Slavic Dugout Canoe Courtesy Wikiwand.com

The boat was long and heavy, so Tsen was a welcome help when it came to hauling it to the water. Once in the water, it did not leak even though the wood was very dry and cracked in places. Its length made the craft rather difficult to maneuver and surely was made for two people. Still, by paddling hard and from both sides, Tor found it more stable than the roundabouts of the little people and easier to steer.

Tor floated down the river a bit, and then turned and paddled back. There was a knob carved in the front of the boat where he could tie the boat down for the night on a tree so that it wouldn't wash away if the water came up while he was sleeping. Right away, he liked the idea of floating rather than walking so hard or riding all day until his butt was sore.

Tor thought he would try the boat out to see if it would work out for his journey. So he launched with all of his gear and with Shin riding along. Upon leaving the bank, Tsen, still free of any load from the night before while grazing, whinnied his concern seeing his master leaving him on the water, and then, instinctively, followed the trail along the bank, keeping his companions in sight.

Getting the knack of maneuvering the rather ungainly craft, and getting into rapids every once in a while, Tor soon removed his furs to enjoy the sun on his shoulders and the breeze that helped him from getting too warm while keeping the mosquitoes and deer flies away. On the bank, whether they were moving slowly in listless water or racing down a rapid, Tsen was keeping up, scaring wild game in his path as he exuberantly sometimes galloped and other times just loped along. Sometimes stopping to graze for a moment.

When the sun was high, Tor steered to the bank to eat a little bit and allow Tsen to rest and graze, while Shin would explore the territory and perhaps come back with a prize catch for his master. Tor would rest for a while under the shade of a tree. The hot sun was merciless and it was always a while getting to sleep this time of the year with the air saturated with mosquitoes.

Going was wonderful until the late afternoon when a storm came up rapidly and he had to turn the boat to the shore sooner than he would've liked so that he could throw up a temporary shelter while the storm raged all around and he couldn't even get a fire going, huddled up against a large tree with Shin, smelling of wet dog helping to keep him warm.

It rained all night and it wasn't until five days later that it was dry enough for him to get a fire started again and get all of his belongings stretched out in the sun to dry. But the rain was good for everything growing and he knew it. It was just that sometimes the gods made things miserable one day and wonderful the next.

Pulled up on the bank, the boat was half filled with water. With Tsen's help, Tor tipped it over and poured the water out so that it could dry with everything else. All the rain had caused the river to rise up over its banks and he had to retreat from the bank after that first night to a better shelter that he built. The water was now raging and muddy. He would wait until it calmed down before moving on.

But that day came, bright and sunny and although the river was still fast-moving and treacherous, Tor made very good time and it took quite a while after he would pull up to a spot to rest before Tsen would catch up, breathing heavily and in need of a drink of water, muddy or not.

Even with the delay during the big rain, Tor arrived back at the three tributaries that became the Rine sooner than he had expected. That tributary had not seen so much rain and was clear, mixing turbulently with the source water of the tributary he had been on. This stream was slow moving at this point, so Tor started paddling and found that although the exertion was tiring, he moved along quite nicely compared with the bank. It was good to see Tsen moving along the trail and keeping up with him easily.

But after some distance, the terrain steepened, and Tor found himself struggling against the swifter current. He had to pull to the side and pull the boat out of the water once again so that he could continue, just the three of them on foot, to explore this tributary which showed increasing signs of human tracks. But the day was over, so he made camp for the night.

The next morning, they were on their way and as they moved further upriver the stream became a rushing one over rocks, making it difficult to hear anything but the merry sound of the stream. But there was a smell of smoke in the air. Once again, Tor tied his companions and proceeded carefully to find out if this clan was as open and trusting as the others had been. He did not want to step into a trap.

Finally, off the trail and sneaking through the bushes, he came upon a group of young women washing clothes in a natural pool in the stream. They were laughing and giggling as they worked. There were three of them. Two of them were rather ordinary with signs that they had had children. Scraggly hair and drooping breasts, a bit heavy in the buttocks. But the other one, the white blonde one with the blue eyes and tanned body caught his eye and his ear with her calm demeanor and quick laughter.

Once again, Tor did not know what they were saying. So he was at a disadvantage approaching them. But he wanted to, so he sneaked back to where he had tied Tsen and Shin and brought them along with a short rope on Shin to keep him from running ahead and scaring the women.

As he came around the bend and the women saw him, they seemed alarmed at first, but, once again, Tor raised his hand in the sign of peace and their fear turned to curiosity about the great beast that he had with him. Of course, Shin wagged his tail in appreciation and licked the faces of any who would want to rub him behind the ears.

The blonde woman proved to be more attractive close-up and Tor could not contain himself with her browned breasts with pink tips and found himself stirring beneath his loincloth. It was as if she felt It, too. He pointed to himself, repeating, "Tor."

The white blonde, sky blue-eyed beauty who seemed to be in charge, placed her hand between her breasts and said, "Shea." She pointed to each of the other women, "Mona and Toma."

Gesturing, Tor asked, "How many in your clan?"

Using her fingers, Shea held them up to describe what Tor surmised was "35."

Tor helped them get their dried skins off the rocks and placed them on Tsen's strong back. And then, he followed the women for some distance until they came to the entrance of a canyon that cut deeply into a hillside ahead. From behind he could only admire the beauty and gait of Shea leading the way. The other women waddled while she moved like a deer. It was all he could do to keep from shooting her with an arrow to keep her forever.

As soon as they entered the canyon there were campfires and dwellings along the craggy sides of the canyon where numerous caves and overhangs had naturally been created by the river cutting through the mountain, making places for the people to live above the river and its occasional floods. It was a perfect place to defend because from both sides of the stream that one could jump rocks across archers could rain arrows down on anyone approaching the camp. These were rugged people, because flat ground was rare except further downriver where he saw signs of their woodcutting and other human gathering activity he assumed the girls were doing.

Once again, the inhabitants of the camp were alerted and came out to stare down at the girls coming back leading Tor and his strange goat and loyal dog. But Shea called out to them and defused any hostility that any of the men may have had seeing this strong looking man and his strange creature coming into camp.

And once again, it was the children who came forth in curiosity to discover the muscled warm body of this great goat that Tor padded affectionately calling him, “Tsen and horse." Soon, all of the children had picked up his, difficult to pronounce, name, and were petting him while calling him, Tsen, too.

One man stood out in the crowd of people coming close in. Reminded Tor of his father by his presence among the others, tall and strong, with a keen eye and carrying the implements of a hunter, like him. Shea pointed him out to Tor and waved him in close. The man’s eyes lit up seeing her beckoning.

She must be his daughter, Tor thought. For her to show such great affection. His wife? But he sensed a mutual respect when the man, introduced to him as "Munk" by Shea, warmly took him by the arm and brought him into a natural amphitheater where they were preparing the evening food and drink.

After much gesturing, the canyon clan began to understand Tor's mission and his journey. Especially, when he related how his people were killed when he came back from the unsuccessful raid south over the high mountains to bring back new blood for his people.

Munk gestured. "We know of these people. We were living upriver of the main tributary that we call, 'Main,' when they came some seasonal cycles ago. We have knowledge that they live downriver and use boats to attack other clans like they did ours. Luckily, one of our hunting youth saw them coming and we all scattered and hid far from our camp.

"But they still raided the camp taking all of our staples for the coming winter, all of our implements that they didn't destroy and then, set fire to many of our huts. Searching back into the forest, they found three of our children and two of our elders. They killed the elders and took the children, leaving us with virtually nothing to face the coming winter. We lost people that winter for lack of food and shelter. We moved here because we knew this place could be defended more easily. Next time we will fight!" He gestured and said with great conviction.

The assembly cheered at that pronouncement. They had been preparing to get revenge all along.

A drink of fermented cherries lulled Tor's senses as stories were gestured by firelight into the night. Munk saw the affectionate glances between his daughter and the visitor who was getting tired from his journey and all of the good food offered in celebration. He led them to a private place some distance from where the others were sleeping and, patting Tor on the back, cordially offered his daughter as Tor's sleeping companion on that warm, late summer night.

When the torchlight reflected off of Shea's face, Tor could see her smile and bright eyes as she anticipated getting to know him much better as sleeping skins were spread on the rock to make it softer for their bed.

Copyright 2021 © Ronald W. Hull

5/25/21