tran asked Kang.

“I was told some stories like we tell the little ones after dinner just before we go get into the furs!” Kang said.

“Kang, these people can kill all of us from where we are standing right now. I am telling you what I have seen with my own eyes up close and personal. Alex is just waiting for you to make a move of some kind to prove it to you. Haven’t we lost enough men to all this foolishness?” Tran said.

“I don’t see any spearcasters, so it not possible for them to do as you have said.” Kang said.

“Kang, please take off your spearcaster so everyone else will too. I promise you as sure as I’m your brother, that you are going to get some more people killed, thinking you can do something that you can’t. I have been promised that if too many have to die, you yourself will be amongst the dead. But Alex, the leader, is willing to fight you hand to hand to the death to end all of the hostilities right here, right now. He would rather do hand to hand, but is willing to let you choose any weapon you want. But hear me well, my advice to you is go and see the camp that you will never have. Then take all the meat they are preparing for you and leave in a couple days and forget about these people forever.” Tran said to Kang.

“What has happened to you? Are you really so afraid because they captured you? Listen, if he was half the warrior that I am he would have killed all of you, instead of sending you to me, for you to beg me to return to our old campground. If this camp is all you and others have said, why wouldn’t I want us to take over this camp, Tran?” Kang asked.

“Kang why is it you are so willing to believe in all of the wonders of this camp? But you can’t believe that it is even possible that they have some superior weapons as well? Because you need to believe me when I tell you that compared to what they have, you don’t have any weapons at all.” Tran said.

Kang looked hard at Tran, and he knew that Tran didn’t scare easily. Tran had not lost a fight since he was much younger. Tran could have been the leader of the camp but he did not want to be the leader, which is why Kang was the leader. Kang was very aware that Tran could defeat him in a fight without all that much trouble. So to keep down any trouble between Tran and himself, Kang, while not all that happy, took off his spearcaster. The rest of Kang’s men followed suit. Tran put all of the weapons in bags that Alex had sent for that purpose.

Nearly two hours later Kang was still helping to get their temporary camp set up. About the time Kang and company were finished setting their camp up in some kind of order, I walked over and introduced myself to Kang. “I am glad that you made it here safely, as you came such a long ways. I want to say from the get go I will allow you to keep your flint knives on your persons while you are here in my camp. But let me make sure that you understand, when we start killing we will keep killing your camp members until ALL OF YOU understand, we won’t care about the reason one of your men thought he could take over this camp. Next thing, as this is more important than anything else I just said. We have four adult big cats that live in this camp and their young cubs. Most of the members here don’t really interact with the cats, my best advice is that you leave them be, because the females are very protective of their young. As soon as you warn your people I will let the cats go on about their business, as they have complete freedom to move around in this camp. And before you ask, Tran knows about the cats, but I told him not to mention the cats to you, even if you asked about the cats before you arrived here.” I said to Kang.

Twenty minutes later I opened the overhead door in the horse cave, and the cubs were out and about before the door was completely opened. The Kang camp were all huddled in their camp space after hearing about live predators that would be walking around. The fact that these predators are considered camp members by me was something even my own camp members did not believe the first time it came from me. With guards stationed around the camp, I went to check on the progress of my meat on the grills that we men were in control of. The cubs all understood the rules that they could not enter any structure but my caves and their cave, but were free to roam anywhere near the camp as long as they could hear a parent rumbling to get their attention. So that said, as nosy as those cubs are, you just had to know that all of the cubs wanted to be seen at Kang’s camp in case they were handing out snacks, and to see the new people in camp. Now that said, we know that Cleo and her girls would be heading near Kang’s group to keep a closer eye on their babies then they normally would do in the rest of the camp if Kang & company wasn’t here.

I went back to cooking and sampling meat hot off the grill. I knew that some of the men in Kang’s group were arrogant enough to get themselves killed without any forethought that death was waiting for them.

Just before dinner was ready to be served Malta, Tarna and Athena strolled over to Kang’s little area to speak to Kang. “Hello, I am Malta, I am Alex’s head woman, although I am not the warrior woman that these two women are. Tonight we are having a feast as we have been cooking all day today, and will be cooking yet again tomorrow. We are stocking up for our winter months, as well as for you to have plenty of meat for your return trip to your old territory. You and your people are free to look over our camp with a few exceptions. You are not welcome to enter any of the caves at all, no matter what reason you may think of, you are not welcome to enter. The house cave is my territory, the machine cave belongs to Alex, and will be locked so you won’t be able to enter it anyway, so don’t try. The horse cave is in the middle with no one guarding it, those horses are not food, and those horses are also camp members that work daily doing jobs that we people can’t. The horses are not the only animals that live in that cave and the other occupants don’t like visitors. The cats will kill you if you go into that cave and they catch you in there. Consider yourselves warned. Remember if you try or harm those cats, we will have no choice but to begin killing your camp members.” Malta said.

“I do hope you enjoy the feast, eat, and drink as much as you want, we will not run out of food or drink. Our bruga, as you know it, is in the lighter colored container away from the food. It also will have the longer line around the three containers. Alex told me to tell you to eat plenty of food, as his bruga will embrace you suddenly before you realize it has caught you, as it tastes so good. The dark containers have a different type of bruga (Root Beer) that just burns your throat if you drink it too fast. This special bruga tastes very different, and it is very good too. This bruga will not make you sick tonight, or make your head hurt tomorrow in the morning, though it does not give you that very good feeling regular bruga does.” Malta said before she walked away to get her own dinner.

“I want to see what they are hiding in those caves. Whatever they are hiding it must be very important, and thus may be a way to still take over this camp.” Kang said.

“Well, you are on your own, Kang, those of us that have been here tried what you want to do, and we were easily turned away. All of us that have seen how fast, as well as easy, these people can and will kill, is reason enough for us to do as they say.” Tran said.

“I AM YOUR LEADER, AND YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!” Kang yelled at Tran.

“I WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU JUST TO DIE, JUST BECAUSE YOU SAY SO!” Tran yelled back at Kang. “Listen Kang, you have not seen what we have seen, we have told you what we saw. You don’t want to believe these wild stories, and I truly understand that you don’t want to believe what we are telling you. But I refuse to let you blindly get friends and family killed because you refuse to believe how quickly you will die quickly fooling around, against these people.” Tran said.

“Listen, all of you know me, if you follow Kang just know that death awaits you, I promise you that anyone I talk to will know to let you go alone or die when you do. Either way it goes, most of the men in this camp won’t be going with you. Let us all go now so that the feast can start. Also as a side note, Malta did not lie about the bruga, so believe everything the lady said about the bruga. And the men of their camp don’t drink bruga to the point that they are useless. If you start trouble, most of them will be alert enough to handle the situation. And Alex and his women don’t drink any of that kind of bruga.” Tran said.

“How do we know that it is not poisoned, then, if they don’t drink it?” Kang asked Tran. “If the man wanted you dead you would have never made it here. He sent us to meet you by telling us what direction that you were approaching from. He has been trying to get you to stop trying to get here, so he has no real interest in killing you or he would have done so. From what I have seen and heard, the man has no trouble killing and is real quick to do it, also. I am told and have seen his people at these feasts; they drink bruga enough for you to know that it is safe to drink. They have these feasts for any reason you can think of. They have a strange way of cooking, too, but it is so good, they have food that you have never seen or tasted before that makes you just want more of it. Because of our actions they don’t really want to have anything to do with us joining this camp. But this camp is made up of other camps. We can talk later, as food will be gone if we keep talking about something we can talk about tomorrow.” Tran said.

“This Kang person must be very stubborn if he can’t come to this gathering in a timely manner?” Queen Kamora.

“Honey, this why I went ahead and let the feast begin, let that camp’s hunger lead all of them to food that is ready to be eaten.” I said.

Malta had a few volunteers to show them all the different foods. Plates, spoons, and forks were all new items to these people, and more than a few stopped trying to use them, but were embarrassed by the time they were through with the meal. BBQ is messy all by itself, now add to the fact that many had other parts of dinner on their faces and clothes also. They were shown where they could wash their hands and faces. Eating dinner with us was truly an eye-opening experience to say the least.

The women in Kang’s outfit were interested in the pots and pans, as well as the dinnerware. And when hot and cold running water was discovered everyone wanted to join our camp. And after building closets for clothes, food (Pantries) that were located over their lodge, water closets is the name that my camp gave to what I still called bathrooms. As water closet / bathrooms were also located all over their lodge, and well, that was just sauce for the goose. Kang may have had a strong desire to be the leader around here, but his womenfolk were interested in the things that this camp had to offer that they had never seen before. It was obvious that they all wanted to join our group by the many questions that they were asking, and to find out we bathe in warm water daily. We knew by in the morning the women would want to join our camp.

“You know those people will want to join this camp, as we have things that any camp would want to join us to enjoy the many things that we use daily.” Malta said.

“I have not changed my mind, Malta. These people are not people that we need to join us, as camp troubles will begin as they believe that they are better than all of us. I am not trying to help them all that much, besides all the meat we are sending back with them, a couple boxes of dishes, and two big cook pots, and two cooking grates. Other than that they are on their own as far as I am concerned, and good riddance, too.” I said. Every last women in the room just looked at me like I was a cold-hearted bastard for saying what I just said. “And you are welcome to load up some dishes and leave with them if any of you want to. I will be very sad, sure I will be, but you got to know that these leaders and many of their followers close to them will always think that they should be in charge around here. Or have you already forgotten Mr. Tree hugger and his friends so soon?” I asked. Just the mention of Mr. Tree hugger, and the cave got ‘real’ quiet, as they remembered the idiots that were in that camp Mr. Tree hugger came from. And that trouble was ongoing and we still took in part of that camp before we would be finished dealing with them.

The next morning Kang’s womenfolk were outside at a cooking spot setup for them, but couldn’t understand why none of the women of our camp were outside cooking with them. Malta and a few women were on hand to give them some foodstuffs and let them know that the foodstuffs were all for their camp. The ladies returned to their own kitchens to finish cooking their own breakfast. Kang asked. “Where are all these lazy people, they stay in their furs way too long in the morning? This is why they need a strong leader like me to make this a much better camp.”

“Kang, how do you think that we got this food this morning? As we all know, that none of you men went hunting this morning to provide for your own camp. And none of the ladies looked as though they had just got out of the furs this morning when they handed us this food as they told us this was all for us.” Yuka, Kang’s mate said.

“They just want you to cook so they can come and take what you cook!” Kang said loudly.

“Kang, they cook inside where they live. And before you yell again, we have been here for weeks, we have not seen them cook outside unless it is on those grill things that made the messy but very good BBQ.” Shutra, one of the widows said to Kang. All this did was to make Kang know that he had to find a way into both the caves, and the big wooden lodge they live in, too, as Kang had still not walked away from the idea of taking over this camp and having everything that Alex owns in the process.

After a hearty breakfast the building crews began getting their day started, while the horse crew began their stinky work. Clyde and his ladies strolled out to graze and get some of the still cool water in the water trough. Kang and associates were thinking about horse meat, as it was so close by too, the hitch in their get along was that the cubs took the idea to chase the horses. Since these cubs were no longer all that little, even if they are still long way from being considered full-grown. The horses were not afraid, as they knew they were with friends. Kang somehow thought that he would get at those horses. But those cubs outside moving around meant one or more mothers would be nearby watching over the cubs and the horses as well, as both the horses and the cubs were in the same field.

By the time I came outside I was greeted with the thought that I really had nothing to do. So I washed my truck and had it looking brand-new. Kang walked up to me and said. “You stay in your furs entirely too long at the start of the day, when you should be out hunting. I challenge you to get three other men to put your skills against mine. Though I have heard that your hunting skills are sorely lacking, as a true leader you should be considered a good hunter for your camp. When you lose to me, you will turn over leadership of this camp, to me.”

“As I am already the leader here I have nothing to gain. Plus I know that there are likely some widows who have yet to leave your camp. I will take ALL OF YOUR WIDOWS AND UNMATED WOMEN, plus your head flint snapper and your head spearcaster maker, WHEN I WIN. Now, when I win and claim my prizes, you and I can fight to the death, and be done with all of this death business. Just so this is real to you, when you lose you step down as the leader of your own camp. If you don’t want to agree to any of these terms, then we won’t do this challenge at all.” I said to Kang. I spent the day just sitting around, not getting in the way of the people working so hard, just trying to make our entire camp better than it was the day before.