Above Stillwaters | C7
“You got the basts?”
“I got the basts!” Alma held up the soggy bag of stems victoriously as she set down her crossbow. “We can start getting bows made.”
“I’ve never used a bow before.” Dalisay accepted the bag she handed off to her to start getting them prepped. “Is it hard?”
“At first. Your body needs to adapt and the muscle ache in that is gonna suck for a bit until we’re used to it.” Alma said, bending to check the branches they had harvested two days ago and she was pleased to feel that they had dried out now in the sun, which would normally take far longer in more humid areas but the air was dryer and hotter here. Since they had a single crossbow for the both and no hand-guns, bows were their other options for self-defence and, Alma hoped it would be a good enough sign to the Na’vi and Zeswa that they weren’t RDA.
Personally, Alma hadn’t made a bow on her own before before, but she did assist a few times with the younger Omatikaya warriors do so plenty of times before the RDA’s arrival, shouldn’t be too hard to get an idea of what they needed to do and get; the bow shape, string and the arrow materials. She had made arrows before so that was not the problem.
“You know how to fire?”
“Yes, but not in this body. It’s gonna suck for me just as much it’s gonna for you.”
Dalisay snorted a little. “Misery has company.”
Alma chuckled a little. “Of course.”
She set the branches off to the side for now, choosing the slighter smaller one for her own since Dalisay was a few inches taller than herself.
“But, you’ll be using the crossbow for the next few weeks still, your rib, finger and the burns you have are healing.” She pointed out.
Dalisay looked to her arm, which was no longer dressing covered like the rest of her burns, the skin now near the latter half of her healing process so while there was some scarring, there was currently only some discoloration to the repairing skin. Her other dermal wounds had closed up and she had removed a portion of the stitches already so there was little to do else in that regard. Dalisay’s finger was still going to be the longest thing to recover, so she had about a month or so left to properly be able to use her ring finger and since the woman’s rib hadn’t been cracked as assumed, but bruised. Which was a far better case but still gave her weeks to recover. So training with a Bow was unwise.
“Not that bad.”
“No, but I’d rather not undo your healing plan.” Alma reasoned, climbing into the back of the camper and pulled out her tools to get the branch shaped appropriately.
“Ugh.”
Alma settled herself down by the wheels and began the tedious of first identifying how it moved to find it’s back and belly before marking the handle in its centre, but also where and how far she’d need to shape to get the bow in proper shape. As soon as they was done, she started the process of removing the bark and going from there.
Over the course of the few hours, pausing for tea breaks, bio breaks and a snack, the branch did become more and more shaped like a bow. Of course, tilling it took it’s time which was the most physical part of the process, which made her sweat and drink a lot more, using a temporary cord for that to get the branch curving on the draw as she tilled it slowly and cutting away with her knife the stiff bark until there was a good curve.
She could see Dalisay steals glances very so often, so she did he best to tell her what she was doing, when it was relevant because… what if something happened to her and Dalisay needed to know? Either way, by afternoon, she had a bow done.
Was it perfect?
No.
Was it stunning beautiful?
No, pretty hideous actually.
Could she fire an arrow from it with considerable force?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
A win in her book. “Hehe.” Alma ran her finger down the proper string Dali had made, pleased to feel the tension retained as she lowered it from her test shot.
“Oh, thy mighty warrior.” Dalisay called, “Now you need actual arrows.”
“Tomorrow, mostly.” She set the bow down, collecting up the tools together. “Might work on the arrow heads today but I should probably get food ready soon.” In about an hour, maybe?
Dalisay hummed, sparing a look to her work, the bast fibres long done for the bow string, she had moved onto looming, which was a low mobile job to create a thicker compression sock for her leg stump. The old one was wearing and had torn so, a new one had to be made before it became unusable. It hadn’t taken her too much to learn since, looming a basic piece of material was simple, but a little time consuming.
“What’s for dinner?”
“Smoked Liver slices, pod beans and I still have some of that bone soup.”
“We got any more eggs?”
“Nope, all out.”
“Can we get more tomorrow? We’ll be driving around the border tomorrow, there’s certainly a few trees to stop at, right?”
“I suppose, but I do want to do a bit more gathering closer in. There’s a spot closer to the coast that has some potential brine pools. I want to see if we, or I can establish potential trade for salt.”
Dalisay looked up, wide eyes. “What?” her tone losing all warmth and filled with weary.
“I still have some supplies from the clouded forest and Aranahe. I could trade those for salt. We need salt but there’s no strong markers for brine pools outside the Heartlands or have the tools to make salt.”
“We’ll have access to the coast once we’re past the heartlands. Just boil off the water and we’re good.” Dalisay said, as if it was obvious.
“It’s an option.”
“A stupid fucking option. If you get shanked, and I’m waiting at camp for you, I’ll be waiting there like a fucking lemon.” Dalisay argued.
“We need salt for our food. Trading is easier and less time consuming.”
“But the locals actively want to kill us. You said you wanted to have minimal contact if possible. I think going right up to them, waving goods form other clans for salt is a real risk. There’s no telling that they won’t kill you on site.”
Alma reached for one of the bones to use for arrow heads. “I’m not saying that there isn’t danger or risk, but Zeswa are smart and not out to kill humans on site if they’re not a threat or hurting anyone. Two sky people with very little metal weaponry, with two bows are less likely to be received as hostile threats. Avoiding them is best but there is still an opening of civil conversation.”
Dalisay stared at her for a long moment, pursing her lips. “If I say no, are you still gonna bugger off and go?”
Alma spared her a look. “No.” She wasn’t stupid, nor arrogant enough to believe she could go there on her own. She needed Dalisay to come with her since the wildlife was still too much of a threat to tackle.
“Then good. I’m not going out to meet the Zeswa. We’ll make salt once we hit a beach. Boil it off and gather and clean the crystals.” Dalisay decided, very matter of fact.
“I do want to gather still in the heartlands.” Alma abandoned the bones and her tools, grabbing her tablet to show Dalisay her route. “North-East, there’s this bay that connects to the sea. Fine, we’ll avoid the Zeswa camps here, and here.>” pointing them out. “<and major river flows by driving along these mountain edges and down, staying close to the border as possible. It’s doable, but it’ll burn a lot of battery.>”
Dalisay took the tablet, pursing her lips. “We can set up there for a day or so. Maybe we should leave the external tent, all non-essential items and go? It’ll lighten the load off of the car and there are no RDA in this far out, we don’t need to camouflage the car. It’ll be quicker and we can come back here to collect our shit before we leave the Heartlands for good.>”
Alma glanced at her camper, resisting the urge to shoot that idea down. She was right, the weight was the problem; it slowed them down and made it harder to use. If… they took the camper tent off, they’d still keep the support frame so they’d still keep things contained. Clothing, clothes, baskets of their goods would have to stay, some food, they’d have to keep. The fridge relied on the power course so they had to keep that to keep the meat inside fresh, the generator and the camper’s charger installed too. Their tent… it could stay but it was heavy as well.
“<How comfortable are you leaving our air tent?>”
Dalisay visibly hesitated.
“It stays.” Alma decided. If they were both on the fence, it stays. “<We can replace clothing, food and baskets. I’ll keep the tech we too.>” if they had to flee, they needed to prioritise on what was, at the end of the day, truly replaceable and what wasn’t. They could build another external tent, if they had to.
So, between the both of them, they carefully removed the external tent from the camper, struggling a little but it slid easily and set into position in front of the bushpod, setting their things they didn’t need inside and lit incense to keep the scent inside undesirable for wildlife.
The back of the camper, they kept the cook pot, shallow metal food bowls and tools and boil-safe cases needed for boiling water. Dalisay took one of the bones and hid it, probably for her future leg and for the rest of the afternoon and evening after dinner, they crafted arrows until they had a sizable amount. Dalisay also collected up charcoal from the fire and sand from the river to build a nature-based water filter rather than her reusable one. Last thing they needed to boil alive was a tiny fish or clog up their personal one with salt water. Alma, in the last hour of sun, practised until her arms burned and turned in for the night.
Sadly, it left her waking aching and sore, but she didn’t complain as she shovelled down the left overs for breakfast and helped pack up the tent and flatten it as small as possible and shoved it into the bag and set it onto the floor of the car. She set the painted ramp on top and secured her bow in the side space while Dalisay set up a seat on top of the support frame with a piece of collected wood, strapping herself down and this allowed her a greater range of sight. She also has a basket beside her.
The Solar panel, they secured behind her, to charge the generator as they went and by six am, they were ready to go.
-
It took until ten am, with two stops for toileting and food, to reach the bay. The trip felt longer, they had avoided three different packs of cloaked panthers, and Dalisay had chased them off by throwing rocks she had in the basket at them. Rudimentary, but it worked. Alma did make note to thank her for that effort.
With a Zeswa camp so close, Alma made sure to back behind a rock wall of the slopes that came down the way towards the bay; stopping an immediate to their side from the Zeswa’s camp should they come looking, but it left a path they had to follow to take their cases to fill with water.
Dalisay took the time to set up the water filer as Alma sought the quickest route to the water side and back with the first batch of water into the water filter. As boring as it was, coming and going, Alma resisted the desire to put on music. They couldn’t afford to miss any potential close sounds, like animals or na’vi. Dalisay had set the cookpot to catch water filters, their food bowls were filled with a little water at a time and were set over the grill and heated quickly once the fire reached a good temperature. Tongs were helpful tp pull the bowls out, scraping the salt off into another bowl and refilled.
A repeating process.
Alma kept guard the best she could as they worked through their water supplies and as the sun began to descend in the sky. Lower and lower, their salt collection growing and growing. A leaf, they had over the steam direct any condensation into another pot, so they also got some freshwater out of their efforts, which was bottled up for later and added it into the camper.
“How much do we have now?” It had been some time since she last went out to draw more sea water.
Dalisay peered into the salt case. “We can stop it after this. I’m comfortable with this amount.” She said, sounding pleased. “Small crystals, but that’s not a big deal.”
No, it really wasn’t. They were looking for speed, not quality or efficiently. Small crystals, but the salt would be dissolved for other purposes anyway. They weren’t a fancy restaurant. Beggars weren’t choosers.
Alma set away the salt once the last of it was deposited into the box and secured it into the back and Dalisay helped with the clean-up with idle chatter and they ate through one of the back-up ration packs for ease and put the fire out. It was sun low now, the engines were back to full power as well as the generators, having spent the day recharging. They’d get back to the camp in when Twilight set in but as long as they didn’t stop, they were good.
“Let’s get going.”
Dalisay decided to drive this time, so Alma secured herself into a backseat with her bow and gripped the support beam as they started off and began to quickly churn the distance around the bend to make their way back their previous route.
Five minutes later, they came to an abrupt stop as, by a pond they had to pass, a group of three Zeswa was crowded together.
Dalisay grunted, humming in a soft debate.
They were stuck; they’d be spotted if they stayed, and they couldn’t pass them either without being spotted. Alma wondered if it was worth the risk to talk to them.
“What’s the plan?” Dalisay hissed, looking nervous. “Can we race past them?”
“That’s an option.” Alma allowed. She didn’t see any Direhorses so they’d not catch up easily. These folks must have come from the near camp on foot.
Then, Alma saw what the Zeswa were crowded around.
A person. Two, people actually. Both were on the floor, curled up and protecting themselves which became apparent from the angry beating they were getting.
Alma’s heart picked up in fear. She knew the Zeswa were usually a fierce clan and had seen them in battle but this? Mob beating two people? That was new and far more violence she expected.
Alma unsecured herself, grabbing her arrows.
“What the fuck are you doing, Alma?!” Dalisay hissed, but grabbed her crossbow anyway as she jumped out of the camper and aimed a notched arrow, not yet fully pulled back.
“<Hey! Since when do the Zeswa beat you own people into oblivion?!>” Alma’s voice cut through the air, startling the three Zeswa men from around the foreign man who was looking very out of it. Another, a woman was more with it, was left panting deeply into the grass but she couldn’t make anything of them but the blood and the bruising skin.
The group startled, but Dalisay and Alma kept their weapons raised. There were a few hisses and they too geared their weapons.
“<You speak, sky person?” The leader looked almost amused but there was real threat to all their postures.
“<I do. I am a member of the resistance against the Sky people. The Zeswa joined the resistance with the other clans in the south so I do not recommend harming me or my friend.>” Alma went straight to the point.
“<Why would our clan join up with little humans?>”
“<The Sky people killed Zakru and shattered the Celebration arches. The Resistance helped them and they partook in the following battles against them to push them out of the Upper Plains and the Kinglor Forest. Harming us may damage your clan’s standing, especially when they hear you beating a man.>”
The leader of the group scoffed a little, fingers flexing on her spear. “<You sound confidant but are you skilled?>”
“<I am confidant. I don’t wish to fire this arrow but I will if I have to. They are coated in a toxin. This people are done and is not in a state to harm you or defend themselves from you. Murder is frowned upon in Eywa’s eyes, is it not?>” Alma said, the lie of the arrows falling easily on her lips. They wouldn’t want to test it and find out. “<Even if you do kill us, there’s two of you still getting shot from our weapons. No one needs to die here. Have some honour for your clan and walk away.>”
The leader stared at them, noting Dalisay’s finger on the trigger of the crossbow and then looked to the two in the grass. “Do you know what this People’s clan did to us?”
“<I don’t, nor do I care.>”
“<They killed Zakru.>”
“<These two personally?>”
“<These two have trodden where they’re forbidden.>”
“<I think they’ve understood that message of trespassing now, don’t you think?”
The two others spared a look to each other, then hissed and nudged the leader. “<Let’s go. This is the waste of our time. Let the sky people have them.>” the second Zeswa man said, “<I don’t want to get poisoned by an arrow head.>”
It took a few moments before they decided, the lead woman scoffing at them before they scathingly glared and with a few echoing calls, they summoned Pa’li to them and they took off.
Dalisay lowered her crossbow with a groan once they were far enough away. “What the fuck was that about?”
“Clan grievances. They attacked these two because they trespassed. On where, I don’t know. Also, I think they have a poor clan’s history with theirs.” Alma summarised, dropping her bow and moved to the first Na’vi’s side. “Check the woman.”
The mans skin was purple with bruised and blood. He wasn’t of the forest or plains, but closer to that of the reef. Study upper build, strakes on his wrists and ankles, his tail paddled but his skin wasn’t a light blue like the reef people, but a dark teal with semi-watery stripes. His long black hair was partially up, soaked in with blood and she could make out the tattoos on his beaten face and busted lower lip but… she gasped as she recognised his face despite all that.
“Mäzan?”
The woman Dalisay wearily got close to, her head shot up from her place in the grass.
She looked much like Mäzan in that she was a woman of the swamps. Curly hair, pulled back, blue sharp eyes but one of which was swollen up, though the whites of her left eye was now red. Her nose was broken, arm strake looked to be out of place and she was also bruised up, but more able to move and conscious.
Dalisay looked surprised at the name that left her lips. “You know him?”
“Long story.” Alma said, but turned her attention to the injured woman who was staring at her, suspiciously. “<My name is Alma Cortez. We can help but we need to move.>”
“<How do you know Mäzan?>” The woman spoke, voice weak and wheezed.
“<I knew him a long time ago, in the East with the Omatikaya when Mäzan fought against the sky people at the battle of the hallelujah mountains with the clans. I had a Dreamwalker back then and we helped the Na’vi healers tend to the wounded. I tended to Mäzan before he left.>” Which was the brief summery. They didn’t have time to unpack that all right now, they needed to get back to camp. They could unload once at the pod and get these two on the mend but they needed to get out of immediate area in case those Zeswa changed their minds.
The woman stared, as if debating before Mäzan groaned softly, her ears pinning as she spared a look up towards the direction of the Zeswa camp.
“<Fine… but one of you must collect an item we dropped into a tree root ditch. It cannot stay there.>” The woman gestured to the far side of the hill, where tracks were; where they had been running before they were caught. “<It is dangerous to animal life.>”
Alma nodded slowly. “<I can get it. Can you help Mäzan onto the back of our vehicle? There is enough space for the both of you and our fastest way out of here>” Barely, but it’d have to do.
“<Metal?>”
“<We don’t have options nor time. I’m sorry.>”
The woman debated for a second, eyes flickering one again to the Zeswa camp before nodding. “<Okay.>”
“What’s going on?” Dalisay said, frustrated.
“We’re taking them with us to get out of the danger zone. I need to get a thing they dropped because it’s bad for wildlife. If I don’t get it, they’ll take their chances with death.>”
Dalisay gave her a look. “Really?”
“If we can be their friends, they can help us. Help them and get ready to go once I come back.” She patted her arm and ran off.
Dalisay’s voice echoed behind her angrily, but she didn’t stop to listen.
With the sun low, seeing through the grass was harder than she’d like, but she favoured towards the darkest pits in the grass, her heart hammering more as she went, arrow ready and listening out but all she heard was her own shoes in the grass and the hisses of her mask, following mostly the trodden down grass that showed her the path the two Na’vi had taken so it wasn’t hard to follow. Easy, really but she couldn’t let her guard down.
Then, Alma found a spot that looked interesting enough to examine. It was a wind-bent tree, but at it’s roots it was dug out into a ditch, but what stood out to her was a wrapped parcel of sorts that was clearly and hastily tossed in. Leaf-wrapped and bound tightly in a tight fashion, the edges of it looked like it had been smoothened down by a type of glue. Sealed purposely.
In her human hands, it was massive and long but it was small enough to fit under her arm. Alma quickly turned back, not lingering to be caught here and raced back towards the camper and their new riders for the time being. Once they were at the Heartland border, they could relax.
Masterlist
