Chapter 35

Damnation! I wondered what in the hell Nosey was up to at this hour of the night. I knew I must have been asleep for hours, but I also knew it was at least a couple more before dawn. No matter, I was awake now, and I made my way out of the furs and started on with my clothes.

As questions started flowing from my mates I finally got a whiff of what Nosey was complaining about, and I wanted to go kiss him. It was a vendal, probably about six hundred yards or so from us.

"It's a vendal, not very far away either, wake everyone," I said, to my mates.

By the time I was dressed it was obvious that they wouldn't need to wake many, and I was glad to see that Mayta and most of the other women were building up the main fire, and a couple of others. I made my way to Jalta's pallet.

"I know you want to get up, but don't. I'll have someone bring your spears for you and I want you to stay here unless the vendal makes it past me. Your job is to protect the women and children if it comes to that," I said, and he agreed but he didn't like it one bit.

It wasn't even necessary to ask anyone to fetch his spears though, because Mondaut came up with six of them in his hands a few seconds later. I could also see that others were arming the rest of the wounded men. I stood and told all them the same thing I'd told Jalta.

With that settled I found one of my flashlights in my saddlebags and turned to the group of able bodied men to give them a pep talk.

"Stay here at camp to guard the women and children. I think I can take care of the vendal, but I need the rest of you to stay here in case I can't. It isn't very close yet and it might not even come here. If it tries I will stop it," I said.

"Will you use the weapon you told me about?" Jalta asked, from his pallet.

"No. I have an even better weapon, but I can't make more of them for others. I wish I could. I have already killed a vadeesey with it and the vendal should be easier. Still, it is never a sure thing, especially in the night. You will hear the loud noise when I use it," I said, then I flicked on the light and headed for the smell.

As I left camp I realized again what a great help my unnatural sense of smell was to me here. It was too damned bad my eyesight didn't work better as well, but it didn't. I felt that I could see a little better in the dark, but it wasn't so apparent. When I was clear of the campfire's light I switched off the flashlight and stopped to let my eyes adjust.

Of course the two moons were doing a great job, but even they weren't so much help in the forest, still I could get around without tripping on things and my nose was leading the way.

I'd guessed that the vendal was somehow following our scent trail back from where we'd made our kills earlier in the day, but when I found it I knew that was wrong. It was minding its own business, scratching around under a large fallen and rotting tree, probably digging for grubs or some such. What the hell, that was his bad luck.

No matter, it was too damned close to our camp to let be. I took a rest on a low limb probably a hundred and fifty yards from it and held the flashlight alongside the M1's barrel, switching it back on again.

The light caught the vendal's eye right away and he looked directly toward me. I shined the light right in his eyes, hoping to ruin his night vision, and left it there for several seconds. Then I moved the light down toward its chest and tried to pick it up through the scope. When I managed to I shot twice, waited a few seconds and shot twice again.

He was wounded for sure, but not down yet, even though it was obvious I'd done a lot of damage. I put my eye to the scope again and managed two more shots. They must have been good hits also, because he was knocked down. I kept the light on him and waited, watching. He never made it back up, though he tried for a few minutes. Finally he slumped completely to the ground.

Approaching cautiously, I kept the light on him as I slung the M1 back on my shoulder and pulled the Glock. When I got close I could see that he was still breathing, but there was also a lot of blood running out of his mouth. I watched for nearly ten minutes until breathing got very ragged and then stopped, then I returned to camp.

"He is dead," I said, as soon as I was back.

"It is a miracle," Mayta said, right away.

"No, not a miracle, but damned lucky at that. Is anyone up for helping me load it onto a travois so we can bring it to camp?" I asked, and every man there was.

Mondaut had even paid enough attention earlier so that he could hitch a mare to the travois, put on her lead rope, and take off her hobbles. In minutes we were ready to leave to pick up our bonus meals. A loud Hello the camp from the direction of Caloe's Calak brought us to a halt before we'd even started.

It was Denac, come to see what the trouble had been and to make sure we didn't need more help.

"It was just a vendal, Denac. It wasn't even headed our way, but Nosey smelled it and woke us up. I guess he thinks it's better to be safe than sorry," I said.

"Nosey is right, and I assume no one was hurt."

"No one but the vendal. It is waiting peacefully in the woods for us to come and give it a ride to camp," I said.

"Naturally, to a man like you who had already killed a vadeesey by himself, a vendal is of little import," Denac said, and then laughed at me.

"Well, it didn't keep my ass from puckering, if that's what you're asking."

"There is no shame in that. I might as well go and help you load it," he said, and came along with us.

By the time we had the damned big thing back in camp false dawn was starting. I was glad for the meat and the big fur by now, but also glad we'd gone to sleep as soon after dark as we could. Denac had already gone back to his furs, or more likely to his breakfast. The others intended to leave nearly at first light.

The early morning vendal killing seemed to give the whole Calak a new confidence, especially in me. I didn't mind, but also didn't fail to tell them all that Nosey was the one who spread the alarm. No doubt the concept of a watch donkey was new to them, but it was apparent Nosey had gained quite a few friends anyway.

Breakfast was good and the early start had me ready for it. We didn't have the handy logs for mealtime here, but I found a nice big rock that let me sit and hold Lanita in my lap. We enjoyed our meal and then went to visit with our stock while the women were cleaning up.

I spent most of the time before lunch meeting, greeting, and getting to know the people. We'd soon be joining Caloe and Shaton's Calak but it would be better on these people if they were familiar with someone. I also happened to make a great discovery of my own.

Jocato exchanged names with me as soon as I approached him. I had been wondering what he was up to, and he was happy to show me. Jocato had discovered some iron of his own. When I asked he said that it had fallen from the sky. When I told him that we'd done the same thing he wanted to know if we'd been able to make anything from the metal.

"We haven't yet, but we collected very much of it. We are going to set up a special fire to heat it in at our new location," I said.

"I have tried heating it, and it does help a little, but I have only been able to pound the smallest pieces into anything useful. It seems that the material would help in many ways, but it is difficult to work with," he said.

"You will get plenty of time to work with it and some good tools too when we get to the new site. I will also teach you how to make a much hotter fire. When you can get the metal to glow red from the heat it is easier to work."

"Doesn't that make it too hot to pound on. Won't it burn your hand as you strike it with a rock?" he asked.

"It would if you used a rock, but I have some hammers made of similar material and they have a handle attached to them. You can pound the metal without the need for your hand to get near it."

"Yes, that would work, I should have thought of it myself. I am anxious to try this when we join the others," he said.

Lanita was waiting patiently on the rock when our lunch was delivered and I was glad to have a chance to talk to all my mates. I had been paying more attention to what they were up to this morning than they thought I had been.

"I saw you gathering the teeth and claws from the vendal, are you perhaps planning to enhance a certain necklace?" I asked, and they all blushed.

"You have caught us," Katia said, finally.

"I think we should discuss this before you get any farther along. I wouldn't mind wearing a necklace with a few of the teeth and claws, but with all of them it is just too big. It is already too big even before you add more," I said.

"But with more it will be even more impressive," Nita said.

"And who is impressed when it stays in the hut because it is already too big and cumbersome to wear?"

"He is right. He hasn't worn it but the one time," Shaeta said.

"It just so happens that I now have something that will make the necklace much easier to make. I will show you how to use it, and then you can make a necklace for all of us from both sets of teeth and claws.