Anna laughed so hard, her eyes were streaming and her ribs hurt. She finally managed to get her laughter under control. Sato and Telluri weren’t any better off than her. Miasla leant against the tree trunk gasping. Anna reached out and slapped her on the back. “Keep an eye on it. Holler if it moves again.”
The winch assistants were setting up for number six. Anna sent Telluri back to the second level. Sato and Anna noosed number six and hooked the cable to the noose. “Pull it in, Kali!” They shouted. Then the sixth takosund was over the rail and carted.
“Okay people, everybody back to second level.” When everyone made it over the rail, Anna sent Telluri to get the carters. She beckoned Des over and gave him a big hug. “What do you think?”
Des took a deep breath. “If you ever do that mid-leap shooting in front of me again, I won’t be responsible for how much greal I stuff down your throat.” Des shuddered.
Anna gave Des a kiss. “Okay honey. How does processing room medic sound to you?” She teased. “Speaking of stuffing greal down throats, have you heard what we did to Miasla’s pesky takosund?”
Des shook his head. Anna leaned against him and minded him what they had done. “You didn’t!” Des exclaimed. Anna nodded. She sent Des images of the quivering takosund, the head shaking, the air wrapping, and finally the glaring, watering eyes. Des threw back his head and laughed.
Anna couldn’t help it, it just seemed right. She threw back her head and howled. Wolf call. Heart call. Pack call. We live. We hunt. We laugh. We love. Wolfe calls to Wolfe. Heart calls to heart. We are strong. We are pack. We are alive. Her head came back down, Des held her close. “Why does Phwolfe call?” He asked.
“Phwolfe calls out joy, laughter. Phwolfe calls out we hunted well. We laughed loud. We are strong. Phwolfe calls, because I am happy in your arms. Phwolfe calls see us, here now, together. My heart says sing, so Phwolfe calls.” Anna smiled and looked around. The carters had joined them and everyone surrounded them grinning widely.
“Good hunt, people!” Anna declared. “We hunted well. Wolves howl after a good hunt. They howl their strength out at the world. Sometimes my heart tells me to howl, to sing out, “Look at what we have done!” I can’t resist howling, when my heart tells me to.” Anna shrugged.
“We had a good hunt so the Phwolfe must howl. I would hunt or howl with you any day Phwolfe. And I wish you to teach me how to use that crossbow. It is a weapon worth having.” Sato declared.
“Gresa built it well.” Anna nodded. “I will have to do more trades with him.” She turned and smiled at Gresa. “I’ve got fresh takosund. Are you interested in a trade?”
Gresa threw back his head and laughed. “I have a share in that takosund. You will have to find something else to trade.”
“I’ll put Jatlo on it. He’s a wonder. All right people, let’s go visit the bridge. Miasla, how about you tell everyone about your visiting takosund!” So they pushed the carts and laughed. They pushed more and laughed more. People came out into the hall and helped them.
The bridge guard glanced at the first cart and dashed off. The Phsatorae and Elders must have been waiting, because they arrived in moments. “You had a successful hunt Phwolfe. You got one?” The Phsatorae said as he walked in.
“Actually, Phsatorae we got six. We decided that was enough and spooked the rest away.” Anna drawled.
“Six?” The Phsatorae stopped. “Six!” He exclaimed.
“Yes, six pretty good sized ones. But the fourth one is the biggest. Jeado, which cart is number four in?” Anna asked.
Jeado pointed. “He filled a cart all by himself. We doubled up one and five, and managed to fit two, three, and six into that overfull cart. I am glad we stopped. We didn’t have room for more.”
“Who pulled the knives?” Kantuia asked
“The knives and crossbow bolts are still in them. It is traditional for the Elders to witness the knife pulling on a multiple hunt. We didn’t wish for any confusion. The bolts belong to me and will have to be cut out. They went in too deep to be pulled. My knives have black handles. Sato’s have white.” Anna bowed to the Elders.
“We will witness the bolts and knife removal. Let us all help push these to the processing rooms.” The Phsatorae said.
They all pushed again. The tale of the greal eating takosund got retold. Laughter reverberated down the halls. When they got the processing rooms, chairs were dragged out. “The hunters must sit and rest. It is traditional.” Kantuia said.
“I’m not arguing tradition.” Anna yawned and took a seat. Sato sat down and yawned too. Des rubbed Anna’s shoulders. Fienu rubbed Sato’s. Anna liked this tradition. “Slide forward and lean back in the chair.” Des minded her. She happily complied. Des started rubbing her neck.
“Hunters, we are honored!”
Anna jolted awake and shot up out of the chair. She shook her head and looked around. “Huh…” the takosund processing room, “ah…” Oh yeah, the hunt. She yawned and sat back down. The Phsatorae stood frozen in a semi-bow in front of Sato and Anna. Anna looked over at Sato who was just sitting back down. He must have dozed off, just like her.
The Phsatorae cleared his throat and started over. “Hunters, we are honored by the trust you placed in us. We have pulled forty-two knives and cut out twelve bolts.”
Anna’s curiosity got the upper hand against her manners. She interrupted Jao. “Were the bolts damaged? I wasn’t sure that they would get into the braincase without breaking.”
Jao simply shrugged off, Anna’s breach of etiquette, which would have caused an uproar in the formal society of Golria. “Eleven bolts were undamaged. The twelfth has a shattered shaft and the arrowhead is sheared in half.” The Phsatorae bowed again.
“From the fourth one’s braincase shot, it wasn’t the right angle.” Anna sighed.
“Yes, from the fourth one’s braincase but the bolt did manage to penetrate the brain.”
“Excellent!” Anna nodded.
“Of the forty-two knives, fifteen belong to Hunter Sato, seven hit nerve nodes and eight severed the spine.” The Phsatorae handed a tray to Sato. Sato’s knives lay on top of a blue cloth, spotless and shiny.
Sato nodded. “Spine shots make the takosund less mobile allowing us to hit the nodes. It isn’t traditional. But it is effective.”
“A point well proven by this successful hunt.” The Phsatorae agreed. He turned to Anna. “Of your twelve bolts, six hit the braincase and six hit top nodes.” The Phsatorae handed Anna a tray with eleven clean bolts on blue cloth. “Going by tradition, the shattered bolt and sheared arrowhead will be placed in a glass honor case.”
Anna nodded. She doubted if even Sato could have repaired an arrow sheared in half. She stored her bolts in her thigh pockets. She started to hand the tray back when Des minded her. “You must keep the cloth. It is hunter’s cloth, color and weave. It is special and must be kept by you. You can’t trade or gift it.” Anna set the cloth in her lap and handed the empty tray back to the Phsatorae.
“Of your twenty-seven knives, eleven hit nerve nodes and sixteen severed the spine.” The Phsatorae handed Anna another cloth lined tray.
Anna nodded. “Number four didn’t give me node shots till the very end. I took a lot of spine shots with him so he couldn’t get away. He was a fast bugger.” Anna sheathed her knives. As she lifted the cloth, she realized there was a lot of it lining the tray. She would have to ask Des, what she was supposed to do with it.
“The percentage divisions are; first takosund goes one hundred percent to hunter Phwolfe, the second takosund half hunter Phwolfe and half hunter Sato, the third and fourth takosunds belong totally to hunter Phwolfe, the fifth takosund is sixty-eight percent hunter Phwolfe and thirty-two percent hunter Sato, and the sixth takosund is sixty percent hunter Phwolfe and forty percent hunter Sato. Are there any who dispute this?”
Anna touched Des’s mind. What do they figure by?
Nerve nodes! He answered.
“I think on numbers
five and six, Hunter Sato’s spine shots made it possible to hit the nerve nodes. He is the quicker thrower and he judges takosund movement better than I. He gets high spine shots, so the takosund is immobilized quickly. I tend to pick mine to death, small spine section by section.” Anna shrugged.
“It is too complicated to figure by spine shots. I don’t mind sticking with the node figures. Plus, the way the hunt chief divided the six percent equally, instead of proportionally makes up any losses on spine shots.” Sato grinned.
“Are you sure?” Anna asked.
Sato nodded. “I will get more takosund then I can ever eat, on this hunt.”
“Okay, if Sato doesn’t mind those figures. They are all right with me.” Anna nodded at the Phsatorae.
“Good, even with our people being stronger now, it will take four days to process this much takosund. How much do the hunters wish to broil?” Kantuia asked.
Anna looked as Sato. Sato shrugged. “Is trade chief Jatlo, here?”
Jatlo stepped forward. “Yes, hunter Phwolfe?”
“Jatlo, how much broiled takosund can this ship’s crew use in fifteen to twenty days?”
“For the whole crew, it would take between ten thousand seven hundred and fourteen thousand two hundred, including what is given as honor gifts.”
“Well, I would recommend you broil up about thirteen thousand portions of the fourth takosund. That one will take a lot of cutting to go down a processor hole.” Anna nodded at the Phsatorae. “We can figure out how many of those portions should be used as honor gifts later.” She sighed. “You should also plan on broiling up what’s needed for feast day.”
The Phsatorae nodded. “We thank you hunters. May your blood stay strong.” The Elders and Phsatorae bowed.
Anna got up, took Des’s hand, returned the bow and left. She wanted to crawl into bed, the minute they got home. Des made her eat first.
CHAPTER 10
“Call Phwolfe! Call!”
Anna woke up over an hour late the next morning. Des had turned off the alarm and left breakfast on the table. She got dressed and ate, and then trotted down to Heroes’ Hall. The corridor outside central station was packed with harvest from those who hadn’t hunted last cool, everything Tamsi had packaged, and baker racks full of clean pans.
Anna took in the racks and stacked the clean pans. She put away Tamsi’s packaged products. And then, she started pulling in the harvest carts. She did the rounds on the central stations.
There was always something ready to be done. Fried savti to rack in pans, roasted savti to pull out of the ovens, gesar flour fully dried, syrup or catronu oil to bottle, presses to scrape and refill. Anna pushed everything that needed to be packaged to East 4. At three ninety-eight, she refilled the big gesar boiling pots, the roasting ovens, and the fryers, leaving twenty full carts in the hall for her to process in the cool.
She went home and practiced with the crossbow. She needed to figure out a way to lean out from a limb to get a difficult shot. It would take too long to tie a rope. She would have to put a lot of thought into a solution. She went into their quarters and started fixing dinner. Des showed up with Jatlo, and then Tanake.
“I have the oesla tassels for you, Phwolfe.” Tanake deposited four trays on the counter.
“Thank you Tanake. How’s the cloth making going?”
“I should finish this cool. I have made a wide selection of colors in light, medium, and heavy cloth.” Tanake smiled broadly.
“Great, Jatlo, what type of cloth to do you use for your rugs?”
“I use medium or heavy cloth. I will enjoy choosing from a variety of colors. There is a small dispute to be settled about a mewu nest found in East 5.”
“So people found mewu nests. How many and what is the dispute?” Anna asked Jatlo.
“Five nests were found, two each in East 7 and 8, one in East 5. One of Tanake’s crew and one of the invalids were digging savti on two bushes that grew near each other. They each found mewu eggs and proceeded to take them out, package, and weigh them. They discovered it was one huge nest and they had each started on an opposite end of it. The dispute is; do they each get two point five percent of the whole nest or do they get five percent of what they did individually? You need to settle it because it occurred in your garden as they worked for you.”
“Did they work together when they discovered it was one nest?”
“They didn’t interfere with each other. They finished digging it out together. But they washed and packaged separately. Tanake’s man is a fast digger, while the invalid woman is a fast packager.”
“So the invalid would do better with five percent of what she packaged and Tanake’s man would do better with two point five percent of the whole nest.” Jatlo nodded. “Can you show me the numbers on the nest, and what they individually packaged?”
Jatlo went over to the information board and pulled up the numbers. Anna sat down and studied them. “Well, it was indeed a huge nest. Jatlo tell me the mood of these two people. Are they irritated over this dispute? Is it likely to cause anger between them?”
“They appear more nervous than irritated. Phwolfe has treated all fairly, so they trust Phwolfe to settle it. But they worry, because you have never settled a dispute before. They know each other well and have a friendship, through the fact that they both carve in denua fiber and tienara branches when they can get them. They won’t be angry at each other. But if they don’t like your decision, they will be mad at you.”
Anna nodded. “First things first, give them each four percent of the entire nest. Tell them Phwolfe does this because they cooperated well with each other, and were amiable while waiting for this dispute to be settled. Also Phwolfe has an offer for them. You can figure out the details. Midnortheast 1 and 6, East 5 and 8 have been made safe. I cut the crossing limbs and threw them onto the second level. These two people may want some of the tienara limbs and branches on those second levels.” Anna shrugged. “I don’t know what Satorae wants to do with the branches on its second levels. But Phwolfe is willing to trade its tienara branches from East 5 and 8 for some of their share of mewu eggs. They can’t eat them all before they spoil. Neither East 5 nor 8 has a switch installed yet so they’ll have to carry what they want out. They can use whatever they want from the supply closets to make it easier.”
“They will be happy to partake in such a trade. It is unusual to get tienara wood. I will offer them one pound of tienara wood for an ounce of mewu eggs. Even with carrying it out themselves, that is a very good deal.” Jatlo said.
Anna gasped “Why is tienara wood worth that much?”
“Tienara trees grow much slower than lysordi trees so they don’t have to be cut back often. When a log of over one meter in diameter gets cut, it is made into tiera-plas, which can be used to repair or build anything inside the inner hull of a ship. Mechanical central has a tiera-plas processing center.” Des explained.
Anna’s jaw dropped. “You use wood to build spaceships.”
“Only the inner hulls and only with tiera-plas, it has a lot of flex, along with strength. Metal possesses more strength, but hardly any flex. A meteorite will puncture both metal and tiera-plas. But because tiera-plas flexes, the small punctures get sealed off. The inner hull is made of five separate layers of tiera-plas that interconnect and reinforce each other. A puncture needs to be over two meters in diameter on the outer layer to be able to make it through the inner layer. We have been repairing the inner hulls outer three layers for the past forty-two annuals. They received a lot of damage and need to be re-manufactured. Luckily, tiera-plas is recyclable. The damaged panels get recycled into new ones after the contaminated portions are removed. We have used up all of the tiera-plas we had cubed and have begun to use the panels out of unoccupied quarters.” Des shrugged. “I will trance teach you ship hull design tonight.”
Anna nodded. “Thanks hon. Every time I think I know what’s going on, something else comes along and surprises me. Jatlo, can you tell my watc
hers that I won’t be working on the barriers until after feast day. This cool, I’m stopping at ten. Tomorrow cool, I’ll go over the rail at East 6. I need to get more tienara for the feast.”
“Tanake, will you be joining us this cool?” Des asked.
“Yes.” Tanake smiled.
Anna yawned. “All right everybody; have we covered everything for now?” They all nodded. “Thanks for the tassels, Tanake. Jatlo if that dispute settlement doesn’t work, get back in contact with me okay.” Jatlo nodded again and walked out with Tanake.
Des proclaimed. “I am starved. Let’s eat love.” They ate and then crawled into bed. Anna fell asleep in seconds. She woke up feeling much better with Des curled up beside her. When she mind touched him, she sensed that he was fine and would wake up soon. He was also hungry again. She got up and fixed a salad for Des and herself. She put Des’s salad and some lysordi drink on the bedside table and left for Heroes’ Hall.
Anna put the oesla tassels in the steeping pots right off. She logged on to the hall information page and checked the numbers. Going by the last feasts numbers plus thirty percent, they had more than they needed for honor gifts by a couple hundred pounds of both roasted and fried savti. Plus, some still sat in East 4 waiting to be packaged. There was enough gesar syrup too.
The feast only needed tienara nuts, tienara biscuits, and gesar flatbread to be done. Anna bottled everything that was done, hauled everything that needed to be packaged out into the hall, and concentrated on making tienara flour, roasting tienara nuts, and baking gesar flatbread. She boiled and then carted back out to cool the savti that remained; mashing it would keep Pealo, Tamsi, and Tawai very busy.
Anna entered the numbers and put everything away as it finished. Finally at seven of ten, she said goodbye to everyone and went home.
Anna got home first so she set out supper. She ordered up the denua boards for one of the small bureaus. They needed something to put the finished quilts in. She had it half glued together, when Des got home. “You are late, sweetheart.” She teased.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 36