Building Utopia Ch. 03

They had only gone a short distance when they came upon a bear eating the offal from Roger's last kills. He jumped when Margarita grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. "No," she whispered. He is very dangerous and we do not need meat that badly. Please let us go find other game."

Roger looked at the fear on her face then gently removed her hand. He turned, assumed a good shooting position, took careful aim at the Bear and squeezed off a round. The sound reverberated and the bear grunted. The bear's head came up and turned toward them. Margarita moaned and turned to run then stopped in shock as the bear toppled over with a wheezing groan and lay still. Roger moved toward it slowly and carefully. When he reached it he poked it with the muzzle of his rife. It did not move so he pulled his hunting knife and carefully but rapidly slit its throat so it would bleed out better.

Roger turned when he heard Margarita move up behind him. She stared at the dead bear then whispered, "You killed a bear with only one shot from twice the distance our best marksmen would have shot from. If they had killed the bear it would probably have taken two or three shots. You are truly a great hunter. Now, move aside please so I can butcher the beast."

Margarita had barely began working on the butchering when Sunny came running through the woods. She stopped in shock when she saw the bear then walked slowly to it. She looked over at Roger then dropped beside Margarita to help her with the work. Margarita smiled and the two women began rapidly conversing while they worked. This time Roger did not even offer to help. He just stood guard and watched.

Quicker than scat the bear was opened up and the entrails were discarded. The women did keep the heart and liver though. The two women attached rawhide thongs to the bear and tried to pull it back to camp. Roger watched for a moment then stopped them. He cast around and finally found two strong young trees and several smaller ones that he cut down with his small hand ax. He moved back to them and laid out a simple travois which he tied together with some rope he carried and some of the women's rawhide.

After the travois was completed Roger and the women rolled the bear onto it. Roger bent and picked up the top end of the travois. He began trudging back to camp. The women watched in wonder for a moment then rushed up to him. Margarita insisted he drop the travois and let them pull it while he stood guard. He finally did as she ordered but felt guilty all the way back to camp. When they arrived in camp the look on the Dawn's and Bear Stalker's faces were priceless. Roger had only been gone thirty minutes (of course they had no concept of the actual time so to them it was just a short while) and came back with a bear after what they knew was only one shot.

The three women quickly got to work processing the bear. A hind quarter was placed on the spit over the fire for immediate eating. The remainder was cut into strips for turning into jerky over the other fire. When that rack was filled another rack was built and another fire started to jerk more of the meat. While Sunny and Margarita cooked and dried the bear Dawn disappeared. A couple hours later she showed up with a basket full of herbs, roots and other vegetable matter. She quickly began preparing the items she gathered and placing them in a skin bag of water hanging over a fire. She cut some of the bear up with them and before long a savory smell was coming from the stew pot.

The small group of friends was just beginning to eat their supper when the dogs jumped to their feet and flowed into the forest. Roger saw them go and started to rise when there was a flurry of yipping and screaming. An arrow came flying into the clearing and stuck into the tree Roger was leaning against just before he moved. All looked up to see a group of five Indians rushing into the clearing. They all held knives or tomahawks and were making for the two male members of the group. Roger stepped back and pulled his pistol. He stood and banged out five shots in less than thirty seconds. All the attacking Indians were down. He quickly opened the cylinder of his pistol and began pushing new rounds into it. He was keeping his eye on the down Indians and the surrounding trees. He stopped in shock for a moment when he saw the two Indian women quickly move toward the down Indians to check on his handiwork. Two of them were still alive but they put finish to their hopes of a longer life. When they found they were alive the ladies quickly slid their knives across their throats ending their lives quickly.

After they were sure the attackers were dead Roger checked to insure there were no more in the woods. When Roger returned to camp the small group returned to their meal. While they were eating the women and even the sole brave were rapidly talking back and forth between themselves. Finally Margarita turned to Roger and said, "We are all amazed with your fighting ability and especially with your small pistol. How can you make it fire so many times without reloading as our people must do? We are also very pleased and happy you have agreed to take us to your settlement and allow us to become your people. We have never seen a fighter vanquish so many animals or enemies in such a short time. Thank you for caring for us Roger."

"I'm just a man over 400 years out of his time. What I have done here is common in my time Margarita. I just have better tools and training than you do in this time. Much of what I do is because of my superior weapons and the extensive training I obtained while I served in our Army. I am really nothing special. I can teach any of the men and many of the women in this age to do as well as I do."