PART II
SEVENTEEN
Leaving the last scene behind him where he has given a signal to Lady Hawk in his repertoire of primitive sign language Ray turns around. This sign language he used happens to be a flick from the chin by his right and left hand both at the same time momentarily. Of course, she will have to take that back with her as an insult, though Ray can care the less. In his mind life has taken a change for the worse and he just escaped the fringes of its fingernails.
With the sounds of rapids roaring in his ear further down from the lagoon like area he has falling victim to, Ray makes his way through the mudded river's edge as he scampers passed some reeds lining a slight meandering curve. Walking his first few steps on the embankment Ray turns around looking back up the cliff's edged crest. In all of this confusion he ponders for a moment in his mind before deciding to turn around again and scope out the area he is unfamiliar with. Noticing some trees broken up west of the river Ray takes his initial departure in search of somewhere where he can recollect himself and assess the situation at hand.
Thinking about those left behind Ray continues thinking to himself. With muttered words he begins to speak to himself muttering, "I wonder if the little ones are alright?"
"If they are, I'm sure they can handle themselves," Ray adds as his feet creek further away from the sounds of the roaring water just behind him a little ways. Getting himself worried and conjured up he says to himself, "As long as they're safe until I get back there."
Entering the outer reaches of the trees he set for Ray shrills further recalling, "A feeling came over me that something like this would happen!"
"Nonetheless will have to depart further until I can think of something," he assures himself trying to shine a little hope on the circumstances.
Picking up a falling branch he sees off to his side John begins stripping the branches and leaves away toddling, "There's just too many of them to do anything alone!"
Making his first attempts with some protection from his new friend Ray takes a swing testing its durability. Getting ready to take another he says, "Hopefully there's no more trouble!"
Moving forward in a steady pace Ray hears a crackle sound a ways back from behind. Quickly he turns and gazes off in to the mere distance with a wooly view. Focusing his blurred eyes he gets the glimpse of a face and thicket like horns piercing their way past a heaving gasp of breath. Looking blindly at some unknown distorted image he takes a step backwards and catches a foretaste of some movement wavering back in the remoteness.
Hurriedly he takes another step back and catches another creek and tilt of some furry image glaring back. In fear he takes another as a large growling sound comes forward. With an alarmed feeling hovering over him Ray starts to take a few more steps backwards about ready to turn and run from what looks to be larger than anything he has ever seen back at home.
Then suddenly the creature takes a few lunges forward out past the buckled trees surrounding it. Without any further hesitation, Ray turns completely around and begins to run once again, although this time it's for another reason. As he pushes faster and faster away he can hear the loud sounds of thumping gaining closer and closer. Nonetheless he takes a look back barely focusing him without falling over. As he takes a glance back he can see nothing but a large heap of mangled fur and two large tusks creeping up faster and faster.
Without falling or tripping over anything in his way he turns his head straight ahead lunging for a tightly planted cluster of trees nearby. With no turning back he makes his way between two strewn trunks sparsely planted in front of the rest. Rushing within he falls back behind a few more creating a sort of barrier directly behind him. Getting himself in to a stable place hiding himself from whatever is approaching; he turns around and is struck by the piercing near blow of two wooly mammoth tusks slipping a few inches away.
In shock his reflexes lunge him back tripping over and leaning on another trunk barricading him from any further moving away. Quickly he turns and makes for another gap on the other side of the gathering of newly sprouted trees growing closely together. Turning again he hears a deep breathing exhale as the creature turns to take his side once again.
Devoid of turning an eye away he follows closely as the stare of blood draws down on him from not too far off. Waiting without even having caught his breath, Ray takes a hold of one of the trees standing presently in front of him. Shaking and trembling from fear and confusion he lunges back as another near strike comes with a swift turn from the unknown creature to him. Luckily he hasn't caught his breath because the next blow barley misses his upper chest area as he turns swiftly.
Staying with the pace of getting away he rushes through the trees on the other end of the foliage bushing forth in to a slight trail. Making his way straight forth as fast as he possibly can Ray pushes himself as hard as he can without stopping or turning back this time. Miraculously he is able to gain a considerable distance, although the wooly mammoth has finished turning the bend as the thumping from behind is heard once more.
Keeping a good distance for now, Ray runs as fast as he possibly can once more faster and further than before. However off in the distance a spear is plucked from a small damp mound nearing some nearby trees. Ray continues the move although another slight cry is heard from behind followed by a loud squeal and thump. Ray turns barely as he sees the wooly mammoth start to crumble downward slightly. Then all of a sudden it ends in a louder thundering crash like roar which raises a shroud of dust.
Rearing to the side he can see another remote figure careen in to plain view. In amazement he is relieved although he is slowly approach by a strong and firm like woman who nears him ghastly. As Ray stands there motionless she approaches him at a pace saying, "My name is Lady Mammoth."
She pulls out a necklace bearing a gypsum stone which shines a glaring reflection back at Ray as she adds, "Where are you from?"
Ray can only think for a moment to himself replying, "Sounds like a kind of keen name."
"I'm a very keen kind of person I suppose you could say," she answers back with a more subtle voice. Getting back to the original opening conversation she asks again, "Where are you from, you don't look like you're from around here, huh!"
"No, I'm not from around here, in fact I'm not even from the last place I was staying. Right now I guess you could say I'm from nowhere."
"Well everybody has to be from somewhere. We all don't just come from nowhere," she tells him trying to persuade a sort of trust between them both.
"Well, my family and I…….. Came from far, far, far away, he informs her trying to keep himself from mumbling the words out.
Now she can tell he has something to hide. Speaking her mind she asks him gently, "Where are they now?"
Ray takes a deep breath and then lets the words out shaking his hand slightly, "We all ran in to some kind of trouble?"
Contemplating what happened she puts the story in to action drilling, "What kind of trouble?"
Here's Ray's chance to tell her the truth and hopefully figure out what he should and can do about it. Becoming a little more worried Ray gasps back saying, "Well you don't look like them so let's just say we ran in to some dark trouble!"
Right off the mark she gets anxious to take him back to her camp to take care of him the best she can in order to claim her heritage in return once again. About to pull his arm she commands, "Come! I take you back to my village where you can be safe until we think of something to help you win back your family."
Immediately she begins to lead the way as Ray follows. Eager to hear the story she continues on the conversation by saying, "So what happened?"
Ray gets agitated thinking where to even start with the whole darn story. So much has happened to fast all of a sudden. Catching a breath he asks once again, "Is that your real name?"
"As real as that wooly mammoth back there, huh," she exclaims as she glances back. Going further she says, "Darn, I have to send my friends to take care of the matter, I guess. There's not too many around these days. Too much hunting going around, I suppose."
"So why do they call them that?" He asks taking a last look back.
Thinking to herself she answers, "They get their name because they make some great furs to make tents out of. They even have large tusks for making other items like perfumes and horns not to mention."
"Are they always that ferocious?" He asks with inquisitiveness.
"They have been becoming more vicious over the last migrating season or two." She says with an assurance to herself.
"So what happened?" She adds getting back to the story.
Ray takes another breath in order to tell the story starting with, "Well we came here from a land where it has been frozen over so bad that we couldn't even flourish as a people anymore. It was a long forgetful journey that we had endeavored ourselves in. When we came here we met others who had told us about these darker people who prowl and remain unseen and hidden in your fears. We knew something had the eye on us although we couldn't put a word to it. Soon they came when we we're much unexpected."
She gets in to the story wanting more shrilling, "Then what happened?"
Ray tells her more informing, "Well myself and some others were back at a cave like shelter and all of a sudden we were surrounded. I was inside with the kids…………The kids!" He yells really loud without any further hesitation.
"Where are they?" She asks promptly.
Getting confused considering he isn't even sure where he is at Ray shrieks, "The last time I saw them was at the shelter. I told them to hide underneath the fur blankets while I walked out."
"And when I walked out I could see one of them out of the corner of my eye about to move in for a strike." He says as he starts to worry for their safety.
Wanting to hear it all she asks, "Then what did you do?"
Feeling kind of like a wimp you could say Ray tells Lady Mammoth, "I just ran as fast as I could not even sure where I was running to. I looked back and one of them was on my trail. I dodged around everything I could and every time I looked back she was right there behind me with her spear straight forth ready to throw."
"Finally I started to pull branches back and let them smack back in her face which slowed her down. I smacked her a couple of good ones. Her face was bleeding," he discloses to her.
"Right on," Lady Mammoth says with a laughable sigh back thinking how she would like to do the same.
Going even further Ray babbles saying, "Then I came to a drop off which had some water I could see. So I just kept on going landing in a pool nearly losing my breath. Then when I came to shore I started thinking about what had happened and turned this way. I didn't even go that far hearing these huge panting breaths behind me. Then I ran and you came and I wound up here!"
"Sounds like you have had a terrible day!" She says realizing his family is in serious trouble.
Thinking back about his whole life Ray mentions, "I have had many bad days, one bad day after another leading up to a calamity!"
"I have had many bad days too, especially since the Black Hawks have made their way to these hunt able grounds," she says ready to tell him more about what is happening around these parts.
Right off the mark Ray can tell she has a lot to hide about these people like she has confronted them many times before. Ray asks her, "So I take it you know these people?"
"Know them; I do, like them I don't get along with them ever. They are nothing more than wild hogs snorting around this plentiful valley of my peoples. They have done nothing but ruin our hunting grounds and have followed many of their migration patterns killing them off to total extinction and annihilation. Many of the herds have wondered off finding new areas to flourish and new pastures to graze, she explains with a sort of anger in her face.
"On our way here we saw an area with mud where there were piles and piles of bones scattered with none I could recognize," Ray brings to her attention clicking to what she is telling him.
"You must have stumbled on to a kill site." She tells him abruptly.
"What's a kill site?" Ray asks with a keen curiousness about everything.
"There are many kill sites around these parts now. Some are mud bogs where they chase the animal herds in to the mud and spear them all down. Others are cliffs where they chase the herds over a cliff and ravaged as many as they can with now care of our future," she says with a depressing tone of voice.
"What do they do with them after they kill them all, isn't that a waste?" he asks wondering why so much is wasted.
"After they kill them they skin them for their furs and they take all of the meat they can before it goes bad I guess," she says becoming more disgusted with them all.
"They seem to act like nomads of some kind. We always domesticated our animals back at home and only killed the older ones off who were already dying anyways. The younger wild cows we used for milk and the hatch able animals we used for eggs and fertilizer for our crop we had growing. There were some types of wild nuts we could grow along with wild round lettuce and radishes which are easy to take care of. We also had a thing for killing our animals. We waited until they were weak and wanted to be put out of their misery. We also never killed them in front of the other animals which sours their meat because of the shock it causes to them," he says trying to persuade her with their accustomed ways of life.
"That sounds interesting, I never thought of that. Maybe you can teach our people how to grow and have animals pasturing around when this is all over with," she says calmly to him.
"I'd love to show you how to become more efficient, although it takes a lot of preparation and harvesting. So what did you do with the animals you hunted?" Ray questions her wanting to know more about her sedentary life as a people.
"We always hunted bigger game like the wooly mammoth, mastodon, and wild bison. Some larger elk and big horn deer we hunt as well depending on their migrations during the seasons. We try to stay away from the smaller game like small deer and wild caribou because they don't really supply us with enough meat to go around. And their furs don't help us with our sheltering. We usually only kill one at a time and watch them a little first making sure they don't have any young they are nurturing. Otherwise we deplete the herd and their ability to mate and create new offspring, she explains to him with much more detail.
Going in to even more detail she tells him more about the Black Hawks telling him, "The other tribe the Black Hawks hunts anything and everything. They kill whole entire families of herds and their offspring making it so they leave this valley in search of other grounds. They also leave the carcasses there to rot without disposing of them properly. They also leave kill sites which look awful and leave them to start another."
Approaching nearer and nearer to camp Ray continues on asking, "So why did you leave your spear back there?"
"When we return to camp I'll tell my people to go there and take care of it. There's a flag at the end of the spear so they now it's our when I send them. We have to hurry because it will go bad after a couple of more hours if we don't get it prepped before long," she discloses to him.
"How do you prepare your meat?" He asks with an inquiring.
"Most of the meat we cure it by smoking it before we cook it. We use many different woods to cure it like mesquite and chicories. Some of it we hang and make a dried beef that lasts a lot longer so that we can store it among the many storage huts we have around the camp," she says thinking more like him and his more agrarian kind of lifestyle.
"So what's your bone to pick with them all, these Black Hawks that you call them?" He questions wanting to get down to the heart of the matter.
"They have stolen many of our territories and have looted our herds we were cultivating slowly like your people so to say. They have even attacked many of our people looking for game trying to push us out of the area. The river is the edge of our newly sworn territory you stumbled upon. Many times they stand there and look down upon our valley but we don't care that much anymore. When the other members of our tribes return we will be stronger and hopefully win back our territory. However there probably won't be much left by then. But we can try and bring other herds back with your help of course," she enumerates to Ray.
"That's a lot of work ahead of you?" He carries on within the conversation.
"Yes, but it will all be worth it in the end I expect," she adds.
"So who is the leader of their people?" Ray asks wanting to know more in order to plan his revengeful plot.
"The leader of their tribe is someone I don't like. She attacked my mother who came to this land from another faraway place across an ice bridge with her many families some generations ago. My mother was weak and vulnerable and alone when she attacked her. When my mother returned to camp she was bleeding pretty bad and died two days later. My bone to pick is with their leader Lady Hawk. One day I will return the favor and spar her for this great land of ours, she announces to Ray letting him know her anger.
"So I'm not the only one with family to lose to these nomadic birds of prey so to speak?" He disclaims with a vengeance in return.
"No, many members of our tribe have lost to them over the years. They are our enemies so to speak. We have a light complexion to our skin like you. We are unalike in many different ways," she says with an assurance that has understood everything she has told him so far.
"Who was here first between both of your tribes?" Ray asks trying to gain more insight about the Black Hawks.
"Our people came first with my Great Grandmother and Grandfather who brought my mother and father along with their grandparents. There were many other members of my family as well like aunts and uncles who I had never met and many had perished while I was at a young age. Then when I was growing up the Black Hawks came and moved in to the outer reaches of our territory trying to steal game from us. It happened nearly within a few days. There were a many of them that popped out from nowhere. They were armed heavy and knew how to fight which made it difficult to stop them," she explains with a sort of experience through the years.
Carrying on even more she adds, "They must have followed other migrating patterns or changed them for some reason."
"Maybe the animal herds moved themselves and they just followed them hunting them all down," Ray mentions getting the hang of everything.
"Maybe, but no matter how they came here they are here now and have to move on somehow," Lady Mammoth says with a sort of furriness.
"How many of them are there compared to your tribe?" He asks with curiousness.
"There's probably around a hundred of them I guess just from glimpses of their camp from a distance," she says thinking about a time when she tried to get a close up view of their site.
Changing the conversation to the members of her camp Lady Mammoth proclaims, "In our campsite there are seventy two of us."
Ray realizes that they are kind of outnumbered so to say in a way answering back saying, "Seems like you are outnumbered a bit there are a few more of them."
Lady Mammoth goes further with some details pronouncing, "That's just a guess because I never really counting how many of them there are. There could have been more of them in their huts which are different than ours. However I really never could get close enough to get the full picture of things."
"Within a day or two we need to do some scouting around to see what we are up against and see what happened to your people. Hopefully they are alright and only taken captive. We'll have to try and get closer this time to get a better bird's eye view of things. Maybe we should start back at your camp. What did your camp look like and do you think you remember it when you see it?" She asks him wanting to start for their preparation of revenge.
"It was an opening underneath this big huge rocky overhang sort of near a stream that ran not too far away. There were some berry patches at the far other end just up from another brook that flowed towards the tributary," he says trying to picture the place in his mind.
"There were also some skins hanging on the walls inside along with some left over's from others who may have made their way there in search of a refuge I suppose," he adds to the scheme of things.
Lady Mammoth knows the place very vividly. She tells Ray the truth about the place saying, "I know the place. It's a rock shelter that was taken over by the Black Hawks when they first made their way here. There were others living there that weren't a part of our tribe. They were wanderers like you and your people, although the Black Hawks came and took them captive for who knows what reasons. We visited them on an occasion or two but they were a very peaceful and quiet people who seemed to just want to build themselves a family. We invited them to join our tribe before the Black Hawks first made their surprise visit to this sacred ground of ours and split it in half."
Talking about what has happened to the rock shelter she says, "The rock shelter is a sort of trap that lures people by looking lived in and abandoned."
"Are they still alive you think?" Ray asks being worried about his loved ones. Immediately he begins to become a little more concerned with the whole entire ordeal.
"It's hard to say. I tried to scope it out for them when I went scouting around their campsite, although I couldn't really seem to get close enough. I'm pretty sure it was them that came and took them, but I have no proof. None of us were there when it happened. I thought about being like a messenger and visiting them to ask them. However we have been sort of reluctant to do so. Now that you came we have some information to offer and go by which seems to be valid? You're our evidence in full blood that shreds the light of our hope," she informs him giving him the strength to carry on with them to help with the ordeal of their unknown and strange visitors.
Getting even more anxious to do something about the whole thing she exclaims, "The first thing to do I think would be to go the rock shelter and see if the kids are still there. If they're not we need to leave immediately changing our tactics and plan divertingly retreating back to safe ground."
I can hear voices of the kids playing already at our campsite. We aren't too much further anyhow."
As some kids cross their plain view off in the mere distance she says, "When we get to camp I'll introduce you to my family. It'll be hard to introduce you to all of them because some of them are quiet and don't trust strangers too much."
EIGHTEEN
Back at the rock shelter the kids have not budged an inch hiding underneath the blankets just as Ray commanded them to do. Fear runs through their minds as silence now rings through their ears with a screaming vengeance. Slowly for a first time peak Clovis the Kid takes a look from underneath the blanket. He peaks his head out and looks around for Rachael who was hiding just on the other side of the inside of the shelter. Quietly as he can without mustering any response from anyone else except for Rachael Clovis the Kid whispers, "Rachael?"
Rachael answers back quickly and quietly with a response whispering, "Clovis the Kid?
Clovis the Kid continues the conversation by saying, "Are we alone?"
Rachael listens with a keen ear shrilling, "I don't hear anybody else."
"I wonder what happened out there." "Clovis the Kid says remembering the entire ruckus outside.
Rachael adds, "I 'm not sure, I don't hear anybody?"
Clovis the Kid lifts the fur blanket up more poking his head out further. Briskly he says, "I don't see anybody inside."
Then Rachael starts to look out shrieking, "Is it safe to come out."
Clovis the Kid pulls the fur blanket completely away from the rest of himself replying, "I don't see why not?"
Rachael then comes out from her hiding place as well momentarily speaking, "Where is everyone, are they outside?"
"I don't know all I could hear is some scrambling around but no voices," Clovis the Kid shrills as he starts to walk towards the entrance of the rock shelter.
Rachael grows in inquisitiveness, "See if anybody is outside."
Clovis the Kid walks out further as quietly as he possibly can without stirring up anything. He steps towards the entrance of the rock shelter looking out to the front. Keeping Rachael informed he says, "I don't see anybody."
Rachael becomes very agitated and nervous wondering, "I wonder where they went?"
Clovis the Kid wonders the same thing getting scared sort of like, "They couldn't of just left. The last thing we heard was Ray told us to hide as he was heading outside to see something."
Rachael starts to think if something may have happened with them dark people adding danger to the idea of things, "I hope something didn't happen with those dark people."
"That's possible, maybe they came and took them, but I didn't hear anything," Clovis the Kid states as he thinks about it a lot more in his kid like little mind of his.
"Should we go outside and take a look?" Rachael says hoping its okay to go look outside and see if anyone is there right now.
Clovis the Kid takes a look at Rachael with a serious lonely look declaring, "Well, we're going to have soon enough."
Rachael thinks they should be extra careful just in case any of the dark ones are still around saying, "We should be careful just in case any of the dark ones are still around."
Clovis the Kid goes further saying, "Well I didn't hear anyone come inside, did you?"
Rachael thinks back to when they were hiding inside underneath the fur blankets shrilling, "No, I didn't hear anything inside just a bit of light scuffling outside. Not much else."
Clovis the Kid decides that they should try and arm themselves before going outside to look. Quickly he starts looking around for something to use speaking, "We should try and protect ourselves before we go outside and see if they are still around somewhere."
After glancing around the place he finds Ray and John's spears saying, "Let's take these just in case."
"And do what?" Rachael asks as she takes the spear from him barely being able to hold on without dropping it.
Clovis the Kid replies," And go outside and take a look around, what choice do we really have?"
Rachael becomes more and more nervous as she looks outside. Waiting for Clovis the Kid to be the first to take the initiative she blurts, "Boys first!"
Clovis the Kid starts to take his first couple of steps closer to the outside of the rock shelter. Taking the second step he says, "Coward!"
Continuing to make his way outside Rachael follows although she stops at the edge of the rock face and leans up against the foot wall telling him, "I'll wait right here while you take a look around."
He stops and then turns around walking quickly to the other side of the rock shelter. Leaning against the other foot wall like Rachael he shrills, "Maybe we should just wait here for a while in case we see or hear something first?"
Rachael looks out as far as she can where she last saw her mother saying, "They were just over there when I last saw them."
"Just wait a minute and I'll run over there real quick like to take a look and then I'll run on back," Clovis the Kid says as he holds the spear straight up from the ground.
Rachael gets anxious to know whether or not her mother's fur bag is still out there sitting where she last saw her. Boldly she commands him, "Just run out there real fast and see if my mother's bag is out there and hurry back!"
Quickly without even taking a slight glance, Clovis the Kid drops the spear and sprints as quickly as he can towards her fur bag without stopping. Faster than a flash he reaches the spot and picks up two fur bags with one in each hand that have been lying there all so still for the last couple of hours. Then he turns around and heads back keeping his faithful eye on Rachael standing there breathless next to the opening.
As he approaches closer and closer he throws them in front of Rachael saying, "There I picked up both of them for you."
She reaches down taking a hold of her mother's bag jousting, "Something must have happened because they wouldn't leave their bags like this."
"Whose is the other bag?" Clovis the Kid asks immediately.
"The other bag must be Lara's I guess," as she looks through her mother's bag seeing what's all in there.
"What are you looking for?" Clovis the Kid questions as she rummages around like she's looking for something.
"I'm just seeing if everything she normally has is still in here," she tells him as she pulls out a hidden wrapped up fur cloth.
"Is all of her stuff there?" Clovis the Kid answers back thirdly.
"I don't know, I can't tell. There are just some dirty clothes in there with this wrapped up cloth that smells like fish," she says as she sets the bag down. Then she unfolds the hanky finding some dead minnows and guppies in there sort of mashed up a tad bit.
Clovis the Kid looks over to the handkerchief noticing the sardine like meal saying, "Yuck, she must be getting desperate."
"I wonder where she found them at." Rachael wonders as she takes one and puts it in her mouth.
"You're eating them?" He says thinking they look sickening.
"Why not, I'm hungry?" She says as she chews it down with a very sour mouth.
Hesitating for a moment more Clovis the Kid reaches over taking one himself bashing, "Why not, I'm hungry also."
For another few moments they stand there taking another bite or two trying to quench the pains of their hunger. After standing there in the quiet air for another glimpse of a moment Rachael hears a distant rustle, "I heard something."
Clovis the kid stops chewing and listens for a second or so," Are you sure?"
Rachael hears another rustling noise come from around the corner although this time it sounds a little closer, "I heard it again."
"Take cover just in case," Clovis the kid says as he reaches over for the spear and backs himself against the side wall of the cavern. First of all another noise is heard though it is heard by the both of them this time. Right away he turns to head inside a little further shrilling, "We should hide inside behind the shadow."
The both of them fade on back inside as the noises from some strange footsteps grow louder and louder. Briskly they both take their spears holding them like bats while a stranger turns the corner carrying a kind of cow hide bag like their own. The stranger stops looking around for a moment with a full turn about the place. Then the stranger turns looking straight in to the rock shelter as Rachael and Clovis the Kid tense up watching her.
Peeking past the shadows they both notice a rough like female heading their way very forcefully. Quietly in a soft murmur Rachael says, "Get ready!"
Taking a firmer hold onto his weapon Clovis the Kid replies, "Let her have it!"
Within a moment she enters right besides them without a batting eye at them both. Alarmed and surprised from the unknown fear of danger Clovis the Kid takes his first swing landing right on the left shoulder as the stranger grabs the spears end below the fastened projectile point as it slowly bounces away. Quickly she pulls the spear towards her pulling Clovis the Kid off of his balance right when Rachael takes a low swing in to her ankles as she slowly kicks it away.
Catching his balance Clovis the Kid kicks her in the lower thigh while she pulls away from them both turning back out. Immediately she turns saying, "Stop it, whoever you are?"
Just when she backs up in to the shimmering fleck of light entering the cave Rachael realizes that she doesn't have a dark complexion. Resorting to a new tactic of defense Rachael sighs, "She isn't one of the dark ones!"
Clovis the Kid begins to take a deep breath calming himself down as he adds, "Who are you?"
Making a feisty reply the stranger says, "My name is Rosalind and I'm searching for a friend who is neither gray nor black."
Rachael becomes very confused right off the mark asking, "And what's that supposed to mean?"
Rosalind starts to clarify further speaking, "I'm looking for my girlfriend who I was split up from many miles from here and moons ago."
Clovis the Kid becomes more on the defensive side instructing, "There's no one else here by that name!"
Rosalind rubs her shoulder from the pain of being hit arguing, "I never told you her name. Her name is Shantelle!"
Right away they both loosen up their grips and let down their guard saying, "Shantelle with a feather necklace?"
"Yes, that's the one!" Rosalind says with a softer tone of voice getting anxious to know more.
"She's not here!" Rachael tells Rosalind with a sad scratchy accent.
Rosalind becomes frantic being so close, yet so far from her friend at a time like this. Growing more reluctant to find her Rosalind answers back, "Where is she?"
Clovis the Kid blurts out the whereabouts to the best of his knowledge scrambling, "She went berry picking with my mother and father and a few others."
"And where might that be!" She drills out from their nervous mouths.
Rachael answers Rosalind immediately driveling, "Down by the creek up the canyon, I hope."
"What's that supposed to me?" Rosalind asks of her.
Clovis the Kid decides to clarify as Rosalind starts to step over towards them with more concern than before. Feeling the over looming troubles he gabbles, "Well, we're not sure. It's like everybody has disappeared."
Rosalind gets a little bit confused from their mumbo jumbo language asking, "Disappeared when they went berry picking."
"They all didn't go, only a few. The others went to check the clothes line we had hanging straight down past the tree patch at the other end of the creek," he says making her even more puzzled.
"Maybe they all went to join each other somewhere," Rosalind says wanting to head over there to get some fresh pickings to eat.
"It's more troublesome than that. My Father's friend Ray told us to hide because there was something happening outside we think. And then when we came out there was no one here at all," Rachael tells her with a very worried look on her face.
"Why don't you start at the beginning because there's something you're not telling me, I'm a little confused," Rosalind says with a puzzled look upon her frigid face.
Clovis the Kid starts at the beginning, "It all started when Rachael ran away from her family and came upon my family. We were hiding low trying to stay away from these darker natives that were following us we thought but we never really saw them up close only in the shadows. Then Rachael's family came and we made our way here to this rock shelter as a sort of refuge. We set a trap for them after Tana's clothes came up missing, but it all seemed like a waste of time. Then after some of the others left this morning to go berry picking, Ray told us to hide as he went outside. And when we came outside a time later nobody was here and we don't know what to do."
"So you're saying you think that these people came and possibly took them hostage, but you're not sure because you really never seen them up close. You just felt like you were being followed but couldn't tell. And your father went outside for some unknown reason and now he's not here," she says trying to sum everything up the best that she possibly can without being mystified.
Rachael sits down tired from the stress and anxiety running through her blood scrambling, "That is the truth."
Rosalind thinks back to her journey realizing she thought she heard noises creeping up on her at times shrilling, "There were times when I felt I wasn't alone on my journey but I just kept on moving as fast as I could. Sometimes I even ran as fast as could think that some sort of preying creature was on my trail. I also saw some unknown prints here and there that I couldn't make out by myself. And a couple of other times I did see some animal herds that didn't look to friendly and others I followed at a distance. But there was a fear that others might be stalking them too so I didn't stay very long."
"Sounds a little similar to our experiences too," Clovis the Kid relates back to her once again.
Rachael wonders if she has any insight on what they should do right now momentarily speaking by babbling, "What should we do?"
Rosalind thinks for a moment to herself before squandering an idea, "I think we should arm ourselves and have a look around. We can start where they went berry picking. Do you know how to get there?"
"Sort of," Clovis the Kid relates. Going a bit further he adds, "I think it's just up the canyon and around the bend from the cliff overhangs I believe."
"Good! Then let's get ready and go there because we shouldn't waste any more time. The only other alternative is to stay here and wait. But dark fall will be coming soon and we should have a look around before then I think. Otherwise we will be sitting here worried even more."
"That's a good idea," Rachael discloses back to her.
Rosalind takes a look around for something to protect herself with saying, "First I need to find something better than this stone knife I flaked along the way. I was looking for something to fasten it to but haven't found anything strong enough. Are there anymore of those spears lying around inside?"
"Yes, I think there's one lying over besides my father's blanket and belongings," Clovis the Kid relates really quickly like trying to get a move on with the search of his friends.
"Well, go see if it's there and get it so we can have a look around," she says getting more and more anxious to find her long lost friend Shantelle.
Immediately Clovis the Kid heads further inside the enclosed cavern looking for his father's spear. After a moment or so he approaches her with it saying, "I was hoping it wasn't here and he had taken it with him for protection. But I guess he left it."
As she takes a hold of it she says, "They must have left in a hurry."
Looking the spear up and down she adds, "Did he make this himself?"
Clovis the Kid replies, "Yes, he always makes his own stuff. My mother makes a lot of things as well."
"And what's her name?" Rosalind asks curiously enough.
"My mother's name is Marianne," Clovis the Kid answers back with a softer tone of voice.
"Well, which way do we go?" Rosalind asks ready to begin with the rummaging around the area so to speak.
Rachael points the direction saying, "We have to go that way around the canyon towards the edge of the rock faces over there!"
Rosalind takes her first couple of steps leading the way asking, "So how long have you been here before everything went sour?"
Clovis the Kid decides to answer her question concerning the matter, "We weren’t here for very long, only a two days and one night or so."
Rosalind thinks how that isn't very long, "That isn't that long of a time. What did the place look like when you first arrived here?"
Rachael says something really quick akin to what she's getting at with the realization of the story saying, "When we first came here I had a creepy feeling about the place."
Clovis the Kid brings something else to Rosalind's mind telling her, "So did I, there were lots of skins and other things left by others like it had been lived in before. In fact there were still ashes from the camp fire that someone else had had previously."
Rosalind asks wanting more information from them both, "Is there anything else you have noticed about the place that sounds or seems strange?"
Clovis the Kid thinks back to some of the other places he has been to that looked lived in a way, "Well, this isn't the only place that we have been to where things were left behind from others. The last place before this one was smaller and had a camp fire that was left. There were also some flaked stone tools left that were chiseling's. That's the place that Rachael sprung upon us after she ran away from her family."
"You ran away from your family?' Rosalind asks with a feeling of being sorry towards her considering that she is only a little girl.
Rachael answers the issue saying, "Yes, I ran away from them one morning because they were always arguing and fighting over things. Then I ran in to Nick, Marianne, and Clovis the Kid."
"Then what did you do?" Rosalind asks wanting more out of them.
Rachael informs her, "Then we left that cave and found this one which was bigger. After a day my family came here as well when my mother was searching for me. She came up to them after camping nearby and eavesdropping I think. It was like she knew I was here."
Rosalind thinks and acts upon woman's intuition quibbling, "Sounds like she is pretty intuitive. Women are when it comes to their loved ones I suppose. Kind of like me searching for Shantelle after all of this time. When we were separated I never thought I would see her again. I came this way just wanting to get away myself from all of the tyranny that the lands had placed in the desperate world of famine. Nature has a way of displacing circumstances that lead to change. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile and let the clouds of disbelief prevail and blow on over."
Clovis the Kid gets a little more anxious as they come closer to the area where the fresh pickings are available this time of year, "It's not that much further, just right around this corner."
Rosalind expresses herself further adding, "When this is all over maybe we can all find someplace better I hope."
Approaching nearer and nearer Clovis the Kid says, "Well, this is the place and it looks like nobody is here now."
Rachael gets a little more nervous saying, "Wonder where they are all at?"
Rosalind takes a glance around. She notices how quiet it has become all of a sudden like a dream in a way. "Are you sure this is the place?" She asks presumably.
"Clovis the Kid walks over to a boysenberry bush pulling some berries to put in his mouth. Putting one of them in his mouth he says, "This is the place; see all of the fresh pickings?"
Rosalind decides to take a few them because she hasn't had anything to eat in a while. Making another comment she says, "We should take a break and fuel up and also have a look around about the place."
Rachael walks around glancing about the place. Looking at the ground a little distance away she notices a little fur bag lying nearby. Walking over to it she says, "Looks like someone's hand bag was left behind!"
Rosalind takes a look as she swallows down another boysenberry saying, "Is there anything inside?"
Rachael picks it up and then takes a look inside saying, "Just some loose berries besides what's on the ground."
Rosalind reaches over for it as Rachael walks back, "Whose was it?"
"I don't know, it looks like Krista's maybe." She says answering Rosalind back.
"I wonder if she dropped it or left it on purpose," Rosalind says with a curious notion.
Clovis the Kid starts to walk around a little more glaring about the area looking for some clues of some kind. Before going to many more feet he sees something hanging from one of the close by bush. He walks closer and looks at it saying, "Look at this!"
Rosalind takes notice of the feather quill that belongs to Shantelle. Rachael sees it to blunting; "It looks like Shantelle's Feather Quill necklace."
Rosalind takes it from the bush slowly like it is some type of warning or something else slanging, "It looks like she left it on purpose for some reason."
Clovis the Kid relates as he thinks about to himself contemplating, "You think so!"
Rosalind carries on with the conversation at hand delusively declaring, "Sure, why not?"
Rachael wonders why right off of the bat pronouncing, "You mean she left it as a clue?"
Rosalind starts to put the feather quill around her neck slanging, "She must have, she's probably trying to tell us something."
Clovis the kid investigates further noticing a bunch of foot prints scattering off in to the mere distance uttering, "There's some foot prints over here!"
Rosalind and Rachael begin to walk over to where Clovis the Kid is standing observing the many different tracks scattering off in the distance. At first sight Rosalind realizes that there are a dozen tracks at least. It's obvious that they aren't alone. Wondering how many of their family came here Rosalind queries, "How many of them came here?"
Clovis the Kid thinks for a moment to himself counting, "I think seven of them came here, my father and mother, Tana, Kelle, Kay, Hether, and Shantelle your friend."
"Well, it doesn't seem as though they were alone. There are at least a dozen or so footprints. It looks like a trail of some kind in the dampened mud that I can't even tell," she discloses as an eerie vibe come and overwhelms her.
Rachael looks off in to the plain remoteness thinking, "Should we see where they lead to?"
Clovis the Kid gets eager to follow further saying, "Yes, we should it's my parents."
Rosalind becomes a little hesitant jousting, "Wait a minute. Didn't you say the others were at the place where you've been hanging your clothes?"
Rachael answers right away saying, "That's where Jon and Mycroft went!"
Rosalind speaks her mind trying to think for their best interests saying, "I think we should head back to the shelter and then from there go to the other place before we take a chance. Don't you think?"
Clovis the Kid decides that's a great idea because they aren't really sure of anything as of yet. Agreeing with her completely he relates, "I think you're right because Jon and Mycroft could still be there."
Rosalind is ready to head back even though her friend may be in trouble or something else, "I just think we should see if the men are there first because there's only three and it seems we are outnumbered in some way."
Then Rosalind places her left hand on Shantelle's necklace deliberating, "I just kind of worried because she left her necklace on the bush. She probably left it when no one was looking as a sign that there was trouble from somebody."
They continue heading back as she adds, "You just get a feel for things sometimes when matters don't feel right and you can't put an eye or finger on it. Sometimes it's just better to play it safe when you're not so sure of something. And in this case I'm pretty sure we're not alone in these parts. In fact we could be being watched as we speak!"
"Do you think everybody is alright?" Rachael questions Rosalind as she begins to glance back over her shoulder trying to see if there's anything back there. Nonetheless she neither sees nor hears nothing.
Explaining more to Rachael, Rosalind shrills, "It's hard to say at this point what happened exactly, the sooner we find someone the better off we will be."
Clovis the Kid starts to worry a little for the others a lot more shrieking, "I hope the dark boogie men aren't mean at all!"
Rosalind chuckles slightly declaring, "I doubt they are really boogie men!"
Rachael questions her authority on the subject by gabbing, "How do you know they are like ghosts."
Rosalind chuckles again, although this time with a more serious sounding accent quibbling, "I doubt they are ghosts either, they are probably just some mean people trying to keep others away from here I think."
Rachael gets sort of defensive for some unknown reason, "How do you know?"
Rosalind gets a little more overbearing on them trying to display some uncertainty, "You know what, I don't know. Honestly, if you didn't say Shantelle's name I probably would think you were both full of it!"
Continuing further with her overtones speech she jargons, "The only thing is that we have had bad luck with others from the beginning and nothing has changed. People are just a bunch of Mother………..If you understand my drift."
Clovis the Kid asks her more about what she's trying to say, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"What I am trying to say is that people are not what they seem to be, and they're never what you want to be. People are nothing but a bunch of trouble. When I was trekking my way here I was lonely but nobody else slowed me down and no one was in my way. I could do what I wanted when I wanted. The only thing was if I was to get hurt then no one would be there for me. That's what I mean," Rosalind says taking a deep breath afterwards.
"My family is nice," Clovis the Kid says trying to get sympathy for his parents.
"And so are mine," Rachael says about hers.
Rosalind tries to correct herself really quick adding, "I wasn't really talking about your families. I was talking about others meaning outsiders. They just come around to mess things up. There are times when you meet outsiders who are good people but most of the time they will take advantage of you when the time comes."
Clovis the Kid replies saying, "I know what you mean, people are just there because you have to have someone to lean on and most of the time you just fall over a stump, right?"
"You're catching on kid," Rosalind says making him feel like he has the hang of life's meanings.
Rachael realizes they are around the corner from the rock shelter stating, "We almost home!"
Rosalind thinks about how there better homes than this are saying, "I can think of better homes than this." As they approach the front of the rock shelter Rosalind says," Besides it doesn't look like anyone has returned. Let's have a look inside just in case anyways."
Clovis the Kid starts to head inside to take a look, "I'll take a peek really fast like."
While Rachael and Rosalind watch as Clovis the Kid runs in to the cavern Rosalind asks, "So which way do we head next?"
Rachael turns her head back the other way telling Rosalind, "That way, but I haven't been there yet. My mother was getting the clothes ready to hang this morning before anything had happened."
Rosalind thinks for a second saying, "So you aren't really sure other than it's that way somewhere?"
Rachael explains to her how she hasn't had a chance, "We haven't even had the chance to go there because Jon and Mycroft were setting a trap for them with everybody's clothes hung up."
Rosalind gets a bad feeling once again right away thinking that something else isn't right saying, "That's just great! So we are taking another chance at them missing also."
Clovis the Kid comes out saying, "No one is here I looked around and it doesn't look like anyone has been here since we last left. Nothing has been touched I don't think."
Rosalind is very eager to go on another scouting blotting, "Well, let's get a move on and see if your other friends are there."
Rosalind takes a step or two jousting, "You say it's this way?"
Clovis the Kid starts to walk with her blatting, "I don't know exactly where it is but I know they headed off that way past them tree tops over there."
Rosalind looks at a higher angle towards the tree tops in the mere distance saying, "Well let's go and see hoping that they are there still there by chance."
Rachael gets bothered another time thinking that they are alone in the world driveling, "What do we do if they aren't there?"
"I don't know, I guess we will have to come back here and camp it out. I can't think of anything else without going somewhere else to stay. And we can't do that or I'll never find Shantelle and you will never reunite with your families," she says trying to give them both an honest answer to the whole entire thing.
Rachael comes back with some more feelings saying, "I'm kind of used to it. Before I ran away and they found me, now they are gone and I have to find them."
Becoming even more serious about the whole ordeal Rosalind says, "I guess pay backs are tough to handle in a way. I just hope Shantelle is okay as well considering we were split up by chance caused by the misfortunes of others. What are we looking for anyway?"
"Jon and Mycroft made a line out of vines to hang our clothes on. They said they were going to tie them to two trees somewhere over here," Clovis the Kid says trying to get a mental picture of the spot they are looking for anyways.
Rosalind continues to walk past the tallest trees just in front of them as another patch of trees careens in to view. With the catch of an eye she notices something blowing in the wind back and forth. Quickly she sees other articles of clothing hanging next to each other. Brisk fully she tells them, "Over there are some clothes hanging!"
"Doesn't seem like anyone is around," Clovis the Kid says glancing around.
Rachael gets depressed automatically realizing that they must be missing as well now, "They must have been taken too!"
Rosalind decides to at least have a quick look around for a minute, "Well, let's at least have a look around to see if there are any signs of any kind!"
Clovis the Kid wonders about the clothes hanging there, "What about the clothes?"
Rosalind thinks about them too saying, "We should have a look around first and make sure that no one else is here!"
Rachael looks around noticing a few tracks, although there's not really too many to see. Mostly there's a layer of grass reeds and smaller vegetation lying around in the area. However there are a few prints scattering in some soft mud directly underneath the work area. Making a quick comment Rachael says, "I only see some foot prints right here."
Rosalind carries on with the trail disclosing, "Then there are some flattened grass reed strands scampering over a ways."
Clovis the Kid thinks they should take the clothes and head back to the rock shelter, "Maybe we should take the clothes and head back to the rock shelter. It doesn't seem like they are around either."
Rosalind thinks that that is a swell idea considering how quiet the area seems to be with a feeling of an overwhelming loneliness. Swiftly she acclaims, "I think you are right, we should take all of the clothes and head back."
Rachael thinks of the next idea within the plan even though there isn't one so to say, "Then what are we going to do, just camp out and wait for them to come get us?"
Rosalind figures they are probably on close alert within the watchful eyes of a stranger who they can never see. As she starts to pull down a few articles she implores, "We don't have any other choice. I feel like we are being watched anyhow. If I'm right they could jump out at any minute. So just get the clothes and let's get out of here."
Rachael and Clovis the Kid start to pull all they can as fast as they possibly can without mustering a delaying response. Rachael notices that some of the clothes are missing, although she's not sure whose we're all here to begin with. However it seems that some stuff is missing or that there should have been more out here drying. Tana, Lara, and Kelle spent much of the day washing down by the stream washing their clothes and everybody else's belongings as well. Bringing this to the other's attention Rachael babbles, "It seems like there should be more clothes than this. I think some things may be missing or were taken."
"Are you sure?" Rosalind asks considering she has no idea what they have to themselves as possessions because she doesn't even know any of them. She's only here to find her friend Shantelle and nothing else really matters anymore to her. Nonetheless she has met two new friends who are her closest clue to finding her and supposedly know her. She believes their story, although the traces of hope are slim to none.
Rachael answers back right away, "I'm pretty sure there was more than this."
Clovis the Kid thinks about how there still some of their things back at the rock shelter saying, "Most of everybody's things are still back at the rock shelter."
Rachael agrees but still thinks some things are missing but can't really tell until they find the others. She replies, "Yes, but I still think some things may be missing."
Rosalind thinks they should take the rest and go gibbering, "Maybe the dark enemies took them to go through and that sort of thing. I don't know maybe this is all a dream. Whatever the chance we should gather as fast as we can and take leave, huh!"
Clovis the Kid takes the last article saying, "This is the last!"
Rosalind stops and takes a quick look around checking to see if the vicinity is clear of any strangers jousting bluntly, "Let's go. We should probably head back now and think this all through."
Clovis the Kid turns around ready to leave saying, "Ready, let's get out of here!"
Rosalind thinks about what they should do when they get back to the rock shelter twiddling, "When we get back let's go through and sort through everything and try and decide whose is what so we can see what's all missing. I'll go through Shantelle's things while you go through everybody else's, okay."
Rachael agrees with her right off the mark saying, "Okay!"
Clovis the Kid does the same saying, "Okay, I'll go through my parents things while she goes through hers. Then we will go through everybody else's."
NINETEEN
Leaning down on her knees staring down one of the gatherers at the Black Hawk's Camp, Lady Black Hawk confronts Lara who is staring back behind a netted cave made like a sort of dungeon of some kind. Smacking her spear to her lip and back to the ground she shrills, "What are you looking at?"
Lara looks her straight back in the eye replying, "You, what else?"
Krista looks over to her as well saying, "We're all looking at you. Why not, you're sitting there smacking your lip staring at us."
Lady Hawk smacks it again and back to the ground, "I always do that when I'm ready to go a hunt!"
Hilda gets angry thinking she some cahoots answering, "I thought we were your daily hunt?"
Lady Hawk chuckles a bit glaring them all down telling them, "You were all just for practice. Today we prepare for the hunt of these plentiful feeding grounds we have made our way to. You just stumbled in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Nick tries to question the fact that they aren't in to their feeding habits anyhow eluding, "We aren't interested in your grazing grounds anyways."
Lady Hawk talks to them further about how she feels about them saying, "You all don't know what's really going on around here anyway. The rock shelter is a trap we leave for newcomers. Everyone seems to stumble upon it by chance and thinks the others have moved on to better things. Most of these lands are feeding grounds for other tribes. Many of them we aren't too friendly with to say the least."
Jaymes makes a comment regarding her negative speech she tends to give them blooding, "That's too bad that there's no room for everybody!"
Lady Hawk explains more to them by cracking her spear again saying, "There's no room for a lonely group of stragglers. Everyone who comes here is a straggler like stranger. They all arrive here hoping for a new chance for a place to gather destroying the feeding grounds of our herds we game for."
Marianne asks about the others they have caught by asking, "So what about the others you have caught?"
Lady Hawk hasn't ever caught anybody before. She carries on by telling them all, "I never caught anyone before. We used to just chase them off. But now we have decided to try a new approach and you are the lucky ones."
Krista wonders what they are going to do with them all. She tends to be a mean and cruel person who may have psychotic tendencies at the most. Question her authority Krista asks, "So what are you going to do with us all?"
Lady Hawk hasn't thought that far ahead of her and either have the others who are members of her tribe the Black Hawks. Lady Hawk looks over to one of the other Hawk guards shrieking, "What should we do with them all?"
The first Hawk guard looks and shrills, "Put them all to work!"
She then looks at another female guard who says, "Make them move away!"
Hilda makes a lighter comment to Marianne who is sitting next to her, "And moves where?"
Marianne comments back saying, "Who knows the other side of the world again!"
The second Hawk guard orders immediately, "You'd all be lucky to make it that far."
Jon gets a little angry questioning the jargon, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Lady Hawk goes further carrying on the conversation saying, "There are more tribes around the area. Many of them are as protective as we are; you wouldn't make it too far without running in to any other trouble in any case."
Getting ready to leave the scene Lady Hawk says, "Well, we'll all talk later. I have to go work with my people to regain our heritage once again."
Lady Hawk turns and leaves the scene as the first Hawk guard commands, "You all stay still and cause no trouble and no one will get hurt."
Marianne turns around and heads backs towards the rear of the confined area saying, "Where we going to go?"
Nick follows thinking about getting out of there somehow stating softly, "We'll get out of here eventually?"
Speaking even lighter Mycroft says, "It won't be easy!"
Jon realizes that they have two Black Hawk Guards watching them uttering, "There's just two guards watching us."
Hastily the second Hawk guard pushes his spear inside the netted area shrilling, "Watch what you say. No talking!"
"I know what you are all talking about," the guard continues to tell them boldly.
"There's nowhere to go without getting caught or running in to trouble," the first Hawk guard says trying to persuade them in to calming down more.
"You won't get far," the first guard relates once again making them recognize the fact that they are outnumbered by many.
"And if you do you'll only run yourselves in to other troubles," the second guard blurts out with a meaner pitch of voice.
"You can't keep us here forever. Eventually you're going to have to do something with us," Jon says wanting more explanations from them now that the other woman isn't even around.
"That's up to the leader what to do with you all," the first guard answers back vagrantly like.
Mycroft figures that the female who left is their leader. Firstly, he asks the guard about the fact asking, "Is the female who left the leader of your group?"
"Yes, she is," the guard answers back swiftly.
"And what do you call her, she never told us her name," Jon asks with a keen inquisitiveness about them all.
"Her name is Lady Hawk," the first guard answers trying not to tell them too much.
Mycroft sort of chuckles a slight bit thinking the name sounds kind of funny compared to their continental names coming from back home to say the truth. Letting his laugh fade away Mycroft interrogates, "And where did she get her name?"
"She is the possessor of the sacred head dress of our tribe the Black Hawks," the second guard informs them with an animal like instinct of a pitch in his scratchy voice.
"And what is the sacred head dress you speak of," Jaymes queries wanting to find more out about the people of their tribe.
"Only dancers and members of the tribal ceremonies may see the leader in her head dress," the first guard relates to him in return of conversation.
"Why do you have tribal ceremonies anyway?" Jon asks going even further with their personal life trying to figure them out.
"Our tribal ceremonies are a dance for the fittest before the hunt. Why do you all ask so many questions anyway?" The second guard confronts them formally so to speak.
"We are just curious that's all," Mycroft says eluding the fact that they are the ones who took them hostage in the first place and they want to get to the bottom of things.
"It seems to me that you're all a bit too curious," the first guard blurts out wishfully.
"We just want to know what's going to become of us, that are all," Kelle babbles back momentarily speaking.
Krista tries an approach that's as old as child's play blurting, "Where's there to go around here, I'd like a little privacy."
The second guard laughs and chuckles a little whimsical of a moment, "I can let you out, but only one at a time. And if you try anything funny I'll spear you down."
Krista agrees to be obedient and not to try anything out of the ordinary. This is her chance to take care of business and scope the area out a little more without hinting to something else. Leaning forward and taking a few steps forward she blunts, "I won't try anything!"
The second guard comes over and unfastens the net at one end allowing Krista to exit and comes outside where the outsides air and skies are blinding. As she approaches closer towards him the second guard shrills, "Over there!"
Krista walks over that way around the edge of a slight crest forming in to the rock edges of the confinement area. The second guard follows a few yards and stops taking the last few steps commanding, "Don't go too far or take too long, I'll be right here!"
Krista walks away answering, "I won't!"
The second guard turns around completely agitatedly saying, "I'll come after you if I have to!"
Krista fades away for a instant saying, "I'll just be a moment."
Krista walks another few yards ready to do her thing saying to herself, "Pushy people are they!"
She looks around noticing some huts covered by animal skins off in the nearby distance. The sounds of kids and dogs barking can be heard. There are also the sounds of natives laughing in the distance talking in different languages of some kind that are unfamiliar to her. She goes as fast as she can without stirring too much time on her hands. For a moment or so she thought she had heard some footsteps but thinks that it's maybe just her imagination or rather something else. Hurriedly she finishes and begins to head back with the feeling of someone behind over her shoulder in a way.
Quickly she returns as the second guard approaches again ready to let her back in replying, "If you all obey, things will be easier."
Krista answers back like it was a remark meaning she took too long out there, "I didn't take that long!"
The second guard lets her in adding, "We are nicer when Lady Hawk isn't around, but only a little. So don't push it!"
Krista goes inside as the second guard pulls the net aside a little. The guard holds it open for another moment before asking, "Anybody else, before I head back to my post?"
Marianne is the next one to uphold a remark, "Yes, me!"
Jon makes a little wise crack trying to bring some humor in to their disparaged lives twiddling, "Why don't we all just go!"
The second guard gets defensive right away, "Just one at a time!"
By now Ray has met some of the other members of Lady Mammoth's tribe. They have already decided to go back to the rock shelter in search of the kids to see if they are still there. Ray has acquired another fur back pack from her tribal people and has some things that he has lost made up in a way.
Lady Mammoth's helper Brown Horn who is a female member of their tribe who is the head scout for keeping up with the many cultivated herds they have left. As she looks out in the direction of the rock shelter she twiddles', "I haven't been out scouting in a few days or so. It's been a long time since I have gone to the rock shelter."
Ray questions the rock shelter a bit asking, "How far from the Black Hawk's camp is the rock shelter?"
She thinks to herself for an instant about how far it really is from there relating, "It's a few valleys away from there. They are in our old territory that we had a many seasons ago."
While walking together Lady Mammoth begins to tell him about the valley they used to live in when her mother was still very much alive. She starts by speaking, "We lived in that valley when we were starting out after our relatives and forefathers came here from a distant land among the many moons from overseas."
"So you all came over the frozen tundra that separates the lands?" Ray asks as he keeps up his pace walking along with the both of them.
Brown Horn starts to make her comment telling Ray, "According to my family there were huge masses of ocean that stretched the distance beyond the horizons. When they first came here the lands were plentiful with fresh foods that grew wildly all over the valleys. The animals were more widespread than now as well. I was little growing up in that valley with many of our relatives who had passed away."
Lady Mammoth starts to take over the story then by talking, "She's a little younger than I am. We both grew up there ranging the many herds that migrated through the valley. That valley was more traveled than the valley we live in now. The animal herds used to run their way through both valleys until the Black Hawk's came and started their hunting habits."
Ray questions the story a little with an inquiry saying, "So they hunted them down to where they are afraid to come here?"
Brown Horn begins to speak again adding, "Afraid so, and they have killed too many of them including the young not allowing the herds to replenish themselves."
Soon they approach an access to the trees above the canyon next to the small embankment of water. Ray looks up to the area he jumped from saying, "Up there, that's where I fell from, or you could say jumped from. What's the difference, huh?"
Brown Horn ponders to herself for a jiffy talking aloud, "Not too much, I guess!"
Lady Mammoth talks about his story to Brown Horn elusively declaring, "He socked a good one to her he said."
Brown Horn looks at him chuckling a little responding, "That's cool, and I wish I could do the same one day!"
Lady Mammoth gets defensive on the matter right off the bat arguing, "That's my fighting bone to pick!"
Brown Horn agrees by adding, "I guess we all have a picking with them all!"
Ray gets eager to make their way up the sloped hill that curves around to the crest next to the dropping of his fate and safety line putting words in plain drift. Taking a step away from the scene of glancing Ray shrieks, "Well, should we move on?"
Lady Mammoth sympathizes with him, "Sure, we better get closer to scout the area out, huh, Brown Horn?"
"Sure, we should be careful though making sure no one else is around except for the little ones," Brown Horn says as they begin to walk up and over a small path leading through some bushes along the nearby clearing heading up to the crest of the hill.
Ray thinks to himself about how far he must have run trying to outrun her before reaching the top of the hill. Once at the top before turning the other way he says, "I wonder how far I ran to get here?"
Brown Horn thinks about it for a miniscule of a flash saying, "Pretty far, the rock shelter is up this canyon a ways and then over towards the brook that curves through another valley up just a little ways."
Ray thinks about how they are going to get close without stirring up any trouble from the Black Hawks if any of them happen to be in the neighborhood. Ray brings this fact to their attention by asking, "How are we going to get in there without anyone seeing us?"
Lady Mammoth tells Ray of her plan to extract them peacefully without any haste by effectuating, "Brown Horn will scout the rock shelter out once we have entered the canyon from below."
"And then what," Ray inquiries quickly contemplating the next move at hand.
Lady Mammoth answers Ray back with her usual plan of a watchful eye saying, "If they are spotted and the area is clear of intruders, she will return so you can greet with them!"
With a quick response Brown Horn adds, "We'll follow behind you of course!"
Lady Mammoth brings another fact to his attention telling him, "We can't walk in front of you because we might scare them off!"
Ray chuckles a moment sighing answering, "I'm not afraid of scarring them away!"
Brown Horn takes command of the conversation informing, "I am, we don't want to risk disturbing any unwanted visitors."
Lady Mammoth is the next to speak uttering, "We just want to get them and head back to camp!"
Ray starts to remember some of the surroundings as they approach closer and closer to the rock shelter. Once they get closer to the rock faces they can see the brook flowing nearby. Ray brings this to mind, "This area is familiar, we're getting close now!"
Brown Horn decides that they should stop a few yards over underneath a large Pine tree that's bristled widely. Suddenly she starts walking that way jousting, "Let's set up a post right here underneath this large Wild Pine Cone Tree."
Lady Mammoth becomes slightly agitated and very nervous because she wants to take care of the task hastily. Without waiting too long she declares, "I think it would be better if Brown Horn scouts the rock dwelling before too much longer."
Ray is intensely overwhelmed with a feeling of inspiring hope as he replies," I agree, the longer we wait the harder they will be to find later!"
Brown Horn prepares herself for a lonesome journey, even though she really doesn't have too far to go to reach the outskirts of the rock shelter. Shrugging her shoulder to drop her camping back pack she lets it fall to the ground bushing, "Here I go, be back soon!"
Brown Horn leaves the scene by running along the tree line that sways over to the side of the canyon. Little by little she vanishes from Ray and Lady Mammoth's sight as they turn to each other. Ray starts feeling embarrassed for some kind of reason. Speaking his mind he says, "I feel kind of ashamed having everyone do my dirty work!"
Lady Mammoth makes the scene more bearable by admitting, "It isn't just your dirty work, and it's our dirty work as well. It's been a long time since I have even come this far in a while. It feels foreign to me now. Like I'm on someone else's property and I'm sneaking around or having someone else do the sneaking around a bit, huh."
Ray feels a little more apprehensive considering she laid another ton of her emotions onto him. Ray begins to speak making her feel happier saying, "Well, I guess we all feel out of place around here?"
Lady Mammoth takes a glance around at some of the scenery of her old territory relenting, "Hopefully, your kids are safe and there is nothing to harm anymore. Someday this will be all over like an old mystery of some sort."
Ray starts to get antsy waiting for Brown Horn. His arms start to feel numb and he starts to get shaky tasking Lady Mammoth, "How long will she take you think?"
Lady Mammoth ponders over how careful her young scout friend and tribal member happens to be when out on the scout and search swaddling, "Long enough for her to see if they are there and no one else is around. And once she makes that connection she will come back here and report to us what she sees."
Ray thinks about having to use that tactic before on the situation with finding Rachael after she had ran away. Ray tells her, "We had to use that tactic once before when Rachael ran away from us."
"How long ago was this?" Lady Mammoth inquiries of this incident with Rachael he had with a curious notion.
Ray stops and thinks for a brief moment while looking in the direction that Brown Horn left to head near the rock shelter. Then he turns to her and says, "Many moons ago!"
Lady Mammoth is nosier than that asking, "How many moons, one, two, or three?"
Ray ponders over it for another jiffy of a second admitting, "One moon ago, I think maybe!"
Lady Mammoth tries to outsmart his wits slightly by responding, "You need to get your time frames straight. A full moon happens every twenty eight to thirty days and nights about. Around fourteen days ago which means there will be another in another fourteen or so days."
"It was a while ago when we were stopped camping for the night. She left and ran in to the others Marianne, Nick, and their little kid. We came to a cavern with firelight and decided to scout it out first and children's voices were heard. Then we camped out nearby and the next day Hilda approached them asking if her little girl was inside there. Luckily it worked out then, but now we have this problem at hand," Ray says telling a more thorough job.
Lady Mammoth feels better knowing that they will have better luck if they are still there at the rock shelter. She shares her thought by saying, "So she knows the routine?"
Ray thinks about that for a second or so realizing that this is a different situation now relenting, "That was a different condition then when she ran away. Now she was left to defend herself by hiding which was mistake. Everything happened so fast that I had no idea what to do. They came unexpectedly without warning. I shouldn't have left them like that!"
Lady Mammoth decides to calm his spirit with some jargon, "Hopefully Brown Horn will return with a good report for us to hear!"
Scouting closer and closer to the rock shelter Brown Horn has made her way as close as she wants to. She has become aware that there is someone else abiding their time with the two children. Apparently the person appears to be a female of some feminine nature. She is anxious to investigate, although the individual seems to of a lighter complexion unlike the darker ones they haste to avoid at all costs.
She wants to move in even closer, even if it risks being seen. Nevertheless she maintains a distance away while keeping a tight watch. She tries to turn her ear to the side trying to catch a faint voice but there is no one talking. It seems that they are only organizing belongings to Brown Horn; conversely she can't seem to put it all together in her mind. After another moment or so, she decides that she has seen enough and it's time to head back and report to Ray and Lady Mammoth.
Momentarily Lady Mammoth and Ray are still conversing about many different matters of everything while still waiting. Ray begins to become more concerned with the long wait asserting, "I hope she returns soon, unless she has run in to some trouble."
Lady Mammoth looks and gleams in to the distance noticing a head bobbing up and down and back and forth past the distant brush that separates the time and space between the two realities. Without any hesitation Lady Mammoth describes the scene, "Someone is approaching!"
As Ray turns to her watchful eye Lady Mammoth realizes that it's Brown Horn jousting, "It's Brown Horn!"
Slowly she fades in to a closer view while approaching closer and closer. She slows down to a jog gable pace as she arrives back to them both. Lady Mammoth can't wait to hear the news whether bad or good. With a smudged and depreciating look Lady Mammoth asks, "See or find anything?"
Brown Horn slows down to a complete stop winding, "They're there!"
Ray gets a feeling of overwhelming excitement saying, "Oh, thank the Lord!"
Lady Mammoth makes a question to the situation asking, "What were they doing?"
Brown Horn tells them the truth about someone else being there instructing, "The weren’t alone, there was some woman there with them!"
Ray starts to wonder and ponder the fact in his mind about who that person or individual may be. He begins by asking another question, "What did the person look like?"
Brown Horn has no idea what his tribe or members of his group look like in appearance. Firmly she tells them, "The woman has a light complexion and is dressed similar to you I suppose. I don't know who it is because I never met any of them. But anyhow there is someone there with them helping sort through all of the belongings."
Ray isn't sure who it could be, nonetheless he can only muster up any guesses within his confused mind at this time. Wobbling the words out of his tight shaky lips he asserts, "I wonder who it is? I guess I won't know until we go over there!"
Lady Mammoth has heard enough and feels that they should take care of the struggling matter once and for all. Hurriedly trying to get a move on, Lady Mammoth commands, "Let's just head over there and get them before any more troubles arise!"
Ray starts walking that way pondering the situation over and over in his dazed and confused mentality over the place. All he knows is that he instructed the kids to hide while he went to investigate the matter when all hell broke loose. Walking at a faster pace than the other two Lady Mammoth seems agitated gibbering, "Slow down, not so fast. We don't want to stir any trouble on our way there!"
Ray is relentless to waste any more time. However he doesn't want to scrape up any unwanted attention either. Slowing his pace down a little bit Ray says, "Well, I don't want to leave them alone for too long!"
Lady Mammoth is interested in knowing if the coast was clear when Brown Horn did her prying over the rock shelter. Not so sure they are alone Lady Mammoth quills, "Nothing out of the ordinary on your quest?"
Brown Horn continues the tempo replying, "There's was nothing not a watchful eye in sight!"
Lady Mammoth remains behind Ray keeping a lookout in all directions. As they approach closer and closer to their destination Lady Mammoth jibbers, "When we get there, you walk ahead of us while we wait back a ways. Once you reunite with them you inform them that you have friends and signal us to come over!"
Thinking and contemplating the plans more Lady Mammoth says, "This way we can keep an eye out from a distance making sure that it isn't some sort of a trap and the Black Hawks are near forcing them to lure us!"
Ray can't image the kids being that reluctant to lure him under coercion in order to snatch away his independence that is the only thing left of the world to save them both. Ray talks about the incident further saying, "When I left I told them to hide and get out of sight, I doubt that this is all some sort of trap for me!"
Brown Horn gives a more negative attitude towards this forbidden and condemned place delusively declaring, "That whole place is nothing but an entrapment."
"It's better to be on the safe side until you make contact with them all. Wait a moment or so before you signal us that the coast is clear because they could wait a moment or so before springing on all of us by slip-up," Lady Mammoth adds quickly enough.
Brown Horn takes a few more glances around making sure there isn't anything quite out of the usual telling, "The last thing we want is to be confronted by the Black Hawk's in this area."
Ray wonders where they have taken them by chance asking, "I wonder where they have taken them all?"
Lady Mammoth isn't so sure but she bets eventually they will find out by saying, "I don't know, but we are getting close now."
Brown Horn notices a good place up ahead for them to wait the cue from Ray saying balking, "Let's stop at that tree up ahead. There we will both wait for you to check to see if everything is okay there!"
Lady Mammoth agrees with Brown Horn, "That's a good idea; we can see the whole area from there!"
Brown Horn thinks back to her scouting as they approach underneath the large over looming branches spreading out over and above relenting, "This is where I stopped and watched for a little while! It's better to stick with this spot I imagine"
Ray stops and drifts off in to the mere distance noticing three of them nestled outside the rock shelter. Focusing in on the female subject with them Ray quells, "I have no idea who that person is. I've never seen her before!"
Lady Mammoth and Brown Horn become a little more inquiring. Lady Mammoth looks off towards the rock shelter asking, "Are you sure, she doesn't look like one of them?"
Brown Horn stands there quietly for a moment thinking about whom else it could be theoretically admitting, "It could be a straggler?"
Lady Mammoth wants to be on the safe side anyhow. She feels that ray should go alone and confront the place before anymore time goes by. Pushing the issue further Lady Mammoth says, "We'll wait here while you go see what's going on with them over there. Don't get to settled in be conspicuous of anything that seems out of the norm. Ask her who she is and where she's from before signaling to us. If anything happens we'll be here hiding out of sight!"
Ray stands there for another moment trying to get enough nerve and braveness to carry on forward with the confrontation. Taking a deep breath he exasperates, "Okay, here I go!"
Swiftly he starts to walk out past the trees exposing his visibility to them from a far distance. Without distracting any inattention from them he keeps the movement persisting ahead. After a few more scatters with the feet Ray stirs a turn from Rosalind who looks and signals Rachael and Clovis the Kid in to action responding, "Look, someone's coming!"
Rachael is the first to look over to Ray as he approach ghastly in to plain view excitedly saying, "Ray!"
Clovis the Kid turns and makes a comment as Ray approaches the front of the rock shelter, "Where did you come from?"
Rachael adds another line of recognition jousting passionately. "We wondered what happened."
Ray walks in to the scene closer stating, "Sorry, I was worried about you all. They came so fast. Where is everybody?"
Rachael is the next to answer Ray back informing, "We don't know, everybody disappeared?"
Ray decides to ask where the other is at by the inquisition, "Nobody else is here?"
Clovis the Kid answers, "No, you told us to hide and when we came out no one was around.
So we just waited."
Ray looks over to Rosalind wondering who she is sitting and listening so effervescently and quietly. Confronting her identity Ray queries to all of them, "And who are you?"
Rosalind stands up on her feet answering, "My name is Rosalind, and I am a long lost friend of Shantelle's!"
Ray is relieved that it is at least someone he has heard of from Shantelle, the newcomer and her stories so to say. Making a comment on her lending her true self to hand Ray twiddles, "She mentioned you a few times not to mention. She said you two were separated somehow!"
Rosalind thinks for a moment before talking another response to Ray saying, "Yes, it's a long story!"
Ray notices that they have been organizing everyone's belongings and personal possessions the best that he possibly can comment, "I see you cleaned the place up a little?"
Rosalind looks Ray straight in the eye gabbling, "I thought it would be better to have things square around here while we think out what to do?"
Ray decides it's time to mention the other from their hiding off in to the careening remote distance. He introduces their existence by saying, "I brought some friends I found along the way after they chased me off."
Rosalind looks around wondering, "Where are they at?"
Ray turns and signals for Brown Horn and Lady Mammoth to peek out from the gleaming turn of the corner. Quickly he waves his hand letting them know that the coast seems clear enough for them to both come over.
From the far corner Brown Horn and Lady Mammoth come out from their hiding making themselves completely visible. Momentarily as they head closer Rosalind asks, "Where did you meet them?"
Ray gives a quick explanation trying to push the story off until later stating, "It's a long story!"
Hurriedly, they make their descent upon the front of the rock shelter. Lady Mammoth is the first to scamper her way up asking, "Is everything alright?"
Ray looks to them both assuring the situation, "Yes, everything is under control. This is Rosalind who is a friend of Shantelle who happens to be a newcomer that joined us a while back!"
"And this is Rachael, and Clovis the Kid who I had already told you about," Ray narrates like a classic story.
Lady Mammoth looks to them all replying, "I am Lady Mammoth, and this is my friend Brown Horn. We are from another village a little ways from here!"
Brown Horn looks to them all gratifying, "Hello, how do you do?"
Rosalind looks at them in response asserting, "Okay, things will be better when all of this is cleared up somehow!"
Lady Mammoth thinks that they should gather what they can and split the scene. In a more anxious than ever mood to take the goods and run she mentions, "I think we shouldn't stay here too much longer. We should gather what we can and head to my peaceful village where we can sort things out!"
Rosalind agrees with Lady Mammoth thinking they should take immediate precautions and evacuate the spot replying, "I think you're right, this place gives me the wee bee gee bees!"
Lady Mammoth looks around at everything thinking that they can muster most of it by themselves saying, "Let's just take what we can and the rest we will come back for later!"
Ray agrees and decides to take action commanding, "Well, let's get to it!"
"Some of the things we can leave inside the shelter and come back another time," he adds sparingly like.
Soon they all muster what they can and flee the scene back to the village of Lady Mammoth and Brown Horn.
EIGHTEEN
Back at the rock shelter the kids have not budged an inch hiding underneath the blankets just as Ray commanded them to do. Fear runs through their minds as silence now rings through their ears with a screaming vengeance. Slowly for a first time peak Clovis the Kid takes a look from underneath the blanket. He peaks his head out and looks around for Rachael who was hiding just on the other side of the inside of the shelter. Quietly as he can without mustering any response from anyone else except for Rachael Clovis the Kid whispers, "Rachael?"
Rachael answers back quickly and quietly with a response whispering, "Clovis the Kid?"
Clovis the Kid continues the conversation by saying, "Are we alone?"
Rachael listens with a keen ear shrilling, "I don't hear anybody else."
"I wonder what happened out there." "Clovis the Kid says remembering the entire ruckus outside.
Rachael adds, "I 'm not sure, I don't hear anybody?"
Clovis the Kid lifts the fur blanket up more poking his head out further. Briskly he says, "I don't see anybody inside."
Then Rachael starts to look out shrieking, "Is it safe to come out."
Clovis the Kid pulls the fur blanket completely away from the rest of himself replying, "I don't see why not?"
Rachael then comes out from her hiding place as well momentarily speaking, "Where is everyone, are they outside?"
"I don't know all I could hear is some scrambling around but no voices," Clovis the Kid shrills as he starts to walk towards the entrance of the rock shelter.
Rachael grows in inquisitiveness, "See if anybody is outside."
Clovis the Kid walks out further as quietly as he possibly can without stirring up anything. He steps towards the entrance of the rock shelter looking out to the front. Keeping Rachael informed he says, "I don't see anybody."
Rachael becomes very agitated and nervous wondering, "I wonder where they went?"
Clovis the Kid wonders the same thing getting scared sort of like, "They couldn't of just left. The last thing we heard was Ray told us to hide as he was heading outside to see something."
Rachael starts to think if something may have happened with them dark people adding danger to the idea of things, "I hope something didn't happen with those dark people."
"That's possible, maybe they came and took them, but I didn't hear anything," Clovis the Kid states as he thinks about it a lot more in his kid like little mind of his.
"She we go outside and take a look?" Rachael says hoping its okay to go look outside and see if anyone is there right now.
Clovis the Kid takes a look at Rachael with a serious lonely look declaring, "Well, we're going to have soon enough."
Rachael thinks they should be extra careful just in case any of the dark ones are still around saying, "We should be careful just in case any of the dark ones are still around."
Clovis the Kid goes further saying, "Well I didn't hear anyone come inside, did you?"
Rachael thinks back to when they were hiding inside underneath the fur blankets shrilling, "No, I didn't hear anything inside just a bit of light scuffling outside. Not much else."
Clovis the Kid decides that they should try and arm themselves before going outside to look. Quickly he starts looking around for something to use speaking, "We should try and protect ourselves before we go outside and see if they are still around somewhere."
After glancing around the place he finds Ray and John's spears saying, "Let's take these just in case."
"And do what?" Rachael asks as she takes the spear from him barely being able to hold on without dropping it.
Clovis the Kid replies," And go outside and take a look around, what choice do we really have?"
Rachael becomes more and more nervous as she looks outside. Waiting for Clovis the Kid to be the first to take the initiative she blurts, "Boys first!"
Clovis the Kid starts to take his first couple of steps closer to the outside of the rock shelter. Taking the second step he says, "Coward!"
Continuing to make his way outside Rachael follows although she stops at the edge of the rock face and leans up against the foot wall telling him, "I'll wait right here while you take a look around."
He stops and then turns around walking quickly to the other side of the rock shelter. Leaning against the other foot wall like Rachael he shrills, "Maybe we should just wait here for a while in case we see or hear something first?"
Rachael looks out as far as she can where she last saw her mother saying, "They were just over there when I last saw them."
"Just wait a minute and I'll run over there real quick like to take a look and then I'll run on back," Clovis the Kid says as he holds the spear straight up from the ground.
Rachael gets anxious to know whether or not her mother's fur bag is still out there sitting where she last saw her. Boldly she commands him, "Just run out there real fast and see if my mother's bag is out there and hurry back!"
Quickly without even taking a slight glance, Clovis the Kid drops the spear and sprints as quickly as he can towards her fur bag without stopping. Faster than a flash he reaches the spot and picks up two fur bags with one in each hand that have been lying there all so still for the last couple of hours. Then he turns around and heads back keeping his faithful eye on Rachael standing there breathless next to the opening.
As he approaches closer and closer he throws them in front of Rachael saying, "There I picked up both of them for you."
She reaches down taking a hold of her mother's bag jousting, "Something must have happened because they wouldn't leave their bags like this."
"Whose is the other bag?" Clovis the Kid asks immediately.
"The other bag must be Lara's I guess," as she looks through her mother's bag seeing what's all in there.
"What are you looking for?" Clovis the Kid questions as she rummages around like she's looking for something.
"I'm just seeing if everything she normally has is still in here," she tells him as she pulls out a hidden wrapped up fur cloth.
"Is all of her stuff there?" Clovis the Kid answers back thirdly.
"I don't know, I can't tell. There are just some dirty clothes in there with this wrapped up cloth that smells like fish," she says as she sets the bag down. Then she unfolds the hanky finding some dead minnows and guppies in there sort of mashed up a tad bit.
Clovis the Kid looks over to the handkerchief noticing the sardine like meal saying, "Yuck, she must be getting desperate."
"I wonder where she found them at." Rachael wonders as she takes one and puts it in her mouth.
"You're eating them?" He says thinking they look sickening.
"Why not, I'm hungry?" She says as she chews it down with a very sour mouth.
Hesitating for a moment more Clovis the Kid reaches over taking one himself bashing, "Why not, I'm hungry also."
For another few moments they stand there taking another bite or two trying to quench the pains of their hunger. After standing there in the quiet air for another glimpse of a moment Rachael hears a distant rustle, "I heard something."
Clovis the kid stops chewing and listens for a second or so," Are you sure?"
Rachael hears another rustling noise come from around the corner although this time it sounds a little closer, "I heard it again."
"Take cover just in case," Clovis the kid says as he reaches over for the spear and backs himself against the side wall of the cavern. First of all another noise is heard though it is heard by the both of them this time. Right away he turns to head inside a little further shrilling, "We should hide inside behind the shadow."
The both of them fade on back inside as the noises from some strange footsteps grow louder and louder. Briskly they both take their spears holding them like bats while a stranger turns the corner carrying a kind of cow hide bag like their own. The stranger stops looking around for a moment with a full turn about the place. Then the stranger turns looking straight into the rock shelter as Rachael and Clovis the Kid tense up watching her.
Peeking past the shadows they both notice a rough like female heading their way very forcefully. Quietly in a soft murmur Rachael says, "Get ready!"
Taking a firmer hold onto his weapon Clovis the Kid replies, "Let her have it!"
Within a moment she enters right besides them without a batting eye at them both. Alarmed and surprised from the unknown fear of danger Clovis the Kid takes his first swing landing right on the left shoulder as the stranger grabs the spears end below the fastened projectile point as it slowly bounces away. Quickly she pulls the spear towards her pulling Clovis the Kid off of his balance right when Rachael takes a low swing into her ankles as she slowly kicks it away.
Catching his balance Clovis the Kid kicks her in the lower thigh while she pulls away from them both turning back out. Immediately she turns saying, "Stop it, whoever you are?"
Just when she backs up into the shimmering fleck of light entering the cave Rachael realizes that she doesn't have a dark complexion. Resorting to a new tactic of defense Rachael sighs, "She isn't one of the dark ones!"
Clovis the Kid begins to take a deep breath calming himself down as he adds, "Who are you?"
Making a feisty reply the stranger says, "My name is Rosalind and I'm searching for a friend who is neither gray nor black."
Rachael becomes very confused right off the mark asking, "And what's that supposed to mean?"
Rosalind starts to clarify further speaking, "I'm looking for my girlfriend who I was split up from many miles from here and moons ago."
Clovis the Kid becomes more on the defensive side instructing, "There's no one else here by that name!"
Rosalind rubs her shoulder from the pain of being hit arguing, "I never told you her name. Her name is Shantelle!"
Right away they both loosen up their grips and let down their guard saying, "Shantelle with a feather necklace?"
"Yes, that's the one!" Rosalind says with a softer tone of voice getting anxious to know more.
"She's not here!" Rachael tells Rosalind with a sad scratchy accent.
Rosalind becomes frantic being so close, yet so far from her friend at a time like this. Growing more reluctant to find her Rosalind answers back, "Where is she?"
Clovis the Kid blurts out the whereabouts to the best of his knowledge scrambling, "She went berry picking with my mother and father and a few others."
"And where might that be!" She drills out from their nervous mouths.
Rachael answers Rosalind immediately driveling, "Down by the creek up the canyon, I hope."
"What's that supposed to me?" Rosalind asks of her.
Clovis the Kid decides to clarify as Rosalind starts to step over towards them with more concern than before. Feeling the over looming troubles he gabbles, "Well, we're not sure. It's like everybody has disappeared."
Rosalind gets a little bit confused from their mumbo jumbo language asking, "Disappeared when they went berry picking."
"They all didn't go, only a few. The others went to check the clothes line we had hanging straight down past the tree patch at the other end of the creek," he says making her even more puzzled.
"Maybe they all went to join each other somewhere," Rosalind says wanting to head over there to get some fresh pickings to eat.
"It's more troublesome than that. My Father's friend Ray told us to hide because there was something happening outside we think. And then when we came out there was no one here at all," Rachael tells her with a very worried look on her face.
"Why don't you start at the beginning because there's something you're not telling me, I'm a little confused," Rosalind says with a puzzled look upon her frigid face.
Clovis the Kid starts at the beginning, "It all started when Rachael ran away from her family and came upon my family. We were hiding low trying to stay away from these darker natives that were following us we thought but we never really saw them up close only in the shadows. Then Rachael's family came and we made our way here to this rock shelter as a sort of refuge. We set a trap for them after Tana's clothes came up missing, but it all seemed like a waste of time. Then after some of the others left this morning to go berry picking, Ray told us to hide as he went outside. And when we came outside a time later nobody was here and we don't know what to do."
"So you're saying you think that these people came and possibly took them hostage, but you're not sure because you really never seen them up close. You just felt like you were being followed but couldn't tell. And your father went outside for some unknown reason and now he's not here," she says trying to sum everything up the best that she possibly can without being mystified.
Rachael sits down tired from the stress and anxiety running through her blood scrambling, "That is the truth."
Rosalind thinks back to her journey realizing she thought she heard noises creeping up on her at times shrilling, "There were times when I felt I wasn't alone on my journey but I just kept on moving as fast as I could. Sometimes I even ran as fast as could think that some sort of preying creature was on my trail. I also saw some unknown prints here and there that I couldn't make out by myself. And a couple of other times I did see some animal herds that didn't look to friendly and others I followed at a distance. But there was a fear that others might be stalking them too so I didn't stay very long."
"Sounds a little similar to our experiences too," Clovis the Kid relates back to her once again.
Rachael wonders if she has any insight on what they should do right now momentarily speaking by babbling, "What should we do?"
Rosalind thinks for a moment to herself before squandering an idea, "I think we should arm ourselves and have a look around. We can start where they went berry picking. Do you know how to get there?"
"Sort of," Clovis the Kid relates. Going a bit further he adds, "I think it's just up the canyon and around the bend from the cliff overhangs I believe."
"Good! Then let's get ready and go there because we shouldn't waste any more time. The only other alternative is to stay here and wait. But dark fall will be coming soon and we should have a look around before then I think. Otherwise we will be sitting here worried even more."
"That's a good idea," Rachael discloses back to her.
Rosalind takes a look around for something to protect herself with saying, "First I need to find something better than this stone knife I flaked along the way. I was looking for something to fasten it to but haven't found anything strong enough. Are there anymore of those spears lying around inside?"
"Yes, I think there's one lying over besides my father's blanket and belongings," Clovis the Kid relates really quickly like trying to get a move on with the search of his friends.
"Well, go see if it's there and get it so we can have a look around," she says getting more and more anxious to find her long lost friend Shantelle.
Immediately Clovis the Kid heads further inside the enclosed cavern looking for his father's spear. After a moment or so he approaches her with it saying, "I was hoping it wasn't here and he had taken it with him for protection. But I guess he left it."
As she takes a hold of it she says, "They must have left in a hurry."
Looking the spear up and down she adds, "Did he make this himself?"
Clovis the Kid replies, "Yes, he always makes his own stuff. My mother makes a lot of things as well."
"And what's her name?" Rosalind asks curiously enough.
"My mother's name is Marianne," Clovis the Kid answers back with a softer tone of voice.
"Well, which way do we go?" Rosalind asks ready to begin with the rummaging around the area so to speak.
Rachael points the direction saying, "We have to go that way around the canyon towards the edge of the rock faces over there!"
Rosalind takes her first couple of steps leading the way asking, "So how long have you been here before everything went sour?"
Clovis the Kid decides to answer her question concerning the matter, "We weren’t here for very long, only a two days and one night or so."
Rosalind thinks how that isn't very long, "That isn't that long of a time. What did the place look like when you first arrived here?"
Rachael says something really quick akin to what she's getting at with the realization of the story saying, "When we first came here I had a creepy feeling about the place."
Clovis the Kid brings something else to Rosalind's mind telling her, "So did I, there were lots of skins and other things left by others like it had been lived in before. In fact there were still ashes from the camp fire that someone else had had previously."
Rosalind asks wanting more information from them both, "Is there anything else you have noticed about the place that sounds or seems strange?"
Clovis the Kid thinks back to some of the other places he has been to that looked lived in a way, "Well, this isn't the only place that we have been to where things were left behind from others. The last place before this one was smaller and had a camp fire that was left. There were also some flaked stone tools left that were chiseling's. That's the place that Rachael sprung upon us after she ran away from her family."
"You ran away from your family?' Rosalind asks with a feeling of being sorry towards her considering that she is only a little girl.
Rachael answers the issue saying, "Yes, I ran away from them one morning because they were always arguing and fighting over things. Then I ran into Nick, Marianne, and Clovis the Kid."
"Then what did you do?" Rosalind asks wanting more out of them.
Rachael informs her, "Then we left that cave and found this one which was bigger. After a day my family came here as well when my mother was searching for me. She came up to them after camping nearby and eavesdropping I think. It was like she knew I was here."
Rosalind thinks and acts upon woman's intuition quibbling, "Sounds like she is pretty intuitive. Women are when it comes to their loved ones I suppose. Kind of like me searching for Shantelle after all of this time. When we were separated I never thought I would see her again. I came this way just wanting to get away myself from all of the tyranny that the lands had placed in the desperate world of famine. Nature has a way of displacing circumstances that lead to change. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile and let the clouds of disbelief prevail and blow on over."
Clovis the Kid gets a little more anxious as they come closer to the area where the fresh pickings are available this time of year, "It's not that much further, just right around this corner."
Rosalind expresses herself further adding, "When this is all over maybe we can all find someplace better I hope."
Approaching nearer and nearer Clovis the Kid says, "Well, this is the place and it looks like nobody is here now."
Rachael gets a little more nervous saying, "Wonder where they are all at?"
Rosalind takes a glance around. She notices how quiet it has become all of a sudden like a dream in a way. "Are you sure this is the place?" She asks presumably.
"Clovis the Kid walks over to a boysenberry bush pulling some berries to put in his mouth. Putting one of them in his mouth he says, "This is the place; see all of the fresh pickings?"
Rosalind decides to take a few them because she hasn't had anything to eat in a while. Making another comment she says, "We should take a break and fuel up and also have a look around about the place."
Rachael walks around glancing about the place. Looking at the ground a little distance away she notices a little fur bag lying nearby. Walking over to it she says, "Looks like someone's hand bag was left behind!"
Rosalind takes a look as she swallows down another boysenberry saying, "Is there anything inside?"
Rachael picks it up and then takes a look inside saying, "Just some loose berries besides what's on the ground."
Rosalind reaches over for it as Rachael walks back, "Whose was it?"
"I don't know, it looks like Krista's maybe." She says answering Rosalind back.
"I wonder if she dropped it or left it on purpose," Rosalind says with a curious notion.
Clovis the Kid starts to walk around a little more glaring about the area looking for some clues of some kind. Before going to many more feet he sees something hanging from one of the close by bush. He walks closer and looks at it saying, "Look at this!"
Rosalind takes notice of the feather quill that belongs to Shantelle. Rachael sees it to blunting; "It looks like Shantelle's Feather Quill necklace."
Rosalind takes it from the bush slowly like it is some type of warning or something else slanging, "It looks like she left it on purpose for some reason."
Clovis the Kid relates as he thinks about to himself contemplating, "You think so!"
Rosalind carries on with the conversation at hand delusively declaring, "Sure, why not?"
Rachael wonders why right off of the bat pronouncing, "You mean she left it as a clue?"
Rosalind starts to put the feather quill around her neck slanging, "She must have, she's probably trying to tell us something."
Clovis the kid investigates further noticing a bunch of foot prints scattering off into the mere distance uttering, "There's some foot prints over here!"
Rosalind and Rachael begin to walk over to where Clovis the Kid is standing observing the many different tracks scattering off in the distance. At first sight Rosalind realizes that there are a dozen tracks at least. It's obvious that they aren't alone. Wondering how many of their family came here Rosalind queries, "How many of them came here?"
Clovis the Kid thinks for a moment to himself counting, "I think seven of them came here, my father and mother, Tana, Kelle, Kay, Hether, and Shantelle your friend."
"Well, it doesn't seem as though they were alone. There are at least a dozen or so footprints. It looks like a trail of some kind in the dampened mud that I can't even tell," she discloses as an eerie vibe come and overwhelms her.
Rachael looks off into the plain remoteness thinking, "Should we see where they lead to?"
Clovis the Kid gets eager to follow further saying, "Yes, we should it's my parents."
Rosalind becomes a little hesitant jousting, "Wait a minute. Didn't you say the others were at the place where you've been hanging your clothes?"
Rachael answers right away saying, "That's where Jon and Mycroft went!"
Rosalind speaks her mind trying to think for their best interests saying, "I think we should head back to the shelter and then from there go to the other place before we take a chance. Don't you think?"
Clovis the Kid decides that's a great idea because they aren't really sure of anything as of yet. Agreeing with her completely he relates, "I think you're right because Jon and Mycroft could still be there."
Rosalind is ready to head back even though her friend may be in trouble or something else, "I just think we should see if the men are there first because there's only three and it seems we are outnumbered in some way."
Then Rosalind places her left hand on Shantelle's necklace deliberating, "I just kind of worried because she left her necklace on the bush. She probably left it when no one was looking as a sign that there was trouble from somebody."
They continue heading back as she adds, "You just get a feel for things sometimes when matters don't feel right and you can't put an eye or finger on it. Sometimes it's just better to play it safe when you're not so sure of something. And in this case I'm pretty sure we're not alone in these parts. In fact we could be being watched as we speak!"
"Do you think everybody is alright?" Rachael questions Rosalind as she begins to glance back over her shoulder trying to see if there's anything back there. Nonetheless she neither sees nor hears nothing.
Explaining more to Rachael, Rosalind shrills, "It's hard to say at this point what happened exactly, the sooner we find someone the better off we will be."
Clovis the Kid starts to worry a little for the others a lot more shrieking, "I hope the dark boogie men aren't mean at all!"
Rosalind chuckles slightly declaring, "I doubt they are really boogie men!"
Rachael questions her authority on the subject by gabbing, "How do you know they are like ghosts."
Rosalind chuckles again, although this time with a more serious sounding accent quibbling, "I doubt they are ghosts either, they are probably just some mean people trying to keep others away from here I think."
Rachael gets sort of defensive for some unknown reason, "How do you know?"
Rosalind gets a little more overbearing on them trying to display some uncertainty, "You know what, I don't know. Honestly, if you didn't say Shantelle's name I probably would think you were both full of it!"
Continuing further with her overtones speech she jargons, "The only thing is that we have had bad luck with others from the beginning and nothing has changed. People are just a bunch of Mother………..If you understand my drift."
Clovis the Kid asks her more about what she's trying to say, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"What I am trying to say is that people are not what they seem to be, and they're never what you want to be. People are nothing but a bunch of trouble. When I was trekking my way here I was lonely but nobody else slowed me down and no one was in my way. I could do what I wanted when I wanted. The only thing was if I was to get hurt then no one would be there for me. That's what I mean," Rosalind says taking a deep breath afterwards.
"My family is nice," Clovis the Kid says trying to get sympathy for his parents.
"And so are mine," Rachael says about hers.
Rosalind tries to correct herself really quick adding, "I wasn't really talking about your families. I was talking about others meaning outsiders. They just come around to mess things up. There are times when you meet outsiders who are good people but most of the time they will take advantage of you when the time comes."
Clovis the Kid replies saying, "I know what you mean, people are just there because you have to have someone to lean on and most of the time you just fall over a stump, right?"
"You're catching on kid," Rosalind says making him feel like he has the hang of life's meanings.
Rachael realizes they are around the corner from the rock shelter stating, "We almost home!"
Rosalind thinks about how there better homes than this are saying, "I can think of better homes than this." As they approach the front of the rock shelter Rosalind says," Besides it doesn't look like anyone has returned. Let's have a look inside just in case anyways."
Clovis the Kid starts to head inside to take a look, "I'll take a peek really fast like."
While Rachael and Rosalind watch as Clovis the Kid runs into the cavern Rosalind asks, "So which way do we head next?"
Rachael turns her head back the other way telling Rosalind, "That way, but I haven't been there yet. My mother was getting the clothes ready to hang this morning before anything had happened."
Rosalind thinks for a second saying, "So you aren't really sure other than it's that way somewhere?"
Rachael explains to her how she hasn't had a chance, "We haven't even had the chance to go there because Jon and Mycroft were setting a trap for them with everybody's clothes hung up."
Rosalind gets a bad feeling once again right away thinking that something else isn't right saying, "That's just great! So we are taking another chance at them missing also."
Clovis the Kid comes out saying, "No one is here I looked around and it doesn't look like anyone has been here since we last left. Nothing has been touched I don't think."
Rosalind is very eager to go on another scouting blotting, "Well, let's get a move on and see if your other friends are there."
Rosalind takes a step or two jousting, "You say it's this way?"
Clovis the Kid starts to walk with her blatting, "I don't know exactly where it is but I know they headed off that way past them tree tops over there."
Rosalind looks at a higher angle towards the tree tops in the mere distance saying, "Well let's go and see hoping that they are there still there by chance."
Rachael gets bothered another time thinking that they are alone in the world driveling, "What do we do if they aren't there?"
"I don't know, I guess we will have to come back here and camp it out. I can't think of anything else without going somewhere else to stay. And we can't do that or I'll never find Shantelle and you will never reunite with your families," she says trying to give them both an honest answer to the whole entire thing.
Rachael comes back with some more feelings saying, "I'm kind of used to it. Before I ran away and they found me, now they are gone and I have to find them."
Becoming even more serious about the whole ordeal Rosalind says, "I guess pay backs are tough to handle in a way. I just hope Shantelle is okay as well considering we were split up by chance caused by the misfortunes of others. What are we looking for anyway?"
"Jon and Mycroft made a line out of vines to hang our clothes on. They said they were going to tie them to two trees somewhere over here," Clovis the Kid says trying to get a mental picture of the spot they are looking for anyways.
Rosalind continues to walk past the tallest trees just in front of them as another patch of trees careens into view. With the catch of an eye she notices something blowing in the wind back and forth. Quickly she sees other articles of clothing hanging next to each other. Brisk fully she tells them, "Over there are some clothes hanging!"
"Doesn't seem like anyone is around," Clovis the Kid says glancing around.
Rachael gets depressed automatically realizing that they must be missing as well now, "They must have been taken too!"
Rosalind decides to at least have a quick look around for a minute, "Well, let's at least have a look around to see if there are any signs of any kind!"
Clovis the Kid wonders about the clothes hanging there, "What about the clothes?"
Rosalind thinks about them too saying, "We should have a look around first and make sure that no one else is here!"
Rachael looks around noticing a few tracks, although there's not really too many to see. Mostly there's a layer of grass reeds and smaller vegetation lying around in the area. However there are a few prints scattering in some soft mud directly underneath the work area. Making a quick comment Rachael says, "I only see some foot prints right here."
Rosalind carries on with the trail disclosing, "Then there are some flattened grass reed strands scampering over a ways."
Clovis the Kid thinks they should take the clothes and head back to the rock shelter, "Maybe we should take the clothes and head back to the rock shelter. It doesn't seem like they are around either."
Rosalind thinks that that is a swell idea considering how quiet the area seems to be with a feeling of an overwhelming loneliness. Swiftly she acclaims, "I think you are right, we should take all of the clothes and head back."
Rachael thinks of the next idea within the plan even though there isn't one so to say, "Then what are we going to do, just camp out and wait for them to come get us?"
Rosalind figures they are probably on close alert within the watchful eyes of a stranger who they can never see. As she starts to pull down a few articles she implores, "We don't have any other choice. I feel like we are being watched anyhow. If I'm right they could jump out at any minute. So just get the clothes and let's get out of here."
Rachael and Clovis the Kid start to pull all they can as fast as they possibly can without mustering a delaying response. Rachael notices that some of the clothes are missing, although she's not sure whose we're all here to begin with. However it seems that some stuff is missing or that there should have been more out here drying. Tana, Lara, and Kelle spent much of the day washing down by the stream washing their clothes and everybody else's belongings as well. Bringing this to the other's attention Rachael babbles, "It seems like there should be more clothes than this. I think some things may be missing or were taken."
"Are you sure?" Rosalind asks considering she has no idea what they have to themselves as possessions because she doesn't even know any of them. She's only here to find her friend Shantelle and nothing else really matters anymore to her. Nonetheless she has met two new friends who are her closest clue to finding her and supposedly know her. She believes their story, although the traces of hope are slim to none.
Rachael answers back right away, "I'm pretty sure there was more than this."
Clovis the Kid thinks about how there still some of their things back at the rock shelter saying, "Most of everybody's things are still back at the rock shelter."
Rachael agrees but still thinks some things are missing but can't really tell until they find the others. She replies, "Yes, but I still think some things may be missing."
Rosalind thinks they should take the rest and go gibbering, "Maybe the dark enemies took them to go through and that sort of thing. I don't know maybe this is all a dream. Whatever the chance we should gather as fast as we can and take leave, huh!"
Clovis the Kid takes the last article saying, "This is the last!"
Rosalind stops and takes a quick look around checking to see if the vicinity is clear of any strangers jousting bluntly, "Let's go. We should probably head back now and think this all through."
Clovis the Kid turns around ready to leave saying, "Ready, let's get out of here!"
Rosalind thinks about what they should do when they get back to the rock shelter twiddling, "When we get back let's go through and sort through everything and try and decide whose is what so we can see what's all missing. I'll go through Shantelle's things while you go through everybody else's, okay."
Rachael agrees with her right off the mark saying, "Okay!"
Clovis the Kid does the same saying, "Okay, I'll go through my parents things while she goes through hers. Then we will go through everybody else's."
NINETEEN
Leaning down on her knees staring down one of the gatherers at the Black Hawk's Camp, Lady Black Hawk confronts Lara who is staring back behind a netted cave made like a sort of dungeon of some kind. Smacking her spear to her lip and back to the ground she shrills, "What are you looking at?"
Lara looks her straight back in the eye replying, "You, what else?"
Krista looks over to her as well saying, "We're all looking at you. Why not, you're sitting there smacking your lip staring at us."
Lady Hawk smacks it again and back to the ground, "I always do that when I'm ready to go a hunt!"
Hilda gets angry thinking she some cahoots answering, "I thought we were your daily hunt?"
Lady Hawk chuckles a bit glaring them all down telling them, "You were all just for practice. Today we prepare for the hunt of these plentiful feeding grounds we have made our way to. You just stumbled in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Nick tries to question the fact that they aren't in to their feeding habits anyhow eluding, "We aren't interested in your grazing grounds anyways."
Lady Hawk talks to them further about how she feels about them saying, "You all don't know what's really going on around here anyway. The rock shelter is a trap we leave for newcomers. Everyone seems to stumble upon it by chance and thinks the others have moved on to better things. Most of these lands are feeding grounds for other tribes. Many of them we aren't too friendly with to say the least."
Jaymes makes a comment regarding her negative speech she tends to give them blooding, "That's too bad that there's no room for everybody!"
Lady Hawk explains more to them by cracking her spear again saying, "There's no room for a lonely group of stragglers. Everyone who comes here is a straggler like stranger. They all arrive here hoping for a new chance for a place to gather destroying the feeding grounds of our herds we game for."
Marianne asks about the others they have caught by asking, "So what about the others you have caught?"
Lady Hawk hasn't ever caught anybody before. She carries on by telling them all, "I never caught anyone before. We used to just chase them off. But now we have decided to try a new approach and you are the lucky ones."
Krista wonders what they are going to do with them all. She tends to be a mean and cruel person who may have psychotic tendencies at the most. Question her authority Krista asks, "So what are you going to do with us all?"
Lady Hawk hasn't thought that far ahead of her and either have the others who are members of her tribe the Black Hawks. Lady Hawk looks over to one of the other Hawk guards shrieking, "What should we do with them all?"
The first Hawk guard looks and shrills, "Put them all to work!"
She then looks at another female guard who says, "Make them move away!"
Hilda makes a lighter comment to Marianne who is sitting next to her, "And moves where?"
Marianne comments back saying, "Who knows the other side of the world again!"
The second Hawk guard orders immediately, "You'd all be lucky to make it that far."
Jon gets a little angry questioning the jargon, "What's that suppose to mean?"
Lady Hawk goes further carrying on the conversation saying, "There are more tribes around the area. Many of them are as protective as we are; you wouldn't make it too far without running into any other trouble in any case."
Getting ready to leave the scene Lady Hawk says, "Well, we'll all talk later. I have to go work with my people to regain our heritage once again."
Lady Hawk turns and leaves the scene as the first Hawk guard commands, "You all stay still and cause no trouble and no one will get hurt."
Marianne turns around and heads backs towards the rear of the confined area saying, "Where we going to go?"
Nick follows thinking about getting out of there somehow stating softly, "We'll get out of here eventually?"
Speaking even lighter Mycroft says, "It won't be easy!"
Jon realizes that they have two Black Hawk Guards watching them uttering, "There's just two guards watching us."
Hastily the second Hawk guard pushes his spear inside the netted area shrilling, "Watch what you say. No talking!"
"I know what you are all talking about," the guard continues to tell them boldly.
"There's nowhere to go without getting caught or running into trouble," the first Hawk guard says trying to persuade them into calming down more.
"You won't get far," the first guard relates once again making them recognize the fact that they are outnumbered by many.
"And if you do you'll only run yourselves into other troubles," the second guard blurts out with a meaner pitch of voice.
"You can't keep us here forever. Eventually you're going to have to do something with us," Jon says wanting more explanations from them now that the other woman isn't even around.
"That's up to the leader what to do with you all," the first guard answers back vagrantly like.
Mycroft figures that the female who left is their leader. Firstly, he asks the guard about the fact asking, "Is the female who left the leader of your group?"
"Yes, she is," the guard answers back swiftly.
"And what do you call her, she never told us her name," Jon asks with a keen inquisitiveness about them all.
"Her name is Lady Hawk," the first guard answers trying not to tell them too much.
Mycroft sort of chuckles a slight bit thinking the name sounds kind of funny compared to their continental names coming from back home to say the truth. Letting his laugh fade away Mycroft interrogates, "And where did she get her name?"
"She is the possessor of the sacred head dress of our tribe the Black Hawks," the second guard informs them with an animal like instinct of a pitch in his scratchy voice.
"And what is the sacred head dress you speak of," Jaymes queries wanting to find more out about the people of their tribe.
"Only dancers and members of the tribal ceremonies may see the leader in her head dress," the first guard relates to him in return of conversation.
"Why do you have tribal ceremonies anyway?" Jon asks going even further with their personal life trying to figure them out.
"Our tribal ceremonies are a dance for the fittest before the hunt. Why do you all ask so many questions anyway?" The second guard confronts them formally so to speak.
"We are just curious that's all," Mycroft says eluding the fact that they are the ones who took them hostage in the first place and they want to get to the bottom of things.
"It seems to me that you're all a bit too curious," the first guard blurts out wishfully.
"We just want to know what's going to become of us, that are all," Kelle babbles back momentarily speaking.
Krista tries an approach that's as old as child's play blurting, "Where's there to go around here, I'd like a little privacy."
The second guard laughs and chuckles a little whimsical of a moment, "I can let you out, but only one at a time. And if you try anything funny I'll spear you down."
Krista agrees to be obedient and not to try anything out of the ordinary. This is her chance to take care of business and scope the area out a little more without hinting to something else. Leaning forward and taking a few steps forward she blunts, "I won't try anything!"
The second guard comes over and unfastens the net at one end allowing Krista to exit and comes outside where the outsides air and skies are blinding. As she approaches closer towards him the second guard shrills, "Over there!"
Krista walks over that way around the edge of a slight crest forming into the rock edges of the confinement area. The second guard follows a few yards and stops taking the last few steps commanding, "Don't go too far or take too long, I'll be right here!"
Krista walks away answering, "I won't!"
The second guard turns around completely agitatedly saying, "I'll come after you if I have to!"
Krista fades away for a instant saying, "I'll just be a moment."
Krista walks another few yards ready to do her thing saying to herself, "Pushy people are they!"
She looks around noticing some huts covered by animal skins off in the nearby distance. The sounds of kids and dogs barking can be heard. There are also the sounds of natives laughing in the distance talking in different languages of some kind that are unfamiliar to her. She goes as fast as she can without stirring too much time on her hands. For a moment or so she thought she had heard some footsteps but thinks that it's maybe just her imagination or rather something else. Hurriedly she finishes and begins to head back with the feeling of someone behind over her shoulder in a way.
Quickly she returns as the second guard approaches again ready to let her back in replying, "If you all obey, things will be easier."
Krista answers back like it was a remark meaning she took too long out there, "I didn't take that long!"
The second guard lets her in adding, "We are nicer when Lady Hawk isn't around, but only a little. So don't push it!"
Krista goes inside as the second guard pulls the net aside a little. The guard holds it open for another moment before asking, "Anybody else, before I head back to my post?"
Marianne is the next one to uphold a remark, "Yes, me!"
Jon makes a little wise crack trying to bring some humor into their disparaged lives twiddling, "Why don't we all just go!"
The second guard gets defensive right away, "Just one at a time!"
By now Ray has met some of the other members of Lady Mammoth's tribe. They have already decided to go back to the rock shelter in search of the kids to see if they are still there. Ray has acquired another fur back pack from her tribal people and has some things that he has lost made up in a way.
Lady Mammoth's helper Brown Horn who is a female member of their tribe who is the head scout for keeping up with the many cultivated herds they have left. As she looks out in the direction of the rock shelter she twiddles', "I haven't been out scouting in a few days or so. It's been a long time since I have gone to the rock shelter."
Ray questions the rock shelter a bit asking, "How far from the Black Hawk's camp is the rock shelter?"
She thinks to herself for an instant about how far it really is from there relating, "It's a few valleys away from there. They are in our old territory that we had a many seasons ago."
While walking together Lady Mammoth begins to tell him about the valley they used to live in when her mother was still very much alive. She starts by speaking, "We lived in that valley when we were starting out after our relatives and forefathers came here from a distant land among the many moons from overseas."
"So you all came over the frozen tundra that separates the lands?" Ray asks as he keeps up his pace walking along with the both of them.
Brown Horn starts to make her comment telling Ray, "According to my family there were huge masses of ocean that stretched the distance beyond the horizons. When they first came here the lands were plentiful with fresh foods that grew wildly all over the valleys. The animals were more widespread than now as well. I was little growing up in that valley with many of our relatives who had passed away."
Lady Mammoth starts to take over the story then by talking, "She's a little younger than I am. We both grew up there ranging the many herds that migrated through the valley. That valley was more traveled than the valley we live in now. The animal herds used to run their way through both valleys until the Black Hawk's came and started their hunting habits."
Ray questions the story a little with an inquiry saying, "So they hunted them down to where they are afraid to come here?"
Brown Horn begins to speak again adding, "Afraid so, and they have killed too many of them including the young not allowing the herds to replenish themselves."
Soon they approach an access to the trees above the canyon next to the small embankment of water. Ray looks up to the area he jumped from saying, "Up there, that's where I fell from, or you could say jumped from. What's the difference, huh?"
Brown Horn ponders to herself for a jiffy talking aloud, "Not too much, I guess!"
Lady Mammoth talks about his story to Brown Horn elusively declaring, "He socked a good one to her he said."
Brown Horn looks at him chuckling a little responding, "That's cool, and I wish I could do the same one day!"
Lady Mammoth gets defensive on the matter right off the bat arguing, "That's my fighting bone to pick!"
Brown Horn agrees by adding, "I guess we all have a picking with them all!"
Ray gets eager to make their way up the sloped hill that curves around to the crest next to the dropping of his fate and safety line putting words in plain drift. Taking a step away from the scene of glancing Ray shrieks, "Well, should we move on?"
Lady Mammoth sympathizes with him, "Sure, we better get closer to scout the area out, huh, Brown Horn?"
"Sure, we should be careful though making sure no one else is around except for the little ones," Brown Horn says as they begin to walk up and over a small path leading through some bushes along the nearby clearing heading up to the crest of the hill.
Ray thinks to himself about how far he must have run trying to outrun her before reaching the top of the hill. Once at the top before turning the other way he says, "I wonder how far I ran to get here?"
Brown Horn thinks about it for a miniscule of a flash saying, "Pretty far, the rock shelter is up this canyon a ways and then over towards the brook that curves through another valley up just a little ways."
Ray thinks about how they are going to get close without stirring up any trouble from the Black Hawks if any of them happen to be in the neighborhood. Ray brings this fact to their attention by asking, "How are we going to get in there without anyone seeing us?"
Lady Mammoth tells Ray of her plan to extract them peacefully without any haste by effectuating, "Brown Horn will scout the rock shelter out once we have entered the canyon from below."
"And then what," Ray inquiries quickly contemplating the next move at hand.
Lady Mammoth answers Ray back with her usual plan of a watchful eye saying, "If they are spotted and the area is clear of intruders, she will return so you can greet with them!"
With a quick response Brown Horn adds, "We'll follow behind you of course!"
Lady Mammoth brings another fact to his attention telling him, "We can't walk in front of you because we might scare them off!"
Ray chuckles a moment sighing answering, "I'm not afraid of scarring them away!"
Brown Horn takes command of the conversation informing, "I am, we don't want to risk disturbing any unwanted visitors."
Lady Mammoth is the next to speak uttering, "We just want to get them and head back to camp!"
Ray starts to remember some of the surroundings as they approach closer and closer to the rock shelter. Once they get closer to the rock faces they can see the brook flowing nearby. Ray brings this to mind, "This area is familiar, we're getting close now!"
Brown Horn decides that they should stop a few yards over underneath a large Pine tree that's bristled widely. Suddenly she starts walking that way jousting, "Let's set up a post right here underneath this large Wild Pine Cone Tree."
Lady Mammoth becomes slightly agitated and very nervous because she wants to take care of the task hastily. Without waiting too long she declares, "I think it would be better if Brown Horn scouts the rock dwelling before too much longer."
Ray is intensely overwhelmed with a feeling of inspiring hope as he replies," I agree, the longer we wait the harder they will be to find later!"
Brown Horn prepares herself for a lonesome journey, even though she really doesn't have too far to go to reach the outskirts of the rock shelter. Shrugging her shoulder to drop her camping back pack she lets it fall to the ground bushing, "Here I go, be back soon!"
Brown Horn leaves the scene by running along the tree line that sways over to the side of the canyon. Little by little she vanishes from Ray and Lady Mammoth's sight as they turn to each other. Ray starts feeling embarrassed for some kind of reason. Speaking his mind he says, "I feel kind of ashamed having everyone do my dirty work!"
Lady Mammoth makes the scene more bearable by admitting, "It isn't just your dirty work, and it's our dirty work as well. It's been a long time since I have even come this far in a while. It feels foreign to me now. Like I'm on someone else's property and I'm sneaking around or having someone else do the sneaking around a bit, huh."
Ray feels a little more apprehensive considering she laid another ton of her emotions onto him. Ray begins to speak making her feel happier saying, "Well, I guess we all feel out of place around here?"
Lady Mammoth takes a glance around at some of the scenery of her old territory relenting, "Hopefully, your kids are safe and there is nothing to harm anymore. Someday this will be all over like an old mystery of some sort."
Ray starts to get antsy waiting for Brown Horn. His arms start to feel numb and he starts to get shaky tasking Lady Mammoth, "How long will she take you think?"
Lady Mammoth ponders over how careful her young scout friend and tribal member happens to be when out on the scout and search swaddling, "Long enough for her to see if they are there and no one else is around. And once she makes that connection she will come back here and report to us what she sees."
Ray thinks about having to use that tactic before on the situation with finding Rachael after she had ran away. Ray tells her, "We had to use that tactic once before when Rachael ran away from us."
"How long ago was this?" Lady Mammoth inquiries of this incident with Rachael he had with a curious notion.
Ray stops and thinks for a brief moment while looking in the direction that Brown Horn left to head near the rock shelter. Then he turns to her and says, "Many moons ago!"
Lady Mammoth is nosier than that asking, "How many moons, one, two, or three?"
Ray ponders over it for another jiffy of a second admitting, "One moon ago, I think maybe!"
Lady Mammoth tries to outsmart his wits slightly by responding, "You need to get your time frames straight. A full moon happens every twenty eight to thirty days and nights about. Around fourteen days ago which means there will be another in another fourteen or so days."
"It was a while ago when we were stopped camping for the night. She left and ran into the others Marianne, Nick, and their little kid. We came to a cavern with firelight and decided to scout it out first and children's voices were heard. Then we camped out nearby and the next day Hilda approached them asking if her little girl was inside there. Luckily it worked out then, but now we have this problem at hand," Ray says telling a more thorough job.
Lady Mammoth feels better knowing that they will have better luck if they are still there at the rock shelter. She shares her thought by saying, "So she knows the routine?"
Ray thinks about that for a second or so realizing that this is a different situation now relenting, "That was a different condition then when she ran away. Now she was left to defend herself by hiding which was mistake. Everything happened so fast that I had no idea what to do. They came unexpectedly without warning. I shouldn't have left them like that!"
Lady Mammoth decides to calm his spirit with some jargon, "Hopefully Brown Horn will return with a good report for us to hear!"
Scouting closer and closer to the rock shelter Brown Horn has made her way as close as she wants to. She has become aware that there is someone else abiding their time with the two children. Apparently the person appears to be a female of some feminine nature. She is anxious to investigate, although the individual seems to of a lighter complexion unlike the darker ones they haste to avoid at all costs.
She wants to move in even closer, even if it risks being seen. Nevertheless she maintains a distance away while keeping a tight watch. She tries to turn her ear to the side trying to catch a faint voice but there is no one talking. It seems that they are only organizing belongings to Brown Horn; conversely she can't seem to put it all together in her mind. After another moment or so, she decides that she has seen enough and it's time to head back and report to Ray and Lady Mammoth.
Momentarily Lady Mammoth and Ray are still conversing about many different matters of everything while still waiting. Ray begins to become more concerned with the long wait asserting, "I hope she returns soon, unless she has run into some trouble."
Lady Mammoth looks and gleams into the distance noticing a head bobbing up and down and back and forth past the distant brush that separates the time and space between the two realities. Without any hesitation Lady Mammoth describes the scene, "Someone is approaching!"
As Ray turns to her watchful eye Lady Mammoth realizes that it's Brown Horn jousting, "It's Brown Horn!"
Slowly she fades into a closer view while approaching closer and closer. She slows down to a jog gable pace as she arrives back to them both. Lady Mammoth can't wait to hear the news whether bad or good. With a smudged and depreciating look Lady Mammoth asks, "See or find anything?"
Brown Horn slows down to a complete stop winding, "They're there!"
Ray gets a feeling of overwhelming excitement saying, "Oh, thank the Lord!"
Lady Mammoth makes a question to the situation asking, "What were they doing?"
Brown Horn tells them the truth about someone else being there instructing, "The weren’t alone, there was some woman there with them!"
Ray starts to wonder and ponder the fact in his mind about who that person or individual may be. He begins by asking another question, "What did the person look like?"
Brown Horn has no idea what his tribe or members of his group look like in appearance. Firmly she tells them, "The woman has a light complexion and is dressed similar to you I suppose. I don't know who it is because I never met any of them. But anyhow there is someone there with them helping sort through all of the belongings."
Ray isn't sure who it could be, nonetheless he can only muster up any guesses within his confused mind at this time. Wobbling the words out of his tight shaky lips he asserts, "I wonder who it is? I guess I won't know until we go over there!"
Lady Mammoth has heard enough and feels that they should take care of the struggling matter once and for all. Hurriedly trying to get a move on, Lady Mammoth commands, "Let's just head over there and get them before any more troubles arise!"
Ray starts walking that way pondering the situation over and over in his dazed and confused mentality over the place. All he knows is that he instructed the kids to hide while he went to investigate the matter when all hell broke loose. Walking at a faster pace than the other two Lady Mammoth seems agitated gibbering, "Slow down, not so fast. We don't want to stir any trouble on our way there!"
Ray is relentless to waste any more time. However he doesn't want to scrape up any unwanted attention either. Slowing his pace down a little bit Ray says, "Well, I don't want to leave them alone for too long!"
Lady Mammoth is interested in knowing if the coast was clear when Brown Horn did her prying over the rock shelter. Not so sure they are alone Lady Mammoth quills, "Nothing out of the ordinary on your quest?"
Brown Horn continues the tempo replying, "There's was nothing not a watchful eye in sight!"
Lady Mammoth remains behind Ray keeping a lookout in all directions. As they approach closer and closer to their destination Lady Mammoth jibbers, "When we get there, you walk ahead of us while we wait back a ways. Once you reunite with them you inform them that you have friends and signal us to come over!"
Thinking and contemplating the plans more Lady Mammoth says, "This way we can keep an eye out from a distance making sure that it isn't some sort of a trap and the Black Hawks are near forcing them to lure us!"
Ray can't image the kids being that reluctant to lure him under coercion in order to snatch away his independence that is the only thing left of the world to save them both. Ray talks about the incident further saying, "When I left I told them to hide and get out of sight, I doubt that this is all some sort of trap for me!"
Brown Horn gives a more negative attitude towards this forbidden and condemned place delusively declaring, "That whole place is nothing but an entrapment."
"It's better to be on the safe side until you make contact with them all. Wait a moment or so before you signal us that the coast is clear because they could wait a moment or so before springing on all of us by slip-up," Lady Mammoth adds quickly enough.
Brown Horn takes a few more glances around making sure there isn't anything quite out of the usual telling, "The last thing we want is to be confronted by the Black Hawk's in this area."
Ray wonders where they have taken them by chance asking, "I wonder where they have taken them all?"
Lady Mammoth isn't so sure but she bets eventually they will find out by saying, "I don't know, but we are getting close now."
Brown Horn notices a good place up ahead for them to wait the cue from Ray saying balking, "Let's stop at that tree up ahead. There we will both wait for you to check to see if everything is okay there!"
Lady Mammoth agrees with Brown Horn, "That's a good idea; we can see the whole area from there!"
Brown Horn thinks back to her scouting as they approach underneath the large over looming branches spreading out over and above relenting, "This is where I stopped and watched for a little while! It's better to stick with this spot I imagine"
Ray stops and drifts off into the mere distance noticing three of them nestled outside the rock shelter. Focusing in on the female subject with them Ray quells, "I have no idea who that person is. I've never seen her before!"
Lady Mammoth and Brown Horn become a little more inquiring. Lady Mammoth looks off towards the rock shelter asking, "Are you sure, she doesn't look like one of them?"
Brown Horn stands there quietly for a moment thinking about whom else it could be theoretically admitting, "It could be a straggler?"
Lady Mammoth wants to be on the safe side anyhow. She feels that ray should go alone and confront the place before anymore time goes by. Pushing the issue further Lady Mammoth says, "We'll wait here while you go see what's going on with them over there. Don't get to settled in be conspicuous of anything that seems out of the norm. Ask her who she is and where she's from before signaling to us. If anything happens we'll be here hiding out of sight!"
Ray stands there for another moment trying to get enough nerve and braveness to carry on forward with the confrontation. Taking a deep breath he exasperates, "Okay, here I go!"
Swiftly he starts to walk out past the trees exposing his visibility to them from a far distance. Without distracting any inattention from them he keeps the movement persisting ahead. After a few more scatters with the feet Ray stirs a turn from Rosalind who looks and signals Rachael and Clovis the Kid into action responding, "Look, someone's coming!"
Rachael is the first to look over to Ray as he approach ghastly into plain view excitedly saying, "Ray!"
Clovis the Kid turns and makes a comment as Ray approaches the front of the rock shelter, "Where did you come from?"
Rachael adds another line of recognition jousting passionately. "We wondered what happened."
Ray walks into the scene closer stating, "Sorry, I was worried about you all. They came so fast. Where is everybody?"
Rachael is the next to answer Ray back informing, "We don't know, everybody disappeared?"
Ray decides to ask where the other is at by the inquisition, "Nobody else is here?"
Clovis the Kid answers, "No, you told us to hide and when we came out no one was around.
So we just waited."
Ray looks over to Rosalind wondering who she is sitting and listening so effervescently and quietly. Confronting her identity Ray queries to all of them, "And who are you?"
Rosalind stands up on her feet answering, "My name is Rosalind, and I am a long lost friend of Shantelle's!"
Ray is relieved that it is at least someone he has heard of from Shantelle, the newcomer and her stories so to say. Making a comment on her lending her true self to hand Ray twiddles, "She mentioned you a few times not to mention. She said you two were separated somehow!"
Rosalind thinks for a moment before talking another response to Ray saying, "Yes, it's a long story!"
Ray notices that they have been organizing everyone's belongings and personal possessions the best that he possibly can comment, "I see you cleaned the place up a little?"
Rosalind looks Ray straight in the eye gabbling, "I thought it would be better to have things square around here while we think out what to do?"
Ray decides it's time to mention the other from their hiding off into the careening remote distance. He introduces their existence by saying, "I brought some friends I found along the way after they chased me off."
Rosalind looks around wondering, "Where are they at?"
Ray turns and signals for Brown Horn and Lady Mammoth to peek out from the gleaming turn of the corner. Quickly he waves his hand letting them know that the coast seems clear enough for them to both come over.
From the far corner Brown Horn and Lady Mammoth come out from their hiding making themselves completely visible. Momentarily as they head closer Rosalind asks, "Where did you meet them?"
Ray gives a quick explanation trying to push the story off until later stating, "It's a long story!"
Hurriedly, they make their descent upon the front of the rock shelter. Lady Mammoth is the first to scamper her way up asking, "Is everything alright?"
Ray looks to them both assuring the situation, "Yes, everything is under control. This is Rosalind who is a friend of Shantelle who happens to be a newcomer that joined us a while back!"
"And this is Rachael, and Clovis the Kid who I had already told you about," Ray narrates like a classic story.
Lady Mammoth looks to them all replying, "I am Lady Mammoth, and this is my friend Brown Horn. We are from another village a little ways from here!"
Brown Horn looks to them all gratifying, "Hello, how do you do?"
Rosalind looks at them in response asserting, "Okay, things will be better when all of this is cleared up somehow!"
Lady Mammoth thinks that they should gather what they can and split the scene. In a more anxious than ever mood to take the goods and run she mentions, "I think we shouldn't stay here too much longer. We should gather what we can and head to my peaceful village where we can sort things out!"
Rosalind agrees with Lady Mammoth thinking they should take immediate precautions and evacuate the spot replying, "I think you're right, this place gives me the wee bee gee bees!"
Lady Mammoth looks around at everything thinking that they can muster most of it by themselves saying, "Let's just take what we can and the rest we will come back for later!"
Ray agrees and decides to take action commanding, "Well, let's get to it!"
"Some of the things we can leave inside the shelter and come back another time," he adds sparingly like.
Soon they all muster what they can and flee the scene back to the village of Lady Mammoth and Brown Horn.
TWENTY
Immediately one of the Black Hawk guards begins to close his eyes slowly. Straining like they open up again and start to shutter back and forth like some type of trance was taking a hold of him. Within another moment of a glimpse, the other guard starts to follow suit in the same mannerism. Krista observes so patiently like she was waiting for her chance at something.
Keeping a continual eye on them both without looking at them directly, Krista nudges Hether who is sitting right next to her. Hether looks at Krista as she points to the Black Hawk guards. Hether looks realizing they are dozing off a bit. Hether pokes at Kay who is right besides her with her elbow so to address. Kay takes a glance out of the corner of her eye with not much disconcert to the fact.
Krista looks at Hether and away waiting for them to doze off completely. Gleaming at them one of the guards nearly falls over to the side and inadvertently wakes up in an aroused position. The guard maintains his balance as the other one wakes to the abrupt distraction of a noise. The guard looks over to the prisoners as Krista turns an eye away from him trying not to give any clues or ideas to her catching on.
Marianne and Nick have fallen in a dazed state which is a step away from being asleep. Many of the inhabitants are depressed and confused about what will happen with them. Nevertheless Krista feels they should do whatever it takes to regain their freedom back once again.
As the guard turns away for another glimpse of a moment, weariness looms over him as fast as a dark cloud hovering in the dark skies. Krista remains at a close watch for the time being waiting for the appropriate time to take a chance with the others at making a run for it. However it doesn't seem as though the others find the opportunity that convincing. It seems to them that they are entrapped in a helpless way in which they can't overcome.
Getting back with the others on their journey back to camp Lady Mammoth takes the conversation to a lighter realism as they journey out from the territory of harm's way by eluding, "We're out of their territory almost. Up ahead is the drop off where I first saw you."
Rosalind wonders how much further it is to the camp of Lady Mammoth and Brown Horn by asking, "How much further to your village?"
Ray decides to answer her considering he has longed the journey once before informing her, "It's a little ways yet!"
Lady Mammoth looks at Rosalind thinking about the fact that she hasn't seen her friend Shantelle in a long time mentioning, "I bet you miss your friend, and I bet you all miss your family."
Rosalind starts to get a little depressed admitting, "Yes, I hope she is okay along with the others and nobody seems to know where they're at!"
Lady Mammoth brings up a point or two about her family quelling, "Once we reunite with my family, we will go on another scout. But this time we will have to be more careful than before."
Brown Horn relates a little uttering, "The next scout will be more dangerous because we will have to get close to the Black Hawk camp. In fact we might even have to go inside the camp in some places in order to find where your friends are kept at bay."
"Who will go the next time?" Ray asks with a frightful inquiring.
Brown Horn answers back fairly quickly with a preoccupied response, "I will go because I know the area very well and I have some hiding places I can resort to incase trouble arises!"
Lady Mammoth decides that she shouldn't have to go by herself the next time around adding, "I will go too!"
Brown Horn doesn't really think that's such a great idea considering how tall and broad full with body she happens to be as a female huntress. Coming back with a negative sentence she recoils, "I think it would be better if I go by myself considering how short and cumbersome I am."
Lady Mammoth thinks how the last time she came really close she was vulnerable at being seen or spotted. Agreeing with Brown Horn all the way Lady Mammoth admits, "You may be right. You take the first scouting and then we'll decide what we should do from there?"
Ray gets a little depressed feeling like he's isn't going to be too much help in the future asking, "And what are we supposed to do in the mean time?"
Lady Mammoth has a solution for that telling him, "I think it would be a good time for you to learn our ways and train as one of our own."
"Train doing what?" Rosalind asks jumping in to the conversation once again.
Lady Mammoth would like to teach him how to scuffle which is just another term for fighting in their tribe. Looking at Ray and Rosalind up and down she says, "I would like to teach you both how to scuffle!"
Clovis the Kid hears the name and thinks something other pronouncing, "Sounds like fun!"
Brown Horn giggles for a brief second or so, "You're too little to scuffle with the elders, maybe you can scuffle with some of the middle aged fighters."
"That sounds like lots of fun, although I thought you meant something else," he says with a half depressed look on his face.
Lady Mammoth wonders what he thought she meant when she said scuffle, "What did you think I meant?"
Clovis the Kid thought it sounded like spear throwing which was a kind of javelin throw they used to do for fun and competition at home. He and his friends would make a fun game out of the sport and game by trading sea shells and other items that they had of their own. Expressing his sportsmanship with her to the fullest disclosure Clovis the Kid tells Lady Mammoth, "I thought it was a game where you run and throw your spear and whoever throws their spear the farthest wins whatever is in the pot. Most of the time I would put my favorite sea shells and sea urchins I would find down by the cliffs when my family went fishing."
Brown Horn thinks about that for a moment trying to picture it in her mind, "That sounds like a lot of excitement."
Clovis the Kid brings a little turn to the story denouncing, "It was until I started winning all of my friends missing teeth as payment."
Lady Mammoth gets a vivid image in her mind and chuckles slightly a sec, "Well, we have children's games like that too, but without just the teeth. Some of our kids trade other things like rocks and sometimes clothes."
Rachael gets bored with the conversation at hand slacking, "I don't like those games."
Brown Horn agrees that those games are the most suitable for a child of her age; nevertheless she must learn how to protect herself from harm's way if she is going to survive as a strong individual. Brown Horn cools her nerves by toddling, "I used to hate the macho games too, but it doesn't hurt to be tough. Especially in these times we must all be strong with scuffling and protecting our heritage at times."
Ray realizes that they are approaching camp fairly close from a short distance asking, "Aren't we getting closer to your camp?"
Lady Mammoth points to some kids playing off in the distance from one of the Mammoth skinned huts saying, "We're just outside camp passed those trees."
Brown Horn can already hear some of the kids playing off in to the far distance, she mentions this to them all describing, "I can faintly hear the kids playing and laughing up ahead!"
"I can't wait to introduce Rachael and Clovis the Kid to our kids, "Lady Mammoth shrills in a tone of laughter us joy to their ears.
After a few more yards through the trees past a short bend some of the kids become visible playing and running around about the Animal Tribe's camp site. Rachael can see some of the kids running around as well. She asks of Lady Mammoth and Brown Horn, "What are their names?"
Lady Mammoth answers back with a short answer replying, "They have many names. We have lots of children. Most of their names are from animals that they favor or that their parents chose for them."
Brown Horn goes further with some explanation to their origins toddling, "We are an Animal Tribe who learns to cultivate and preserve the herds of animals that are important to our survival as a people."
Soon they approach a couple of kids playing together. There is a boy and girl chasing each other not too far from them as they come nearer. Brown Horn yells, "Little Elk and Caribou Lace come here for a second."
Little Elk and Caribou Lace stop chasing each other so animatedly like turning around to go to Brown Horns calling. As they approach them, they come up to the group with a short jogging dance followed by hops, skips, and jumps like kids amazed of their own grace. Caribou Lace nears first as Brown Horn says, "That's Caribou Lace and the other is Little Elk."
Lady Mammoth buts in momentarily saying, "And this is Rachael and the other boy is Clovis the Kid!"
Caribou Lace looks at Rachael considering that she is a comparable little girl as well. Right off the mark Caribou Lace asks, "Can they play with us?"
Brown Horn isn't so sure without the consent of the parent who at this time happens to be Ray because Rosalind is just a newcomer to the group at this time. Brown Horn looks at Caribou Lace answering, "I'm not sure; you'll have to ask Ray!"
Ray looks back at Brown Horn and then other at Lady Mammoth and then the kids wondering, "If it's alright with Lady Mammoth they can, why not?"
Lady Mammoth looks at Ray with a positive attitude towards the bonding between them as parietal friends with the response, "Sure, it's okay with me. Why don't you show them back to your huts and show them around a little first before you all go play!"
Caribou Lace takes Rachael by the hand slightly pulling before running ahead stating, "Come on, I'll show my place that I share with my parents."
Then Little Elk signs to Clovis the Kid to follow announcing, "And I'll take you back afterwards and show you my hut also."
Clovis the Kid and Rachael both leave following them as the others begin to head back towards the populated area where Lady Mammoth's hut resides. As they approach closer and closer the Animal Tribe's people stare while performing their daily tasks at hand. Out front of the first couple of huts are a few elders who are mending their clothes over what appears to be a type of metate which is normally used with a mano to crush corn and other foods used by the American Indians of North and South America in preparing maize, although this rock is slightly rounder in appearance.
However this task isn't presently one about protein sources. It is the daily task of cleaning, weaving, and making clothes from their subsistent ways of hunting. As they pass by Rosalind looks at the family as they stare back with a presumed smile. Curiously she asks about how they live similar to their people back at home saying, "They do things a little bit differently than we did back at home. I notice your huts are made out of large hides."
Lady Mammoth tries to explain their ways of sheltering a bit by explaining, "We used large Mammoth and Bison tans or hides which are sowed and laced together to get more covering and protection from the coldness of the shivering nights that follow day by day."
Thinking to when she had lived back in her homeland Rosalind mentions how they made their shelters by telling them all, "At home we used mostly long horn sheep skins and sometimes sheep skins to cover our living structures."
"We did the same back where we lived because it was so cold during the winter. Most of the time we even used cattle and made leather hides that we stitched together which were stronger," Ray adds as he drift his eyes onto a couple of older natives throwing there spears at a target drawn on a leather tan posted to a tree.
As he stares Lady Mammoth catches the glimpse of his eye stating, "They're spear chucking over there. We want to learn later?"
"Do we have time?" Ray asks emotionally like without any further repose.
"Well, maybe at least some time for a quick lesson before we leave tonight and do our first scout when we can keep out of sight in the dark," Lady Mammoth proclaims as they past them up and approach her large Mammoth skinned hut that is slightly larger than the others.
Out past the front of her hut in-between some other smaller huts aligned like an array of culture there is a ground overlaid by a cookery which has steaks of Mammoth meat being held in place being prepared to the finest indulgence. Noticing that the left over's from the previous day kill are ready to delight Lady Mammoth says, "It looks like we're just in time for another one of our meals prepared from the large kill we made."
Ray and Rosalind relax themselves in front of Lady Mammoth's hut as Brown Horn offers, "Everybody gathering around right here while I go and bring some back for all of us."
"That would be nice, "Rosalind say with much appreciation to her generosity.
"Ray replies with much the same line shrilling, "I would like that."
Lady Mammoth starts to think about warming them both up before the darkness of nightfall settles in informing, "After we eat I will give you both some personal lessons of spear chucking and spear fighting that we have learned and developed as an art of our own self-defense."
Ray thinks about it for a moment as he and Rosalind are sitting outside contemplating a plan to them peacefully saying, "That would be fun."
Lady Mammoth adds a line while Brown Horn returns with some feeding telling them both, "And while we practice we'll go over our plan about Brown Horn taking the first scouting to see where your friends are located."
Brown Horn hands the both of them some mammoth meat stuck to a small spear squabbling, "Here, I brought you both a spear full, how's that?"
Another native follows behind holding a gourd full of fresh water from a nearby spring as Brown Horn reaches for the homemade native flask saying, "And here's some water to wash it all down with. I wish there was something else to offer you besides sprouts that we usually eat when we don't have anything else to eat."
Rosalind becomes the one to point out the thanks they both have for them right now in these times of desperation and of course salvation since they have been victimized by the Black Hawk Tribe by softly saying, "That's okay, I am an easy person to get along with."
Ray stops chewing on a bite he has already taken while cowing, "This is enough."
Brown Horn asks what he thinks of it by asking, "So what do you think of the Mammoth meat when it is cured with chicories and mesquites?"
Ray answers mooting, "It tastes kind of savory I might add."
"That's good." Lady Mammoth says and after another moment pause she quills, "It's a sweet meat that tastes kind of like bison meat. That's why we smoke it for a day or so before its ready, although this one is the last that I had been tracking. Hopefully the kids will partake of some when they return from playing and we can all keep them in our memory."
"Where are the native kid's huts at?" Ray asks with a fatherly premonition towards them both.
Lady Mammoth looks at Ray while pointing past a few other tents saying, "There just over there a ways at the other end."
"I never could tell, there are so many of them around here," Ray says as more families walk by with their festive partaking.
Brown Horn swallows her mouthful and makes a gesture to Ray and Rosalind telling them, "I wish I had some of my own."
Rosalind stops and pauses herself from eating for a moment while asking, "Don't you have somebody of your own?"
"No, not at the moment," Brown Horn replies thinking about it for a second or so.
Then Rosalind looks over to Lady Mammoth who is leaning in her wicker like chair that seems to be made of grass reeds of some kind intriguing about her querying, "What about you, do you have any kids?"
Lady Mammoth gives an answer right away like she doesn't even have to think about it too much pronouncing, "Yes, they are all my kids!"
Rosalind realizes that she is integrally joking to an extent with the exaggeration that all of the children of their tribe belong to her, "I mean kids of your own?"
Lady Mammoth discloses the actuality concerned with the truth this time excluding, "No, I don't have any kids of my own, nor do I have any mate in these years."
Throwing down the last of the offering Lady Mammoth asks, "Are you ready to learn how to spear chuck?"
Ray finishes up with the last bite worth such as Lady Mammoth chewing, "What will I use, my spear looks a little shorter than everybody else's! There are some mammoth targets and dark people targets to throw at. What do you think of that?"
Lady Mammoth walks over towards the front of her place and reaches for two spears and walks back over to Ray handing him one. As Ray holds it he thinks, "This one is pretty sturdy."
Lady Mammoth fades backwards a few feet and instructs Ray, "Come this way a little bit leaving some room between everybody!"
Right as he approaches a few paces closer to her she says, "Now turn like me facing between the huts."
Ray turns watching her as she positions herself standing straight up with her back bent just slightly as she holds the middle of the spear balanced on one finger, "Stand like me bending your back a little and hold the spear with your right hand. Balance the spear on your middle finger and focus your eyes on how far you want to throw it."
"I've done this before," Ray admits like he was so serious about his spear throwing in the past.
"You really have to focus, try aiming for that dark people target," Lady Mammoth adds fairly quickly trying to bring more interest to the game.
"And then you take a deep breath," she sighs out as she then takes a standing still throw.
The spear sails through the air causing an airy whizzing sound that perks an interest to Ray's ears. Ray watches amazingly as the spear throw lands a great distance away from where she was standing at. A crisping smacking sound emerges from the initial grounding stab which hit too short. Ray looks back to his spear throw he's trying to make.
Lady Mammoth watches Ray saying, "Your turn. Just let it flow from inside you!"
Ray stands as still as he can with his back slightly bent, although his knees start to bend slightly as he takes a deep breath to release his inner strength at hand. With a heavy heave he brings his right arm all of the way back and lunges himself forward as his feet stammering a few steps ahead of himself. The spear catches air a bit low and then wavers itself to the ground short of Lady Mammoth's far of a cry throw.
Disappointedly Ray jumps back with a sort of depressed look on his face saying, "Oops I threw too short."
Lady Mammoth looks giving him some compliment, "It takes practice."
Brown Horn makes a comment after watching saying, "You did good!"
Lady Mammoth walks back towards the front of her hut taking two more spears. This time she hands one to Rosalind asking, "Do you want to give it a try?"
Rosalind takes the spear from Lady Mammoth shrieking, "Yes, why not, it looks easy."
Rooting her on to take a better shot, Lady Mammoth tells Rosalind, “Give it your best shot!”
Standing still and getting the right stance to make a better aiming throw, Rosalind holds out one finger on the bottom of the spear trying to balance it and positions it properly. Then she tightens the grip with her right hand and aims at the mammoth target with it eye orbits of the skull staring back down on her.
Glaring back with the intent on hitting the mammoth skull target straight in the eyes, Rosalind bands her knees back and then takes the initiative on her throw. She lunges her right arm forward as the spear whistles through the air towards the mammoth skull. Then all of a sudden it seems to bounce off the side of the target as the spear tilts sideways a bit and scraps off from a hard whacking hit.
As it Rica shades from the target and hits the ground, Rosalind jumps up with her arms in awe disappointed yelling, “Dang it!”
Thinking how she almost made a good shot, Lady Mammoth comments on her spear chucking throw saying, “That was really close. You almost hit it in the side of the head, just another inch or so you would have had a devastating blow and enough dinner for a week at least.”
Making another remark about their throws, Brown Horn tells Rosalind, “That was a good try, better luck next time.”
Rosalind makes up an excuse shrilling, “The wind must have picked up because that was headed straight on. I don’t see how I could have missed?”
With the thoughts of his throw on his mind, Ray shares his thoughts saying, “I could do better with my own spear maybe.”
Of course, they all think that it’s better to use your own material weapons. Agreeing with Ray, Rosalind says, “Same here, I thought I had the spear balanced with my finger before I threw and still my throw was off a little.”
“It takes lots of practice and you’re all going to need it with confronting the Dark People,” Lady Mammoth describes as a partial solution to the problem of winning back their people and regaining control of the territory to preserve the faunal rights of the land.
Getting horrid images in her mind Rosalind doubts her readiness to confront the Dark People stating, “I don’t think that I’m ready to confront the Dark People anyhow!”
Apparently Ray feels the same way even though he is still anxious to get his relatives and friends back very desperately, although he doesn’t feel that he is strong enough without any help. With this on his mind, Ray shrieks, “You’re not the only one; I am kind of scared at trying to get them back.”
Soothing their feelings a little more, Brown Horn mentions a point to them saying, “Don’t be, you’re not alone. We’re all in this together!”
This is where the plot of the story changes. Lady Mammoth really wants to pick a fight with Lady Hawk. Using this as a tactic to regain not only their people, but their rights to their hunting grounds, Lady Mammoth instructs her new partners, “Their won’t be a fight if Lady Hawk excepts my offer for a one on one fight between myself and her for the freedom of the people and for control of this vast hunting arena.”
Brooding this over in her mind, Rosalind tests Lady Mammoth’s attitude towards her challenging Lady Hawk for all that its worth asking, “Can you take her?”
Certainly, if she wins lots could gained and if she loses lots could be at stake. Nevertheless Lady Mammoth convinces them all how she is totally capable of taking her on one on one enthusiastically asserting, “Yes, I feel that I’m ready and it’s time to challenge her for the preservation of our people and their culture which involves our own distinct religion and beliefs.”
Interrupting right after she finishes talking, Brown Horn waddles, “We also need to force them all to move on and leave this territory. And when they do we need someone to follow them from a distance to make sure that they don’t ever return to this place.”
Acting preoccupied, Ray picks up the spear to take another practicing shot at the Dark People target that seems to be getting on his nerves every time he stops and stares taking a look at it. Quickly he balances the spear with his index finger and takes a firm grip while aiming, and then after a moment he takes his shot which glides right in to the stomach or lower torso area of the Dark People target.
With extreme excitement, Lady Mammoth, Brown Horn, and Rosalind all laugh like it was funny seeing a representation of their enemies ran through to death. After a short chuckle which almost turned in to a hard laugh, Rosalind gets anxious at matching up to Ray’s shot saying, “Let me try again!”
Quickly Rosalind runs over towards the target to pick up the spears and bring them back. When she gets to the target she pulls out Ray’s and Brown Horn’s spears with one hand relatively easy. However when she extracts Lady Mammoth’s spear from the wooly mammoth target, she has a harder time pulling it back out. Tugging on it for a moment, Lady Mammoth denounces her saying, “That’s really in there, huh!”
Finally pulling it out with one hand while holding the other spears under her arms, Rosalind turns around complimenting, “You have a hard powerful spear chuck!”
Taking the compliment from her, Lady Mammoth replies, “That’s because I’m a Big Game Hunter who hunts larger game such as bison, mastodons, and wooly mammoths.”
The other remark lady mammoth said earlier about the wooly mammoth being the last one comes to his thoughts as he asks, “I thought you said that was the last wooly mammoth around!”
Trying to correct herself, Lady Mammoth speaks out saying, “Well, the last one around in this area!”
Rosalind immediately questions her authority by asking, “So you really don’t even know for sure do you?”
As quick as a flash Brown Horn sticks up for her Big Game hunter friend telling them both, “We don’t know for sure, we haven’t traveled everywhere. But eventually when this is all over with I will follow the Bison herds as far west and south as they go when that time comes.”
Wondering if she will ever return, Ray questions her enquiring, “Are you going alone by yourself!”
“Yes, I am going by myself as a rite of passage of being a migrant herder who travels great distances to fulfill her pilgrimage of a sacred land,” Brown Horn replies after some bright images run past her feelings.
Rosalind can’t seem to believe that she would ever leave this territory for something along the lines of the unknown. She figured that her plans would be more worthwhile back here with her friends and family. Nevertheless she can’t understand how she would go alone. Have confidence in pilgrimage, Rosalind still queries, “Will you ever return after you find your sacred hunting grounds or whatever grounds you’re looking for out there?”
“I will return after I discover a new sacred territory for our people who will be guided by the migrating bison herds. Eventually they will return to this area when they make their rounds around their migrating path,” Brown Horn adds to her story of her journey she has been long planning.
At the gasp of her breath, Lady Mammoth interrupts her by saying, “It will take longer than one season for the bison herd to return to this area.”
Correcting Lady Mammoth by how long she expects to be gone from her home land, Brown Horn says, “Some of the herd will take a different route which comes back every season. But the last time I went on a journey after them to see their migrating patterns some of the group went heading towards the southwest and met up with another large herd several miles away at another intersecting migrating path. There’s a chance that many of these bison in the herd may split off at the cross path which may take another season or two before I return.”
Holding a spear up while leaning on it for balance, Rosalind asks, “Aren’t you afraid going by yourself?”
Brown Horn answers her question conveying, “If Lady Mammoth wins the challenge, she attested to vouching that her tribe moves far away to another area and she also has prophesized that she will endure much grief!”
A question quickly pops up in Ray’s mind after picturing her out there with a wild herd of bison and no one around to help her in a time of trouble, with these vivid images in his mind, Ray queries, “What about if something happens and you’re out there all alone? It was dangerous crossing over from the other side to this place. One person died and now our friends are held hostage by some force and group of barbaric dark people.”
Feeling like she’s tough enough to handle herself in just about any situation when she’s alone, Brown Horn discusses with them both, “I feel that I am a pretty good scout and have been on a few pilgrimages already. Many of them were only to see visions to bring back to tell my people of what the future will hold. I even brought back an ancient war dance that our people have used for many generations. Many of my visions along with Lady Mammoth’s have become a part of our people’s culture.”
Going back to times of his own visions that he has told his people at home and along the journey, Ray mentions, “I have had visions of my own, but it seems nobody tends to listen to them unless they have no other choice.”
This is where Lady Mammoth changes the subject displaying her sense of fulfillment for them both and their family of many generations. Convincing them to follow their hunches still, Lady Mammoth expresses to them, “You have to believe your inner feelings and hunches. It takes time to recognize if they are real enough images to become true. It also takes time for others to believe your intuitive hunches as well. Most people don’t seem to listen to anyone else advice anyways, especially when it comes to visions which sound absurd to them in the first place, although some of your close relatives may listen and believe you at times.”
Rosalind thinks back to when she was separated from her friends before crossing over to this side over the land bridge that allowed them to journey this new territory. Deliberating on the idea of the matter, Rosalind elusively declares, “I know what you mean, I had a bad feeling before me and Shantelle were separated, but no one would believe a word I said to them that I felt something bad was going to happen.”
Then Ray comes up with an agreement to the circumstance of their observations about visions saying, “You’re all absolutely right, no one ever believes me and my guts instincts either unless they are starving and desperate for a gathering or hunt.”
Relenting on this idea, Brown Horn says, “Most people are hard to convince until they have faith in your visions becoming true and they even have less faith in you healing rituals.”
Changing the subject back to the need for the two of them to practice taking some more throws, Lady mammoth suggests, “Maybe you both should try a couple of more practice shots before we call it a day!”
Kind of tired and side tracked from all of the deep conversations they have all had together, Ray balks, “Maybe one or two more I suppose, I’m kind of tired and I don’t really need that much practice.”
Of course, Rosalind doesn’t fell the same way. She feels that her throw still needs some improvement especially if they are going against some strangers that are supposedly darker in complexion than them. Rosalind wonders if she is even partially prepared to take on strangers who have her friend along with others. Kind of scared like, Rosalind searches for feedback from them all asking, “Do I look like I’m ready to go to war; maybe I should take another couple of practice throws before we quit for the day?”
The first to reply to her enquiry is Brown Horn who says, “You did well when you threw your spear chuck. You almost hit the wooly mammoth skull between the eyes!”
Still thinking how she doesn’t feel so prepared considering she had trouble being separated from her friends back on the other side, Rosalind describes, “I’m just confused because we were separated and then just when I nearly locate her she is held captive by some barbaric dark people.”
Right away, Lady Mammoth decides to cool her nerves with her plan again, although this time she is more concerned with hurrying up to get her plan on the trail working. Nearly ready to call it a night so they can get an early rise to confront the head leader Lady Hawk, Lady Mammoth babbles, “All this talk is getting me anxious to hurry and solve our problems and troubles with them once and for all. I almost want to head over there right now and challenge her.”
With a sense of turning in for the night, Ray throws the spear which sails through the air hitting the Dark People statue again as he turns saying, “What’s the use in preparing, I’ve been prepared my whole entire life with trouble!”
Following Rosalind does the same, the throws her spear aiming for the wooly mammoth target which finally hit it square on top of the head and sticks just on the side and behind as she adds, “How’s that? I feel more ready than ever. Let’s take care of them first thing tomorrow before we have to wait too long or before they hurt any of them.”
Remaining calm and quiet, Lady Mammoth decides they are both ready and everyone is very anxious to go save the friends and relatives that are held captives. Ready to head back inside the village and return to the huts, Lady Mammoth asks them all to stay in her hut for the night asking, “It is a custom for us to partake in a ceremonial prayer and ritual before encountering our journey for tomorrow. I would like all six of you stay in my hut so we can prayer and emotional prepare for the deed.”
Rosalind thinks that is a good idea saying, “That sounds nice, thanks for the invitation to your abode.”
Closing the chapter, Lady Mammoth advises, “Let’s head in before it gets too late so we can get some sleep.”
Below is a link to the "Hunted Gatherers" subpage 6.