Looking for Leo (Completed)

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

Looking for Leo The 3rd of Summer 512 Northern Wildlands Continued from Small Game Hunting. ______________________________________________ Day twelve found them walking through a grove of cedars. They were big trees, some of them four meters across at the base and at least a hundred meters tall. The distinctive dry scent of cedar filled Mac's nostrils. Light struggled to find its way through the dense forest roof. It was an open wood, as though each giant had claimed and guarded its own fiefdom. The forest floor was crowded with undergrowth: huckleberries, salmonberries, devil's club, ferns, and a dozen other plants and shrubs that Mac didn't recognize. A muted but constant chorus of birds greeted them. Mac heard the “tap, tap, tap” of a woodpecker. A squirrel let out a startling series of shrieks as though to say, “Strangers have come! Strangers have come! Danger! Danger!” There wasn't a trail here. They just kept moving south, wading through the dense underbrush. They had walked for a bell or two when Mac heard the sound of running water. “Do you hear that?” He asked. Rill said, “I was starting to wonder if we had passed by too far away to hear it.” They followed the sound, which became louder, until they wandered into a cathedral-like glen with a rushing stream running through the middle of it. The followed it upstream and came to a tall, narrow waterfall leaping from the top of a twenty meter high rocky cliff and plummeting noisily into the tiny lake at its base. A perpetual cloud of mist hovered over the lake. The temperature was noticeably cooler here. “We'll camp here,” Rill said, pointing to a clear area with an old fire ring a little below the lake's outlet.

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

Mac peeled long strips of loose bark off a cedar tree, producing a cloud of fragrance that was almost intoxicating. He cut the bark into tiny slivers, as he had done earlier with the birch bark. Cedar wasn't as good a birch, but Rill assured him it would be adequate. He cleared out the old fire ring and laid down a plate-sized carpet of cedar slivers, followed by a sizable pile of them in the center. He laid larger pieces of bark in a conical arrangement over the tinder, and laid a larger cone of dead twigs and small branches over that. Leo had taken it upon himself to chop a fallen tree branch into fire wood using Mac's axe. Rill supervised to make sure the man didn't do anything dumb like cutting off his foot. Chopping wood seemed easy until you tried it. Then you discovered that there are lots of ways to damage yourself when swinging that heavy axe into unyielding wood. Mac spent the next bell throwing flint-and-steel sparks into the pile of tinder and trying to coax a flame out of it. After several false starts, he had a flame going. It licked at the cedar bark kindling and, with constant encouragement from Mac, burst into full flame. Then it was a fairly straightforward matter of adding increasingly bigger pieces of kindly and finally pieces of wood. He carefully built a log-cabin style structure of firewood over and around the fire. It was self-sustaining now as long as someone kept feeding it wood. That task was given to Seth and Margaret. Leo was tasked with collecting water and getting it boiling over the fire. Rill had taken a fall earlier in the day and decided to soak his swollen ankle in the cold pool for a while. Mac went hunting.

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

It took about a bell for Mac to make his way through the forest and up a winding trace of a path to the top of the cliff from which the waterfall launched itself into a void. He followed the creek upstream and found the beaver dam Rill had mentioned. A marshy lake piled up behind it, spreading out for a considerable distance. Mac wasn't interested in the beavers, but he figured this was a place that other animals would frequent. He settled down in a thicket under one of the giant cedars and waited as dusk creeped across the land. After another bell of waiting, a lynx appeared about twenty yards away. Mac had not seen it coming. One minute it was not there, the next minute it was. I stood absolutely still for several chimes, ears flicking this way and that, nose wrinkling as it sniffed the wind. Mac was downwind of it, so it was not likely to notice him until he moved. The lynx decided it was safe enough to venture to the water's edge. With excruciating slowness, Max notched an arrow in his bow and lifted it to site on the lynx. It was a long shot for him. He released and the arrow silently crossed the space between them and struck the cat in the hindquarters. It let out a screech and jumped back into the bushes, disappearing from view. Max notched another arrow and jogged over to where the lynx had been. It was no where to be seen but it had left a trail of bloody splotches. Max followed the gruesome trail for about thirty chimes before he found the lynx. It was huddled against a rock outcrop, apparently unable to run anymore. Its breathing was labored. It had apparently ripped the arrow out and was bleeding heavily. Mac notched an arrow, aimed had released. The arrow went deep into the cat's chest. It didn't make any noise. It just convulsed for a few moments and then was still. Mac felt badly about its slow and painful death, but there was nothing he could do about it. He lifted the corpse on to his shoulders and headed back to camp.

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

When Mac got back to the campsite, no one was in sight. He dropped the lynx on the ground and started toward the tent. He was dissuaded by the giggling sounds coming from within. He walked up the stream to the small lake and found Rill sound asleep on the ground. He gave him a nudge with his foot. “Rill,” he said. “Wake up. Where'd Leo get off to?” “What?” Rill sat up and looked confused for a moment. “Where's Leo?” “I dunno. Maybe he's off in the bushes takin' a crap.” Mac returned to the campsite and approached the tent. “He guys, Leo in there?” “I sure hope not,” Seth said. There was more giggling. Mac dragged the lynx carcass down stream and slit its belly open. Then he threw up. The stench of animal guts was disgusting. He reached in and pulled out the intestines, followed by the organs, some of which he could identify, some of which he couldn't. He used his knife to scrap as much stuff out as he could and then washed the carcass off with water. He cut a ring through the hide around each leg at the shoulder and haunches, and literally ripped the skin off the legs. Then he used his axe to hack the legs and shoulders off. He had never done this before and he made quite a mess of it, but eventually he had four leg-and-shoulder pieces. He threw a rope over a large tree branch, tied one end around the cat's neck, and hoisted it up until it was hanging free of the ground. He cut a ring around the cat's neck and slowly peeled the skin off the animal starting at the neck and working his way down. This gave him a fairly intact lynx skin that he figured he could sell to someone. Or maybe make something for himself. He was about to start butchering the beast for meat when he realized that he still hadn't seen Leo.

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

“Leo!” Rill yelled. “Leo!” Margaret yelled. “Leo! Where the hell are you?” Mac yelled. The four of them had spread out around the camp but found no sign of Leo. Rill brought them back together. “The fool's probably wandered off and gotten lost,” he said. “Here's what we're gonna do. Seth, you and Margaret will stay here in case he wanders back. If you want to do something useful, you can try cutting the meat off the lynx hangin' over there. You might also try roasting the legs over the fire. We're all gonna get mighty hungry before this night's out. “Mac, you're with me. I'm gonna show ya how to pick up a trail.” He pointed out a tree about 50 meters away and counted off 25 paces in its direction. Mac walked close behind scanning the ground in front of them and to each side, looking for any sign of recent travel. At 25 paces, Rill turned right, sited on another tree, and counted off another 25 paces. Again, Mac followed, looking for signs. On the second, third and fourth legs Rill walked 50 paces each time. The last leg completed the square. They had not found anything. Rill walked 25 paces further away from the camp and repeated the process. On the third leg Mac spotted a trail of footprints in a marshy clearing. Rill studied one of them, pointing out the characteristics that would differentiate it from anyone else's prints. Then he sited along the tracks Leo had left and they set off in that direction. They lost the trail several times and had to circle to pick it up again. They found him at the bottom of a ravine, unconscious but alive. He had a nasty bruise on the right side of his forehead. Mac picked the man up, tossed him on his shoulder like a heavy sack of grain, and they made their way back to camp. He eventually regained consciousness but kept drifting in and out. Margaret force fed him some freshly roasted leg of lynx and made him drink a lot of water. Mac would have liked to have salvaged some more meat from the lynx, but neither Margaret nor Seth had had enough nerve to try carving anything off it and Mac was too exhausted to do anything with it himself. They finished off the leg of lynx and turned in for the night.

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

Five days later they found themselves in a large meadow. As they started through it, they discovered that it was actually a shallow lake overgrown with grasses and wild flowers. In some places the ground was soggy but solid. In others it was seriously muddy. Several times they had to detour around deeper areas of water. They were half way across the vast wetland as the end of the day approached. They set up camp. That night, by the light of a lantern, Mac brought his map up to-date. They had traversed two thirds of wilderness between Ravok and Nyka. Continued in Seth and the Crocodile.

[Paragon]

Jeremiah Maccabee

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Tracking	2
Investigation	1
Observation	1
Wilderness Survival	1
Bow	1
Stealth	1
Hunting	1
Skinning	1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Kindle: Cedar V Birch
•	Buck Falls
•	Mac's Meadow
•	Basic Big Game Hunting, Skinning and Butchering
•	Partial Route Between Nyka and Ravok
•	Investigating a Trail

A Hero's Work Is Never Done

Well written solo and story seeds! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can work from there.