Ember of a New World (13 page)

How could she have been so stupid to search a wood and brush pile without taking care for the creatures which can be found in suc
h a place
? Though the little black snake probably wouldn't have killed her outright, she would have been in great pains for days, and without food she might still have died. When alone in the wilds, one only had to become wounded to die. The wilds would finish you themselves and without the need for a quick death.

Suddenly she caught sight of a familiar looking object. With a gasp, Ember realized the item caught in mud and the debris was a shaped piece of flint. She reached, carefully this time, into the brush and with another gasp Ember lifted a hand cut piece of flint from the brush and examined it. This was a piece from her sack of flint, there was no doubt. Ember held the flint close for a moment and with renewed vigor she dug through the dri
ft wood, but with greater care.

As she dug, she began to lose hope as no more flint was to be found. When Ember
finally
removed her hands carefully from the brush
,
she brushed aga
inst some of the caked mud and it fell away exposing the tip of a leather thong. Ember grabbed at the thong and pulled free a large clump of mud from the brush. As she removed the mud, she realized that the flint must have fallen free from her bag, which she now held! The little leather bag had been so caked with mud that she hadn't recognized it. Moreover, the bag was tied to the longer leather thong, which she was now pulling free, that Ember had used for a belt. That same belt also carried the sheath in which her Obsidian dagger was kept.

Sure enough the dagger was still bound to the belt firmly with a small piece of leather. Ember pulled the entire assembly free from the mud and stared at it with wet disbelieving eyes. Overwhelmed with relief, Ember inspected her father's blade for damage noting that the sheath was still filled with water. Throughout the ordeal, the blade had remained intact, and the little bag had only a small opening at the top from which very little could have fallen out. Inspecting the bag
,
Ember found nearly all of her flint piec
es and the Goddess pendant.

I haven't broken my promise just yet, Blossom
, she thought hold
ing the pendant tightly.

What marvel was this but the fate of the Spirits and Gods? What wonders of delight and terror they could work, and why? Ember spent a long moment just sitting there in the gently warming pebbles and sand pondering the chances of having found lost items in a river and how close she had just come to a bite which surely would have left her in a sorry state. After a few moments of introspection, she became aware of the tears welling in her eyes. Not for the first time Ember considered the wisdom of the Elders in sending her out by herself into these dangerous lands when even the hunters from her village traveled in groups of no less than three! At that moment, she both thanked and scorned the Gods for their double edged obsidian-sharp “signs”.

*  *  *

Pak watched as Calpano walked, stooping with the bent-forward fashion of a man tracking small game. Of the group, Calpano was by far the best tracker and he had again spotted small game. Thoughts of the rabbits returned to him with abandon, and Pak let himself fall deeply into his memories to fight the boredom of the current tracking, which might yet take
significant time
. The previous night had been wet with a storm and the group had been forced into a cave for shelter. The storm had forced the loss of half of a day of walking, but they were lucky to have found the cave just before the rains had fallen.

Caves were not numerous or easy to enter. They often contained a very angry animal with a greater claim. Three men would be hard pressed to kill or scare off a bear. Caves were also an indignity only the weakest tribes faced when driven from their own lands. Men lived off of farming and only a little bit of hunting, so a cave was discord
ant with the way of people.

With no food but the dried meats the men carried, the night had been quite solemn. Pak's thoughts turned towards the cave and last
night’s
rain which had driven them inside. The storm had lasted for a long time, and the wind had blown heavily. Without anything to do and only the company of two inhospitable men, Pak had taken to looking around the cave for points of interest. Pak fondly remembered the investigation of the previous night as he mindlessly walked along the trails behind Calpan
o tripping every now and then.

It had been cold and wet when the trio had found the cave near the river. Rosif had quickly made a fire from drift wood near the entry. He had equally quickly fallen asleep with the understanding that the two younger men would keep the fire tended. While the Rosif snored loudly by the fire and Calpano whittled away at a piece of beach driftwood he had found, Pak had taken it upon himself to examin
e the cave.

The cave was not very deep and quickly became unusable by a person. Pak continued to move towards the back of the cave examining the walls and crevices for anything strange. The back walls became dark as they faded from the fire's reach but soon they shown clearly with Pak's torch of animal oil and plant fiber. The walls were made of a dark stone, smoother than Pak expected, with small out
croppings of disorder.

A
s
he let his hand drift down the rock Pak noticed an image! At first he retracted his hand before realizing the human nature of the picture. It was an image of some sort of deer and a man chasing it with some sort of spear, Pak suspected. The picture was crude and faded but clearly visible in the torch light. After a time, he happened upon a hand print in the wall which looked as though someone had blown pigment over their hand leaving a “shadow” outline of their hand behind. Such images were not too uncommon to find in caves, though most were barely
distinguishable from the rock.

Some said they came from spirits or even from animals living in the caves, but Pak thought them more likely the work of men. How long had they been there? The images appeared very old and depicted hunting techniques, which were primitive compared to what Pak used. Never did he see a bow, but always those spears. Who hunted large prey with a spear? Surely a fool approached a large animal with a spear. Large animals were herded and shot with arrows or trapped. Spears were reserved for small game.

Pak had slid down the wall in the cooler, darker part of the cave and allowed himself to slowly drift towards sleep. Just as sleep had come upon him, Pak had wondered if he would ever be remembered in the distant future by other hunters, much as this nameless hands story had served its owner. Pak had slept reasonably well that night.

Thoughts of the night spent in the cave mildly entertained an otherwise board Pak as he continued to follow Calpano. Pak couldn't have known that he was quite right about the use of spears but that the crude drawing omitted the use of a smaller hand held shaft, perhaps half an arm's length, to which the spear was attached. This acted as a lever propelling the spear at greater speeds. This stick figure used an Atlatyl, an ancient weapon long since fallen out of favor and replaced by the bow and arrow. Though it should be noted that even with an Atlatyl, only a fool would attack anything larger than a small deer.

*  *  *

Ember walked along the river bank for a long while following the river's flow, but at a much slower pace than travel on water had afforded. She was slowly making her way north by north west and without any idea of what would c
ome next. She had lost much of h
er supplies and had now only what she could carry in her hands and attached to her belt. Ember pondered her current predicament over and over in her head as s
he walked down the pebbly bank.

Her stomach finally ended the indecision with a deep grumble. Ember knew she would need some food but not how she would obtain it. Perhaps some small game would do, but first she would need a means to capture and kill something. The skills of basic trapping of small game were known to Ember, like all women, but traps could take days to capture anim
als. Ember was hungry right now
. She would need to make a quick weapon and find some small game. Ember searched the bank for a short time before finding a stick nearly as long as she was tall, and with a general
ly straight shaft.

This weapon would need to be more robust than the short-lived fishing spear she had made the night before. She knelt on the dirt and removed her bag. From the bag, she took a long sharp piece of flint which would make an impromptu spear head. Ember picked up a piece of stone with a sharp edge and rubbed it back and forth over the end of the stick until there was a decent gro
o
ve. She forced the sharp rock into the newly made gr
o
ove.

Next she lifted a larger stone and hammered the first stone, using it as a wedge, into the gro
o
ve until the stick split, just a little. Ember removed the stones from the split made in the wood and inserted the flint head. Using a thong from her belt
,
she secured the head in place as tightly as she could. Perhaps she would craft a more quality weapon later, but for now she would use this crude spear to quench her hunger. Ember headed off towards the brush, alternating
where she searched
from the sandy pebble bank t
o the grass on the other side.

Rivers attracted many small animals, and if a hunter, or huntress as it were, looked about they were assured to find something small and furry. Fish was fine, but Ember was in the mood for something different. After a time Ember spotted her quarry, a small brown rabbit happily chewing grass on the shore just a stone's throw ahead. Almost immediately the rabbit stopped chewing and stood ready to bolt. Ember slowly walked around the rabbit as though she would merely pass a few lengths of a man behind the rabbit. Ember was not a hunter and had little idea how to do this. Her only hope came from the younger men she would watch returning to camp with many rabbits. Perhaps a rabbit would fall for
this most human style of trick.

That's right rabbit. I'm just passing by. Nothing to see here...
, she thought. The rabbit was very wary and suddenly ran away before she could even lift the spear. Ember stood there with her arms limp at her side and a grimace on her face. Not even a single sarcastic comment issued from her wide open mouth. Then her stomach made a com
ment.

After additional fruitless searching, Ember decided to try the river for food. She strode into the cool water and began her search for dinner. Why had she tried to kill a rabbit? She was no good at that sort of hunting. Fishing had always been her skill, and within a few
moments
Ember noticed several fish swimming a mere
arm’s length
away on her left.

If only rabbits would swim through the water, I could eat piles of them
, she thought. Laughing to herself, she slowly moved the spear tip through the water towards the fish. Ember kept the tip below the water to fool the River Spirits, overcoming the distortion they caused. As one of the fish presented its flank, Ember drew the spear closer. Suddenly the fish kicked its tail to flee the approaching spear, but Ember’s qui
ck jerk of her arm was faster.

Ember walked along the waters bank with a still wiggling fish on the end of her crude spear. For the first time in a day, a smile crept into Embers face. She had been somewhat depressed at her lack of hunting skills, but when she entered the water her true skills came to light. There was something about having a skill, no matter how simple or small, and being go
od at it which delighted Ember.

With practiced skill, Ember flung the fish through the air onto the land. When she looked at the gasping fish, Ember recalled her own drowning and suddenly felt a touch of remorse for the poor fish. To that she swung her spear butt first, holding it near the pointed end. The butt of the spear smacked the fish hard on the head effectively braining it. Ember twisted her mouth sideways and smirked. Perhaps that was the strangest sort of pity sh
e had ever
shown. She shrugged.

Hey, At least it was quick
, she thought. Ember renewed her fishing. After a good while, Ember had captured three fish and picked a handful of tasty river mussels. She walked ashore and knelt in the warm pebbly sand to clean and dress the fish to eat. As long as this uncommonly warm weather lasted, Ember would be safe from starvation. The problem was that warmth lasted only a short time, and the cold seasons lasted much longer. It had been the warm season for quite a long time and soon the cold would come. That last notion lasted in her mind as she eviscerated and then cleaned the fish as well as the mus
sels.

With a cleaned fish, Ember merely needed a fire, and she would be hungry no more. She longed for her fire bow. With it, she would have a fire in moments..., if only she still had it. Only the gear attached to her when she fell overboard had been found. It had probably detached as she swam close to shore. Without a fire bow, the old ways would have to do. Tired and weary, Ember was thankful for the ample driftwood on the river bank. Without delay
, she selected
several choice pieces which had been in the warm sun and were now dry after the storm.