Chapter 10

While I really wanted to go and find the Horse People and trade with them for a horse or three, I had other responsibilities that I just couldn’t put off. We’d finished most of our major work projects and we’d started bringing in food that could be stored away for winter. But, on that point, we still had a lot to do. My women wanted me to bring in more meat, and my two craftsmen needed supplies such as flint and other materials. In response I planned another trip back towards the village and the lake area lying below it.

The area where we were heading was the far end of the lake. It was where the mountain streams came down and filled the lake with fresh water from the distant glaciers. It was also where the water had exposed a deposit of limestone that was riddled with nodules of flint. I wanted some of both. I wanted the flint for Uttar and his stone knapping and I wanted the limestone for future projects. I knew that lime was an ingredient in cement. With a little playing and experimenting, I was hoping to make some for my own use. I could see where it would come in handy in future construction projects. While living in the cave was fun, if I was stuck here for the rest of my life, I was going to move into something a little more upscale. I had the tools to build a farmhouse and all the associated building that would go with it. Cement would make building a foundation that much easier.

I was also going to the end of the valley for bears. Rugar and the other men had told me that the slopes in that area were known for their ground fruit and the fruit attracted bears. Supposedly there were patches of blueberries and wild strawberries dotting the slopes. There were also thickets of blackberries, raspberries, and currants. In a manner of speaking, we’d be solving two problems at once going there and hunting. We’d get the meat we needed for the long winter, and we’d get the fruit to help vary our diet. I saw no problem with that.

The men did. The bears grew big in these parts. I didn’t know whether they were cave bears or just your common run-of-a-mill European brown bear. To me, it didn’t matter. To the men it did. While they’d gained confidence using the bows against the local wildlife that we’d encountered near our cave, no one ... and that included me ... knew if a bow would take down a bear. Of course I had my equalizer and I could use that to bag the beastie. I was certain that a .50 calibre round would stop even the biggest, meanest bear in this region, if I hit it just right. The men had some doubts, though.

Even so, those doubts did not stop the trip to the far end of the lake. In fact, everyone was looking forward to it, especially Clara and Gabby. They were both getting tired of the domestic life of a cave woman. They wanted to get out and do something other than dig for roots and cook three meals a day for the men. I really couldn’t blame them.

It was at this point I learned that I really hadn’t been paying too much attention to my people. It turned out that while they were accepting about a lot of things that Clara, Gabby, and I took for granted, the locals still had questions and doubts about some of them, and they’d been asking them behind my back. Clara and Gabby told me that for the most part the women had been at the forefront of speaking up and inquiring about stuff that bothered both them and the men in the cave.

For the most part the women simply wanted to know where we had gotten something, or how we could get more. The storage containers were one item they asked about. The containers were plastic and sealable and they could be made air tight to help preserve the contents in them. When we emptied one through consuming the contents of it, the empty container got recycled to store tubers that the women had gathered for the winter. Clara and Gabby had to spend an hour explaining what it was made of, where it had come from, and why we couldn’t get more. The same went for items that were used every day such as the pots and pans. Yes they were cooking containers and the women recognized that fact and accepted it. But they also recognized how good they were compared to what they normally used, and they wanted more. They wanted to know where metal came from and how we could find more metal to make more pots and pans for the women, and metal knives and tools for the men. It seemed that whatever the women learned they passed on to the men.

The men did ask me a few questions but not that many. The big question was about my bow and about the bows I was making for the men. While my bow wasn’t a state of the art bow of the 21st century, it was certainly better than the bows I was carving out of wood for the men. They wanted to know where they could get a bow like mine. I told them they couldn’t because it had been made by an expert bow maker of my village who had now passed on. It was a little white lie, but it was the best I could come up with. I also pointed out that my village was months away from the valley and going there to find a bow maker more skilled than I was would take them far from their home. That was true and in the end it placated them.

The men still had other questions and I did answer some of them. I’d let Gort look through the scope of my weapon. In the excitement of rescuing his mother, that experience had been forgotten. However, I had continued using the scope to spot game for us to hunt and to make certain there weren’t any predators stalking us. I’d let the men take a look. To them it was magic. I did try my best to explain the principle of optics to them, but still it didn’t help. In the end I had to concede that there were some thing’s that I couldn’t explain away to these people without tearing something apart to show them how it was made. I for one wasn’t going to do that to the few pieces of high tech equipment I used. That included my watch with an alarm built into it and an illuminated face and the solar powered lanterns. For now they stayed in the realm of being magical.

Being magical meant hands off to the people living with us. I’d put two tree trunks into the cave to act as posts to hang the lanterns from at nighttime, to help distribute the light better. Basically I’d cut two six inch diameter posts and I put one on each side of my sleeping area, jamming the top into the ceiling of the cave and the bottom into the dirt that covered the floor. It worked. I used them for the lanterns and I used them for hanging clothing, also.

I quickly learned that the people didn’t go near the lanterns to either turn them on or turn them off. They left that job to Clara, Gabby, or me. Clara told me that the locals wouldn’t touch them because they were sacred lights, and in their eyes, we were the keepers of the light. The same went with our flashlights. I found that trying to dissuade the belief was futile.

It also explained why the men didn’t challenge me on a lot of things, instead relying on the women to find answers to their questions. It turned out that not only was I the keeper of the light, but I was also the taker of life. Killing Hagar with the big rifle from a distance had put me up there in the eyes of the villagers as having access to powerful spirits. It didn’t matter that I hunted mostly with my bow and not my carbine or rifle. To them I could reach out and kill a man without even touching him and that made me both dangerous and powerful.

It definitely gave me something to think about.

We headed out three days after the smokehouse was finished. We ‘test drove’ it and smoked a small doe that Rugar went out and killed for us. The smoker worked like a charm. We had a very tasty treat. I was glad about that. If we did get bear on this expedition, I’d be sending someone back with it in a hurry, to plop it in the smoker, and to get it preserved for the winter. I’d eaten bear, before ... it had been a long time ago in my childhood, served up roasted with potatoes and vegetables on my grandparents’ farm ... and I was looking forward to tasting it again.

We loaded both sleds with what we needed to take along on the trek. The weather was great and the locals assured me it would stay great for the next couple of months. By now we were in August, according to my calculations. It was getting very warm. Hell, the river water was actually beginning to feel good when I went for my nightly bath. I knew it wouldn’t last long, but for now I was enjoying it.

We also took the travois that we’d taken from the village when we left. For the most part they were dragged empty on our trip east. Most of the gear went on the sleds. There was very little left to be dragged on the travois. Every once in a while, one of the little girls would catch a ride on an empty travois, but that was essentially it. It would be another story altogether coming back. Then we might even have to build a couple of extra travois just to carry everything!

We maintained a good pace heading back up the valley. With less weight to pull and people feeling fitter after over a month of better eating, better sleeping, and better living conditions; there was no reason to drag our feet. We didn’t even hunt during that portion of the trek. We simply ate meals made from food we’d brought with us. It made our days go by quickly, and it made evenings more enjoyable for everyone, including the women.

We spent the third night at the point where the lake emptied into the river. The reed bed was extensive and I took the time to explore it. I was interested in the game birds in the area. More importantly I was interested in adding either duck eggs or goose eggs to our diet. If it was possible, I hoped to capture a few ducks or geese and take them back to the enclosure. I had no idea how many eggs the birds in this area laid in a year; however, even getting a handful once in a while to scramble up and add to our diet would be a plus.

In a way I wished I’d paid more attention when I was a kid to what my grandparents did down on the farm. I did visit them every summer, but beyond doing a few odd chores, saddling and riding a horse, and going out walking the land with my grandfather on occasion; I’d really not bothered learning much more than how to milk a cow, and shovel shit. I knew they kept birds, including ducks; but what they were, and how they took care of them didn’t come to mind while I strolled about the shoreline poking my nose into the reeds and seeing what I could see. What I saw was mostly empty nests. It was while I poking about that our group received some visitors from the village.

We hadn’t made an attempt to hide our presence in the area once we’d gotten down by the shoreline and we’d set up for the night. Ramie and the other women set up a fire pit on the beach while I was out doing my thing and Clara and Gabby went for a swim and to do some exploring on their own. Clara was hoping to find some fresh water molluscs, while the kids played at the waters edge and the men stood guard against any roaming predators. It was therefore a bit surprising to hear Rugar call out to get my attention. When he finally caught my eye, he pointed in the direction of the village. When I looked I saw two runners coming, slowly jogging towards us carrying spears.

They were still a bit off when I noticed them, so I had time to alert Clara and Gabby and then go and pick up my bow from where I had left it. I was packing my sidearm and my carbine, but for the most part I preferred confronting these people armed with the bow. In that way, the locals could understand the concept. They’d seen me demonstrate it to Uttar and Vedic when I recruited them over a month ago and would recognize it as a weapon. They still had no idea what a carbine could do, and deep down I was hoping to keep it that way.

The two runners turned out to be Durt and another man that I recognized, but I didn’t recall his name. They came to a halt just out of spear range from where my people were formed up, spread out defensively between the head of the men and our women and children. They were, however, well within bow and arrow range.

“What are you doing here?” Durt demanded to know, without any pretence of friendliness or civility.

I looked at him sternly and sighed. To my surprise the man actually took a pace back. It spoke volumes of what he thought of me. I didn’t keep him waiting long. Once I noted the tension in his face and that of his companion, I gave him an answer.

“We’re camping the night here, Durt,” I stated bluntly, surprising him that I remembered his name. “Then we will be moving on towards the other end of the lake.”

That gave Durt a moment of pause. You could see him thinking about what I said. He automatically looked in the direction that I had indicated we were going. Then he glanced over his shoulder at the hilltop village. In the interim, his companion was getting restless. I could see that he didn’t want to be here, and from the look of it he was getting ready to turn about and head back even if Durt wasn’t done speaking to me. The man only settled when Durt turned his attention to me again and spoke.

“Why do you go that way?” Durt asked with a confused look on his face. “Your cave is in the other direction.”

“We are going hunting for bear,” I replied enthusiastically, flashing both men a broad smile as I did. “Do you want to come along with us?”

My reply and my question startled Durt. It startled his companion as well. His companion took a pace backwards, cautiously edging away from me. Both men stared at me with gaping mouths and looks of disbelief on their faces. It took Durt a minute before he recovered. When he did, he turned his questions towards Rugar who was standing on my right.

“Rugar, tell me the truth,” Durt demanded anxiously. “Why are you going that way? Are you really going to hunt bears?”

“Yes,” Rugar smiled in reply. “We are going to hunt bears to feed us well throughout the winter. Jake has decided this, and he is leader. Do you want to come along and join us? It should be fun.”

It obviously didn’t sound like fun to Durt or his companion. His companion wanted to leave, and he told Durt that. I actually think the man thought us mad. He might have been right. I still hadn’t seen one of these bears yet, though I had seen two skins of kills that had been made a long time ago by very lucky hunters. The skins lay under my bed back in the cave. They were huge.

I didn’t keep Durt. I did however delay his retreat for a few minutes; just long enough for Keya to show off her new son, so that Durt could deliver the good news to her father and mother who still lived in the village. Durt promised he would tell them. Then he and his companion were off, heading back towards the hill and the village on top of it. I just shook my head as they went.

“Is it really that crazy of an idea to go hunting bear, deliberately?” I asked Rugar, before turning back to the lakeshore and what I had been doing.

“It most certainly is,” Rugar declared ruefully, “and I would not be here if I did not believe you could do it. We must be careful. The closer we get to those hills and the patches of berries, the more dangerous it will get.”

I didn’t argue with the man on that point. I imagined that he was right and I took his warning to heart. It was a rough world where the two women and I had ended up, and taking it lightly wasn’t a smart thing to do; but, I was confident that I could bag us some bears. I just had to be careful about it. For now, though, I put the thought out of my mind. I had something else I wanted to do. I put my bow and quiver back into the sled and then I started rooting about for what I needed to find. A minute later I found the fishing net that I had been given by Kim. I planned to do some fishing; the old fashioned way. With luck I’d catch enough for supper. We could only hope.

The trek around the far side of the lake took a day. Much of that time was spent fording creeks that came down off the high sloping hills and were just meandering along. We were, after all, in no hurry. It was also my first time in the region. I wanted to see it all, as did Clara and Gabby. All three of us were curious about where we were, and what the land was like.

We’d been lucky the night before. I’d been able to catch four lake trout in my endeavour to fish, while Clara and Gabby had found some freshwater clams up the shore from where we’d camped. With some roots collected from the marshlands, we had made a fish soup for supper that night. We’d made enough that there was plenty for our lunch the next day. That was a good thing, because our supplies from the cave were running low and we’d need to hunt, soon.

We pitched our camp at mid-afternoon, on a rise over looking the head of the lake. It was a good thirty yards from the waters edge. It was reasonably flat and was sheltered by a tree covered slope that started about fifty feet back from the edge of the rise. I left the women to settle us in and I took a look around. In particular I checked the immediate area for any sign of wildlife. Fortunately, I didn’t spot anything larger than a squirrel or a rabbit print, even when I wandered along the edge of the tree-line. I hoped it would stay that way for our stay. Regardless of what I saw or didn’t see, while we were out in the open we would post a guard. I already had Clara and Gabby toting their survival weapons about with them. When the men were off hunting, those weapons would become the women’s first line of defence. They knew it and took the job seriously. Each of them had cleaned and reloaded their weapons prior to the trip.

Once I’d checked out the campsite, I took a walk over towards the stream that fed the lake. It was awe inspiring. It couldn’t be any more than three feet wide, but it looked more like a waterfall than a stream. It came down a seventy degree grade, plummeting the last hundred feet or so into a narrow, limestone gorge that stood back from the head of the lake by about a hundred yards. The stream must have cut the gorge out over thousands of years. It was here that Uttar would probably look for his flint. I was suitably impressed. Then I looked up the grade towards the heights above. I could see where other streams ran into the main flow. The hill just kept going up. Then it vanished into the trees. That tree-line hid everything behind it except for the distant mountain range and the glacier toping it that fed the stream. All I could think of was ‘wow’.

“Impressive, isn’t it,” Clara muttered softly as she walked up beside me and she took a look. There was reverence in her voice. “I wonder what mountain range it is.”

“Well,” I mused in reply, putting an arm about Clara’s waist and pulling her into me. “If we’re where Quantum said we’d be, then we’re somewhere in Central Europe, north of Hungry and well west of the Black Sea. They could be the Carpathians or maybe even part of the Austrian Alps. It all depends on our exact location and whether we even ended up where Quantum said they were sending us. I still suspect we’re not actually in our past.”

“Well, I do think we’re in Europe, regardless of anything else,” Clara pointed out. “The people, the terrain, and the flora and fauna ... they all scream Europe more than anywhere else.”

“True,” I replied thoughtfully, “and yes the falls are indeed impressive.”

I left Gort and Tabor behind on this hunting trip. The two boys weren’t happy about it, but I pointed out very bluntly that protecting the women and our camp was just as important as fetching dinner. Neither kid could argue with me on the point, especially since I pointed out that we were in unfamiliar territory and anything could happen. I did promise them that we could run snares tonight after I got back, whether or not we brought home something to eat. It would be good to have a little variety on hand.

That left me and the three men heading off into the woods. We took it slow. Both Uttar and Vedic were having issues hauling themselves up the hill. Out on the flat valley floor they usually had no problems keeping up with us whenever we jogged after a herd, but here on the steep slope and in amongst the trees, they were having difficulties. I made certain that they got regular breathers every once in a while, and that Rugar and I didn’t range too far ahead of them. Besides, taking it easy allowed me to scour the terrain for sign. Finding sign on the steep slope opposite our camp proved hard. At least, it did until we crested a rise and found ourselves looking down a long, forested slope, running up to a hill. That slope was covered in a meadow and even from where we were standing, without the aid of my rifle’s scope, I could see deer. There were at least a dozen of them out there grazing in peace and serenity. They were just waiting to be picked off. Now the question was, could we get down there and close enough to pick them off.

Again I led the way. The trek down the back slope was easier than going up had been. The grade wasn’t as steep and the incline was at least three times the distance than the one we’d had to climb from our campsite. It still was rough on Uttar and Vedic. Both men were panting a lot and sweating up a storm. Hell, I was sweating as well. It was late afternoon in August. It might be approaching suppertime and the onset of evening, but it was still damned hot out. I continued giving the men chances to rest and to drink. When I did, I would slip ahead to scout out the next hundred yards or so in the hopes of finding a way to the meadow that wouldn’t spook the deer.