Chapter 7

Denali woke me in his trademark way. Kanala was the one laughing at me till Mally, using a hit and run tactic, slurped her across the face. My mate started spitting and sputtering, but just as I opened my mouth to laugh at her, Denali's tongue got through my defenses and went right into my mouth. Yuck!

That was how Tanala found us, both laughing and spitting at the same time, and in my case trying to keep Denali from doing it again. Once I got enough breath, I commanded, "Out!" Both Malamutes left the room.

Tanala climbed up on the bed with a confused grin and snuggled up to me. That made it all better. If I had known how satisfying it was to be a father, I would have tried to become one a long time ago. My problem was finding the right woman to be the mother.

The raining had stopped during the night and was already warming up. I let the dogs out and gave them their food. I then, ran through the morning routine with my family and headed to the kitchen for food. Tanala got another cookie.

For breakfast this morning I needed milk, so I bit the bullet and mixed up a pitcher of powdered milk. I made oatmeal, mixing in brown sugar and maple syrup. I did give the cro-mags a glass of milk and explained using an analogy of ever seeing a mother animals killed and white stuff that came from the nipples. I explained again about Juggs and what she was for. They liked the powdered milk, for now, but wouldn't after having the real thing. Breakfast, simple at it was, hit the spot. Kanala was hell bent on learning my cooking methods and was forever asking questions.

The brisket was thawed out by now, and as I was going out to the barn for chores, I built a fire in the smoker at the outdoor kitchen.

While cleaning stalls, I found Mama behind a hay bale in a corner with three little ones nursing. Mama had made some helpers. I let the livestock out into the pasture to graze and noted that the rain had filled the stock tank for me. The animals were taken care of, so I went back to the cabin to prepare the brisket.

I talked Kanala through trimming all the fat off the brisket and then rubbing in some spices. Kanala had to try each spice before that happened. I put the seasoned brisket in the mudroom fridge to absorb the rub.

The family and I trooped out to the cave for more shopping. I got Kanala the final item on her wish list, a cooking pot. She picked out a six quart seasoned Dutch oven. I had used a Dutch oven to do the stew and chili, so she asked about them.

"How many can we feed with one pot?"

"A double hand full plus two." I gestured with my hand. This winter I will teach them numbers.

"Can it sit in the fire?" she asked.

"Yes."

She handed me a Dutch oven she had been holding and said, "I want this one." I just looked at it and handed it back to her.

"Okay." That was that. (To a person that doesn't know the word "okay," it's a hard concept to explain. Think of how many different ways we use and meanings we give one word. Every time I used "okay" in a context she was unfamiliar with, I had to explain.)

While we were out there, I pulled a couple bow sets for Kortan and his son. I would teach them when we got back.

I knew I wouldn't be able to bring the rest of Kortan's family and their possessions back using just the Mule. I pulled one of the last two unmodified trailers out of the line and ran to get the Mule. With the trailer hooked to the Mule, the family loaded up and I pulled it to the shop. Kanala and I went in, got the brisket, and put it in the smoker. I added a couple pieces of green hickory to the fire box, again explaining everything to Kanala.

Kanala with Tanala went their way after that. Kanala went in and got everything to do more work on her wolf hide. I saw at least two different garments coming together, but had no clue what they would be. She set up to work at one of the picnic tables I had made for the outdoor kitchen. Tanala was sitting beside her, but had her hands full playing with Denali and Mally.

I had Kortan helping me as we laid out a cage for the trailer. Using black pipe, I welded a box cage to the trailer. Just like an enclosed trailer without the cover. The grid work frame had two foot by two foot squares of inch and a half pipe. I took some time to explain the welder to Kortan. What would seem more magical than watching someone use blinding light to join something hard as rock to another without any visual bindings? The frame took us till lunch, and I had been keeping an eye on the smoker and maintaining the correct temp.

We ate the leftover chili for lunch after I slathered the brisket with barbeque sauce and a little mustard, then wrapped it in foil to finish cooking. I took the family to the barn and showed them Mama and the kittens.

We resumed our projects after lunch. I made a gate frame for the back of the trailer and wrapped the whole thing in chain link fence. A couple short pieces of chain and two bolts would secure the gate ramp to the cage frame. It was a quick fix job, but should protect anyone that ended up riding back there till I could react. I loaded a couple jerry cans of water for fuel, a couple plastic milk crates, one with a canvas tarp and the other with camouflage netting, and a bundle of zip ties.

The warm sunshine had dried out the ground pretty good, so all of us took a trip to the garden patch to pull weeds. Well, it was me, telling them what wasn't a weed and them pulling everything else. I didn't have time to pull many of the weeds myself.

The brisket was pretty much ready, so before going in to clean up, I cut off a burnt end of the brisket, shredded the meat, and dumped it in with the baked beans we had put in the smoker before going to the garden. I went in to take my shower, wishing I had some cabbage to make coleslaw. A smile came to my face knowing that I had cabbage growing in the garden and wouldn't have long to wait to have some.

The brisket was perhaps one of the best I had ever done. We had baked beans, canned cucumber and onion salad, and I broke open a couple cans of fruit cocktail. Kortan damn near did a jig after tasting the meat. The meat went first, followed by all the rest of the food on his plate. Kanala closed her eyes and hummed during her first bite of the brisket. Then the inquisition started for the side dishes. She didn't really get to help prepare much since most of it came from cans or jars. Tanala just smiled as she ate, like it was a party in her favor. My little girl vacuumed up the fruit like she would never have it again. What is it about kids and maraschino cherries?

The Mr. Tea machine took over the spot of Mr. Coffee on the kitchen counter. The tea went over a whole lot better than the coffee did. I'm sure they would turn heathen on me and like southern style sweet tea better, but I wasn't going to show them.

We cleaned up, and I decided it was time to introduce them to the big black thing on the wall. I put in Planet Earth and hit play. The narrator start to speak, and I'll be god damned, but he was speaking Cro-Magnon. My new family was spellbound. I did pause it before something scary came on and explained that these were animals from my home and that some of them would look just like what they would see here. I also had them touch the screen to know nothing would come out at them. It was just gasps, oohs, and ahs for the next two hours.

I sat in my reading corner and using one of my six Kindles, and read a story downloaded from the storiesonline website. I was busy reading about a group of "Florida Friends" when the movie ended.

Tanala pretty much passed out when the show was over. I checked her foot before carrying her to bed. She had walked around quite a bit more than I had hoped, but it was kinda my fault for taking them to the vegetable patch. I only put on a lose gauze pad tonight, to let the wound dry out and breath, so to speak.

Kortan's wounds were in good shape, so he got a couple wraps of gauze. The worry lines were back on Kortan's face, and I was sure he was starting to worry about the rest of his family. I patted his hand, and looking in his eyes I said, "The day after tomorrow we will get the rest of your family. They are fine, I am sure of it."

He looked down as if almost ashamed. "I just fear for their safety. Strange thing have been happening at the camp, it troubles me."

"You worry because you care. I would worry about you if you didn't. Kanala is my mate now; Tanala is my daughter. If anyone harmed them..." I paused to gain control of my emotions. Kanala had come back out and sat down by her father. A concerned look was on her face. I looked at her and smiled. It was time for them to learn a little more about me. The aliens never told me what I could or couldn't say. Kanala was my wife, not a woman I took for my pleasure. She deserved to know who she is mated to.

"When I left my world to come here, I was older than you are Kortan." Kanala gasped, and Kortan was just wide eyed. "One reason I was chosen to come here was because I was going to die. I had a sickness inside of me that couldn't be cured – err, healed. Another reason was that I was a soldier, a warrior. I was a warrior longer than Kanala has been alive. Not only was I taught to fight, I was taught to be the best of the best. I also learned to be a healer. If one of my team – um, group of fellow warriors – got hurt, I was to take care of them, to heal them." I paused to sit on the floor in front of Kanala and lean between her legs. I brought her hand over my shoulder to hold it.

Staring into the fire, I continued,

"As a child, I was raised on a ranch – a place where animals are raised for food. It was bigger than you could see. I learned to grow vegetables to eat from my mother. Like Tanala, I never met my father. He died in war when I was just a baby." This was harder than I thought.

"I saw a lot of evil things as a warrior and even more as a healer. If Kanala or Tanala got hurt, or even if you, your mate, or your son got hurt, no one from this world could stop me from getting revenge. Don't get me wrong, I hate to fight, but that doesn't mean I am not good at it." I turned my head, brought Kanala's hand up, and kissed it, then stood up. Both were sitting there, kind of open mouthed. I pulled Kanala to her feet, said goodnight, and went to bed.

Kanala was very affectionate after we got in bed. We didn't make love, we basked in it.

I sat up straight in bed, something was wrong. I did that listening with your eyes thing. Then I heard it, Tanala's squealing laugh. I smiled and flopped back on the bed. Tanala was the beneficiary of the signature Malamute alarm clock.

I heard a noise at the door, so I lifted my head to see what it was. Tanala had a scowl on her face and her hair looked like Mary after using the "special hair gel." I pulled my pillow over my face to keep her from seeing me laugh at her. I felt Tanala climb up the bed and right onto my chest. She pulled the pillow from my face and said, "Denali and Mally need to go out." She rolled off me to cuddle with her mother, who suspiciously had her face buried in the pillow with shaking shoulders. Being the nice guy I am, I got out of bed, then, ripped the covers off and ran laughing from the room amidst shrieks of outrage.

Kortan was sitting at the kitchen table, grinning at me. I smiled right back and took care of the dogs.

When I poked my head into the bedroom, I saw the empty bed and the covers where I had left them. Since I ripped them off, I guess it was my job to fix them. I heard the shower running and had thoughts of throwing a pitcher of cold water over the shower door. I was nice; I decided to save that for another day.