Chapter 18 :Look They Are Just Snakes, Damn It!

On the way home the main thing that could be heard was the CD players in both of the trucks doing what they were supposed to be doing. Challa’s truck pulled off ahead of me and I heard Randy Travis talking about “I’m Going Love You Forever and Forever, Amen”. While the CD player in my truck was working The Dramatics CD, “The Dramatic Jackpot”. I was listening to “Me, Myself, & I”. I was truly lost in my own thoughts about how folks would take to these birds becoming part of our tribe. Hell, they are scaring me and I am in on the joke, so to speak. The wolves I wasn’t worried about at all, but the birds kept me thinking about the whole camp stampeding, just to get away from them. (Both songs can be heard on YouTube, with the Dramatics appearing on Soul Train performing this song.)

“Challa, come in, please?” I called out to her on our CB radios. “Yes Alex?” Challa answered back. “I am going to let you get a little bit ahead of us to warn the camp of my new flying friends, and I will need all of the Asorians to meet me, as I need them to do something to help these birds gain a home up high above all of our caves, there in camp,” I said. “10-4,” was all that Challa had to say on the radio in return about my plan concerning our arrival at our camp.

I arrived about twenty minutes or so after Challa had arrived, and I could see that all of the new arrivals with her were standing around still looking amazed at our home, while Challa had the Asorians gathered around near her truck. Obviously all movement ceased when I arrived, with some people leaving in a swiftly, but orderly manner away from where I parked my truck. While they were expecting more people obviously, there was no hiding these birds from anyone. Hey, there was no shame in being afraid, hell I was just barely comfortable with those birds, and the feelings that they were sending out to me was that they were having some comfort issues of their own. So both of them were nervous because not only were they injured, they had fears of being attacked, as the only positive interaction that they have ever had with humans, was the handful of minutes that they just had with me. Add that to the fact neither bird could see a water source nearby, they thought that they were headed to the cook pot was very much prominent in both of their minds, at this moment.

My first task was to get to Queen Kamora, to see if the Asorians could easily do what I needed to get done concerning the cave openings, up above us. “Kamora, I am asking do your weapons shoot a very tight beam of energy that could saw off a bush that is not exactly close to you, without entirely destroying the bush in the process,” I asked Kamora.

“Yes Alex, not all of our enemies were always up close to us. We have larger Blizuns for uses like that, similar to your rifles, just for this purposes like that. Even though our hand held Blizuns can accomplish the same shots, just like your hand guns, depending on the targets location and distance to said location,” Queen Kamora said.

“Well ladies, I need you to cut down all of that dense brush over our caves without destroying as much of the brush as possible, our new friends will be needing all of that brush for nesting purposes. These two are not the only birds that will be taking up residence up there, as I am sure once the caves are exposed more of these sharp eyed creatures will be moving in as well.”

After the shock of what I had just said wore off, Athena and Tarna took two of their rifle Blizuns, and went to work. In less than thirty minutes these two ladies had cut down all of the brush covering the ten obviously man made caves. Instead of each woman targeting a bush, each woman using the rifle type Blizuns that were fitting with some type of scope. One lady would put a tractor beam on the bush while the other woman cut the bush loose, to be carried to the ground by the woman holding the bush with her tractor beam. While all that brush clearing was going on, Malla was making new friends with both the giant birds and the wolves, her childlike mind seemed to actually have no fear of the giant birds, or any of the wolves. Hell, I was scared enough for her all by myself, and by the look on Malta’s face her feelings about her Malla’s desire to make new friends with all of the big birds was really just about the same, as mine.

After taking the handouts from Malla, the birds lifted off with more than a few screeches of pain, they flew into the first cave before coming back out to check out the other nine caves by walking on a ledge located in front on all ten very large caves. “Malla, why did you walk up to those birds like that, they could have hurt you very badly, or even killed you?” I asked.

“With Leo and his family close by not much could have happened to me.” Malla said.

“Malla, those birds are capable of carrying you away before Leo could save you from either of those birds. But worse than that, they could harm you permanently; we need to get to know them before we just treat them like family.” I said.

“When you brought Leo home you didn’t know him any longer, but you threatened to kill anybody causing them harm.” Malla said.

“I ... I ... I...” I stammered as Malla was so right. I walked off blushing, as I was so lost in thought as I knew that I was guilty of being prejudiced of the birds, over the big cats. The same cats that could actually maim or kill any of us much faster than the birds could, or would.

After being humbled by a young lady with a child-like mind I was at loose ends. I went to clean up my truck and trailer so that I could park them; Challa was already hard at work cleaning up her rig. I spent the next hour or so making my truck look like showroom new, again, but that was mainly just busy work. I ended up sitting in the driver’s seat taking a nap, not realizing that I was sleepy, at all.

“Alex, most of your new flocks will begin arriving after dark, and in the morning. As I told you before, they will sort themselves out for the most part, you were right to be concerned as some these birds that are incoming are more wild or feral, namely the vulture type birds, that will not need to interact with your camp as these vulture types will be strongly encouraged to not bother your camp in any way, but as they are hunters and your camp does butcher meat outdoors, and that will get their attention. Though the eagle type birds are to protect this camp at all costs, as protecting this camp is helping to both protect them and their young, as well.

Nothing happened over the course of a few weeks, all of the brush was taken along with brush that found itself there by orders from somebody other than me. I could not believe my truck became the drop off sight for the fish the birds delivered after a few days. I personally built a large square bin, put some fish from my truck in the bin, and covered up my pickup bed. Challa’s truck was not used by any of the birds. As she kept tools of some kind in her truck, all of the time, but they caught on where to drop off the fish, quickly enough though. And next to it was an equal sized bin that found different meats dropped inside by those butchering meat that was visited by the different bird groups. The bone bin seemed to have a steady stream of visitors to enjoy those treats as well, though Leo and his group still had first choice. The Wolf clan got a quickly built smaller box of their own to keep the peace in the cave, and pups being pups still did not follow any set rules. But then we had seen this dance before, though, and all pups from the wolves and the cats made up their own rules, as well as a little harmless trouble to get into. The older pups taught them the ropes so well, that the mama wolves had to go round up the Wolf pups each night. But the creepy thing happening when different types of owls showed up both big and small sizes, and more caves seemed to appear above us quietly, too.

For the next few weeks or so the camp began to settle down from all of the different birds joining our camp, so I just knew a shoe was hanging around to fall in a pile of stinking gooey shit in the middle of our camp. “HELP! HELP! HELP!” Freaka was running at full speed with others following her running efforts. “SNUKA! SNUKA! BIG SNUKA!” Freaka was shouting over and over along with her companions. As scared as these women were, along with the faces of everyone who understood her, this did not sound good at all.

“What the hell is a Snuka?” I asked.

Challa just ran up and said “A Snuka is what you know as a snake like a Python, or an Anaconda, and yes they get really big, around these parts.” Challa’s truck was the closest, so we all jumped into that truck, though Freaka was a willing rider as she pointed out the way back to the scene of the crime. I thought the damn birds were scary to see, damn all that shit to hell! Just seeing that very large snake I was scared enough to truly want to be anywhere else, but here, right now!

When we arrived we saw Train off to the side, not looking well. But the main scene was not one or two, but three large eagles wrestling with a forty foot snake that looked as though his head was three feet wide! These four creatures were locked into a life and death struggle, as that damn snake was indeed very pissed off! The snake was both too heavy and too muscular for the three birds to kill him without some more winged reinforcements. I jumped out of the truck and commenced to shooting the snake. “Bollo, grab that axe I saw, the snake is now dead!” I shouted, while I was still on the move, and shooting the snake. Bollo brought me the axe and I began trying to chop the snake into manageable lengths the birds could carry. Now that the snake is dead, birds were coming from everywhere. After three pitiful efforts Bollo walked up to me and said. “You swing that axe like a little girl!” Bollo said. Then he proceeded to show me that he was much better at using an axe that I ever was. After he threw the first chunk with the axe, all of the birds calmly waited for a piece of the snake that wished he had passed up on the meal that had become his eventual undoing.

While Bollo was working on the big snake, Challa, and I loaded Train into the back of the truck, as he was in bad shape. Though I was confident that Gazoo’s people could fix Train up good as new. When we got back to camp, I backed Challa’s into the truck into the horse cave so that Bollo and I could get Train laid out in the cats’ area of the cave. Train’s breathing was still a labor intensive effort. I was trying to figure out who was fussing over Train the most, Cleo or Malla? When Malla and Cleo ended up nose to nose, I had to drag Malla away, while Leo was putting out a low rumble as he nudged Cleo gently away from Train.

I went to my cave to take a shower and ended up holding a crying Malla when we lay down after we had showered. Most of the time Malla moves in her own little world, and was fiercely loyal to all of the animals that reside in our camp. Cleo may have attacked just about anybody else, other than me, about one of her babies. Though Malla was known to nap with all of the cats, within a few days of their arrival, and a bond of trust had been formed, between Malla and all of the cats. To Malla’s way of thinking the birds were no different, other than she had yet to make any real friends among their mighty ranks. I don’t mean Malla is harmless, as she is not, with Athena and Tarna teaching Malla how to defend herself.

With winter just around the corner the two frozen caves were nearly full, so our continued hunting was as much for our actual daily needs with the overflow going into the frozen caves. Our grass clearing crews were going out farther away from camp to cut the lush overgrown grass, with camp guards and a few Asorians to keep any and all predators’ interests in our grass cutting work to a minimum. Even I willingly took a turn in guarding our people so our horses will have plenty of grass for their winter feeding. (Plus Gazoo’s many helpers will be adding to the piles, to ensure that the piles of grass we make lasted all winter, and is completely dried out, also.) Though the best guards are actually the horses themselves, as they either hear, or smell trouble long before any of us ever know that trouble is nearby.

Now my biggest problem, right now, was inventing the next reason for a big party. The old I want to use the grills has been both overdone, and if you add in the fact the womenfolk got their own grills, that none of menfolk, save a few, were welcome to use. These same men were also welcome to take part in the gossip sessions them women could get going on, while they were cooking, that we ‘REAL’ men are not welcome to know anything about. My problem is that the men were getting restless for some bruga, and as their leader I know the signs of disharmony. And the women will soon be in my face if I don’t get a party in the works soon. Just one of the many problems of being the big hands ass, and keeping the flow of goodwill alive and well in our camp.

The meat crew was having trouble with the scavenger birds that were not quite trained yet to not help out, their training was painful swats to their heads, but it is comical to watch the fight when a bone is thrown near them. As they have now learned, bones thrown on the ground in a certain spot was up for grabs. And you best believe every bone that hits the ground had more than one bird showing interest in leaving the area, with that bone. Many times two birds get to fighting over a bone, while a third bird makes off with the bone that the first two birds were fighting each other about, while the birds of prey took the easier route, and got their meat from the meat bin. Though many of them still hunted, and wanted nothing to do with any of us humans, except for Malla, as the feathers had flown, and a few injuries later, it went through the entire bird community that Malla was not to be harmed in anyway, at all! The meat crew was not to be touched, as the scavenger wing of the outfit wanted nothing to slow down the flow of fresh bones with the extra meat still on the bones that were being handed out.

Though it took Malla a while to get them to return their bones to the bin like the other birds, as this was an unnatural action for them. Unlike most of the other birds that were friends with Malla and wanted to please her, the scavengers had to be worked with to get with the program as many groups were waiting on the bones for a variety of different reasons. Namely the big cats; as Leo was not known for too much patience, and was given a choice piece if he showed up before some samples were delivered to the horse cave. While the furniture crew, the men who liked to carve figures from bones, would turn their bone scrap to the jewelry girls, who would sort what they wanted then give the rest to the furniture bunch. But that was after the animals had cleaned them of 90% or more, of any of the meat that was on the bone from the meat crew’s work, that was now long gone. After a few of the scavenger birds became a hot very fresh meal, they lost interest in venturing into the horse cave, period!

It took a few days for Train to limp out of the horse cave and lay to soak up the sun during the heat of the day, before heading into my cave to spend the night with Malla. Cleo was ok once she knew where Train was, as Cleo knew Malla damn near cared as much for Train as she did.

Them damn birds almost started a human stampede when they dropped one of those large snakes in the middle of our camp. Queen Kamora stunned the damn snake and the tree cutters made short work of the poor creature after it was skinned, as some of the leather workers damn near came to blows about the very large snake skin. In a little more than a half an hour since the poor doomed snake hit the ground; it was quickly stunned, killed, skinned, dismembered, and served as dinner throughout the big bird community. The leather workers decided they needed to work together and loosely followed the big birds, as they seemed to hunt only during the heat of the day. They would later find the birds worked together on the bigger prizes. And after the birds saw the humans with the knives, and axes hanging around, to help the birds with the kills, plus the humans would cut up the heavy snakes, after they skinned them into sizes for easy winged transport. So everyone involved at the killing scene for the most part got something that they wanted, from the poor doomed snakes.

Shortly after all of the big birds arrived; the normal sized birds of prey also came along to begin nesting in the trees all around our camp. All of these birds had much less interaction with our camp. Though I did build some real crude stands large enough for them to become nesting sites, and some of them were used in that fashion. While others just became favorite perches to view the humans running around in circles. The bigger birds let it be known that Malla and the humans working with the meat were not to be disturbed, or harmed, the smaller birds came to understand if they did not behave themselves, that they would no longer be welcome around here! And once they saw Malla grooming one of the larger birds, the younger smaller birds took to following Malla around like pets. Some of them wanted to move into my cave just to be near Malla. All I could say is that to me all of this bird business had officially gotten out of hand.

“How come I have not heard anything about all of these snakes before now?” I asked Malta. “Because you are nowhere near a water source where prey animals congregate to drink or feed. Our camp has its own water source, and while what you did you call it, ah yes, indoor plumbing? The indoor plumbing may have been just one of the main selling points of moving in your camp once we were here and not having to smell a bush or a trench, or filling in that trench, or having to dig a new trench. Before you came along, none of us had ever taken a bath in warm water before. And not having to risk life and limb just to get a drink of water is the real reason nobody will step out of line to ever get thrown out of this camp. Snakes are not the only danger around any water source; you just imagine what other predators might just show up while we are near the water or bathing in it. So it is a known fact we never go near any water source alone, safety in numbers kind of thing. Plus you have both seen us hunt, and have hunted with us, and know we needed plenty of hunters to get that job done.” Malta said.

“Malta, do you think that you and your girls could throw a BBQ together for tomorrow night to ease some of the recent tensions that have been building up around here? Plus we are about due as everybody is spoiled to want a big to do often, and we have not had one in a few weeks, and with our newest camp members and those snakes they keep finding, having a party is reason enough to put a smile on everybody’s faces. I have noticed some new couples trying to court on the sly, too. So a party could help the lucky couples in their courting.” I said.

“Alex, just say you want to have a party rather than using all of those extra words to say the same thing.” Malta said, while laughing at me as she walked away.

Within a few minutes it was all over the womenfolk’s grapevine, and the smiles, giggles, or outright laughter went on all damn day. By the end of the day the guys were giving me all of the grief that I didn’t want to hear, by the way. From what they heard, I was babbling like a little school girl about wanting to have a party. “Do you need some help either making the bruga or tasting the final product, to be sure it was up to my usual high standards,” Bollo said, keeping a straight face while he discussed the bruga. Bollo was not the only man willing to volunteer their services where the bruga was concerned. One hard look and they all knew that I wasn’t looking for any helpers.

I got up the next morning to see the sun had broken the horizon as I jumped in my truck to go and get some meat for tonight’s BBQ. I used to have to drive over a few miles to get to the meat market, but now I am driving nearly three hours to find the same meat market. I mean three hours by truck not on foot, you have to think I am days away from my camp if I had actually walked this far just to hunt. So I wasn’t all that shocked to see a camp I had not seen before hunting. I did not recognize anyone, and thanks to Gazoo and his associates I have a photographic memory, so I would remember if I had seen any of these people before. I stayed away until they had managed to make their kill, a young bison. Looking around as always, I spotted some cave lions that could become an issue for the hunting party if left to their own way of thinking. I took my Sharps rifle, my weapon of choice to hunt with today, and put down a large male about 15 feet from where the lions were crouched down in the long grass. The loud thunder did not very the hunting party of lions that were busy investigating the Bison male that fell down so suddenly.

Needless to say, when the cave lions quickly figured out the Bison was not trying move, so they did what predators usually do, they commenced to begin feeding on the now dead Bison. Meanwhile the hunting party was working on their kill as well. I took down five adults before the herd became a little bit nervous, a few minutes later four kills had the herd moving away from the downed adults. I was loading the last volunteered Bison that was headed for my camp when the hunting party stopped wide-eyed at not only seeing nine dead Bison pile onto my trailer, but the truck and the trailer also had them spellbound too. This reaction confirmed that fact that none of us had ever crossed paths before.