Chapter 41

Teague and I spoke for a little while longer and then it was time for the fish. We opened the second smoker and the fish smelled delicious. I could see that the fish was perfect. Someone had added some herbs and spices and the filets looked delectable. We pulled the racks from the lower three shelves and put them on the top shelves. I then put out the smoldering fire and closed the planks together so it would keep the heat in but just keep everything warm. Teague contacted the cooks for this evening and they finished up with their end. They were close to finishing with the veggies and started dishing things up. We in turn brought them the fish and everything was ready for supper.

We all sat and I stood to say a few words. “People of this camp, we have a lot of people to thank for this great meal we are about to eat. Keryon and her group who weaved the net so Sothenar and Merdira could catch and clean the fish and to Teague and his group for finishing the second smoker so we could cook the fish; next are the excellent cooks who prepared the rest of this meal, and I do not want to forget the gatherers who have given us the vegetables and herbs and spices to make this meal complete. We all thank each and every one of you who had anything to do with this meal. Now let’s eat!”

There was some foot stomping and then a lot of food being passed around and eaten. The fish was excellent, it tasted somewhat like trout, but I have never seen such large trout before in my life. They looked more like sea bass for size. After the meal, I rose and spoke again. “Members of my tribe; we will be getting two tribes of the ‘Others’ this night coming to join us. They will come in the night just like you did. There will be 19 families with 4 unmated women and 7 unmated males in all. Olnafot is but just one of them. Most of you have met him or seen him around. Only a few are as tall as he is, but most of them are the same height as you, just heavier and stronger than you people. They will be very confused when they awake in the morning, so we need to help them as much as we can. Help them to get rooms for them and show them around. Make them feel welcome in this camp. Then tomorrow night Dignar’s camp will be coming so we will have another 30 families with 6 unmated women and 3 unmated males come that night. They will need to be helped to find their way too. We need to welcome them just like we will do with Grunto’s and Valkorla’s people tomorrow morning. I thank you all for all the work you have done and are doing to keep this camp running smoothly. Now let us relax and enjoy the sunset.”

I sat down to much foot stomping. And then sunset was upon us and silence prevailed in our camp. Even the little children were silent during nature’s grandeur. Once the sun was truly gone, everyone gathered up their children and their dishes and we cleaned the place up for the night. At first when Joulnar’s tribe came here, they wondered about night patrols to keep our camp safe. I explained that the Sky Spirits took care of that. Now it was second nature for them to relax and know they were safe for the night.

I went into my office to talk with Fred, but Harlou was with him, I slowly closed the door, but Harlou called to me to come in. “I did not want to interrupt you son. I just wanted to talk to Fred about tonight’s move.”

“No Father, I was just talking with Fred about my learning some skills. He said I should talk to you about teaching me some of the hand-to-hand skills you have. Also he said that the 22 gun would be available for me in a couple days. I am done now, if you want to talk with him.”

“No Son it is fine. Once we get all the new people settled I am going to give some classes to anyone who wants to learn hand-to-hand fighting. I am also going to select some of my leaders to learn how to shoot. I was surprised how well Joulnar did when he shot the auroch. I guess I will need to get ear plugs or muffs for several people now. Think you can handle that Fred?”

“Yes Bob I can provide you with, say 15 pairs of ear muffs and probably 3 dozen ear plugs in assorted sizes too. How about bows? Will you need several sizes and pull strengths of those as well?”

“Fred you overwhelm me sometimes. I think we will need at least 25 bows, make them in 45 to 55 pound pulls. Make 7 of them in smaller sizes for my wives and then 25 for others who may want to take up the bow. Definitely have two 45 pound pull ones like my fishing bows. I will give them to Sothenar and Merdira for fishing. Once I find out how many of my leaders want to shoot a rifle I will let you know how many rifles we will need. I would say the Marlin model XL7W in 30-06 Springfield, bolt action, with a 3-9x32 scope mounted on it. Or maybe a Marlin model 336A in 30-30 Winchester lever action with the same scope on it. I’m not sure which one would be best for the people here. I think just 5 of each until we find what works best for them. Of course our range will have to expand some to accommodate the new rifle stands. And the new bow range too.”

“I will look into that for you Bob and the weapons will be ready next week. You can start showing them the dry fire and classroom techniques before the rifles and bows come in. You need to teach both classes, unless I can find some video classes from the data we have collected from your home.”

“That is not a problem, I have taught Harlou about the bow, so I guess I can teach the classes, but it would help if we had a TV monitor in the range area so we could show a class in there. Also weren’t we going to add a large screen in the main cave for showing movies some nights?”

“Yes Bob we are working on the large screen. The problem right now is translating all the words into Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal, but I will have to talk with Caroline about the translations. We may have to just broadcast to the people in their minds the words. We are still working that part out and I do not want to put the big screen up without having that capability.”