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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 10: Takano 87
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 3
After Tommy had read to the crowd from John and discussed it a bit in context with what had gone before, most of the tribe left. Only the council remained, and they followed her to her campfire. She waited, and finally Group Leader Gram spoke.
“As you wanted, we discussed what to do about this cat creature. We’ve had various ideas tossed about. Some are in favor of taking a large group of hunters with their bows and seeking it out. Others want to stay close to camp, and hope that it will eventually go away. We had other ideas–creating a trap, or putting poisonous berries inside a dead deer. And, well, we’d like your thoughts.”
Tommy looked about. It did not take much to see that there were disgruntled people. They hid it, but sideways glances to and fro told the story. There had been some hot and heavy arguments going on. All of the plans discussed seemed lacking. Deliberately attacking a mountain lion with poorly-trained archers in a wood could easily lead to some hunters being killed. At the same time, just hoping and waiting was not a great plan either. Not sure, but she thought a mountain lion, like other cats, might be finicky, so poisoning it with berries would be fruitless.
She felt the lure of power, and considered the story she had been reading. Jesus had waited although he did not need to to let Lazarus die so that others could see the Truth. Then He had shown his power by raising him from the dead. Maybe she needed to be patient in using her power to bring them to a better truth of how to cooperate with each other?
The idea tasted sound, even if a bit disappointing. Relieved to have a plan, and a bit trepidatious, she smiled back at Group Leader Gram.
“While I am your advisor, I think I should see how you solve this problem.” And oh, she hoped that her diffidence was not cowardice that would get men killed by the claws of a cat. Gram snorted, and she could see he looked irritated.
“We will go with the team leaders’ plan then. As agreed.”
Tommy’s eyes widened and she looked over at the three lower rank members of the Ruling Council. They all smiled as one. Torin and Varlax looked at each other, and shrugged. She began to put it together. Torin had wanted to hunt, Varlax to stay close to camp, Gram to poison the deer. And that left the vote won by the team leaders. She hadn’t considered a three-way split–but it was up to them to figure out how to govern themselves.
“Our plan, Tommy, is simple, and has a bit of the others mixed in. We’ll go and cover up the small pool with dirt and rocks and branches to block it so the cat won’t have anything to drink. We stay close to home on that side for a few days, and we have hunters standing guard. Hopefully, the cat will get thirsty and go elsewhere,” Sylwi said with a bright smile.
“It's a clever idea,” Torin said. “But you’re just delaying the inevitable. We will have to hunt the beast–attack it at the ruined red brick building that Tommy showed us.” It was not a true objection, but more an ‘I will tell you so’ for the future.
Boronir, one of the other team leaders, nodded, and spoke diplomatically.
“You might be right, Torin.”
All of them got up, and nodded with frowns, or ignored her, or gave her big smiles before heading toward their own nest homes. All in all, she thought that went well. She sat by the fire for a few more minutes, then decided it was time to head down to the lake and see if she could spear a fish for dinner.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #498: Characters Restart. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
