Last week, as you'll recall, in Trapped in Time, they came across a dying mother and an orphaned sabre-tooth tiger. See what has become of them! And don't forget to visit the other Briefers, whose links follow my tale. Enjoy!
Although
numerous suggestions are made as to what to name the new member of our little
group, Vittorio and I find ourselves calling him Kitty—having ascertained his
gender in the usual way—and Kitty he stays. I am nervous at first, but Vittorio
remains his usual unflappable self. It’s obvious to me that he was born to be a
father, he is such a natural at it, and my heart swells with pride when I look
at the two of them together. I love him more and more with each passing day. He
never ceases to amaze me.
Our
first concern is what shall we feed our new son? Mother’s milk is not exactly
flowing from the ground, if you know what I mean, and none of us are adequately
equipped to supply the necessary nutrient for his diet. We give him some water
from what we have, but it is obvious that he wishes for more, and for that I
cannot blame him.
Our
prayers are answered—in more ways than one—in an unexpected way.
We
have decided to stay in this cave for a day or two, until we make sure that
Kitty is strong enough to travel. Vittorio and I do not wish to take any
chances, he is so young and has been through a most traumatic experience.
And then my lover has a most brilliant idea!
He takes some of the rocks that lie about the cave and beats them, one against the
other, until he discovers which is strongest, and hones it as sharp as he can.
Using that, he takes some of the small sticks that litter the ground, remnants
of snapped branches that have fallen from the trees, and fashions a few stakes.
Charlie and Mary help us, collecting some branches. From them, we remove the
heaviest of the leaves and weave them together to form a rope of sorts. We add
the rope to the stakes, and thus we have a snare! Vittorio sets out the snare,
and we go about our business until he says it is time to check it, to see if we
have caught anything. Shortly after that we find ourselves with a small animal
that somewhat resembles a rabbit, but with shorter ears and longer tail, and my
mouth waters at the idea of hasenpfeffer, but that must wait until we have a
pot in which to cook such a rabbit stew. For now I am content to roast it on
the spit that Vittorio makes for me, and such a feast we have!
As
it cooks, we take the juices from the meat, add it to some water, forming a
broth, and feed that to Kitty, anxiously watching his reaction. He loves it!
“Doll,
his teeth seem pretty sharp,” Daddy Vittorio says, running a careful finger
along the edge of one. Kitty doesn’t mind. He mews at him and tries to nip his
finger, playfully. “I wonder if his mama was already weaning him?”
So
we carefully offer him small pieces of meat, watching to make sure he can
handle them, and he devours them as fast as we can feed them to him. Then he
falls asleep in Vittorio’s lap, as we all sit about the fire and admire our
beautiful new baby, and make plans to resume our journey on the morrow.
Morning
comes and we set off once more. Myron generously offers to push our penny
farthing for us, as we now have our hands rather full with our baby. Vittorio
and I take turns carrying Kitty when he sleeps, which he often does. Sometimes Myron
allows Mary to be a passenger; she climbs upon the bike and sits on the seat,
enjoying the view. Sometimes she does gymnastics, such as hand stands and such,
swinging herself from the handle bars. We cannot help but laugh at such a
sight.
The
weather is beautiful. Not too warm, not too cold. Just right. Even when it rains, the water is warm and
feels nice, as we take shelter under a large tree. When we stop walking for the
day, we have no cave to sleep in, but we make ourselves comfortable near the
base of a large boulder, and Vittorio sets his snares again. This time he
catches a fat bird that reminds me of a quail. Together we clean it and remove
all the feathers—Mary and Kitty and even Charlie are more than happy to eat the
bird’s insides, although I say I would rather not. I season it as well as I can
with herbs, and then I stuff it with vegetables and roast it. Kitty ignores the
vegetables, but he happily devours the tender flesh. After dinner, we all sit
around the campfire, watching Kitty gambol and cavort. He alternates between
chasing his tail and chasing after our fingers and toes. Then He climbs into
Myron’s lap, and at first Myron seems apprehensive, but we smile and tell him
it’s all right, and Kitty falls asleep in his arms.
Vittorio
and I stretch out together, and gaze up into the sky. So many stars. So very beautiful.
I lay my head upon his chest and turn my eyes to him, as I simply drink in his
beauty.
“Are
you happy, Doll?” he asks.
“Very,”
I reply.
Suddenly
he looks away from me and for a moment I am disturbed as he rises to a sitting
position, a frown creasing his handsome features.
“What
is it? Is something wrong?” He pulls me up, placing an arm about my shoulder as
he points to something on the far horizon. I squint into the distance. Is that
smoke that I see?
We
beckon to Myron and Charlie, and we all look into the darkness. Straining to
see the faintest trace of smoke there.
Charlie
dispels the mystery.
“That’s
from the Professor,” he announces.
Our
journey is almost at an end!
to be continued
Don't forget to visit the other Wednesday Briefers and see what they're up to!
Nephylim m/m
Michael Mandrake m/m
Cia Nordwell m/m virgin alert!
MA Church m/m
Elyzabeth VaLey m/f
Tali m/f
That virgin alert is hilarious! Ahem... onto the story. They've now got quite a little party and it'll be interesting to see what the Professor is all about. It's interesting, too, to see them turning into cavemen of sorts. :)
ReplyDeleteYou have to work with what you have, right? Couldn't exactly send them to the mall, now could I? Necessity, etc etc This has been good for me, made me think outside the box lol
DeleteI've loved the journey so far. It would be HILARIOUS to see this lot turn up in a mall. PLEASE think about it for a future endeavour :) For now I will satisfy myself with ooohing and ahing over kitty and getting excited about finally meeting the professor.
ReplyDeleteHell Julie, you stay outside the box lol. ;)Loved it *grin*
ReplyDelete~M