Spears

Melete was up and gone before I awoke; I yawned widely, I stretched deeply. I felt still the warmth of her body beneath my fingertips within the furs, instinctively my nose began to follow every wisp of the scent that remained of her supple form still pressed into the contours of the furs where she had lain only moments before. Chills prickled among the hair along the back of my neck, my head shook slowly side to side as the hypnotic power of her pheromones overtook me. I threw my face among her furs and wallowed in a moment of senseless abandon. I inhaled deeply from the furs in the area her hips had pressed their form into the plush hides. My teeth chattered, I panted slowly, drawing her scent deeply into my lungs in small gasps allowing her to linger in some way upon my palate. My mouth watered, I let it drip, as I slid about upon her contours leaving licks and bites among them to find her as they would in her dreams. May they torment her mercilessly.

I sprawled and dallied among her furs now because I could; when the seasons changed there would be less sprawling, and more layers of fur between the heat of our bare skins pressed close upon one another as we do now. Sleeping huddled, close, tight and warm would become routine. There would be difference in day and night where we were going, when we arrived; there would be only shimmering darkness below the endlessly drifting colors of light flowing like smoke upon the wind across the sky above us. It is said that this light and smoke comes to us here in this place as it rises from the campfires of the Spirits who dwell beyond distance and time. There would be timeless expanses of darkness, howling winds, ice, and snow, and stone. There would be Nakani also; standing upon their chosen ground, and it was there upon their sacred lands, that I would hunt them.

To me, the stream was a loving and generous Spirit, though one with a strong temper that was terrible when aroused; always it offered me things of great value and curiosity for daily living if I would just be patient at times, while seeking them diligently in others. It gave me food and drink, baths and a wide variety of useful tools, and a few modest trinkets in fragments of stone or shell or bone. I merely had to learn to make use of the raw materials provided; this seemed a fair trade to me, so I approached such things with eagerness and was often rewarded with great satisfaction for it.

I greatly enjoyed the seasonal sport of fishing, harvesting the different varieties of fish by different methods, learning which methods worked best with the fish, the terrain, the season and the location. I enjoyed the slow, methodical work of preparing the fish for storage and travel by drying them in wind while curing them slowly within rising pillars of smoke. Eyes were plucked and dried for their use as a simple and nutritious walking meal; empty heads and some entrails became bait for traps, others became food sources to be preserved. Larger skins became lightweight water resistant leathers, smaller skins became crispy and flavorful bits of dry cracker for long walks and warm stews. Some strong bones became needles or hairpins, small and simple things which could be collected, packed, carried with ease now to be smoothed and worked and finished by an evening fire for trading later with equal ease when again among Others.

I enjoyed the challenge of harvesting stone, chosen for their most suitable uses as any given object; be it a small needle polishing stone, or a fire maker, a steel sharpener, or a spearhead; the uses were endless if One but knew the correct stone. Stones are like plants and animals, they each have their own unique qualities that make them the best suited for a certain use; the lesson was to learn their proper useand , the reward was to then know and be able to employ them in their proper use for daily living. The lessons required no small amount of time, and patience, and study; always there was more to learn through practice, for One to grow in skill, and ability, and value.

I did not care for steel for several reasons thus I rarely traded for it, and did not desire the means to make it. For my most intended purpose, steel was simply an inferior material; it could not be sharpened so finely, serrated so viciously, or plunged so cleanly through the toughest of hides which wrap thick sheaths of layered muscle and soft fatty tissues to lodge itself deeply among the vital organs of my quarry. Steel could not be easily snapped to shatter into fragments which would remain deep inside of a wound channel to continue causing intense pain, profuse bleeding and massive damage as a struggle continued; if it did.

I greatly preferred spears tipped with thick and razor sharp, yet fragile stone, for my personal winter hunts. I greatly preferred to make them myself, for I liked knowing exactly what I had and what I could reasonably expect from it. I had no use at all for swords; anything more than a sturdy pack knife was just a waste of space and extra weight that I was completely unwilling to carry. Steel I favored only in two forms; as a canphii for chopping and crushing and cleaving, or as a sturdy general utility knife for daily living; one that could dig or cut, and stab or skin was all of it I desired or carried daily upon me.

Spear shafts I was equally particular about I liked them moderately thick and somewhat green; well tapered, and with a little bit of flex left in them. Dry handles too often splinters when braced and driven powerfully deep inside the heaving chest of enormous and furiously charging beasts. I would much rather have a broken blade which was driven straight and true deeply inside vital organs and a still usable staff; than to have a useless piece of club wood with its unbreakable head irretrievably wedged between bones in a less than fatal strike. There would be no second spear; you struck hard, and deep, and true, the first time; the only time, in one of two vunerable vital targets, or you died.

Even when you can kill a thing on its feet, you still needed to keep it well off of you as it falls, flailing and thrashing. A wooden club does nothing to ward off eight hundred pounds of stumbling dead fang and claw, bone and muscle and sinew, as it crashes toward you senseless yet no less dangerous or deadly. It is much better to still have a full and sturdy staff to brace firmly before your feet as you face the certainy of crushing death unless you can deflect it, or stop it. More than one Hunter has died in small pieces scattered over the ice and stones when caught up within the desperate spasming embrace of the limbs of a beast in it's final throes of fang and claw and breath.

I moved knee deep in the slow current as my eyes searched for the tell tale signs of the hard stone suitable for use as spear heads. I looked for long thick layered veins of dark stone within the depths. From these type formations the raw material for excellent bladed tools is taken; the stone is strong and is difficult to work, but with patience and due care razor sharp and deeply serrated edges may be formed of it by the use of other stones, and bits of antler. From such an outcropping of stone I gathered several suitable slabs of good weight and mass. With a practiced hand, and a hammer stone, they should provide me with enough material for six or seven spear heads, a few arrow heads and perhaps good knife. The stone was smooth grained, dark, and opaque. It fairly glistened along the uneven angles of its surface in the light. In the dark it would nigh invisible, save for its outline against a paler darkness.

Spear handles I liked thick, well tapered, and somewhat shapened, not rounded at the heel. I liked to walk with a spear instead of only carrying it; on the ice, on uneven terrain, and among stone three feet were as always better than two. I believe a spear's heel should be able to chip into ice, dig into spurs of stone upon the ground, break through snow and set it's foot firmly into frozen ground; to be braced and relied on to hold instead of simply sliding or rolling away from where it was placed in an instant of necessity. I preferred them to be thick enough to bear my weight should I need to pull myself from or lower myself into an opening in the ice, or among the stones; or perhaps if I needed a solid anchor beneath my feet to maintain a tenuous foothold between the tumbled wreckages of ice and stone.

I made my own spears, and I chose their materials carefully; working them slowly and more carefully still with my own hands. It was no good at all to have a prematurely broken weapon; it was completely inspiring for me to know that I would have only myself to blame as I died if they failed when most needed. I was patient and thoughtful now; for I knew if I was hasty and foolish here at my leisure, I would certainly pay the price of failure later; upon the barrens of ice and snow.

Piling my stones by the bank of the stream as I waded from it, I moved toward the forest to scout among the saplings for suitable shaft blanks.