Finding Home (20 page)

Nat saw movement down the beach and
walked toward it cautiously. “Easy Gyp,” she said as she started a
low growl deep in her throat. Nat ducked behind a large boulder and
called Gyp to her. She peered over the boulder and watched as a
pair of wolves fed on some type of tusked animal. Such a strange
place, Nat thought as she watched the predators go back to their
meal. “I think it is time for us to head back,” she said to
Gyp.

She and Gyp walked back to the rock
pool to find Marissa and Maggie harvesting the last of the
lobsters. “You two have got to see something we found,” Nat
said.

They passed the other rock pools
teeming with lobsters and continued to follow Nat, surprised that
something else had excited her so. When they passed the first of
the large boulders, they saw what Nat was enchanted with. “Have you
ever seen a turtle this big before?” she asked.

“
It is a turtle from the sea
and if I had to guess I would say this one is very old,” Maggie
said. “She has probably come ashore to find a safe place to lay her
eggs.”

“
She is amazing,” Marissa
said, as she slowly circled the large creature.

“
Further ahead, there is a
carcass of a large tusked animal that two wolves are feasting on,”
Nat said.

“
That sounds like a walrus,”
Maggie said.

“
It is something I have
never seen before,” Nat said. “There are such strange, but wondrous
creatures at the ocean,” she said, her eyes shining brightly with
excitement.

“
Do you think the wolves
have passed on?” Maggie asked.

“
If not, I can send them on
their way,” Nat said as she lifted the rifle.

“
Those tusks are very
valuable,” Maggie said.

“
Follow me,” Nat said. “Gyp,
stay close,” she said.

The wolves had passed on when they
arrived, but Nat kept a wary eye on the beach ahead.

“
That is a walrus,” Maggie
said. “It has been dead a few days,” she said. “It must have been
injured or ill to beach itself this way,” she added.

Nat looked at Maggie. “How do you
harvest those?” she asked pointing at the long tusks.

“
Take your knife and cut
around where they join the skin,” Maggie said. “Then we pull and
pull hard,” she said.

Nat pulled her knife and cut away the
skin from the exposed edge of the tusk. “Help me, Marissa,” Maggie
said as she took the tusk in her hands. It took them several tries,
but finally the tusk broke free from the animal’s skull. They
repeated the process with the other tusk and Nat walked to the
water’s edge to clean her knife.

“
Smithy will have a field
day with those,” Maggie said. The use the tusks to customize pistol
grips and knife handles and in some places to fashion jewelry. It
takes great patience and a very good knife to carve the hard tusks
though.

Marissa and Maggie each carried a tusk
as they made their way back to the cave. They stopped by the rock
pool and counted another dozen lobsters that Nat and Marissa would
harvest while Maggie collected shrimp for their dinner. They placed
the tusks in the small cart and took the bucket back to the rock
pool. Nat made four trips back to the barrel carrying lobster
before they were done. She then added more water to both barrels to
cover the clamoring creatures. Maggie had gathered a flask full of
shrimp and was cleaning them at the water’s edge when Marissa and
Nat returned to the camp.

Marissa walked down to the water to
assist Maggie with cleaning the shrimp while Nat went inside the
cave and carried out six of the largest rib bones from the whale
carcass and added them to the cart.

“
If we have much more luck,
poor Quincy won’t be able to move this cart,” Nat said. “As it is,
I may have to carry the ribs and tusks and other supplies up the
hill before we load him down.”

“
We can carry everything but
the barrels,” Maggie said, and I will walk home.

“
There is no need for that,”
Nat said. “Once he gets on solid, flat land, Quincy can pull a
mountain,” she said proudly.

“
We still have a buck to add
too,” Maggie reminded her with a grin.

“
Oh, I haven’t forgotten
about him, but I won’t spend long tracking him. I can always come
back for him later, if need be.”

“
The lobsters will be fine
as long as they are packed in the salt water,” Maggie said, “So
take what time you need.”

Nat saw her animals walking toward them
on the beach and placed their feed bags over their heads, adding a
little extra for Quincy.

They spent the remainder of the
afternoon on the beach resting from their adventures and when the
sun started to fade, Maggie stood up and walked to the cave to
start their meal.

“
I will go help Maggie,”
Marissa said. “Don’t be too much longer out here,” she
said.

“
We won’t be far behind you,
my love,” Nat promised.

Nat picked up a small piece of
driftwood and tossed it down the beach for Gyp to retrieve and they
played their game of catch for twenty minutes as they moved down
the beach. As they walked back toward the cave, Gyp stopped in her
tracks and looked at the cliffs above the beach. Nat looked and
then heard the howl of wolves, probably the feeding pair they had
seen earlier on the beach. She looked at saw that Quincy, Buck and
Hardy were safely at the mouth of the cave and decided that they
would stay inside tonight instead of being allowed to roam free.
Nat could not afford to lose one of her animals to a pack of
wolves. She would light a fire at the mouth of the cave and she
would sleep there with the animals just in case they were visited
that night.

When she reached the mouth of the cave,
she tethered the animals together and went inside to gather some
firewood to start an outer fire. “What is going on?” Marissa
asked.

“
We may have company
tonight, so I will sleep out front with the animals to protect
them,” Nat said.

“
Protect them from the
wolves?” Maggie asked.

“
Yes, did you hear them
too?”

“
Yes, just a few minutes ago
and fairly close,” Maggie said with a frown.

“
They should not be a
problem, but I will sleep out with the animals to make sure,” Nat
said. “We will be gone from here early in the morning and they can
have their territory back.”

Maggie and Marissa were cooking the
shrimp and they were beginning to smell good. “You two have my
mouth watering,” she said. “Those smell good.”

“
We should be finished in
just a few minutes, but if you want to start breaking some up for
Gyp, that would be fine,” Maggie said.

Nat took several of the cooked shrimp
that had time to cool and broke them into smaller pieces for Gyp
and placed them in her bowl. Maggie handed her a jar of chowder
that had been warmed and said, “Here, pour some of this over them
for her.”

Nat looked at Gyp. “You are getting so
spoiled.”

Gyp barked sharply at Nat to voice her
disagreement.

“
And so rebellious too,” Nat
said with a laugh as she sat the bowl on the cave floor for Gyp.
“Go ahead.”

Gyp stepped forward and ate the meal,
lapping up every drop of the chowder from the walls of the bowl.
Nat poured more of the rich chowder in the bowl and Gyp ate it as
she sat by her master who had also begun to eat her
meal.

When they had cleaned up the meal and
the moon had rose, Nat said, “We should get an early night tonight,
so we can be up early in the morning.”

“
Would you like for me to
join you outside?” Marissa said with a hopeful smile.

“
No, sweetheart, you stay
inside the cave with Maggie where it is warmer,” Nat said to her
disappointment.

Marissa watched as Nat moved her
bedroll out to the mouth of the cave and then looked at Maggie.
Maggie smiled and nodded at Marissa who picked up her bedroll and
followed Nat.

“
What are you doing?” Nat
asked.

“
I am joining you my love,”
Marissa said. “If I get cold, I know you will warm me up,” she said
with a soft smile.

“
Very well, have it your
way,” Nat said.

The lonesome call of a wolf broke the
night air as Nat sat against a rock. Marissa came and sat with her
and they cuddled and listened until the calls grew further apart
and in the distance as the pack moved away from the
beach.

“
Do you think it is safe now
to sleep?” she asked.

“
I think so. The animals
will alert us if they return,” Nat said.

“
Good,” Marissa said and
then led Nat to their bedrolls. Marissa snuggled down into her
covers and then reached for Nat, taking her face in her hands. She
kissed her sweetly and pulled her body close to share warmth and
they slipped off to sleep.

PART THIRTEEN

Nat woke the next morning to the soft
crunch of footsteps. Maggie had woken earlier and was busy carrying
the supplies up to the top of the hill to lessen Quincy’s burden as
they left the beach. By the time Nat had wiped the sleep from her
eyes, Maggie had carried the last of the crates with their supplies
up the hill.

“
Good morning,” she
whispered. “The coffee is on the back fire.”

“
Thanks,” Nat whispered
back.

She gently shook Marissa awake and
stood to get them coffee. She poured sand from her boots and
slipped them on her cold feet before walking into the cave. Nat
returned moments later with cups of coffee and stirred the embers
in the fire to give them warmth as their bodies awoke.

Marissa had gotten up and rolled their
bedrolls tightly. She gladly accepted the coffee from Nat and used
it to warm her hands.

“
Thank you,” she said as she
took the cup from Nat.

“
You have been busy,” Nat
said.

“
I woke up early and thought
I would make good use of my time,” Maggie said with a grin. “I also
dug some clams to take back with us, hoping your aren’t sick of
chowder yet.”

“
I could eat that almost
every night,” Nat said with a grin.

“
I will make some tomorrow
when we arrive home while you and Marissa do our bartering,” Maggie
said.

“
With fry bread too?” Nat
asked.

“
Yes, I will make fry
bread,” Maggie said with a smile.

They drank another cup of coffee
together and then went about the task of breaking camp. Marissa
doused the fires as Nat saddled the horses and Maggie hitched
Quincy to the small cart. Only the barrels of lobster and clams
remained on the cart, so he should be able to pull the cart through
the soft sand up the hill. There, they would add the rest of the
supplies and goods Maggie had already carried up the
hill.

Marissa led the horses up the hill
while Maggie guided Quincy and Nat pushed the cart from behind. As
it turned out, Quincy did not need the extra help, but it got them
up the hill quicker.

Maggie and Marissa loaded the rest of
the supplies and then Nat lifted Marissa into the saddle. “I will
walk for a while,” Maggie said as she took Quincy’s halter and
started him toward the trail.

Nat smiled and mounted Hardy. Gyp was
walking beside Maggie and they left the ocean shortly after
sunrise. Nat turned in her saddle and looked back at the ocean one
more time as they walked away.

They made good time getting back to the
river and Nat unhitched Quincy from the cart and watched as he
moved down to the water to drink deeply. She joined the small
animal for a long drink and then turned back to Maggie and
Marissa.

“
If you two will set up camp
and care for the animals, Gyp and I will begin the hunt,” she
said.

“
We can do that,” Marissa
said as she watched Nat pull the rifle from its sling.

“
I will see you sometime
later then,” Nat said.

Marissa watched until Nat and Gyp
disappeared into the woods and then turned back to the animals. She
removed the saddles from Buck and Hardy as Maggie laid a campfire.
She went to the river and dipped out a bucket of fresh water and
carried it to the camp site. When they had finished, she and Maggie
sat back and enjoyed the relaxing sound of the river as it flowed
across the rocks. The sound of the moving water was the only sound
that filled the air until Maggie pointed to the sky and they saw a
majestic eagle soaring toward the ocean. The large bird called out
when it spotted something moving on the ground, then flew out of
eyesight.