She had been up long before the first rays of day had began to creep along the land. Also One had been fed, rocked back to sleep and left under the watchful eyes of her girls. In the gray dawn, she had made her way to the kaiila pens and began to work. Her mind and her hands were kept busy by the situation there.
The wounded beasts had been put into segregation pens, and the mortally wounded ones separated even from them. These were the ones that she saw to first. There were three of them that were beyond their help, and to her this was heart wrenching. One was already down, unable to stand, too weak from loss of blood. It was kinder to have one of the men to drive a lance through his heart, than to let him suffer the pain and bleed to death. The two others were nearly as bad, and they made quick work of them so they did not have to suffer needlessly. She could not help herself, she cried at the loss and the waste. Hallie had stood aside, watching and it was quite evident to her that the young woman was effected more than some realized.
As the carcasses were lifted onto a wagon, Hallie had ventured to ask what became of them now. She explained to here that they would be taken away from the camp and burned. Hallie had looked to her in confusion…….a pyre, for the beast. Nodding, she went on to explain, that there would be a pyre of sorts, but for entirely different reasons. If just taken out and dumped, they would present a larger problem, including wild sleens, the smell of decay and the contamination that might seep into the ground, or the water as they rotted. So the burning of the carcasses was a matter of safety, more than one of respect.
The rest of the day was spent in tending to the wounds of the ones that would live. Many a time during the day, she cursed under her breath, the men that had been foolish enough to get themselves into a situation that had caused so much destruction.
The horns of the tabuk are as dangerous as any lance weilded by the hand of a warrior. In fact, they may be more dangerous, because they are a natural appendage to the tabuk, where the lance of a warrior is something foreign that he must learn. There were a great many gashes and puncture wounds that needed to be tended too. Hallie worked by her side all that long day, learning which herbs were used to clean wounds, which ones were sprinkled into them to help staunch the flow of blood and to aid the healing process. She also learned the art of stitching flesh and muscle together in a situation that was not exactly optimal.
One of the first things that had to take place before you began to treat a wounded kaiila, is that his fangs and claws have to be taken out of the equation. Beasts were caught, tethered to the fence, and their mightily jaws tied tightly with strips of leather. Even after all of this, some still put up a valiant struggle. Often it took several men to hold the beast so that it could be administered to.
And the day was not without incident. One man had to be sent to the healers wagons due to the snapping jaws of a particularly stubborn kaiila that did not understand they were only trying to help. She herself ended up with a ripped tunic and a long scratch along her shoulder. But finally, they were finished and she sat down on the steps of the clan wagon, drinking from a bota of water, talking to Hallie about the events of the day. She was quite proud of the young woman. She had worked hard, asked good questions, and her hands were quick, deft.
After resting, she slid off the platform and they made one more check on the animals, then she told Hallie to follow her, that they still had work to do. The young woman looked confused, but did not question, just followed.
Rook had spent his day, asking questions, finding out which families had been affected by the incident, which one's would not have mates to hunt for a time due to injuries, and who needed who. He had then gone to Leah with the information, and she and the slaves had worked all day on bundles of meats, breads and sweets. So many times, Cana had done this same thing for the woman, she had felt this was an opportunity to help pay back some of what she had received in the past.
Leah, Cana and Hallie worked well into the evening hours to visit the wagons of those that had been injured, delivering food that would help to tide them over for a few days, and leaving with the promise that they would be checking back on them as long as there was need.
Weary, they walked back to that circle of the first wagons, and Hallie finally spoke, wanting to know why they had taken food to the others. Cana explained to her quietly.......because, that is what we of the first wagons do. We try to see to the needs of everyone. That each and every person in the harigga was family, and family took care of family. It was just the nature of things.
It was Tuchuk.
No comments:
Post a Comment