Rauko

[JEB Davis]

"A rest from all your traveling is not a bad thing, why don't you stay for the few days until the meat is smoked," says the young maiden Veera. Rauko tells her thank you and she says it's okay with her father and the village elder.

He spends some time trading stories with the villagers and Veera, while he practices making arrow shafts and heads. Niko the woodsman offers an elk fur for barter, but Rauko politely declines.

Outside it's raining and snowing, but inside the common building by the fireplace, it's comfortable and warm. By the end of the day after many attempts, he finally makes some worth keeping, and has 4 arrowheads and 2 shafts that are what most would call decent quality.

The next two days are spent much the same way, but on the second he walks back to the shore and sets five loop snares among the lingonberries. He hopes to be leaving the next day and has been eating sparingly, not wanting to run out of the few dried elk cuts he still has.

Then Rauko makes his first arrow that's worth keeping!

[JEB Davis]

Finally the smoked meat is ready! After sharing 1 of each 5 pieces with them, he bids the villagers goodbye and whistles to Badgerbane. Off they go...

Dropping his heavy gear at the shore, he retrieves the five snares in the berry bushes. Then they cast off and head north along shore. The sea is clear of ice, the weather clear and above freezing.

Twice now, he has stopped to rest, eat, and give Badgerbane something to eat. The second stop brings an arctic fox.



Badgerbane notices the fox and starts running after it, barking. Rauko calls her back and she obeys, "that's a good girl, there will be other foxes to chase, but we need to get back on the water."

[JEB Davis]

The river comes into view now, and he summons up his strength for the upstream paddling to come. Not far up the river is a shelter, but it will be hard to see it with the increasing snowfall.



The shelter is found and he goes inside to get out of the wet snow, light a fire and dry off. Rauko gets sleepy watching the flames and drifts off to the world of dreams... waking in early evening, he doesn't remember any dreams if he had them, and the storyteller has temporarily run out of creativity.

Back on the river, paddling hard upstream, Rauko moves as quickly as he can because ice is forming along the shore and he doesn't want to resort to walking... there is still a long way to Kuikka territory.

[JEB Davis]

The temperature has now dropped and the river is freezing over! He has reached the first of the large lakes along the river and looking out, the view is disappointing indeed.

Now there is a decision to make: cross the river and walk, or wait and hope for a warm-up that will melt the ice.

[JEB Davis]

Getting to those rapids across the river looks like the best plan, then wait for a warm spell.

Crossing the river is a chore, and Rauko was smart to tie his axe onto his wrist with a cord because more than once he lost his grip while chopping the ice.

He puts up a shelter while Badgerbane frolics... she has grown to like being in the canoe.



Now it's time to put out his loop snares, do a little fishing, and then get some rest.

[JEB Davis]

After fishing the entire morning, he has caught 5 perches, sacrifice one to the river spirits, and made some good fish soup with motherpipe flowers added.

It feels just a little below freezing, and he sits in the shelter making arrows... all 5 turn out less than desirable. It's time to feed the dog, finish off the soup, and sleep.

The 2nd day there is snow, and he continues to make arrows to pass time hoping for the ice to melt, but the weather doesn't cooperate. By afternoon he's only made 2 decent and 5 rough arrows, but has run out of fibres to make any more.

The 3rd morning Rauko fishes again, catching 11 perch by midday! Looks like more fish soup coming up.

[JEB Davis]

Today the temperature is hovering around freezing and the ice is not melting. Rauko gives one of the 11 perch back to the lake spirits, feeds one to Badgerbane, then boils some bearpaw mushrooms to eat, knowing they are poison when raw. He then makes perch soup and roasts the 5 remaining fish.

He's set for food now for a couple of days, so he decides to do a bit of exploring. Since he's not planning to hunt, it's a good time to wear the mail hauberk and get used to how it feels. After walking a while, one thing becomes clear... he needs a belt to hold some of it's weight at the hips and take the burden off his shoulders.

Having walked around to the far side of the lake and back by evening, he's ready to turn in for the night.

For the first time in a while, his sleep is disturbed by that old dream of the bear killing his father. He jumps up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat to find not a bear, but his dog looming over him in the darkness.



Grateful, he falls back to sleep.

[JEB Davis]

In the morning he continues exploring to the north and north-east, returning in late afternoon after finding nothing of note other than an elk in the distance. He's relieved to take off the heavy mail, and works on some more arrow shafts. It's a little warmer than yesterday and as he turns in for the night he's hopeful for the ice to melt soon.

Early morning brings a wet snowfall. Rauko needs fibers to bind feathers and arrowheads and has run out of the ones he made from tendons. Remembering his father taught him to make fibers from rowan, willow, or alder bark, he searches to find those trees, but has no luck. Afternoon comes, and from a hill he sees a herd of deer.

"Come, Badgerbane, let's hunt."



But the deer have left the area, and searching until the sun gets low he finds them not. Following the river they return to camp for the night, exhausted, and unsuccessful in everything that day.

[JEB Davis]

Rauko's sleep was dreamless and waking refreshed, he boils a pot full of bearpaw mushrooms. There have been no birds or other animals caught in his 5 snares since he began staying here, but the fishing has been very good.

The ice is still not melting and the temperature hovers around the freezing point. It's time to go back and look for that herd of reindeer so he takes minimal hunting gear and sets out east along the river.

Searching and watching from several hilltops in and surrounding the place where he saw them yesterday results in no sightings. By late afternoon he turns back, and nearby they corner a squirrel against a sheer rock wall. Rauko tries some of the arrows he has made himself and can not hit the small moving target. Lazily, he whistles to Badgerbane...



It's nearly dark after picking a large lingonberry patch and arriving back at his shelter. Boiled mushrooms for his late meal and then another dreamless sleep.

[JEB Davis]

In the morning he checks all the traps and baits them with lingonberries, finds some browncoat mushrooms, then gets branches for a fire. The squirrel's skin is too damaged to be useful, so Rauko gives the fat to the dog and sacrifices the meat.

Launching his canoe backwards as he was taught for good fishing luck, he catches a salmon... this will be tasty! Lighting a fire, he roasts the salmon with some sweet-tasting leaves, but it doesn't turn out as tasty as hoped for.

While he eats, Rauko wonders if there even will be a warm-up that will melt the ice. He makes some arrowheads and observes the hare that has been sniffing around near his loop snares today. Sending Badgerbane after it results in her returning "empty-pawed" a few minutes after chasing it away.

[JEB Davis]

Badgerbane is behaving strangely as if she is afraid also and she won't eat when offered food. Rauko becomes very sleepy and can not keep his eyes open any longer.



Rauko falls into a nightmarish sleep in which all the bad dreams he has had since his father was killed come back and assail him. He tosses and turns and cries out, waking and being pulled back into the dreams.

[JEB Davis]

Finally, the dreams pass and he sleeps until he wakes in the middle of the day to Badgerbane's barking.

The fear of what is in the forest is fading a little, but Rauko must leave now and can not face another night in this place.

Hastily gathering his belongings after laying aside a cut of smoked meat to the spirits, he leaves his canoe & paddle where they lay and quickly gathers his snare traps and heads north around the still ice-covered lake.

[JEB Davis]

Walking north around the lake, his mood lifts the further he travels away from that awful place in the spruces.

At the north end, an elk is spotted and the chase begins with Badgerbane running it out of sight. Rauko is carrying only a bow and club but has no chance of keeping up, so starts following the tracks. Soon the dog's barking starts and he arrives to dispatch the staggering, exhausted elk with his club.

It's evening by the time he has skinned and butchered most of it, also removing the backstrap. At the lake shore nearby he builds a shelter for the night, cleans the skin, and works on the backstrap to make fibres.

In the morning he needs to return to the carcass and collect the fat for tanning, he's too tired now.

[JEB Davis]

The night passes without dreams. With over 9 dozens of elk meat cuts and no known village nearby, he decides to dry most of it rather than let it go to waste. Even if he never returns to this shelter, maybe some hungry wanderer will find it.

Now he heads back to find the elk carcass and it's already late afternoon. It wasn't easy to find because he didn't pay enough attention to landmarks yesterday.

Back at the lake, Rauko tries boiling some elk meat in his pot... he has no vegetables, but it turns out pretty good. The rest of the meat is divided between roasting and raw for the dog. Then he works on tanning the hide.

Next morning he starts the long, laborious beating of the hide and is happy with the result.



The snow on the ground has melted, but the lake is still iced over. In the night, there is rain.

[JEB Davis]

Morning sees Rauko leaving the shelter to continue along the river north-east. Leaving most of his worst arrowheads & shafts in a pile, he and Badgerbane set out along the river.