by E C Hunter
“You’ve been in there for ages, can I get you anything?”
“Er, no, I’m fine, thanks” Slightly irritated.
“Sure?” Milly sounded concerned.
“Well, er, you don’t happen to have any Imodium do you?.” Milly spluttered with laughter,
“Oh poor you, no I don’t” she giggled “How about some water?””
“Yes, yes please”.
“Where do you want it?” Milly called from the outside of Archie’s bushes.
“Just chuck it into the bushes will you.”
“Okay, coming in now”
“Oh, oh, no. Dammit, the bottle’s fallen in the….oh no”. This was follow by a long meaningful sigh. By this time Milly was having to lean against a tree to keep from falling over with laughter. Archie moved position slightly, mainly to find a clean patch of ground and was once again gripped by the pain. This time there was little left to come out and as he straightened up he noticed, in the bank of a small pool ahead of him a band of white soil. He stumbled over to it, something in the back of his mind lurking from a geography lesson. He ran his finger along it, it was smooth and soft to the touch. A fine white clay. Kaolin? Probably. Hurriedly he scraped away the outer layer to expose fresh white, uncontaminated clay underneath. Without another thought he scooped up a big handful, licked it, decided it wasn’t very pleasant and then took a tentative mouthful.
It didn’t taste of much but was like trying to eat a handful of Rennies - without the nice pepperminty taste. The clay turned to a paste in his mouth and went round and round, he just couldn’t swallow. Eventually it turned turned to a slurry and Archie was able to gag it down. He repeated the process until he was unable to take any more, asked Milly for the wet wipe from the top of his pack, cleaned up and settled on a log. Milly was still giggling as she passed in the wet wipes.
“Will you quit the giggling, PLEASE. It’s not funny, I’m squittering my sphincter away and you’re laughing!” It took a long time for the clay to work and for Milly to stop laughing.
Archie stumbled from the undergrowth, his hands, mouth and chin covered in white clay. Milly took one look at him and fell to the floor hugging herself tightly and rocking with silent mirth.
“I really need some water, I’m afraid the other bottle was, well, soiled…” he trailed off, spitting a stray lump of clay from the corner of his mouth. Milly pulled another bottle of water from her bag.
“Guaranteed free from bugs, parasites and other nasties. Don’t drink from the stream again, don’t you know anything.” Archie knew; he just hadn’t put his knowledge into practise. He’d lost them most of a day and felt utterly wretched.
A few minutes later and they had packed up their respective mounts and were preparing to go when without any kind of warning a large branch sailed past Archie’s ear and hit his quad accompanied by a nasty cracking sound. There followed immediately the sharp stink of petrol. Archie looked at the quad with dismay. The hard, dry branch was lodged in the quad’’s plastic fuel tank, the precious fuel gushing from around it. Without conscious thought Archie tried to remove the stick and cover the hole but it was useless, the last of the fuel came out with the stick.
“Dammit” yelled Archie “where the hell did that come from?” but as he said the words he knew. Another, altogether less pleasant smell was beginning to overlay the petrol. He knew it immediately. It was the reek of a Sasquatch, subtly different to Stinky’s smell, stronger, more masculine in a way. Milly stared at him, open mouthed, she hadn’t caught the smell yet. As she started to speak, she too got it.
“Sasquatch” She said the word flat, without expression but its’ meaning was clear ‘we’re in trouble’.
“Reckon this is daddy looking for his baby?” Asked Archie.
“What else” said Milly flippantly but for the first time Archie heard a note of uncertainty in her voice. They were interrupted by a sharp whinny from Syrup. The pair looked over towards the pony, just visible through the undergrowth. Her ears were laid flat to her head and her glossy coat was starting to slick with sweat. She bared her teeth murderously and began to tug at the halter which secured her to a stout maple. Milly charged across to her and just as her hand reached out to the grab the halter the rope broke, startling the horse even further. Syrup went from standstill to flat out gallop in three paces.
Without a word Milly untied what was left of the halter from the tree and trudged back to Archie. He could see she was fighting it but her eyes looked red, tears threatening to brim over. She sniffed sharply and shook her head.
“Looks like we’re walking” she said brightly and shouldered her saddlebags. Once again Archie was amazed by her resilience and fortitude. He felt like his world was coming to the end and she was straight down to business.
“What about Syrup? I guess she’ll just head home won’t she?”
“Hell, I hadn’t thought of that. When she turns up without me all hell’s gonna break loose. Dad will set all his men looking for me, he’’ll think I’m lying injured in the bush. He doesn’t actually know I’ve left home””.
“So that’s it then, back to being the hunted, a cruddy situation just got that bit cruddier. Spiffing.” Their lack of transport had been uppermost in their minds in the few seconds since the horse had bolted but now, the reason behind it reasserted itself. A dreadful scream pierced the bush, turning their knees to jelly and their bowels to liquid – again in Archie’s case.
Chapter 20
“It’s there, right there” whispered Milly” I can see a bit of fur, look” She pointed through a stunted white spruce.
“Got it” Archie stared at the patch of shaggy brown hair for a few moments, trying to work out what he was looking at. “Milly” he whispered “look at the patch and move up about a metre” A couple of seconds later there was a suppressed squeak from Milly. A pair of red-rimmed, slightly rheumy eyes were staring at them. The eyes were unblinking and angry looking. A rage burned deep within them, there was no doubt about the owners intentions. Archie broke into a cold sweat, fear rooting him to the spot. He glanced at Milly. She looked like he felt, pale and scared witless by this primal, ungovernable force of nature.
“We’ve got to run” Milly whispered. Archie nodded and glanced round for the best direction. There, in the transport box of the quad was his rucksack, a black rod poking from the top. The rifle. Archie grabbed Milly’s hand. “Run”. He charged across the clearing dragging Milly unceremoniously by the hand pausing only to catch hold of the top loop of the rucksack and drag it with him.
“Wait”, yelled Milly “My bags.” She lunged from his grasp towards the saddle bags. Before she could even lay a hand on them a huge hairy body had crashed through the undergrowth. This one was clearly an adult. Massive, muscular and very obviously female. It grunted and released a horrifying odour. Milly turned, nauseated, back towards Archie only to find her way blocked by a third animal. This one was smaller than the other two. Again it was female. It too released the terrible odour. The male appeared from behind the spruce. He was enormous with lank grizzled hair and massively defined musculature. He stared at her with wide set brown eyes, very like a chimps, Milly thought fleetingly, but with some extra spark in there. She was surrounded on three sides, Archie was on the fourth looking frightened and uncertain.
“Walk slowly towards me” Archie suggested, not really believing they would let her. Instead Milly cleared her throat slightly and tried her best to emulate the noise Stinky had articulated when they had tried to find out his name. The effect on the trio was electrifying. They stood stock still, uncertain and glancing around expectantly. The male sniffed deeply at the air but found nothing, his broad forehead creased in puzzlement. Milly tried it again. This time the female gave a short grunt.
“Archie” she hissed “This is Stinky’s family!”
“Well perhaps you could explain to them that it wasn’t us who took him” said Archie somewhat tetchily. “Are you sure?” He added, keeping his voice to
a loud whisper.
“They have to be and they’ve worked out that something has happened to him. They can obviously smell him on us and have put two and two together, they think we must have done something to him”.
“Perhaps, but you’re, we’re, still in danger here. You’ve confused them but we have to get away from them – now!”
“Just how do you propose we do that eh?” Milly’s voice was rising, becoming oblivious to the danger they were in.
The male Sasquatch raised an eyebrow and looked from Milly to Archie and back.
“Okay, just keep it down will you, we don’t want to upset them. We’ll either have to scare them off or else keep them occupied while we run away”.
“Oh, and how long do you think it would take them to find us? Minutes. They can move faster than we can, for longer. Running is futile, don’t you see? We’ve got to make peace with them.”
“How on earth do you propose to do that?” Archie’s voice was rising again. The older female stared at him in bemused silence. “Are you going to explain to them that your dad’s henchmen came along and kidnapped their son?” Archie’s tone was becoming increasingly sarcastic. Mother Sasquatch looked to Milly.
“Look, let’s calmly and quietly try to communicate, it worked with Stinky, why not with these guys?”
“It’s a much more abstract concept this time, no way will they understand.”
“We don’t have to explain the whole thing to them, just make friends.” Milly insisted.
The Sasquatch family stood there, fascinated by the exchange of views between the pair of oddly hairless creatures, their anger dissipating. They could clearly smell on Milly and Archie that their son had released his identification odour and also had emitted contentment tags. The Sasquatches were confused but pacified, recognising that these creatures were not the ones who had caused their son to released his danger tags.
“Milly” whispered Archie, “try the sitting down thing again.”
“It’s out of context, they’re not going to do it.” Milly thought for a moment. “Food, there’s apples in my bag.” She gently undid the buckle of one of her saddle bags and pulled out three apples. She sat down cross legged on the ground and rolled an apple to each of the family. The younger female was the first to react. She knelt and without picking up the apple bent over and sniffed it. It suddenly occurred to Archie that in the high strangeness of it all he had done any recording. With great care he undid his pack and slowly pulled out the Nikon. This time he didn’t fumble the lens cap. He was far enough away from the group for the shutter noise not to disturb them and managed to capture a dozen or so shots of the family as they noisily munched their apples. He even managed to get Milly into some shots for perspective.
Having been occupied taking photographs Archie had not been taking notice of the results of Milly’s Sasquatch wrangling efforts. He was amazed to see her making the ‘sit down’ gesture to them and sure enough, one by one they sat, the big male hesitantly and last. She turned and beckoned Archie over. He walked slowly over to the bizarre group.
“Archie, sit down with us.” She made the sit down gesture, Archie wasn’t sure for whose benefit but he sat nevertheless. Funny how Milly seemed to have a way of bending people (and Sasquatches) to her will, Archie mused. OK, he thought after he had sat down. What now? What on earth are two kids going to do with three Sasquatches? Milly however had already started. She had started doing the name thing again. Archie inwardly groaned, it felt like some dreadful role playing exercise. He hated stuff like that; drama was not his favourite subject.
Ten minutes later Milly was still on the name thing. The younger female had clearly got it, judging by the smell. The older female was looking bemused. The male was poking a long, brown finger into a nostril, rooting around and eating the results of his excavations. The detached expression on his face said it all. Archie glanced at him and grinned. Something moved in the animals face. It clearly said ‘you and me mate, you and me’.
Their anger had dissipated as they watched. They could clearly smell on Milly and Archie that their son had released his identification odour and also had emitted contentment smells. The Sasquatches were confused but pacified, recognising that these creatures were not the ones who had caused their son to release his danger tags.They would not harm these strange looking creatures with their odd-coloured fur, weird calls and weak limbs. The others of the same kind though, they knew what they were.
Chapter 21
Milly and Archie walked on the track, dust kicking up around their feet. The Sasquatch family kept to the brush on either side. Moving silently they were at least as fast as the two humans they accompanied, even with the disadvantage of having to move through the vegetation.
The temperature climbed, the dust rose from their feet and it wasn’t long before they started to flag. Archie hadn’t realised just how hot a Canadian summer could be, his fluid intake was low and his calorie intake was probably down by two thirds. He was beginning to feel a little vague, especially after his bout of digestive horror. Milly couldn’t be much better. Archie glanced across at her but she looked better than he felt. As he looked away the backs of their hands brushed together. It was the merest of touches but Archie felt it burn indelibly into his skin. For long moments afterwards he could feel its lingering sensation. The feeling brought a tightness into his stomach and briefly he wondered if he was going to have another gastric emergency.
Unknown to Archie Milly was wrestling with the same sensation. The burning spot of joy on her hand. She felt her mouth go dry and her head swim. She shook it slightly to clear it. Archie saw the movement from the corner of his eye and felt his heart sink. Shaking her head, that had to be a clear sign that she thought his touch abhorrent at best. Glumly he fixed his eyes on the next ridge and trudged on.
Another half an hour saw Archie’s thirst growing.
“Hold up Milly, I need to get my water bottle out.” Archie unslung his pack and began searching for the bottle. When he had searched every pocket twice he came to a dreadful conclusion. He had left his bottle back at the scene of the gastric incident. Milly looked at him with a mixture of pity and exasperation.
“You can have some of mine.” She said and began searching her bags for her own bottle. The searching became more frantic and Milly began to look a red in the face.
“You’ve lost yours too haven’t you?” Archie didn’t mean it to sound nasty but it came out that way.
“Well, if it hadn’t been for your stupidity drinking out of the stream I wouldn’t have needed to give it to you and it wouldn’t have got left behind.” She snapped and in a moment of childish petulance she stuck a little pink tongue out at him. Archie felt himself redden and immediately contrite.
“Sorry, I didn’t…look we’ll find a burn and boil some water up.”
“A burn? What’s a burn?”
“Sorry, a stream – a creek I guess.” Milly nodded. They both looked around. Nothing obvious. All they could do was walk some more. The only stream they came across was dry, clearly just melt water in the spring. There only option seemed to be the boggy places in the dips in the forest floor.
“Come, let’s dig, over here” Archie led Milly to a likely looking boggy bit. “You collect lots of rushes and moss, I’ll do the digging” Here was something well inside Archie’s experience and he naturally took control. The soft ground allowed Archie to dog with his hands easily until he had created a basin about 40cm across and 20 deep.
“Pass me the moss first.” Milly handed over the bundle of moss and Archie lined the hole with it. “Now the rushes” He used the rushes to hold the moss in place.
“What now?” asked Milly.
“We wait, look.” Archie pointed into the hole. Already water was oozing through the rushes. “We need to make a fire” said Archie pulling an aluminium mess tin from his pack. “boil the water.
“Like your thinking…don’t want you disappearing through your own fundament again” smile
d Milly. Archie look at her, surprised to see the smile and smiled back. There was something unfathomable in her eyes as she looked at him, a strand of her dark hair falling across her eye as she did. Brushing it away broke the moment and Milly let out a carefree laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Archie asked her.
“Oh nothing, just stuck out here with a family of undiscovered animals and a this weird English guy.”
“Erm, Scottish if you please.”
“OK Scottish, if it makes any difference.”
“Oooh yes, it makes a big difference, my ancestors fought the English for every inch of ground. One of them, Mungo I think it was died for Queen Mary at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547.”
“Pinkie what?”
“It’s a place, never mind, we need some tinder and kindlers, you get birch bark – just peel it off and I’ll get the sticks. By the time they had a small fire going there was a fair amount of water in the well.
“Don’t suppose you got a clean sock have you? I’d like to emphasise the word clean.” Archie grinned at her.
“My socks are never dirty Mr Hunter as I am always clean and fragrant, however, I do poses a clean and unused pair, which you may borrow.”
“Thank you Miss Murphy, I only need one. Ooo, purple, my school colours. Now, I don’t suppose you’ve got some form of receptacle in which we can hold water?” Milly rooted in her saddle bags and pulled out an empty Pepsi can. “Perfect, thank you.” Archie filled the can from the muddy pool now collected in the well. “Right, you hold the sock over the mess tin”. Milly held up the sock. “Open end upwards please Miss Murphy and stop being silly please.” Archie said in the tones of a stern school master.
“Yes, sir, sorry sir.” Milly held the sock over the mess tin and Archie poured the brown water into it. Slightly less brown water dripped from the toe into the mess tin. “Whoopee, we’ve made dirty water!”
