Free Bonesetter 2 -Winter- by Laurence E Dahners Page A

true.
    Even if it were true, he’d always had the impression people were talking about a small improvement. Whatever had happened with him had made an enormous difference. He could tell that, not only was he throwing rocks where he intended, he was also throwing them much harder than he had before.
    Pell wondered if he might actually be able to hunt without using a snare. He looked around, hoping to see a rabbit or a squirrel.
    There! A grouse.
    Pell hefted the last stone he had in his hand, lifted his left foot and cast it forward, following through with the stone. He finished with his hand pointing right at the grouse like he’d been taught.
    To Pell’s stunned amazement, the grouse had barely lifted its wings to beat into the air when the stone hit. The bird exploded in a burst of feathers! He walked slowly over and picked up his prey, noticing that it felt like a bag of broken bones.
    I guess that’s one advantage of snares, he thought , they don’t do so much damage.
    He dropped the bird into his basket and continued up the ravine to find his mother.
     
    Pell found Donte where Falin had said she’d be. She greeted him enthusiastically, then said, “Look at this, Pell! These grapevines are visible from our escape site down the hill. I can’t believe I didn’t see them when we were bringing food out here to store it. The vines have been picked over by the birds and the remaining grapes were damaged by the cold when it snowed.” She glanced at Pell, “Did it snow at the Aldans’ cave?”
    Pell nodded.
    “Anyway,” she continued, “we could have gotten quite a few good grapes if I’d seen them back then. Now we’re left with these damaged ones, but I noticed that a lot of the ones the birds pecked at have kind of dried up. I tasted some of them and they reminded me of dried apple slices!” She shrugged, “So, I decided to harvest as many as I could and cut them up and dry them.” She frowned, “Though we’ll need to pick the seeds out of them before we dry them. I think it’d probably be hard to remove the seeds once they’re really dry.”
    Pell pitched in and helped her pick grapes until they’d filled his basket too. He tasted a few of the ones that the birds had pecked open so that the remainder had dried on the vine. They were different from Donte’s dried apple slices, but he still liked them. Grapes were better, but he had no doubt that he’d love these in the middle of winter.
    As they picked, and on the walk back, Donte plied him with questions about her old friends in the Aldans. She was glad that Pont was gone and not surprised that Fellax had gone with him. Fellax had always had the attitude that, because she was the headman’s first wife, she should be able to boss the other women around.
    The women apparently hadn’t felt the same way.
    Especially because Fellax didn’t think she should have to work as hard as the other women either. “I think the rest of the Aldans will be better off without her. Do you think they’ll be able to survive the winter with only three hunters?”
    Pell shrugged, “It depends on whether trapping works well in the winter or not. None of them have much fat on them, so if they aren’t successful at hunting, some of them will probably starve.” He tilted his head, considering, “Though the women worked hard at gathering roots and grains this past summer and they have a lot, so that should help. Especially if using shallow baskets and turning the grain and roots to keep them dry keeps the vegetables from spoiling.”
    Donte shook her head, “You can’t stay strong eating only grains and tubers.” She peered up at her son out of the corner of her eye, “Will you let them have some spirit meat?”
    “Tando said it was okay to teach them how to make spirit meat. He even cut them a tree that holds the meat strips up by the smoke hole in the new wall we built for their cave. We had good luck trapping while we were there, small animals like we get here,