Chapter 23

We arrived at Joulnar’s camp just before lunch and his tribe soon had the auroch hanging out to dry. He thanked me and asked about Solange. I said, “Solange is still being healed. There was a lot of damage to her inside. I found out that her mother’s sister is in a camp some distance away and that Tovar and Kolstar know the way. Also, Kolstar is your healer, but she has a helper who is learning her trade. Would it be possible to have Wenton come to our camp and be our camp healer? She would have to want to come of course; I would never force her to leave here if she didn’t want to come.”

Joulnar joked, “Like I could keep anyone from following you anywhere. In fact if you would accept us we would like to move up by you and we could become a large camp under you as leader. I would have to discuss this with my people first, but I don’t think it would be a problem.”

“As you wish Joulnar, but please discuss this with your people. I would like to have Tovar or Kolstar come with us to show us the way to the other camp as I need to get something from them to help Solange get well. Then, when I come back and we can discuss coming to live with us.”

Tovar and Kolstar came over and I helped them climb into the back seat of the truck. I welcomed them and asked how far the other camp was. Tovar said about 3 days travel from here. I figured we should be getting there about dark so I said we would travel as far as we could go today and then camp for the night and hunt in the morning and bring the camp some meat.

We traveled back to the river and then downstream for about 4 hours. Tovar said that the camp was just beside the big hill off to the left. It looked to be about a 2 hour drive so I said we would go that way for about an hour and stop to camp, unless we found some game sooner. We traveled on for about 45 minutes, and I saw a large cave lion stalking some aurochs. I stopped and had Tovar hand me the Barrett. I grabbed several clips and went out to the bed. I also took my small rifle sandbag for the roof and sighted down on the lion. I told them to cover their ears and put my earplugs in. I then sighted down on the lion again and put a slug in her chest. I bolted another round in the chamber and sighted again. She tried to get up and as she stood, I put another shot into her chest, a little higher this time. She went down again. I reloaded and sighted again. She was thrashing around but not getting up. I watched some more and then put one into her head. That did it. She didn’t move for several minutes after that. I climbed down and went back in the truck and drove over close to her.

Tovar looked in awe of what I had done. He said, “You are a very mighty hunter Bob. No one had ever killed a silent killer and lived to tell about it. How will we bring it to the camp?”

“Tovar if you, Kolstar and Pauloa help me we can put it in the back of the truck and bring it to the camp.” By now we had about two more hours of daylight left so we had to work quickly. I had the hoist up quickly and had chained the back legs of the lioness. Now it was a matter of backing the truck up close so we could drag it on board. Once we had her lined up it was easy to get her winched in. I took the machete from my door and slit her throat and let her bleed out as we drove to the camp. As we approached, I had Kolstar speak into the mike on the CB. Her voice rang out to the camp. “This is Kolstar and my mate Tovar. We have a gift for you from our Sky Spirit friend Bob. Please do not be afraid. We will come in now.”

I drove slowly into camp and everyone shied away from the truck, then someone saw the lioness and all hell broke loose. They could all see it was dead, but the awe froze them in their tracks.

I stepped out of the truck and asked if someone could help me remove the lion and that we would need some people to butcher her. A man came up to me and bowed, “I am Dignar, leader of this camp. You are most welcome. We had tried to hunt today but the silent killer was stalking the aurochs and we did not want to anger it. We are most happy with all the meat, but how did you kill such a vicious hunter? I see you carry no spears and you have no wounds on you.”

“I have very powerful magic as a sky spirit and I have used this magic to kill the cave lion you call silent killer. Please take this animal for your people, and you will have meat for some time. You may even keep the pelt if you like. I only want the teeth and claws for my collection.”

Dignar called to several people and began ordering his people to get busy and process the animal. I backed the winch out and some people pulled the lion’s front paws and soon the lion was on the ground and knives were flying. Tovar and I collapsed the boom and secured the winches. I called Kolstar over and asked if she would find Solonar’s mother and sister and let me talk to them. She called to Bolonar and Violette to come meet Bob the Sky Spirit. I asked them to come into the truck with Kolstar and me. We drove over away from the mob at what was left of the lioness. I relayed what had happened to Solonar and Solange, keeping it brief. I asked if they would please let me have some blood from each of them to help save Solange. They readily agreed. I had Phil send me a couple of small test tubes with stoppers last night for this test, so I took my knife and cut each of their fingers. I then caught their blood into separate tubes and stoppered them when they were about half full. I then licked each finger and wrapped a bandage on each one. I told them that they could remove the bandage tomorrow and they would be healed. I knew that some of my nanites lived in my saliva and they would be healed, probably with no scar, by tomorrow. I promised them they would receive word when and if Solange was well. I told them that with their blood Solange might be saved.