Chapter Thirteen
While I was lost in thought, my companions had pulled the deer to a clearing and hung it from a tree by its hind legs. This was allowing all the blood to drain out from the deer’s throat. They did not seem at all bothered by the grotesque sight of the blood spilling onto the ground.
They relaxed around the clearing, nonchalantly waiting for the bleeding to finish. Though they did not speak, they frequently glanced at me, their thoughts indiscernible behind their dark eyes. The woman in particular could not take her eyes away, watching me with a furrowed brow.
He cannot be a man, what he did was not possible for a man to do. He must be a god. What does he want with us? Why does he want to go to our village, and why does he give us food? He appears to be kind, but his power scares me.
I assumed they would take the dead animal back to their village, and I was curious to see how they would carry such a heavy load. I was also curious about how far we still had to go, because the sun had begun its drop towards the horizon quite a while ago. But I doubted they had any concept of time, and I wasn’t sure how they would understand distance.
I looked at the woman, who I had learned was called Kalou in their language, and the younger man, who was Catto. “Village today?” I said. They stared at me with blank expressions.
I pointed at the sun and slowly dropped my hand, indicating the sun setting. “Village today?” I slowly asked. I once again motioned the sun going down, and put my hands to my mouth as if eating and under my head as if sleeping.
Kalou’s eyes lit up and she smiled enthusiastically, than turning to Catto, she began speaking and gesturing in their language. He nodded and they both looked back to me.
He mimicked me eating and sleeping and distinctly said, “Village.” Then he pointed at the sun and began slowly dropping his hand. He stopped moving it just above the horizon. We would be at their village today, before sundown.
I smiled and nodded and said to them, “We’ll be at your village today.”
Catto nodded back to me and replied slowly and distinctly, “Village today.”
We still had quite a ways to travel, and I felt sure my companions were very hungry. I had been with them most of the day and they had eaten nothing. I decided while we were waiting for the deer to finish bleeding, they should cook the rabbits. Also, this would be a good time to search the forest for something I could eat. I hadn't eaten for days, but there was no chance I would eat any rabbit.
I also had another, self-serving reason for wanting them to eat the rabbits now.
I said, “Village today, but eat now.”
I brought my hand to my mouth to show them what I meant. They nodded hesitantly while giving me puzzled looks, not really understanding what I meant. They had no packs and no gear for cooking; they carried nothing but their weapons in their hands.
I knew that they planned to be home before nightfall, and their tribe would expect them to bring back everything they had killed that day so the entire tribe would be able to eat. They obviously carried no prepared food, and were confused that I seemed to tell them that we would eat now.
If my guess was correct, they had no idea how I planned to cook the meat. But I had a good reason for wanting them to eat, one which was much more important to me than making sure they weren't hungry. I had something I wanted to show them, something I believed would be the most significant thing I showed them all day.
While the blood continued to slowly drain, I turned to the group and said, “Time for a fire.”
Then looking at my two new friends I told them, “Get wood.”
Once again they gave me blank stares.
“Wood,” I said, “For a fire.”
I pointed at a tree and then bent down and picked up a dry stick from the ground. They nodded, still puzzled, but even so they started to collect dead branches for a fire. They’re beginning to trust me, I realized. They don’t know why I want them to gather wood, but they're doing it because I asked them.
Between the three of us, we soon had a nice pile of branches gathered. I piled some kindling up just as the elder hunters decided to come see what I was doing. Taking out my knife and firestone, I began striking towards the kindling.
As the first spark flew off the stone, in unison there was a loud cry from all four of them. I looked up from my kindling, a purposefully blank expression on my face. They had all jumped back from me, shock showing on their faces. I knew then that I had guessed correctly. They did not have the ability to start fire, and that was why they were confused by my directions to gather firewood. They obviously didn’t use, or know how to use a firestone.
I had come to this conclusion as we waited for the deer to bleed and I had time to think about their level of civilization. I felt confident that fire was a precious commodity which had to constantly be kept alive in their settlement, at the minimum banked in coals at all times. This didn’t really surprise me, as my family had done the same thing, letting the fire die down at night and bringing it back in the morning with fresh kindling.
The difference was that we had the ability to start fire whenever we needed, because of the stones my father had found and discovered how to use. Fire was the most valuable commodity there was, since they had to cook their meat in order to eat it. If all the fires in their camp ever went out, I wondered what they would do.
Fire could be the difference between living and dying, and they had just seen that I held that power in my hand! I could not even imagine what they were thinking; what their opinion of me now was. It was possible I had just been elevated to a god in their eyes, which was an interesting thought.
I didn’t want to say anything about the stone or make a big deal out of what I was doing, so I bent back over my task. With a few more strikes to the stone the fire was lit and quickly began picking up heat. I grabbed two sticks and began to sharpen them. Though I had never cooked meat before, the only logical way seemed to be to put it on a stick and hold it over the fire.
I indicated to Kalou that I wanted to cook the rabbits and held up two fingers. She nodded slowly, continuing to look at me wide-eyed as she bent down to pick up two of the rabbits.
I indicated that they should prepare them for cooking and use the sticks I had sharpened to hold them over the fire. I got the impression this was not a new concept to them, which was a positive sign to me. They quickly skinned and cleaned the rabbits and prepared them for cooking. I had them throw the intestines into the woods, which the older men, Andoc and Nadar, the leader, were not happy about.
I thought it was probable that in their society they wasted no part of the animal after it was killed. One more lesson to teach them, I thought. You don’t have to eat every part of something just because it’s there.
Since the rabbits had been killed early in the day, I saw no reason to risk illness by cooking or eating the intestines. Though the entire dead animal looked disgusting to me, there was something about those intestines which made me uncomfortable. I had the feeling that something in them could make you ill if you were to eat them, and I did not want to risk that happening right now.
At this point we were still waiting for the fire to grow to the point where they could cook the meat. This was a good time to look for something I could eat in the forest, so I looked at Kalou and said, “Let’s get more food.”
I indicated eating and pointing to the woods around us, repeated, “Get more food.”
She understood, nodded in agreement, and turning to the men said something in their language. The younger man, Catto, indicated he would come with us, while the older men would tend the fire and cook the rabbits.
I followed the woman as we walked into the forest. She seemed to know exactly where she was going and headed straight up a faint path, moving quickly and silently. In a short while we arrived at another small clearing, and on the far side I saw some low bushes which I immediately recognized.
When we got close I was pleased to see they were covered with small blue ber
ries. The fruit looked a little smaller, but otherwise was identical to the blueberries I had cultivated at home. It was one of my families’ favorite fruits, and we had used it often in our cooking and baking. I was thrilled to see that it existed on this side of the desert; the blueberries made me feel more confident that there would be other familiar plants that I could grow and eat.
I immediately began voraciously devouring the fruit, and quickly felt energy flowing back into my body. Now that I had something to eat, I could allow myself to admit how hungry I really was. I had eaten nothing for over five days, and my last meal, as it were, had only been a few morsels of stale bread.
While I was eating Kalou briefly disappeared into the forest, but soon returned with several large leaves which she formed into bowls and began to fill with berries. When I had eaten my fill and she and Catto had filled five leaves, she indicated we should continue walking.
We changed direction and now moved through the underbrush. It was thin and the walking was still easy, but the berries we carried made our progress a little slower. Kalou was searching for something; as she walked she continually looked around and scanned the ground. Suddenly she saw what she had been searching for, and calling out she pointed to a small patch of spindly plants.
The plants were foreign to me, and they certainly didn’t look very promising. Putting down her berries, she knelt and began to dig with her knife around one of the stalks while she simultaneously pulled upwards on it. After a short while the entire plant popped out of the ground, showing a large tuber attached to the spindly top. The tuber looked very much like a potato, though it was longer and skinnier than I was used to.
Catto and I also began to dig, and we soon had a full load of potatoes which we cleaned up and put in my pack. We then gathered the leaves of blueberries and returned to the fire.
We arrived back at the clearing where the older men waited, turning the rabbits as they roasted. They indicated the rabbits were cooking nicely, and were almost ready to be eaten. I told Kalou that I wanted to eat some of the potatoes, and since I did not know how they were best eaten, I asked her to prepare them. She gave me an odd look, and then with a roll of her eyes she walked to the fire and dropped several of the potatoes in the edge of the coals. I noticed that she was trying not to smile, and I realized sheepishly that this obviously was the only way they could be cooked.
When the rabbits were done we pulled the potatoes out of the fire. They weren’t cooked quite as thoroughly as I would have liked, but the rabbit was ready and everyone wanted to eat. While the rabbits were being taken from the fire, Catto went into the forest and came back with more large leaves to use as plates. Nadar pulled the rabbits off the sticks and used his knife to divide them into four portions. I had already indicated I did not want any rabbit, but would have extra potatoes. They each took half a rabbit, as well as a couple potatoes and some blueberries, while I took five potatoes and a generous portion of the blueberries. We drank from my water skins with our meal. I used one for myself, and gave the other to my companions.
Everyone attacked their food voraciously, and all the leaf plates were soon cleared. From the way they ate I could tell they had eaten nothing since early that morning, if not the night before.
In short order the fire was put out and the body of the deer had been lashed to a large pole, hanging by its feet. It would be carried by two men, with the pole resting on our shoulders as we walked. This was a good way to carry the deer, and I was impressed they had thought of it.
The sun was lowering in the sky, and my companions indicated that we needed to move swiftly so we could be out of the forest and in their village before nightfall. Though I did not know if it was other humans or animals they feared, they obviously believed it was not safe in the forest at night. We quickly got underway with Catto and Nadar taking the first turn carrying the deer.
As we walked I thought about what would happen when we arrived at their village. I needed to be ready. I needed to plan what I would do and how I would act when we arrived. I had to make sure that I would quickly be recognized as the leader of these people. While I had no way of knowing if there were any other tribes on this side of the desert, for now I needed to work with what I had, which was the people walking with me.
I knew very little for certain about my companions. They were obviously a crude and uncivilized people, and they would probably have a simple form of leadership. I saw the power structure in this hunting party, that one of the older men was the leader. I didn’t know if his leadership over a few hunters transferred into power over all hunters or the tribe in general, but I was pretty confident that age was the deciding factor in their tribal leadership.
Though I might be older than anyone in their village, since I appeared young to them my age could be an obstacle that I would need to negate immediately to be accepted as their leader. The mark on my head would stop them from harming me, and the stories my companions would tell about how I had stopped their weapons, killed the deer, and started a fire should inspire fear and awe.
But fear, awe and the mark could combine to get me thrown out of their village the next day if I wasn’t clever. I had to make sure that I inspired them, and that they realized what my superior intelligence and abilities could do for them. While fear of my physical abilities could help me gain power, it would be my ability to help them advance past their barbaric lifestyle that would be the key to holding power.
These people could barely communicate, they had shockingly crude weapons and clothing, they had no way of starting a fire, and their hygiene was appalling. Given what I had witnessed today, I had no doubt that their farming skills were minimal to nonexistent, and I didn’t even want to think about the homes they lived in.
These people had a long way to go to become civilized human beings, and my ideas, knowledge and leadership could turn them into a great and powerful tribe. I just had to make sure they took me in tonight and let me stay long enough to set my plans in motion.
Since they couldn’t harm me and I was so much stronger, it might be easiest to kill the current leaders in order to take their place. I hoped it didn’t come to violence. It wouldn’t make me happy to kill, but I would do whatever I needed to gain power and get the place of honor that I deserved.
I was going to be their leader and soon everyone would know how important I was. And someday, someday soon, I would be the king on this side of the desert. Nothing was going to get in my way.