"Hey, Granf'a TwoFeathers, you were gonna tell us about what happened with the Apachii chasing the Indians."
TwoFeathers chuckles. "Jaysen, I'm not your grandfather, and your grandfather would probably be mortified to hear you call me that. And Apachii are Indians, too. Just like all Amerihkans aren't friendly to each other, so the Indians in my day weren't all friendly either."
"Gran'fas long since dead, TwoFeathers, and I like you like I like him."
TwoFeathers smiles, a soft smile. "Why thank you, Jaysen. And since you've warmed an old wolf's heart, I'll tell you the other half of the story, this afternoon."
TwoFeathers stands, tapping the floor with his cane. "If you remember, Pathwalker TwoPaws, Mackerel Notchear, and myself were on the run from a raiding party of Apachii. Our task was simple; hunt down a single Union soldier, and we'd live. Fail, by the time they caught up to us, and we were history."
TwoFeathers trudges through the snow, shivering. "Great Maker, but I'm f-freezing. At least the soldier's trail's easy to follow." Twofeather Hundredtales was never cut out to be a warrior, and it shows.
"Bah!" spits Mackerel. "Now they'll make me take you out AGAIN, even if we survive this."
Pathwalker, even more somber than usual, shakes his head, "Easy to follow, yes. But with the noise you are making, he may hear us easily."
Something it seems, beyond the threat of the Apachii and his normal brooding, is bothering Pathwalker.
Twofeather looks upset. "Hey. Summer Storms Racing says I'm supposed to be a working member of the team, even if my capacity isn't as a hunter. Why won't you understand that?"
Twofeather thinks . o { I halfway wonder whether she'd prefer Longtail over me. }
Pathwalker snorts, "Then tell us a story that will help us in this situation. Or tell one to the Apachii and put them to sleep."
Twofeather grouches aloud, "..fine. I'll wait here, and be a distraction for the Apachii."
Mackerel trudges along, looking more towards the horizon than at the deep boot tracks of the Union soldier. "Don't worry, I'll put you to work."
At first, going in a straight line, the tracks are easy to follow. But the land turns more and more into stone, and the tracks become harder to trail. Twice Twofeather accidentally blunders into a hole in the ground in an attempt to stay out of the way of the trail; the second time he refuses to get up, teeth chattering and eyes closed. "I d-doubt I'm in much shape to do so."
Pathwalker looks over his shoulder with concern, "If you go to sleep now, you will never wake up Twofeather."
Arms crossed, the hunter glares down at Twofeather. You'd think the heat in that look would be enough to overcome even the chill of the snow. "If you stop now, you'll miss out on the great trick we're going to pull," Mackerel states.
That got his attention. "T-trick?" His ears come up. "What're we going to do?"
Twofeather yawns. "And I'm not tired, Pathwalker. Just cold, and tired of walking."
Mackerel grins, "First, we're going to get in front of the prey without going around it. That's worth seeing, isn't it?"
Pathwalker looks at Mackerel, as if he, too, wants to know what the trick will be. "When you get too cold, you fall asleep for good."
"Better to be killed by the Apachii than of the cold," Mackerel argues. "Follow me, and soon you'll see the second part of the trick."
Twofeather sighs, and gets up. "I'm not that tired, Pathwalker. I -know- about cold-death."
Twofeather nevertheless, follows, albeit a bit slowly.
Mackerel nods in apparent satisfaction, and starts heading off to the south at a wide angle from the soldier's tracks.
Twofeather raises an eyebrow. "We'll lose the trail. We going to split up or something?"
Pathwalker moves in behind Twofeather and follows, keeping an eye out for the soldier, and the Apachii.
"Not yet we aren't," Mackerel says. "We're going to where the trail *will* be in an hour."
Pathwalker hmms, "So we're going to lure the soldier there?"
Twofeather looks back at the trail we're deviating from. "Shouldn't one of us follow the trail just in case he changes directions?"
Pathwalker hrrms, "A point. I could possibly herd him to you Mackerel."
The hunter just grins. "He's running away from something, yah? When you're running away and want to go as fast as possible, which path would you take?"
Pathwalker purrs, "A straight of a line as you could."
A rumbling sound can be heard faintly in the near distance, growing louder as the group continues on.
"Ah! But.. what if you run into a wall? Which way to you go then?" Mackerel asks.
Pathwalker purrs, "Over it or around it if you can't go over."
Twofeather aahs. "The river."
"Hey neat, they're gonna have a riverboat chase!" 'Shh!'
Mackerel nods, "Good Twofeather, your brain hasn't frozen yet. The river is a wall, and if you're scared and tired and in a hurry, would you try to go around it upstream or downstream?"
Twofeather thinks. "I could go either way. Downstream would seem the logical choice."
Mackerel waves a hand in the air as the river comes into view, filled with large bits of ice. "Logic! You go downstream because it's downhill.. it's easier to go that way. But unlike a wall, this river bends back in our direction, so we get here before the soldier does."
Twofeather grins toothily, exhaling a white cloud of frost breath. "But then Easterners aren't too logical."
Mackerel looks up and down the frozen riverbank. "We want a flat place, close to the water but not full of rocks."
Pathwalker hmms, "Maybe the sandbar is still there?" as he points off to the side.
"Let's go see," the hunter agrees.
Twofeather grimaces. "We'd have to walk through the water to get there. My moccasins aren't waterproof. Neither are your boots."
Pathwalker snorts, "The edge of it touches shore in one spot. Or it did."
"You're thinking of the summer and spring river, Twofeathers," Mackerel says. "It's narrower in winter, and the banks are wider."
The sandbar in question proves more than adequate to the trio's needs; it's occupied.
Pathwalker ponders for a moment as he looks at all the snow, "I wonder if we are walking on the river?" then shakes it off and follows.
'All right! Carnage! Death!' "Shh!"
The german shepherd in Union blue picks his way back and forth along the sandbar, trying to find a good path across the remaining flow.
Pathwalker looks at Mackerel, "Even Easterners are smarter prey than fish, and we all forgot that."
"He's faster than I thought he'd be, yah," Mackerel concedes. "But we just need to block off the shore end of the bar, and he's stuck."
Pathwalker purrs, "And then what?"
Shrugging, the hunter suggests, "Then Twofeathers talks him to death, or he tries to jump the river, or he tries to fight."
The Easterner catches wind of the voices, and spins, looking startled.
Twofeather grins. "Except he won't understand a word I say."
Twofeathers' ears flag. "Mackerel, I'm not going to watch when you kill him, if you don't mind.
Pathwalker stares at Twofeather as if to say, "So what else is new?"
Mackerel begins to sprint towards the sandbar, muttering, "Then maybe he'd survive a little longer.."
Panic. The shepherd spins, and sloshes into the icy cold river waters, trying to make it to the other bank.
Pathwalker growls, "I dislike dancing to the Apachii's drums. You kill to survive, or avenge the dead, or in war. But this easterner...gah."
Mackerel yells and waves, "Hey! Don't do that stupid guy! We need your body!"
"Come back onto the sandbar," the hunter keeps yelling, "and we won't hurt you!"
The Easterner yelps, whether from the cold or the fact that Mackerel's shouting what he perceives as death threats at him, and tries to swim for it.
Twofeather pulls off his snow-dusted blanket and starts twisting it into a makeshift rope.
Pathwalker shakes his head, "The maker must have a weird sense of humor." and pads off to help Mackerel.
Mackerel turns to Pathwalker, "He's gonna pass out quick, and we need him alive for the trick to work!"
Pathwalker pads a bit further downstream to intercept the Easterner when he passes out.
Twofeather trots after Pathwalker, the cold momentarily forgotten. "Mackerel! Throw him this!"
Pathwalker turns and grabs the makeshift rope, "Good thinking Twofeather."
The shepherd gets caught in the current, and starts losing ground rapidly. Or water, rather.
Mackerel grabs the end of the rope and tries to throw it out far enough for the soldier to reach. "Hold tight, Pathwalker!"
Pathwalker braces his feet and makes a silent request of the Great Maker.
"Grab the rope, stupid Easterner!" Mackerel shouts helpfully.
Clue hits like a snow-damp blanket. -thok!- The Easterner clutches onto the blanket for dear life.
Twofeather crouches at Pathwalker's feet and grabs his legs, trying to be an anchor.
Pathwalker grunts, "Mackerel, Twofeathers, help pull."
Mackerel grabs onto the blanket-rope and helps.
Twofeather grins. "You thought wet wolf smelled bad? How about chilled, wet German Shepherd?" 'Ewwwww.' 'Yuck.' The children are enjoying this one. He can tell.
The shepherd huddles on the sandbar, shivering. "Whfr yr dio zhar?" he manages.
Pathwalker hrms, "I can't tell what he's saying. If we need him alive, we need to warm him up Mackerel."
"Because you're too stupid to be left alone," Mackerel answers, regardless of what the question actually was, and starts to dig through the layer of frozen sand atop the bar. "Get the wet clothes off him, then help me dig a trench for him to lay in. The sand isn't frozen all the way through, it'll keep him warm."
"And put the dug up sand there," she points to the downstream side of the sandbars tip.
Pathwalker looks at Twofeather and hmms, "You do the clothes. I'll help dig." and joins Mackerel.
Twofeather nods, and swipes Pathwalker's blanket, holding it out for the Easterner, but pointing at his wet clothes.
Twofeather says, "You don't get this till you strip.""
The Easterner is quick on the uptake, and with some difficulty manages to get out of his clothes. The frozen boot laces are the hardest, but the knife makes short work of them.
Mackerel and Pathwalker work quickly on digging a two-foot deep trench that looks disturbingly grave-like.
The Easterner looks worriedly at the trench. "Urh?"
"Digging keeps you warmer than walking, eh Pathwalker?" the hunter grins up at her fellow ditch-digger.
Twofeather pats the shepherd on the shoulder and grins.
Mackerel motions for the blanket-wrapped Easterner to lay down in the ditch.
Pathwalker grunts and nods, "True enough."
The Easterner chuckles, shaking his head, singing something, not that you'd understand, but does as he's asked.
"What was he singing?"
Twofeather says, "An old song. 'You're in the army now.. you don't know why or how.. you won't get rich by digging a ditch, you're in the army now.""
Mackerel starts covering the shepherd up with a thin layer of sand. "Cover him up to his neck. His hat can hide his face."
Pathwalker blinks. Blinks again, and then GRINS, "Should we leave his feet out and tell him not to move? No, he'd freeze. Hopefully this will be enough."
"Cover his feet deeper, they'll be the coldest," the hunter says, and heads back to the riverbank to look for some rocks.
Pathwalker heaps some sand on the soldiers feet and chuckles. If this works, they'll have quite the story to tell. If not, it's better than killing a helpless person.
"Twofeather, come help me drag this rock," Mackerel calls. The rock in question looks pretty big..
Twofeather nods, and pitches in to help out. "What -are- we going to do with this?"
Mackerel points to the downstream side of the sandbar, where a triangle of ice extends out towards the shore. "The current isn't strong enough in the lee to pull away the ice. We're going to make a little bar out from the edge, and put the soldier's clothes there with sand filling them to make it look like there's a body."
Twofeather raises an eyebrow, shivering a bit in the cold. 'What happens if they want his scalp?"
"When the greedy Apachii come, they'll go to loot the body and take the scalp, eh? And fall through the thin ice!" Mackerel grins. "Then we just push them out into the river."
Twofeather looks so startled at the idea he nearly drops the rock. "That's... diabolical."
"Hey, watch your end!" Mackerel yells as the rock slips. "Maybe all the Apachii not come out, then we have to run."
Twofeather nods. "Where're we supposed to run? River's still in the way.
Once the rock is in place with a splash, Mackerel tells Twofeather to start pushing sand into the gap between it in the sandbar. "Well, true. And we'll be out on this little bar too. Apachii aren't gonna let us get behind them, after all."
Mackerel pats the wolf on the head, "If there's time, we can bury you too though. Maybe they'll miss you."
Twofeather hehs. "No, I won't be able to dig myself out then."
Twofeather starts filling the clothes with wet sand.
"Suit yourself!" Mackerel laughs, and goes to move another rock with Pathwalker.
Pathwalker hmms, "I always thought WhiteEyes was the trickster. Is he teaching you Mackerel?" as he grunts at moving a rock.
Twofeather continues. "What if we don't finish by the time they get here?"
Pathwalker shrugs, "We fight. We die."
Twofeather chuckles. "Wonderful." He urfs as he moves the pants legs to where he thinks is a good position, nodding in satisfaction as the ice -cracks- slightly under the weight.
"That looks good," Mackerel says as she spreads some more sand over the ice. "It might work."
Pathwalker hmms, "Did he have a knife, or anything valuable? If so, have it stick out of his clothes a little."
Twofeather nopes. 'We took it, and then the Apachii took 'em from us."
"Show the boots then," Mackerel suggests. "Boots are valuable."
Pathwalker hrms and starts smoothing out the signs of their work, and lifts up the hat and makes a motion of silence to the buried soldier, and makes it with a very serious face.
Pathwalker looks at the hat, "What if they want the hat first?"
Just in time. The Apachii approach from the way you've come, following both your tracks, and the tracks of the soldier from downstream.
"The one that takes it will get a surprise then, eh?" Mackerel snickers. "We all die laughing then."
Pathwalker tears the hat a bit and quickly puts it down and moves away.
Twofeather chuckles softly and whispers, '...we lopped his head off with a knife.'
"Hoi there! Good hunting?' one of the Apachii calls out. 'Look, three Cherokee on a sandbar. Got to be a joke in there somewhere."
Mackerel takes a position at the very end of the fake sandbar, on the opposite side of the 'body', and tries to look cold and tired (not a very difficult trick).
Twofeather stands with Mackerel. "He drowned before we got to him-- stupid Easterners."
Pathwalker looks cold, tired and grumpy. Also an easy task.
"Very well. You may be our enemy, but you are young, and good trackers. And we keep our word. You are free to go, young ones. I look forward to meeting you on the field of battle." the lead Apachii says.
Mackerel looks to the others, "Should we go now then?"
Pathwalker nods, "I see no reason to stay. Come Twofeather."
The Apachii eyes the soldier's dilapidated, soaked clothes. "You can have his scalp and the clothes and boots for a trophy. We'll keep the rifles."
That said, two of the others drop the group's bow and extra knives.
Twofeather nods. 'All right.'
The hat lifts a little in a muffled sneeze.
Mackerel tries to cover by coughing loudly into her fist.
Pathwalker quickly pretends to have sneezed. Then sneezes again.
Twofeather almost does the same, but gets beat to it.
"Little cold, eh?" the Apachii calls out over his shoulder. "Don't freeze to death!"
Twofeather pahs. "Too late.." he calls after them relievedly.
Mackerel watches the Apachii move off for awhile before going to check their returned equipment.
Everything's there, and intact, well enough. Having satisfied their bloodlust and gotten a dozen rifles in the bargain made them generous.
Pathwalker hmms, "Well, we had best get the soldiers clothes back. And then we need to head back to camp and thaw out."
"Let's get a fire built. Might as well stay here for the night," Mackerel suggests. "Maybe we'll get lucky and the Old Bear will eat us in our sleep. Anything's better then walking back through that snow."
Twofeather says, "We dug the Easterner out, and spent the night on the sandbar. The Easterner managed to get across the word 'Thank you', after several tries, along with 'why?'"
"No reason to kill you," Mackerel explained, "And when we bring you back to your fort, we'll know where it is and maybe get some metal knives for our trouble."
The hunter grins, "Plus, there'll be at least one Easterner who won't shoot at as again."
Twofeather says, "The Easterner got the idea that not all Indians were unfriendly, at least the young ones. The next day we took him back to our village with us, and he was able to talk with some of our village elders, who spoke the language. They told us his name was Corporal Wesley Westlake, and while he couldn't give us anything for our trouble, he would put in a good word with us once we returned him to his fort. In reality, we did get something for our trouble-- all three of us gained the Peacemaker knot on our belts for our expedition.""
Twofeather grins. "So ends my story, children."
The children applaud. Even the one who grumbles, "Darn, nobody died."
Twofeather looks pleased, and shoos the children off again.