Pioneering on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  Watching everyone had allowed me to miss how fast the line was moving. I was a bit surprised when Dafalia pushed a bowl into my hands. “Here, dinner is ready,” she told me.

  “Thank you,” I replied. “Are you happy you joined us?”

  “I was really scared when we ran into the slavers,” Dafalia admitted. “The whole reason I wanted to join you was to escape them. They prey on Crayolyn Falls, and no one in the town is willing to make things change. They did at Goatford.”

  “Goatford?” Heather asked.

  “I’m guessing she’s talking about the town we heard was down where the river turned around,” I said. “It was probably founded at a point in the river where you could cross by walking on the riverbed.”

  “Where do you get that?” Heather asked.

  “Because that is what a ford is when you are describing a river. It’s a shallow spot you can walk across,” Victoria said. “That is how the city of Oxford was named. It was a town that grew up at the site where cattle drives to London crossed the river.”

  Heather was shaking her head as we walked to a point near the dirt ramp that allowed one to walk down to the riverbank. I sat on the ground and began to eat the stew.

  The stew was surprisingly tasty and appeared to include some nuts or fruit that Kariy had not used before. I was enjoying the taste when Heather sat down beside me. She stretched her legs out over my uninjured one with a sigh.

  “You aren’t escaping me,” she informed me. "And tell me if your leg hurts."

  “I was trying?” I asked with a laugh. "As for my leg, it was just a puncture wound. I barely feel it."

  “What will we do tomorrow?” Heather asked.

  “For the morning we should catalog everything we have and try to develop a list of what we need. Then we can start visiting the city and finding who might sell those items,” I said.

  Heather said nothing for a while. We both continued to devour our stew and sit watching the city as a few flickering lights began to appear. It was nothing like a city from Earth. Most of the lights were clearly candles or oil lamps, throwing faint light that was only visible as an orange glow. We did see a few lights moving about.

  One of the moving lights came down to what we thought was the far shore. It paused for a moment and then began to move upstream. It was hard to be sure, but it appeared to be a hand-held torch.

  I had just finished my bowl when Lydia and Aine walked over. Aine immediately snatched the empty bowl from my hands. “I’ll get this washed,” she said as she scampered away.

  Heather started to move her legs, but I held her down as Lydia found a spot to sit next to us. “Oh, don’t move,” Lydia said. “No one is going to get upset about that.”

  “Jeff might,” Heather said worriedly.

  “Not likely,” Lydia said. “Ron intimidates him. Besides, he’s in what you might call a target rich environment since we have more girls than boys.”

  “Not all of whom are interested in boys,” I pointed out nodding towards Esme and Natalie. The two lovers were sitting face to face in an embrace. They were not kissing, but the soft whispers they were exchanging hinted at a rather intimate conversation.

  Lydia laughed. “Oh, they are starting to need a man for at least one night,” she said. “Remember both of those girls had boyfriends back on Earth.”

  I felt Heather shift slightly. Her right leg rose off my thigh as she turned to look at Lydia. “I thought they loved each other.”

  “They do,” Lydia said. “But they don’t hate men. Heck, I don’t think you could get them to claim men are useless. It’s just...well… you can see, they can talk to each other. I don’t think they can get that closeness from a man that was born on Jord.”

  “You did,” I pointed out.

  “I’ve decided that Henck is a former American who was reincarnated on this world,” Lydia said loftily. “He’s just too nice and sweet to be a native of this disaster of a world.”

  Lydia stood up and started walking towards Henck. When she was about ten steps away she turned back to look at Heather and me. “Oh, we all expect at least some moans from your bedroll tonight.”

  Heather giggled and kissed me on the lips. She held me close for a moment and then released the embrace whispering. “I do to.”

  I know I was smiling as I held Heather, and we looked out over the city across the river. The activity there seemed to be slowing down. I checked on the others to see that Yveney and Gertrilla had set out their bedrolls near our herds while the rest of the group was set up in a rough circle around the fire.

  Henck must have noticed my interest because he turned to me. “Since any attack will be over the water, the ladies have volunteered for guard duty this night. You can sleep peacefully for once.”

  I felt Heather’s hands clawing at the waist of my pants. “How about lustfully first?” she purred before pushing me to lie down so she could undress me.

  The next morning I woke in Heather’s arms before the sun began to rise. She had been affectionate and passionate last night. I was thinking about that in the false dawn as I watched a thin fog begin to cover the land.

  Heather mumbled something as I slipped from her arms. My lover remained asleep as I stood up and limped over to the fire pit. Someone had been feeding it through the night, and the coals warmed the air around the fire.

  I was looking for something to eat when I realized that there was no light. I looked over at the carts. The pouch for Shaylin’s stone was still attached to the upright, but someone had wrapped a thick piece of cloth over the pouch.

  “It interfered with everyone sleeping,” Lenoir told me as she came over and set a pot over the fire. “Oh, that contains tea if you want that to drink.”

  “Tea? Where did you get it?” I asked.

  “One of the merchants in Purahomp purchased some a few years ago. He got it from a trader who said he had obtained it while sailing on the coast. I guess it grows on the far side of the southern mountains,” Lenoir said.

  “Any action from the city?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Lenoir said. “Although we did see a number of torches come down to the riverbank. I would expect any visit we make today will be met at the docks.”

  “I’m thinking we don’t keep the raft over there. We should have someone bring the raft back and then get picked up,” I said.

  “You might need to be picked up in a hurry,” Lenoir pointed out.

  “If we do, the raft would be stolen before that,” I said. “We should be fine as long as we are armed. We just have to convince people that we are capable of defending ourselves.”

  Lenoir appeared ready to complain, but Cimbra walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “He has the right idea,” the dark elven woman said softly. “As long as your trading parties appear confident no one should have a problem.”

  I looked at the woman. She was still wearing the tattered rag of a cloak that had covered her body when I rescued her. Her hair seemed to have gained some luster overnight. As she approached I noticed a mug in her now clean hands.

  “We need to get you new clothes,” I said.

  “The others have already said that,” Cimbra noted. “Although Al seemed to have trouble describing the outfit he thought would look good on me.”

  She was looking at a pile of furs set up near the edge of the plateau. It took me a moment to see Al lying asleep with Aine in his arms.

  “I didn’t get it either,” Lenoir said. “Aine wasn’t happy though. It was Natalie who finally silenced him though. She muttered something about Eddie and eating slops.”

  “Ah,” I said. “He wanted an outfit like the one the sorceress we met was wearing. I’ll agree with the ladies. The outfit he suggested would be definitely inappropriate. Besides, I would think Cimbra wants to keep her skin out of the sun. It’s not like her people live in sunlight.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Cimbra said. “Although I will try to keep the light from my eyes. I thought I might offer t
o help at night with the watch on the city. I’m sure I see much better than any of you then.”

  Lenoir started giggling. “We should have thought of that, but it completely slipped my mind.”

  “Well, I’m sure Cimbra could have mentioned it yesterday,” I said teasingly as I smiled toward the dark elven woman.

  To my surprise Cimbra ducked her head. I could see a pink flush color her cheeks for a moment. The woman looked up and shook her head. “I was still amazed that Rowena allowed me to live. My people would not have been as merciful.”

  “I don’t think she had anything to fear from you,” I pointed out. “And the elves have clearly decided to trust us.”

  Cimbra nodded. She accepted some tea from Lenoir’s pot, while I hunted down a clean mug. Once I had, Lenoir filled it with the steaming liquid and pulled out a cloth pouch that contained several pieces of dried meat. She offered the food to both of us as we sat by the fire.

  Cimbra and I accepted a few pieces of meat. I chewed my meal while sipping the tea and looking toward the city. The fog had thickened over the river, making it impossible to see the far shore clearly. There were some signs of movement as I could see lights moving back and forth in the mist.

  “What will you be doing today?” Cimbra asked.

  “We need to get organized during the morning,” I said. “And get an idea of what we want to purchase for the trip. Unless the stories are false, we will find no more settlements or cities once we leave the river and head east. We definitely need more food.”

  “I can hunt,” Lenoir said. “I’ve done some hunting back near the farm.”

  “And we will definitely appreciate that,” I said. “And if the plains truly have had few humans on them for as long as the stories say, we’ll probably find herds of animals we can hunt. But we also need fruits and grains. Those we’ll probably have to bring with us.”

  “Salt,” Kariy said from behind me. I turned to see the young woman walking towards the fire. She had an armful of wood.

  “What?” Lenoir asked.

  “We need to preserve meat,” Kariy said. “The easiest way will be to use salt. But we don’t have any right now.”

  “And it might be hard to find,” I said. “Saraloncto is not on the coast.”

  “Why would that matter?” Lenoir asked.

  “Well, I don’t know about the oceans of Jord, but where I come from the water in the ocean has a lot of salt dissolved in it. What you can do is catch some water and put it in a very shallow pool where the sun can shine on it. When the water evaporates the salt remains behind and you can just collect it,” I said.

  Cimbra looked at me in surprise. “That sounds so simple. Are you sure it can work?”

  “I’ve seen some evaporation ponds,” I admitted. “I never took a tour, and I don’t know how long it takes, but we can work that out in the future if we find a good place to call home. It would be something to keep quiet about. Salt is usually a very valuable commodity.”

  “Why?” I heard Jeff ask. “I heard that back in one of my classes, but the professor never really explained it. He was using it as an example of how something that was once valuable could become too common.”

  I nodded to Kariy. The young lady was almost bouncing as she shook with the need to answer. Once I gave her the signal, she set her wood by the fire and turned to look at Jeff who was sitting up in a bedroll.

  “We don’t have many ways to preserve food,” she informed him. “Salt is the best because of the way it works. If we have salt I can pickle foods or use salt to dry them out. The food lasts longer in storage.”

  I nodded again to Kariy who smiled one last time and then turned to start building the fire. Jeff was frowning, but then he nodded. “Damn, I never thought about that. Without refrigeration you do need a way to preserve food. Are we always going to run into problems like that?”

  “Hopefully, we can anticipate most of them,” I said. “Although right now the big issue will be the hike we are preparing to undertake. I read somewhere that most people on the Oregon Trail walked at least one pair of boots off their feet on the journey. I should see if we can find someone who can make boots for everyone.”

  “The Oregon Trail?” Lenoir asked.

  Jeff snorted. “Your turn,” he said with a smirk.

  “Where we came from there was a time that many people decided that there was a great opportunity in lands far to the west. They organized expeditions a bit like what we have and travelled in search of a place to call home. Since many of them were attempting to get to a territory known as Oregon, we now call the route and the journey, the Oregon Trail.”

  “The journey?” Cimbra asked.

  “There was no road at the time,” I said. “Each group would find their own route. Most did hire an experienced guide, who knew a route, but with herds that needed food and problems with hostile tribes on the plains they travelled through, the routes were not all the same.”

  “I hope you remember how it was done,” Kariy said. “Because it sounds like we are doing the same thing as your ancestors.”

  I chuckled. “I only have vague memories of things I read. My family didn’t take the trail. Oh, Jeff, are you willing to head into town with me once everyone is awake, and we have unloaded the carts?”

  “Unload? Why?” Jeff asked.

  “First so we can see what tools and goods we have,” I pointed out. “And after that we will want to load them differently. I expect we’ll have the good cart carrying the food and tools we’ll need while travelling. The rickety cart will carry the hay and fodder for the herds, and the new cart will have some of the seeds. After that we’ll need at least one more cart or wagon. I’d prefer two wagons which will be what we look for today.”

  “When do we go?” Jeff asked.

  “We should allow everyone to wake first, and I need to have Esme look at my leg,” I said. “They can take their time waking – we need the rest. The sun should wake most naturally. Until then we should check the animals and set up some kind of latrine.”

  “How?” Jeff asked.

  “We have a shovel or two in the carts,” I said. “We take those and dig a pit. It’s not wonderful, but that’s what was used on the frontier. Why don’t we do that near the forest? I hear that human waste makes a rather good fertilizer, so it might help the grove expand a little once we’ve gone.”

  Jeff frowned and then looked at the two full carts. “Which cart?” he asked.

  “Let’s go and find out,” I suggested, as I started walking in that direction.

  I started with the well-made cart we had picked up in Purahomp. I soon found that someone had packed most of the tools on the cart. At first, I was unloading various woodworking and carpentry tools, but once those were removed I found the farming tools. There were two shovels, and I pulled those free. Jeff was still sitting by the fire, so I walked to the edge of the grove and then started walking away from the river.

  I had found a small depression in the plateau that offered a bit of protection from wind and sun about two hundred feet from the river. I selected one of the shovels and set the other down. Being careful of my bad leg, I placed the blade of the shovel against the ground and pushed it downward.

  The ground proved to be harder than I expected, and the root system of the grass was thick. It took a few moments before I could get the blade of the shovel to cut through the ground.

  We needed a latrine, so I continued to work to make a hole in the ground. I had dug down about a foot when Jeff came over and looked at my work. “What can I do?” he asked.

  “You can take over as my leg is not as good as I thought. I figure we want this a couple feet deeper,” I said. “I’ve never dug something like this before, but if it’s deeper we might be able to use somedirt and ashes to keep the smell down until we leave.”

  Jeff gasped. “Damn, and I just realized we have to cross the river and visit the city. The smell yesterday was almost unbearable.”

  “We should go af
ter the sun comes up but still early in the morning,” I suggested. “That way we might avoid some of the smell. Although, we don’t want to show up too early.”

  “Why not?” Jeff asked.

  “Who would be open?” Lydia asked from behind us. Our labors had caused us to turn our backs to the camp. Both Jeff and I turned around to look at Lydia.

  “Actually, in pre-electricity societies, trading begins shortly before or after dawn,” I said. “What we want is for the merchants to recognize we are here and get organized. Hopefully, the competition will be keen.”

  “I see you have dug a bit of a latrine trench,” Lydia said.

  “It needed to be done,” I pointed out. I glanced up and could see that the fog was starting to lift and sunlight was starting to stream through the mist. “Is everyone up?”

  “Henck is still sleeping, I think his body knows he needs to rest and heal,” Lydia said. “Everyone else is awake and has had breakfast. Verval took charge of unloading the carts. I can coordinate getting an inventory and coming up with a wish list.”

  I glanced up to the east. The light was still diffuse due to the fog, but it seemed that the sun had cleared the horizon. “We’ll need Mary and Gerit for the raft,” I said. “They can bring it back to this side once we are across.”

  “Aine will be on watch for now,” Lydia said. “Lenoir was going to go with Gertrilla and Yveney and give them some sling instruction.”

  “Who’ll watch the herds?” I asked.

  “We have four more kids to help with that,” Lydia pointed out. “And they are eager to help, unless you want one with you.”

  “Not today, but I’ll probably have both Corwar and Piemal spend time with me on trips in the future. It will be a way to give them some instruction,” I said.

  “I’ll get Mary and Gerit,” Lydia said. “Heather can bring knives. Have you had Esme look at that leg? If not, get that done. Otherwise, you should head to the rafts. There already is a bit of traffic on the river.”