Chapter 8

Our trek back to the cave took us four and a half days of walking. The main reason it took so long, was the fact that I wanted to do some sightseeing. I picked a route that took us down towards the lake, before swinging west. I wanted to get a good look at the lay of the land in this region.

Before leaving, I’d held a short council with the men of the village and the shaman. Many were concerned that I was leaving them without a leader. I didn’t care too much about that, given that we were leaving; however, I wasn’t a stupid man. I knew that leaving behind a power vacuum would only lead to trouble in the future, both for the villagers and for me. I called Rugar, Uttar, and Vedic into my corner during the discussion, in an attempt to find out if there was anyone left in the village that could be trusted to lead the villagers wisely and effectively. Once I had a name I asked the person if he was interested in being the leader for a year. I think that aspect of the deal threw the men more than the name that was put forward. Naturally I had to explain what I wanted to happen.

“Listen to me and understand,” I said standing at the head of the gathering and glaring intently at those who were arrayed about me. “What I ask is necessary for the village, if peace is to be maintained and if everyone here is to survive the coming year. Hagar is dead. He died because he was wrong for this village. He did not become chief of the village honourably. The man who will replace him must mend the bad feelings between those who suffered under Hagar, and those who let them suffer. Consider this man to be a temporary chief. He will lead you through the year, and into the next summer. Hopefully, the village will put aside what Hagar did, and all that happened because of the way he ruled, and the village can move on. If so, you men may either chose to keep the temporary chief as your permanent leader; or, if you are not satisfied, you may pick a new man and do so honourably and without violence or death. It would be for the best.”

The villagers agreed with me; not because they understood what I was saying or that they felt it was a good idea. I saw that right away, as they discussed the matter between them. The man I had put forward was an older man. His name was Golan. Supposedly he was a good hunter. Some people respected him, though some people didn’t. It only took the villagers five minutes to agree on him. It was the speed in which the decision was made. The villagers wanted me gone, so they could get back to living in peace. Since they’d seen me kill without hesitation, none wanted to challenge me. That was fine as far as I was concerned. It still didn’t get me out of their hair. I was waiting for the packing to finish, so I was using the time productively.

I was gathering intelligence, and I figured these people would be a good source of it. I’d speak to those going with me later on and confirm what was told to me. I’d speak particularly with the women. I figured they would tell me the truth. I learned that the village was the only group of people in the valley. I found out that the villagers sometimes traded with a group of people who lived on the plateau towards the south. The villagers called that band the ‘Horse People’. That piece of information piqued my interest, the moment they mentioned it. According to Vedic the ‘Horse People’ raised horses for food, for a strong drink, and for the hair of their tails. Vedic admitted that he often traded whatever he could for the horse hair, so he could make the string that the villagers used. When I asked if the Horse People rode the horses, everyone one looked at me in surprise.

The talk of the horse people brought up the question of trade and resources. At the moment my people had very little to trade beyond game which was something I could provide readily, but it was also something that the villagers could provide for themselves without our help. Eventually this reality would change. I had full intentions of keeping my people very busy this winter teaching them new skills and capabilities. If I was very lucky we would be able to nurture a burgeoning cottage industry down in our cave. It helped me that Uttar and Vedic was going to be living with us, thus it behooved me to talk to the villagers, and learn what I could learn about their needs, and more importantly what the Horse People needed in the way of trade goods. What I came away with in my discussions was less than satisfying.

I should have expected what I learned, given what Jenkins had told everyone in his lectures back at Quantum. Most of the people in the village ... and in the group called the Horse People ... were self-sufficient. It was rare that they needed something that someone else had, because normally they could either get it themselves or make it. It was only in the rarest of cases that they would trade for something, such as when Vedic wanted horse hair for his string. He would often trade flint to the man he dealt with as that man liked working in flint and the Horse People didn’t have a ready supply. I just nodded my understanding of that, and let the matter go. By that time everything was packed and it was time to go.

The other reason that we took so long getting back to the cave, was the load we were hauling. It seemed to me that Ramie had taken my word literally. She and the other women had stripped their huts of everything that had been in them. If Ramie could have, she would have disassembled the headman’s hut and she would have taken it with her. She couldn’t, but it didn’t keep the other women from stripping the skins off of their huts to bring with us for whatever use could be made of them. I got the impression that they really didn’t care if they were simply used as floor mats or something like that so long as the villagers didn’t get to use the huts for themselves. In any case it made for a very heavy load.

What made matters worse was the fact that men didn’t haul travois. Women did the pulling, while the men stood guard and protected them. In principle I had no problem with the concept of men doing one job and women doing another. The men were qualified to protect the group, while the women weren’t. My problem arose because people got in my face over me pulling my sled. That I didn’t like at all!

The grumbling started just outside the gate to the village. Still no one really opened their mouth and said anything until we’d trudged down the long, steep grade that lead up from the valley to the village. It was at that point that the men started to fan out about the group to act as guards while the group moved off across the valley floor. To my surprise Ramie and Catta came up and said that they would take over pulling for me so I could stand guard as well.

I told them no in response to their kind offer. I was polite about it, but I was also firm. I pointed out that Clara and Gabby could stand watch for me and as far as I was concerned Gort was my eyes on this trek back to the cave. I explained that I trusted Gort. He would range ahead of us, looking for trouble. If he found it, he would come back and let me know. Then I would deal with it. In a manner of speaking it made Ramie proud that her son was trusted by me in such a way. Unfortunately it didn’t put an end to the grumblings.

It took us an hour to walk one mile. Once we hit the lake we took a break. The women rested. The men stood around looking like guards. I took a walk along the shoreline. I walked it armed with my bow and quiver of arrows, and my automatic on my hip.

The lake was a long finger of water. It looked to be roughly a mile and a half long and half a mile wide. The waters were dark and windswept. Most of the landscape about it was open land. There were clumps of trees and a few rocks lining the banks, but not many. The only spot heavily overgrown, was near the spot where the lake fed into the river. Here the land rose slightly, impeding the outflow of the lake. It was marshy and covered in reeds, cattails, and all sorts of other plants that flourished in that kind of an environment. It looked very promising to me.

“Do you get birds in the water?” I asked Rugar who was standing nearby watching me. I had asked about ducks but these people didn’t have a word for that. It took a couple of seconds for the two of us to find a common word to use. The answer turned out to be yes. I noted that and added it to my mental list of things I intended to do in the coming weeks. I wouldn’t mind trying a little duck hunting. I just wondered how I would do it, without using shotgun shells.

“You should be guarding,” Rugar stated once we’d worked out that there were ducks here about. “You’re women should pull the sled.”

“My women are pulling travois and my women are standing guard,” I told the man coldly. “You saw with your own eyes what my woman can do to a man who comes to steal a child away from us. Do you think she would not do the same if a wolf came and tried to hurt us? If you do then you would be wrong.”

“You should still be guarding,” Rugar told me adamantly. “It is a man’s job to guard, not a woman’s.”

“Perhaps in your village it is that way, but it is not in mine,” I replied firmly. “I have started teaching Unna to hunt. She has laid snares in the woods and her snares have fed my people in our journey to your village. One day when she is bigger I will make a weapon for her and I will teach her to use it. Before that time I will teach the other women to protect themselves when no man will do it for them.”

That comment rankled Rugar to the bone. He wasn’t stupid and he knew exactly what I meant when I had told him about training the women. The thing was that he was in no place to say a word about it. All he could do was to bite back his anger and frustration that he felt towards me, and to try once more to convince me that I should be guarding the group not pulling a sled. I simply shook my head and sighed.

“I will pull the sled,” I told Rugar, “and Gort will range ahead of us as my eyes. If there is a threat he will tell me about it. Then I will deal with it. Trust me, Rugar. I know what I’m doing.”

“Gort is a boy, and not a hunter,” Rugar pointed out in protest. “You are a man. You should be out looking for trouble and not him. That is your place. Pulling sleds is a woman’s job, not yours.”

“You are wrong, Rugar, on both counts,” I told him, shaking my head with fatigue. “Gort is a man. You have seen the claws and the teeth of a cave lion about his neck. Gort killed that lion with my spear. He hunts with me. When we both faced the lions together, he saved my life. Now let the matter lie.”

I left Rugar thinking about what I’d said to him and got people up and moving again. What I had told him about Gort had left him speechless. He didn’t know what to say. It still didn’t put an end to the grumblings. The pack of hyenas did.

It was late afternoon and we were well past the lake, heading towards a ford that would take us across the river and onto our side of it. There was a cave nearby on that side of the river, that the hunters often used for overnight sheltering. Rugar had told me about it. It was large enough to allow us all to sleep inside for the night. I had no problems with that plan, so that was the direction we were headed. We still had at least another hour of walking to do.

It was about that time that the question of supper popped up. Clara pointed out that it would be good to have some fresh meat to add to whatever the locals had packed away on the sled, and on the travois. I looked at the sky about then, and noted that there was still plenty of sunlight left. We could still make the ford and then the cave before going hunting. Clara felt differently.

“It would look better if you had meat waiting for these people when they got there,” Clara told me. “They haven’t taken too well with you, today, and a sign of good will might go a long way. Why don’t you let Gabby and me pull the sled?”

I was about to argue the issue when Gabby walked up carrying my bow and quiver of arrows. The bow was strung, and from the look on Gabby’s face, it was clear that I was expected to do as I was told by the women. With a sigh of resignation slipping from my lips, I stepped out from between the pulling bar of the sled, vacating it so that the women could take over. As I did, I handed my carbine to Clara to take care of. I then took up my bow and quiver and got ready to go hunting.

I didn’t get far. I’d just stepped away from the group, which was getting ready to get under way again after our very brief halt, when Gort came dashing up at me, screaming frantically about something. Instinctively, I drew an arrow and nocked it to my bow as I heard him shouting my name.

“Jake! Jake!” Gort called out repeatedly as he approached from the direction we’d been marching towards. He was running flat out and panting. His wolf pup was running along side him, just as quickly, and just as excitedly. Gort kept shouting as he ran. “A pack of hyenas are coming.”

I didn’t know the word Gort was using when he shouted at me. While I had the basics of his language and I could communicate well enough there were words we just hadn’t gotten to using yet. It didn’t really matter much. Gort’s shouting had attracted the attention of Rugar, Uttar, and Vedic. When Gort said the word ‘hyena’ again, the expression on the men’s faces grew severe. What made it all come home for me, were the gasps of horror that came from the women and the whimpering of fear emanating from the throats of the little girls. By the time I heard that, I knew we were in serious trouble.

I looked past Gort and saw the creatures coming. They were some distance off, yet, but they were moving at a trot and they were covering ground quickly. I recognized what they were, immediately. I’d seen a National Geographic program on hyenas at least once or twice. These were bigger than their modern African cousins, but they looked much the same. It was a pack of five of the critters, and it was obvious from first glance that the animals were hunting us.

I started shouting orders even as I moved forward to engage the creatures. I’d always been good at thinking on my feet. We had only a matter of seconds to throw up a defence and prepare ourselves to defend our lives against a pack of nasty, ferocious predators. I made certain that my voice range out strong, clear, and with confidence. I needed these people to jump to it or we would all die.

“Gort, on my left with your spear!” I shouted loudly as I stepped into the path of the on coming pack of wild-dog like beasts. “Rugar, on my right! Guard me! Uttar, guard Gort. Vedic, guard Rugar. Stand your ground, and wait for them to get to us. Clara, protect the women and children. Gabby, cover us if necessary. Get ready people, here they come.”

By that point the hyenas were roughly three hundred yards out, and closing fast. I brought my bow up and I drew back my arrow and aimed at the lead animal. I waited until I was sure of my shot. It brought the pack to just under two hundred yards when I finally let loose my arrow. Good fortune was with us. The broadhead struck the lead animal squarely in the chest.

The leader yelped with surprise and then pitched forward, tumbling into the path of the rest of the charging animals. It broke up the attack for a second. One of the hyenas actually stumbled over the leader’s body having not seen him go down. It gave us a breath of respite and I took full advantage of it. I grab another arrow out of my quiver and I brought it to my bow.

The pack had slowed momentarily. Two of the animals had paused to see what had happened to the pack leader. Two hadn’t and I concentrated on them. My bow came up and I took aim. The animals were now down to one hundred and fifty yards. I took the animal closest to us. I led it for ten more yards and then I let the arrow go. The animal ran straight into it and died.

I didn’t stop to see what had happened. I pulled out another arrow and I nocked it to my bowstring. The third beast was now at one hundred yards. His jaws were snapping and we could hear him growling. I took aim and led him by ten more yards. He was coming at us off on our right flank, headed straight for Vedic. My arrow took him in the side, sinking in behind his right foreleg. The impact of the arrow knocked him onto his side. He tried to get up again, but he failed. By then my attentions were elsewhere.

The last two hyenas were heading straight for me. They were growling and making all kinds of ferocious noises in an attempt to intimidate me. I stood my ground and knocked another arrow to my bow. By then the creatures were down to fifty yards. I took aim and let loose my arrow. Again I achieved a hit. The beast took the arrow in the throat and then tumbled to its death. As it did I grabbed for another arrow and then stepped back behind the line.

“Guard!” I shouted at the top of my voice as I brought the arrow to the bowstring and I nocked it. The last hyena was too close. Still I brought my bow up even as it came charging for the gap that I had left in our line. The creature never made it through. Gort took it from the left and Rugar took it from the right. The animal skidded to its death where I had been standing only a moment before.

“Good work,” I said a moment later as I let out a deep sigh of relief. “You all did great.”

We feasted on antelope that night at the cave. After making certain that everyone was alright and that no one had been injured, I did what Clara and Gabby had asked of me. I went hunting, taking Gort and young Tabor with me. It hadn’t taken me long to find a herd and to drop a pair of young females. By the time Gort and Tabor had dressed them out, and I had strung one from Gort’s spear shaft so he and Tabor could carry it back, while I carried the other one. The rest of our band had moved on to the cave.

I had left Rugar in charge, to see to it that the group got safely to the cave while I fetched meat. Amazingly he accepted that task willingly. I also left him with the task of skinning the carcasses of the hyenas. I’d already reclaimed my arrows, with the help of Gort. I was pleased that I hadn’t lost any.

The group had just settled in when my two weary helpers and I returned bearing supper. A fire had already been started in the fire pit and Gabby had already broken out the metal pots and pans that we’d brought with us. The local ladies were amazed by them. We were greeted cheerfully by all, including the men. The women quickly took charge of our kills. I got handed a mug. To my surprise it was coffee.

“A reward for a very noble defence of your people, today,” Clara said with a wry smile. “It’s instant from the ration pack leftovers, but it’s what we have with us. Gabby will give you a nicer reward, later on.”