Finding Home

by Ali Spooner

  “That was a wonderful meal,” Nat said to Maggie and Marissa, as she placed more wood on the fire and as the skies darkened outside the shadows danced on the walls of the cave. “I am going to tend to the animals,” Nat said.

  “Do you want some help?” Marissa asked.

  “Sure,” Nat said. “Why don’t we rinse of these dishes too while we are at it,” she said as she picked up the dishes.

  “I will get those, you two care for the animals,” Maggie said as she took the stack of dishes from Nat and headed to the water.

  Nat stood at the mouth of the cave and whistled. Then she and Marissa filled three feed bags for the two horses and mule. They watched as the three animals approached following Hardy up to the mouth of the cave. Nat and Marissa slipped the bags over their heads and the animals fed on the tender oats and molasses mixture.

  Maggie took the dishes into the cave as Nat and Marissa stayed with the animals until they finished feeding, then removed the feed bags and stored them for the evening. Nat then took Marissa in her arms to watch the moon begin to rise over the glass-like water.

  “I am very proud to have you here with me,” Nat whispered in her ear.

  “I am proud to be here with you, too,” Marissa said. “It gives me a glimpse, however small, of what your world is like.”

  Marissa turned to face Nat. “I watched your face as we traveled today and you seemed so at peace under the open sky.”

  “It is the only home I have ever known, until now,” Nat said. “I have spent more nights under a blanket of stars than I have with a roof over my head,” she said calmly.

  “It must be beautiful to look up into the sky and see all those stars smiling down on you,” Marissa said.

  “It is beautiful, but it can become very lonely too,” Nat said. “Sometimes I wish Gyp could talk, just so I could hear another voice,” Nat said. “The silence can be very overwhelming.”

  “I can only imagine,” Marissa said.

  “It’s starting to cool down are you ready to move inside?” Nat asked.

  “Did our eggs make the trip?” Nat asked Maggie as they entered the cave.

  “Yes, you packed them well. Would you like some for breakfast she asked?”

  “Only if it will leave enough for us to have shrimp for dinner tomorrow night,” Nat said with a grin.

  “I think you must really like those,” Marissa said.

  “Oh, I do,” Nat said. “Fried though, not roasted.”

  Gyp let out a small bark of agreement.

  “Very well, we shall have fried shrimp tomorrow,” Maggie said as she pulled a blanket around her shoulders.

  Nat placed more wood on the fire and removed her boots to crawl into her bedroll. “Goodnight my friends,” she said.

  “Goodnight,” Maggie and Marissa said.

  Nat turned onto her side and snuggled in to Marissa’s body to share warmth and she watched as Gyp walked over and curled up next to Maggie. Maggie’s hand reached out and was buried in Gyp’s soft fur.

  Nat woke once with a chill and got up to add wood to the fire and the next time she woke, Maggie was awake. Maggie had started the coffee and when she saw Nat was awake she poured another cup. Nat quietly stood and slipped her boots on before joining Maggie around the fire.

  “Thanks,” she said as she took the cup from Maggie. “How did you sleep?”

  “I missed my warm bed,” Maggie said with a smile. “But, I wouldn’t have missed this trip for anything.”

  Nat looked over at Marissa, still sleeping peacefully.

  “Let her sleep for a while yet,” Maggie said. “Yesterday’s travel took its toll on her.”

  “I noticed it did not take long for her to fall asleep,” Nat said.

  “She is not as used to all the fresh air like you are,” Maggie said.

  “I just hope she doesn’t regret coming along.”

  “That woman would follow you anywhere,” Maggie said with a warm smile.

  “You think so?” Nat said.

  “I know so,” Maggie said with a grin. “For some reason she adores you.”

  Nat blushed slightly.

  “You are a good woman, Nat and you two deserve happiness together,” Maggie said.

  “Thanks, Maggie, I do love her so.”

  “Have you decided if you will return to the woods this spring?”

  “I haven’t decided either way yet,” Nat said. “It is not an easy decision.”

  Marissa stirred and sat up. “Why didn’t you wake me,” she said?

  “Because you were sleeping so soundly,” Nat said. “We thought we would get a jump on the coffee before you woke,” she teased.

  “Should I start breakfast?” Maggie asked.

  “I could eat a bear,” Marissa said.

  “You are that hungry?” Nat asked.

  “You worked me hard yesterday,” Marissa teased. “I have a feeling today will be busy too.”

  “Do we still have biscuits left?” Maggie asked.

  “About a dozen with a little bacon,” Marissa said.

  “Scrambled or fried eggs then?”

  “Why don’t you just scramble them all with some of that bacon,” Nat suggested.

  “You are so clever,” Marissa said. “I will get our plates and the biscuits.”

  Marissa handed Maggie the bacon and watched as Maggie scrambled the eggs and crumbled the bacon in them.

  “That smells good,” Nat said as Maggie started serving up the eggs.

  They ate the meal and cleaned the dishes as the sun continued to rise. Nat picked up the bucket and the rifle. “Are we ready?” she asked.

  They walked to the rock pools and were pleased that more ocean life had been trapped overnight. Nat left them to begin the harvest as she and Gyp walked further down the beach. They passed several more rock pools gorged with creatures. They would harvest these lobsters as well before heading back to the river tomorrow.

  As they walked, Nat began seeing strange tracks in the wet sand, like non she had ever seen. She followed the tracks and when she passed a large boulder she saw what was creating the trail. Gyp saw the creature too and circled it with great curiosity. Nat had seen a turtle before, albeit, none as big as this one. It was easily four feet long and she guessed it weighed at least three hundred pounds. She moved closer to touch the hard shell and the creature turned its large head to look at her.

  “You are a beauty,” she said to the large animal.

  Nat saw movement down the beach and walked toward it cautiously. “Easy Gyp,” she said as she started a low growl deep in her throat. Nat ducked behind a large boulder and called Gyp to her. She peered over the boulder and watched as a pair of wolves fed on some type of tusked animal. Such a strange place, Nat thought as she watched the predators go back to their meal. “I think it is time for us to head back,” she said to Gyp.

  She and Gyp walked back to the rock pool to find Marissa and Maggie harvesting the last of the lobsters. “You two have got to see something we found,” Nat said.

  They passed the other rock pools teeming with lobsters and continued to follow Nat, surprised that something else had excited her so. When they passed the first of the large boulders, they saw what Nat was enchanted with. “Have you ever seen a turtle this big before?” she asked.

  “It is a turtle from the sea and if I had to guess I would say this one is very old,” Maggie said. “She has probably come ashore to find a safe place to lay her eggs.”

  “She is amazing,” Marissa said, as she slowly circled the large creature.

  “Further ahead, there is a carcass of a large tusked animal that two wolves are feasting on,” Nat said.

  “That sounds like a walrus,” Maggie said.

  “It is something I have never seen before,” Nat said. “There are such strange, but wondrous creatures at the ocean,” she said, her eyes shining brightly with excitement.

  “Do you think the wolves have passed on?” Maggie asked.

  “If not, I ca
n send them on their way,” Nat said as she lifted the rifle.

  “Those tusks are very valuable,” Maggie said.

  “Follow me,” Nat said. “Gyp, stay close,” she said.

  The wolves had passed on when they arrived, but Nat kept a wary eye on the beach ahead.

  “That is a walrus,” Maggie said. “It has been dead a few days,” she said. “It must have been injured or ill to beach itself this way,” she added.

  Nat looked at Maggie. “How do you harvest those?” she asked pointing at the long tusks.

  “Take your knife and cut around where they join the skin,” Maggie said. “Then we pull and pull hard,” she said.

  Nat pulled her knife and cut away the skin from the exposed edge of the tusk. “Help me, Marissa,” Maggie said as she took the tusk in her hands. It took them several tries, but finally the tusk broke free from the animal’s skull. They repeated the process with the other tusk and Nat walked to the water’s edge to clean her knife.

  “Smithy will have a field day with those,” Maggie said. The use the tusks to customize pistol grips and knife handles and in some places to fashion jewelry. It takes great patience and a very good knife to carve the hard tusks though.

  Marissa and Maggie each carried a tusk as they made their way back to the cave. They stopped by the rock pool and counted another dozen lobsters that Nat and Marissa would harvest while Maggie collected shrimp for their dinner. They placed the tusks in the small cart and took the bucket back to the rock pool. Nat made four trips back to the barrel carrying lobster before they were done. She then added more water to both barrels to cover the clamoring creatures. Maggie had gathered a flask full of shrimp and was cleaning them at the water’s edge when Marissa and Nat returned to the camp.

  Marissa walked down to the water to assist Maggie with cleaning the shrimp while Nat went inside the cave and carried out six of the largest rib bones from the whale carcass and added them to the cart.

  “If we have much more luck, poor Quincy won’t be able to move this cart,” Nat said. “As it is, I may have to carry the ribs and tusks and other supplies up the hill before we load him down.”

  “We can carry everything but the barrels,” Maggie said, and I will walk home.

  “There is no need for that,” Nat said. “Once he gets on solid, flat land, Quincy can pull a mountain,” she said proudly.

  “We still have a buck to add too,” Maggie reminded her with a grin.

  “Oh, I haven’t forgotten about him, but I won’t spend long tracking him. I can always come back for him later, if need be.”

  “The lobsters will be fine as long as they are packed in the salt water,” Maggie said, “So take what time you need.”

  Nat saw her animals walking toward them on the beach and placed their feed bags over their heads, adding a little extra for Quincy.

  They spent the remainder of the afternoon on the beach resting from their adventures and when the sun started to fade, Maggie stood up and walked to the cave to start their meal.

  “I will go help Maggie,” Marissa said. “Don’t be too much longer out here,” she said.

  “We won’t be far behind you, my love,” Nat promised.

  Nat picked up a small piece of driftwood and tossed it down the beach for Gyp to retrieve and they played their game of catch for twenty minutes as they moved down the beach. As they walked back toward the cave, Gyp stopped in her tracks and looked at the cliffs above the beach. Nat looked and then heard the howl of wolves, probably the feeding pair they had seen earlier on the beach. She looked at saw that Quincy, Buck and Hardy were safely at the mouth of the cave and decided that they would stay inside tonight instead of being allowed to roam free. Nat could not afford to lose one of her animals to a pack of wolves. She would light a fire at the mouth of the cave and she would sleep there with the animals just in case they were visited that night.

  When she reached the mouth of the cave, she tethered the animals together and went inside to gather some firewood to start an outer fire. “What is going on?” Marissa asked.

  “We may have company tonight, so I will sleep out front with the animals to protect them,” Nat said.

  “Protect them from the wolves?” Maggie asked.

  “Yes, did you hear them too?”

  “Yes, just a few minutes ago and fairly close,” Maggie said with a frown.

  “They should not be a problem, but I will sleep out with the animals to make sure,” Nat said. “We will be gone from here early in the morning and they can have their territory back.”

  Maggie and Marissa were cooking the shrimp and they were beginning to smell good. “You two have my mouth watering,” she said. “Those smell good.”

  “We should be finished in just a few minutes, but if you want to start breaking some up for Gyp, that would be fine,” Maggie said.

  Nat took several of the cooked shrimp that had time to cool and broke them into smaller pieces for Gyp and placed them in her bowl. Maggie handed her a jar of chowder that had been warmed and said, “Here, pour some of this over them for her.”

  Nat looked at Gyp. “You are getting so spoiled.”

  Gyp barked sharply at Nat to voice her disagreement.

  “And so rebellious too,” Nat said with a laugh as she sat the bowl on the cave floor for Gyp. “Go ahead.”

  Gyp stepped forward and ate the meal, lapping up every drop of the chowder from the walls of the bowl. Nat poured more of the rich chowder in the bowl and Gyp ate it as she sat by her master who had also begun to eat her meal.

  When they had cleaned up the meal and the moon had rose, Nat said, “We should get an early night tonight, so we can be up early in the morning.”

  “Would you like for me to join you outside?” Marissa said with a hopeful smile.

  “No, sweetheart, you stay inside the cave with Maggie where it is warmer,” Nat said to her disappointment.

  Marissa watched as Nat moved her bedroll out to the mouth of the cave and then looked at Maggie. Maggie smiled and nodded at Marissa who picked up her bedroll and followed Nat.

  “What are you doing?” Nat asked.

  “I am joining you my love,” Marissa said. “If I get cold, I know you will warm me up,” she said with a soft smile.

  “Very well, have it your way,” Nat said.

  The lonesome call of a wolf broke the night air as Nat sat against a rock. Marissa came and sat with her and they cuddled and listened until the calls grew further apart and in the distance as the pack moved away from the beach.

  “Do you think it is safe now to sleep?” she asked.

  “I think so. The animals will alert us if they return,” Nat said.

  “Good,” Marissa said and then led Nat to their bedrolls. Marissa snuggled down into her covers and then reached for Nat, taking her face in her hands. She kissed her sweetly and pulled her body close to share warmth and they slipped off to sleep.