Veiled Wolfe

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&d &t 7:03 PM 11/1/2016 The exploration party was a mixed group of 20 ex-soldiers and "native guides", two mountain men and their leader, men who had been alive a very long time.

----- They picked a meadow near a deep and fast moving stgream. There were several old fire pits visible. There were also a couple of stacks ovf fire wood that wold been immediately usable had they not been rained on several times that week.

----- This begged the question of who owned the firewood.

----- "Whose campground are we in?" This was said by a man who was a lawyher in New York City when not on vacation.

----- "Can 't tell", a mountain man replied. "Ah ken cut some tgimber and we leave what we don't use."

----- "Excellent idea", the old man replied.

----- His crew sorted themselves out with some cutting down a dead tree and several others dropping their fishing poles in the river. The remaining men began to set ujp tents and sme cots. They would began preparing the evening meal latger. The party had taken an early end to the day's travel when they came upon the meadow.

----- The old man, who lead the group and looked to be about 30 years old, and who called himself Henri LaVFere, looked at the woods in speculation.

----- "Who do you suppose has been following us since mid morning, Thomas?"

----- Thomas, who had been a trapper before getting a "real job" (trail cook) thought before answering.

----- "I can't tell from waht I've heard and especially what I have not heard. There are three to five flanking us with a moving ambush pattern. I'd think we were being herded save that we are moving in the easiest paths."

----- "I agree. I just hope they are peaceful."

----- "I'll tell the boys to covertly watch the woods and maybe we can see our stalkers make an error or two."

----- "Excellent idea". While Thomas briefed the other men, Henri LeFere began something he had done many times before: he began assembling a firepit by sweeping an area clean of groound cutter. Then, he took some tinder one of his men had brought over and began having it. He was a master at making fires and his men stood around watching his smooth work.

----- The fishing crew had managed to bring more than enough fish for their group and had started building a rack to dry and smoke the fish. The old man was quite pleased with this work and thought these young men would have fitted in very well with his people's hunting parties. Of course, there were significant differences in their cultures and the old man did not consider just how difficult it would have been for late 19th centruy Amercians to fit in with his birth people.

----- When the fire was going well, Thomas the cook hung a cauldron from a tripod and began to boil drinking water. They had read of the French Chemist and his discovery that invisible life forms could poison water. They would steralize their drinking cups and drinking water.

----- Some minutes later, Thomas took the cauldron of boiling water from the fire and removed the cups which had been hanging by cords into the boiling water.

----- There was the sound of something clumsley moving through the woods and several of the men thought it was a very clumsley bear cub. Yet, no one was actually concerned with the noise source. It was simply strange.

----- The noise stopped then the crunching of underbrush began again. What looked like a small boy, covered with long fur and otherwise nude, ran into the clearing. The boy was babbling loudly in both the Arapaho language and something gluteral that made the old man think it should be familar.

----- The creature could only be thought of as a small boy. He ran to one of the soldiers and began punching him. The man, who had sons, began to laugh.

----- The boy then ran to another man who happened to once been a very black slave and began hitting him. This soldier dropped to his knees and gently patted the odd boy on his shoulder. Distracted, the boy ran around the clearing before charging toward the old man. Heni LaFere picked the boy up, bemused by the boy swinging his fists at him. He was also puzzled by the ribbon holding the pony tail at the back of the boy's head. It was a fabric traded exclusively to a major Arapaho tribe in the broad region. He spoke to the boy in good Arapaho.

----- "Be calm, child, or I will tell your Father that you have attacked my tribe."

----- The boy looked started and then went back to swinging at the old man.

----- "Are you hungry, grandson? Are you thirsty, grandson?"

----- "Yes and you are not my grandfather!"

----- Henri LaFere gently set the boy on the ground. Thomas brought over a cup of the boiled water, which was hot but not dangerously hot, and the boy gulped the water down.

----- "More please!"

----- "So, the boy does have good manners" a soldier murmurred.

----- "I'm hungry!"

----- "Would you like some fried fish," Thomas opened with.

----- "No!"

----- "How about some pemmican? We have some with elk and blueberries."

----- "No!"

----- "How about some pemmican without berries?"

----- "We could warm up some meat broth?" ("Broth" was not a word in Arapaho.)

----- "No! The boy will never eat it."

----- "Yes, I will!" In the distance, the boy's family members, who had been surprised by the boy attacking the strangers, were delighted by the way these humans had manuevered their boy.

----- It took several minutes before Thomas brought a large mug of a rich beef broth to the boy. He gulped it down and hardly noticed the piece of elk and blueberries pemmican he was handed. He enjoyed it and asked for more broth.

----- The boy leaned over to one side and everyone thought he was going to nodd off. He didn't.

----- "I want to play" and used a word noone had heard before. One soldier went to his pack and came back with a ball he had planned on using as trade material. Three men gathered near the boy and began tossing the ball to each other. This got the boy's attention so they started gently tossing the ball to the boy who began to babble in delight.

----- The men, some who spoke only English, began congratuating the boy. It was their fond hope the little fart would decide to take a nap. It didn't seem to be working.

----- All were surprised when what appeared to be an attractive hair covered girl in her late teens walked into the clearing. Save from her hair, she was nude but was displayed no skin. This met the approval of all the men, including the old man who was utterly bored by human nudity.

----- The boy babbled at her. She told him in very clear Arapaho to speak either Arapaho or The Mother Tongue. The boy responded with a clever selected mixture of both languages. The girl rolled her eyes, sighs and grumbled "little brothers".

----- The Old Man stood out from his people like a wolf among large dogs. He was 5'8" tall, very broad shouldered and extremely muscular. He was not the tallest man present. He simply had a presence!

----- The girl went directly to the Old Man.

----- "What are you doing here?"

----- "My friends and I are exploring this region. We had heard stories of incredible beauty here and wanted to bear witness to it. You are here because you and your people live in the deep woods and have lived with the Arapaho was generations. Am I correct?"

----- "Yes. Is that the real reason your are here?"

----- "Yes, it is. All of us can provide for our families, help our children start their futures and protect ourselves. We don't need to find the golden metal or other things of value. There are other people do seek the golden metal and other things of value. We are part of a group dedicated to protecting those such as you and protecting your future."

----- "You are very sincere so I tend to believe you. You do not look or act like the White Devils the Arapaho talk about. We will see, however."

----- Henri LaFere nodded in agreement.

----- "It is some distance from our village and perhaps we could eat our evening meal with you and spend the night with you?"

----- "We will be honored to have a girl as intelligent and radiant as you and your energetic little brother stay with us. I will put a blanket roll out here and you and your brother may have my cott. It will get cold tonight, we will provide you with blankets and clothing to sleep in. Will that satisfy you?"

----- "Yes."

----- The boy had discovered the party had brought a large dog, a Golden Retriever, with them. The boy was rapidly making friends with the dog. After a few minutes, the boy curled up for a nap with the dog. One of the soldiers put a rolled up sweater under the boy's head.

----- "What shall we talk about", the girl wondered?

----- "You can start teaching your native language to us. First, we can start with nouns. We will think of various nouns and you can teach those words in your language. After we run out of nouns, perhaps you would be willing to think of nouns in your language and teach them to us."

----- "Can you learn that quickly?"

----- "Yes," Thomas replied. "We all have excellent memories and have been learning other languages for quite a while."

----- With the Old Man's Tribe surrounding them, the teenaged girl of non-human appearance began educating the Tribe.

----- (Time Is The Fire In Which We Burn!) 9:19 AM 11/2/2016

----- By the late afternoon, the boy was awake and was running around with the dog. The tribe had learned a number of nouns and a spattering of verbs. They were wondering how to progress when the boy gave them an answer.

----- He demanded a story!

----- "What kind of story do you want?"

----- "A fun story!"

----- One of the ex-soldiers decided to try telling a story. He began with:

----- "There was once a small boy who did not obey his older sisters. So, they decided to make him obey them. They told the boy he could not have his favorite treat if he didn't do what they said. He didn't obey and didn't get his favorite treat. He was a bright boy and knew how to get around his sisters. He just told his older cousin 'give me a treat and I'll tell you where my Father likes to hide his whiskey.' The older cousin drank the little boy's whiskey and the boy got his treat. The older sisters got into trouble since their Father thought his daughters had drank the whiskey. This is a happy story."

----- "It is not!" The girl then threw grass at the soldier as did her little brother. The boy did not understand the story but he understood throwing grass as did some of the other adults.

----- "I know that story", responded Thomas. "I also know the girls were very angry at their brother and made him pay for what he said."

----- "Is the story true", the girl asked?

----- "It is," Thomas replied. "My son, my daughters and my whiskey. I had to put a stop to the vengence too."

----- "What is whiskey?"

----- "Whiskey is a nasty tasking drink some adults like to drink. I do not know why!"

----- "Is the Little Brother fine?" The little boy was curious about another little boy.

----- "I turned out fine," one of the men replied. "So, yes, the 'Little Brother' is fine."

----- "Thomas Junior is my son," Thomas the cook added pointing towards his son.

----- The girl suddenly had a vision of just how old this group of apparently young men really was. She dismissed these thoughts immediately.

----- The girl translated this story into her language and the boy grew increasingly bored while this happened. Finally, he yelled "I'm bored!"

-----

-----Some of the men rolled their eyes while one said "he does not know what true boredom is!"

----- The sister rolled her eyes at this.

----- Then, in their native language, one man said "Tell them our true creation story; they will think it a myth."

----- Another added "why not, it is sometimes hard to believe our story is true."

----- Thomas then said "why not have the Chief Scribe tell the story?"

----- The Chief Scribe didn't look pleased.

----- The girl said "what language was that?"

----- "Just our own native language."

----- "Are you going to tell my little brother a nice story?"

----- "I suspect we will be telling you a 'nice story'. Your little brother looks like he wants to follow the dog around this clearing." The girl nodded agreement. "We're curious, how many hunters were following us? Thomas thinks there are between 3 and 5 hunters around us."

----- "There were seven, counting my little brother and me. I suppose there were really only five trackers following you."

----- "Are they going to visit?"

----- "No, they are going to watch and won't leave cover unless we need help."

----- "You won't need help, you have us to watch over you."

----- "The hairless ones [Arapaho] are friends to us and say we need fear you."

----- "We're not the ones you need to fear. Although you have just met us, something about you and your brother tells me we've known you for a very long time."

----- The girl just looked doubtful.

----- "I need a beer to settle my stomach before I start a story", the Old Man began. The other men laughed as they had seen him face down an angry religious fanatic after being dragged from his bed. Still, he was given a glass of wine that was close to mead; beer was being saved for special occassions.

----- "My story begins a very long time ago. I'm not sure exactly where it was but it may have been in Central Asia. There were several groups of humans there. By 'groups of humans', I mean that were human but simply looked different and had different body appearance. There was one group of these humans who had little body hair and wore furs; call them the bare ones. There was another group who looked like the now common humans but were much more muscular and had larger facial features; call them the muscular ones. There were a third group of very hairy and very tall humans; call them 'tall and furry'. They had lived together peacefully and accepted several bands of what could be called almost 'modern men'."

----- "By custom and the times when they had arrived, groups had gotten their own caves. Then, when the number of newly arrived people got too large, the caves were simply too crowded. Since it was rather cold in that part of Central Asia, the various groups built giagantic homes starting after one spring thaw. It took a lot of work but they dug deep into the ground in spite of permafrost and built their floors and walls against Mother Earth. The roofs took a lot of wood. They put sod or grass on top of the wooden roofs. I suppose you can guess what happened?"

----- "They smelled like little brothers," the girl replied.

----- "Yes, they did smell but there was a more important consequence. It didn't take so much wood or cow chip to heat the buildings and cook. There was something more important. Would care to guess? Oh, and what is your name?"

----- "I am Oldest Daughter and my brother is Fifth Son. What was this important thing?"

----- "Have you heard of the 'Birds and the Dogs'?"

----- Oldest Sister thought briefly and said "are you refering to that wrestling my parents seem to like doing aftger sending their childrfen to visit our grandparents or cousins?"

----- "Yes, exactly. People marry folks who look like the ones they grew up with. The people then simply did not have prejudice against other types of humans. There were a number of cases where children cross the species lines and made the next generations. Oh, there were not a lot of cross overs but there were enough."

----- "Does this mean Sisters had to put up with smelly and ugly little brothers?"

----- "There were also sisters born, you know. They were not ugly, Oldest Daughter."

----- Oldest Daughter said nothing.

----- "What do you know about God?"

----- "We call our God 'Chebbeniathan', which means 'the Spider Above'."

----- "One day, the God of these people was out walking. God had not given much thought to his various humans and thought of them and many more species as being 'his people'. God had gotten these 'humans' started on the roads of life with thinking, and good predator vision and speech, walking on two feet, opposed thumbs and many other things. Seeing these four groups of humans living together caused God to think of an experiment to try. He decided...yes, Oldest Daughter?"

----- "Experiment?"

----- "Ah, an 'experiment' is when you come up with an idea and see if your idea is right."

----- "An experiment would be to see if Fifth Brother would share a sweet with his beloved oldest sister." This was from one of the mountain men who had a droll sense of humour.

----- "Probably not but you never can tell. By the time God took his stroll near these houses, there were perhaps a hundred people of very mixed ancestory. God thought about whatever God thinks of and, told these hundred or so people that they would be going on a trip. They were going to be taken to a fancy city in a very warm place."

----- "What are we going to eat?"

----- "I will teach you how to grow your food. I will teach you how to thrive in this land."

----- "Well, the people knew better than to argue with a God so they asked 'when do we leave'?"

----- "Soon," God said, "soon."

----- 'It was actually early summer or a couple of months after God's warning that leaving day happened. They had gotten ready by having parties every couple of nights and God had given them urns of excellent Mead the night before they left their home."

----- "What is Mead?"

----- Thomas, the cook replied: "You make Mead by boiling one gallon of honey with three gallons of water and pour into a large urn. Put in the juice of several lemons and bread dough and cover. Come back in a couple of weeks and it will either be drinkable Mead or so sour you might not even want to use it for cooking."

----- "Can I have some?"

----- They gave Oldest Daughter some of their medicre Mead in a cup. (They were not going to waste their small supply of good Mead on a non-drinker.) She did not like it and the men were happy they had not wasted their good Mead on Oldest Daughter.

----- She didn't finish the "vin ordinare" and put her mug down. Fifth Brother sipped some and didn't like it. The dog sniffed tghe "vin ordinare" Mead and howled mournfully.

----- "Very well, I'll dispose of this Mead and wash the mug." Thomas left, heading towards his kitchen area.

----- "He didn't say he was going to throw it away, he just said he would dispose of it. Do you suppose he'll put it back in the jar."

----- "I disagree, Henri, he'll probably mix it in a sauce for lunch tomorrow."

----- "Shall I get back to my story?"

----- "Of course, Henri, of course," encouraged William the Elder, an infantry commander. "We await your pleasure."

----- "Everyone got truly drunken that last night. They later learned our God sometimes didn't want to bother with thinking through the consequenes of his decisions and simply watched to see what happened. Then, he or his closest apparachicks would propose various hypothesis and see how they turned out. A hypothesis is an idea someone wishes to test. The next morning, after everyone left their beds and found that most of them were not fit or healthy enough to eat breakfast, God turned his chosen to a different skin colour and around the noon hour, God caused his chosen to disappear from the homeland and reappear on the plains of Turkey. There, a magnificant city awaited them."

----- "Of course, they could have walked from the home land and decided to settle on that plain in Turkey. They then mined the rock used to build the city. Just an idea, please don't let me distract you from our creation story."

----- "Thank you, William."

----- Henri LaFere didn't mention the linestone quary had markings from the tools used during his days working in the quary. He had also heard many stories about the trip from the homeland to that plain in Turkey. Perhaps that part of their story was the "myth" part of their creation myth; there were later aspects to their lives that simply were not myth.

----- Also, the city was near some rather interesting rock formations that had been fairly easy to work.

----- "God had created this magnificant city located near some rather strange rock formations. These formations could be easily dug into. The settlers spent years designing the rooms to be built in these big rock formations. About Year 10 of The City, the people began carving these rooms. They used some incredible new technology that does not sound so impressive today."

----- "God had taught them how to smelt copper! They created coffer axes and copper saws. These were wonderful but too soft. Then, as metal workers began to melt tin and arsinic they had a 'what if' moment. Care to guess what that was, Eldest Daughter?"

----- "They mixed metals?"

----- "Yes they did! At first, some of the metal worker just poured left over batches of melted metal together, stirred them and then cast them. They got some fine results but they didn't know how they got them!"

----- "Perhaps they were Fifth Brothers?" Oldest Daughter smilled a mean smile.

----- "Perhaps there was," Thomas spoke in a gentle voice.

----- "These metal workers were inventing their art as they worked. They decided to make boxes of different size and fill them with pure metals and then mix these boxes together."

----- The city had not been built with each house having it's own fireplace. The citizens had been raised in massive houses with commonly shared firepits. Now, they had built houses in groups of four with a communial fire pit at the center of the four houses. These families used the firepit and ofter had relatives visit to dine with them or use a given fire pit. This wa an attitude of sharing that would be very rare in the rest of the world.

----- They brought in water for the community to use and emptied waste at a distance from the city.

----- They had crops to be watered and weeded. Fortunately, it rained enough to mostly water the crops.

----- In Year 24 of the City, a mostly human woman gave birth to a son. His name was Veiled Wolf. She chose this name because God had suggested it to her. 7:27 PM 11/5/2016

----- The settlers had not just been genetically modified humans. A couple of Denubian women had come with them as well as several Neanthrals.

----- Veiled Wolf was born in the late spring and was kept in seculion with his Mother for his first week. Then, his parents took him a community gathering to present him.

----- It was a warm evening and the community met outdoors. Held by his Father, the week old Veiled Wolf faced his relatives. He screamed in fear and possibly rage and was upset when his relatives cheered his lungs.

----- Then he roared in great baby upset and urinated towards the audience. He fell short but was applauded for his effort.

----- The additional noise was too much and he was given into the comfort of his Mother. (More correctly, her breast.) He would be puzzled for years when his older relatives called him a lusty boy!

----- 6:01 PM 11/6/2016

----- Every morning, his Denobean nanny held him, changed the wrappings that constitued diapers and talked to him. She carefully pronounced all 1,400 words in the Denobian language and told him stories in that langyage. After an hour or so, he was enterrained by elders speaking Neanderthal or newcomer (the newcomer's language).

----- At age two, he began talking with his nanny. He would be four before he started talking in newcomer and almost five when he started speaking Neanderthal. He was an adroit speaker by the time he was ten.

----- When he was eight, his Mother awoke him. "Get out of bed, child."

----- "I don't want to."

----- "You must if you are to learn to be a scribe."

----- It was a cold morning and Veiled Wolf had slept with a younger brother on one side and an even younger sister on the other. H delically extracted himself with only minimum grumbling from his siblings...

----- His breakfast of cooked meat, fruit and ground grass seeds resembled the "evolved" foods he would enjoy much later. But for now, they were what he knew and liked.

----- He was taken to an open room which was directly sun lighted only part of each day. There were fifteen students in all.

----- "You have been choosen to learn the duties of a scribe. What does a scribe do?"

----- "Makes lists," said one.

----- "Writes stories", said another.

----- "Makes holes in clay plates," added Veiled Wolf.

----- "Are these marks imporant, Veiled Wolf?"

----- Veiled Wolf considered the question briefely before answering.

----- "Father told me the marks in clay talk to you about imporant things. He told me this a kind of power. I want this power!"

----- 6:41 PM 11/6/2016

-----

-----"You shall get it!"

-----"First, smooth your clay and make sure it is still soft. Then, I will show you how to hold your scribe tools. Pick up the tool and hold it with you right hand. That is your left hand Thundering Herd. Put the tool down and pick it up with your other hand. Clouds at Dawn, do you know which is your right hand. You don't? Close your eyes and touch your nose. Very good, you are touching your nose with your right hand. Open your eyes and pick up your tool with your nose hand. Very good."

----- All the kids held the scribe tool looking awkward.

----- "Make some lines in the clay. Make a couple of circles. Did that feel confortable?"

----- There were a number of "yes" replies.

----- "Now, put the scribe tool in your other hand and make some lines in the clay. Very good! What felt better to each of you? Using your right hand or your left hand. Clouds at Dawn, which felt better? Your nose hand or your other hand?"

----- "Nose hand."

----- The teacher spent several minutes scribing with her scribe tool and then said: "We are going to learn Denovian script. The first work is "greetings". You create the picture for "greetings" by..." The teacher described how to create that idogram and had the children practice. Then, there was a second word to learn. Then a third...

----- After lessons in learning to write, the teacher told her students the history of their combined peoples and their myths. Days later, she told them about their ways of worshiping their God and asked them to invent religious services they thought their God would like. God just sighed...

----- Their classes ended by mid afternoon and the students then were dispersed to their usual chores in the fields.

----- They started teaching the children staff fighting when they were twelve. Veiled Wolf, using the name of Henri LeFere, paused in his stories to say:

----- "...There were things about the staff fighting and spear fighting I never understood."

----- "What was that?"

----- "Who taught staff fighting to us? Did we have spears before the trip to the city? Where did we get the throwing arm?"

----- "You sound like you were there, Henri LeFere?"

----- The men laughed and Henri LeFere chuckled ruefully. "I tend to get involved in the stories."

----- "There were some stories told and written down that you might not have read, Henri. Your story has been about a person named 'Veiled Wolf', who was the Chief Scribe at a very ancient city. You might now have read all of the stories."

----- "I don't agree, Thomas, I think I have read all that are available."

----- "Then, there had to be stories which were not available."

----- "Then, young one, what stories do you know that I don't?"

----- Eldest Daughter thougth this sounded like her Grandfather telling one of her siblings or first cousins to talk!

----- "All four groups, even the tall and hairy ones, had used staff fighting. -All four groups have different average sizes but they all used the same techniques of attack, defense, and formal presenatations of the staffs." Thomas had spoken in a dry tone of voice.

----- "Formal presenations?"

----- "There are certain ways to stand called 'formal presentations'. We'll have to show you later." This was spoken by the lawyer.

----- "All we know about the spears is that all four groups mentioned in the stories had spears. They got the throwing arms from a group of black skinned Africians who stopped in The City to winter over. The people of The City had enjoyed a very good crop that year and had also gone on several very boundiful hunting trips. They had also bottled up a number of a large and violent race of horned grass eatters and were very sneaky about killing them. The people simply killed the oldest ones. They tried not to let the grass eatters learn the people were killing them! Back tio those visitors; they taught the People of The City how to create a device that allowed them to throw a spear much furthern that they could otherwise. We'll show you tomorrow."

----- "Thank you, Thomas", Henri LaFere stated.

----- 9:55 AM 11/7/2016

----- Eldest Daughter knew about the "throwing arm" or "spear chunker" or "atlatl" was still in common use among her people. It was an interesting creation myth for her even if she had never heard the concept of "creation myth".

----- "Something is bothering me about your story."

----- "What is that?"

----- "How much did the People of The City have to write down?"

----- "They wanted the history of everyone known and written down. They also wanted things like who discovered what, what was known, their history, what visitors told them and why they did things recorded. They knew that someday they would probably have to leave the city if the weather turned bad or if enemies drove them out. They also were beginning to keep records of who owed chickens or grain or whatever to others. There were actually very few of these economic records but what little business was done or debt accumulated was recorded. The real duty of the City Scribes was the history of the Peoples and the Natural History of the area and genelogies. Genelogies were very import as a tool for deciding who could marry whom."

----- First Daughter [get her name straight!] considered this was going on among her people as well.

----- "Were the Scribes busy all the time?"

----- "No," Thomas replied, taking up the story telling, "they spent much of their time caring for their families, hunting, and weeding the fields with the women and children. Something strange happened during the 44th Year of The City. God paid a visit..."

----- "The people suspected that God would wonder through occasionally. There would be an old man seen from the corner of one's eye but not there when they turned their heads. Others would think they saw the very rare visitor to The City or that someone was not where they were usually located.

----- "The People awoke with the dawn one morning. The sky was clear, the air was a pleasant cool temperature despite it being the height of summer's heat. The dogs had not stirred during the night, the horses were drousing in their fields and even the babie's had slept through the night. It was mid summer of of Year 30 of The City. The City was established in what people today call Six Thousand BC. What you call our current year of 1878 AD is properly the Year 7878 of The City."

----- "You might think they would have people watching the area from the watchtowers but that was not the case. There simply were not many people coming into their area. Their dogs had not alerted and that was a very important matter. Finally, the walls were very tall and smooth; it was nearly impossible to climb them without latters and not one had invented grapels and ropes. These early risers looked about the area and overlooked something different because they were tired and weren't really looking."

----- "They overlooked a baren area west of the city that could not be cultivated. Finally, several glanced in the proper direction. There, that fine morning, was an immense tent. They could not see what was beneath the tent. They had a farily good idea that God was responsible as he stood by the tent, watching toward The City."

----- "How did they know this was God?"

----- "It was kind of hard to miss a 30 foot tall glowing creature. His skin changed colors and he had the subdued sagittal crest of The People. He spoke into the heads of everyone in The City. 'Eat! Be Joyous! I will show you treasures. Be prepared to visit with me at the time of the noon meal'. Then, God disappeared but the tent remained. The People of The City were impressed."

----- "The houses of the people had a large room where they slept, worked and generally entertained visitors. There was a kitchen area, used when the weather was nasty out. If the weather was nice, people would cook at a firepit on their roof and eat there. There was a small room used for chamber pots. Chamber pots were emptied into a large wooden keg, which was taken severral miles from The City and emptied. The People were very careful to make sure their body waste was never emptied near their water supplies.

----- "That morning, everything in the homes was incredibly cldean. The People liked to eat from bronz plates, cups and utensils. They did not have forks but they knives, spoons and something for stabbing that looked like two picks held by a leather thong used to hiold the picks to a wooden handle. Think of it like a crude fork; it worked."

----- "The plates had excellent food on them, there were piles of wonderful fruit and a strange drink. This was the first time anyone had drank white wine. I know these folks drinking white wine around 5,970 BC is a bit earlier than expected but with God all things are possible."

----- "In the late morning, the People began walking around under the tent and saw some incredible crops and large seeds Everyone realzied these barrels of seeds were meant to grow the crops they admired. There were also pots and pans clearly meant for cooking these amazing crops. Each crop had multiple plaques by them and these plaques included words of wisdom about growing these crops.,"

----- "Finally, God called the People to attend him. God appeared to be sevceral times the height of a tall man. He shrunk down to the height of an "average" man.

----- "My children, you need to know why you exist and why you are here today. You exist because I wanted to have intelligent children and wanted to be able to talk with them. There are a great many other people but sadly, I am somewhat disappointed in them. I have assigned angels to work with them. I have hope for them but since I have given them free will, so I don't know what they could do."

----- "One of the older women said 'can't you think of what the results would be'?"

----- "I could child but this leads to many possible futures."

----- "Show us!"

----- "Are you sure child?"

----- "Yes!"

----- And so God said these are the possibilties just from the actions of the People of The City."

----- "I think God was showing off a bit," Henri LeFere said, "but what he did was teach us arithemac and then calculas and truly advanced math. God gave us the intelligence to comprehend this advanced mathematics, think in it, create problems in this mathematics and solve problems. Then," Henri LaFere cleared his throat realizing he had been telling the story from the viewpoint of someone who had lived the story, "he showed the various possible futures to The People of The City. Then, it was over. The People of The City gave up this knowledge and hoped to not have it again."

----- "God gave everyone a glass of that lovely drink he called 'wine'." The people liked it."

----- First Daughter was clearly thinking so everyone allowed her to process this story. Fifth Brother climbed up on one man's lap and began kicking his feet.

----- "Did the scribes keep this knowlege?"

----- "Yes, Eldest Daughter, some of the scribes and definitely the Chief Scribe kept this knowledge of mathematics and advanced sciences they were later taught. The ability to retain this knowledge in a human brain or perhaps in a different form of brain accessable to a human brain is a strange and wonderful miracle."

----- "I hate it when you get mystical." Thomas kept a straight face when saying this. Everyone in their group had retained the knowledge and abilities the entire People had "enjoyed" for that short period.

----- "What happened next", was the surprising remark Fifth Son spoke. No one had expected him to be listening let along comprehending the story. He would tend to surprise many people many times over the coming decades...

----- "God said 'walk around under the tent and my helpers will teach you what you need to know about farming and these crops."

----- The People of the City did exactly that and began farming these new crops the next day.

----- "After everyone had looked at these gifts, God said 'it is time to tell you the real reason I am here. Have you wondered where you come from and what you are made of? Before you are born, everyone is created in an invisible form called a 'soul'. Then, every 'soul' is allowed to enter a baby and is born into this world. When each person dies, this soul leaves the world to live with me and with my helpers, Those who have been 'good' are allowed to come directly into this world. Those who have failed tests in behavious or who have caused hurt to others are required to be taught the errors of their ways. They do not enjoy this." God smilled.

----- "I have decided that each of you must decide how long you are going to live in your bodies before you move to the last world. Later, as you live your lives, I will ask each of you if you wish to move on or stay within your bodies."

----- "According to the story, everyone looked stunned and puzzled and God said 'I will be back'. Then, God diasppeared."

----- "Did God kiss everyone good bye?"

----- "No, Fifth Son, the story tells us that God simply vanished."

-----

----- where they were how did God announce his presence building God made God's offer immortality and later heaven reduced aging and heaven sooner why just us? God disappointed with everyone else rest will have normal life lengths and likely heaven or intensive re-education before heaven *** Did they have evening meal before or after the story telling? ***

----- "Did your people get married?" "We certainly did. That is, marriage was the way families were joined. When the four groups of humans began living together, they started comparing customs and worked out compromises to allow all of them to live together peacefully. One custom is Fathers are responsible for arranging marriages. Of course, Fathers get the advise of the various families and the wise Fathers generally arrange the marriages to suit those who want to get married!"

----- "It was not quite that simple, First Daughter. The families would require kids to go courting twice before they were allowed to courty the person the elders wanted them to marry. For example, Veiled Wolf was told he would court two girls of other clans and then would court Dawn Breeze. Now, Dawn Breeze was Veiled Wolf's third cousin but she was also member of a different Sept. A Sept is part of a clan. There is an interesting and amusing story about Veiled Wolf. Would you like to hear it?"

----- Both children nodded in agreement; Henri LaFere frowned.

----- "Veiled Wolf was told he would court three girls. The first girl, Wind Blown Willow, got sick and said 'I'm not ready to court'. They guessed that no one told her she was just there to talk with Veiled Wof. This really upset poor Veiled Wolf. (Veiled Wolf, AKA Henri LaFere snorted in disagreement.) The second girl was a lovely girl named Brook Trout who had a great time with Veiled Wolf. They apparently had an even better time when she informed him she was going to marry Thin Wolf, who was Veiled Wolf's sightly younger brother. Veiled Wolf had been interested in Dawn Breeze for years."

----- "Veiled Wolf and Dawn Breeze had a pleasant time and met the next day to offically go pick apples. They were really just enaging in some clumsey, ah, married folk wrestling but quit that when a couple of their Aunts happened to wonder bye."

----- "Veiled Wolf and Dawn Breeze were married at age 15 exactly as the Sept and Clan Fathers and Mothers intended them to be. Over the years, they had five daughters. This had to be distressing to Veiled Wolf as Mothers generally did the match making for daughters."

----- Henri LaFere smilled happily.

----- "Their second daughter married well and had seven children. Their second child, a little boy named Lesser Egrot, was also Veiled Wolf's first grandson. Veiled Wolf was quite the doting Grandfather." The men all laughed to the children's surprise.

----- Then Thomas Junior announced "dinner is ready".

----- They went to the kitchen where Thomas Jr had baked bread, made a stew of vegetables found along the trail and dried vegetables, and chopped up meat. The meat was dried jerky and had been soaked to remove the salt it had been rolled in and well as to rehydrate it. Someone had killed a couple of squirels and this meat had been carefully removed from the bodies, sliced up and pan fried by an assistant cook before it went into the stew. Desert was a baked apple scruddle which had been baked in a Dutch Oven. This Dutch oven had legs and coals went until the Dutch Oven and a lid designed to hold even more coals.

----- The ate from tin pans, with steel forks, spoons and knives the had been issued to them during the Civil War. Since the date was 1878 AD, this cook ware was rather old but it was in very good condition.

----- It took very little time for the group to clean the utensils and to clean the children's utensils. After the clean up, everyone this time sat around the rebuilt fire and Henri LaFere resumed talking.

----- "No one in the families had died after deciding who would live long lives before going to their happy afterlife and those who put off dying were wondering what they would do with all the years ahead of them. It still is something they wonder about some 7,957 years later. While they had very few visitors, they did have a few who wanted trouble. There was one time when everyone had to stay inside the walls of the city because a group of some thirty maruarders attacked. These maruarders spoke a common trade language known to many in this very wide region."

----- "The leader of this group stood outside the wooden door to The City and bellowed: 'Give us your women and your good and your best weapons. Do it now and we may let you live!"

----- "This 'leader' did not know the People of The City had practiced attack and defense measures for a number of years. They also did not know that a half mile away were the curious moutains of the region. The People had been digging rooms into the moutains and had been careful to make small enterance holes that lead into the large halls and rooms of the New City they were building. There were already a number of people, with arms, in these rooms in the mountain. The invaders set up camp several hundred feet from the City entrance. They enjoyed their fires, cooked parts of a somewhat tame auroch. This killing was why The People decided these invaders should be killed. The auroch, a very productive Mother, had birthed a number of calves which were less violent towards humans that most auroch."

----- "When the outsiders had let their fires die down and had laid on skins on the hard ground, Veiled Wolf and a number of the other Fathers had either slipped over the wall of the city, lowering themselves to the ground by rope or had been summoned from the rooms in the mountain. They were armed with obsidian knives and thought themselves ready to attack the invaders."

----- "They were not."

----- Thomas Junior cleared his throat and said "I'd like to continue telling this tale."

----- "The first group of The People killed perhaps eight of the invaders. They made so much noise the rest of the invaders responded. Then, some of the People were killed but most of the invaders were also killed. The leader of the enemy and three of his people survived and agreed to stop fighting if they would be allowed to leave."

----- "The People told this leader that one of their people, Veiled Wolf, was severely cut. The enemy leader asked to be taken to Veiled Wolf. He examined Veiled Wolf and made a list of demand. One damand, light a fire made sense. But, to make it from very fast burning wood did not. It would."

----- "Then, he rinced his hands off and asked that the bravest of his enemies bring ants long feared by the people. These ants had large jaws that once locked would not loosen. This enemy leader had some of The People hold the lips of Veiled Wofe's wounds together and then he stitched them for forcing ants to bite the lips of the wounds. He then ripped the bodies of the ants off and the wounds were held together. The fast burning fire was dead and he took spider webs and spead them over the wounds stitched by ant jaws. These spider webs were covered by ash. Other wounded of The People were treated in similiar fashion."

----- "What will happen now?"

----- "I have done all I know to do. Do you any cheese? Bring me to it."

----- "The enemy leader looked at some of the cheese and especially at the mold on some of it. He tasted the mold, smilled and said 'this might prevent disease'. The wounded were given cheese with this yeast for a number of days after the fight and recovered.."

----- "The People were grateful and puzzled. Why had their enemy helped them?

----- "We were driven out of our valley and simply wanted supplies."

----- "Why aren't you angry at us killing your men?"

----- "It was war and we inivited your attack. I don't take this as a personal matter. Also, no one from my family was hurt. Your attack was spirited but poorly organized and poorly done. We will be willing to teach you to fight if you are willing to let us and willing to let us live outside your city."

----- "The People agreed to this and the training began. The People were taught by the four surviving former enemies to fight with spears. This was similiar to the quarter staff fighting they did but also different. They were taught to fight with sword. The outsiders made The People learn to walk in strange patterns and to attack from odd postures. They learned to feint, parry, block and to attack with the point, the blade, and the pummell of their bronze swords. They learned to attack and defend with the dagger. They also learned to fight with a shield."

----- "When Veiled Wolf learned to fight with shield and dagger, he attacked more with shield and blocked with his dagger. This was so odd that it saved his life a number of times in their future. It was clear that Veiled Wolf was not a great warrior!"

----- Veiled Wolf, AKA Henri LaFere, rolled his eyes. In the woods, a new comer to the watchers looked with curiousity and geeat interest at Henri LaFere and especially his eye rolling. He also remembered pictures and descriptions of Veiled Wolf. There was a very old statue passed down through the centuries to the Leading Shamen of his people. Something about the sight of Henri LaFere troubled him. He went back to his village to check the old tribal records and to look at the old statue.

----- "These outsiders were there almost a half year when a caravan came past The City. These pople were heading towards 'the Big Water', what we would call the Eastern Mediterrean today, in hopes of setting up a fishing village. Centuries later, Veiled Wolf, their wifes and families and dogs, horses and some cattle had gone to this area and had been very impressed by the fishing village. They had moved east along the coast of 'the Big Water' and had fished there for a couple of hundred years. Then, the urge to return home to Central Asia had forced them to leave their fishing village and move back home."

----- "Explain to me again what a Scribe did?"

----- Henri LaFere then responded with: "The Scribes wrote down everything people thought was worth remembering. Laws, stories, fables, business records, they made up religious rites but mostly to amuse or perhaps annoy God, poetry, jokes, science and attempts to explain nature and attempts to create mathematics. Sometimes, scribes would write down insults. Veiled Wolf woud never have done that, of course!"

----- There were numerous eye rolls at this statment.

----- "First, the clay had to be prepared and had to be just the right softness. Then, using wooden frames, the scribes made slabes of clay abut a foot wide, a foot tall and two inches thick. They carefully removed the wooden frames and corrected any damage done by removing the frames. When a scribe wrote something, he or she always put the Year of the City and Day of the Year and time of the morning and their personal sign aross the top of the slab. After that, they used their scribing tools to inscribe the clay slab with whatever they needed to record. When they were done with a slab, it was put in a sunny area with a dry surface to fully dry. If it was the rainy season, they had a special house to put the slabs in where they would stay dry and would completely dry out. When the clay was fully dry, experts in baking the clay would construct a special kiln and the clay would be fired until it became a brick. Veiled Wolf did not think he was good enugh to spend his time taking clay; the families thought he was a fine Scribe and kept him busy."

----- "What did they do with 'business'?"

----- "Not much," Henri LaFere admitted. The People had lists of who owed what and who had made payments. This was nothing like the oh-so-modern (in English) Double Ledger Accourint (back to Arapaho) people today are so fond of. After the plaques were fully hardened, they were examined to see if they needed to be redone. There were always one or two damaged plaques in each firing of perhaps 50 plaquest and they had to be redone. This did not make the kiln masters popular among the scribes."

----- "Why not," Fifth Brother asked?

----- "Because they had to waste a good board to replace each broken plaque and take up the time to try to make it just like the first plaque."

----- "Oh, well isn't that fun?"

----- Henri LaFere went to their supplies and came back with a sketch pad and a pencil sharpened with a good knife. Then, he quickly sketched representative drawings of both the girl and her little brother.

----- "At first, The People stored their plaqes in houses in the city but then they moved the plaques to rooms in the mourtain. They even build tables to hold them. Finally, God warned them they needed to protect the plaquest better..."

----- By now, Veiled Wolf was the Chief Scribe and leader of the Scribes. He told his fellow Scribes "We need a better way of protecting the plaques. I'd like to build rooms that no one knows about."

----- "How can we do that since every room we build is clearly visible. We simply can not hide rooms."

----- "Yes, we can," replied Lessor Egrot, who by that time was considered a fully grown adult. "Yes, we can if we dig the tunnels into the mountain perhaps three man heights below the surface of the ground."

----- "How do we dig down to your tunnels without leading a hole future people will see?"

----- "Simple," Lesser Egrot replied to his fellow Scribe, "we dig a hold in the ground outside the mountain and tunnel in from there."

----- "We could do that," Veiled Wolf allowed, "although we can hardly do our normal Scribe duties and help with the coming fall harvest and the fall hunt. We need help."

----- Two days later was a mass meeting intended for everyone to discuss the affairs of The City or simply talk.

----- First, the Denuvian Nannies spoke. "We tired of teaching babies. Start talking language we teach."

----- The Chief Elder replied "We try".

----- The Speaker for the Denuvian Nannies sighed and in excellent human replied "Continue speaking as you wish. Our native language lacks the words to have an intelligent conversation."

----- The Denuvian Nannies were very intelligent and spoke "human" better than the "humans" did. However, they could get emotional and wanted their language lessons used occasionally.

----- "Chief Scribe, do you have something you wish to say?"

----- "Yes, Grandfather, I do! We Scribes have built up a vast number of plaques with our stories, our history, fanciful religious ideas, stories about the world and work in mathematics. Some of what the Nannies have created is very difficult to understand and someday more of us may do so. (The Nannies had invented Euclidian Geometry and were dabbing in not-Eufclidian Geometry or non-Euclidian Geometry millenia be Rheilann) What we have is the story of our people and it must be protected."

----- "Protected from whom?"

----- "That Grandfather is something we don't know. At the moment, we have no one threatening to destroy our plaques. Time is long and someday we might be many in size and live in many large cities. People then will want to know our early history. There are people who would destroy our history if they could."

----- "Why would they do this," asked the Chief Nanny?

----- "Because they can, because they have no history of their own, because we are the Chosen People and that might be enought to destroy our memory. I don't know but I think it is a real threat."

----- "Why should we prepare for something that might never happen?"

----- "It will be too late to prepare to hide our history when we are under attack." The Chief Nanny was adamont.

----- "That is why we have encouraged the training of Scribes and encouraged writing plaques of so many stories. Someday, perhaps tens of tens of tens of years from now, the joke everyone loves to tell may be long forgotten with only a plaque remembering the joke. You all know the joke I am talking about, Grandson?"

----- "Yes, Grandfather, we have written down that joke on three plaques that I know of and perhaps eight more versions of the same joke."

----- "Grandson, I want you and all your scribes to write down this wonderful joke on all your plaques until the next full moon."

----- "Yes, Grandfather." Some 70 plaques were written which had the joke and the note "The Grandfagther of the Chief Scribe believes this is the greatest joke in history and commanded we place it on all the plaques we create". In the year 2025, the plaques with this "greatest joke in history" were transcribbed into languages unborn when the plaques were writtenl. Many schalars wrote their Masters and PhD Thesis in attempts to explain this "greatest joke in history".

----- When the surviving People of The City read these thesis, they were shocked the "moderns" did not understand the joke. Then, however, the People of the City did not take into consideration that they really were not human and had been rasied by "non-humans" as well... "We can dig a large pit next to the mountain," Lessor Ergot stated, "and dig tunnerls into the mountain three man heights below the ground surface. If we make tunnels and rooms there, we can save all of our plaques. We can also mark the rooms."

----- Veiled Wolf had greately puzzled everyone by his habbit of going into each room of the mountain as each room was completed and drilling a small diamter hole perhaps a half meter into the rock face. Then, he pushed a straight reed into the hole and lite it. The reeds would burn out completely, leaving an ash filled hole. He then rubbed pale, wet, mud into the entrance of these holes. He could not explain why he found it necessary; he could simply say "God came to me in my sleep one night" and commanded this be done.

----- That was good enough for his family. It was millenium before anyone had heard of Carbon 14 dating but the One who commanded him knew all about Carbon 14 dating.

----- Digging the pit proved to be harder than digging the tunnels into the mountain lager proved to me. The tunnels were carved in the shape of arches as were the rooms. There was little work done during the harvest and then during the fall hunting seasons as those were survival events and digging the tunnels a long term proposition. Still, it only took two years to create the tunnels. Then, while keeping good records, the scribes began moving plaques into the tunnels.

----- Suddenly, plaques that had not been read for years became "must read items" and this annoyed the Scribes who had to retrieve the plaques and then return them to the assigned rooms. Finally, Veiled Wolf had enough.

----- One day, one of his Aunts came to visit:

----- "I want to read the stories I wrote for your sisters."

----- "Yes, Aunt Clouds Glowing, I will get them."

----- Veiled Wolf brought three plaquest out, knowing his Aunt Clouds Glowing would demand he carry them to her house and when she was done reading them, he would have to find them and return them. His Aunt had the habit of leaving plaques in the oddest places such as the roof during the rainy season, the communical kitchen, even in the human waste room [toilet]. Instead, he smilled at his Aunt and said:

----- '"You will have to read them over here, in this tent."

----- "No, Nephew, I will read them on my roof."

----- "I cannot allow you to take them there, Aunt Clouds Glowing. We need to keep track of these plaques and to make sure they are properly stored."

----- "Well, I have never been treated like this before!"

----- With that, Aunt Clouds Glowing turned and left in anger. Veiled Wolf returned the plaques to their assigned resting places. His older relatives let him know of their anger at this. Later, Veiled Wolf wrote down the entire story. He even wrote how their ruler, the Grandfather of Grandfathers had publically yelled at him and privately told Veiled Wolf that "this is the funniest thing I have ever seen. I have been tired of your Autn's ways for a very long time!"

----- Millenia later, when the tunnels were fiund and the plaques read, this story would become famous world wide. People especially liked the part about his Aunt leaving heavy plaques in the toilet. They were amused when reading other plaques about Veiled Wolf's annoyance at having to clean the plaques off that he retrieved from Aunt Clouds Glowing's house. They were amused that Veiled Wolf would sometimes assign this cleaning duty to his junior apprentices, such as a grand child...

----- "Why did you leave your precious city?"

----- "Our population was growing and we were running out of room in the city. We were moving to New City in the mountains. People remainded behind in the city because it was their home. We finally dug windows in the outer walls. Some rooms were dedicated to fireplaces although many preferred to use a cooking and dining area outside the moiuntain. Then, there was a problem with bodily waste and the people simply did not like to have it too close to where they lived. So, they worked it into the soil aroound the pit. This mterial appeareed to help crops grow. In fact, most folks liked it better than the regular crops. It was truly not what they expected."

----- "What did they do, Big Sister," the boy asked.

----- "They just used a local fertalizer on their crops and made them taste better."

----- "Can we do the same?"

----- "Our food tastes fine. This special fertalizer was used up a long time ago."

----- ":Thank you for this knowledge," FIfth Brother stated. "Can we get any of this stuff?"

-----"No," his sister replied. "Would you like to play with the dog?"

----- The Boy and the Dog ran off together and started playing a game of chase, which involved a ball and sometimes a stick. Eldest Daughter and none of the men could figure out what the two were doing and that was probably what made it so much fun for the boy and the very intelligrent dog (who could understand the 'human' language).

----- In Year Ninty of the City, a group of refugees literally ran past The City. They stopped running and came back when they realized the People of The City didn't seem hostile. The two groups actually shared parts of a common language, thanks to visitors coming upon The City over the decades.

----- The best they could figure out was a large group of violent mauraders were moving through the valley for some reason. They came up with an estimate of 17 to 29 days before these outsiders would come upon The City. Small squads of young soldiers were dispatched along the back trail of the refugees. After several days of hard riding, they came upon the vanguard of the invaders.

----- The invaders were groups of people walking with burdens and some with wagons being hauled by oxen. They had never seen oxen and were bemused by the wagons. Still, these young soldiers had been trained in the arts of hding and reconaissance and were not seen. It helped the refugees were not very observant. They began to think these people were less invaders and much more a people looking for a home. That brought up the question: if these people were fleeing, what were they fleeing from?

----- The young scouts returned to The City and reported to the entire population, which by this time had increased from a hundred to nearly a thousand. {check the initial size}

----- The fifteen young scouts stood in front of their families. They did not feel stage fright as they had no fear of the people they had lived with their while lives.

----- "We rode three days back along the path of those visitiors. If these were hunter killers then the rabits and aurocs have nothing to fear! They were walking, some were riding worn out horses and creatures we have never seen before were pulling strange boxs. The creatures looked somewhat like aurocs but also somewaht diferent Their boxes had wooden cirfcles that were turning in circles. These boxes were hauling people and appeared to be carrying items like food and boxed stuff."

----- Another scout added "They had weapons but did not seem ready or even interested in using them. They simply seemed like a very tired group of people who had run themselves out and were now trudging along. I don't see them as threats and I have to wonder what is following them."

----- The first added: "I suggest we contact them and ask why they are fleeing. We have learned three trade languages from visitors over the decades. Perhaps they can tell us why they are running."

----- "I have learned one trade language", Veiled Wolf interjected. "I would like to talk with these people."

----- "You will, Veiled Wolf," the Grandfather of Grandfathers replied, "but only when they get close enough for you to lead several dozen fighters to meet them. You are too valuable to risk."

----- Their best warrior, one of Veiled Wolf's second cousins, Vicious Verga simply said "I will lead our p[eople with care and take one of my sons, the one who knows as many languages as a Nanny, to help interpret for us. We will be very cautious and will not lead the stranger back to us,"

----- Vicious Virga was name for being born in a thunderstorm when somene had joked about the "verga" being "vicious". This was in comparsion with the actual dangerous clouds in a major thunderstorm and was meant as a joke. It was one of the more amusing of The People's birth names.

----- Some of the young warriors were replaced, they picked new horses to ride and left shortly after dawn, They were a week when they returned to The City wsith the leader of the refugees. The Refugee Leader was taken before the Grandfather of Grandfathers and other elders.

----- After introductions were made, the leaders sat on low benches of carved logs. The work was very nice and had taken decades to create. Normally, the benches were kept in one of the houses.

----- "Why you running. Why you leave homes?"

----- "We were attacked by an enemy with many killers, many swords, captured our people, stole our crops, stole our horses, stole our oxen." (The word "oxen" was new to The People.)

----- "When did you leave?"

----- "Four hands of days ago." The leader of the visitors opened and shut his left hand four times to indicate some 20 days.

----- "Do these invaders move quickly?"

----- "The invaders move slowly. They steal much, they send stolen property to their home city."

----- "Do you want to live in our valley?"

----- "No but we thank you for this offer. We want to find a peaceful valley like this valley and go there."

----- "We know of a safe place. We talk."

----- The Grandfather of Grandfathers began to speak in the "human" speech.

----- "We can them about the plain hidden in woods six days walk west of here. If they are careful entering the woods, they may escape notice."

----- The Grandmother of Grandmothers replied: "We should offer to let them take our stored crops. Perhaps we should return to the Homeland (Central Asia)?

----- "We need more information."

----- The People of The City and the Leader of the Refugees talked about their join problems into the evening and resumed talking about them the next morning.

----- The People of The City were sufficiently worried that they began walking across the wall of The City that night, peering in the bright star light towards where the "enemy" was expected to come. The people had inherited excellent vision from their Neanther ancestors and incredible night vision from their Denanuvian ancestors. To the people, bright moonligth was as good as sunlight and the people had full colour vision in moonlight. To the People, bright starlight was as bright as full moonlight to their fully human remote cousins. The People simply had not had a chance to learn how good they were in vision, hearing, intelligence and imagination.

----- They were superb.

----- By their rough count, 160 of these refugees arrived by late the next evening. They said they had been far ahead of the rest. Their leader said they did not feel save and wanted to leave. They allowed The People to load preserved food and fresh food into their wagons and they left the next aftternoon. They made about 5 miles the first afternoon and then averaged about 20 miles a day until they came upon a large wooded area. Several of the Scribes had gone with these people and guided them to a certain spot.

----- "Is this spot?" The refugee leader asked?

----- "Yes. We show you spot." Their young guide was a superb Scribe but was not a linguist.

----- "Where?"

----- "We show you."

----- The young Scribe began trotting towards one specific spot in the woods with the refugee Leader following on his tired horse,. As they approached the woods, a path into the woods appeared.

----- "Now you see?"

----- "Yes," replied the refugee leader.

----- "We rest, march in morning."

----- "Firewood?"

----- "No," the young Scribe replied, "cold camp. Enemy can not see our location.

----- They entered the wood the next day and had to travel about 20 miles. After two days travel through along the path through the forrest, the entire group entered an open area. It was huge and had a large lake extending off to the northeast. There were fruit trees scattered throughout the area The refugees slowly moved deeper into the area. The leader said to the young Scribe:

----- "God brought us here. We plant your seeds. We thank you. You may stay."

----- "We must leave. God will want us back with our people."

----- Centuries later, the people in the woods would move across southern Turkey and down to an area along the coast in the extreme eastern Mediterrean. By then, the somewhat dark skinned Scribe and his brothers would have been remembered in strange and different ways and their motives less kindly presented.

----- The Scribes about seven days after they had left. There had been some changes and their :People were clearly angry.

----- The Scribes were taken in front of the collected body of The People and asked by the Grandfather of Grandfathers:

----- "How was your trip taking the new people to their new home?"

----- "It took several days to reach the woods. They told us about how to make their moxing boxes, which are called 'carts'. They are a good people who talked to us about their God. Their God seems very much to be our God. We hope this is true; we hope we have found distant cousins. They did not see the entrance to the woods, which seems so strange to us. Perhaps they can not see as well as we do?

----- "Will they be safe?"

----- "We think so, Grandmother of Grandmothers. If they had trouble finding the entrance to the hidden plains, then we pray their enemies will also have trouble and will not try moving trough the woods. It is obvious that God opened the path for us and closed it as we were leaving. These new people to the plains called 'The Well Watered Fruitful Garden'. They seems very pleased with it. They should be safe there."

----- "We have niot been so fortunate, Slender Wolf. Your Grandfather, Veiled Wolf, will talk about what happened."

----- "Three of your cousins, sons of Greater Egrot, went to scout the approaching hoard. They went back the approaching refugees and were walking through a small clearing when they were attacked without warning. Two of your cousins were stabbed and died in screaming pain. Your third cousin, the First Son of Slender Wolf, was tied up and dragged to an enemy camp. There were about 60 of these evil enemy invaders. When they laid down to sleep that night, First Son of Slender Wolf was able to untie the ropes holding him. He fled back to where they had left their horses and came back to The City. FIrst Son warned the refugees of the coming of evil ones and they fled to the north."

----- Veiled Wolf paused to get his emotions under control and to take a sip of Mead.

----- "Your cousin spoke to The People and demanded refengue. The Elders said this was wrong. I asked to be allowed to take a party to find the truth of how maters had changed during the time First Son of Slender Wolf took to return home. I was warned this was simply vengence or a war party. I replied it could be but for now, it was to be a matter of seeing what the true situaition had become. The Elders agree and gave me twenty young men. Actually, my twenty were picked from more than one hundred who wanted to find vengence. If that was the case, no one found it in their hearts to condemn them."

----- "We took horses, blankets, weapons and food the next morning and returned east along the path. Less than a day ride we found a large group of refugees who said that something had caused the hoard to slow down. We thanked them and I told them to continue to the city.

----- "Late the next day, we began to hear strange words from the wood ahead of us. I had our horses hidden in the woods and assigned two of the youngtest men to guard them. Then, Lessor Egrot and Viscious Virga crept towards the sounds. Both of them are among our finest woods scouts. The sounds were coming from an isolated clearing. These men were dressed and armed as the ones First Son had seens. Three of these outsiders were wearing the cloaks our people had worn when thery were attacked. Both scouts waited until one of the outsiders went to urinate in the deep woods and Lesser Egrot confronted him. Lesser Egrot asked 'why you kill our brothers?"

----- "They not blood. We kill them if we want."

----- "Why you ran? Are you rabbits?"

----- "We brave. We run from evil hordes. We killed you now!"

----- Veiled Wolf continued speaking: "This enemy opened his mouth to scream and Vicuous Virga cut his throat. They moved the dead one into the forrest and waited to see if the dead one's kin would look for him. Moments later, they heard the roar of a bear and the sounds of a bear feeding and Lessor Egrot had the courage to creep up and look towards the sounds. A very large bear was devouring the enemy. When the bear realized he was being watched, Grandfather Bear stoo on his hind legs, pointed his left paw toward the escape route and made the 'RUN NOW' signal to Lessor Egrot. Lessor Egrot turned to run and Grandfather Bear went back to his dinner."

----- Veiled Wolf did a silent wolf laugh.

----- "I wonder if Grandfather Bear enjoyed his diinner? I wonder if the dinner's kin folks spent anytime seeking revengue? I don't think so!:"

----- "When your cousins told us about the camp site, I was amazed, They had a fire but it was on the ground and not in a pit. There were also arond 30 in this group. I told everyone we would wait till after dark and then surround the camp. We waited until the moon, a quarter moon, was high in the sky and by tghe light of their dying fire, we could all tell they were lying on the ground. I whistled and we crept out towards them. We fell upon them like hawks on rabbit and stabbed them many times with obscedian knives. They were dead before they truly knew what was going on. I felt anger and visious satisfaction. Moments later, I felt grief and wished we had tried to tell them to leave us. Still, it may have been an effective tactic. We have not seen any of these attackers in places we thought they wouild be by now."

----- "We returned to the City very quickly and we Scribes wrote what happened. Since I took five Scribes with me, there are six different versions of this story drying on fresh clay plaques. We will fire them tomorrow. You must dictate your stories quickly."

----- The next morning, the Scribes prepared very thin clay plaques and wrote their stories of taking the refugees to their "Well Watered Fruitful Garden". The plaques dried very quickly and then next morning, the Scribes risked puting them into a kiln, knowing they clay might be too wet. It was not and when the fired plaquest were removed, they were quickly put in the tunnel storage areas.

----- The People believed that God Provides.

----- They sent a couple of dozen young scouts to the woods where the refugees had taken sanctuary and found all their wagons, with oxen attached and grazing. One of the men of the refugees waved at them from the ends of the woods, turned and clearly entered the woods on a path even The People could see and quickly diasppeared. The People then mounted into the carts and began moving the carts towads The City.

----- Veiled Wolf went to the copper smiths and said "Remember when God told us to cast a large arrow?" He drew an arrow shape, some three feet long, in the dirt. "I think it is time to make this."

----- The copper smith, who was married to Veiled Wolf's third daughter, said "We will make one in copper and another in the married metal." (This was tin copper bronze.)

----- "Thank you, my son."

----- Three weeks after the killing of the small band of murders, a couple of families of refugees walked from the path into the woods. They were asked, "wshere are the people you flee?"

----- The reply was "They not know who killed a band. Family of the dead found enemies and filled them. Then, enemies of those began killing."

----- God appeared to the People of The City and told them it was time for them to return to the homeland (in Central Asia).

----- The People simply nodded and the next day, began preparations to leave.

----- They loaded the carts but did not overfill them. They knew there would be rivers to cross and hoped the carts would 'swim the distance' easily. They also knew it was early summer and that they would have to winter over somewhere.Veiled Wolf and his band of twenty were left behind to finish firing the last plaques and then burying these plaques.

----- In the spirit of experimenting, a kiln had been built deep beneath the ground. They left this kiln undestrubed.

----- One of his twenty came to Veiled Wolf and reported "We have put the last of the plaques in the deep tunnels. Are you ready to bury them?

----- "Yes."

----- Then all 21 men took wooden shovers and began filling in the pit leading to the tunnels below the ground level. It was a hard task and seemed something that would not be done. Fortunately, the saplings and crops had grown high enough to hide the working men from view. Eventually, Veiled Wolf was able to put the copper arrow and the bronze arrow n the ground before they filled in the last two feet of the dirt.

----- Finally, they watched as the invaders came from the woods and began exploring their city. These scouts found and cooked grain left behind. If the grain looked a bit "off", well that was because it was a foreign grain. After a while, they ate grain The People had been taught by God not to eat.

----- Seral hours later, the invaders began screaming and moaned all night. Veiled Wolf's best translaters crept through the crops and hid in plain sight.

----- The next day, another group came into the area surrounding the city and were told "the city is cursed".

----- The invaders placed ribbons of what appeared to be leather with certain bones in patterns along the path north of the city. Veiled Wolf and his people assumed these were warnings to others to stay away.

----- All of this was engraved on plaques and eventually Veiled Wolf told his family members "we need to leave soon."

----- They waited until the last plaques were dried and put them into the last kiln, the kiln that was underground. This was started in the early morning ane the small band took the one remaining cart and filled it. They sent a couple of small groups to survey their escape route to the northeast. Then next morning, the fire was gone out in the kiln but the kiln was still too hot to open. Some of the men took shovers and filled in the ten feet above the kiln. The kiln would gradually cool and rest undestrubed for thousands of years before being dug up in what would be called "1978 AD".

----- Because of their superb night vision, none of The People were afraid of the dark and none of them thought anything of remaining active outdoors long after dark. The only times when they were concern were when the sky was overcast at night. Then, they would produce shelters, post sentries and maintainj a fire.

----- This did not matter as the night sky was incredibly bright with stars and even more so when the moon was out. They did not need to worrry about their enemie's following them as they covered their back trail very nicely. For people who had lived their lives in an elegant little walled city, they were doing very well. They did not realize their back trail was being mended for them.

----- Back in their city, saplings were rapidly growing into old growth trees and vines were filling in the gaps. As the invaders finally made their way past the city, they had no interest in seeing what was b ehind the wooden fense. The People of The Citydid not learn of this for thousands of years. Perhaps a thousand years after leaving the city, the trees were allowed to thin out and new people moved into the mountain apartments. A hill had formed over The City, preserving it for eternity.

----- The first night out, Veiled Wolf and his twenty people set up a cold camp and wrapped themselves in old furs.

----- They found a shallow river and all gathered around. Now should we handle this?"

----- "I've never done this before," Veiled Wolf admitted. "We should find the shallow spots and cross there?"

----- 'Well, we can find shallow spots?"

----- Several walked up and down the stream bank and realized they were looking at a broad, shallow, area of the stream with smooth bottom.

----- "This could be the place," Lessor Egrot said as he walked in a danty fashion with small steps across the river bed. He acted like the river bed had to be a smooth as ice. It wasn't.

----- "Take the cart across here," Veiled Wolf ordered.

----- The entire group moved across the steam, safely, and without incidance and did not realize that had spent far more time worrying about the cross than the actual crossing took.

----- The next stream was equally easy to cross.

----- The third river they reached that day looked so deep no one could see a bottom. None of the twenty one could see the bottom and even Lessor Egrot and Viciuos Virga, both driven men, shrugged.

----- "Let us set up a camp here tonight. I would like a nice stew and fruit. First, we make the fire."

----- All 21 began looking for kindling and small dead branches. They scrapped dead material from one section of grassland near the river. There, five of them tried to start a fire using flint and a rock from home that created sparks. They failed. Veiled Wolf took his turn with flint and rock and had a fire started withi extrodinary speed.

----- Each of these 21 had carried cooking pots, plates and bronze silverware. The creatred a stew of dried meat (auoarc, duck, goat), carrots, leeks, onioins and chunks of unlevened bread. Future people might dislike it but this was food the people loved. They had very nice portioni control and once everyone had second servings, they were able to scrub out the stew pot and their bowl with river sand and rince them in the river.

----- They obeyed the directives of their God and boiled their bowls in the stew pot.

----- They slept very well that night.

----- They did not realize they did not smell like anything from the area, they did not display fear and they simply were too alien for any of the local preditators to risk annoying them. The People could tell it was going to be a nice night, with no rain and a very starry night. They slept on old furs and under old furs and nothing, save insects, dared come near them.

----- The next morning saw them rising from their furs, rekindling the fire for morning warmth and having dried meat and freshly picked fruit. They were quite happy with this. Then some went left along the river and other went right and it wan't until mid morning they returned to report they had seen no places to cross the river.

----- "And so, they needed to display courage in order to cross the river."

----- Henri LaFere grinned at Eldest Daughter and said with irony: "Are we getting tired, Eldest Daughter?"

----- "I am tired," she admitted.

----- "I can tell. Your little brother has just dozed off on our dog. Perhaps I should say, his 'new' dog."

----- "He does like that dog."

----- "We have prepared a cot with arm blankets on it. I think you can wear one of my old Army tunics, It is wool. What does your Father look like?"

----- "He is tall and broad shouldered, like you. Why are you asking?"

----- "I plan on giving him a tunic from one of my relatives. I suspect Fifth Brother will grow into it."

----- One of his son-in-laws nodded, then came over with his Army wool tunic. A great-grandson of Veiled Wolf, a short man, brought over a cotton blouse he was fond of. and Veiled Wolf's Army tunic This particular man also dolted on the youngsters in their clan and was happy to give the blouse to Fifth Brother.

----- "We have presents for both of you. My old Army tunic for you, this heavy cotton blouse for her brother and the wool tunic for him to grow into."

----- "What did happen to the People of The City?"

----- "They made the trip to their homeland safely. Come with me and I'll show you the cot for you and your brother."

----- Veiled Wolf, AKA Henri LaFere, took the girl to the tent and pointed to the cot. It had heavy blankets on it. You can sleep there; this tent is yours for as long as we stay here." He looked away from the tent. "It looks like your little brother is here to claim is side of the cot."

----- One of the men was carrying the sleeping boy.

----- "I managed to get him awake long enough to ujse the latrine." Eldest Daughter moved the top blankets and allowed the boy to be put in the bed and covered with blankets.

----- "I think I will join him."

----- "We dug a fresh latrine for you behind that very large tree. Here are some cotton wads for the obvious useage."

----- Veiled Wolf was not the slighted bit embarrassed to discuss cotton wads for wiping one's ass or for menstral pads for woment; he simply was taking Eldest Daughter's possible squimishness into account.

----- The girl went to bed fairly quickly. Veiled Wolf told his family that he would stay up waiting and his family went to their tents or comfortable areas of soft grass as their mood struck them.

----- They had constructed a kind of chair by buiding a sawhorse and then stretching a long kanvas cloth from it. This served as a form of easy chair.

----- Veiled Wolf was dozing off when he heard a deep voice growl something. Then, the same deep voice growled, in the tounge of the Nannies (Denuvian):

----- "Where are my children?"

----- "Time is the fire in which we burn."

-----

----- Chapter 2

----- (In Aprahol from Veiled Wolf) "I have not spoken the Nanny tongue in many years."

----- (In Neanderthal from the stranger) "I know you speak the Nanny tongue."

----- (In Neanderthal from Veiled Wolf) "I once spoke the Nanny tongue but it was years ago."

----- (In the Nanny tongue the stranger demanded) "Where are my children!"

----- (In the Nanny tongue Veiled Wolf replied) "If you meant...the small boy who stands...waist high to newcomer men...the slender girl the height of a newcomer man...then tell me."

----- (the stranger snarled in English) "Yes!"

----- (finally, Veiled Wolf felt confident in remembering Nanny Talk and said) "Both of your children are asleep in one of our tents. Your son, Fifth Son has fallen in love wtih my dog and your daughter, Eldest Daughter, tried very hard to get her little brother to speak correctly. He refused to. Your Eldest Daughter is a lovely girl and listened respectfully to our stories.":

----- "What is your name?"

----- "I am called Henri LaFere."

----- "That is the name humans call you. What is your true name?"

----- "I am Veiled Wolf, Third Son of Enraged Wolf and his wife, Leopard Welcomed. I am a setp elder of one sept of The People."

----- "Stand that me might see each other."

----- The visitor was about 8 feet tall but almost slender for his height. Veiled Wolf was 5'8" and wide compared to the visitor. By this time, all the People of the City were alertly awake.

----- "You are what we called 'one of the hairy people' in the old days," Veiled Wolf stated.

----- "I believe you to be one of thsoe in the old clay bricks. The Nannies have also talked about you and have crfeated baked clay staues of your appearance. You must be incredibly old to be 'Veiled Wolf'".

----- "I am. My cousin Vicious Virga is nearly my age and the rest are our sons, grandson, and younger men. I was born in the 24th Year of The City. By our best calculatioins, I am seven thousand, eight hundred and fifty four years old. Vicious Virga is four summers younger than I am. My Grandson Lessor Ergot is forty summers younger than I am."

----- "You have no idea how strange this conversation is and how strange it is to meet you." The tall and hairy man was speaking in fine English.

----- "You resemble some of the origionjal people in our ancient homeland. We know you came from the ancient homeland here in the Year 104 of The City or starting in the year 5896 BC. The trip took about 30 summers. We lived here with you for an even one thousand years. During this time, we explored this contenient, learned a great deal and moved both the remaining Nanny people and Neanderthal people to life with you. The remaining people of our clans had interbred with Neanderthals and Nanny people and a unique people. We convienced them to move to a place in the Camadian Rockies. There, the First People are protecting them. The Canadians are far more gentle about protecting their unusual humans than the Americans are."

----- "You are wrong there, Veiled Wolf. We contacted the rulers in Washington and they have protected us since the time of Thomas Jefferson. Do you know why the evil Geroge Armstrong Custer was killed along with his subjects." (He meant officers and soldiers.)

----- "He was hunting for gold in the mountains of the Arapaho Nation or so we read in various hysterical news paperrs."

----- "He had heard of our existance and was looking to capture a number of us. He dreamed of capturing our young males and training them to be the ultimate unstable warriors. We did not agree and convinced our allies to stop George Armstrong Custer. We also needed to convince the government in Washington and in Mongtana Territory to stay from our lands."

----- "Perhaps we can help? We look close enough to the humans from the eastern sea coast to be accepted as human and yet different enough to be conviencingly different enough to bridge between our families and those short lived creatures."

----- "You are incredibly old and might think nothing of taking decades or centuries to do this."

----- Veiled Wolf and his people were uncomfortably aware of the truth of this. There had been times when they had "solved" problems by simply waiting centuries for the problem to end on it's own.

----- "We could visit this President Rutherford B. Hayes and ask him as President to protect your people."

----- "I suppose you could."

----- "We have not been formally introduced," the unnamed Big Foot said.

----- "That will not be a problem for long. I hear the breathing of my Nanny and smell her. I also heard her growling to one of your scouts shortly before I stopped talking with your daughter. I wondered if she was going to wait till I fell asleep before waking me as she did so many years ago."

----- (In the Nanny language, the Big Big Foot said) "Would you be speaking of the one called 'Little Mother'?"

----- (In the Nanny language, Veiled Wolf replied) "Yes, I am and I can tell you where Little Mother is."

----- (In the Nanny language, the Big Big Foot sighed) "I expect that she is looking at my children."

----- (In the Nanny language, Veiled Wolf answered) "She is adjusting the blanket on your daughter but seemed pleased with your son. My dog is wagging his tail and Little Mother has put a blanket on him. She does not seem disturbed about the dog bed."

----- (In the Nanny language, the Big Big Foot continued) "She has always seen dogs and even cats as strange children who mean well but can't talk."

----- Finally, the Denevian Nanny, "Little Mother", walked directly to the group of men. She spoke in Arapaho:

----- "Of course Dogs and Cats are people. You simply have to understand what they are saying."

----- "I fear I do not understand them, Little Mother," Veiled Wolf replied

----- "I know.:"

----- "I am very pleased to see you again, Little Mother."

----- With that, Litttle Mother greeted and embrased the 21 humans and the Big Foot. It took a long time but no one minded. The children slept through thist as the men were used to making little noise.

----- "My sisters and I will speak with all of you in the coming days. Where are your wifes, daughters and granddaughters?"

----- "They are living on an estate in the State of Washington overlooking a volcano, Mount Saint Hellens. They have some 100 acres of forest land with guards partolling the parameter. These guards are cautious as no one wants to draw attention this land. The guards were soldiers in the American Civil War and some were Chinese who escaped from the slavery of working on the rail roads. They will care for our people and we will care for theirs."

----- Another Big Foot, this one of different hair colour and slightly shorter than the Big Foot male, stood next to him.

----- Little Mother decided to take control of the situation.

----- "I will make introductions. Veiled Wolf this is the leader of the Hairly Ones, named Ocheta and his wife named Elina. Ocheta and Elina, this is Veiled Wolf, Third Son of Enraged Wolf and his wife, Leopard Welcomed. He showed a great deal of interest in being a Scribe before he could grow a beard. He became Chief Scribe and then raised generations of future Scribes. I have been told that Veiled Wolf eventually became a skilled warrior. My husband and our people are quite pleased with him."

-----

-----Everyone paused respectfully.

----- "We will finish making introductions tomorrow."

----- Little Mother looked at Ocheta and Elina and said "Do you wish to spend the night here, close to your children?:"

----- "Yes, Little Mother," he said.

----- "We will return with morning food an hour after the rising of Father Son."

----- She nodded at everyone and stroll back into the forrest. There was faint resseling in the woods as Little Mother's body guards folded her into their moving protective shield.

----- "Do you wish to share the tent with your children?"

----- "Yes."

----- "The ground is soft, the grass appears to be clean of insects and I can arrange for you to get furs to sleep on."

----- "This I appreciate and thank you for; some of my cousins brought sleeping rolls for us."

----- "Do you want food or sweet water."

----- "I will be happy to have both."

----- One of Veiled Wolf's grandsons brought goat and apple permanncun {sp} and a copper glass of sweet water. Ocheta nodded thanks and consumed both items. Then, he and Elina took their bedrolls, entered the tent and spread their bedrolls near the children. Veiled Wolf was surprised that Ocheta did not snore. After finally rolling himself in his bedrolls, Veiled Wolf proved to everyone he did snore...

----- Early the next morning, Eldest Daughter carried her little brother, to one of the holes dug in the ground, to relieve himself. She then carried him back to the cot and carefully walked around their parents. The boy had fallen asleep as soon as she had picked him up but she had no problem folding him into the blankets. She fell asleep quickly...

----- Just as quickly, it seemed like her little brother was pulling on her ear and demanding to go to the latrine. She pushed him away and tried to go back to sleep. The boy looked around, saw his parents and hopped onto his Father. Then, he decided to awaken his Father by yelling "wake up" in his face and tugging on his beard. The Father finally pretended to wake; next to him, his wife was quitely laughing.

----- "Good morning, my son."

----- "TOILET! TOILET!"

----- Ocheta, Father of the very noise little boy, picked hiim up and carried him to the nearest latrine pit. The collected Big Feet and People of The City, who had b een awaken by the noisy boy, politely and ironically applauded the Father.

----- In the tent, Elina looked at her daughter and said softly "Some day your brother will be a Father himself and will have children. We must ensure his children learn to pull his beard when he sleeps. Your Father mentioned this to me last night and would have asked you this morning."

----- "I will be happy to teach them. The little fart has pulled my beard enough times and shouted in my face."

----- Both laughed.

----- "Time is the fire in whch we burn."

Chapter 3

After dining on fish, potatoes the Big Feet brought a very nice selection of fresh fruit, and very sgtrong coffee. This meal concluded with routine kitchen detail and everyone dressing nicely. They left their camp and walked five miles to the main town of both the Big Feet and the Nannys.

The village was incredible with structures built between very old trees, some inside the trees, many dug into the ground. As they tramped across a broad open area, a grass covered hatch popped open and a Big Foot male popped his head out and growled "don't you know better than to walk over a person's house? I'm trying to sleep in here!"

"We're sorry," one of the Big Feet murmurred.

This Big Foot issued forth an annoyed grunt, slammed his hatch down and everyone looked at each other.

"Is it safe to walk here?"

"We're already beyond his warren. I think. Does anyone know if he has extended his cave in this direction?"

There was no answer to this question, so the group tried to walk softly.

"We will be outside this little village shortly. You will meet most of the village this morning. After eatting lunch, you may want to continue story telling?"

"We would like that very much. Now, what stories have you about life in this strange land?"

"We are three peoples living in this vast forrest and in the Canadian Rockies. The First Nation of Canada and the Canadian government protect us. There are special usint of the Government of the United States who also protect us. We are in a perlous position since the humans are freee4 to go as they will. We have physical and spiritual guardians. Our problem is we know all of this and we know nothing about you. Why don't you visitors talk to us?"

"We will," said Lessor Egrot, "I think we all will. We need the oldest and wisest of us to speak first." He grinned at Veiled Wolf. "We just know my Grandfather would love to talk."

"Don't get presumptouis, Grandson!"

"Where to begin?"

"Why not from the time you left these forrests after you took our people here?"

"We had to decide how many to take with us. By this time, I had been the sept elder for many years and everyone was comfortable with that. Well, if not comfortable, at least used to this. I was not ready to settle down and live in one of our villages, so when thirty of the men of the seth and their wives and some children and their wives decided to go wandering, it was easy to agree to go with this. Also, my wife was interested in returning to the other lands and seeing what had changed. We said out farewells, decided that maybe we didn't have the right trade goods, and rearranged out loads. Then, we decided to have dress rehersals of our departure to see what we were forgetting and fixted that. After which, there were objections to what we were taking and how to arrange it. Some of the folks staying in the villages quibbled about the loads, the personnel going, the reason for going, the time of the year, do you know which enemy tribes are going to be encountering us and more."

He sighed.

"Finally, one of the Navvy Elders called all the villages togther. He was angry. People find it easy to think of the Nanny People as being just the Mothers. Some of the Nanny People Fathers made good 'Mothers'. Some of them coujld get quite annoyed. This senior Father informed me we were fully prepared and that it was time to leave. We said our goodbyes again, had a very large breakfast, and in mid morning, Grumpy Father asked us if we were planning on wintering over before leaving for the homeland. That did it!" "We mounted our horses, took the halters of our pack horses, made noise to get the oxen into motion pulling the carts and we rumbled off. I'd like to say we ran like the wind but we had been in the village too long and our departure was not an easy one. We made it perhaps five miles before we made camp,. We did not even bother to more than put up our tents and make a couple of fires. Our relatives simply followed us and brought food. We had a very nice party..."

Lessor Egrot interupted with "A certain sept elder said 'I hoped they would come, I didn't want to eat our cooking.' Well, this Elder would have plenty of time to eat our cooking and even to 'show us how the cooking is done'."

Lessor Egrot grinned at his grandfather, who snorted and turned his noise up in a very French manner.

"The next day we went about 10 miles and still have our evening meals brought to us. The third day, we ended up some 25 miles from the villages and ther were fewer visitors from the villages. We sent them back with a fremarkably placid female bison as a meal present. We expected the villagers to eat these bison and make leather from her hide. What did happen to her?"

"That was some thousands of years ago," one of his twenty people said.

"I was the Chief Scribe of our people and I would have noted everything about this bison in several plaques."

One of the Big Feet laughed and said "We did keep records of your departure. There were relatives who tried to go calling on you on your fourth, fifth and 9 days. The bison became a family pet and was even named."

The Big Feet people laughed.

"What is so funny," Veiled Wolf inquired in a mild voice.

"The bison was named 'Little Veiled Wolf". She lead a very nice life, was introduced to several almost tame boy bison and produced many little bisons for the Peoples. This is not to say the offspring were all that peaceful. We still have to be very careful around them. We have traded some of our bisons to various helper tribes of the Native People of this land. We are griving the deaths of so many bison, killed by the invaders from the east. There are perhbaps twelve hundred of these members of the people left. Se will care for them here in our forests and will send many to the Canadian Rockies. There, the people who came from the east have come as friends and are well trusted by us."

"Good."

"I will continue with this tale," Lesser Egrot spoke. (For a very old quasi-imortal, he could be impatient at times.) "After we left the people, we headed west and uphill across what are now called the 'Rockies'. We knew of some good passes that our horses and oxen could handle. Still, we had some problems. Some of the tribes we enhcoungtered thought they were food and attacked. We found a familiar area where a great river flowing southward turned to the west. By that time, we were over the mountain range and were moving downhill. I know, you probably wonder how we knew this? We determined taht the land was going down with old techniques. We followed the great river west until we reached the 'big water'.

"We know call it the Columbia River and we ended up in what is now the city of Astoria. Then, it was a fine woodland. The most important thing is there was some kinde of huge device on the water. In the distance, we saw two more of these things. Somehow, we knew we should go to these things."

"They will not believe you," Viscous Virga cautioned. "I have trouble believing whatg happened and I have perfect memory, as do we all."

"What happened?"

"We caught sight of the boats in the mid morning and skipping lunch, we arrived on the beach in late afternoon. The sailors on the docked boat stgarted yelling agt us in their languabge. We stated yelling back in perhaps 15 different languages. It was no use, neither group could understand each otherr."

"We heard a sigh and a light formed between the two groups and spread out to encompass both groups and the boats. When the light disappeared, the boats had changed appearance and had developed lanteen sails. We suddenly spoke the same language as the People of the Boats. They called themselves 'Orientals' as they came from what they called the 'Orient'. They had been told to take our group to our home contenient. We were to help supply the boats with fresh water, which we did. Then, we harvested the long grasses on the shore of the river. This was bundled up and placed in storage in the three boats. It took a trivial amount of time - perhaps six weeks - to accumulate this grass. The Chinese crews of our boats were a bit annoyed by this delay."

"Not really, Grandfather, they didn't mind being ashore as their families would be cared for as long as they were gone. They were just annoyed at the insects coming out from the grass."

"Thank you for that clarificaiton, Lesser Egrot."

Lesser Egrot did not mind in least that he had annoyed Veiled Wolf; he knew Veiled Wolf would get over it even if it took a day or 100 years.

6:25 PM 11/20/2016

"We eventually got the three boats fully stocked and we pushed away from the shore. These Chinese sailors were quite good at taking tghe boat backward and then turning. The Captain asked me:"

"Do you have any idea how we're going to navigate to China safely?'

"No".

"We have to know our distance from the equator. We can tell that at night from the North Star and it is harder during the day."

"I wish to lear this."

"At first, it was easy for the lookouts on the mast tops to tell the Captain which direction we needed to head. After a while, he just had the tiller stick put at one setting and we slid through the ocean. Then, the land sank into the sea and we had to wait for the sun to drop below the western ocean. I was bothered by all of this, thinking we might drift in circles for a long time to come."

He laughed.

"After dark, the Captain and his perople looked off the right side of the boat, well, starboard I'm supposed to say. They told me to look at the North Star. I looked and could not tell what they were looking at. I fanally realized they were talking about 'the Navigation Star'. We were fortunate there wasn't many more incidents of such confusion. We learned their form of navigation. We did something called 'same height sailing'. That was simply 'constant latitude sailing', which the Europeans thought they invented. The boat we were on had lenty of water, food and storage room. The so called marrid quarters wee simply racks with blnkets around them. I thought of it s eing like living in one of our origional houses but with those damned curtains. We were well past any interest in other's sexual pleasures and simply did not pay attention to their lust. The Chinbese did not have this well jaded atitude and got frustrated and, as they said, they had to 'turn to each other'. Well, that was no surprise to anyone but was not of interest to anyone. This is just the way we're made."

"I'd like to talk about the real problem," Lesser Egro interupted with. "It was something we should have thought of but actually did not. You see, we thought the Chinese crew would be taking care of everyone in our group. We apparently had different ideas of what made up family...."

"The critters", someone said.

"...family and what were disposable animals. It turned out the Chinese had these other expections. On the third day out, the Captain's Asasistant asked to speak with Veiled Wolf. He said 'We can not care for your animals, your horses and oxen, we are sailors and keeping the ship safe is already a great deal of work'."

"I had not considered that,' Veiled Wolf admitted, 'we will clean up after them and I appologize for this misunderstanding.;"

"Thank you," the Captain's Assistant replied with a big smile.

Veiled Wolf looked around at his people and said "we need to see how bad this is".

The horses and oxen were stomping around in their waste They were huddled in the forward third of the deck. Veiled Wolf lead his people in moving the horses and oxen into the central portion of the cargo deck.

"Now," said Veiled Wolf, "how do we move the waste into the sculpers?"

"We will show you," the Captain's Second said. A duty section of sailors took wooden brooms and began moving the waste toward the sculpers. Other sailors removed the sculper coveres and much of the work was done quickly. Then, Veiled Wolf took one of the wooden brooms and began pushing more of the waste towards the sculpers.

The wooden "broom" looked like a wooden board tied a pole nearly the length of a quarter staff.

Shoving material with this resulted in material flowing back around the edges and cusxsing as The People knew they would have to repeat the shoving many times to get it done right. The Chinese sailors laughed and the Captain's Second said "we will show you."

Then the Chinese sailors placed their boards next to each other, in effect forming one very long continuous board and pushed this to the sculpers.

"We will demonstrat how to do this several times every day until we think you understand this."

"How long will that take?"

"You will never learn this to our satsificaion and so we sailors will continue shoveling for the rest of this voyage. You will continue caring for your creatures."

"That is an exceellent arrangement," Veiled Wolf replied. "We will need to bath the feet of our four legged friends."

"How is this done?"

"We will need buckets and towelz to dry their feet."

The buckets were brought, the hooves werre cleaned off and dried on towels. The buckets were emptied into the sculpers and the process repeated until The People said the hooves were clean enough.

Some of the Sailors tried cleaning the hooves and this turned out to be a complete fiasco. The Sailors were terrified of the horses and oxen; the horses and oxen sensed this fear and becamne afraid themselves. Even The People had trouble getting their four legged friends settled down.

The Ship's Captain had arrived to watch the deck cleaning and the "cleaning of hooves". He shook his head in dismay.

"I am the Senior Elder of the clans on my ships. I can not have my sons afraid of your four legged friends. Working on my decks and in my sails and rigging is terrifying enough. I propose my Sailors clean the waste of your four legged friends and you move them and comfort them. Will your and your sons and daughters agree to this, Elder Veiled Wolf?"

"I accerpt this arrangement and my People will also."

"There were two storms duirng the voyage and we ended up staying in our quarters, terrified, and some of us were sick. When we were not in storms, it was fascinating to be on deck and watch the Sailors at work. A number of us were allowed to work the ropes and three were allowed aloft to work the sails."

Several of his grandchildren and some of their wives gave Veiled Wolf the stink eye; Veiled Wolf sighed.

"I was trying to be nice! The three who worked the sails were tied to the ship with strong ropes and had highly skilled sailors working next to them and ensuring their safety. The five most skilled Sailors were the Sailors who totally supervised their work aloft and there was more." Veiled Wolf laughed. "All three had ropes tied around their bodies. These were called 'harnesses'. Each harness went through a pully at the top of the mast and down to the deck where perhaps five Sailors tended the line and controlled how fast each of these men could move."

"After several days aloft, our ship's Captain suggesed 'your three men should think about their experiences and perhaps should receive further training when the ship is not in motion'?"

"I took the hint and said 'I will have them meditate on their experiences; perhaps 'working aloft' is not the true calling of their hearts'. A short time later, all three gavely told me 'we will mediate on this subject' Eldest One."

"I still think there was irony in their tones of voice although they deny it. Even the Chinese laughed merrily at these responses!"

The various listeners also laughed.

"Did I mention the Chinese had a curiously designed device for measursing the height of the North Star? They were quite advanced and navigated by 'sailing down the latitude'. That is, as long as they were sailing to the west and were at the same latitude every day, they had a good idea of where they were going to hit land. Now, they tried to maintain a steady course during the day and guessed if they were going north or south of their desired latitude. This meant that having measured the latitude, they would have to sail north or south to get to the correct latitude. There was one time when they were on the correct latitude and went off course by poorly measuring their latitude. This caused some embarrassment!"

"We made port after about 2and a half months.Although we spoke a common language, we did not speak the Chinese language spoken in the Sailor's home loand. They taught us and we learned this language very eaily. But, to return to our story, by this time, the water was pretty bad, the horsex and ox were getting harder to handle and we were highly annoyed. The local Elders thought we were strange but decided to help us. They set up huge troughs and filled them with fresh water. When the shore people put gang plants from the shore to our boat, we had trouble getting the 'critters' to take the gang plank safely and when ashore, they ran to the water and drank a lot. Then, they were given excellent food. On the other hand, we had to wait until we were taken to the local warlord and he agreed to let us into his land and they gave us tea and a find meal. That evening, we had more tea and a different fine meal. The next week, we were treated very very nicely and along with the crews of the three boats, we had a lot of tea, a lot of great food and some fine booze.

The War Lord came to where The People were seated drinking hot tea. The War Lord simply sat on a stool at the same table as Veiled Wolf, Lessor Ergot, Vicious Virga and their wives.

"I am Li Sun Zu and War Lord of this port city and the farm lands around it. They tell me you once lived in the Middle Kingdom and went to the new lands to the East?"

"Yes, all of this is true",Veiled Wolf admitted. "We apprecate the vast help your sailors gave us. We really do no know how to thank them."

"You have paid us with the proof of your existance and in the stories you and your people told. There are stories of the Old Ones from the lands north of the northern desert who wandered the lands for some years and helped our cultures to develop. We learned of your method of writing stories and have developed our own written language. One of my mystics developed an inteesting substance that our language can be written on. We will teach you how to make this substance and how to make the black liquid that is used. What do you wish to do now?"

Lessor Ergot responded with "we would like to learn this writing. Also, some of your sailors have talked about a school where the ways of unarmed and armed combat are taught. Some of us should be trained in these ways." Lessor Ergot smirked at his Grandfather, Veiled Wolf. Veiled Wolf glared back.

The War Lord saw this and laughed!

"So, Elder Wolf, it would seem your Son thinks you need training in our combat skills. I can tell you do not think so but your Son, Little Bird (he had been given the wrong name for Lessor Egrot) is a good son and wants you to be safe without your brothers, sons and grandsons protecting you."

"Thank you, that is true."

"A good son cares for his Father and Mother; a good wife to your son also takes care of his parents and her parents. Your son and his wife cae very much for you and you are a very lucky man and wife."

It took six weeks to learn paper making and ink making. Veiled Wolf and several of his best Scribes used "peper" and "ink" supplied by their hosts to record the stories of their time from leaving the home land to the present. When they were done, the papers were carefully wrapped up. A number of Chinese Scribes copied the strange characters The People used to make permanent records that lasted for a great many centuries."

One of the Big Feet spoke up. "I like to read news from the Orient. They recently found some incredibly old records talking about a strange people who had traveled from 'the Land on the Western Coast" of the land of the Rising Sun. They translated your stories using records found buried in the Egyptian sands along with the Egyptian writing. The scholars think it is myth but the details in the records are too mater of fact and the scribes who created the copies put personal remarks in." "Their remarks were about actually talking to the strange people from the Farthest East, as if they were quite real. In fact, they made very realistic sculptures of the Clan Elders. I have pictures in my hut."

The Big Foot Elder looked at this young one and said "bring your beloved pictures here."

Minutes later, the young Big Foot returned with a magazine that featured very nice black and white photos of the sculpters. There were three of Veiled Wolf including one good enough for identifing Veiled Wolf.

"One of Chinese friends found out they are duplicating these sculptures. He has some."

A very well done copy of the best of the statues of Veiled Wolf was handed to him. It was the first tine in thousands of years that he was shocked by anything...

The B ig Feet, being good hosts, brought in bottles of a French wine called Dom Perion. It was a strange thing but The People, the Big Feet, the Neanderthals and Denuians could drinkg without becoming adicts and nevery actually got vbery drunk. Since their people had not evolved with alcohol, it could only have been a blessing from God!

They enjoyed the bottles and after a couple of minutes, Veiled Wolf said "Why don't I take another stab at these stories?"

"We left the Chinese City on horses, with horse pulled wagons. We took an obvious well used road, with our wagon wheels in old ruts. We passed through a large number of small villages. We had expected to have to pay for food, drink and lodging with the gifts of valuable coins the Chinese village elder had given us. However, he had sent riders ahead with provisions for us. This elder was a very wise person who ensured that when we were fed, our hosts in the villages would be fed as well. After a couple of weeks, we passed beyong a village and did not see another for several hours. That is when a group of riders overtook us and said they would guide us to the monestary."

"How many times have we hiked or ridden across grasslands, across streams and filed through woodlands. Well, this was just more of the same. Our daily routine was b asically starting fires, boiling watger for tea, boiling potw, pans, plates, silverwear, etc. before uysing it with our meals. There were a few days when we caught fish and enjoyed that, when we killed critters in tghe woods and smoked the meat, ated it well coked and had vaarious di3ed vegetables mixed with meqt in stew and other 'marching through tghe woods' food activities. We had a good time; our Chinese guides seemed to have a good time."

"What else did you do", asked Eldest Daughter?

"Our Chief Scrib e wentg back to being the Chief Scribe and he recorded the minutia of our trip and stories our Chinese guides told. All of this was later gifted to a great library." Lessor Egrot fell silent and they waited for Veiled Wolf to continue.

"Five weeks and two days after leaving the coastal city, we realized we were riding alongsidce a rather oddly dressed person. Later, we discussed this perrson and decided we had not overtaken him; he was simply and suddenly present along the path. He didn't wseems aware of us even thro0gh he was walking about as fast as we were riding our horses. I could tell he knew we were there but was trying hard to keep us fvrom knowing this."

"Greetings," I yelled. "There was no response. I then greetedf hin in Denaviujnian in the words Motherr Nanny taught be centuries before. He was startled and probably shocked by the clicks in my words. The leadrer of our guides addressed him in three different dialects with no apparent response. Finally, one of the guides said 'he is carrying a quarterstaff over his should with large bags on either end. WHy don't we take his bags and see what is in them?"

"That got his attention! This person stopped turned to face us and said in very good coastal Chinese 'do not touch my belongings'"

"I won't, I told him, we just wanted to greet you."

"The man, whom we later learned was something called a 'Monk'; simply said 'I an a student of the Master. Who are you?"

"Some of us are from the coastal town and are taking gthese People on a trip into the intrior lands. Where aer youi going?"

"Ah, I too am going into the interior lands," the Monk replied. "Which part of the interior lands are you intending to visit?"

"We are taking our new friends to the Monesary. I believe it is only a few hours ahead of us along this path?"

"Yes, it quite possibly is,": the Monk agreed.

"Would you care to ride with us," Veiled Wolf offered. "It might be more comfortable than walking."

"I will go ahead and warn the Monestory of your impending arrival."

"WIth that, this Monk smoothly ran off. He had the apparent speed of a sprint but the flow of someone just casually strolling, but strolling very fast."

"One of the coatasl guides gallooped ahead. There were several small hills in front of us and a rather large hill we had dreaded having to cross. We were climbing this last and biggest hill when the rider came back across the big hill. He had the 'Monk' behnd him. They stopped, unhorsed, and the guide said 'they wish to speak with you, Big Wolf and my Master."

"He never could get the word 'Veiled' correctly and called me ' Big Wolf' instead.

"He could always pronounce 'Veiled' correctly," Vicious Virga replied. "He just enjoyed pestering you."

"Now you tell me!" This lead to generral laughter 10:59 AM 11/30/2016.

"We went over the top of the big hill and saw this village below us. There was a walled little village with at least one large buidling. Outside the walled building were a small number of huts, a couple of wells and gardens. In the distance, we could see crop land. There was the sounds of horns blowing and gates opened and a procession marched out. We headed down the hill to greet these people."

"The leader of our guides told me 'Big Wolf, the Temple Master woule like to meet you and offer you hospitality. Will you accept his hospitality?"

"Yes."

"We got down from our horses and formed up in a large group, with husbands standing by wives. My wife, stood by me. What must have been the Temple Master stood with another Monk, watching us impassively. We were lead up to these two. Our guide made introductions:"

"Master Po, I wish to make introductions. Know this is Veiled Wolf and his wife . They are very old and members of an ancient people. Immediately behind them is their Grandson, Lessor Egrot and his wife . Behind them is the second cousin of Veiled Wolf, Vicious Virga and his wife ."

"Honoured guests, be acquanted with Master Po, the Master of This Temple. In the distant future, he will be said to be the greatest Master of Kung Fu, the White Crain fashion."

"Forgive me for questioning this but, how do you know future events?"

"Sometimes, one just knows them," Master Po replied. "How would you be nearly immortal and know the will of God? Then, knowing the Will of God, sometimes go out our your way to act contrary to this will?"

"In some matters, we are obedient, in other matters, it amuses us to be contrary. We say it is the Will of God that we act so." In the distance, a manefestation of God rolled his eyes...

"What might we do for you?"

Veiled Wolf thought for a moment and replied: "We would like to learn wisdom from you and to write it down. We're told you have a form of fighting that we are interested in learning. Perhaps, we could live with, work your fields, study your wisdom and learn these fighting methods?"

"Do you truly need to learn such things, Veiled Wolf?"

"The Wisdom would be a wonderful thing to learn."

"The fightingb skills would be a wonderful thing for my husband to learn," answered.

"My fighting skills are not that inferior," Veiled Wolf replied in a huff.

"He has remained alive a number of times over the centuries because his family has carefully protected him." Veiled Wolf rolled his eyes; his wife laughed, Master Po laughed in his gentle fashion and after a pause, everyone else laughed. It was not one of Veiled Wolf's greater moments!

"The Monks, aided by villagers from outside the Monk's village, set up tentgs using some kind of water proofed fabric they said 'we have alwayhs used'. Them, we simply moved our possessions, such as they were, into these tents. We wsere taqken into the big building, which turned out to be a temple. The main floor of the Temple was where the Monks learned their arts and practiced them."

There was a brief pause.

"Master Po told us that Master Kane would be teaching us. Master Po gestered and a tall muscular man strolled over."

"Master Kane, please move 30 paces from Veiled Wolf . Veiled Wolf, I would like you and your wife to stand several paces apart and walk to Master Kane."

They stood in this fashion and walked to Master Kane.

"Master Veiled Wolf," Master Kane spoke in a pleasant voice, "bring ask your family to walk to us in the same fashion, husband to the left of his wife and introduce them to us."

Lessor Egrot and his wife walked several feet apart to Master Kane and were introduced.

When all were standing behind Master Kansas, Veiled Wolf and his wife, Master Po asked: "Master Kane, why did you ask this people to walk towards you?"

"I wanted to see how well these new students walk. Master Veiled Wolf walks poorly and his wife walks well. Several of the men and women in this group also walk poorly, but, none as poorly as Master Veiled Wolf."

"Can anything be done about this?"

"Yes."

"We will address this tomorrow. Now, kindly accept that you will have to live in those tents until we can build houses with brick walls, running water and toilet waste collection. I have already asked the Coastal Warlord to help us with materials to build you houses and supply food, Let us talk about your futures..."

"The next morning, the entire group was given robes and some kind of footware to wear into the Temple. There, Master Kane and Master Po were awaiting them. They looked amused and because of that, it was natural for a number of The People to suddenly feel amused. This didn't last..."

"Master Kane and I realize that while you are very elderly, you simply do no walk correctly. We will teach you to walk in the proper manjner expected of a warrior."

Lessor Egrot took up the narriative: "Veiled Wolf politely stated that 'while some of us might need training in walking for your combat skills, I'm sure only a very few will need this."

"You are correct, Master Veiled Wolf, in that there are only a few in your family who need specialized training. Unfortunately, as you lead in so many ways, your also lead in the need for specialized training."

"I have never seen Veiled Wolf look 0o9so shocked!"

ocheta Elina (Dakota) Forrest

Beautiful forrest shinning green

I forget the pain in my spleen

Animal and birds and fish enjoy

the very good life, oh boy!

We don't hear the sound of screams

save in the time of our dreams

of animals suffering in the trees dark

from blood and pain bled on their bark.

It is a world hiden deep

a place for old terrors to sleep

a world travelors sight

and stay on the river day and night

=======================================================================================================================

Veiled Wolf did something strange. He drilled a hole into the north wall of each room and placed a dry stick in the hole. Then, he burned the stick and watched as it smoltered it's entire length and finally died. The next century, carbon-14 dating would give the age of the oldest rooms as having been made around 6000BC. By this time, they were building windows and attempting to build small tunnels for air.

After burying tablets in tunnels under the rooms dug into the rock, they carefully filled in the ditch leading to the tunnels. THen, they planted seeds on the soil surrounding the tunnel. This was to make sure outsiders would not realize the tunnel was there. For some reason, God requjired them to create a huge, flat, copper arrow and bury it half a man's height before the surface of the dirt over the tunnel. It would rest there for a very long time and be essential to the future finding of the hidden tablets.

Decide to leave Most people leave as group goes to their Central Asia Home

When The People had decided to dig their pit outside where they would dig tunnels, they had began to plant the new crops in the land near the pit. They still had very few visitors and no one ever went near the pit. However, the crops as they grew and after harvest were very popular.

Scouts see large force moving towards them The People built tavrois, put their personal possessions on them and rode off. They had to leave many of their auroch and seeds behind

New people settle into the city and eventually into the tunnels above ground

The People went to their Central Asia Home They spent years getting reacquanted with their extended family The hairy ones (Big Feet) told them they had been told to go to a new land and live there

The entire group of Big Feet (about 3,000) moved with Veiled Wolf and his generation and their kids and grandkids (300). It took years to work their way to a vast body of water. There were fishing people living there. they agreed to transport the people to what would later be called Kamchatika Worked their way along the coast to a place where God appeared and said "I will prepare a way for you to cross the waters."

They go to the eastern portion of Siberia. As they watch the ocean moved away from the sea bottom and the sunlight dried the silt into mud. Vast pools with fish remained. The People loved to catch and eat giagantic sharks. they ate a lot of raw fish before they arrived in waht would be called Alaska.

Built rafts pulled by canoes and went to the Mouth of the Columai. They landed on the south side of the Columbia and wored their way east to where the Columbia turned north. They wsent overland to Yellowstone. There The People were brfriended by the locals. The People spent ten years living there when Veiled Wolf, Lesser Egrot and altogether 60 of their human type decided they wanted to go home.

go to their city in Turkey new owners there have spread out people living in the mountain caves VW realizes he can't tell the new peole that God ordered burnt reeds in the wall; V.W. Drew a picture in charcoal on walls in different rooms. over milleniium, these drawings would be replaced but eventually miinute traces would be found and dated

People realize "You Can't Go Home" and they quitely accept gifts from the new people (who recognized The People

They go visit folks in the fishing village (make sure section of visitors going to the coast is in this story)

They move east and find a channel leading to a nice bay with thin beachs. There are huge bolders on both sides of the challel. They build houses and cannoes and start fishing and hunting/gathering in the land around the lagoon. They liked to go to high points and watch the big body of water and watch the variety of boats.

Earthquake

Knocks down bolders into the channel

Tseunomia - washes over top of boulders and is swallowed by bay and into valley +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What the mountains were?

What the people were digging?

What was it like?

Veiled Wolf did something strange. He drilled a hole into the north wall of each room and placed a dry stick in the hole. Then, he burned the stick and watched as it smoltered it's entire length and finally died. The next century, carbon-14 dating would give the age of the oldest rooms as having been made around 6000BC.

After burying tablets in tunnels under the rooms dug into the rock, they carefully filled in the ditch leading to the tunnels. THen, they planted seeds on the soil surrounding the tunnel. This was to make sure outsiders would not realize the tunnel was there. For some reason, God requjired them to create a huge, flat, copper arrow and bury it half a man's height before the surface of the dirt over the tunnel. It would rest there for a very long time and be essential to the future finding of the hidden tablets. {br}{p}{span style="color: white;"}-----{span style="color:black;"}

-----

Fathers arranged marriages

Veiled Wolf was told he would court three girls and marry the third: Dawn Breeze

Second girl told him she was ordered to marry Thin Wolf, Veiled Wolf's younger brother

This was no surprise as the marriages had been arranged shortly before their puberity and they were married at age 15

Veiled Wolf and his wife Dawn Breeze had five daughters; Dawn Breeze decided she would arrange the marriages

Their second daughter's second child, a son, was named Lesser Egrot (son of Greater Egrot)

"Why did you leave your precious city?"

"Our population was growing and we were running out of room in the city. We were moving to New City in the mountains. People remainded behind because it was their home.

What the mountains were?

What the people were digging?

What was it like?

Veiled Wolf did something strange. He drilled a hole into the north wall of each room and placed a dry stick in the hole. T

hen, he burned the stick and watched as it smoltered it's entire length and finally died. The next century, carbon-14 dating would give the age of the oldest rooms as having been made around 6000BC.

After burying tablets in tunnels under the rooms dug into the rock, they carefully filled in the ditch leading to the tunnels. THen, they planted seeds on the soil surrounding the tunnel. This was to make sure outsiders would not realize the tunnel was there. For some reason, God requjired them to create a huge, flat, copper arrow and bury it half a man's height before the surface of the dirt over the tunnel. It would rest there for a very long time and be essential to the future finding of the hidden tablets.

ice

2 oz rye whiskey

3/4 oz camparia

3/4 vermoujth

Veiled Wolf

Lesser Egrot

mention the horses

"If it ain't repeatable, it ain't science." Jamie Hyneman