Kal had to admit that having Jura this close to him made it almost impossible to think of anything else other than mating. It was the nature of the male, at least from what he had gathered in his short life, to be physical with a female whenever she’d allow it. And even though many males felt that they controlled such encounters, it really wasn’t true. Of course if the encounter was forced, that would be different. But in a normal relationship, since the female received the male, it was her decision if and when it would happen. And, of course, there had to be included in this, the fact their fertile cycle led to the bleeding at which time mating was not allowed. Although here and now, while they were under the large cover they would be out of sight of any here, but it would be obvious to any who looked their way what was happening. Then they faced the problem of how to handle cleaning up afterwards. So he knew from a practical point of view he would have to leave it at the thinking part, and leave the physical part out. Even though he had fun teasing her, and at the same time he had to admit that she returned it in like. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly he said. “Yeah I know that we’d enjoy it, but it’s just something that we’d probably regret later. I mean I know that we’d both enjoy the closeness and the heat, but there’s no place to take care of what we’d need to afterwards, and there’s always that particular odor that tells anybody who’s close by what one was doing.” Shaking his head he continued, “Although … Although with you this close …” He hugged her tighter which she returned and the clung to each other for a while listening to the howling winds, the whipping of the small portable shelter flap where the supplies were kept, and the crackling of the blazing fire. Soon they would retire to their own cold portable shelter.
* * *
It was two days later when the storm finally blew itself out. When they all emerged from the portable shelters it was to a transformed white world. Yes there had been a little snow around before this, but just enough to say that it had snowed. Now it appeared to be closer to the middle of the Season of Cold, although it truly was only beginning. Trehe turned to all of them as they stood there and stated, “If this amount fell from this first major storm, then this place will get buried pretty deep in this stuff.” Turning to his group he continued as he pointed to four of them saying, “As you know there’s a village close, a couple of days away from here. I need you to go and pick up additional supplies. Plus we’ll need to get something that will allow us to build some better lean-tos. I can see that these portable shelters are just not going to work by themselves. So go and there’s an account set up there so place these items on that account. The ones that we work for will be sure that what we get is paid for. Now go and be back as quick as you can. Yes I know that knocks us down to just four of us here, but I think if we do this now that we will beat any retaliation that Sabohl will be sending. And we all know that somewhere and somehow he will not take this lying down.”
As the four left he turned to Kal and Jura and asked, “What were your plans for this place once you discovered it?”
Looking at each other and then back at him Kal said. “I, we really never thought that far ahead. I mean while I have enjoyed history and excelled in it really, that was in the learned centers – I really have no practical experience in this at all.”
Laughing, even though there was no humor in the laugh Trehe said, “You really didn’t consider what this would mean to our people? That finding this place would start the change of how we view our past and could change what had been conjectured about that time?”
“Well, yes, actually that part did come to mind. But once we found this place,” he paused trying to find the words, “hmmm, what I mean is that we really never knew if we could find it. Yes we had this rough map, but it had never been made with the idea or the way maps are made today with south being on top and north being on the bottom. So as large, as we learned, an area as these northern foothills are we could have spent a lifetime looking and never find the proper orientation, let alone the proper place, in these foothills to match the map. We were lucky that it only took a season, but even still we had some hints that helped. But we hadn’t really thought much beyond just finding it.”
“I guess that makes sense. Well now that you have found it, now comes the problem of keeping it. Because soon we will be receiving guests, guests from Sabohl – he won’t give up this easily. Especially since this is a very, very important abandoned site, critical really. And I can guarantee that if he fails in his next move that this won’t end it either. The Season of Cold is long and we are in a very remote area. Even with the advances that have been made, since this place was active, people are lost to be never found out here. So if for some reason you were to disappear and your bodies never located it would be just be a case of someone else falling victim to the outback. While I cannot begin to know what is happening back where Sabohl lives and who he has contacted, I know that he has something in the works and that will bode bad for us. It will mean that there will be little or no chance, other than maybe mapping this place, to work or research it. Instead, once we have the tools, we’ll have to do as your ancestors did and make this into a fortress once again. So we have much work ahead of us.”
Shaking his head Kal said, “I really didn’t expect any of this to happen. I mean when I got this information,” thinking as he was passing on this he thought. So how much do I dare tell them? I know that they are risking their lives to be here and to help. But what is their agenda, why have they gotten involved? And I really haven’t even begun to know who they represent. This still could be an elaborate ruse by Sabohl and we are the ones that it’s being played against. “There was a great possibility that what I had wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on. It could have been something that was added to my family long after this place had been abandoned, and since my family claims to be from this clan, the clan of K’jor, then there was always a possibility that someone in my line decided to create a map to give credence to the family history. So, in the end, it easily could have been a chase after those twirling dust spirals that we all like to chase when we are young. It was another reason why neither of us had thought beyond just finding this place.”
Throughout this conversation Jura remained quiet, but what Kal was saying wasn’t quite the truth. Later she would confront him as to why the deception, but for now, because she didn’t understand, she remained silent. Just what is he doing? Doesn’t he trust these people? Well, I guess I can understand that. This adventure has turned out to be so much more complicated than either of us thought it would be. With the blessings of his family of course, we went out looking for his, well ours, since I’m now part of his family also, past. And while, yes, he’s supposedly from an important clan, and again supposedly a direct descendant of K’jor, the first leader to unite the tribes and clans, it was still kind of a private thing. Sighing quietly as she continued to watch and listen to the exchange her thoughts continued. But here we are just after one of the storms in the north inside the abandoned clan home and who’d have thought that, not me. At first I had held out little hope of finding this place, and then when we did that that would be it. Great! We did it! But instead here we are in the middle of something that’s so much bigger than the two of us and this truly beyond our understanding.
She found that she had been staring out at nothing and had actually quit listening and was caught off guard when she heard her name. “Yes?” She turned towards the one who had mentioned her name and it was Kal who signaled her to come away with him to a different part of the site. She followed as he headed back towards the rock face that they were using as a windbreak and sheltered area during the storm. She waited until they had reached the area where they were staying and asked, “So why the misdirection? The ones who are here are helping us, and as far as I know, they don’t have to.”
“Now I can’t say for sure if that’s true or not. I just don’t know enough about them to really know who they are and what organization they’re a part of. Th
ey’ve been pretty secretive on that aspect. So I don’t know anything really, and because of this I still don’t trust them. They could be laughing behind our backs with the secret knowledge that they actually work for Sabohl, and all of this is to get us into their confidence and when we fully trust them we then become their victims. This has gotten so much more complicated than I ever expected. Yeah, I knew that this site could be important, but I didn’t expect all the trouble finding this place has caused and from what I can see, will continue to cause. In a sense, even though we are the discoverers here, we are the ones on the outside. And as we continue, it just seems that things are becoming as clear as mud and we know less and less. I’m almost sorry that we started all of this and sometimes wish we could just go back to before this started, before we made a decision to pursue this, change our minds and let someone in one of the future generations do the discovering. But we can’t change any of this and so here we are. And because of this I’m not going to reveal any more than I have too.”
She paused thinking about what he had just said and could see the logic in it. Truthfully what did they really know, and like he said, the two of them were the ones on the outside. From her observations of this team that was helping them, and especially Trehe, it appeared to be an old game – one that they had played too many times. Who’d have thought that all of this was going on all of the time and ones like the two of them being completely unaware? And if it was like this for the learned, how was it for others vying for power? She had to admit that this was a very scary thought. That there was always someone in the background trying to get on top and stay there, and others just as determined to topple them. Taking a deep cleansing breath she let it out slowly, “Yeah, I guess now that my eyes are being opened it would be nice to just go back to when I was ignorant of all of this. But, as you’ve said, we can’t undo any of this and we are very stuck – and unfortunately, as you just pointed out, at the mercy of Trehe and his group. In a way I wish I hadn’t tipped my hand back there and shown them my skill with the staff. If they are working for Sabohl then we would have a chance to get away because of their ignorance.”
“True, in a way this is like one of those really bad books or bad dreams where you know what’s coming but can do nothing to stop it. And what has been aptly pointed out is our isolation, and boy are we isolated.” Kal began to pace just a little, realized that was what he was doing, and stopped. Shaking his head he said, “Don’t want to it to appear that we may be doubting them.” He was silent, shrugged, saying, “I’m out of ideas of how to get us out of this mess, and I have to apologize to you for putting you in the middle of this.”
Quietly Jura replied, “Not your fault. I walked into this with my eyes open. I just hope that Trehe and his are here to really help. And yes, we stupidly walked into this and have completely isolated ourselves – not a good thing, that’s for sure.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
DEFENSE
It took a 9-day for the ones who had gone for the supplies to return. In that time another storm had blown through and for now it was clear and very cold. So other than when they went down to the tree line to gather firewood and look to building up the fortifications, they all stayed close to the fires. Nothing throughout this time had led either Kal or Jura to completely trust the group that they were staying with at this time. While they were not prisoners by any means, with the weather as it was, they were going nowhere. So other than trips to take care of nature they remained together. But at the same time were attempting to make it appear that they had no suspicions or fears. It was a difficult road to walk. For all they knew, they had enemies within, and enemies without. Still both had to admit that at this point, other than the suspicions that they harbored, Trehe and his seemed only to want to help protect this important site and the two of them.
Now with the full crew back, and with the tools that the ones brought with them, they began to build a gate across the open path into the ancient clan home. To put up a similar defense that the ones who had lived here so long ago had done, successfully defending it until it had finally been abandoned. While weapons had improved over time, as is usually the case, this location still had the advantage that to enter and attack required the attackers to go through a bottle neck with the defenders being on higher ground, leaving the advantage to the defenders. Still with such a small group and their constant need for firewood, they had to leave the protection and work the trees and haul the dead wood up to where it would be available. At this time it was the weak point in their defense. So once they had finished their rough gate all of them proceeded to drag as much of the wood and scrap up to their camp within the compound.
“You know,” Trehe said, “that moving this wood warms you twice.”
“Twice?” How could that be?” Jura asked.
Smiling he replied, “It’s quite simple really. As we work to move this stuff up to our camp, the exercise warms us, so that’s the first time. Then we burn it and feel the heat and it keeps us warm, and that’s the second time. So it warms us twice.”
“Okay smarty, I guess that’s true. I must admit that I hadn’t thought about it that way, but you’re right.” She stopped and rested a moment as the piece of dead wood she was dragging up was heavier than she thought and she needed a break to get her strength back. Looking around she could see most of the ones there was doing the very same thing – moving the large limbs, stopping, catching their breath, which was coming out in clouds of steam, and then continuing the trek up the hill. Eventually she was ready once again and began dragging her piece up into the area where they were stockpiling the wood. She stopped suddenly as an idea crossed her mind. Grabbing Trehe she said, “Look I just realized that we may be making a mistake.”
“Mistake? How so? Do you mean moving wood up by the camp?”
“No, no, we need to do that. But we are putting all the wood in one pile. I think we need to put it into a number of piles because it is the one thing we have no way of replacing, if those others that you suspect are coming, find a way to set it on fire. Then we would have to abandon our defense because it would be too cold for us to be able to hold it.”
“You know you’re absolutely right, and I didn’t even consider it. Hey, I’m the one with the experience here, and I missed that one completely. Okay we’ll do that immediately.”
That night they rested since it had been a full day of hauling the wood up to their camp, and both Jura and Kal were finding muscles that they didn’t know that they had. The skies were unbelievably clear and the stars were so bright that it seemed one could reach up and touch them. As they stared up at the night sky it suddenly lit up with a bright fire as a fireball streaked across the sky briefly lighting the area. It had begun it’s streaking above the Sacred Mountains in the north and appeared to be traveling completely across the visible sky until it disappeared in the distance slowly growing dim as it traveled away from them. “Wow! That was spectacular!” Jura exclaimed. “I know that I’ve seen a few of these things back on the farm but nothing quite as bright or as large as that one. I always wondered what those things were, but I probably will really never know.”
“Know what you mean. Although from the village and the light that comes from it you never see many of them. It’s only after you’ve gotten away from those lights that one can see more of them. And I always liked the lightshow anyway, didn’t think anything about them. I guess I can see how our distant ancestors would have considered them something from the gods.” Both of them moved closer together because of the bitter cold. With the clear skies it appeared that any of the heat, not that there had been much, had been sucked away from the earth leaving only the cold. This made the warming fire so much more inviting as well as each other.
* * *
For the next several days it remained clear and cold. While it was necessary to continue to work on their defense, one couldn’t remain too long from the heat of the fires. Kal thought, what a miserable place to have to spend the Season of Co
ld. The area was exposed to the winds coming from above off the higher peaks in the northern foothills. He began to understand why his ancestors had finally abandoned this place. With the exposure they had on this small plateau, once the need for defense was ending, there were many other locations that would provide a better place to live. Yet, he had to agree that it was a place that would have been hard to conquer. Making him again wonder how it had first been done. Looking at his hands he could see blisters forming. While no stranger to hard work, the life as a baker created other calluses and these did not come into play with the cutting and moving of timber as they worked to create a new stronger gate to block the single way into and out of this area.
A Taste of History Past Page 18