Ch 4 Part 4

After a few hours she checked the pieces she had put in. They seemed to be done. Carefully placing the curved part on the top of her stack, she set it in place using the mud mix, being careful to keep it in place. Last but not least, she put the two round pieces together. It made a nice sized pipe and the angle of the curve from the back of the stove made it easier to have it sitting upright. Once everything was put in place, the final task was setting a fire in it itself to cure the firepit as a whole. She sat on a stool she made in front of it as she smiled.

After a few minutes, she took the preformed wall skeleton and she filled most of it with mud from her brick mix and placed it on the makeshift kiln. This would give her a solid backing to work with. She made sure that one section at least had a small window. That wall section would not take too long to cure. When it was finished curing in the oven, she carefully placed it against the wall she had constructed. Taking the large bowl of mud, she layered it along all the sides thickly making sure no holes were left behind. Between the heat of the fireplace on the inside, and the sun on the outside, the bricks and homemade mortar would set up nicely.

Last but not least, she made a skeleton for the doorway. Using the thickest pieces of hew grass, she cut the branches to length for the biggest hole. Choosing chunks of branches that were at least ten to twelve centimeters round. Carefully weaving them together, she finished them off by tying them to the skeleton. This would at least allow her to put it in front of the hole at night. Placing one slightly smaller branch to act as a door jam, she carefully tied it to the branch as if it had braided hinges. After wedging it in place, she used some rocks to help hold it in place and tied the door to the braided strips. She then wedged a second branch on the opposite side and tied another braided rope, this would help to tie it shut at night. Satisfied with the door. She checked the one wall she had curing to make sure it was done well. Satisfied that the wall was staying in place, she stoked the fireplace a little more for the added heat. By morning, the wall and fireplace should be completely cured.

It had been a long day, but Tarai could not end her day without making the offering to Selene. Once again, she gathered up some berries and mushrooms, taking a whole small fish this time, and adding it to the offering plate. Tomorrow, she would make a better offering alter. But for now, she finished her prayers as the warm feeling once again spread through her. Taking her fishing pole, she went to the creek and caught a few more fish for dinner, prepped them, and cooked them over the firepit outside. Her next task would be to make some brick cooking pots for now. But for now, the completion of her home was more than enough for one day. Filling one of the hollowed-out bark chunks she made earlier that day, she rinsed it first and carried it back with fresh water. She climbed into bed and went to sleep; she knew tomorrow would be just as challenging.

That same night, Selene sent a dream to Sachi about the two that had been temporarily banished. A vision of Tarai making herself a home from a fairly den and making her offerings for her repentance as the goddess has stipulated. A smile came to Sachi's face while she slept over that. Then she was sent a vision of her sister wandering aimlessly. No effort to even try and take care of herself, even if it was just a little. With all the skills her father had taught them, to know she would rather die than listen to Selene was just unfathomable. She could not understand what her sister was thinking now. It was most certainly nothing of what their teachings had taught them all. Sachi stirred restlessly at that vision, knowing that if she did not do something to appease Selene within the week, she would most likely die. Sachi's heart began to hurt at the thought, but there was nothing she could do. Sachi was still trying to make sense of it all. As she had come from the twenty first century, were she had been nothing more than a clothing designer. She could not help but question, even in her sleep how she was going to pull off being the Sachi the people knew from this world fully. All she could do was trust that the memories and knowledge that was left to her would be like second nature.

Sachi woke up long enough to get some water to drink and use the outhouse briefly. Walking back inside her home, she crawled back into bed and fell asleep again. The dreams that Selene was sending seemed to stop as her mind drifted to her previous life. All sorts of flashbacks began to hit her as she was beginning to drift off to sleep. She really missed her original family. She could still remember how proud her mother was when she got her designing degree in college. Most of her classes had involved drawing, but as a designer, that was quite useful. She still remembered her first contest that she entered with her friend that had died with her in the car accident. And how proud her family was when she got her job at the fashion company as they had recruited her and her friend from college. It was such a happy time. She felt bad as all the time she had neglected in forming any kinds of relationship past her one good friend and coworkers. With a heavy sigh, she was determined to keep the promise she had made, even if she would be sad in remembering her mother and father from her time. All the things she wished she could have told them, but nothing lasts forever and Sachi knew this all too well. This was her second chance, and she needed to make the best of it, no matter how sad she might become from time to time. Morning came, and Sachi got up determine to help however she could in the village today too. She spoke to her father of the dream with the elders standing there and they had mixed reactions to the two separate behaviors she had been shown in her dream. Sachi merely shrugged her shoulders and let them know that if anything else came up, she would inform people immediately. But for now, she helped to prep for the arrival of her mates parents that would be showing up tomorrow at the end of the day.

Somewhere on the outskirts of the territory almost sixty to eighty kilometers away, Arlynn sat on a log resting on the side of the road. She did not know how long she had been walking for. She was tired, hungry, and cold. She knew she needed to get warm. Gathering up some firewood and dry grasses, she proceeded to light a fire using the provisions in her pack. After almost an hour, she managed to get a fire lit. She kicked herself in the ass for not paying any attention to the teaching of the tracker and her father for basic survival skills. She did pay attention to some of the self defense training techniques, but that was not going to help her at the moment. What she needed was food. She had not come across a source of water yet and was getting rather thirsty. Two days of aimless wandering will do that to a person. The mountainous areas still had some snow here and there. Making sure the snow was clean, she proceeded to eat the snow in an effort to quench her thirst, but it was no good. Her tired aching body was giving in to the cold and she fell asleep next to the fire she had made; leaned up against her pack board and meager belongings. The hours seemed to go by slow as she sat sleeping upright. So tired, but yet she could not ignore the fact that she was thirsty and hungry. Two days of the week were already gone now. Her stomach growled loudly startling her awake just in time to see a feral wolf staring down at her in human form, by the feel of his power, he appeared to be a high-end beta.

Arlynn scooted back against her pack board fearing for her life. Her combat skills were average at best, plus she could no longer make full use of her abilities. She had only been left with the ability to use her claws if needed. The feral did not speak as he looked at her with questioning eyes, he sniffed her and lightly growled. She stared wide eyed at a him, wondering what he wanted. He seemed to be fairly tall man, he was well defined in his muscles and had a scar upon his left eye. He looked to be at least thirty to forty years old. She let out a gasp as the anxiety built up. As he stared at her, something was off, but he could not figure out what. Arlynn, who had been wandering for two days, eventually passed out from the stress of overexerting herself and having no food or water in two days. Seeing her pass out, the feral snorted gruffly, as if to complain. He did not know who this person was or why she was in his small claim of territory. He only knew something was off about her. Her mark, showing him that she was the lowest end beta, a level four at that. He scoffed; he was a level one at least. He sat for a few moments next to her fire as he wondered what he would do with her being there.