Rog’s Dilema

Rog slipped quietly away into the night. Trying not to make a sound which wasn’t easy since his leg shot darts of pain right into his head. The binding was uncomfortable and he would have to adjust it later. It was worth putting up with some pain just to get away. To get away from Dru who was sure to have bludgeoned him to death tonight or tomorrow. He had already killed his greatest ally, the wise old man. Stupid of him but that’s Dru. No sense, just brawn and violence are all that he knows. With Rog gone the wise man would have at least advised him on how to keep the tribe together. That was his worth and Dru knew it.

The broken leg had been his undoing. He couldn’t hunt and bring in the food so he was worthless to them. They were a fickle lot and Dru had been waiting in the shadows for the opportunity to bring him down and take over the leadership of the tribe. He should have killed him himself but his strength had been useful. Funny that Rog should think of him in the past so quickly. Must get away otherwise he’ll catch Rog and cave his head in.

Now, where to go and hide? They’ll expect me to go to the seashore but at least I can feed myself there with no problem. I’ll find a cave and hole up there until this leg has healed. Oh, it’s painful! Should have brought my spear to lean on. Too late now! Maybe Dru has the sense to just stay and beat up a few of them up to show who’s now in charge. More likely he is still asleep like the big oaf he is. Anyway, concentrate on getting as far as possible to the seashore.

I can hear the waves. Good. Must stop and adjust the binding to the leg. This running is not going to help it get better. Oh, I’m so hungry. They didn’t give me any food for three days wondering what to make of me with my injuries. But I did kill them a pig. The cowards just ran off when the huge boar charged. Without a spear I was helpless. The beast gored my side something rotten but it knocked me over and that’s when it happened. It ran off with the rest of the herd and my speared sow just squealed and squealed until they clubbed it dead. At least they carried me back to the camp and the old man treated my wounds and bound my leg, but they didn’t give me any of that pig to eat, the ungrateful clods. That’s better but must be more careful now. I think I will crawl the last bit. Take the weight off the leg. Oh, I’m hungry, plenty of limpets and shellfish to gorge on soon.

Don’t know why they don’t like it by the sea. The sounds and the waves must frighten them. Yes, you have to be careful of the other prowling tribes that will try and capture your women and men folk out in the open but the food is easy to come by with no danger. Let them stick to their forests. I shall feed myself by the shore until my leg heals.

Oh, these limpets are good and look at their numbers, enough to feed lots of tribes, with lots to spare. I shall leave the tastier mussels and the ones hiding in the mud for another time. Must find a cave to shelter and rest for the night. Also, must find a straight stick for support and fashion into a spear. Pity I left mine behind. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing it after I had stuck that pig. What a kill! Anyway, stop thinking about the past and let’s get a move on and just hope.

The sun is coming up and if Dru was going to kill me last night he will be after me more in anger that I had spoiled his sport and a chance to show off his prowess. What an idiot he is. If he can’t provide them with food, they will leave him. Slip away in the dark and join some other tribe.

These two sticks will do for the moment and will help me to hobble along to those cliffs along the shore there. Sure to find a cave there, anything to get out of sight and rest and sleep. Yes, some sleep would be so welcome.

It’s been lots of days since I escaped. The moon is almost full again and the leg has healed and the wounds are only scars. That’s the wonder of wallowing in warm rock pools in salt water, helps with the healing. Lovely and warm. The cave I’ve found is great. It’s a blow hole so that in a storm the sea rushes in and is forced up in a fountain, high up in the cliffs. The tribes think its bad spirits at work but they know nothing and it doesn’t bother me. In fact, these so-called spirits protect me and keep the others away. I could put up a whole tribe up in there with lots of food at hand and freshwater dripping from the roof. Never felt so well fed for a long time but would like to taste some meat and get some skins. Need to get some sinew to make a bowstring and some skins to keep warm at night.

I’ve climbed out of the blow hole and I’m going to explore the surroundings, see where the animals are feeding and watering. Might be able to catch a small rabbit or squirrel if I’m lucky, got some good throwing stones with me. They used to call me “Stone” when I was small. Could knock down a bird off a branch or stun a small animal with ease. Used to take a gang of small boys like me and get them to throw all together, more likely to hit something that way. We used to feed ourselves and didn’t have to rely on the scraps from the big fellows. When we ran off to the seashore some days, we would gorge ourselves silly on the shellfish. The greedier and lazier would make themselves sick, with a bad tummy when they ate the dead fish found on the beach, but I used to warn them and tell them not to, plenty of fresh ones if you know where and how.

I can hear some animals grazing in the bushes over there. Too noisy and careless to be animals. I must be careful and watch and wait. Patience! That’s what the wise men always say. Patience always brings in the big prize. I can see now. Couple of young kids picking green berries… Must be starving! They’ll get a good dose of gut rot from those. There’s somebody else with them, Ah, yes, I can see. An old woman who’s digging in the ground for roots. I’ll grab the lads and the old woman looks too frail to run away. I’ll find out if they belong to a nearby tribe.

They didn’t notice me creeping up on them until it was too late and I grabbed them by their hair. They kicked and scratched me until I gave them a good kicking and clashed their heads together. The woman just collapsed to the ground and feigned an illness or weakness so that I would ignore her. I just kicked her hard whilst holding onto the kids and she sat up and took notice. She looked in a bad way and told me that there is a large band of rovers about capturing slaves and their tribe had been attacked and most of them captured and carried away. She had been spared as being too old and later found the two kids who had escaped.

I told them they could come with me and I would look after them and that was the beginning of my new tribe. I took them back to my cave and gave them fresh water, collected in large conch shells and that I would bring them food. I brought them lots of shellfish and limpets, as many as I could carry at a time, having no skin bags and showed them how to break them open without losing too much of the flesh. They gorged themselves until they were full and I told the boys to sleep whilst I talked to the old woman.

She said that she came from afar with a band of rovers looking for slaves but she had been captured herself and carried off as a prize by a tribe. Now she was too old and only survived by being a wise woman and being useful to the tribe by finding sweet water and knowing about cures and things. I asked her if she knew how to make fire. Normally the tribes didn’t light fires because it gave their position away but it was mighty cold in the cave with no skins. She told me to collect some small bits of dried wood and she got some moss and two different stones out of a small pouch and started striking sparks. Soon she had the moss smouldering and with gentle blowing, had a flame. She added broken twigs and small branches and soon had a blaze. Plenty of dried wood in the cave, washed up by the waves. I must remember to steal that pouch from the woman, useful thing fire.

Over the days, the woman told me lots of things about the life of the rovers and the clever things they did and knew about other than fire. I kept them fed and warm and the woman showed me how to make a more effective club by binding a rock to a stick in a clever way. It was much easier now to club and kill the occasional seal that ventured into the cave. She also showed me how special stones could be split to make flakes to point my arrows and become more effective. The stone tipped arrows did more damage to the birds and small animals and stopped them from escaping. She taught me how to make fire and I had my own sealskin pouch with special stones and dried moss. The best thing was she showed us how to roast the meat and fish over the fire so that it tasted better and was much softer to chew.

For my part, I taught the boys how to fish and hunt and creep up quietly and ambush larger animals. Now that we had a safe haven in the cave, we could accumulate and store spears, clubs and things safely. I made myself a sharp cutting tool the woman called a knife by sticking sharp flakes of stone into a split stick and binding it. I also made a sharp axe for chopping up larger animals and seals into manageable chunks. I looked after my band and they thrived on the good food and clean water I provided and arranged for them. Even the old woman looked better and put on weight. She had sorted the freshwater problem out by making a basin out of clay and catching the drips more effectively. I should have thought of that. As young lads we used to fashion clay into images of animals and birds.

We kept to ourselves but saw many signs of rovers having been in the area. One day we found two frightened and hungry young women who had escaped the clutches of slavery and accepted them into our band, couldn’t call it a tribe yet. On another occasion we came across a couple of wounded men who had fought off the rovers and managed to escape. The wise woman nursed them back to health and I fed them back to strength. We were now a sufficient band to tackle bigger animals and set ambushes in the forest to catch deer and antelope. I had a dislike for boar.

We thrived, we were rich, we had skins. We had fine weapons so we were well provided for. What we lacked was good common sense and self preservation. With our wealth we had grown soft and careless and on one hunting expedition we were so intent on our quarry, we were ambushed by the rovers. We held off the first attack with the force of our superior weapons. My sharp axe had taken a good chunk out of a rover’s head, a stone edged spear had stopped another and a well aimed arrow had caused untold damage to the most fierce of the rovers but the was no sense in fighting a larger force and I yelled for them to scatter which they did apart from the two stupid men who probably thought it manly to carry on the fight. The young lads managed to flee but the men and young women were clubbed down and captured. I was back to my small band and left grieving over the thoughts of a tribe. This would never happen again. No more carelessness. I blamed myself for this setback.

Talking to the old woman put an idea into my head of recreating and enlarging my band. She told me that the rovers always travelled in large groups and never worried of being attacked. Who in the right mind would attack a large well armed group? They felt safe in numbers and were generally careless in their camps where the slaves were tied up and given no food to deliberately weaken them. I wasn’t going to attack them. I had more sense but there did seem an opportunity to help myself to a number of slaves and create an instant tribe, also to recover my people who would be eternally grateful and loyal into the bargain. I could hide them all in the cave, feed them up, train them, arm them and we could be a match for the rovers. Drive them out of our land.

With my two lads we took on the task of spying on the rover band. They were too arrogant to expect anybody to want to get close. Most people ran away as far and fast as possible. The wise woman was right. At night, the rover bands posted only a few guards mainly to guard the slaves, not from outside threat. The guards were sloppy. Having satisfied themselves with the women slaves, they slept soundly most of the night.

One night, when the moon was not too bright but sufficient light to make out objects, my lads and I went into the camp. The lads were instructed to lead the freed slaves out and I was to free them. I crept up to the group of slaves and put a hand over their mouths and woke them gently. I cut their bonds and told them to crawl away quietly which they did without further prompting and my boys saw them out to safety. I found my people and they were delighted to be freed. I can’t remember how many I freed but must have been at least two tribes’ worth.

I crawled over to a large man snoring gently and put my hand over his mouth and was about to wake him and cut his bonds when to my horror I recognised him as my old enemy Dru…..