built close to the outer fence of the village. There’s about twenty of them, most caught in the jungle and brought here, but also a handful that have been born in captivity.
“Yeah,” I agree. “A better life for them, in safety and with regular meals, and a better life for us if we don’t have to always risk our lives hunting for them. It’s an okay trade-off.”
“At least to us,” Heidi says, wiping her glasses on her dress. “Nobody knows how to ask the not-sheep.”
“We’ll be nice to them,” Tamara says. “In time, we might even try to milk them. Would that be useful for soap production, Dolly?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I know Cleopatra bathed in donkey milk, but I’m not sure the effect of that was confirmed in any peer-reviewed hieroglyphs. If it’s really fatty milk, I might be able to use it. But probably it’s better to save it for baking or baby food or whatever.”
“Oh my, you just made my mouth water,” Heidi says. “Not because of the donkey milk. But the baking. It was just like I could taste the brioche bread. Girls, we really have to find some grains that can be milled. The ones we have don’t really work.”
“I’ve told the guys to look out for that in the woods,” Tamara says. “Especially in clearings or meadows or whatever. I’m not sure they get the point. Do you think we should expand the enclosure a little, Heidi? They’ve grazed down almost half of it.”
“I’ve been thinking about it. Let’s wait until we’ve planted several kinds of grass and then see which one they prefer.”
I take a deep, happy breath, just enjoying the morning and feeling sated after breakfast. “Alright, farmer girls. I’ll get back to my soaps so you can talk shop in peace. See you.”
Heidi pushes her glasses up on her nose. “Remember that farmers get dirty! We should get extra soap allotments.”
I grin back. “I’ll keep it in mind. Get farming now.”
Jennifer is waiting for me in my open-air lab and gives me a sharp salute. “Soap trainee Jennifer reporting for duty, ma’am.”
“Cool! Except don’t call me that or I’ll do the same to you. Ma’am.”
“Alright. So where do we begin?”
I point. “So, that’s about a thousand pounds of ash, and those jars contain enough half-rancid dinosaur fat to drown a raptor in. We will turn all that into soap, and this is how we’ll do it…”
- - -
Jennifer is a quick study, and the whole process goes a lot smoother now that I know exactly how to do it and I have someone to work alongside. It’s much more enjoyable, and times flies.
I throw the occasional glance over the inner fence, and once or twice I imagine I spot some pink stripes. But I can’t be sure.
At lunchtime I can’t take it anymore. “Let’s take a break?”
Jennifer wipes a little bit of sweat off her brow, leaving a gray streak of wood ash. “Sounds good. I had no idea making soap would involve this much heavy lifting.”
“Oh, it’ll get worse than this, don’t worry,” I comfort her. “Okay, I’ll just go over to the army section real quick. Um. You may want to run a wet rag over your face…”
Butterflies are busy in my stomach as I duck under the fence and find myself in the army section. There’s a lot of small huts in neat rows, and a space in the middle for some kind of assemblies or whatever a caveman army needs. There’s a tall totem pole with carvings that I can’t identify. Some of the men are milling around, busy with whatever dragon slayers do in the daytime. It looks most of all like they’re doing the usual things, like carrying water and chopping firewood.
Now, where is that one with the pink stripes…?
18
- Brank’ox -
“More to the left. Aim for the center, keeping in mind it could move at any time.”
The young warriors thrust their swords at the large figure of a man, made from the skins of Bigs and filled with dry leaves packed hard.
Instructing the newcomers is part of my duties, and it’s extremely rewarding to see a promising warrior from an unfamiliar tribe go from an ordinary hunter to a skilled dragon slayer, ready for anything. Their confidence visibly improves.
“Remember to duck and sidestep. They can move very quickly.”
Today I’m taking more breaks than usual. I’ve found a spot in the camp from where I can get a little glimpse of Dolly’s work area.