Chapter 14: The Settlement

 Medicine Woman was the defacto leader of Little Mother's new tribe. She was a venerated elder, Little Mother's mother, Discovers Things' adoptive aunt and adoptive mother...although the people ignored most of this: Medicine Woman was who she was, and all accepted her leadership instinctively.

Most of the Wolf People remained with the tribe, but one in five stayed with Little Mother.

Few of these were as young as Quiet Menace and Little Mother.  Most were much older, and virtually all of the elderly and physically impaired stayed in the new settlement, as Medicine Woman had predicted:

"The old and impaired will stay, but so will some of their children. The wisest and least selfish will stay with us, but all will be committed, and diligent. We will have the wisest, if not the strongest."

More children would be born alive. More mothers would survive the births. The elders would live longer, and remain productive.

While some couldn't hunt or scout, most could fish, weave, sow, reap, skin, filet, build, etc.

None would hamper the annual migration. None would be expected to leave the tribe (ie go off to die) as had been the custom of the Wolf People, once one became a burden to the Tribe.

The lakeside community was in a temperate climate, entering a commonly mild winter.

Much of the first harvest was preserved by drying, and stored underground.

Medicine Woman and the other elders well remembered the war, and the times of their parents and grandparents, before the spear-throwers and dogs. Other groups and tribes had raided the tribe, and they knew that they would be vulnerable to such here once again.

Once it became known that they had stored food and other valuable things, some people would take it, if they could.

The dogs and hunters would insure that the settlement couldn't be surprised, and all young people could use weapons, and had martial training, but they were still few, and largely old, and exposed here.

While some huts were constructed on the lake shore, the elders directed that a larger structure, made of stone and logs, be built atop a hill in the spring, and trees were felled for seasoning.

Here Medicine Woman and Discovers things experiments with saps, minerals, and other materials bore fruit, as the people were able to bind stones together with a pasty mix which would dry as hard as the stones themselves.

The stone base of the main building was started almost immediately.

This building would be large enough to house everyone temporarily, and walls would be built around it.

A young boy who was helping dig out the storage places for the food asked why the people couldn't use tunnels to connect the buildings, and this was immediately included in the planning.

Areas were cleared of trees where crops were to be planted in the spring, and tools were made for digging and turning soil.

Little Mother wondered if some of the larger herd animals could be trained to help, or at least held inside a fence as a source of food.

They certainly seemed docile enough. Perhaps if they had enough food to eat themselves, they wouldn't want to keep moving (like this new tribe itself).

Their manure could fertilize the crops, as well.

Her baby boy was born that spring, and was the third of the newest generation of the Settlement.

The great herds had yet to reach the area, but plans had been made to capture some of the calves, and perhaps their mothers, in a great hunt.

The first crops were planted, the main building nearing completion, work on the tunnels had resumed.

The people fished in earnest now, for they could trade dried fish to the Wolf People when they stopped again. Perhaps they would help capture the calves, as well.

Everyone looked forward to their visit. Though their separation had been acrimonious, the Settlers missed their families and freinds.