It was growing late, and they had extended their day just to get there rather than stop earlier for the night like they usually did. Quickly, the girls got to work and put the one room rock house in order, while Tor searched for wood for the night, finding it a very long way away, and eventually, gathering up dried grass and thatching from other stone houses to burn because the wood supply would not last the night.
Still, it was more comfortable than sleeping out in the open and the girls cried themselves to sleep in their own bed, as humble as it was.
Tor checked outside from time to time and found the night silent. No wolves were howling in the distance. He didn't hear birds chirping quietly in the trees. No scurrying of rabbits or squirrels, or even night creatures like owls, shrews and foxes… Nothing. He was used to wild places where those sounds could even be heard in the dead of winter. What kind of place was this? A place with no wild living creatures? Certainly not a place where he would stay very long. What would he eat? The gods placed these animals to sustain him. Why wouldn't the gods let them live here?
Tor looked up at the sky overhead in the silence. The same stars that the elders had told him about many times in his youth. Seen clearly in the wintertime on cloudless, bone chilling nights when the skies would erupt with strange patterns of moving color that they could not understand, only marvel at this gift of the gods foretelling something, like the coming of spring before too long.
The same stars were here in this place. But this night, every so often, one of them seemed to fall and burn brightly before it burned out. He wondered if the stars would eventually all burn out this way. But in his short life and from what the elders told him, the primary stars that guided them on journeys without fail, never fell. According to the elders, "The gods had ordained it."
Tor knew nothing of these gods. He had never seen one. Even though, sometimes in the misty fog he had seen things that came and went, and he had strange dreams of strange creatures. But so did the other young people of his clan. Sometimes he would tell an elder about a dream and the elder always had some ready explanation to assuage his fear or curb his curiosity.
Returning to bed with the girls, they woke early and had a hot breakfast for him before he opened his eyes. Gael was ready to talk, her tears dried.
"Tor, I remember a couple of suns before you came and took us away with your people, I overheard my father talking to the others about how the crops were weak and it was too hard to gather firewood. There wouldn't be enough for the winter. I think they were already planning to leave."
"Do you have any idea where they might have gone, Gael?"
"I do. We may have been there before."
Rena piped in, "Yes. A long time ago, when we were much younger, we lived far from here, but still on the river for fish and water."
"Yes, our families are farmers and fishermen. We depend on the river for its good soil for growing and on the fish in the river for most of our food. We are too many to constantly hunt animals on the land like your people do, Tor."
"How far is it, Gael?"
"I don't know. But I think we can easily find it by going downriver. I remember there may have been another river that we crossed."
"I can cross rivers. Those I cannot swim, I build a raft to float across. So that's it. We will start this morning. We must get there before winter sets in. It is close now. Every day is colder."
And so they set out along the river, downriver, following a very pronounced trail out of the settlement on an unknown sun's journey to find the girls' families. Tor hoped it would not be long. The trail showed old signs of being heavily traveled, even as they walked some distance all morning.
Fortunately, they still carried meat and provisions, because along this trail there wasn't much left to hunt or gather. Neither were there fish up under the cold water banks of the river, mostly eroded away with no trees holding the banks close to the water. This was barren country they were walking through. But not entirely barren.
Up ahead, Tor heard the grunting and squealing of wild boar. The meat was rich with fat and a real delicacy for his clan. It may have been mating season, because, like the deer, he heard them shuffling back in some brush that was not as open as the forest he was used to. But he had to try. They were in need of meat.
Tor motioned to the girls to put down everything they were carrying and bring their spears to help him kill a boar. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but he had killed them before with the help of his father and others. He knew what to do. Sneak up on them while they were fighting in anger, and then kill one or both. Easier said than done.
Once in the brush, it was hard to see because it was so thick. Eventually, site was disappeared Tor came to a slight opening and saw the two beasts squaring off and getting ready to charge. He moved a branch aside. The branch was dry and brittle, breaking with a loud, "crack!" Both boars became alert of a third threat to their dominance. The one closest to him, turned angrily and charged.
Hampered by the brush, Tor fired off two arrows into the pig and then, sidestepped just enough to narrowly miss the razor-sharp tusk on the pig's left side as it passed. His arrows broke as the animal rushed through the brush and one fell out, broken in half.
The girls, behind him, screamed in terror and ran rather than try to pin the onrushing, screaming boar with their spears. The beast disappeared into the brush in an instant, along with its adversary, and Tor was out two arrows with nothing to eat to show for it. He picked up the broken arrow, hoping to fix it.
Disgusted with himself, Tor and the girls continued on that day and made camp that night without the benefit of trees overhead as a cold rain came in and soaked them to the bone while they tried to sleep. There was literally no wood, only grass, for fire, so they hadn't made one.
And so they trudged on, for a few suns, each day getting colder and their supplies of food growing ever more light in their bags.
They came to a large river flowing into the Po, the one both girls remembered. To their good fortune, high on the bank was an old raft lashed together by rawhide. It was solidly built and the wood was very dry. It would float well, if the rawhide, some of it gnawed by rodents, would hold.
They spent an entire day reinforcing the rawhide with what they had carried with them. And there was other wood that had drifted in from the rivers that allowed them to make a good fire that night. The girls continued by firelight to reinforce the rawhide with vines they found growing nearby.
It took all that all three of them could do to drag the bulky raft down to the water's edge. Fortunately, late in the fall like this, the river was not flooded and quite calm. The girls' walking stick spears serve the purpose of poles to push the raft across the river and that morning they made the crossing quickly. They dragged the raft high up on the bank. There, they found several others, possibly used by the girls' families two moons earlier.
Tor took the time to check the overhanging bank of that river and caught two fish so they would eat fresh fish that evening after another long hard day on the trail.
The next day, as it was getting late in the day, the girls became excited again. They sensed that they were coming to the end of their long ordeal and would be safe in the arms of their loved ones again. Up ahead in the far distance, they could see smoke. If they hurried, they could make it by nightfall.
The girls picked up the pace and Tor followed. The sun was getting low in the west. But up ahead, Tor saw something that slowed his pace and told him to tell the girls to stop theirs, too.
Tor could see huge horns sticking out of the tall grass by the river. He had never seen them before but he thought he knew what they were. He pulled the girls close and whispered. "I think those are auroch. I have heard the elders tell of them, but I have never seen one. Maybe, by those drawing on cave walls. Yes, that's it! We have nothing to offer your family when we come tonight. Let's stop and kill one of these beasts as an offering of goodwill to your people. I need that as much as I need your help in overcoming their anger."
The girls both agreed, timidly shaking at the thought of hunting another beast, and awaited instruction from Tor for how to approach the hunt.
Copyright © Ronald W. Hull
8/8/19
