Anarchistbanjo's World

Nick was strong and liked working with his hands building things out of stone. He got the idea of chipping flint much more easily than Tobal, which was good, because it was just about the only thing Nick found easy.

They spent most of their time trapping and hunting. Tobal wanted to be sure Nick would be able to get enough food when winter came. Nick was a total klutz in the woods and seemed to lack an intuitive sense about anything dealing with animals and hunting. But they kept at it until he was getting good results simply from repetition. Nick was a person that couldn’t be told anything. He had to learn by doing it himself and that took time.

It was a long hard month but at least the weather cooperated. Nick was a little slower than Melanie was. He required more work and didn’t get things quite as quickly. There were times when Tobal’s patience wore completely out and he felt ready to explode, especially after going over the same thing for the fourth or fifth time until Nick got it right. Nick required a lot of personal attention and hands on experience but once he got it, he really got it and he was ready to solo by the time of the next gathering.

Nick was the only one of five new initiates ready to solo and that made quite a stir within the clan. Tobal was proving himself to be quite a trainer following in the footsteps of Rafe and even doing a little better as long as his students were trained properly and he knew they were. The elders were inclined to agree and allowed Nick his solo after questioning him at length about what he had learned. The weather was getting colder and they were getting more careful.

Nikki, Kevin and Zee were each spending another month training their newbies even though they would be initiated tonight.

The elders called Melanie and Becca to the front of the circle for completing their solos. Then it was his turn. He had his 1st chevron sewn on his shoulder and it felt very good indeed.

“Hey Melanie! Wait up!” He hurried to catch up as they headed to get robes. “How was your solo?”

“Oh, I found the perfect place and it’s not that far from yours,” she said excitedly. “It’s east of yours on the other side of the stream that feeds into the lake. I’ve already started building my base camp. You need to stop by and see it some time.”

“I will,” he promised. “Is it easy to find?”

“Give me your map and I’ll mark it for you,” she held out her hand for his map.

“I don’t have it with me,” he said. “It’s in my pack.”

“Well, let’s get it then,” she said and they wandered over to his pack. He handed her his map and a pencil. She put a quick mark on the map and he looked. It was about ten miles east of his own camp and in some even rougher territory.

“I know this is going to be hard to find,” he told her. “You might have to show me how to get there the first time.”

She smiled quite pleased and replied. “Sure, I’ll take you out there anytime. I really want to train one newbie before winter sets in though. I’m leaving very soon.”

“Well, good luck and take care of yourself,” he gave her a hug and a kiss. “I miss you a lot more than I’m going to miss Nick. Say, I’m going to sanctuary after circle. If you want to we can go together.”

She laughed and waved as she turned around. “Let me think on it. I was going to leave before circle. I’ll get back to you.”

With that she wandered over to the food table and he went back to where the robes were being given out and changed into his. Angel was handing out the robes this month. Most clan members wore tunics during the day but were required to wear robes during ritual. Everyone was responsible for their own robe and was expected to turn it back in by noon of the next day.

“I see you’ve got four chevrons now.” He kidded her. “Your leg must be getting a lot better.”

She laughed, “I beat up one of your friends to get it.”

“Really,” he said suddenly interested. “Who’d you fight?”

“Oh, it was just Rafe,” she said. “But he really is getting better. I used to feel so sorry for him getting picked on all the time and then it was my turn and I thought “why not.” It was a tough fight though. He almost beat me.” She grinned, “Don’t tell him that though. That’s just between you and me ok?”

“Ok,” he said, but was already thinking about kidding Rafe and went looking for him.

Tobal roamed the gathering spot talking and mingling with his friends and other clansmen. Everyone seemed friendlier then last month. He spent time talking with Wayne and separately with Char.

Wayne was a burly salt of the earth type that was friendly and open. He and Char had been the first one’s to welcome Tobal into the clan and make him feel wanted. He always made a point to speak with them and see how they were doing. Wayne had one chevron because he had trained Char. They had stayed together over the past winter and summer but there were growing problems. They both needed to train newbies and didn’t want to loose each other as romantic partners. Char wanted to leave and train someone else over the winter.

“I think she’s tired of me and doesn’t love me any more,” Wayne complained to Tobal. “She wants another boyfriend. If she thinks she can do that, I’ll rip his head off.” Wayne stamped his foot on the ground in anger. “I don’t want to share her with anyone else.”

Tobal didn’t really know what to say since his own track record with girls wasn’t that good. He patted Wayne on the shoulder and tried calming him down.

“Hey, things might not be all that bad,” he said. “Tell you what. I’ll go over and talk with Char and see what’s up. Will that help?”

“Thanks Tobal, I’d really appreciate that.” “I owe you one,” he said.

Tobal went looking for Char about the same time Tara walked by with Nick. She was getting him pumped up about his coming solo. Tobal thought he knew what was on her mind but it wasn’t any of his business so he kept his mouth shut. He remembered going up to her one night after seeing her dancing naked at the drum circle after ritual. There was no doubt she was hot and liked to have men look at her. Under ordinary circumstances he might have been inclined to take up her offer to spend the winter. Nick was old enough to look out for himself.

“There you are,” he called out as he caught up with Char at the roasting pit where she was cooking a monstrous venison roast. Char was a stout round faced blond and the best cook in the entire camp. Her cooking was legendary and this roast was no exception. It looked and smelled wonderful. A roast that size took several people to handle and there were five or six others taking turns watching the roast, turning it as needed and coating it with spices and sauces. There were three fire pits with different things cooking in each one. The cooks kept an eye on all of them and helped each other as needed.

“Need any help?” He asked with a smile.

“Sure, turn this for a quarter turn and hold it if you would. It’s not balanced right and that spot never gets cooked enough.

Tobal did as directed and levered the roast around. She had been right. It was not balanced properly and wanted to fall back to its original position.

“There’s got to be a way to hold this in place,” he complained. “Do you have any rope around?”

He let the roast drop back to its original position and rummaged around for some lashing material and a long pole. He set the pole up with the lashing material so it worked like a very long handle that would spin the roast. It was not pretty but it did lock the roast in several new positions for more even cooking.

“I talked with Wayne.” He ventured cautiously.

Char sighed, “I’ve been out here for one year and I still haven’t trained anyone. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life living in a teepee. Wayne doesn’t understand that. He’s like a big child yet. He thinks this Daniel Boone stuff is fun.”

“Well, I don’t,” she said”. “ I’d like a regular bath with warm water and soap, nice clothes and both of us leading a normal life, even having kids some day. I love Wayne and want to spend the rest of my life with him, but I don’t love him enough to spend it out here. We both need to train six people and get to the next level of training.”

“ I understand,” Tobal told her. “I’m trying as hard as I can to train people. I want to be a citizen and don’t have any intention of living this way the rest of my life.” He added, “I’ve often wondered when the two of you were going to start training newbies. I knew you were in love but it seemed like it couldn’t just go forever without training people. Maybe you can talk to Wayne like you did to me and let him know how important it is for you to start training. Winter is a hard time to train anyone though.

“Yes, I suppose I’d better try talking with him again,” she sighed “but he is slow as an ox at times. He’s a Taurus you know.”

“So am I,” Tobal grinned at her. “Well I’d better be going. I think circle is about to start and I want to be there.”

He gave her a hug and a kiss and walked back toward the circle. If she was talking about kids he didn’t think Wayne really had much to worry about.

Later he kidded Rafe about being beaten by Angel but Rafe wasn’t in a good mood about it and changed the subject quickly.

“Hey you remember the dark haired girl that initiated you?” Rafe asked.

“Yeah, what about her?”

“Her name is Misty and she only needs one more fight.”

“I already knew that. I was talking to Angel about her last week. I thought maybe you had something new about her.”

“Not really but she is kind of fun to talk to. I wouldn’t want to fight her though.” Rafe joked. “Pretty soon babies will start challenging me and then I might win once in awhile.”

“You will get your turn Rafe. Don’t worry so much about it. Angel said you almost beat her.”

“She did?” Rafe eyed him hopefully. “What else did she say?”

“I wasn’t even supposed to say that,” Tobal shrugged. “You were just feeling so down I thought I had to say something. I know I’m really going to have trouble fighting when it’s my turn. Still I try not to think about it any more than I need to.”

“How long do you do guard duty for the initiations anyway?” He asked to change the subject.

“This is going to be my last month,” Rafe said. “Then I’ll get some other duty. Did you know we lost two Apprentices already this month?”

“What do you mean ‘Lost?” Tobal asked curiously. “I thought the medics looked out for all of us.”

“Oh, I don’t mean they got lost in the woods or died,” Rafe corrected. “I mean they got fed up and headed back to civilization before winter set in.”

“People can leave?” Tobal asked in surprise.

“Sure,” this is a voluntary program and you can leave anytime you want. There is nothing keeping you here except two hundred miles of wilderness. Remember New Seattle is only a hundred and fifty miles straight south of here. You can make that in three or four days pretty easy.”

“I had forgotten all about that.” Tobal said. “Do people take time off and go to the city once in awhile for fun?”

“It’s not allowed,” Rafe said. “If you get out of range of the air sleds and they can’t monitor your med-alert bracelet you are considered to have quit the program and need to start all over from scratch. Each year someone finds that out the hard way. Most of the times a medic will stop you and give you a warning though.”

Changing the subject Tobal asked, “How’s Dirk doing anyway? I feel real bad about what happened last month at Melanie’s initiation. I should have warned her or something.”

“No, people aren’t supposed to know what’s going to happen. Dirk is doing fine and his wound is healing fine. That whole thing was just bad luck, that’s all. Dirk’s a good sport and taking it pretty well even though some of the kids are razzing him.”