Chapter Twenty-One - Field Trip Prep
-Summer-
https://i.imgur.com/6VzHabA.png [https://i.imgur.com/6VzHabA.png]
“Belbet,” Kaion called, drawing her to come sit next to him on the rock. “Was that the wolf I saw with Eefim?”
“Yes,” She admitted, “something very strange happened while we were out there. I think it will be staying close to camp now, because of it.”
Kaion shrugged a shoulder, as if to tell her they had all the time in the world for her to speak about it.
“...We found the wolf trapped in a snare.” When Kaion gave her a blank stare, she sighed, “A trap, a complicated rope knot that trapped the wolf so someone could come to kill it later. I’ve been trying to teach Dahnei how to make them. Anyway, it was trapped, and when we got it free, it still had the rope around its throat. When I tried to get it off… The wolf tried to attack me.”
Here, Kaion’s handsome face glowered, and Belbet continued before he could feel guilty for not being there. “Eefim tackled the beast, pinning it down, and… Something happened. Eefim’s glow spread and passed to the wolf, and… the wolf went calm. Then Eefim started saying he could understand him, and that he wasn’t going to hurt anyone.”
The white-haired man scowled in his ‘I’m thinking and I don’t like it” face. She found it quite amusing and giggled, which prompted Mohniit to look at it and giggle too. “Strange.”
“Yeah. I think it has to do with Eefim’s core. Have you ever had a dream, where you’re just an animal, and you ate a golden glowing ball?”
Kaion raised an eyebrow, “No. Not that I remember.” Judging by his tone he was amused by her as much as she was by him.
“See, that’s what he said too. How about a beast core? Have you ever eaten one?” She asked, watching him. He lifted the bowl, dripping a river of cool water down his pecs and abs. She had to tear her eyes back up to his face.
“No. I’ve never earned the right to eat one.” Kaion explained.
“Earned?” Belbet tilted her head. “Are they uncommon?”
“...They only appear in beasts stronger and faster than normal beasts. It usually takes a whole tribe to take them down, or a very, very strong chieftain who has eaten cores before.” Kaion explained. “Therefore, they are only to be given to chieftains.”
Belbet blinked, realizing she may have made a mistake. “It’s not harmful for children… right?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen or heard of one given to a child before.” Kaion said, tone amused as he turned his body to look at her. Another sluice of water down his chest, and he continued to speak, “By rights, it should have gone to you.”
Belbet’s mind froze at the thought, before gently shoving aside the fact that this man considered her a chieftain. “I think, putting aside who it should have gone to, the energy changed something in Eefim. Made it to where he was able to connect to the beast. I’m thinking of trying it myself with one of the chickens, to see if it’s something we can recreate.”
“You would wish to bind your life to a chicken?” Kaion asked, and Belbet burst out laughing at his expression of incredulity.
“No, not really. But it’s the only animal we have available to test it on.” She explained, “We could also hold off on that experiment for now, and observe Eefim’s progress with the wolf.” She wished she had the ability to take notes but even cuniform tablets would be beyond her right now, with the technology they had. She sighed, disappointment filling her bones, only to put the feeling away when Kaion spoke again.
“I think that for the best. But you should ask Deenat. She might have ideas too. Perhaps we can come up with some training to help.”
“Training?” Belbet found herself asking.
“To help him get stronger. The stronger a chieftain is, the more prosperous a tribe.” Kaion nodded, “And with training, he will be strong. The chieftain in my tribe would go out and test himself against any creature he thought might have a core. He fought quite a bit, but he was a hippopotamus-spirit, and so, therefore, enjoyed fighting.”
Belbet tried to imagine what someone with a hippopotamus animal spirit would look like. Honestly, she just thought of a large man with grey skin and a huge mouth. She didn’t share this thought with Kaion. Instead, she said, “Did he also glow?”
“When he was fighting, yes.” Kaion nodded, “A different color, though. Not green, like you. He glowed a red, like a flower.”
How interesting. Different colors… If mine is green, and Eefim’s was orange, and the chieftains was red, Belbet considered, “Do you think color has something to do with power level? How strong a person is?”
Kaion shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve only ever seen my clan’s chieftain glow.”
Splashing drew their attention, and Belbet grinned upon seeing her nephew and sister join them in the water. Soon enough, however, playing gave way to the soft tiredness that lead then to napping away the hottest hours of the day. Once the noonday nap was over, the ever-constant string of chores kept their attention.
They were still in the process of drying all the snake meat, curing enough tiles to make the roof of the storage area, and tending the earth holding their future spoils. Belbet was rather pleased to see the sight of the wolf curled up on some of the fur scraps they’d managed to somewhat dry. It was gnawing on one of the snake woman’s ribs and looked quite content.
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Kaion called Belbet over to his lean to, and held out what looked like some sticks and string in his hand. She let him place it in her own, and then upon inspecting it realized it was in fact, a chord-drill. With this primitive tool, made of a stone spear-point tied to a stick, which was then wrapped with rope that, attached to another stick, would spin the spear-pointed-stick. It was a bit of a complicated device, and Belbet had been waiting on Dahnei to make her a spear-point so she could make her own, but here he was, providing it for her.
“I saw you attempting to carve the holes out of the toys with a knife. It didn’t seem to be working.” Kaion explained. “I thought this might work better.”
“This… really is very useful. Thank you, Kaion.” Belbet gave him her sweetest smile, touched that he’d thought of such a thing. She turned to the drill too quickly to notice the widening of his eyes or the pinking of his cheeks.
Instead, she turned to the toys she’d been making, finally able to drill out the hole in the horse’s legs and wheels. Then, carving the axle-sticks, she put the toy together and tested it. Sure enough, it rolled. It wasn’t perfect, and it got stuck occasionally, but, “I did it!”
She stood, laughing and turning this way and that out of excitement. Then, she hopped over to where her son was sitting, building a pile of rocks that was slowly falling down. She held out the horse. “Ah, Mohniit? Baby boy?”
He didn’t seem intent on looking at her, until she wiggled her fingers at him. Attracted by the movement, he turned, lifting his lop-ears to hear her better. She smiled at him, and held out the horse again. “Here. A toy for you.”
The boy looked over the strange thing, and didn’t reach out to take it. Then, Belbet decided to demonstrate. She rolled the horse along the ground, and watched Mohniit’s face light up. He immediately snatched the wooden toy from his mother’s hand and started pushing it along the ground. A sharp joy filled Belbet at the sight, since it meant she’d finally brought something that wasn’t JUST about survival into these children’s lives.
The joy of that rode her all the way through teaching Dahnei how to make stuffed flatbread dumplings, the after-dinner chores of cleaning their pots and dishes, gathering the chickens into the hut, forming and curing more tiles, and everything else that needed to be done before they could all pass out.
The morning came with a certainty that she’d dreamt, but no notion of what she’d dreamt, only colors and sounds. Belbet’s morning greeted her with a nice breeze and the sight of clouds whisping across the sky. She began the morning chores to the clucks of the chickens finding their feed, passing by the wolf, who was still laying across his fur bedding. He lifted his head to look at her, and she carefully did not meet his eyes.
They were planning to spend most of the day out of the camp, so she set about creating several flatcakes out of flour, eggs and water, since they would last the day without going bad. With this, she made up some scrambled eggs with snake meat mixed in, along with a small mix of fresh, ground up herbs. The smell woke their perpetual guest, and Kaion yawned as he sat up.
“That’s a lot of bread.” He commented, upon the sight of the sheer amount of batter Belbet had made.
“Yeah, we’re going to be doing a lot of work today, picking and hauling nuts and fruit. So we can’t really come back to eat when we get hungry. We’ll be able to take these with us, and they won’t weigh much.” She commented.
“You intend to collect those then?” He nodded in the direction of the uncracked nuts that were still sitting on a leaf near the cooking center.
“Yes, absolutely.” She smiled, “But we’re going to have to have you watch the camp, I think. I have to take my little ones with me, since they’ll be able to get to places Deenat and I can’t.”
Kaion frowned, but he didn’t disagree. “What will you use them for?”
Belbet considered, “Well… the hulls can be used as animal bedding, they can be tilled into the soil to make it richer, which makes plants grow better. The nuts, I already explained about. The apples I’m going to make vinegar with, which is a liquid that can help us preserve the vegetables we forage and grow through winter.”
Kaion raised an eyebrow, and she had learned that this meant he wanted to hear more. “Well, the reason food goes bad is because air touches it. But because water and air work well together, things grow in the water that rots the food there, too. But, if you make vinegar,” She paused, about to try and explain how fermentation works, before realizing it would confuse him, “vinegar keeps the air from touching the food, and doesn’t work well with air, so the food pickles, which preserves it.”
She could tell he wasn’t quite connecting how everything worked from the way one of his eyes squinted. However, trying to explain more would just be… confusing. “You’ll see when I get it set up. Pickles are super tasty.”
“I will await it with bated breath,” He assured her, although his tone was dry and teasing. She couldn’t help a sharp laugh, and without thinking, she reached over and pushed his shoulder. He rocked with the force of it, lips quirking in a smile she found quite adorable.
“Anyway,” she continued, “If you want to walk around camp while we’re gone, I can get you a big stick to use as a crutch. You just shouldn’t touch the ground with your hoof much. If you do, though, I’ll clean and bandage it tonight, just to be safe.” Honestly, he really shouldn’t be putting any pressure on it for another week, but she could tell it was driving him crazy being confined to bed.
“It would be nice to stretch my legs.” He admitted, doing just that. Belbet was careful to keep her eyes off the curled fur that hid the firm muscles beneath. Breakfast required her focus, so she kept it there. There was no way she noticed exactly how his ankle worked, or the fact that his hooves were actually a dark slate color, rather than black.
By the time she’d finished the cakes, the children had come out of the hut, sleepily grumbling by the fire. Deenat had joined them as well, rubbing at the now-messy braid crown on her skull. Belbet chuckled, and waved Deenat to sit in front of her. She took down the braids, and gently rubbed at her sister’s poor hurting head. In only a few moments, she had Deenat melted into a puddle at her knees.
“So, after breakfast, we’ll pack up the cakes, and find the almond grove and the apple trees. We’ll need to take as many baskets as we have.” Belbet explained, watching Eefim smile a small smile at his mother’s loose sprawl.
“Many apples!” Mohniit cried, clapping his little hands.
“Yes, baby. Many apples.” Belbet encouraged him, her fingers tugging at the baby hairs at the base of his neck gently. He made a happy little purring sound that Belbet was almost 100% sure wasn’t a human noise. She found it too adorable to be disturbed by it.
“Too many of the fruit will rot. It’s better to leave it near the trees, it will attract insects.” Deenat commented, sitting up properly and running her hands through her now-wavy hair.
“Don’t worry, I can fix that. Everyone, eat up. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.” Belbet started handing everyone their food, joining her family in their breakfast.
Food eaten, she strapped the baskets to Dahnei, Eefim and Deenat’s back, before letting Deenat do the same with her. Their trek through the woods was filled with the sounds of birds and animals, the sounds of the children playing as they walked, and the soft gurgling of the river they always kept to their right.
Belbet kept an eye out for anything of use, and made the lovely discovery that blackberries had come into season. She filled the bottom of Mohniit’s little basket with them, making sure there was plenty of room for other things too. An elderberry bush was a lovely discovery, and she packed some of those berries into the basket as well.
It was a lovely walk, and by the time they reached the apple grove that Deenat had found, everyone was very excited to begin picking the small, hard apples.
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