He bowed and swept his arms outwards stating, “After you oh mighty one, I bow to your demands, and your expertise.”
She laughed at his antics and took on the air of the rich and walked casually in the direction they both were going, which got both of them laughing. He caught up with her and they pushed their way through the stand of trees, dead branches, and debris, and stopped. Before them a rock wall rose and disappeared behind trees to the north and south. This rock wall faced west and at this time of day reflected the setting suns light. Towards the north end there was a split in this wall and they could see that at one time there had been work to reinforce this split. Both headed towards this point. As they did they noticed that south of this area there appeared to have been worked fields although long abandoned. And off of this south wall a small waterfall and a stream ran down through these fields and disappeared into the trees.
As they approached this split they found some of the tree trunks that had been placed here and a broken gateway. Again, as they entered the path that led through the split it continued uphill, again giving defenders the better position. This ran for a short distance, this narrow gap in the wall, and then it opened up into the compound which sat on a higher plateau and was relatively flat. They had found it! And as the suns began to set in the west behind them, they were shocked at the size of this upper plateau. There had been nothing to suggest that the area they were presently in was anything but a small rise. Instead a village could have nested here comfortably. They could see where there had been shelters but with the passing of time most were just piles of rubble marking the locations of where the shelters had once set. Although the paths that had developed over the time from the many generation who had lived here, as they had moved from place to place within this clan home, were very apparent.
For a moment in the elation of discovery, after so many failures, they had forgotten about the ones who had been following. And the two had lagged far behind, once that incident on the back trail had almost compromised them. But since then, the two that they were following had remained ahead and out of sight. But their trail was obvious on this little used trail. Shortly they climbed the last portion and entered the stand of trees that Jura and Kal had been in just a short time earlier. The one in charge looked at the other and said quietly, “Who’d have guessed that these would be here. Look we’re out of daylight, so I guess we better set up a cold camp here tonight. It’s quite obvious that they’ll not be returning to their new camp tonight and had probably planned on staying over.”
“Yeah, it does look like doesn’t it? I’ll get us some wood, there’s no lack of dead branches here, and we can at least have a small fire to heat something up, and from the feel of the air it’s going to get cold up here tonight, so the fire will help keep us warm.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. After all if they’re close by they probably could see it.”
“Hey, we don’t know if they saw us back there or not, and I’m not going to give up the comfort of a small fire. Look, we can head back down the trail and find a place that’s hidden if you like, but I don’t like being cold.”
Shrugging, he had to admit they didn’t know if they had been discovered or not, but he didn’t like being cold either, and with the lengthening shadows he didn’t think they could head far enough back down the trail to find a place the stay. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. We’ll just stay on this side of these trees and away from this trail and that should keep us hidden from them.” Both of them worked to the north of the trail, found a small pile of boulders that had flat ground inside and decided that this would work. There was barely room for the two of them plus their small fire, but at least with the rocks they could build a fire next to one and get heat reflected back at them and hopefully with this makeshift shelter keep most of the evening breezes from chilling them too much.
Kal and Jura carefully walked the huge area in the failing light both silent as they walked the grounds of his ancestors. “I guess,” Kal said quietly, “we better find a place to set up camp before it gets too dark. I don’t think we’ll lack for fuel for our fire.” He stopped and looked around and just to the south of the entrance the land fell away into a natural bowl. Looking inside this bowl they could see that at one time it had held a rather large shelter. Pointing he said, “That might a good place, out of the cold night winds, but the cold air might settle in there, what do you think?”
“Don’t know really, but there’s a good chance for the air to settle there. Hmmm,” she mumbled as she looked around in the dimming light. “I don’t see anything that would be better so why not?” Both of them headed back to this natural bowl and when they descended they found that at this moment the air in the bowl was still and a bit warmer than the surrounding air. Smiling, she said, “I think I like it already – hadn’t realized that it had cooled that much already.” Looking around at the openness of this plateau she commented, “Bet the winds just whip across this place. There’s absolutely nothing to stop them. It had to be a miserable place in the Season of Cold.”
They worked quickly with practiced ease as they set up their dry camp at the bottom of the bowl close to the ruins of what had to be a large shelter. Once set up both headed out and working through the compound where a number of trees had grown since the place had been abandoned they found plenty of wood to feed their fire. As both of them got back together with their armloads of wood Kal asked, “Thought I smelled smoke from a campfire when I got close to the entrance to this place. But it was only so brief that I wasn’t sure. Did you by any chance smell such a thing?”
“Now that you mention it I think so, but it was so subtle that I almost immediately dismissed it. Well, if both of us smelled it then it has to be real. I guess the only question is; where is it coming from?” Thinking for a moment and climbing up the slight rise out of the bowl she sensed the direction of the breeze, stood there for a few moments to be sure and said, “With the time of day, we have an up canyon wind, which means that it would be flowing naturally from that tree stand and lower plateau up through that split that leads into here. So that fire has to be where we came from, probably the ones who are following us, I would suspect.”
“I guess that this would confirm it then.” Kal paused, “but we probably should sneak down the slash and see if the smell gets stronger. If it does then we know that they are behind us, and then maybe if we are careful we can try and locate their camp and find out how many are following us.”
“I concur with the first part of your idea, but if there are many of them, they’ll probably have guards out and neither of us is good enough to sneak up on a camp. So let’s just head down and see if the strength of the smell gets stronger, if so, then we can be pretty sure that it’s them. Besides, we need to stay on this side of those trees, because there’s a lot of debris, dead branches fallen leaves and such, and in the dark we won’t be able to see any of it.” Careful, because it would be much later when one of the minor moons rose, and even with their eyes having adjusted to the darkness, it was still very difficult to see anything, they worked their way back to the split in the wall that gave them access to the lower plateau.
With a rock rolling out from under his foot Kal went down on his backside. He fought down a curse and tried to slow his slide as he slid down the steep slope that they had just tackled. After finally being able to stop and stand back up he whispered to Jura, “really hope that wasn’t too noisy, and that hurt.” He could feel a burning on his hands and arms making him realize that he had lost some skin as he had slid down the path.
“Yeah, I bet it did, but I don’t think we have to go any further, the smell of the smoke is definitely stronger here and I suspect that there’s a camp close by – probably on the other side of those trees.”
“Yeah you’re right, it’s really strong here, and I think if you look over there to the north end there seems to be a small amount of haze hugging the ground – could be the smoke laying in there in a pock
et of slow moving air.” She shook her head in agreement, at this point both turned around and headed back to their camp inside the ancient compound.
* * *
“Do you think that the two we are following continued up the trail that they found?”
The one who had taken charge just shook his head and said, “Nah, don’t think so. They know nothing about what’s ahead of them any more than we do. So I suspect that they are camping just as we are. After all they did have their carrying packs on so that means that they were prepared to camp overnight somewhere if they needed to, and again who knows how long this trail goes, I don’t. And once it started to get dark they would have to stop, and before you ask, no I don’t think there’s another way around and they have headed back to their other camp. I believe that they would have to go past us and we would know.”
Both were staring into their small hidden fire, making them night blind. Once they had picked the area they were going to build their fire they walked away to see if the camp was hidden from any who would walk the trail and as far as they could see it was. The only factor they didn’t take into consideration was the three that were following them. These three were on a lower level looking up and as it darkened they could discern two glows that marked the two campsites.
“I guess this Jura and Kal are safe for now. There seems to be a little distance between the two sites so they haven’t been bothered yet. Although, I don’t know what we’ll do, if these two who are following them, decides to attack them. I guess that we will have to stay out of it because we cannot be found out.” They were staying in their own camp, a dry camp with no fire and cold travel rations.
One of the underlings with him smiled, “I really don’t think that will be an issue. If you remember, Jura is an expert with the staff, and I suspect that she’s been training Kal. So if those two decide to attack them, up close and personal, I believe it is they that will be in for a surprise. They’ll go in thinking because there’s a female that it will be easy pickings. In a sense I’d like to be there, you know a Loki in the grass, as those two low life’s get what’s coming to them if they are stupid enough to think that they can bully the two of them.” This brought a chuckle out of the three as they pictured the surprise on the two who would have thought they had the upper hand only to find that they didn’t.
* * *
With morning Kal and Jura were up and exploring the discovered site. He stood in awe and felt more like whispering than saying anything out loud – in a way this was a sacred site for his family. This was the place where the alliance had begun, and it was from here that all of the rest that was written in the journals could be located. He realized that even with the size of this small plateau, in the Season of Cold where you would be isolated to your shelter, that it must have closed in on everybody. While this would have been a place that would be easy to defend in time of attacks, the area was exposed enough to allow the winds to whip through the area sparing no one. It truly had to have been brutal. Clearing his throat Kal said, “It’s hard for me to believe that we’ve actually found it. If I remember right in the reading of the journals that area where we camped last night is the location of the female shelter, and if that’s so, to the north of this would have been the leader’s shelter. Then further to the east we should find where the compound was divided between the warriors and the priests. Plus on this side of the compound there would have been shelters for the rest, the ones who kept this place going – you know, like the slaves and young males in training, and the ones who just did all the other mundane things that it takes to make it work. I think that we should probably spend all day here sketching everything we can figure out, and mark its location on one of the better maps that we’ve brought with us. Maybe spend another night before heading back and getting our gear and setting up a camp right here. How does that sound to you?”
“Okay I guess, but I don’t know if we have enough food and such for another night. It might be better if we just went back and got our stuff and moved it here. After all, this place isn’t going anywhere.”
“True, but I worry about what the agenda of those who are following us may be. If we leave will they move in and claim that they found it and that we had better leave?”
“Darn! I forgot about them,” Jura exclaimed, “I was wrapped up in looking this over and in the excitement they slipped my mind. Maybe with full daylight we should go see what we are facing, and if it’s only a couple maybe suggest that they leave?”
“Yeah, but would they? This is a problem, I don’t want us to be separated but maybe it’s a way of doing it. Look you’re better at sneaking than I am just because of where you grew up, and I’d feel better if I knew that you were away and safe. And, before you point out that you’re much better with the staff and defending than I am, I think that if we do it this way they are less likely to come after me as a male than you as a female. They might think that you’d be an easy mark and make it difficult. As it is, if you were to leave now you wouldn’t be back here until dusk.”
He could see the attempt in her eyes and her face of trying to counter what he had just said, and was remaining silent for a moment. Finally she took a deep breath and shook her head and said, “I can’t argue against that logic, you’re right even with my skill, by myself, I’d be a target even if there’s only a couple. Out here a female alone, against who knows who, could make for a very bad outcome. But I’d be alone heading back to our camp, packing it, and then coming back, so I don’t know which is worse, do you? Tell you what, let’s go down there and see what we are facing. The drift of the smoke from their fire put them on the north end of that lower plateau, probably on the other side of the stand of trees that is there. If we sneak around from the south we can do two things. First we can locate their camp, and second if we get lucky we can see how many are following us. Hmmm, I just had a thought …”
Trying to lighten the mood a little he asked, “You had a thought, really?” He then he smiled showing that he wasn’t serious. She went ahead and hit him on his shoulder anyway which did hurt, “Ouch! What was that for? You know I was only kidding.”
“Yeah, but so am I. If I’d been serious you’d be picking yourself off the ground just about now. Anyway there may be a way that both of us can chance it and go. I really don’t like the idea of separating. We become much easier targets then even if there’s not many of them. We know that both of us, I’m speaking of those unknowns behind us and you and me here. All of us had to stop because of darkness and camp for the night.”
“I’m with you so far, please continue.”
“Well, who’s to say that we found anything at all? I mean that these unknowns have probably been following us since we’ve been up here and we’ve hit nothing but dead ends and returned to our camp to start over, so what if we head back down the trail talking like we were very disappointed but this promising lead turned out to be nothing but another dead end and we need to get back to camp, pack it up once again and then head further east and see if we can find something else.”
“Yeah, that would be consistent with what’s happened so far, but would they go and look where we spent the night? Because, if they did that they would know the truth.”
“Yeah, that is a problem. Hmmm, what if we do it this way then – we both leave and we show our disappointment that this trail just was a dead end, possibly a hunter’s camp at one time and we discuss this just as I suggested, and we both are mad because we just wasted all this time on another dead end. We both slowly head down the trail, and then pick one of the points where we can watch our back trail, soon after we leave and go past where we suspect that they are camping, to see if they follow us. If they do that immediately then we’ll know our discovery will be safe, and if they don’t, we can turn around and come back. The only problem with coming back is that we’ll be giving ourselves away and they would know that something’s up.”
Kal was silent for a moment, thinking. What a dilemma, should we go or should we
stay? Either way there could be problems. “I don’t know, because really, if they don’t see us, then they’ll assume we’ve just continued along the trail, not knowing that it ends here, and when they came along to continue following us they would walk right into our discovery. So I guess we’ll have to chance it and make an appearance and do as you suggest. That way we can see if we can make them follow us back and head back to our camp and break it down and maybe figure another way to get to the trail head.”
“Then we’d better do it,” Jura stated with some urgency in her voice. “We really don’t have anything to pack other than rolling up our sleeping sacks. I think that shortly the suns will be cresting that rock face that sits on the east end of this place. We can still make a quick sketch of the area, with two of us working the sketch, so that we can say that we really were here, and maybe help protect our rights to discovery.”
With the decision made and while it hadn’t been spoken they had decided to leave together, once the quick sketch had been created, and to announce to the world that this was another dead end and they needed to head back to their camp.”
* * *
The two that were following had had a bad night and when the dawn came both were deep in sleep unworried that their quarry would escape them. Even though there had been a close call the day before, it appeared that they had gotten lucky and had not been viewed or discovered, and that was very good news. This meant that they could continue to do little to nothing, other than follow them, and with a little care, remain an unknown. As it got closer to the time of the suns showing above the foothills both of them still in the twilight of just waking up heard voices which immediately brought them fully awake. They looked at each other and then at their dead fire and then froze in position as the voices became stronger. Listening, all they could hear was disappointment in the voices, as they lamented another failure and another dead end. Peering around the rocks where they were hidden they saw the two talking about the fact that all they found was a dead end and an old hunter’s camp, and what at first held promise led to another wasted day, and there were so few of the days left before the Season of Cold would be upon them and they would have to give up until the next cycle of seasons. The voices faded as the two headed down the trail and out of sight.
A Taste of History Past Page 13