Snatched by cmsix

Chapter 20

"And what are you going to explore," Shaeta asked.

"I will be looking around on the other side of the river. There is a small herd of cashda that waters near where we dug the clay. I am going to try capturing them," I said.

"But why, and how? I have never even been able to see one, most people haven't," Katia said.

"They are from another world also, or at least that is where they started from. Kwagi can't get close to them because they can get your scent from so far away, just like I can. They can't get my scent from so far like I can't get theirs. I have already been within a few hundred yards of them," I said.

"I still don't understand why you want them now. We will not be pulling our travois to another place for a long time," Shaeta said.

"You mean we probably won't be. You know that Matatu already wants to explore another location. That is how we got into the scrape with the loners in the first place.

"Besides, pulling travois is not all that cashda are good for."

"I have heard they are good to eat, but I don't think anyone in our Calak has ever tasted them," Shaeta said.

"They are even better for something else I know of. They can be trained to let you ride on their backs."

That got their attention and I knew they were having a hard time believing it.

"I have done it in my last world. With proper training the cashda will not even mind. They can carry a man all day without becoming too tired.

"If I had one, I could go far away to hunt, kill a large thaka, and then use a travois on my cashda to bring the thaka back while I rode on its back. They are very useful," I said.

"Well you have done as we asked anyway. You have entertained us while we made the gloves for Matita. Now we are done and we can blow out the candles and let you entertain us in the furs," Shaeta said, and that's just what happened.

Of course we were up with the sunrise the next morning. As we dressed my mates had a little surprise of their own for me.

"Nita and Lanita will be eating with us this morning," Katia said.

"Who are Nita and Lanita?" I asked.

"Nita is the healing woman you found and Lanita is her small daughter," Shaeta said.

"Oh, I didn't know their names. The small one is so cute, but when I saw her last she had just been hurt by the asshole that Matatu took care of later."

"We know. She told us all about it," Katia said.

"Nita did?"

"No, Lanita did. You are her hero as well as ours. She's the one who asked if they could eat with us, and apparently she wants to do it from now on. It embarrassed Nita when she asked me," Shaeta said, "but I thought it was very nice. It will be good for Katia and I to know more about dealing with children."

That made my ears perk up, since it seemed to indicate that a baby or two might be appearing in a while.

"No, do not go strutting around like you've done something yet. We saw that glint in your eyes. You have been doing your duty for sure, but we are not with child yet, neither of us," Katia said, and then they both laughed at me.

"Maybe I should work harder at it."

"You won't be working any harder unless Breezus sends us another helper. My throat is nearly raw from the screaming you made me do last night," Katia said.

"Mine too," Shaeta said, agreeing.

"It is like a woman always told me when I was younger. She said that children were fun coming in but hell coming out," I said, and got a laugh of my own.

Denac was waiting by our usual spot so I joined him while my mates joined his to go and get our food ready. I spotted Nita near the cooking fire but I didn't see Lanita. In fact, I didn't remember seeing her since they made it to our camp. She was probably sleeping late this morning. I had already noticed that the children normally stayed in the huts until the morning meal was ready.

"So, are you ready to go on your exploration?" Denac asked.

"Yes. I am anxious to get the cashda captured. It will take weeks to train them just for pulling the travois."

"It will be a terrible job for you. How will you handle them alone for all that time," he asked.

"I'm hoping that someone will help me."

"But how can they if the cashda can get their scent so easily?" he asked.

"It will not matter if they have your sent after they cannot escape. They will become accustomed to you. Once they see that we mean then no harm they will not be so frightened. You will see. After we have them for a while they will see it as normal, or almost normal."

"I will take your word for it, and if it is somehow possible that one day I'll be able to touch one it will make me happy. I never thought I'd touch a live thaka until you brought Buttercup to our camp, and now it seems I'm stumbling into him nearly every day," Denac said, grinning.

My mates, Jekaycey, Nita, and Lanita headed our way with food about then. Nita seemed a little uncomfortable to be doing it and Lanita was almost hiding behind her mother's skirts. At least they hadn't forgotten the purpose of the trip and had plenty of food with them.

"Good morning, Nita, and Lanita. I am happy to see you this morning. I'm thrilled to have breakfast with the woman who saved our Zakat," I said.

"I too. I feel honored," said Denac, joining right in.

At least it put them slightly at ease and even Lanita didn't seem so shy now. As they all found a place to sit Lanita was looking around for a spot when I spoke up again.

"Come, Lanita, I have saved a place for you," I said.

She eyed me cautiously and then came to stand in front of me, looking to see if she could find the place.

"But where?" she asked, finally.

"Right here," I said, picking her up and putting her in my lap. It made her giggle.

"Now, let's see what my wonderful mates have made for our breakfast," I said, holding up my large bowl and eyeing it. "Do you see anything you might like?"

She didn't speak but pointed to a tidbit. I picked it up at once and popped it into her open mouth. She seemed to nearly sigh with contentment and when I glanced at Nita, mostly to make sure I wasn't out of line, I saw that she had tears running down her cheeks. She wasn't balling her eyes out or anything but she was crying silently, a little. At least she smiled at me when she saw me looking.

Lanita didn't notice anything going on but it was easy to tell that she was happy. She waited patiently while I got a bite and then she'd point to what she wanted as I chewed. I was surprised at how right it felt to hold her and feed her like that and damned if I didn't nearly tear up myself. After all she was very brave for such a young child and it seemed she was remarkably resilient too.

After we'd finished eating the women left with the bowls, but Lanita stayed on my lap.

"Have you met Buttercup, Lanita?"

"Who is Buttercup," she asked.

"Buttercup is my thaka's name."

"I didn't know it had a name. I have seen it, but mother told me not to bother it," she said.

"Well, you should not go near Buttercup unless someone bigger is with you. I don't think Buttercup would try to hurt you, but it might decide to play and maybe get too rough. We can go see him now though and I will introduce you," I said.

Of course she was all for it and damned if Buttercup wasn't too when we got to him. He was very curious about Lanita but when I had her pet his neck he stood very still, no doubt hoping she wouldn't stop anytime soon. Lanita could barely stop giggling as she did it.

A few minutes later Lanita was glad to ride on my shoulders and I took her back near the center of camp where Jekaycey, my mates, Nita, and Caloe were talking.

"Who is going to take care of my little princess while I am gone today?" I asked, as I approached them.

"I guess that honor will revert to me," Nita said, grinning.

"Be sure to feed her well at lunch. I won't be back by then, but I'll be here for supper to make sure she is full for the night," I said.

"We will see that she is well fed my mate. I'm sure we won't match the excellent job you did at breakfast, but we will try our best to perform under pressure," Katia said, mocking me.

"Very well, if she is happy when I return I might not even spank you tonight," I said. It made Katia and Shaeta laugh at me, but it made Nita blush furiously.

I fetched my rifle from our hut then and latched my hatchet onto my web belt.  In minutes I was headed for the river crossing. When I got there I shucked my boots, socks, pants and even underwear to cross. Walking around all day in wet clothes didn't appeal to me.

On the other side I dressed and scanned around for hoof prints at once. I didn't see any. That was the bad news. The cashda could very well have moved out of the area and if they had I was going to be pissed. I started toward the last place I'd seen them but I didn't feel optimistic.

Forty-five minutes later I was there but the cashda weren't. I did find some prints though and while they weren't fresh, they had been made since I was here before. It took a few minutes casting about to decide which way I thought they'd gone.

There's a lot of difference in trying to follow a trail of hoof prints made by horses that are being ridden and trying to follow horses left to their own devices. When not being directed by man, a horse does not go in a straight line; it grazes, pulling up grass here and then there but not moving in any particular direction. Horses usually don't decide they need to go somewhere and head that way in a straight line. They just amble along, kinda.

I spent two hours following their ambling, and even though I felt I was still less than a mile from our camp, I was sure I had walked ten. I was well and truly tired of this game already. Let me tell you it was a real mood elevator when I found them.

They had passed through a sort of opening in hilly terrain into what looked at first like a large natural clearing. It wasn't though. It was what you might hear called a box canyon in the cowboy movies. Of course it was nothing like a box, but it did have only one entrance/exit suitable for horses. The good part was that I was standing in that entrance and the horses were already inside.

The open area was probably over a hundred and fifty acres and almost all of it was clear for some reason. Men could make it out the other end by climbing a rocky hillside, but I was pretty sure the horses, or cashda, couldn't. They were stuck in there until I left, but of course I was stuck here. I was afraid if I left they would make their exit.

This was too good of an opportunity to let slide. If I had to I was going to fence the whole two hundred and fifty yards of the entrance with nothing but my hatchet and hard headedness, but I hoped I wouldn't have to.

Cursing myself for a dumbass for not telling anyone about the near universal three shot distress signal, I pointed the M1 toward a bank and fired three shots one after the other, spaced out just enough to make three distinct noises. All I could do after that was hope they'd notice and send someone to investigate. Then again, I could start blocking the entrance.

There were plenty of small post oaks scattered around and I started cutting then and trimming branches. The entrance had trees growing in it too, and they were thick enough that I wouldn't have to worry about post if I could figure a way to attach the rails I was cutting. I guessed at the quarter hours and fired three more shots on them, hoping someone would catch on.

I'd felled eight of the small trees and fired the signal seven times before I heard Denac yelling my name. I replied as loudly as I could and sat down on my ass for a break. He and the whole captured crew came up a few minutes later.

"Was that a signal for us to come, Carl?" Denac asked.

"Yes, and I was stupid not to tell you about it before I left. I'm glad you caught on."

"I didn't. In fact I didn't notice it until your mates asked us to come and check on you. I will be sure to listen for it next time though," he said.

"That's why I feel so dumb. If I'd told you about it beforehand you would have realized I needed some help right away."

"Yes, that's right. You don't look injured though. What do you need help with?" he asked.

"Look up into that clearing."

They all walked through the small bunch of trees then and looked. They were amazed to get this close a look at cashda.

"Now we will see if they are good to eat. I have heard they are but have never tasted them," one of the wild ones said.

"I hate to disappoint you, but you won't get to see now either, unless one is hurt accidentally. We are not hunting them for food. We are going to capture them. Once we have, and I've trained them, you will see that killing them for food is a terrible waste," I said.

None of them argued but I could tell that only Denac had any idea of what I was talking about. It didn't matter, they didn't need to know now, they needed to build fence. Meanwhile, they were the fence. The cashda could easily get their scent now and they weren't about to come near this place.

"What must we do now Carl?" Denac asked.

"Will you stay here and keep them from leaving? I will go back to camp and get more tools so we can close it off."

"Yes, we will stay. I can see that there is no other way out for them and they aren't going to approach us. Is there anything we can do while you are gone?" he asked.

"Take my hatchet if you'd like. You can cut more trees about the size of these I've cut and we will make a fence when I get back."

He took it and they started right away. I headed back to camp. I was going to get my axe, a saw or two, and everyone that would come help.

My mates mobbed me when I got back and so did Nita and Lanita. I think Nita thought I had been hurt, but after looking me over she decided to believe me when I said I hadn't been. Lanita hadn't seemed to be worried, she just wanted back in her spot for another shoulder ride and I obliged her.

"What was happening Carl? We thought you were signaling for someone to come help you. At least we did after we heard it the third time," Shaeta said.

"I was signaling, because we have had a wonderful stroke of luck. That small band of cashda is up in a slight canyon that only has one way out.

"Denac and the others are keeping it closed up now, and I've come back for more help and some of my tools. I intend to keep the cashda there until I can capture and train some," I said.

"How many will you need to help, and do you need to take anything else with you?" Caloe, who had come up, asked.

"Six more men would be plenty. I will take some tools and some rawhide thong to tie small trees to large ones would help too."

"We have many shorter thongs from those that we cut," Shaeta said.

"We also have many short thongs that we use. We try to always keep plenty," Caloe said.

"Good. I would like to use the shortest that I can, to keep from wasting longer ones. We will not need them always, and after we have the cashda trained we can use them in halters and such as that," I said, forgetting for a second that most people wouldn't know what in the hell I was talking about.

Even though most of them didn't understand what I was up to, there was no shortage of volunteers, especially since I had come back soaked nearly to the waist from not stripping down to cross the river this time. I found my axe and a handsaw and my mates found plenty of thongs and then we were off. My mates would not stay behind this time and as I was leaving I could see that Lanita definitely wanted to go too.

What the hell, we weren't going to be doing anything dangerous, so I asked Nita if it was all right.

"It is fine, because I want to come too. I have never seen a cashda, except from very far away, and surely not from so close."

So we were off, with what seemed half the Calak.

All of us walked directly into the river and got soaked and then we moved on to the small clearing. When we reached Denac and the others I knew right away that we'd have much more help than we needed, for this project at least. It didn't matter much though, since in this case more could be better. It didn't take me long to explain how to make a fence and it didn't take them much longer to get right to work. I never even had to put Lanita on the ground and I could tell she loved her perch.

"Lanita and I are going to take a closer look at the cashda now. I'd let everyone come, but they won't be as afraid of me as they would of all you, and the more that come the more frightened they'll be. Don't worry, everyone will get to see them soon enough," I said, looking at Nita mostly to make sure she didn't balk.

She seemed almost as excited, as I knew Lanita was, so I turned and headed directly for the cashda, telling Lanita not to wave her hands around.

"I wasn't thinking of it, but why do you say not to?" she asked, innocently enough.

"It would frighten them."

"But I am very small and they look very large," she said.

"I know, but you are up high on my back now, and they don't know you are not very tall. Besides, quick movements scare them anyway, until they are accustomed to them."

We didn't speak anymore as we approached the cashda. Their milling about became more agitated but they didn't panic. They trotted off several times, but there weren't a lot of places they could go. They weren't about to get closer to the other end and even more people, so they just moved off one way and then the next as I kept trying to get closer.

One thing I noticed, as we got near was that they were huge. If I had to guess I'd say that they were Clydesdales, in fact they almost certainly were. I wondered why in the hell whoever put them here had chosen this breed, but I wasn't sorry about it. Clydesdales were intelligent horses and fairly easy to train, or so I'd heard.

There was no way I was going to be able to get very close, but they did settle down a little and quit moving off until I was within a hundred feet or so. I had no illusions about roping one of them on foot and taking command though. They were wild horses, no matter the breed, and they weren't going to be trained easily. It would take a lot more patience, as in slow work, to get any use out of them.

Meanwhile, Lanita had been thrilled to be so close to them, especially after she noticed the youngsters following after their mothers.

"What will you do with them after you catch them?" she asked, finally.

"I will teach them to let me ride on their back."

"Can you do that?" she asked, clearly amazed.

"I taught you to ride on my shoulders didn't I?"

"Oh Daddy, that isn't the same, I wanted to ride on your shoulders," she said, giggling again.

"I have taught other cashda before, and I think I can do it again."

"Will you take me for a ride after you have?" she asked.

"Didn't you know? One of them will be for you?"

"You are so nice to me. I was sad when that Kaglao killed my Daddy, and I am still sad about it sometimes, but I am happy that you saved us and I'm very glad to be with you now," she said, with the sincerity only a child can use.

I was crying myself now, tears dripping from my eyes. I didn't say anything for a few seconds, fearing I'd just wail if I opened my mouth. Finally I thought I had my emotions under control.

"I didn't know your daddy, Lanita, but I'm sure he was a fine man. I am glad that you are with us now though and I hope you will always be happy."

We'd seen enough for now so we returned to the fencing project. It was nearly done, or the directions I'd given them were nearly completed. Unfortunately I had to expand on the specifications.

"Denac, they are much bigger than I thought, and obviously much stronger too. I think we should add three more rails to the fence," I said.

"Maybe we should, but it is getting near dark and I doubt we'll have time today. I think the best thing to do is for some of us to stay here. They have water available from that stream near the west wall, and they won't approach this end if some men stay," he said.

"You're right, but who will stay?"

"We will," said one of the loners.

"All of you?" I asked.

Even though he said yes, I looked at each of them, hoping I could tell if they were being deceitful. I didn't sense it, so I looked a question to Denac.

"I think it will be better that way. They can show us that they aren't complete fools by taking on responsibility," he said.

"Very well, but some of them should come with us to bring back food and their bedding.

"Decide among yourselves which of you will be coming to fetch your bedding and supper," I told them.

After they decided I had them gather wood for a fire and then did the Zippo trick to get it going for them. I even promised to show them how it was done if they did a good job tonight. We left after that with four of them coming with us.

At camp the four rolled up all the bedding and then waited for their rations to be prepared. I noticed that Caloe sent them off with as much as they could carry, and they seemed happy about it. Lanita and I went to visit Buttercup while supper was being prepared for the rest of us, and then we were quick to get in our places when it was time to eat.

We didn't talk much as we ate, but when we were done Nita had a question for me.

"Carl, you act almost as if you have done this before. Have you?" she asked.

"Yes, I've done something similar. Not this exactly, but it was close enough. This will take longer though."

"Then I will stop wondering whether it will work as you say," she said.

As Nita and Lanita left for the night to go to their hut, I gave Lanita a kiss on the cheek and then she gave me one. My mates and Nita smiled over it but no one said anything.