Chapter 7

Outside the camp the River People's village, Rod lit a fire with his lighter. His wives had seen the lighter before, but Otatl was amazed.

"Sit back down," Rod said to him. "I have many things you have not seen."

"Why do you hide them?" Otatl asked as he rejoined his three seated friends.

"I'm worried that one of the People will become jealous and stick a spear in my back," Rod said. "Then they would take my treasures."

"I have a spear," Otatl said in a quiet voice.

"I have to trust somebody."

Otatl nodded his head.

"It will be hard for me to kill a mammoth," Rod said. "Even with my rifle." He looked at Travlo and Trelo.

"But your rifle is very fucking strong," Trelo said.

"Yeah, but the mammoth is fucking big. The rifle was not made to kill as large an animal as a mammoth. If I shoot from far away, the rifle will lose power and it won't hurt the animal very much. If I shoot from close up, the rifle will have more power but the mammoth might charge me. If it charges I won't have a shot at a vital area. Either way, it will have a chance to kill me.

"So I struck a deal with Dartl," Rod continued. "If I am killed, my hunting knife goes to Dartl. All of my other possessions go to you, Otatl. Even my wives."

"Husband," Travlo said. "You don't have to do this. We can go back to the Southern People or even the Lake People. You are sure to become a chief there. Don't risk your life on this hunt."

"We can go to the Southern People," Trelo said.

"No," Rod said. "This is my destiny. I will either live or I will die. Will you raise my children as if they are your children Otatl, and accept Travlo and Trelo as your third and fourth wives?"

"I will if you die," Otatl said. "But you won't. Something protects you, maybe your God. You will kill the mammoth. That is your destiny. Can I ask? What is a 'rifle'?"

Rod showed Otatl the rifle and pistol. "This is a rifle," he said. "It will kill a horse at over 500 meters. This is a pistol. It will kill a man at over 50 meters. Travlo or Trelo can show you how to use them if I don't live."

"Is it magic?" Otatl asked.

"No," Rod said. "We just don't have the tools to make one now. I have taught Travlo and Trelo how to use the first aid kit that I brought with me. They can show you but there are things I must tell all of you now. These are very important and must not be forgotten."

"Most of your children die from diarrhea. And almost all diarrhea is caused by animals so small that you cannot see them. Human waste in water can give one person germs - the little animals - from another person." Rod went on to describe the treatment for diarrhea, how cleanliness stopped the spread of germs, and how to make a rough soap from fat and ashes.

"You can make animals work for you," Rod continued. "It will take a long time but it can be done. If you capture young horses, and breed them, always keeping the calmest ones for breeding. Within 40 to 60 years, you will have horses that will pull your possessions and carry you on their backs. We do this in my land. We also have animals like wolves that warn us when animals are near and help us hunt. If you capture young wolves, within 30 to 40 years, they will see you as their pack leader. Perhaps best, if you capture bison, in 30 to 50 years, you will have animals that go where you want them to. You can collect their milk or kill one when you need meat. You can even do this with birds so that you have eggs. You will need to keep hundreds of animals to tame them, so more than one village will be needed."

Rod picked-up a toy bow and arrow made from dried oak and horse hair twine. "This is a bow," he said. "This one is just a toy, but if you make it bigger and try other types of wood, you can use it as a weapon." Rod shot the bow, the arrow went about 4 feet turning end over end. "If you put a flint head on one end and feathers on the other end, it will go straight."

"Yes," Trelo said. "And if your dick was always hard you could fuck all the time. You must have a toy dick." The girls thought that was hilarious.

"Shut up," Rod said it almost as a reflex action.

"My knives are made out of metal," Rod said when the girls had stopped giggling. "I don't know how to make metal but I have an idea. I know that you make a very hot fire with charcoal, a type of rock with the metal in it, and some times another type of rock. You won't be able to make steel like mine. But you can make a lump of iron that you can beat into the shape that you want it to be. All of these things I have told you will change your people. Keep a record of it with your writing, except for the dick joke."

oOo

Even Rod could follow the trail left by the mammoths. The ground was strewn with broken trees. What he couldn't do was tell how far ahead the herd was. He couldn't tell where they were going. Atema and Gavatl could.

Rod was accompanied by Atema, Ltlala, and a scornful hunter named Gavatl. The three Southern hunters were along to help Rod find a mammoth and make sure that he killed it without help. They were meant to be neutral, but they weren't. Gavatl hated Rod with a passion. A passion flamed by Rod's killing of Gavatl's two brothers during Rod's year with the Southern People. Gavatl wanted to find the beast and wanted the beast to kill Rod.

"Atema?" Rod asked. "Can you put me ahead of the herd's path?"

Atema looked at Gavatl, who smiled and slowly nodded his head. "Yes," Atema said. "But we will have to move fast for a hand of days."

"Let's get moving," Rod said.

The hunters passed the herd of animal under the light of the waxing half-moon. The herd was following an open field between two forested foothills. Rod was surprised that the mammoths didn't feed on the lush grass. Instead they left a trail of broken and twisted trees behind them, feeding from the tree's leaves. The four hunters passed on the downwind side of the herd, away from where they had been grazing, and passed without incident. They traveled on through the next day.

"Will the herd come through here?" Rod asked.

"They will come through here tomorrow," Atema said.

The valley was narrow here, no more that 300 meters wide. "This is perfect," Rod said. "What side do you think they will be on?"

"Are you a man or a child?" Gavatl asked.

"A man," Rod answered. If Gavatl wants a fight, when we get back to fight I will give him one. "Were your brothers men or children? I'm tired of your attitude. When we get back to camp, maybe we can talk about it alone, just you and me. Now someone tell me, will the mammoths be on the East or West side of the valley."

"Are you saying my brothers were children?" Gavatl asked.

"Gavatl," Rod said. "You heard every word I said." That seemed to confuse Gavatl.

Atema jumped into the breach, "Williams," he said. "Do you see how the trees were broken down last year on the East side there?"

"Yes."

"And do you see the new tree growth?"

"Yes."

"That is what the mammoths want to eat."

"So they will be on the East side," Rod said. "Good. That works. I want all of you to move away from me so you can't see how I kill the mammoth."

Atema and Ltlala looked at Rod, their faces creased with question, but Gavatl sneered, "You have an ally here to help you. Don't you?"

Rod stared at Gavatl for a long minute. I could just kick his ass now and save myself trouble later but I need him to see the dead animal. "Yes," Rod said. "I've a ground squirrel that'll attack the mammoth when I tell him to."

"I will kill you!" Gavatl said.

"How will we know when to come back?" Ltlala asked.

"You'll hear one or two very loud noises, after that the beast will be dead or dying," Rod said. "I may be dead or dying."

"Where do we go?" asked Atema.

"Either up the valley or down the valley," Rod answered. "I don't care as long as you are out of sight."

Before dawn the next morning, three hunters went up the valley and Rod started looking for a good tree stand on the West side of the valley. He looked for a tree with a diameter of at least half a meter and with branches at least 5 meters or more above the ground. Also, he needed some way to get up the damn thing.

Rod had seen cars hit 30 centimeter diameter trees with the result of all people killed and little scratch on the tree. Surely, a half meter oak was safe from an elephant on steroids. One good shot, a shot through a lung, and the beast would die. All Rod needed to do was to hold onto the tree. Rod found a good perch about 6 meters above the ground.

Soon, the lead mammoths were in view, but they didn't look like mammoths. Rod had made another translation error. These beasts looked like elephants but were bigger. They had a weird shape to their heads with tiny ears, at least tiny for elephants, and they had long almost straight tusks. They had fur, but it was short, nothing wooly about them. They were huge and they got bigger and bigger as they came down the valley. They didn't eat grass; they ate tree leaves. If the leaves were out of reach and the tree less than 25 centimeters in diameter, one of the large cows would take the time to knock the tree down. No wonder the valleys were cleared.

Rod's plan had been to take the largest bull. He might as well make as big an impression as possible. As he sat in the tree and thought about it, he almost changed his mind, until he saw the biggest bull. It was magnificent. If I'm going to shoot, it might as well be you.

Rod removed the scope and put it in his back pocket. The first shot would only be 200 or 250 meters. If he shot again, the bull would be right under him. It was hard to check the wind, but from the way the herd was reacting when it got across from him, the wind was out of the West towards the herd. They were nervous. Rod couldn't imagine why. Did hunters actually kill these huge animals with spears? Damn! That's gutsy!

The big bull smelled Rod and moved toward the center of the valley, as if to protect the herd. He stood facing Rod, his long trunk sucking in air trying to pinpoint Rod's location. When he turned sideways to move back towards the East side, Rod fired. The bullet struck true, where Rod guessed the heart would be. The bull stumbled, then turned towards Rod and charged.

Rod thought about shooting again, but there was no target. The skull would be too thick to penetrate and trying to hit a moving leg bone would be insane. Rod looked at the long tusks and realized that he was not high enough to be out of their reach. He didn't have much time to get higher.

Rod stood on the branch he had been shooting from and slung the rifle over his shoulder. He reached the branch above and had a good grip just as the bull hit the tree. Rod had been thinking of cars and trees instead of trains and trees. The impact knocked his feet out from under him and he almost lost his grip on the branch. His rifle slid off his shoulder and caught at his elbow. He was in deep shit.

The bull looked up at him with burning hate-filled eyes. It pushed up with his tusks to squash the tiny animal that had hurt it. Maybe Rod did have a destiny, or maybe he had really good reflexes, but as the tusks came up, Rod put his right foot on the left tusk. The tusk pushed him up to a higher branch. Rod stepped off and scrambled up higher still. The bull tried to reach him again, but now Rod was out of reach.

The bull was not one to give up, he was going to take the tree down, even as blood began to flow from his trunk and mouth. The bull started a slow rocking motion that would eventually take down the tree. Rod didn't take a chance. The swaying motion was rhythmic and Rod was able to time a shot through the bull's spine. The rear end went down. The screams of the bull were terrible and pathetic. Rod felt nothing but pity for the beast. He knew that he would kill more animals and more people. As he sat in the tree and watched the herd come to help their leader, he felt pity for himself and the killing he would do in the name of God. You're too big a pussy to be a leader of men or a hunter of animals.

The bull struggled to regain his feet but it was hopeless; his spine was broken. Rod had missed the heart but had hit both lungs. Within 5 minutes the bull was dead. Rod stayed still, hoping that the rest of the herd would leave him alone. They did and after nearly an hour, they began to move off, down the valley.

Rod made himself comfortable, he'd wait until they were out of sight before coming down from the tree. He reached to his back pocket to get the scope and remount it, only to find that it wasn't in his pocked. Fuck, must have fallen out when the bull hit the tree. Rod climbed down a few branches and looked for the scope. He saw it but it was crushed; stepped on by the weird elephants. Maybe he could fix it, build it out of wood instead of the aluminum tube it was made from. Maybe, but probably not.

It wouldn't matter in the long run. He had used one shot on the moose, two on the flat-faced bear, one on the melk, and two on the welephant - which is what he had decided to call the weird elephant. He had 14 rounds left. At this rate, in 5 years the rifle would make a good axe, saw, or adze. Assuming, of course, that he could get a fire hot enough and he was still alive.

Before the herd was completely out of sight, the three hunters came into view. Rod climbed down to meet them.

"What was the loud noise?" Atema wanted to know.

"That'll have to be a secret for now," Rod said.

"You killed a bull," Ltlala said. "How?"

"Luck, mostly. I'll never try to do it again."

Gavatl looked at Atema and Ltlala. "Shall we throw fingers for bad luck?" The both nodded.

The three hunters closed their eyes and struck their left hand with their right fist three times. On the third time, each one held out either one or two fingers. They opened their eyes, Gavatl and Ltlala held out one finger - Atema two. Atema let out a long deep sigh, the others smiled.