Chapter 7

The nest came down in a blaze of glory and burned to complete destruction; Jeff guessed that said a lot for the high oxygen content of the air. Fortunately, it missed him, and the morning rainstorm that he had been counting on showed up right on time, killing the fire and keeping it from spreading.

Jeff had been lucky to be able to escape the falling nest, so that he was unharmed, but he could not say the same for the hornets. Jeff did see a couple fly away, and he did not expect them to come back, since that is not in their nature. Well, the humans were very lucky this time, but he would be keeping an eye out for more hornets, since they might not be so lucky, next time.

The first thing he did when he got home was to start working on fresh arrows without poison so that he would have some for hunting. The bow was a lot more convenient than the atlatl, so Jeff was going to make the switch, permanently, unless some compelling reason came along. He didn't expect any, but one never knew. This time, he was going to have 20 arrows for hunting and 15 for self defense, both quivers would be with him at all times.

Julie asked Jeff to make her a bow, since she wanted to be able to hunt, and the bolts just weren't as good for that as the arrows like he was using. Actually, of course, it was the point that made the difference, but the broadhead points just were not very convenient with a crossbow.

She had already taken some practice shots with his bow, so she knew that she could pull it, and he was considering a more powerful bow for himself. Jeff suggested that she simply take his bow, and he would make another for himself. Julie thought this was a good idea, so Jeff set out to do just that. He remembered reading about the composite bows that some early people had used in which they had used horn to stiffen the bow. It seemed to Jeff that roach chitin could be used the same way, and he planned to try it.

The problem was, Jeff did not have a suitable glue to hold everything together, and he did not know where to find any. He asked Julie if she had any suggestions. She thought about it a minute and said, "I know of a plant that has some very gooey sap. We might be able to do something with that."

"OK, how soon to you think that you can go fetch some?"

"Actually, it's not that big a deal. The plant grows in our back yard."

With Jeff covering for her, Julie collected some of the plants and they started working on a way to use it as a glue. After about a week of work, Julie came up with something that might work. It would stick to things and be hell to remove, but it was still slightly flexible, so Jeff had high hopes for it.

He set out to make his first composite bow as a modified long bow, since that would be the easiest kind to make. It took nearly a month, but he finally had a bow he was satisfied with as his first try. The bow was so stiff that Julie could not draw it, and it was difficult for Jeff to draw to the full reach of 34". The bow was so powerful that he could not use it on his indoor range; at 30 feet, the arrows would shatter when they hit the wall!

Julie made some new arrow heads for him with a 4½-inch width. These made a very powerful weapon when used with his new bow. The arrows traveled from this bow so fast that it was difficult to see them when they were first shot. The first time he shot a dragon fly with it, he shot the bug head on and the whole arrow disappeared inside the bug's body. He certainly hit something vital, because the dragon fly came crashing to the ground with only one arrow, and it died in less than 30 seconds. Maybe, now he had the bug-stopper that he craved.

Jeff's first opportunity at a scorpion was equally as successful. This time, he shot at the creature from the side, and the arrow caught the scorpion in the neck. He could not have asked for better luck. He hit the bug at just the right angle to cut its head loose so that the head flopped toward the ground and just hung from the neck by a flap of skin. It died in less than a minute.

It was time for Julie's next inspiration. She was carrying Mary on the hunting expeditions in a sort of bag around her neck, so she was not much help when it came to hauling the carcasses home. She was watching Jeff struggle to pull a heavy load when she remembered something else she had seen on TV. "Jeff, have you ever heard of a travois?"

"I don't think so, what is it?"

Julie went on to describe the device as a simple framework of poles that made a kind of sled. The back end dragged along the ground and the front end was lifted and pulled by two poles extending out the front. Sort of a reverse wheel barrow without the wheel. Jeff was interested in anything that meant less work, so they stopped right then and constructed one from some saplings and vines. It was almost a miracle how much easier it was to drag this with the carcass on it than to drag the carcass alone. Jeff was immediately enticed into using it exclusively, especially since it was so easy to construct one on the spot when needed.

The travois became their standard mode of conveying anything that couldn't walk by itself, so they started improving the trails they used. This was mostly done by levering the large rocks out of the way and filling in small holes as they found them.

One day, Jeff remarked that the hauling job would be a hell of a lot easier if they had a real wheelbarrow or cart. He just didn't know how to make a wheel. "Do you have any ideas? You're the mechanical genius, so I hope that you can come up with something. Hell, imagine how convenient it would be to have a bicycle."

Julie laughed at that, but had to agree that the idea had a lot of merit. She promised to put some thought into it to see if she could come up with something. At the moment, she didn't have a clue, but she hoped to come up with an idea now that she had been pushed in that direction. At the moment, however, Mary was banging a fist on her breast, letting her know that it was meal time, again. Julie had come up with her version of a nursing bra, so all she had to do was untie a cord and pull away a bit of dragon fly skin to expose a nipple. Mary was not a bit reluctant to eat while being carried in her sack, so she began to suckle as Julie and Jeff walked toward home.

Julie let Mary nurse for a while on that side, but wanted to even up the wear, so she popped out the nipple on the other side and shifted Mary around a little bit to make it easy for the child to reach the other nipple. Mary was used, by now, to the routine of swapping nipples, so she didn't complain over the shift. Jeff was pleased to see that Julie didn't bother to cover the first nipple—he thought that Julie looked awful damned sexy with just her nipple exposed like that. He would be happy if she walked around all of the time with her nipples poking out that way. So far, he had not had the guts to ask her to do it.

Of course, Julie knew that it turned him on to see her exposed nipple; that's why she left it out like that. It was fun to tease Jeff a little bit, knowing that they would both get all of the relief they needed that night when they went to bed. Julie was back fucking as happily as ever, hoping that her nursing would keep her from getting pregnant again for a little while, she did need the rest.

They walked along the trail with Jeff keeping a lookout for danger while Julie concentrated on nursing Mary. They were getting close to the stream where they normally turned for home when Jeff spotted danger. Blocking the trail was a monster spider. It was the kind commonly known as a "daddy long legs." The giant creature was at least 14 feet tall and had a body about 18 inches long. Back in the 21^st Century, such a spider was welcome, since it helped to keep the insect pests under control. Unfortunately, Mary was exactly the right size to make a meal for this spider, so there was no way that they could tolerate it in their neighborhood.