Upon a Savage Shore Ch. 13

Sitting up Liam turned to look out over the southern valley. There he saw one of the small herds of antelope grazing in the high grass.

"See those creatures?" he asked, pointing. "Those are like gazelle. Herd beasts, light and fast."

Tem'Ma'tel stared at the creatures for a moment and then her tail twitched. "Good to food. No! Good to eat."

Liam smiled at her. "Probably."

"We hunt?" she asked.

"A good question, Sergeant," M'pel Ekmel said. "Our stock of smoked meat is depleted, and what is left is going to spoil soon."

"Yeah," Liam nodded, forgetting their conversation about Rover for the moment. "And we have a place to store the stuff now."

"We take... four," Clot'ilda said slowly, forming her sentence carefully. "We put in cold room. We eat good for days."

"And we would be able to harvest their hides," M'pel E'kmel observed. She had learned a great deal from processing the hyena-frog and fish skins and her efforts on the blade-beast hides had shown her progress.

"We need weapons to hunt with," Liam said, stroking his ragged beard.

"Qui'istle," Tem'Ma'tel said.

"No. I don't want to use up the ammo for those." Liam shook his head, frowning in thought. "I don't suppose any of you know how to make a bow or arrows."

"I have used a bow, but I do not know how to make one," M'pel E'kmel said. "We could easily make spears. I have been hunting with my aunt many, many times. I dare say, all jZav'Etch have hunted at some point. We know how to track and stalk."

"Tough to get close enough to use spears on them," Liam muttered. Something tickled at the back of his mind, drifting away like a leaf on the ripples of a pond. A pond. Of course! "Back on Earth I watched a demonstration some of the locals put on at a history museum. They were using spears to hunt fish, like you did back at the other camp."

"Such spears would be of little use in hunting these animals," M'pel E'kmel said. "Three prongs would simply stick and then fall out."

"I know," Liam said, his enthusiasm for the idea growing. "But you had to be almost right on top of the fish before you could use your spear. These locals were throwing their spears from on top of rocks and at a pretty long distance. They had throwing sticks to help add range and power to their throws. One guy even demonstrated how the throwing stick, he called it an... Oh come on. What did he call it? An... atlatl! Anyway, this guy showed us how it more than doubled the range he could throw a spear. At closer range, one would give us more penetration."

"SarJ'ant have good penetration," Tem'Ma'tel said with a broad grin.

Clot'ilda and M'pel E'kmel snickered and Liam didn't know what to say for a moment. Tem'Ma'tel had never made a joke or teased him before. The look on his face made all three females break out in laughter.

"Good one," he said finally and laughed himself. "I guess you would know."

+>0<+

After the meal they returned to work. M'pel E'kmel divided her time between dragging the larger branches to the workshops and chopping the small branches from them. She had quite a pile and was about to return for another load when Rover appeared, dragging a branch in his jaws. He let it drop at her feet and snorted. His large brown eyes considered her and he snorted again.

"I thought you were intelligent," she murmured and hunkered down to be on his eye level. "And you've been around people before, haven't you?"

The big beast sat down and raised his chin, pushing his wet nose into M'pel E'kmel's chest. She laughed and scratched him under the chin for a moment, letting him lick the parasites off her fingers. It had occurred to her in the temporary camp that this animal was unable to deal with the pests on his own and perhaps that indicated something about his species. Could it be that they normally traveled in groups? Was he an outcast? For the moment she put aside her speculation, thinking it might be a good idea to see what could be done to remedy his discomfort.

"Come with me, Rover," she said, rising.

The big beast followed her to the room where the castaways had stored their supplies. She took her medical kit from the stack and opened it, bringing up the diagnostic sensors and screen. Rover stood just inside the doorway, swaying back and forth. Apparently he was not entirely comfortable indoors.

"Now, just hold still a moment," she said and ran the scanner over him. "They're all over you. You poor thing."

Rover grunted as if to say, "No kidding."

She ran an analysis of the parasites, finding that the tiny pests were eating Rover's dead skin cells, leaving his live skin exposed and irritated.

"This is going to sting," she said. "Sorry. I'm only trying to help."

Rover watched her closely as she pressed a needle into his thick hide. He grunted and cast a baleful look on her, as though he was insulted, but he did not otherwise react. The needle she placed into her analyzer. Moments passed and Rover flopped onto the floor, sounding like a load of bricks hitting a mattress. The machine chimed, displaying the results of the sample. A few more tests of the sample indicated an injection was needed and recommended a bath for the creature with a particular soap.

"Medic," she said into the machine's mic. "No such soap available. Alternatives from locally available materials needed."

The machine displayed a number of queries about the materials available, then ran another analysis, finally suggesting ashes from wood with a high acid level would be her next best alternative.

"Well, at least we have plenty of that," she sighed. The kit produced the appropriate injection and she administered the shot to Rover's neck, receiving another baleful look.

+>0<+

"We need to attend to his condition before the parasites spread to us," M'pel E'kmel told Liam. She had gone straight to him after injecting Rover. The big beast already seemed more comfortable.

"How much wood are you going to have to burn to get enough ash to cover him?" Liam asked, frowning at the beast. "He's the size of a small car, for crying out loud."

"He is not that big," she snorted. "Half the size of such a vehicle, I would say."

"Still!" Liam threw up a hand in a frustrated gesture. "It might be better just to send him on his way."

"I think he will prove to be an asset," she said and then told him of Rover dragging the branch to her.

"So we were right," said Liam. His shoulders slumped. He actually liked the big beasty and if a fire was all they needed to get rid of the pests that wasn't so much to ask. "Fine. Just one thing, though."

"What's that?" she asked warily.

"One big fire is wasteful. Make a dozen small fires and burn the green branches. They'll have more sap in them. That'll make the ash a little more acidic."

"How do you know these things?" M'pel E'kmel asked.

"I spent summers with my Uncle Gav every year when I was a kid. He owned a farm and we did a lot of work clearing brush. He used the ashes to sweeten the soil around some of his fruit trees."

"We need to dispose of the branches, anyway." She flicked her ears in the jZav'Etch shrug and smiled at Rover. "And he seems to like us. He is at least as smart as I thought he was, too."

"Maybe we should have named him Lad," Liam grunted. M'pel E'kmel didn't understand his reference, but kept silent. "Look, I've got one timber done and another is about half way there. We'll get to Rover's problem as soon as we have the work done for the day. Try to avoid becoming food for whatever those things are until we do. Okay?"

With Clotilda's help, M'pel E'kmel made a harness from rope for Rover and he earned his place among them by dragging large loads of branches to the workshops the rest of the day. His powerful legs had no difficulty hauling five or six times the load M'pel E'kmel had been able to and soon there were no more trees to fell. The three females set about lopping the small branches from the large ones and Liam used Rover to haul the logs they'd cut from the orchard to the gate. Rover was even helpful in stacking them, his big claws working like a forklift to put one atop another.

"Well," Liam confided to the beast, scratching it under the jaw. "I guess we can get rid of these damned things for you. Let me get this harness off and you can go dig for grubs or whatever."

Rover was patient while Liam removed the ropes. He snorted and nudged Liam with his snout before lumbering off to see what he could dig up.

That evening and on through the night whoever was on watch tended the small fires and collected the ashes when one burned down to coals. First thing in the morning all four castaways worked to dust the pony-sized Rover with the ashes. He objected to the unwanted dust-bath at first, but soon realized his itching hide was no longer itching quite as much. Rover seemed to clue into what the ashes were for and when the bipeds finished their work, he rolled on the ground in what was left of the fires. By the time he was through, his dun-colored fur looked grey and chalky. He wasn't itching anymore, though.