Crusoe became a quick hit among the young of the tribe, charismatic bastard as he is. It was quite amusing seeing so many little grayish creatures grouping around my four-legged companion, petting his fur.
Meanwhile, I was shown around the village by River, and I must admit I wasn’t very impressed by what I saw. The huts were small, and not especially clean, and I reckon it’d be better for me to sleep outdoors than inside of one of them. They had no system of waste disposal, and everything was just gathered in a huge pile behind the village proper, and it stank something fierce.
And the villagers were very dirty, seemingly putting little value in hygiene or bathing. I was just happy I had convinced River to bathe with me several times back in the brook next to the cave, which although shallow, had kept us clean.
I also noticed that several of the natives seemed sick. Strange. I hadn’t had as much as a cold since I arrived in this place.
Many of the villagers approached me curiously, and I got the impression that a lot of the females were intrigued by my physique. Luckily, River didn’t seem to mind the attention I was attracting.
I must admit, that after I had just turned my back for a second, I was surprised when I turned around to see that one of the native children had climbed on top of Crusoe’s back, and was now riding him around the village center.
Crusoe didn’t mind much, it seemed. I think he understood that this was just children playing, and he was gentler with them than I had ever seen him be before.
I guess he really likes kids.
Later that evening, the tribe held a small feast to celebrate the return of their lost daughter. I was invited, of course, but I couldn’t help but notice that I and Crusoe were never quite accepted by the hunters of the tribe, and their hostility was nearly tangible.
But eventually they left for the hunt.
I stayed up that night, but I could hardly stray from the large campfire. The lack of a moon made it so that to me, the night was pitch black, and I could hardly see my hand in front of me.
I spent the night talking to the elders of the village, using River as my translator.
I talked to them about the sickness of their tribe, and I learnt it wasn’t uncommon for them to get sick.
I told them how they should clean themselves to avoid sickness, and at first they laughed at me. Then River herself told them how she hadn’t fallen ill a single time in the weeks she had spent with me, and then they grew silent. I also told them how getting rid of their waste further away from their homes would help.
By that time, they were listening to my advice, and maybe it would help them to recover, and avoid future infection.
But I still had a lot of work to do here, and I had so much to teach them.
When the morning came, the hunters returned. As I watched them walk into the light of the campfire, I saw that their catch was rather small. They returned with one of the swift prey-beasts that had become my main form of sustenance back in the cave, a bunch of birdlike creatures, and a basket full of fish.
I found myself wondering how this would do to feed an entire village. All of them must be half starved!
I approached the elders about this, and they explained that their tribe was weak, and their valley had only a small amount of beasts for the hunters to catch, I also learned that the feast earlier wasn’t of a meager size because they didn’t want to use up any more resources, but because they didn’t have any more food to eat.
I then learned that a large part of the mountain side, which was the most fertile area of the valley, was infested with “igeel”, which was then explained as the large lizards that had made up my first meal planet side.
I was starting to think maybe there was something that I could do to help them with that, but not now.
I had been up for a day and a night, so when the natives started retreating to their homes, I joined River in one of the huts.
It was crowded, smelly, and the clay construction was hardly well-made.
Maybe I could help them a little when it came to architecture as well?
But one thing at a time. First to deal with the food issue.
I slept, but woke up around the midday hour. I felt relatively refreshed, but all the natives, including River, still slept soundly.
I untangled myself from River gently, and made my way out of the hut.
Well outside, I proceeded out of the cluster of huts before I whistled for Crusoe.
It was time to hunt.
I had my metal spear and Crusoe. I was ready.
I started making my way in the direction that the elders had claimed too dangerous to visit.
When I started making my way up the side of the valley, I soon started seeing cave entrances nearby.
“Crusoe, search.”
Crusoe darted away, sniffing the ground and then started moving towards the entrance to one of the caves, and I grabbed my spear tightly.
My knuckles whitened from the power of my grip, and I followed in Crusoe’s paw prints tightly.
I started hearing growling from the cave.
The hair in Crusoe’s neck rose, and he bared his fangs. He snarled back at the creatures in the cave.
There were two of them.
Last time there had been one. I might have taken water over my head.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
The lizards prepared to leap, but we didn’t wait.
Crusoe struck first, darting into the cave, biting and tearing at everything in reach.
He fought as a dog possessed, and lizard blood sprayed everywhere.
I darted in, and struck out with quick, straight thrusts, and I put the scaled creatures out of their misery.
They hadn’t even had a chance to leap.
It seemed both me and Crusoe had gotten into far better shape in our time here.
I patted him on the head, and felt the sticky sensation of blood in his fur, none of which was his own.
“Good boy.”
We had hunted down five lizards before I decided it was time to head back. I lifted them over my shoulders, and felt the partially exposed guts of our latest catch squelch towards my arm.
I needed a bath badly, but not as badly as Crusoe.
He was covered in lizard blood, and was now sitting on the ground, licking himself clean.
“Come on, boy. I’ll clean you up in the river.”
We started heading back.
I placed our prey with the meat the hunters had gathered the night before, and I started looking around for whatever facilities they used to smoke their meat, but in the end I found none.
I decided that I had to teach them how to make it when the evening came around, but first I went to the river and bathed with Crusoe.
I played with Crusoe in the river, throwing a stick into the stream for him to dive in and fetch. And soon I dove in myself, purging myself of lizard guts and gunk.
Crusoe paddled happily around in the stream for a while, until he decided that he had enough, and made his way onto the shore.
Once there, he shook himself dry, and found his way to the shade of a tree where he napped.
I figured we both deserved the rest, so I got myself up, and out of the water, sitting myself next to him, and idly scratched his belly until I snoozed off.
I awoke that evening from the sun setting, shining the day’s last lights into my eyes.
I grumbled and stretched, and Crusoe did the same, before getting on his paws and walking over to the river to get a drink.
I stand up, rubbing my back which had gotten a tad stiff from my sitting position beneath the tree.
I start to head back to the village, not bothering with calling for Crusoe. He’d find me when he wanted to, and he wasn’t blinded by the night, as he relied more on his nose than his eyes.
When I reached the village center, I saw that there was quite some activity going on around the storage hut. Some of the villagers seemed ecstatic, some of the hunters seemed stricken with disbelief.
I walked over and looked over them to the center of the attention. It was the lizards that I had hunted with Crusoe.
I know they were considered dangerous, but I didn’t see the big deal at the time.
River approached me.
“Did you hunt the Igeel?”
I shrugged.
“Yeah, I mean your tribe shared its’ food with me, so I figured I’d return the favor.”
She laughed rather heartily.
“You know, it would take five men to take down one of these? You just killed five in one day.”
I scratched my beard slowly.
“Well, I didn’t know it’d cause a big commotion. I hope they weren’t sacred or anything?”
She giggles, seemingly in a very good mood.
“no, they are considered evil. You just casually did what no one has done in ages. You know, you really deserve the title master-of-beasts.
You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
Suddenly she seemed a little worried. I just smile and cup her cheek in my hand.
“Not a scratch on me.”