Anarchist Knight:Apprentice

Bracing himself he stepped into the icy water with his foot reaching for the first step he knew was there. Three more steps and he was up to his waist in the freezing water and facing the waterfall itself. He knew what he had to do as if some unknown hand was guiding him.

He plunged into the deep pool and began swimming strongly toward the waterfall. Right before he reached it he dove deeply and explored the rock face with his fingers. As he suspected there was an opening about three feet below the surface of the pool going under the waterfall itself.

Bobbing to the surface he took a deep breath and dived again swimming as deeply into the opening as possible and rose feeling the rock surface above his head sloping upward until it opened into a silent pool. His head broke the surface as he gasped for breath. It had not been a bad swim but it had been a frightening one.

The water was icy and he pulled himself out of it onto a rocky ledge. He was shivering in the dark as his fingers searched and found what felt a pack of some type and a torch. Tearing the pack open by touch his fingers closed on the heavy wool like material of  a robe. Gratefully he slipped it on and pounded his body until the circulation started coming back.

His fingers searched and found a pouch of tinder. He soon had the torch going and was warming himself as he was looking around. The pool looked only six feet across and was his only way back. His heart was racing wildly. He knew this was the secret the lake hid and he also knew  he only had two hours to explore before he had to leave. The good news was he felt certain the med-alert bracelet would not give him away within the cavern. He was safe as long as he stayed inside.

The torch flickered as he walked barefoot deeper into the cave. The thundering of the waterfall made the entire cave seem to vibrate even though the sound was muted and it was hard to tell where it was coming from. The floor of the cave sloped sharply downward for twenty feet and then leveled out into an open area.

There was an opening that turned sharply to the right but Tobal ignored it, his entire attention was focussed on the chamber ahead of him. There was a rough stone altar with unlit torches set into the wall on each side and the emblem painted on the rock behind the altar took his breath away. It was the same symbol of a man and woman holding hands within a circle that had been on the gold medallion his parents had left him.

He lit the two altar torches and stepped back to examine the chamber he found himself in. There was a rough circle in front of the altar for circle members to sit and many of the places seemed to have personal belongings placed carefully around them.

On sudden impulse he moved to one of the cushions near the altar and picked up a clay bowl that held some dust covered items. In the torchlight he carefully emptied the contents of the bowl on the ground and picked two plastic bracelets up. He recognized them as hospital bracelets.

Wiping the dust off them he held the larger one closer to the light of the torch. He saw the words "Rachel Kane" written plainly on it. With his heart thundering in his chest he picked the smaller one up and examined it. Under a coating of grime and dust he saw "Tobal Kane" written and then the date of his birth.

It was his baby bracelet from when he had been born. These things must have belonged to his mother. Blinking away tears, he moved the other items with his finger to examine them more closely. A jade and amber necklace caught his eye. Static electrical energy seemed to crackle from it as he ran it through his fingers wiping the dust off. Thinking quickly he put the necklace over his head and thrilled at the intense feeling of love and peace that swept over him.

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 7:09 PM 0 comments

Tobal nodded his agreement. "What should I do then?”

"Hide in small caves or under rock ledges during the day so no air sleds can find you. If you are under or within the rock they should not be able to pick you up on the monitor screen. Then travel quickly at night. When you travel at night it will be seen that your med-alert bracelet is working properly after all and they don't need to worry about it. They might try to find you at night but it is getting colder and no one wants to be out on an air sled in the middle of a cold night."

"Besides", Rafe said with a grin. "You are not doing anything wrong. At least no one has told you that you can't go there. They probably will once they catch you. Try to get there in the middle of the night. It's a full moon so there will be enough light to see. Give yourself about three hours and then get the hell out of there as fast as you can. It will be interesting to see what happens when they do catch up with you."

"That sounds like a good idea", Tobal told him. "I think I'll do exactly as you said."

 They talked a little more about his upcoming journey and then the talk wandered around to Rafe and how he got his second chevron. It was late before Tobal got to sleep.

Tobal started out the next morning as if he were heading toward his base camp. There was nothing unusual about that and it shouldn't draw attention. The area between his base camp and the abandoned gathering spot was very rocky and there were a few caves and outcroppings he remembered seeing. He used them now travelling at night and holing up during the day. It should make them think his med-alert was malfunctioning.

He made cold camps during the day and gradually worked his way closer to the waterfall moving quickly at night and hiding during the day. He was glad for the furs since they provided the protection from the elements that he needed.

He tried sleeping during the day without much success and when he did sleep it was  troubled with nightmarish images that became more intense the closer he got to the waterfall.

It was midnight on the fourth day when he stood in front of the cairn in the haunted gathering spot and felt the ghosts around him. There was enough moonlight to see and he searched as much of the cairn as possible without lighting a torch. He examined some of the objects that had been laid there but they simply seemed to be offerings.

He was baffled and frustrated. The answer certainly did not seem to be here and the rest of the camp looked to have been thoroughly cleansed. There was nothing to see and his instinct kept telling him to leave as quickly as possible.

He hated the thought of going down the cliff face in the dark but an inner prompting kept screaming that is was not safe to be here and that he had to leave as soon as possible. Going down the rock chimney was much easier than going up and soon he was scrambling over the edge of the cliff trying to find the toe holds he knew were there.

It was with relief his searching toe finally found the first hole and from then on the descent went quickly. Soon he was standing in the small patio area near the pool at the base of the waterfall. He figured about an hour had passed which gave him two hours more.

He stripped off his clothes and put them in a small pile in a corner of the patio where they were hidden by some rocks. He kept the knife strapped around his leg and the magnesium fire starter on a small chain around his neck. He had carefully thought this out during the past month and knew he needed to at least try exploring the pool.

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 5:51 PM 0 comments

"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 enquired.

“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.”

After grabbing a bite to eat and changing into his robe Tobal wandered around chatting with friends till circle started. He found a place near the fire to sit with Melanie and Becca during the initiations. The two girls spent most of the time gaily chatting back and forth about where they were going to go and he felt left out. The past month had really brought Melanie and Becca closer together as friends. He wasn’t in the mood for such levity and moved off for a little solitude.

This time Misty was the High Priestess as Ellen stood in the back ground waiting to help out if needed. He was surprised to see Angel wearing the red robes of a Master. She had certainly come quite a way since he had first seen her laid up with a leg injury in sanctuary.

He finally caught up with Rafe after circle. This was Tobal’s last chance before winter to go back to the lake and check out the abandoned gathering spot. It was Rafe that provided him with the seed of an idea.

“I’ve been thinking about this”, Rafe said. “I’m not supposed to talk about Journeyman stuff with you but I don’t think it really matters. We meet in a large cave and have our fights. There are always several medics because people get hurt during the fights and the signals from the med-alert bracelets don’t go through the rock.”

“You can’t take the med-alert bracelet off because the monitors would show you as dead. Also if you are found without a med-alert bracelet you need to start training from the beginning. You don’t want to do that.”

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 4:45 PM 0 comments

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.”

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 1:51 AM 0 comments

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 it’s way down his spine 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 teepee structures that could be used for storage and for privacy or work space as needed. That solution was quick, simple, effective and allowed 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 air sleds more often checking them out during the days. The medics were keeping closer tabs on everyone and smaking 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.

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 3:57 PM 0 comments

“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 touselled 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 initiatied. 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.

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 7:31 PM 0 comments

During circle he noticed Ellen was training Misty to be High Priestess. He had forgotten that Misty was a Master now. He was going to miss Ellen and wondered what she would be doing next. It was strange to see people he knew advance on to different positions.

 
He noticed earlier that Rafe had been put on wood crew along with Dirk. That meant they were responsible for there being enough fire wood at the gathering spot for circle. Everyone was encouraged to help, but only a few Journeymen were actually tasked to ensure there was enough wood. Angel would be given new duties next month as well. He noticed this morning that she now had four chevrons and seemed to be moving up the ranks more quickly than Rafe was.

Since Journeymen didn’t spend all of their time training newbies, they were each assigned duties that normally lasted two or at the most three months before being assigned to the next duty. The wood supply for the Circle was usually gathered well in advance and there was little work to be done during circle itself except tending fires as needed. That’s what Rafe was doing when Tobal spied him between initiations.

“Hey stranger”, he teased. “Who did you kill to get that?”

Rafe grinned as he turned in surprise. He postured and showed off his first chevron.

“One of the girls challenged me. She thought she could beat me. Bad mistake! She almost did too.” He admitted ruefully but then brightened. His mischievious smile was still the same. “Now I’ve got all the girls fighting over me. I must be the most popular Journeyman ever.”

Tobal looked at his friend. Rafe was filling out, getting taller and stronger.

 
“I think you will be winning quite a few fights soon”, he said. “You’re not so little any more. Pretty soon you might have to start picking on the girls instead of having them pick on you.”

“You really think so?”, Rafe laughed. “Guess I can give up on the idea of fighting babies then. So what have you been up too? Is Sarah ready to solo yet? I’ve been hearing some good things about how you taught Nick and Melanie.”

“Well, I’ve run into a bit of a snag”, he confessed. Sarah isn’t ready to solo yet and I’m thinking about having Melanie, Nick, Becca, Mike, Butch and Sarah all over to my place this month. We can all make our winter gear together. None of us is really that good at it and maybe helping each other out will work.”

“That’s a terrific idea”, Rafe said. “I wish I had thought of it when I was training newbies. I guess we really didn’t do that much training for winter did we? There was only about one week of snow in your training before it melted away. Is there anything I can help with that you don’t remember?”

“I remember how to do most of it”, he replied. “But I will need to go back to your base camp and get some of my things if that is all right?”

“Sure, take anything you need. I probably won’t be around there very much this winter. I’ll be hanging around the Journeyman area most of the time. Either that or be out here getting wood or doing some other duty. Being a Journeyman is nothing at all like being an Apprentice.”

“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 it was destroyed by those rogues? 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.

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 3:01 PM 0 comments

The days were getting shorter by early September and there was a chill in the air at night and frost in the mornings. The first major snowstorm could come any time and they could be snowed in for weeks. He talked with Sarah and she thought spending another month on winter preparation was a good idea. She needed more winter training and he thought the others did too.

The morning of circle Zee, Nikki, Kevin and Ox all proclaimed their newbies ready to solo. They were all interviewed and questioned by the elders and approved for soloing. Each of them had winter gear they had to show the elders. It was very clear the elders were concerned about the training newbies were getting now that a sudden storm could snow a person in for weeks at a time. Tobal made a point of congratulating the two girls and Kevin. He didn’t care about Ox and avoided him as much as possible.
Zee was a little cool toward him but returned his congratulatory hug and started talking a little.

“I was mad at you for awhile”, she said. “I didn’t really think you meant it about training all winter. I thought you were just rejecting me and no woman likes that.” She put her hands on her hips and wiggled them a little with a grin. “ Then I remembered Rafe and how last year he trained at least two newbies and I wasn’t so sure anymore.”

.
“Zee”, I really am training newbies this winter. If I wasn’t, you would be a good partner. We’ve always gotten along pretty good. Have you found anyone to partner up with yet?”

She sighed, “You are serious aren’t you. I have a few people in mind but I haven’t really made a decision yet. I want to take this month off and work on my winter base camp first.”

He noticed she hadn’t specifically mentioned Kevin and decided to ask him, but first he wanted to congratulate Nikki on training her first newbie and wandered off to find her after wishing Zee well on her base camp project.

Nikki was getting her robe from Angel as he got his. They went to the teepee where they had left their packs and were changing into the robes

.
“How did you like training you first newbie?” He asked casually.

“It was great! I’m training another this month.” she looked at him. “I really want to train another one before winter sets in. Do you think I can?”

“I don’t know”, he told her. “I’ve already decided I need to go back and help Melanie and Sarah get better prepared for winter. Their newbies could use a little extra training too.”

She thought about that a bit. “Zee did a really good job of getting me prepared for winter weather and my newbie’s well prepared too. I don’t think we will have any trouble. I know it’s a sore spot, but perhaps two months of training is needed. Have you ever thought about it?”

He bit back an angry retort and instead simply said. “I do think training newbies during the winter should take two months. There is too much to learn about winter gear like snowshoes and working with furs for winter clothing. Anyone that I train this winter will get two months of training.”

Nikki beamed, “I’m so glad to hear that Tobal. We all worry about the newbies and how hard it must be for them in the winter. I haven’t spent a winter here yet but I’m pretty confident things will go well. That’s why I want one more newbie. I will probably end up spending the winter with them unless they decide to solo and go out on their own.”

Nikki’s plan sounded uncomfortably like his own. He still planned to train through the winter but didn’t really have any idea if it would work out or not. What if his newbie didn’t want to solo or move out and build a base camp on their own in the middle of the winter?

He was still thinking about these things as he wandered over to see how Kevin was doing. Kevin was helping set up some of the teepee shelters for the night. Tobal joined in until all the teepees were set up and fires laid in them.

Kevin didn’t know what he was going to do.

“I’m still hoping Zee will partner up with me for the winter”, he told Tobal with a blush. “She hasn’t said yes and she hasn’t said no. It’s driving me crazy because I really need some sort of plan. I don’t want to work on my own base camp if I’m not going to be living there.”

“Say, that’s an idea”, Tobal reflected. “Zee says she wants to spend this month getting her camp ready for winter. Perhaps you can offer to help and it will allow each of you to see how you get along together. That way she won’t need to commit to anything until she gets to know you better.”

Kevin brightened, “I’m going to try”, he said. “I’ll talk to her about it later tonight.”

“Good Luck!”

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 3:27 PM 0 comments

He worried about Melanie and Nick. He had not taught them much about tanning leather and making winter clothing because it had been the middle of summer. Rafe had not spent much time on it because the weather had been getting warmer. But he had shown Tobal the basics of tanning leather and making winter equipment. Rafe had also shown Tobal his own finished products at his base camp. Tobal still had things stored away at Rafe’s camp and he needed to get them.

Rafe was no longer available and busy with Journeyman things. It was Tobal’s responsibility to make sure those he trained were able to survive the harsh mountain winters. Most Apprentices would simply hole up in their base camps and wait the winter out.

Rafe had told him the entire purpose and spirit of being an Apprentice was to learn and train people to survive during any time of the year, not just the good months. In fact, the reason Rafe trained six people so quickly was because he trained them in the winter when few people were willing to train. Last winter medics on air sleds twice sought out Rafe and told him there was a newbie waiting at sanctuary that needed training and they asked if he would do it. They only asked this of the best and most experienced teachers. Rafe had even talked them into giving him an air sled ride to sanctuary so he didn’t have to travel in the bitter weather any more than was needed.

In the snow travel would be almost impossible unless snowshoes were made and now was the time to be making them. The green wood needed to be steamed until it could be bent into the snowshoe shapes and then lashed together for drying. They would be laced later.

The weather and shelter were going to be serious problems during below zero weather. He realized it would be important to hunt the larger animals like the deer and elk. They would migrate with the weather and he needed to know where they liked to go in the winter time so he could find them when he needed to. The cold weather would allow fresh meat to keep longer and he would only have to hunt once a week or so to keep two people in fresh meat.

With that in mind he spent the next two weeks teaching Sarah how to hunt with a bow. He taught how to set dead falls and other traps for larger animals. These were things he realized the others needed to know also.

At nights they worked on the hides and talked. Sarah’s father had told her quite a bit about claiming sanctuary and she had known pretty much what to expect. Still it was a lot harder than she had imagined and it took a while to get her toughened in to the daily grind. She was used to a much softer lifestyle. They joked about how different this was from the day she had taken him into the big city for a visit

.
The bright side was she had been used to handling the items in her father’s store and came up with interesting ways to use leather and how to make tools that Tobal never even thought of making. He asked her about where his father got all those items and she said she didn’t really know. She only knew he would leave on trips from time to time and bring them back with him. He used to tell her there was no other store in the world like the one they had and that she should be very proud of it.

Sarah spoke of her mother and wanting to visit her grave. Tobal asked if she knew where it was and she didn’t. It was by some waterfall and shouldn’t be too hard to find. She was a little put off that it would be several years before she would finish training though.

Tobal felt a chill at the base of his spine as she talked about this and something deep inside him was screaming that Sarah’s mother had died at the lake like his parents and she was buried in that mass grave at the abandoned gathering spot. He didn’t know how to bring this up to Sarah yet, especially since they were so closely watched. He felt he would go back there himself first and check things out before talking to her about it.

The month went by quickly and all too soon it was time to go to the gathering spot. He didn’t think Sarah was quite ready to solo and wanted to work with the others in preparing them for the coming winter months.

* * * * * * *Congratulations!* * * * * * *

You've made it to the halfway point of "Anarchistic Knights-a serialadventure! I hope  you are enjoying this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I'm currently working on the second book, "Anarchistic Knights:Journeyman-a serialadventure". This second book will continue Tobal's adventures in new and exciting directions. I'm not sure when it will be ready though.

In the meantime enjoy this story! You may notice the addition of several links on the website you are viewing this story on. Feel free to find the one that is pleasing to you and bookmark it for later.

There are two other links you might notice:

OAK:A Modern Mystery School

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OAK:A Modern Mystery School is my original home page for the Order of Anarchistic Knights. It's now turned into a place for those interested in the story to visit and has a forum area for people to chat and make friends. Feel free to check it out. There are some interesting topics to discuss or start your own.

http://anarchisticknights.com

OAK:Foundations-a serialadventure is the next serialadventure that I am publishing on the web. This is an exciting book about advanced concepts in human potentials and was written before Anarchistic Knights-a serialadventure. I used many of the concepts in this story. This book is a hard look at developing personal power in live and begins with "Developing Charisma". Check it out if you are interested.

http://foundations-banjo.blogspot.com

Lastly the creation and maintenance of  Anarchistic Knights-a serialadventure has been very costly in terms of time and labor investment. It is similar to a theater production or a play. Please consider supporting Anarchistic Knights-a serialadventure. You can do this by:

1 Telling your friends about Anarchistic Knights-a serialadventure. At the conclusion of this story there will be a one month break and it will begin all over again with the first episode. Make sure your friends know about it so they can start at the beginning!

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3 Read OAK:Foundations-a serialadventure and begin to develop your own personal power!

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bright blessings

-anarchistbanjo

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 4:31 AM 0 comments

Early August had blasts of cold that reminded Tobal of the bitter winter months ahead. He needed to be thinking about his own permanent winter camp. During the winter travel and temporary camps were both dangerous. Winter clothing was essential and food critical to replace the heat given off by the body.

In addition the nights were longer and there was less sunlight. The chance of getting caught in mountain storms was very real and likely. Rafe had talked some about winter survival but there had not been any need to do much preparation then. Now it was time to do some serious thinking and integrate it into his training.

Tobal found himself with his third trainee. To his delight it was Sarah. He had forgotten she would be claiming sanctuary in the late summer. When she saw him, she raised a scene by running over and hugging him. She refused to go with anyone else and there were a few tense moments. Since there were enough newbies things were soon straightened out and everyone was happy.

The days were getting shorter and travel would soon be getting harder. The leaves were turning and there was not as much ready vegetation for fresh salads. They relied on dried fruit and meat. They scavanged for herbs and nuts that would be impossible to find after the snows came and began collecting and drying them. They stayed on the lookout for Hazelnuts, acorns, walnuts and chestnuts.

Acorns needed to be roasted but any nuts were good protein for the winter months and kept well in storage. Some tubers and inner bark of trees were collected to be made into flour later on. Tobal was hoping to make some bread this winter if he could figure out how to do it.

Trapping became the most important thing since they needed furs to make clothing for the coming winter. The easiest fur bearing animals were the beaver and muskrats. They spent much time near the streams during that first week living off  fish and small animals they snared. They even tried eating beaver and muskrat. Tobal decided he could eat it if needed but used most of the meat for baiting traps and snares for more pleasant tasting game.

 
The skinned pelts needed to be fleshed by scraping off every bit of fat, flesh and membrane from the back of the hide and then stretching it on a stretching board with the fur on the inside leaving it to dry. It was hard nasty work that dulled knives and took up most of the day.

The muskrat pelts were stretched over specially whittled and sized boards but the beaver pelts were stretched in circular wood hoops and laced into place tightly. The wooden hoops were made by steaming the wood and gently bending it into the desired shape and then lashing the wood tightly into place. This was also the way snowshoes would be made later when they had more time.

After the pelts had dried a few days they were tanned with a cooked smelly mixture of brains, bone marrow, and liver spread liberally over the hides, worked into them and left for a few days. The foul mixture was then washed off and the process of “pulling” the leather began. Enzymes in the bad smelling mixture softened the leather enough to tan it.

Pulling the leather was a process of bending it sharply and making it pliable. This was done by pulling the pelt across the sharp edge of a stone or around a small smooth wooden pole set in the ground. After the pelt was soft and pliable the last step was for the tanned side to be smoked so the leather would not become stiff after it had gotten wet. It was only then the pelts could be cut and sewn into winter clothing.

Making the stretching boards and the stretching frames took several days and Tobal knew Sarah would not be ready to solo at the next circle. There was too much to be done. By the end of the 2nd week they had trapped enough beaver and muskrat for their own use and were busy tanning and smoking the pelts. What worried him was they hadn’t had time to do much else and the weather was getting colder. They were running out of time.

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 7:21 PM 0 comments

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 4:17 PM 0 comments

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# posted by anarchistbanjo @ 6:54 AM 0 comments

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