From Book 2
After the meal, Guard Warrior Rici stood before Carey, "Papa, me Reci be, me spek?" Carey nodded his head to the young man to continue. Rici waved his hand at a group of young teens and they came to stand beside him, "Papa, us hunters want be. Us animals hunt Haven peples et. Other peples us find, bring Haven be"
Carey replied, "Rici un Tor, un Voli, un Mar un Gel Haven Hunters be. Papa spek."
Bili looked a little sad that his friend and new brother Rici was leaving. Rici turned to Bili, "Sad no be Bili, me live house un Bili be. Me brother un Bili be. Me blod un Bili be," He hugged Bili, then picked up little Cari and said, "This Cari be, blod un my blod, blod un brotter me be." He placed the child in Bili's arms and whispered to him, "BROTTER BE."
The new hunters spent the rest of the winter gathering their supplies and making weapons for the hunt. When, at last, the winter snows ceased and the air began to warm, Rici called to his hunters that they gather at the gate. Bili stood in tears watching Rici ready himself to leave. Rici walked over to Bili, "Not sad be brotter be, us gone not long. Us back un meats un foods for peples et."
Bili was still standing in the gate, watching Rici and the hunters disappear over the hill.
Chapter - 1 - THE HUNT
Rici and his hunters left Haven, carrying their empty game sacks, their spears and their knives. They followed the ridge until it began to drop off into the canyon below. They crept out on a point overlooking a broad meadow. There, they saw a small herd of antlered deer just below them. He pointed to his hunters in the directions he wanted them to go. When the herd was surrounded, he jumped up and screamed, driving the deer toward the hunter's spears. They brought down four young bucks, which they immediately dressed out and hung in the cool shade. Leaving one hunter to guard the meat, they continued the hunt.
By late afternoon, they had killed three mountain sheep, four goats and the four deer. They made a proud procession back to Haven! The women set to work carving up the kill and putting meat strips on the drying rack, after salting and adding spices to the meat. They saved one deer haunch and the men made a spit over the central fire and began roasting the meat for supper. The fresh meat was a welcome change over the dried meats and vegetables they had been eating.
Carey was watching his folk as they feasted on the fresh meat. He turned to Rici, "If you ever see a cow, do not kill it, bring it to us alive."
Rici looked puzzled, "What cow be?"
Carey described a cow to the young man in hopes that milk might somehow be obtained for the children. A week later, Carey could not believe his eyes, the hunters came back leading a cow and its bull calf! He stared, open-mouthed, as the two animals were led into the fence. He looked at a grinning Rici, "H,hhh how?" was all he could stammer out.
Ricci grinned, "Me find cow beast un bebe un before peple village be."
Carey sighed, "Anybody know how to milk one of these things?"
Nellie replied, "Oh, for heaven's sakes, you men!" She grabbed several clay pots and proceeded to milk the cow, much to the annoyance of the bull calf. She set the milk in the cooler she had Jal contrive for her and the next morning she was serving cool cups of milk to the children.
Before long butter appeared with their meals and Nellie told Carey that she was going to experiment making cheese. Her first several attempts were less than stellar until, finally, she brought out a white cheese and asked Carey to taste it. He was somewhat hesitant, some of her earlier cheeses tasted even worse than they smelled! This one, however, had little smell and had a rubbery texture, He broke off a little piece and nibbled on it, Nellie grabbed the large piece back from him before he could gulp it down, it was wonderful!
She kept her "mother" in a glazed clay crock that she stored in the cooler. Every time she made cheese and took out some mother, she added an equal amount of new cheese to become new mother.
The hunters continued to bring game into the village to be processed and Carey wondered if it were possible to make sausage. He discussed it with Nellie and then told Rici to save the intestines of the animals they killed. After much experimentation with salt, sage and a little mesquite, he and Nellie came up with a quite acceptable sausage. They smoked them over a fire of green wood and found they would keep for several weeks.
The young hunters learned to kill only young animals, the old ones could hardly be chewed! The villagers' favorite was young mountain sheep. Some of the girls, whom Nellie was teaching to cook, experimented with some corn meal. They made round cakes, held together with butter and animal fat, and baked them on a hot stone in the fire. They then put some more butter on them with honey and crushed berries. The smells drew the small children and they all stood around, begging for a taste. Nor handed a small piece to little Rik and was lucky to get her fingers back, unbitten, Nellie called them cookies and the small children hung around saying, "Cok, us wants cok" until they stopped and made enough cookies for all the children.
Spring turned into summer and the hunters had to range further and further to find choice game. They began spending nights away from the village, while on hunt. They had followed a side canyon that led deeper into the mountains. As they were preparing to bed down for the night, they smelled smoke. They noted the direction from which it came, planning on exploring further the next morning.
The next morning the hunters moved further into the canyon where they discovered a small encampment of youths. There were six boys and four girls huddled around a small fire, trying to cook some small fish skewered on willow sticks. When they spotted the hunters, the boys jumped up, grabbing makeshift clubs and pushing the girls behind them.
Rici had his hunters place their spears on the ground and he stood before the small group, "Me Rici be, not hurt yus. Us hunters be us live Haven be. Yus food ned?" He broke out some of their trail rations from his belt pouch and showed it to the group around the fire.
A boy, who seemed to be their leader stepped forward, "You would feed us?"
Rici replied, "Yu spek un Haven Papa be. Yu be peple un Cari, blod un Cari be?"
The boy replied, "I don't know a Cari, but if he talks like us, he must be like us." The boy hugged Rici, "Would you take us to him, please?"
Rici agreed to bring the young folks to Haven to meet Carey and the hunters helped them gather up their few belongings. By cutting across the canyon, they were only a day's walk from Haven. They stopped to pick up the game they had left hanging in the shade of some huge trees and began the climb up the side of the canyon to Haven. Rici said, "Yu here be, me spek Papa".
Rici motioned for the strangers to sit down and told his hunters to stay with them and let none hurt them. He entered the village and walked up to Carey, "Me Rici be, find before peple. Yu want spek before peple?"
Carey screamed, "Were be before peple?"
Rici replied, "Papa u com un Rici, Papa spek before peple."
Carey called for Davie and Carl to join him and he followed Rici out the gate. The refugees were sitting on the grass, wondering what was to become of them. Carey came over the rise of the hill, followed by Davie and Carl.
The leader stood, holding his makeshift club ready to protect his small band. He called out, "Are you Cari?"
Carey stopped short, his two sons nearly running him down. He answered the young man, "Yes, I am Carey, who might you be?"
Just then, Lee came over the hill, he had heard the commotion and followed. The young man screamed, "Lee, BROTHER!" and he fell to the ground sobbing.
Lee ran to the young man, crying with tears of joy, "Allen, Allen, I thought you were dead!" He hugged Allen as they tried to regain their composure.
Carey, Davie and Carl were looking on as were Rici and his hunters. Rici said, "Alun brotter be un Lee?"
Lee looked up, still holding Allen, and he announced, "Alun brotter be Lee, blod un Lee be."
Allen asked, "Lee, you speak these people's language?"
Lee looked at his brother, "Allen, they are our people now, we are all that is left."
Allen motioned his people forward to introduce them, the girls were Millie, Verona, Kelly and Mary. The boys were Gordy, Daniel, Phil, Eddy and Marsh. Lee said, "Carey is Chieftain, you must ask him if you may join us."
Allen turned to Carey, "Please Carey, may we join your people. We nearly starved last winter and two of the girls are pregnant. Our babies will not survive next winter." Allen was in tears, one of those babies was his!
The villagers had followed them down the hill and were looking at Carey expectantly, they understood only a little of what had been said. Carey said, "Un mins un womins be before peple. Uns want wit us be. Papa spek?"
Bili stepped out from the crowd, "Before peple gud be?"
Allen caught the words and he spoke up, "Us peple gud be, us work un help Haven peple."
Bili replied, "Alun blod be un Lee blod be?"
Allen responded, "Me brotter be un Lee." He motioned for Mary to come forward, Mary be womin un Alun be." He held his hand on her stomach and said, "Bebe un Mary be bebe un Alun be."
Bili thought for a few moments and said, "Before peple be un Haven nu peple Papa spek?"
Carey stood between the two groups and said, "Before peple be Haven peple be. Papa spek"
They escorted Allen's small group inside the stockade wall and started preparing a meal. Mary walked over to the women preparing to grill some meats and asked, "Me Mari be un Alun. Me help yus make fud un et?"
The women welcomed Mary and showed her how to tend the meats on the hot stones while they began preparing vegetables for the meal. They all sat as a group to eat the food, the new people learning the language by leaps and bounds.
They discovered that Gordy and Daniel were brothers and were farm boys, having grown up on a family farm. Phil and Marsh, also brothers, were carpenters and house builders while Eddy was a doctor, almost completed in his internship at a hospital. Allen, like his brother Lee, was a college student studying to become a school teacher.
Again, the stockade had to be enlarged and more homes constructed. This time, Carey had two extra buildings erected, one to be a school and the other to be a hospital. One of the new women, Millie, had been a nurse and another, Verona had been a herbalist for a natural healer. Carey was excited that they could get some kind of health care for his people.
Phil and Marsh were able to help in the building and added conveniences like shelves, tables and chairs. They even built a small churn for Nellie to make her butter. Verona found additional herbs along the stream and their meals suddenly took on new life!
Final acceptance of the new people came when the villager's favorite little boy, Rik was brought home with his leg broken from a fall while playing on the rocks. Eddy set the little boy's leg and splinted it between three stout sticks. Telling the active little boy to stay off the leg was like telling the sun not to rise in the morning. Eddy did manage to keep him from reinjuring his leg and in several weeks, the break was healed, nearly like new.
Eddy became so fond of the boy, who had no parents, that he asked Carey if he could adopt the child. Carey decided to make a big event out of the adoption, so he ordered a campfire built and food readied to be served after the ceremony.
As it got dark, the campfire provided the only light. Carey had Eddy beside him and he was holding Rik by his hands, "U Rik un no mama un no papa?"
Rik replied, "Me Rik un no mama un no papa."
Carey turned to Eddy, "U Edi un no bebe?"
Eddy replied, "Me Edi un no bebe, want Rik bebe me."
Rik began to cry, "Me Rik want papa Edi me" He jerked from Carey's hands and ran into the arms of Eddy crying, "Edi be papa me, Edi be papa me!"
Carey turned to his people, "Me Papa spek, Edi be papa un Rik. Rik be bebe un Edi. Papa spek!"
TBC
The village of Haven will continue to grow. More new children will be born and the seeds of a new civilization will sprout. Two peoples are becoming one, using the best of each as humankind survives and flourishes. Read as THE GROWTH OF HAVEN helps those of other villages, other peoples and trade begins.