Ember of a New World (14 page)

Carefully, Ember placed a small and particularly dry wooden stick against another piece of wood with some tinder, made from small twigs and leaves. She placed her hands on each side of the stick and rubbed them together forcing downwards pressure. This had the same effect as her lost fire bow, but it would take much longer to produce fire. After a short time, sore palms, and several hurt fingers, Ember had a small fire smoldering. She dropped to her belly and cupped her hands around the tinder blowing as gently as a morning wind. Within a few moments, a flame rose from the thick white smoke. She added larger pieces of kindling and slowly created a fire. As the fire became hot and burned brightly, Ember roasted the cleaned fish ove
r the flame with a long stick.

Keeping a gutted fish on a stick was not easy. The tail would be cut off and a slit made from the belly through the tail muscle and out of the hole where the tail had been. The stick was inserted through the mouth and made to exit the hole where the tail had been. A second stick, poking into the opened belly, would be needed to turn and control the fish as it crackled over the fire. The mussels were simply placed beside the fire where they could steam from the inside. Their little shells would slowly open telling Ember
that they were done.

Ember slid a fish, as hot as it was, but being very hungry, off of its cooking stick and started eating it. Ember carefully licked burned fingers as she tasted the wonderful fish meat. She carefully ate each fish heart, her favorite part, as well as other assorted fish organs. Her now oily fingers were a welcomed thing indeed. Ember
lay
back on the pebbly sand and nibbled the inside of each mussel, chewing the suc
culent sweet meat.

With her hunger abated, Ember now took note of her long doe skin shirt. It covered her as she walked, but it lacked much protection at the bottom. Sitting on the sandy shore had quickly reminded Ember why her people, and all other peoples she knew of, used reed mats or hides for sitting. Flax cloth was very comfortable but too valuable for sitting on. Worse, any person she might meet would see her
in a compromised position
if she so much as moved! The wind reminded her of these facts repeatedly.

Standing in place and waving with a smile is hardly the right way to interact with people
, she thought with a smirk.

Nudity, when required, was not a major concern of her people but covering oneself was still more comfortable and polite. Additionally, other tribes who lived farther from the rivers were more modest. Besides, being a woman
,
she would need to change her breechcloth or even remove it entirely if she should have her pains, which came every three to four ten-days. In the village, she would use long grasses and several changes of breechcloths every day of that painful business, but out here
,
she would be forced to wait it out
when it
came. Ember needed a skirt. With these issues in mind, she walked along the river bank looking for the proper materials to construct a simple skirt. Her tool and clothing needs would not be satisfied with leather or rawhide as she hadn't any way to kill anything large enough and tanning took as much as a season!

Skins of animals could be obtained and made into simple useful leathers, but this took ti
me. Skins could be simply scrap
ed clean of fat,
meat, and outer skin. The process was time consuming, though quicker than tanning, and required a rack to stretch the leather. Ember considered possibly creating a fish-skin drying rack in a few days, if needed. Fish skin was easy to work with and the one an
imal she knew she could catch.

Not far from her “camp” grew tall reeds, a great resource and incredibly useful building material. Reeds, especially the wide firm ones she had seen by the bank, were strong and flexible. They could be worked into clothing, baskets, and shelters. Ember walked to the bank and carefully selected some choice reeds. She chose an armload of the longest and strongest segments and placed them into a pool of water by the river bank. They would soak up water and become more flexible over the course of the day. Ember felt good taking back some control over her situation. She was starting to feel a slight
tingle of freedom in her body.

With her building materials on the way and food supplies replenished, Ember turned her attention towards herself. The blue on Ember's skin was nearly faded away, and more coloring would be needed. Colored skin tended to repel insects, though this was the effect of the colorant used and not the color
itself
. Painted skin was also a custom of her people, and she would feel better with her second skins of reed and paint.

Ember would remedy her clothing issues soon enough, but she could start making the remedy for the coloring first. Ember carefully searched the River's edge until she found some quality smooth and pure clay. Scooping a good handful, she returned to her “camp” and placed the clay on a flat rock. Pulling the slab of cool light colored clay apart she removed a bit of the purest clay, with a rich uniform color. As she pulled the piece of clay out from the slab, little bubbles of air and
water squished from the clay.

Before she could finish
,
she found herself poking a finger in the clay and making a funny noise.

Pokee pokee...
After a moment of this, she considered how silly she was being and resumed her work. The clay would become the base of
new
body paint. Before she could finish, she would need to obtain oil and bone char. The clay would need time to dry a little, as well. Ember sat the
clay
on a smooth rock
in the direct sun a few
moments’ walk
from her fire to dry. As the clay dried, Ember returned to her would-be camp to check on
her two remaining cooked fish.

The fish were still intact when she returned to them. It was important to guard your food against birds and small animals. The day was still early, and Ember was still quite tired from the night before. She decided to leave the clay to dry a little longer, it was quite wet, and take a short nap while the reeds soaked. Ember relaxed on the shore for a while, periodically taking a drink at the river and eating of her cooked fish. What a fine day this was. The sun slowly warmed her skin and Ember found herself almost feeling relaxed. Ember broke into a long and cheerful song. As she sung, she listened to her voice as it disappeared into the woods to joi
n the birds and other animals.

As evening rolled in, Ember sat beside her fire pit preparing to fix her skirt. The reeds had soaked most of the day and were now quite flexible. Over the fire, she heated the middle portions of the soaked reeds using a long stick to hold them over the flame. After a short time, she folded the reeds in half, length-wise and cooled them in the river water. The reeds were now folded in two. Ember placed these reeds on the ground side by side in a row roughly two arm lengths long and one
arm’s length
tall; a sort of “panel”. She carefully wove several wet reeds through the panel of reeds at a perpendicular angle as one would weave a reed basket. This connected all of the reeds allowing them to ha
ng off of the main reed.

The process of weaving a skirt took a long time, but Ember had nothing much to do that evening. When she was finished, she had a simple reed skirt with ten reeds forming a belt across the top and many long reeds hanging to knee level. Ember left the new skirt upon the sand to dry. Her leather be
lt would further bolster the wea
kly constructed skirt. She would be more comfortable tomorrow with her new clothing, though she longed f
or
a
proper
leather skirt.

As the evening turned into night, Ember lay on the sandy beach by her now larger fire and fe
l
l asleep. It had been a good day, and she still had a fish for
tomorrow’s
breakfast. The clay would probably be ready by the morning, and perhaps tonight she could get some needed rest. The moon was out and the sk
y was beautifully clad in stars
. There were clouds, but they were far to the south west. Ember relaxed and let
herself
drift into a deep sleep.

Ember awoke to the sound of chewing and sniffing. She opened her eyes to a dark sky with a moon blocked by clouds. She started to wonder if the sound was a dream when she heard it again, this time from her other side. She rolled onto her back and quickly turned her head to look, too frightened to sit up. Not one length of a man from her stood a large wolf! The wolf was very large with gray fur and bright yellow eyes, like the moon
, which turned to regard Ember.

Staring a wolf in the face close enough to smell its breath took Ember's away. She was frozen
,
unable to even blink. The wolf lifted its lips showing its fierce sharp teeth and issued a low growl. Ember was so frightened that tears rolled down her face. The moment of fight or flight came upon Ember, and she chose the former. Kicking her feet at the dirt before the wolf, she blasted enough sand into the air to disturb the beast. With a snarl, the wolf backed off a short distance and turned lowering its head and baring its fangs. Ember quickly stood on shaky legs and looked around for a stone. Quickly picking up a heavy one
,
she hurled the missile at the wolf. The stone struck the hind quarters of the wolf caus
ing it to whimper and run off.

How had this happened? Ember's brain slowly began to take in what was going on. She had been so deeply asleep that she had let her guard down. Ember looked to her precious fire and saw, to her horror, that it was out! Fire would have thwarted the beasts, but in the dark of night with only her dagger, she was extremely vulnerable. As if an answer to her thoughts she heard wolves in the distance. This was a worsening situation, and Ember needed to react fast if she was to live. Suddenly, Ember realiz
ed why rabbits are so fearful.

The wolf stood its ground, seemingly as shocked to discover Ember as she was to discover it.
Ember turned and ran from the wolf towards the river. She would attempt to seek refuge in the waters where a wolf might not go. Looking over her shoulder she saw the wolf right on her heels! Ember
dashed
into the water splashing in all directions, moving up to waist deep very quickly. She fought to move farther into the river with the splash of the wolf right behind her! As she felt the current tug against her waist, the sound of the wolf diminished. Ember turned in time to see the beast leaving the water. It had only just placed its paws in the water, not wishing to go deeper than a finger's length. Ember stood shaking in the cool water with a crisp breeze blow
ing
, to make things worse. The season was warm, and she knew she could stand the water temperature for quite a while, but could she stand being in the water for the rest of the night? Even when people could swim in the Great River, it was still quite chilly. As if to punctuate that thought, three more wolves came from the forest edge, raising the total wolves to four.

This must be a pack
, she thought.

Ember's options seemed a little bleak, but she had survived the river and was not about to be killed by some random wolves. People lived in villages for a reason, but a lone human was really outclassed by most animals and Ember would have to use her superior brain to defeat these skilled hunters. As the wolves slowly came from the forest to stalk by
water’s
edge, Ember made up her mind. She would try and walk down the river far enough away to keep safe and hope the wolves would lose interest. As she walked, slowly due to the strength of the slow but powerful river, the wolves continued to follow her. For a long time Ember walked and the wolves followed.

“Shoo! Go away! Stupid wolves!” The wolves appeared quite whiling to wait her out; not good at all. A new thought occurred to her: what made her think the morning would somehow banish the wolves? Just how long would they linger? Not far down the river Ember decided on a new and more proactive strategy. She was at a standoff distance, and the wolves could not advance without braving a river, something she was sure they would not do. Ember might eventually become too tired and become their meal or be swept away, but in the mean time they would pay and pay dearly. Ember strode closer to shore where the water was shallow and stuck her arms underwater feeling around for stones. The wolves approached her cautiously. When Ember's arms emerged from the
water, they bore a new arsenal of ranged weapons.

The Gods had given the wolves speed and a powerful bite, but they gave Ember long arms, a good aim, and the understanding to use her environment as a tool. As she lifted the first missile, the wolf she had hit before turned and stalked away with its head down low. Ember hurled a rock at the same wolf hoping it would break before the rest and cause a total rout. The stone missed its target, but the wolf did scurry farther away. The others looked worried, dipping heads and pacing about, but
they were
not
yet
broken. Ember continued to hurl stones
at each of the wolves in turn.

As the stone rain fell on the wolves they lost interest quickly, several taking nasty hits to their heads. The warm seasons provided lots of animals to eat and the need to hunt a single person was not worth being battered so much. Regardless, they remained close by in the edge of the woods in the event Ember was foolish enough to come ashore. Seeing their persistence Ember lost heart quickly. As their distance increased, her aim decreased. As if noting this, the wolves moved even farther from the water. She couldn't hurl a
stone far enough to hit them.