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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 60: Takano 103
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 19
Duck potatoes, dried fish, salt from a deer lick, and fat from a deer were cooking in her kit over the fire when she heard a buoyant voice call out from nearby.
“Sister, care to share?"
She jerked her head to the right and saw a grinning Davey, heavily laden, standing fifteen yards away. Tommy leapt to her feet, and ran over, and gave him a hug, relieved to see him back alive. But the hug was quick, as Davey stank of meat and blood.
“You stink.”
“Been carrying meat and hides for the last two days.”
She noted his face was dirty, and lined with tiredness.
“Drop your load and come sit. I’ll get you some food.” So saying she led him to the fire, and ten feet from it he shucked his backpack, which had hides packed atop it, with a groan of relief. Working his shoulders he came and sat down as she dished out a fish hash into the bowl-like plate from her cook kit. Eating it, the tension faded from his body. She quietly gathered what she could, and began making herself another meal.
“So?” She prompted him.
“One large wolf, five rabbits, a red fox, two coyotes, a kingsnake, a great horned owl, and four deer.” She stared at him, shocked, and at the same time annoyed because that was not the answer she wanted. Just like a guy, she thought. What was important was what he had decided about whom to marry. Instead, he tells her how many animals he had slain. Still, she got up, and tried to lift the backpack. It barely moved. Not only did it contain hides, but meat as well.
“My back hurts,” he said with a rueful look. “I passed up on a horse on the way back, just could not carry anymore.”
The idea of killing a horse to eat it sounded horrible to her, but she could understand how the locals might not see it that way.
“So, if you had to pick a girl to massage your aching back, who would it be?”
He paused, and then spoke softly.
“Varlax. I will give her the wolfhide to wear as a cloak against the winter, and three deer hides as tunics for her children. The red fox I will make into mittens for her and her children, with some help from one of the coyotes. The rest, including the meat, I will give to the Tribe.” He sucked in a nervous breath. “That is, if she will have me.”
“Finish the rest of the food, and then, little brother, before you go see your wife-to-be, you need a bath, badly. You can bathe in the lake, or take a cold shower; it would take too long to get the water hot for a hot shower.”
He looked scared on two counts, and well he should. Varlax was formidable, and the lake water made the teeth ache if you drank from it, so cold it was.
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 #505: Versers Advance. 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:
