Calm days now mixing trades. Roasting ore and getting a bit more. Adding small amounts to the fields… and burning down trees and a section of fence!
“That was careless!” said Calle.
He pulled away the rest of the fences on both sides. The fire spirit had leapt to find its pleasure. It had no where to go now. Two trees were lost. Troubled at the lost Calle consoled himself with turning their ash into the new fields.
Stocks of reserve dried elk Calle counted his stacks at one hundred left. That’s still a month of half or more of food. It is however a good time to keep an eye out for big game.
From the lonely mountain outcrop on the south west of lake an elk cow was seen to the east. Contacted wasn’t established. It was good to see the game was around.
Day 7 of the 7th week before midsummer
Another sighting of traders, passing the forests north of the lake passing close to the cabin. Calle gathers up the trade furs and heads out.
With signs of peace are made with open hands.
Calle mutters through, “Trade furs, show goods, two blankets.”
The traders agreed. One put down his cloak as a trade blanket. Calle mirrored with his own woven nettle cloak.
Calle became surprised that there various goods didn’t interest him. There was a mail cowl though he could trust to the spectacle helm, damaged as it is. A crossbow was offered though with no experience in it Calle doubt it being productive in hunting and a liability in combat. Fine broad head arrows were offered to which Calle pulled from his quiver their equals he had crafted. As always there was a huge mail harberk for the torso that is well beyond the furs Calle had to trade.
Puttering for a few hours Calle felt the desire to be among people. Trade goods were minimal with a few bone tipped arrows, light crafts and a decently made gaming set. He chose to go to the north east Owl villages.
Having explored the lands a few times he had first reached them by boat. This time he hoped to use his increasing knowledge to travel by land. Cold as it was Calle crossed at a ford. Now on their side of the water it was growing dark as he neared the village. Ahead a shape in the distance was moving that had to be very large… and it had wide antlers! A bull elk! A stag!
Calle’s heart filled with joy. It was a challenge so needed after the month of ash turning. Instead of snorts of fine ash dust in his nose he inhaled the scent of the wilds.
Shifting to where he last saw it he began thinking like the elk. A few minutes later he had the tracks. A few minutes more they were within bow shot amid the large pools of the mire. A self made fine broadhead arrows lashed out from his best trade bow. It caught a leg and a bleeding wound.
Closing at run Calle was ready for it collapse when it started to run off. Lots of blood was pooling on the mire. Compared to the great beast it was only a weakening. He closed again and it moved off. The next time he started shooting. A broadhead over its back, one under its legs and other arrows until one more connects. As the bull elk sways off Calle took from his tinder pouch a few of the sticks setting three of them down in a supporting triangle. This to be a marker from where to hunt for the missed arrows.
Blood pools and its slow speed left the elk easy to track now. It finally fell over on one side with a soft baying moan. Approaching careful, for it was a great beast, Calle skulled it to dispatch it while he slept. Quickly now came the work. With his replacement small knife he made a shallow careful cut from chest plate to circle the butt. The digestive track as a whole be spilled out and was pushed across the mire. None of the meat would be spoiled and the cooling began. His hunting knife joined in for the removal of the hide.
Calle blew heather petals toward the fallen elks nose. A gift of thanks for its life joining the circle.
A few first cuts where removed to cook by a small smoky fire while Calle had to give into sleep.
In the morning we awoke undisturbed. Animals are naturally afraid of fire. That fire had been hoped to add confusion to the scent if any big animals had been around. A search found three of the stray arrows, a decent recovery.
Calle patted the bloody skinless shoulder of the beast. Now came the quartering of meat and edible organs for transport. With an Owl village in sight this meat would feed them mightily. Three hours it took with the sun already passed noon. Though slow in his pace Calle was a broad shouldered man. The hide containing all the meat was hoisted high with the large bones and magnificent antlers tied to the outside.
So bundled Calle trudged across the mire to Hanging Wide.
Ahkejuoksa was on sentry. He gave signs of peace with open hands, “Greetings hunter. A worker saw your fire. We wondered what was going on. Elder Hiege says if you brought us game to send you to him. Let me help you with the stacks.”
“Grateful,” said Calle rolling the bundle that weighed as much as large man off his back.
Elder Hiege was nearby leaning his back on a tall tree, “The forest has sung to that the time has come.”
“Time?” asked Calle, “Chores to be done?”
Hiege patted the ground in front of him as he slid down to sit at the base of the tree.
Looking to the bundle Calle saw a young woman came to hold up cuts of meat to be seen by a grandmother at one of the tents. They were already planning their feast.
Hiege began, “There was a time when man and spirit where in one real world together. Where we are is separate from them. They are not easy to see when they come here to this unreal world. There are those who learn to live in harmony with the ways. Oh they may get angry but when you know the way you make peace with them again, as you have. This is the way.”
“We aren’t the only lives out here,” said Calle, “I found my home because of a Swan spirit. She has visited me many times as a welcome guest though perhaps I am her guest.”
Hiege took a sip from his water skin. The water seemed scented.
“Young Calle,” Hiege was speaking softly now, “The spirits have their head men too. Their rulers. Their kings though their ways aren’t our ways that is a word that can be used.”
Halle nodded listening quietly to the elder’s wisdom.
“Rulers are busy eve spirit rulers,” continued Hiege, “Only some are worthy to met them. They might let you be in their court. Their court is the forest in which they stand. Any part of it can be should they chose to come. For a hunter or a homesteader it is a way to know how the spirits feel about you and make peace if needed.”
Calle listened, “If its the Swan spirit or this ruler she answers too then yes. I would like too. To tell them how kind she is and thank her for her protection. Her friend the Kuikka has been by several times but she hasn’t been seen in a while. Is she all right?”
Her fate isn’t known to me, “Hiege said. My ties are to the ruler of the forests are herd are in.”
“There are different rulers?” asked Calle.
“Of course. Just as we have different tribes in different lands the spirits of different rulers of different places. I’ve heard of only a few and met only one. Now to meet them you must do a certain thing in a certain way, a gleam of silver on an ant hill for as they travel between the above and below they can travel to the spirit realm with your gift of moon like gleam. Do this in deep night that the sun is farthest away so its light doesn’t hide them.”
“They want silver because it looks like moon light?” asked Calle.
“That is how it was told to me when I was young,” said Heige, “Now then they want to start the feast. Go make a trade with that fresh game you brought us.”
“Thank you elder,” said Calle, “As a sign of respect please take the elk hide.”
Calle was convinced to give up half the meat for a smooth coated winter fox fur. This was the sort of goods the foreign traders loved. He might need it to get silver. For the rest Calle thought it best to return the meat to Swan Cabin to try out his smoke house. If he tried for the village of Quarrel Forrest it or the hide might spoil before he started on it.
He made it back that second day out.
“Preparation is all it takes to live,” Calle said entering the smokehouse.
It had room to walk about for the meats of different animals to sort out when each was ready. He closed the shutters on the north and south for those were for airing when now it was to be filled. Stocks of fuel were ready from small kindling, bundles of scrap from logging, flawed boards and stump blocks. On wall pegs hung dozens of split spruce for tying up the meat. The bench was beckoning to be stood on to hang the meat high up from the rafters where the smoke was thickest.
Working the meat to thin cuts exposed more surface for faster penetration of the smoke. He remembered another youngster making the mistake of starting the smokey fire first that blinded him while hanging the meat. Calle made sure to hang the cuts first then start the fire. The chimney block stones were shifted inward forcing most of the smoke to find its way into the room.
In the morning the fire was restarted to make more smoke before Calle resumed his journey.
(I thought Calle had skinned the elk first but couldn’t find the hide. Gifting seemed a way to explain its lack. Sometimes as I write and play I may have written it but not hit the keystrokes in the game.)
<CALLE 103 meeting learned>>>