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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 25: Takano 92
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 8
Fishing in the lake for her lunch, Tomiko heard someone come up. She just waited, and then Gram squatted down on the shoreline across from her. He spoke quietly.
“Tomiko?”
“Yes?” She turned from looking for a fish to come close enough to stab with her steel-headed arrow.
“I was fishing this morning, and one of the other fishers was talking about that mountain lion. And how Emperor Beam had all those weapons, and Lauren did, and even you have that hooked rope with you. It occurred to me that all we have are bows and arrows, and maybe we might need more. I wondered if you had a solution.”
Tomiko thought, and considered nets, or bigger bows, or rifles. None of those plans sounded worthwhile, or workable. A phrase she had heard in passing occurred to her. Fire-hardened spears. Breathing in, she narrowed her eyes, and thought more.
It might not work, but it was easy, so even if it failed it would not cost too much effort. She would need her hatchet, some long straight branches, and her campfire. Wading to shore, she said, “I have an idea, Gram. I’m not sure it will work, but it might. Catch me a fish for lunch, and I’ll go work on it now.”
Gram smiled. “That’s a deal. I like fishing. It's very peaceful.”
Tomiko left and walked back to her nest home. Getting out her hatchet, she went looking for long straight branches. They had to be low enough to the ground for her to chop clear, but still green or they’d have already been scavenged as squaw wood for the fires. An hour later, she had five of them. Coming back to her campfire, she saw Gram and his wife, Sulin, sitting by her fire, eating fish. Another whole fish had been cleaned and waited to be cooked for her.
While Sulin cooked, she showed Gram her idea. Using the hatchet between the two of them, they sharpened the points on the ends of the branches to make them spears. Before the next part, Sulin served her the fish. Then the couple followed her instructions to place two spears into the edge of the campfire. A minute later, one of them burst into flame, and despite quick work beating the fire out, the spear point was ruined. She assured them it was okay, and to not put the next one so deep into the fire. Then going back to dig deep into her own food, she let them practice with the rest. By the time she was done, there was one fire-hardened spear to the tribe. A few minutes later, they had four.
Gram did not need an explanation after she picked one up, and demonstrated a stabbing stroke. He could easily see how this might be incorporated into a method to stab a deer, or convince a mountain lion to stay back. She also showed him a throw, but it wobbled in the air, and came down badly. Getting ready to leave, Sulin hugged her, and Gram carried off three spears to show to the council. He left one with Tomiko. It was six feet long, smoothly gray-barked, and had a blackened tip that she felt sure could pierce a deer.
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 #502: Character Setbacks. 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:
