White Ghost and the Poison Arrow (14 page)

Arella takes
her bow and adds the arrows to her deerskin bag on her back. “Maybe
we will see something we can hunt with this, make ourselves a nice
big meal for tonight.” She says hopefully, although she is not
entirely sure she would be able to hit a moving target. Maska
however is excited by this prospect.

Once they get
to the area where they set the snares, Arella begins work
re-setting them and moving them into different positions. She
figures that the rabbits might figure out where the traps are and
not go near them, so if she moves them then she will still be able
to catch them. Or that’s the theory anyway. Maska plays lazily with
fallen leaves that blow in the breeze. The breeze seems to be
getting stronger. Arella looks up at the sky, a large black cloud
forming above the treeline, moving quickly across the sky. The air
grows cold and thick. “I think we’d better get home before the rain
hits.” Just as she says this, a large drop of rain hits her on the
nose. She looks down at Maska, who does not look happy at the
thought of rain and laughs. “Looks like we’re too late.” They
quickly turn and leave the rabbit snares, moving swiftly back to
their home. The rain clouds however are quicker than Arella and
Maska, and it soon catches up with them. Arella is laughing in the
rain. She has always loved the feel of rain on her skin. She looks
down at Maska, both of them now running through the rain. His tail
is high in the air, his ears pricked up and a spring in his step.
Maska purposely jumps into one of the puddles forming in front of
them, joy on his wet furry face. “So you do like water then Maska.”
Arella laughs. They then both jump in puddles all the way home,
laughing as they do so.

When they get
back to the tree house, Arella notices a flaw in her house. Her and
Maska are wet, and they need a fire to dry off and warm up, but
they cannot have a fire in the tree house because it is made of
wood, but they cannot have one on the ground as it is wet. Arella
knows she will have to fix this once the rain dries up, although
she is not sure just how she will do this.

Arella takes
Maska into her arms and they climb into the tree house Arella
quickly takes off her wet clothes and dries herself off with her
cloak. She left it at the house because they were under the cover
of trees, and now she is glad she did. Once she is dry, Arella puts
on some clean dry clothes, while Maska sits and licks the water off
his fur, looking a little unhappy to say the least. Arella laughs
and grabs Maska with her cloak. “Come here soggy moggy. Let’s get
you dried off.” She rubs at his fur until most of the water is off,
then hangs the cloak off a branch to dry. It’s warmer now, so it
should be dry by morning.

“Well, the roof
is holing water out at least Maska.” Arella says looking up. “We
won’t get wet in here.” She looks down at the ground below her,
trying to think of a way to make fire in the rain for the future.
“What if we extend the floor of the house, only a little lower and
make an extra room on the ground.” She says to herself. “We could
do the same thing we have done up here, only on the floor. That way
when the rain comes, we can have a fire and sit down there.” She
pauses. “Although then we might get wet from sitting on the
ground.” A thought then pops into Arella’s head. “What if I lay
stones on the ground, to lift it up higher, then we can build the
roof over it, and it will stay dry.” Maska just blinks at her, but
Arella knows it is a good idea. She begins planning in her head,
looking around for the rocks she can use. “I don’t even have to
cover the entire ground with rocks, just around the edges and seal
it will sticky moss so it doesn’t leak.” She pauses again. “The
only place I have seen sticky moss was by the village those men
belong to. We will start on that when the rain clears Maska.”

A little more
thought brings another idea into Arella’s head. “I think we should
make a chicken coop too.” Maska’s eyes light up. “No, not so we can
eat the chickens.” Disappointment clouds Maska’s eyes. “We can use
them for laying eggs, and yes we can eat a few of them too. We will
breed them so we have eggs and meat here at the house. We can make
them a coop with vinewood, and feed them grue bulbs, nuts and
berries.” Arella laughs at herself. “Although I think getting a
place for a fire to keep dry might be a better idea. What do you
think?” Maska shivers and shakes off some of the rain from his fur.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”

A loud crack of
thunder makes Arella and Maska jump. Arella had not seen the flash
that should have come with it. Maska huddles into Arella’s side for
comfort, and she gives him it. Another flash comes and the clap to
follow. Maska jumps again. “It’s okay Maska. It’s just thunder and
lightning. I promise it won’t hurt us.” She looks down at his odd
coloured eyes. “Do you want me to tell you a story about the
thunder?” She asks. “There is a great bird that lives in the sky.
He is called the Thunderbird, and he is a strong and powerful
spirit. Now the Thunderbird isn’t like any other bird, he is dark,
grey like the clouds up there, and when he beats his great wings
together, thunder sounds loud and clear. When he beats his wings,
the feathers on his body let out a bright light, and that is the
lightning. So you see Maska, the thunder and lightning isn’t scary,
just the Thunderbird spirit letting us know he is still watching
over us.” This seems to calm Maska a little, and his eyes start to
close, opening with the claps of thunder, but not making him jump
anymore.

It is still
mid-afternoon, but with the sky so dark, and Arella and Maska so
tired, they both begin to drift off to sleep. Arella dreams of the
great Thunderbird clapping his wings and making everything bright.
He flies down from the sky above, takes her and Maska onto his back
and flies away with them, high in the sky above the rain and the
clouds and across the lands. Suddenly, the great Thunderbird rolls,
causing Arella to fall through the sky. She is hurtling towards the
ground at an alarming rate, panicking as she falls. She jumps awake
just as she is about to hit the ground, her breathing heavy and
heart beating. She looks to her side in the darkness and sees him
sleeping soundly.

The rain around
her has stopped, and the birds in the trees are beginning to sing.
It must be close to morning. Arella decided it is time she got up
and started on her plans. She walks over to the branch she hung her
cloak on, it is almost dry. Arella decides to leave it there rather
than moving it to another branch, and puts on her boots before
climbing down the tree to the ground.

Careful not to
move out of eye-shot of the tree, Arella begins collecting the
large rocks she will use to make her ground shelter. She gathers as
many rocks from the side of the lake as she can find, and piles
them up close to the tree. It is hard work, but Arella knows that
once her home is finished, it will be worth it. When picking up one
of the flat stones, Arella reveals a toad, sleeping soundly under
the rock. It looks up at her with its bulging eyes and croaks.
“Sorry.” Arella says to the toad and places the rock carefully back
where she found it, recovering the toad.

The sun is
beginning to peak over the horizon, lighting up the lake and making
it a bright orange colour. Arella looks out over the water to the
woodland on the other side, and the mountains beyond that. When you
think about it, she is in a valley. There are mountains on either
side of her, distant as they may be, they surround her. This makes
Arella feel a little claustrophobic, however strange that sounds.
She pushes the thought from her mind and continues on with
positioning the rocks.

Once the rocks
are all places in a large square shape, Arella takes a stand back.
It is positioned close to the tree on the left hand side as Arella
looks at it, the side that is closest to the lake, although it is
far enough away to not matter if the lake swells. Luckily the trees
Arella calls home are atop a mound of dirt, and it stretches quite
far, meaning water will not run into it from anywhere else. Part of
the ground shelter-to-be is covered by the tree house above, but
not all of it. For this, Arella must collect more branches, then
animal skins to make it waterproof. She will then surround it with
bushes that grow tall and wild, concealing it from outsiders. She
can see it all in her mind, just as she did with the house, and
that turned out perfect. Arella has no doubts that she will be able
to build this extra part of her house.

Chapter
11

Maska wakes up
shortly after the sun has begun to rise. When he opens his eyes he
finds that Arella is not in the tree with him. He panics a little
and looks around for her. When he sees her, he finds that she is
stood knee deep in the lake catching them fish. Her hair is already
wet, like she has been swimming, and there are the wet clothes she
was wearing from the night before hanging in a tree. There is a
mist over the lake, and everything looks bright in the morning
light. Maska stretches and moves to the edge of the tree house He
looks down and spots a branch half way down the trunk. Arella uses
this as a foothold when she climbs, maybe Maska could do the same
thing. He takes a leap of faith and lands on the branch. It is then
just a short jump down to the ground. Maska does this, proud of
himself for having such courage.

When Arella
turns around, juicy fish in her hand, she spots Maska padding his
way over to her, a giant grin on his face, tail high in the air,
looking a little windswept from sleeping on wet fur. She can’t help
but smile at him. “Well done for getting down Maska.” She praises.
“Now how about some breakfast? We have a big day ahead of us.”
Maska purrs at this and wags his tail a little. He then follows
Arella over to the small fire bit she has built inside her square
of rocks.  “See, this was my idea Maska. Although it will need
a roof and some basic walls. Do you think it’s big enough?” Maska
walks around the edge, then blinks his approval at Arella. He then
sits patiently on the ground next to her as she prepares the two
fish.

Maska begins to lick his lips as Arella guts the fish. She
looks at him puzzled. “Don’t tell me you like the insides Maska.”
He then looks confused at her. As if to say “
Well why not? It’s perfectly good food.”

“Well you can
have them if you want?” She puts the insides on Maska’s black stone
and then cooks one of the other fish over the fire, leaving the
other one raw for Maska to eat. He munches on the insides happily,
then starts on the fish Arella left him. “If you keep eating at
this pace you’re going to get too big for me to feed.” She laughs.
Maska just continues to munch away on his food. He is well finished
by the time Arella’s fish is cooked, and spends the time Arella
takes to eat her food cleaning his face and paws. There is
something mesmerising about watching the growing auron cat clean
himself.

They relax for
a couple of minutes, then Arella decides it is time to get up and
go. They need to get more sticks and stickymoss. Arella takes out
her deerskin bag, puts the arrows inside it, attaches the bow to
the back, places her dagger in her boot and then her and Maska
leave their home once again to search for items for their home.

The forest is
much fresher and brighter after the short storm. Water still drips
from the leaves of trees above, and Maska finds plenty of puddles
to jump in. Most of the animals that live in the forest are still
hiding away, but the birds are out in full force, collecting the
worms brought to the surface by the rain last night. Maska tries to
catch them as they land on the ground. He manages to catch one,
killing it instantly and eating it quickly, feathers and all.
“Maska, that’s disgusting.” Arella laughs. Maska looks up at her,
feathers in his teeth and purrs, licking his lips. Arella just
laughs at him again. “You’re learning fast Maska.” She says to him.
“Soon I won’t have to catch you any food at all.” They continue
walking and eventually reach the spot where Arella saw the
stickymoss.

Stickymoss
really is sticky, and Arella’s hands are covered in it by the time
she has finished collecting. She has piled it all up in a mound,
trying to think of a way to get it into her deerskin bag without
making that sticky too. She notices some big leave on one of the
bushes. Arella moves over to the bushes and inspects the leaves.
They feel waxy, strong and look to be waterproof. If she lines the
inside of the bag with these, she will be able to take the sticky
moss home without ruining the skin. This takes a lot of fiddling
around with, and Arella is getting frustrated at it. She finally
gives in and decides to wrap the stickymoss in the leaves instead,
rather than coating the bag with them. This way she can put them
into the bag in neat parcels.

When Arella has
finished doing this, she gets up from the floor and lifts the bag
onto her back. Maska sniffs the air, smelling for something Arella
cannot see or hear. Just then a twig cracks on the ground close to
them. Arella drops to the ground and stalks towards the noise to
find out what it is. Arella has grown in confidence. She would not
have dreamed of doing this a few months ago, moving towards
possible danger, but having Maska at her side is helping greatly.
He also stalks along the ground, copying Arella’s movements. The
first though to cross Arella's mind is that it might be the lone
wolf again. This makes her pause. Another crack of a twig tells
Arella that the animal is smaller than the wolf. Arella moves
forwards towards the noise, looking for signs of what the animal
might be.

An animal with long legs with short fawn fur and spots of
while, followed by a slim round body with a short tail and long
neck with a small neat head and big ears, topped off with small
antlers stands grazing on the sweet grass. Arella’s heart begins to
beat. “
That’s a deer. A small one, possibly
one of this year’s young. He looks to be alone, no other deer
around.”
Arella looks down at Maska,
silently watching the deer feed. He looks up at her, his yellow eye
blinks once. Arella knows that this is the perfect opportunity for
her to practice her bow skills in person, but she is nervous. She
does not know whether she will be able to hit the deer at all, let
alone kill it. She takes the bow from her back and loads it with an
arrow. Her hands are a little shaky. Arella takes a deep breath to
steady herself. It works. She pulls the arrow back, knocking it
into place, takes aim at the deer and fires. The young buck calls
out at the arrow hits him square in the chest, just where Arella
intended it to hit. He falls to the floor, struggling to breath,
soon to die if left alone. Arella emerges from the trees and moves
quickly to the buck. She kneels beside him, takes out her dagger
and quickly drives it into the side of the deer’s head through the
soft fleshy part of his skull.  Once all of the breath has
gone from his body, Arella pulls the dagger from his head. Maska
moves close to her, sniffing the dead deer. It is not big, but
Arella knows it will feed her and Maska for three days easy,
although with the amount Maska is eating she is beginning to doubt
it.