Chapter 13

"Hey Rafe," he changed the subject. " I really need to talk to you about something. Remember when I tried building my base camp on the lake and those rogues destroyed it? Do you remember that abandoned gathering spot I told you about?"

"Yeah, what about it. I hope you haven’t been snooping around there."

"I think Sarah’s mother is buried there and two older brothers that she doesn’t even know about. I also think it’s where my parents died."

"What!" Rafe exclaimed. "You’d better tell me what you are talking about."

For the first time Tobal told Rafe about his parents and how they had been the creators of the sanctuary program, how it had been first a social experiment and then a classified Federation project. He told how his uncle had been the military officer in charge of the program and how his parents had been found floating dead on the lake. He added the part about Uncle Harry getting injured and closing down the project.

Then he went on to mention what Sarah’s father had told him about knowing his parents and working on a classified matter transmission project and an even more secret project concerning bi-location and a shaman named Howling Wolf. He told how his parents and a small group including Sarah’s father had been at a secret meeting when the entire village by the lake had been attacked and everyone massacred.

It had been right after that his parents were found dead and two surviving members of the secret group were hunted down and executed. Howling Wolf and Sarah’s father were both members of the secret group that had survived along with a few children.

"What I don’t understand," he told Rafe. "Is my uncle never told me about any of the stuff Sarah’s dad told me about. He didn’t tell me anything about the sanctuary program either and he must have known quite a bit about it. All he did was give me a letter from my parents and a ticket to Heliopolis.

He didn’t want me to go to Old Seattle like the letter said. He said no one lived there anymore. I had to change the ticket myself at the last minute. I felt I 'needed' to go to Old Seattle first and do what the letter told me to. That’s where I met Sarah and her father."

"My uncle said the same thing about Howling Wolf, that he wasn’t alive anymore. I need to go back Rafe. I need to check it out and find out anything I can about my parents. That place is haunted and something doesn’t feel right. The Lord and Lady keep telling me that I need to go there."

Rafe was startled, "The Lord and Lady? They talk to you and tell you to go to the lake?"

"Well they don’t really talk to me," he said. "It’s more like they put thoughts in my head and my heart. It’s like they are guiding me or something."

Rafe ran a hand through his tousled hair with a worried look on his face. "This is too much man! I’ve got to think about this awhile. I never heard of the Lord and Lady talking to anyone except the High Priest and High Priestess. The rest of what you said is just crazy. If I didn’t know you, I would say you were making the whole thing up."

His eyes searched Tobal’s and probed deeply with no hint of his grin. "But you’re not making it up are you?"

"No," Tobal answered quietly.

Rafe sighed in frustration. "I didn’t think so." He rubbed his hair again. "Promise me you won’t go there until we talk about this again, ok? It might be dangerous and we have to be careful."

"I’ll talk to you at circle next month then," Tobal said. "I need to go back there before it gets snowed in."

He left Rafe and went back to watch the other initiations. There were five initiations this month. Sarah was going to be initiated with Melanie’s newbie, Butch and Becca’s newbie, Mike. There were two others Tobal didn’t know. It was going to be a long night at circle again.

Tobal couldn’t stop the thoughts running through his head. He looked around the circle at some of the others he knew. Char was watching her newbie get initiated. Apparently Char and Wayne had broken up. Tobal looked around and didn’t see Wayne at circle and wondered if he was at sanctuary waiting for his own newbie.

It was late after the initiations when he finally caught up with Melanie and told her about his plan. He was relieved when she seemed to like it.

"That’s a good idea," she told him. "This past month was hard for me and I don’t think Butch is ready for winter yet. I don’t even know if I am. I didn’t want to tell you but I am a bit worried. We didn’t do a lot of winter stuff when you trained me and food is getting harder to come by. I know how to make snow shoes and winter clothing in theory but it’s a lot different in real life."

"I’m pretty much the same way," he told her. "Rafe taught me at the end of winter when we really didn’t need anything. I made some things then and they’ve been sitting at Rafe’s ever since. I need to stop by there and pick some of that stuff up to help me remember. That’s why I thought maybe a bunch of us could get ready for winter together. I was going to ask Nick too if that is alright with you."

"Sure," she said. "Maybe we can have Becca and Mike over too. I know she was having the same troubles because I talked with her earlier this morning and she was worried about Mike too. She was thinking she might have to hole up for the winter with him before he gets a chance to solo because he wouldn’t be ready to survive a real blizzard yet."

"Well, I hadn’t really thought about anyone but you, Butch, Nick, and Sarah," he replied. He really wasn’t keen on the idea of having Becca around that much. It was uncomfortable for him and her presence always seemed to prevent his thoughts from going where they should.

"Oh, please!" She pleaded. "Becca really likes you. You should get to know her a little better and give her a chance. It would be fun!"

Tobal felt his face getting red. "I’ll see what Nick has to say first. He should have a say in this too."

"Ok, maybe I’ll talk to him too," she smiled and gave him a big hug and a kiss. "You are so nice to all of us."

Tobal didn’t feel so nice. In fact he was hoping he could talk Nick into saying seven people would be too many. Still he couldn’t help feeling a little guilty as he searched around the camp looking for Nick. He didn’t see him or Tara either. Not knowing what else to do he went over to the beer barrel for a brew.

When Tobal tracked down Nick later that night, he was with Tara. Tobal congratulated Nick on his solo and proposed his plan. Nick wasn’t really interested. He had just soloed and was happy about it. He didn’t think he needed anymore training and was partnering up with Tara for the winter anyway. He needed to be helping her get their winter camp together.

"Tara, I thought you were training someone this month?"

She regarded him with cool eyes and said, "I thought you were training someone this month too. What does it matter if I have Nick over this month when you are going to have six people at your place. I wouldn’t point too many fingers if I were you," she cautioned. "Maybe you should just mind your own business."

With a glum face he found Melanie and Becca and told them Nick wouldn’t be joining them. Becca was so excited about the plan she jumped up giving him a big hug and a kiss. As she kissed him, he felt an electric spark that tingled his ears and worked its way down to his tail bone. She had already turned and was hugging Melanie so she didn’t see his face turn white in shock.

He was not at all comfortable with the way he felt around her. She jangled his nerves and shook him up. He still hadn’t dared explore his feelings about her. Forcing his mind back to the subject at hand Tobal suggested they all go to his base camp for the next month and prepare for winter by working together. They agreed to start out the next day after breakfast.

His little valley was protected and full of browse. There would be deer and elk in it all winter and trapping fur bearing animals for winter clothing shouldn’t be hard if everyone was working at it. They could also work at shelter building and be welcome to stay as long as they needed to. By blind luck his little valley was the perfect location for a training camp.

He had most of it built already and making a few more shelters would go quickly. Together they could make what they needed and share resources. What they really needed was winter clothing and equipment. Making it would be time consuming. This fall furs would be prime enough to make good winter clothing and it was time to start trapping.

Late September brought snow in the mountains but it didn’t stay. There was just enough to make things seem white. They worked as a team. Melanie was the best trapper and she worked with the others on getting enough pelts for winter clothing.

They practiced intensely with the bow, making arrows and working on a permanent shelter. In all there were six of them. They were Tobal and his trainee, Sarah; Melanie and her trainee, Butch; Becca and her trainee, Mike.

At first they thought the best type of shelter would be a log cabin but that presented difficulties since they had no axes to cut the trees. In addition finding and laying rock for a fireplace and chimney would be too time consuming. Thatching material for a roof was no longer available. They had waited too long and winter was too close.

What they did settle on was to continue using the teepee shelters and further insulate them with furs on the outside. They built two other teepees that could be used for storage and for privacy or work space as needed. That solution was quick, simple, and effective allowing them to focus on other things like winter clothing, snow shoes and food caches.

They rigged more deadly traps and dead falls. They noticed the airsleds more often checking them out during the days. The medics were keeping closer tabs on everyone and making sure they were prepared for the coming months.

It was easier to hunt with some tracking snow. One hunter would track the animal and it would move toward one of the others that waited hidden in a blind. They got plenty of deer that way. Still the final weeks in October were increasingly difficult and Tobal understood at last why most people didn’t try training newbies during the winter.

His group was prepared though and each member of the group was outfitted with warm fur outer clothing and boots, blankets, emergency food rations, snowshoes for when needed and a small sled to pull and carry their supplies when they traveled. There was too much to carry in a pack.

The weather was still fairly nice but could change any time. Mike, Butch and Sarah were anxious to solo since they had been training for almost two months. They felt more than prepared and wanted to get it over with.

Becca and Melanie wanted to find their own base camps, set up for the winter and start training newbies. They were going to help each other get set up right after the coming circle. Tobal was not accustomed to being around so many people for such a prolonged amount of time and anxious to get away and have some time alone. He wanted to get back to the lake.

They made the trip back to the gathering spot together in high spirits. Mike, Butch and Sarah were proclaimed ready to solo and the elders agreed since they came into camp with a full assortment of winter clothing and gear and because they had two months of training. They had done a lot of work and really felt prepared about the coming winter. It had been time well spent and it had been fun as well.

Tara’s newbie was also ready to solo and one more Tobal didn’t recognize. Nikki had a newbie ready to be initiated along with Char’s newbie and two others. But Char’s newbie wasn’t ready to solo yet. He spoke with Char briefly after leaving the others at the Circle of Elders.

"Hi Char," he grinned. "Who is your new friend?"

She grinned back and blushed a bit. "Hi Tobal, this is Rory. He’s a newbie that I’ve been working with this past month. He’s pretty sharp too.".

Tobal noticed Rory’s eyes light up at the compliment. He grinned and shook his hand. "You watch that she doesn’t feed you too much now. Char is the best cook out here." Then he turned back to Char.

"I’ve been looking for Wayne, have you seen him?" He asked. The grim look in her eyes and flash of anger told him he had just made a mistake.

He’s out there somewhere being a jerk," she snapped. "I finally told him to just stay away from me. He is so jealous about Rory here. I’m afraid he is going to start a fight with him and that is so very stupid. Other couples don’t have this problem do they?" She asked.

"I wouldn’t know about that," Tobal said. "What I’ve heard in general is most people try not to get into serious relationships with each other until they are at least Journeymen. Then they can at least live together and keep working toward citizenship."

"That was our mistake," she sighed. "We should have waited till we each trained our newbies but it’s so hard now since we have become so used to each other. I did talk to him though and we are both going to work on training newbies so we can move on to the Journeyman level at least."

"That sounds like a really good plan," Tobal said. He gave Char a hug and kiss nodding to Rory. "I’ll see you both around later."

He watched as Kevin, Zee, Nikki and Ox each got chevrons. That made one for Kevin, Two for Zee and one for Nikki. For the Ox it was six and he would finally get his initiation to Journeyman. He was happy about it since he had been almost two years as an Apprentice.

Kevin and Zee were standing together chatting as he walked over to congratulate them on their chevrons.

"Hey did you two finally decide to partner up for the winter?" He asked curiously.

Kevin had his arm around Zee’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. She gave Kevin a quick kiss and smiled at Tobal. "It’s kind of complicated," she said. "We both want to train one more newbie before Yule and then partner up for the rest of the winter. Winters get pretty long and partnering up for three months sounds a lot better to both of us then partnering up for five if you know what we are talking about."

Kevin laughed, "Yeah, we’d still like to be friends next spring so we are taking this kind of slow."

"Hey that’s great!" Tobal grinned and gave them both a big hug. "Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do."

They chatted a bit longer and watched Nick and Tara kissing.

"You think they will be friends next spring?" Tobal asked jokingly.

"Who knows," Kevin replied. I wouldn’t talk if I were you though. You need a little romance in your life so you are not so sour all the time. There are lots of girls around here that would be interested in partnering up for the winter with you."

"Newbies are just fine." Tobal said blushing. "They do what I tell them to most of the time and are glad to leave after training. The Apprentice degree is not really good for romance. I just got an earful about it from Char. She’s afraid Wayne is going to tear her newbie’s head off."

Tobal’s distraction was successful and they gossiped about Char and Wayne a bit. He excused himself after a few minutes and said he was going to bring wood in for the fires. He headed off looking for Rafe or Dirk intending to work with them for a bit. He found Dirk near one of the fire pits splitting logs with a stone hammer and some stone wedges.

"Hey Dirk, have you seen Rafe around?" He asked casually.

"Don’t know and don’t care," came Dirk’s surly reply.

"What’s up, you sound kind of grumpy," Tobal quipped and picked up a second hammer and wedge to help.

Dirk sighed and rubbed his shoulder. "The weather is getting to my shoulder. It aches and makes me grumpier than usual." They worked together for an hour splitting the larger logs into sizes that would burn in the fire pits.

"You still at two chevrons?" Tobal inquired.

"Yeah, been having some tough luck lately. Rafe won his second fight and crowing about it. You will have to let him tell you about it. I’m tired of hearing it so many times."

"That sounds interesting," Tobal replied. "I was planning on talking with him later anyway. I’ll have to ask him how it went."

They finished the last log and Tobal put the stone hammer and wedge down.

"I’m going to get something to eat. That was hard work. I’ll see you later ok?"

"See you around Tobal and thanks for the help."