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Message |
    
Kerensa
gatherer
Username: Kerensa
Post Number: 74
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, November 27, 2003 - 9:10 pm: |     |
Thalion! What an adventure! Now you also have to worry about leaving footprints!!! |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 498
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 11:57 am: | |
I started to sweat. What now? Chronopolice would kill me. Were these hunters now looking for the strange thing that made these prints? On top of the print, they had placed a little figurine. I didn't dare touch it, but it was a delicately carved little bison. If only I could take that with me... but what would they think if they came back and it was gone? What would they think if they found more of my tracks? As soon as that thought came to mind, I sat down and took of my boots. I'd better walk barefoot around here...
I wasn't sure what to do now. I had come back to get that hide, but I was afraid that those people were coming back and would find me here. I decided to take some risk, but not too much, and scrambled back up to the ledge where I hid my backpack behind the bushes. I got undressed and put all the modern clothes and equipment in the backpack.
Then I went back down into the valley and looked for the hide. The little pile of stones I had placed on top had perfectly concealed the place where I had buried it.
I was digging it out as quickly as I could, always listening and looking around, fearing that the hunters would come back. I dragged the hide out of the hole, muddy as it was, and went into the river with it to both, rinse it thoroughly, and get all the mud off me at the same time. The hide looked good, the hair started to fall out, I should scrape it on the spot, but I wouldn't do that. I wrung it out as good as I could and then folded it up. I hurried back up to my backpack and noticed that I had left plenty of footprints again, but this time of my bare feet. A good tracker would know immediately that I didn't belong to his hunting group though. So did that mean that they would be able to associate my footprints with that of the boot? What did they think of that imprint? Were they scared or awed, or merely puzzled? Were they curious or fearful? Was the little bison a gift, a sacrifice or something to ward off evil? I had no way of knowing this, but I decided to not take a risk. I got down again, broke a few branches off of the next bush and started to wipe out my prints as thorough as possible. The rain would complete my work.
I wasn't worried about tracks on top of the steppe, the stampeding animals would have erased any prints I might have left behind there.
Shivering from cold I finally cleaned myself up once again, and dragged the branch behind me when I went back up on the ledge. I got dressed again, and attached the wet and slippery hide to the outside of my backpack. The hiking boots went inside, I decided to walk barefoot, at least for a while. Then I climbed up to the steppe. I hadn't even bothered to look at the carcasses and see if I could use some of the meat the hunters had left behind. I was so eager to get away from this place that I forgot all about hunger and hunting.
While I was walking back I wondered if I should use the straight way home, or make some detours to make tracking me more difficult. What if someone followed me and found the cave and the time travel equipment? What if they destroyed the portal?
All these what-if's started to paralyze me. My gait had changed from a brisk walk to slowly plodding along, and my pampered feet hurt. I'm not used to walking barefoot. Every little piece of gravel hurt. And I don't like all that muck between my toes.
I decided to let things go, and put my trust in chronopolice if things got out of hand. I didn't want to think of the implications of this adventure just yet. I only wanted to go home, back to my cave.
Going on a long detour was worrying me. I didn't have a compass, and as soon as I left the river, I wouldn't know for sure which direction I went. It was still raining and no break in the clouds in sight.
When I came back to the tributary I had crossed, with the swamp at it's estuary, I decided to walk upstream in the water for a while. It would get me wet, but I thought it might be a realistic chance to get away if someone tracked me.
Walking in the water was even more tedious. I couldn't move fast, the pebbles were slippery and some had sharp edges. My feet hat many small cuts and bruises by now. I was feeling miserable, cold, and my nose started to run. If anything, I would come out of this with a heavy cold.
I don't want to bore you with tales about being miserable too much. After a seemingly endless time I decided it was enough and crossed the tributary. I would get to the Don river if I went straight ahead long enough, I hoped, since the Don made a large loop there. It shouldn't be much more than an hour's walk to get there if I didn't lose my direction.
Alas, it took a lot longer. My feet really hurt now, and I was feeling very cold. The rain wasn't really all that cold, but everything was damp by now.
At last, I reached 'my' river. I now only needed to follow the loop, go further upriver and arrive in my cave. It was already dark when I finally got there. I threw everything in a corner, didn't bother with a fire and just crawled into my sleeping bag.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Kerensa
gatherer
Username: Kerensa
Post Number: 88
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 5:40 pm: | |
Thalion, are you still sleeping? You must be very exhausted |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 543
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 9:18 am: | |
Yaaaaawn... what? blink...
Sorry, been so busy lately that there wasn't much room for creativity. I will wake up soon. 
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 586
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 15, 2003 - 12:57 pm: | |
July 30th, TT0
I slept very long, almost until midday. When I woke up, my feet were swollen and hurting. All those little cracks and scratches looked inflamed and needed thorough cleaning and disinfecting. I decided to take care of it and pamper myself a bit before I went to work with the hide I had brought back. Working on the hide would give me enough time for reflection. I had to come to a decision how I would proceed from now on.
After a swim in the river and thorough cleaning of myself with soaproot, I felt better. I would get all grimy again when I would work the hide, but I didn't care. When my feet were clean, I poured hot chamomile tea over the scratches, as hot as I could bear it, sprinkled some antibiotics powder on the scratches and then wrapped my feet in clean leather stripes. I would hobble along in my outdoor sandals as good as I could, wondering if this was safe, since those would also leave artificial foot prints.
Why didn't I get any advice or directives from chrono police, I wondered. Maybe I would have to make 'foot wraps' Clan style... I didn't think I would be able to make proper moccasins, although I could try. The people I watched wore some kind of footwear, but they had been too far away to take a close look, and I wasn't really focussing much on their footwear at that time.
I found that scratching the hide was tough, I hadn't payed enough attention and let it dry out on my way back. I decided to soak it for a while and made some foot wraps while it soaked. They looked funny and weren't very sturdy. I would have needed some real tough leather, but only had soft buckskin. Where is that mammoth hide when you need it? Even the buffalo hide would have made better footwear , I thought.
I decided that I would continue walking with bare feet as soon as the scratches were healed, if I could develop some more calluses, I wouldn't get hurt as easily.
When I checked on the hide, I found it flexible enough for working it, but the sun was already low in the sky, and I didn't really feel like staying up all night and working the hide. I decided to go on a short walk and harvest nuts, berries and other seeds that were starting to get ripe.
When I got back, it was almost dark. My basket was full, and I spread the fruit and greens out to dry. There were small choke cherries, a few wild cherries, raspberries, highbush cranberries and a large load of linden flowers. I had collected those earlier, but there were still some trees around that were in full bloom.
I also brought back dandelion leaves, sorrel, fireweed shoots, lambs quaters and a lot of thistle stalks. Sage and wild thyme were abundant. There weren't nuts and acorns yet, and the grass seeds weren't ripe either, but I was content with what I got for the day. There would still be time to go on harvesting trips in the near future.
I spread out part of the berries to dry, the rest I wanted to eat later. Fresh fish would have been nice, but there wasn't time to catch any today.
I decided to make pancakes (uhm- stone cakes?) instead, I still had some grains left, and ate the cakes with the berries. Afterwards I drank a soothing chamomile -linden flower tea, and then started making a stew that could cook in my cooking box over night and provide me with some warm food while I would be working the hide. Most of the greens I brought back wandered into the stew, and quite some amount of dried meat.
When I was finished, it was late, and I had not trouble falling asleep.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 587
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 15, 2003 - 2:20 pm: | |
August 5th, TT0
I spent the next days working the hide. I scratched it clean from both sides and then was at a loss. There was no brain to soften it, and if I wanted leather, I had no other choice than using up a large part of the fat I had rendered from the reindeer.
I could have tried to use fish oil - but I didn't catch that sturgeon yet, and wondered if I ever would. I could also postpone the whole procedure and tan with a vegetable tanning solution, but for that I would need a large container and a lot of oak bark - and still would need to treat it with fat or oil later on. So I decided to dry it instead and use it as rawhide.
While I was working the hide, I had ample time to think about the encounter with the local people. Exciting and fascinating as it was, the chance encounter had taken a large part of the fascination and fun out of my adventure. I would always have to be aware of being found or tracked by people from now on. In those past months I hadn't been careful at all with leaving footprints and organic waste behind, I could only hope that the regular downpours had extinguished all traces of my presence.
I would try to make moccasins and wear them on my foraging trips. I didn't want to wear my hiking shoes or the other modern shoes any more. But would I be able to make shoes comfortable and sturdy enough to go on longer trips?
Somehow I felt that I hadn't accomplished all that much while I was here. I had tried to avoid predators and get close to larger herds only when I was trying to hunt them. I had a good idea about the plant life, and the cave lion encounter was something I would never forget. And I had seen, and watched to some extent, the native people from this time. Wasn't that enough? For me it wasn't. I had planned to go on a longer trip North later in fall, as soon as I was done with gathering and storing plant food, and hoped to see some migrating mammoth on that trip. To visit the pleistocene and not see mammoth - that would be a personal disappointment.
I know - I should be happy that I managed to survive, without major injury, and in reasonable comfort. Looking at it now, there wouldn't be a chance to see mammoth unless they wandered right through the area of my cave, and I didn't think that I would be that lucky.
But being depressed about something like that wouldn't help me. I needed to make the best of the remaining time I had, and gather as much knowledge about the area as I could. But when I would go on extended harvesting trips, I would go North.
After the hide was clean, and stretched to dry, I wanted to get myself clean. Some of the scratches on my feet still hurt, and I was all sweaty and dirty.
I craved for some hot water for my feet, but I didn't have that many large watertight containers, and didn't want to use the few I had for bathing my feet.
When I was taking some of the stew out of the cooking box for lunch, I had an idea. I still had a large piece of rawhide, that original piece that was provided when I arrived here. I could dig out a shallow ditch and line it with the rawhide, pour some boiling water in it, and fill up with cold water. I knew from camping trips that it only takes little boiling water to get a fair amount of warm water for washing.
So I went down to the river, started a fire and heated cooking stones. I boiled water in the two largest wooden bowls I had, and dug the ditch. When I lined it with the rawhide, I found that the 'bathtub' was much larger than needed for my feet.
I started to grin. Should I? Why not. That would be pure heaven...
Quickly I got some soaproot and pounded it with a little water to extract the saponin and get some nice lather. When the water was boiling, I poured it into the tub, mixed it with cold water until it was just right - and then stepped in and sat down.
It was the best hot bath I ever had. I didn't care one bit that I would ruin a perfectly good piece of rawhide - that hot bath was just what I needed.
I thoroughly soaked myself and then treated myself generously with the lather, also washing my hair. It was wonderful, I hadn't felt so clean in a very long time.
When the water cooled down, I reluctantly got out. I got some fresh clothes from the cave and decided to make the day perfect and wash my soiled and work-stained clothes with hot water too.
The end of the day was celebrated with a feast of baked trout with fresh sorrel, and some blueberries.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Anndee
storyteller
Username: Anndee
Post Number: 61
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 22, 2003 - 1:58 am: | |
Thank goddess! I was afraid the Chrono Police had "pulled the plug" on you for your near-miss with the people. |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 613
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 3:17 pm: | |
I really am sorry for being so slow as of late. I promise to do better soon! 
Haven't heard from chronopolice. Is that a good sign?
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Darsina
hunter
Username: Darsina
Post Number: 343
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 4:30 pm: | |
Maybe the famous redhead is just too busy at the moment for being after you. Better keep your eyes peeled, just in case you know...
Thinking is the work of the intellect, dreaming its pleasure. - Victor Hugo |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 620
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 2:19 pm: | |
August 10th, TT0
The next few days I was very busy with collecting seeds and fruit. Almost everything seemed to get ripe at the same time and I started to worry if I had enough baskets to dry the fruit and berries on. I had made a few grass mats, and thought I could use them for drying as well.
My feet got well again, and amazingly enough I didn't get a cold after the hike back in the rain. However, I was still worried about leaving footprints, although I was certain by now that no one had tracked me. I still wore the foot wraps I had made, and wondered if I would ever dare to wear my hiking shoes again. People who come here next, should get well made but contemporary moccasins and boots, that could make their life easier.
Walking with those foot wraps wasn't as comfortable as walking in hiking boots, by far. I had stuffed them, and reinforced the soles, but still. I would not go on long hikes with those, but that wasn't necessary at the moment anyway.
I set up a few traps again and caught the occasional hare or hamster, I was glad about the fresh meat. I had tried to smoke trout, but that hadn't worked out too well. Either the meat was too dry and had to be soaked or it was too soft and would rot too fast. So I had to eat them quickly, but they tasted good. Fresh fish was abundant, not difficult to catch, and delicious. Mostly I caught trout, a pike on occasion, but just like wanting to tease me, there were still some sturgeon around. I couldn't tell if they were still swimming upriver to spawn, or if they had spawned already and were migrating back to the estuary again, lingering on the way.... they were there, and I still hadn't caught one.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 621
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 2:21 pm: | |
August 15th, TT0
I have a nice stock of preserved food by now. I decided to go on a longer walk on the steppes for a change, and get some more daylily roots. I doubted that there still would be buds around, they usually flower in early summer. The mood here had almost changed to fall already, with a lot of rain on and off, and in the forest on the other side of the river I had seen a few mushrooms grow. I would get some of those for my own use, too, but wouldn't dry any for people who come later. They should take their own risks.
The walk on the steppes was pleasant, as usual there were herds far away, but the area close to my cave didn't seem to be a popular place for grazing animals. I had never seen any come close.
When I started out, it was a crystal clear, sunny and warm August day, but in the afternoon, when I was on my way back already, it started to rain. I had rarely experienced such a downpour and by the time I reached the valley, the whole area was soaked. When I reached the valley, the slopes leading up to the top of the cliff looked somewhat different from what I was used to, but it took me a while to understand what had happened. But of course! Why hadn't I realized that earlier?
I was in an area of permafrost. The soaked soil started to slide on the permanently frozen lower layer, and that had changed the landscape, since there were folds and bumps where there hadn't been any before, and some of the dwarfed trees and shrubs had lost part of their footing and appeared skewed. This effect is called solifluction and typical of permafrost areas. I remembered the time when I was visiting Inuvik, a city in Northern Canada with permafrost. They had raised the pipes that are usually underground, on stilts, aboveground, because of the permafrost. I will spare you lengthy explanations, you can read it up in Auel's books, it's exactly like she described it there.
Being reminded of the permafrost gave me another idea. Why didn't I dig out a cache for food? I could freeze some fresh meat there and not always have to eat dried meat when I wasn't lucky with trapping or fishing. Would that be permitted by chrono police, I wondered? I don't know if the natives around here dug out caches like that if they had their storage and freezer pits inside their shelters. I thought I would chance it. If chronopolice didn't like it, they should contact me. Otherwise the people who will continue my work here will be able to use it, too.
Back in my cave, I tried to get warm and dry again, and started to plan on my freezer. I would need some kind of ice-pick together with the shovel-like tool I had made from an antler. I would look for that in one of the bone piles tomorrow.
(Message edited by Thalion on January 09, 2004)
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 628
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 4:18 pm: | |
August 20th, TTD0
Time flies! After I decided to make a freezer pit, I went to one of the piles with bones and driftwood and looked for bones that could be used as an ice pick, or a kind of pick axe. I decided to use the femur of a giant deer, and broke the joints off with a large stone. I then tried to carve and sharpen a tip which turned out not to be so easy, but finally I attached the tip to a piece of wood, kind of like a spear point, only larger and stronger. I was wondering if I should perhaps try a wood point instead of bone, or maybe stone? Or maybe a hammer and large chisel would work? I decided to not heft any tool just yet and try out several tools. I still had the broken parts of my stone axe, and was experimenting with hammering on flint a bit in the past. I never managed to make something useful though, and didn't mention it, since that really isn't a skill I could rely on. I decided to use one of the fragments, which had the tip and part of the sharp edge of the axe. I attached that to another, smaller piece of wood and decided to try that as a chisel. I would use my spear/walking stick with its pointed end to try, too.
Shoveling away the soft soil on top wasn't too hard, although it took time, the soil is soft because it is still wet from the recent downpour and thus heavy. But I'm used to hard work by now.
After about 1 m, the permafrost layer started. I was surprised to find the active surface layer so thin. No wonder it was sliding so easily after the rain.
Now the work would get really hard, I thought and started out with my bone-tipped tool. It was tough indeed, the tip didn't penetrate the frozen ground very much, and it took a long time to loosen enough soil to shovel it away. Using the bone-tipped tool didn't make much of a difference, neither did the chisel and hammer approach. I was sweating heavily, it had become another warm fall day, almost hot. I decided to pause during midday and go for a swim in the river. I wondered if I should heft one of the tools, whether that would make hacking on the ice easier, but decided against it. The hole wasn't very wide, perhaps 1 square meter, after all I only wanted to try out if the freezer pit idea was practical. Using a hefted pick-axe would become awkward when I got deeper. I was lucky that the soil here was silt, and not rocky or heavy loam.
When I came back in the early afternoon (I had caught a trout for dinner after swimming), I was pleasantly surprised to find the soil in the pit much softer. But I shouldn't be surprised, with a bit of thinking ahead, my work could have been less hard ... of course the surface would melt in the heat of the day if the insulating top layer was taken away.
This helped me to dig out another 50 cm that afternoon before the soil became frozen solid again.
I wondered if this would work once again, now that I had dug deeper, the temperature of the surrounding frozen soil might prevent the surface from thawing, but decided to chance it and wait until late morning the next day to see.
And the next day it had indeed thawed some more. So the whole procedure of digging that hole turned out to be less difficult than expected, although I wondered how deep the hole would have to be to get cold enough for safe freezing of meat. Of course I had no thermometer with me... and freezing some water wouldn't tell me all that much.
Maybe someone else would have the skills and knowledge to find out, but I had no idea.
I spent the next three days digging, found that I had to widen the hole to be able to get the soil away, and finally settled with a hole of approx. 150 cm by 150 cm. That gave me enough room to step in and get the soil out.
When the pit was somewhat deeper than my size (I'm 172 cm, thus it would have been around 200 to 250 cm, I decided to stop and give it a try. I was afraid that the sides might crash in if I went deeper, although they were frozen and looked solid. I would chance it, this wasn't meant as a permanent structure, I would leave that project to people who came after me.
I had caught some small game the previous days and put the meat of one into the pit, together with some fish. I covered it with several mats of cattail leaves, filled it up with dried steppe grass and covered it with a thick layer of soil and stones. I would wait a few days and then check for the results.
(Message edited by Thalion on January 14, 2004)
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 632
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 4:46 pm: | |
August 22nd, TT0
Today I checked the 'freezer' and the meat was frozen solid. It seemed to work. While I was cooking my dinner, I had come up with other ideas of digging a pit like that, I could also have used large hot boulders to melt the frozen ground, I think. Maybe I will dig a second pit and store some meat for the next people in both. I should replace the soil on top with another layer of grass and stones, though. When winter comes, it will be too hard to dig through to the stored goods otherwise.
With that project successfully finished, I decided to now focus a bit more on hunting with a spear thrower. I had carved one during some of my lonely and long evenings, and also had made some spears. I had started practicing throws on a target and at the moment very much doubt that I will ever catch anything with that. It is a lot of fun, though.
This brought me back to the sturgeon, maybe I could try hunting one with a spearthrower. I wouldn't have to wade so far into the water. I would give it another try sometimes soon. But in the meantime I am still gathering the abundance of seeds, nuts, berries and greens. I also had collected some mushrooms, birch boletes (Leccinum scabrum) and cooked them with some bear's garlic - they were delicious.
The next few days I would also focus on making more cords, there are plenty of fiber plants around, but for now, I am so busy that I hardly find the time to report.
Fall has changed the steppe once again. After the explosion of colors in spring, summer had brought a more or less uniform green, sometimes covered with a silvery haze where the Feather Grass grew in abundance. Now it had turned golden-yellowish with hues of brown. It was beautiful - when it wasn't raining. My time here will be over soon, and I am sorry to go, despite looking forward to be back in our times and not alone any longer. But the remaining time will be busy.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 664
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 11:14 am: | |
September 15th, TT0
I am sorry that I was so quiet lately. I was busy with harvesting and practising, but didn't actually go hunting with the spear thrower. Practising is great fun, though.
I did go and give the sturgeon another try, but failed as miserably as the first time around. I got myself all wet and cold - and this time caught a severe cold that left me with a hacking cough and fever.
I tried to cure myself with herbs and later the antibiotics that I had taken, but to no avail. The cough is still there, my chest aches and I got worried. So I gave in and hit the alarm button - I hope to be taken back to our times within a few days.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 665
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 12:15 pm: | |
April 1st, 2003
The team retrieved me, no problems. I'm back now, and am not exactly certain how I feel about it. This place stinks! The water tastes awful. And all that noise! There simply is no quiet place left in our world...
They had me examined and brought me to a hospital, since I have a persistent case of pneumonia - it was the right decision to go back.
But I am sorry. I would have liked to say good-bye to my cave properly, to leave everything in order, and to find a closure.
I would like to return some day, maybe with a group of people, maybe with a different incentive. For now, I have to get used to this place and time again and deal with busy nurses and the hustle and bustle of the hospital.
I will write up a summary of my experience as soon as I am debriefed and fully recovered.
(Message edited by Thalion on February 02, 2004)
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
Anndee
storyteller
Username: Anndee
Post Number: 79
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 1:01 am: | |
Get well soon. |
Creb
storyteller
Username: Creb
Post Number: 25
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 6:41 am: | |
Wow!!!!!!!!!
What a great trip. I am proud of you, you achieved all and more that you wished and that I had hoped for.
Don't worry about the cave. The team has been in and cleaned everything up to Chronopolice standards. By now you should have any personal possessions you left behind.
I am very impressed with the whole trip, and your documentation of it. Congratulations on a fine job successfully and elegantly completed!
Creb
**********
Time is the simplest thing... |
Thalion
storyteller
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 668
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 4:19 pm: | |
Thank you!
But I didn't see mammoth... 
But it was an adventure I will never forget.
I've been reading Cavebear's diary ever since I was brought here - he really has a hard time. A cave close to a river is really helpful.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams |
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