Chapter Twelve - Screams Over Loud Water
-Summer-
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Waking to the sounds of shouting and the loud snarling of a wolf was not how Belbet wanted to wake up. She’d been having a good dream, the sweet taste of Victoria’s favorite ice cream brand on her tongue, and she was very upset to be woken like this. The frantic clucking of the chicken wasn’t helping her get back to the tasty dream either. She sighed, sitting up in the dark, the only light in the hut the dim glow of the embers from the stove. She tossed a small branch into the embers, before turning and opening the door, so she could look out.
Sure enough, there Kaion was, standing ill-advisedly on both his hooves, pointing a spear at the big wolf that had been casing their camp for days. Belbet sighed, rolling her eyes. She dug through the food storage basket and stole out some of the sun-dried meat (rabbit, she thought, maybe.)
“Don’t attack him.” She said in a low, gentle voice. Kaion didn’t turn to look at her, and she wondered if it was because he was afraid of taking his eyes off the hungry wolf. “We’re trying to make friends with him.”
She stepped forward, showing the wolf the meat. She tossed it to the other side of the camp, and the wolf, after a moment of watching the two of them, dove for it, chomping it up and then looking back at her.
“Aiya, you think I have more?” She laughed, shaking her head. “Not today, big boy. If Eefim comes back with good game, maybe tomorrow. Shoo now.” She waved her arms, not in large motions, but little ones, to show the wolf it was time for him to go. She was surprised when the wolf seemed to understand and ran off into the predawn woods.
“What was that?” Kaion demanded, turning on her as if he now was the vicious beast. “You don’t feed predators! They come back!”
“Exactly.” She turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. “If we make friends with that wolf, it will watch over our home, because our home will be its home. That wolf will be a guardian for our children. If you don’t agree, that’s fine, but don’t attack it, unless it hurts one of us, or yourself.”
Kaion’s eyes were much darker in the early morning, and Belbet yawned, turning back into the hut to avoid him staring at her any longer like he has any say in how she domesticates a wolf. She added more sticks to the hearth, getting it to a roaring fire to warm the house even more. She charred a stick, so that she could use it to mark the fur she’d been using to mark the days on both the month and the incubation of the eggs. She checked on them, candling them against the flame, and they seemed to be growing just fine. Putting all of those away, she patted her children’s hair, before closing the door of the hut behind her.
She started the campfire, and then began the arduous process of digging up the now-cooled charcoal out of the door-section of the reusable charcoal kiln she’d built. She was covered in black by the time she dragged all of the charcoal out of the kiln. She piled it off to the side, the ashes dug out with a stick too. By the time she’d finished enough to start reloading the kiln, Deenat was awake as well and had started breakfast.
Deenat frowned, “Sister… These grains, other than grinding them, are there other ways to cook them?”
Belbet looked up, and realized Deenat was talking about the amaranth. “Oh yes! You can just chuck them into a soup, and they’ll cook.” She paused, “Could you bring me a few of our bigger empty baskets? We’ll need to store this charcoal so that it doesn’t get wet.” She got up to head over to the ashclay pot she’d been building, and nodded when tapping it yielded a good sound.
She used it to gather a bunch of ash from the charcoal pit. “We’re gonna need the ashes too, eventually, to make soap.”
Kaion huffed, as he watched the two sisters work, seated safely in his lean-to. “What is soap used for?” He asked, since if he didn’t ask, he was sure Belbet would forget to define it.
“It’s used to clean. We can use it to clean ourselves, and clean our dishes, and clean our clothes, so that we don’t get sick as easily.” She called over her shoulder as she checked on the smoker. Unfortunately, it looked like the heat had cracked the lid Eefim had worked so hard on. She sighed, setting it to the side. She’d need to make another, so she broke off the half-cooked clay to use the sticks Eefim had chosen as the handles.
Mixing water into the clay pile again, she began creating a thinner layer of clay on each side, this way it would hopefully not crack as easily. This took a good twenty minutes, and building the fire below the smoker’s grate took another five. Then, Belbet took a freezing bath to clear off as much of the charcoal powder as she could.
By the time she returned to camp, the older children were awake too, Eefim sitting in front of the fire in a sleepy daze, while Dahnei watched her aunt stir the soup which was quickly turning into a porridge. Belbet grinned, “How much did you add, Deenat?”
The ermine woman huffed, “A handful. Should I have added more?”
“Oh, you can add another handful, then watch to see how they puff up,” Belbet suggested. “Make sure to add some leafy greens to it, and cut up some of the carrots and add them in, to-”
Deenat waved a hand, “I already did.”
“Good!” Belbet chirped, plopping down on one of their sitting logs next to Eefim. “I think today will be a good day to get the main structure up for the storage house. We should all focus on that, instead of wandering around today. If we can get it up and running, we can start smoking meat today and have somewhere to store it.”
“Mn.” Deenat nodded, stirring the food pot with a soft stare. “...Would it not be better to wait until we have stronger help?” She flicked her eyes to where Kaion was watching them too. Belbet took her meaning and sighed softly.
“Yes, it would go easier if we do, but we would lose the chance to store more food sooner. It’s better to get it up and running sooner.” Belbet smiled, “Soon we’re going to have more food than we know what to do with.”
Kaion’s frown filled the corner of her vision, and she turned to him. “Problem?”
“You should not count your prey before you land the shot.” He muttered, brow drawn tight and eyes shadowed.
“Being hopeful is not the same as counting your chickens before they hatch .” Belbet corrected, her own lips in a moue of dissatisfaction. “Better to be hopeful than to be negative.”
He clicked his tongue, turning to the fire, where he was making willow bark tea again. Deenat shook her head, lifting the food from the fire, and setting it to the side.
“Breakfast is ready.” With that a flurry of activity as the younger ones crowded close to get their bowls. Belbet took the moment to speak up.
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“Alright, I have a new rule I want to put in place. ‘Youngest eats first’. This is so that the littlest ones get their fill and grow big and strong, and to motivate the bigger ones to work harder so we can all eat. Does everyone understand?”
The little ones nodded, of course, and Deenat did as well. Kaion’s face scrunched into what Belbet had determined was his ‘thinking face’. Then, after a moment, he nodded as well. This nod was accompanied by the sound of little Mohniit coming out of the hut and toddling into his mother’s lap.
She thankfully accepted a steaming bowl on behalf of the child, and helped him eat it while her own cooled. Once breakfast was eaten, she gently set Mohniit onto the ground, the sun having risen and work time approaching. Checking the sundial, she determined it was perhaps six am, and filed that information away for later. She instructed the older children in going out to get trees thick enough to serve as the four main posts. She made sure they knew to look for trees bigger than her own thigh around.
She and Deenat focused on finding arm-thick branches and saplings near the camp, so that they could keep an eye on Mohniit, who was taking to digging little holes in the ground. It took several hours for the kids to come back with two of the thick poles they needed, and by then Belbet and Deenat had collected quite a large number of their own poles and had stripped them of extraneous sticks and limbs.
Sending the kids out to get the other two cardinal poles, Deenat and Belbet focused on digging holes to set the posts in. Again, they put them up against the cliffside as close as they could, so that it could rely on the cliffside’s sturdiness. Then, Belbet mixed up some more almost-cement, with the ash and sand and clay. Pushing it into the holes with the poles, they made sure they were going to be solid.
By the time they had finished that, the kids had arrived back with the two final poles. The process began again, only this time, Belbet put the kids on the process of making the cement. She and Deenat dug the post holes, and it went much faster. With the posts in their holes and the wet cement drying, Belbet led them into tying four guide posts for the floor, about adult hip-length from the ground. This way, insects and foragers would have a harder time getting into it. Then, she lashed similar guideposts to the tops of the posts, building the basis of the ceiling.
Creating another gable-ceiling, she guided Deenat, Eefim and Dahnei into filling in the sides and the ceiling of the storage area. “I want to do tiles for the roof this time, so that any rainwater doesn’t get our food wet. Can you three keep lashing poles to the frame? Try to space them equally. For the roof only do them sideways, and about the length of a hand away from each other.”
With that instruction, she turned her attention to making tiles. She started by putting together some small square frames, by bending some thin sticks into a square and then tying it together. These, she set on one of their flatter rocks, and started sculpting clay into filling the little square. The smoothed the first one out so that it was as thick as a flat hand, and flat on bottom and top. Then, she added a little lip on one side of the tile, which would be what she hung it on the guide-poles with.
Setting this one to the side to dry, she began on many many more. Kaion watched her, before lifting his chin, “I can help do that.”
She blinked, having not considered that he could also help make the tiles. “We’re going to need a lot of them. Show me you can make one, and then we’ll see.”
She handed him a stick, and watched him bend it into a square about the size of the one she’d made. Then, she guided him through creating the tile they’d need, and showed him how to make the little tab. Once he was set on making them, she joined him for the remaining hours until lunch, making the tiles for the roof. They had a good fifty of them done, and when Dahnei skipped over, excited to learn how to make lunch, Belbet sighed softly, and smiled at her. “Alright, let’s make some pumpkin stew.”
She went and picked up the ash-clay pot she’d been slowly adding rings to since they’d gotten here, and tapped it. A nice hollow clay sound. Perfect. She washed it out in the river, and checked that it would hold water, which it did. Taking it back to the camp, she washed it again with clean, boiled water, and then began cutting up some of the greens and vegetables they’d been gathering. Some of the rabbit meat from one of Eefims hunts added a bit of protein to the meal.
She opened up one of the pumpkins, cutting out some of the meat. She cut the firm pumpkin meat into chunks, and tossed those into the vegetable broth that was slowly coming to a boil. Getting up, she snipped a small handful of dried rosemary leaves and some dried thyme as well. She threw these into the pot as well, and stirred as it bubbled.
Soon, the scent of pumpkin coney stew filled their camp, and Belbet could hear Mohniit’s little tummy rumble. He sidled up next to his sister and stared into the pot as well, until the steam made his nose wrinkle and he flinched back from the heat. Belbet tugged him back into her arms and kissed his cheek, feeling how warm it was.
“Patience, little man. Lunch will be ready soon.” Belbet breathed out, letting the squirming child go. It really was a bit too warm to be cuddling, anyway, the sun fierce and hot overhead. Maybe she should have rethought the soup. Hot food in the middle of the day was a bit of a questionable practice. But she supposed they could just take a nap after they ate it, to avoid the worst of the heat.
In fact, once the soup was dished out, she noticed that everyone ate a bit less than she was used to. She smiled, and nodded, “It’s a bit hot for this, isn’t it. Let’s go ahead and take it off the fire, and we can let it cool down. Cold soup is called a gazpacho. You have to be careful though, not to let it stay cold too long, because it’ll go bad and make us sick, but it’ll be fine to let it rest for a while and cool down.”
At least, she hoped it would. To be honest, she’d prefer to do it by cooling it in the river, but she was lazy. And besides, the children’s stomachs wouldn’t get used to eating questionable food if they didn’t eat questionable food occasionally. It’s why you let children play in dirt, so that they can pick up immunities they wouldn’t otherwise. (Or that’s what she told herself, at least.)
Dahnei yawned, wincing up at the sun. “Should we take a bath, Mama?” Belbet supposed she was used now to cooling off in the water before their naps. Deenat, who hadn’t been here for either of the bathtimes previous, raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve been having them cool off in the water, and wash off the sweat, before we nap through the hot parts of the day. It helps stay cool.” Belbet explained, moving to stand up. “I’ve also been teaching the children how to swim.”
Deenat wrinkled her nose. “Just because you are an otter, you think everyone needs to swim.” She said it the same way an old woman might say ‘just because you’re young, you think everyone can run around.’ It was quite amusing to Belbet.
“No, I think everyone needs to swim so that if they fall in a river, they don’t die. Seeing as how we live right next to one.” She reminded, keeping her own tone light, so as not to cause a real fight. To be honest, however, Belbet really did feel most comfortable in the water, or near it.
Deenat made a dismissive noise, and stood up too. Belbet seized on the opportunity, “Sister, could you help our patient down to the river too? Dahnei, grab his bowl.”
Dahnei rushed off to grab the bowl he’d used the day before to ladle water on himself, and Belbet picked up Mohniit. “Want to go blow bubbles?” She crooned, using her baby voice to get him excited about the prospect of sticking his face in water again. The baby laughed, and patted her shoulder.
The small family traipsed their way down the rocky shore and into the gentle current of the river. As before, Belbet helped Mohniit blow some more bubbles, watching as the boy slapped the water. She took one of his hands and showed him how to scoop the water, a prelude to him learning to properly propel himself in the water later.
Perhaps her distraction is why she hadn’t noticed the hidden tones of her daughter’s voice speaking. Perhaps watching her son took up so much of her attention that she didn’t see the danger signs, much less the woman whose hands had snatched her daughter’s wrists.
“DAHNEI!” Eefim’s roar drew her attention, and when she snapped her head towards it, she was blocked from seeing them, a large boulder in her way. She lunged forward, Mohniit in her arms as she half-charged, half-swam through the river towards where her daughter was in danger.
By the time she got around the rock, she could see what was going on and her mind seized for a moment.
Eefim had a knife in his hand, one hand around a strange woman’s throat. Her own clawed hands were wrapped around Dahnei’s upper arm, pulling the girl through the water. Around the three of them, dark serpent coils roiled in the water, and Belbet immediately realized they were part of this woman’s body.
Lamia, Victoria’s memories screamed, and Belbet felt terror at the thought that a monster like this had her children in it’s grasp.
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