17 Bullets: becoming the Werewolf Queen

Chapter 8: Werewolves

47 BULLETS

I had no idea how long Thann would be out. I assumed Thann meat meant he was hunting. Well, if we're playing caveman, guess I'm the gatherer. So I grabbed my bucket and started wandering the forest. I knew potatoes and rambutans were edible now, so I picked up a bunch of those and then made my way around the woods and found other things. I put the mandarin oranges and elderberries back in even though I knew they irritated my skin because they could be alright cooked or made some other way. I wouldn't eat anything until Thann could look them over.

After my bucket was overflowing with random plants and seeds, I headed back to camp taking a round through my snares. And I'd caught something!

My eyes rounded when I realized I'd caught a skunk. Straight up. An Earth skunk. No spines, no horns. But there was no skunk smell. I would have noticed that way before I walked that path. Even if he didn't spray, I surely would have scented him by now. Maybe on this planet he didn't have the predators that Earth did.

I bent and pulled him from the trap, examining him close. Then I did see some traces of the different planet. Two long fangs like a viper and a scaled underbelly. Creepy.

But also dinner.

Taking him and the bucket back to camp, I dropped the veggies off and grabbed my slaughtering gear then headed back out to the woods to process him. I buried the innards, but was careful with the fur. I realized just how much I missed youtube when my mind immediately went to 'learn how to tan hides' before I remembered this was a martian skunk. I had never tanned leather hide before, but Thann was clothed in leather. Maybe he knew how to do it.

I brought the skin and carcass back to camp and prepared him on a simple spit. Any meat I'd had the last few days has been boiled, so a change up to roasted sounded delicious.

A roaring fire soon lit my small clearing and Mr. viper skunk was above it. My mouth was already salivating as I basted him with the salty fish sauce.

The sun showed it was about midday with still no sign of Thann, but my mind was racing about this Molly. What would she be like? Smart and patient enough to teach Thann words. Maybe she was a teacher. I was overly excited to be able to meet another human on this strange planet.

We'd leave in a few days.

My head started making lists. I'd need to bring this and that. We could salvage that from the truck, etc. But then I realized I have a bucket, purse, and four wide shopping bags. There was no way I could bring everything. Thann surely could carry one of the bins, but how would I decide what else came with. I needed a wagon.

My mind sped through how to make it. I had wheels on the truck. I had six nails and an ax. How to make a bowl seat with six nails? If I ax wood into planks, then could I stretch those six nails to work? And then those tires were so big. Not like the little farm wagon tires. Would they be too bulky? I was almost sure of it.

Oh! My mind flipped a new idea out.

A wheelbarrow. Could that work? Just one tire. And the spare on my truck was smaller. I'd just need one and then long thin logs for the handles. Maybe I could weave some kind of bowl for it with vines instead of wood planks. My mind sped through the possibilities and figured that was what I needed.

I had to dig in my glove box for my truck manual, because I'd forgotten how to get off the spare, but it was off and two log handles were cut down by the time Thann came back.

I was slashing smaller branches off the main logs with my handsaw when he came crashing into the clearing like a mad man. He hopped the fence with a leap that landed him clear at the fire with a rage. Before I could even open my mouth, he had dumped three water bottles over the fire and was kicking dirt over it, the spit falling to pieces under his feet.