Chapter 6
Of Cats and Dogs
Joan Tulip
The salt marshes were behind them now, and they were making good progress over the flat plain, heading West towards Homestead and their rendezvous with Martha’s troops. There were eight of them, and Jenny, one of the ‘volunteers’ joining the patrol group, turned and asked Sami the first mate, “Will we get there before dark Sam?”
Sami put on her best, I know everything face, and said confidently, “No problemo kid. Joannie’s taking us on a short cut through Burnt Wood, but I’ll look after you.” She’d been inland before, knew where they were heading, and wasn’t too happy to be going into the woods.
“Sugar, we’re for it then,” exclaimed Kes, Marlin’s daughter, “Denzo told me all about the tree beasts who suck the marrow from your bones and turn you into fertiliser to sell to the grey gardener.”
“Oh grow up girl, there’s no such creatures except in your imagination, so be bloody quiet, and trust to our guru’s good judgement.” replied Dorian, the leader of the unhappy group. “We’ll take a break before the trees, and Joannie’s going to tell you about the woods.” She looked across at the very pensive guru, who nodded in return.
Joan, Dorian and Sami were taking the five Dockside recruits to Homestead to join Martha’s patrol, who were returning to Central from their summer foray into the Southern sierras and sweep up the white coast. Jenny, Kerry, Lydia, Sasha and Curly were not too eager to be joining the glorious ‘army of right’ and would rather be at Dockside sailing with the fleet or even mending nets. The army was not a good place to be for newcomers, especially under Mad Martha’s rule. Not so much an army, more an undisciplined mob of misfits, thugs and thieves.
The group neared the woods edge, and Dorian called a halt at the side of a narrow trickling brook. “Twenty minutes, then we’ll have to move on. Joannie?”
“OK captain. Settle down girls, and I’ll tell you what you need to know about the woods to survive today. Share out those apples Curly.” They all ate while listening, and Joan told them her version of the first ever meeting between Homestead girls and the wardogs.
Joannie's story
“I’ve seen that we’ll be safe, if we take certain precautions. There are things about this wood that are privy to only a few of us, and I’ll tell you what you need to know, right? The terrors in this wood are all in your imagination, put there by Homestead’s hunters. I’m a Homestead girl, moved to Dockside when I was about nineteen when we found out that I could ‘see’. Not right having more than one with the sight in the same group. Could lead to… misunderstandings and the like. Anyway, when I was seventeenish, four of us youngsters had driven a few cows down to Dockside as part of our trade agreement with Central, and we were travelling light. Three days there and one back through Burnt Wood, which was no big thing, cos it was mostly safe in those days. Half way home through the wood we heard a cat. Making such a noise it was, must be a big one we thought, and we started to step careful like, didn’t want to come up to it too soon and get a nasty surprise, did we? There were other noises too, and we found it in the clearing near Hood’s Hole. It was a monster, about four metres from nose to tail and it had five of them ‘dog folk’ trapped in the cave mouth and they were keeping it at bay with crude spears, but we could see that come nightfall, them dogs would be in the deep stuff and no mistake.
We’d heard rumours about the dogs, but had never seen any, they usually stayed in the hills beyond Crampton and Albert. What a sorry lot they looked. Rags for clothes and no weapons to speak of. What to do? Join the fun, or slide back into the trees and take the long way home? No hard decision really, once the first shock had worn off. According to the stories we’d heard, these dogs were nearly people.
We had a knife each, and me, Jade and Beryl had spears, while Jade had got her bow as well, but Sylvie had her mother’s sword. It’s a Toledo Espada Special from the valley wars 200 years ago, and never loses it’s edge.
Jade said that if she was lucky, she might get three arrows into the cat before it could reach us. We formed up with Beryl on the left, Sylvia in the middle, me on the right and Jade a couple of paces behind us. We stepped out of the trees and she let go the first arrow which stuck nicely in the cat’s rump. The beast leapt up, turned in the air and hit the ground running. Jade only got in one more shot, but it was a beauty. Into the monsters mouth and out from the side of it’s neck in a spray of blood. Then it was on us in a flurry of claws, teeth and blood. The blood was all cat, as we met it’s leap with three steel tipped spear points. The dogs joined us in a dance of death round the dying cat, and it was a one sided affair as Sylvia’s sword bit into the cat’s body. Every time it turned to face us and Sylvie, the dogs would leap in and prod it with their wooden spears, and it turned back to them again. The beast eventually died, going round in circles. Probably drowned in it’s own blood from the arrow and spears, and we all cheered and laughed and leapt about. Then it went a bit quiet and scary for a moment as we backed off into two groups and just kinda looked each other over. It was Beryl who made the first move. Always quick to make a decision was Beryl. The dogs sort of flinched and gripped their spears tighter as she suddenly stooped down to pull what was left of her spear from the cat’s body. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
She closed her eyes, and was silent for a moment. Then continued her story.
“Beryl looked up and said, 'Hello dogs, we’ve heard about you.'
After a brief pause, the biggest dog grinned right back and replied, 'Hey ho girl.'
Beryl laughed, 'Hood’s alive, you do speak then.'
'Yeah, itsa genes'
'What’s jeans then?'
'Dunno, ’s genes innit'
And that was it. Homestead had some new friends, poor friends by the look of it, but that was back then. Things are different now. Between us we managed to skin the cat and took it’s claws and fangs as trophies. The dogs kept the hide and half the claws and teeth. I kept this one, and it will keep us safe today.”
So saying, Joannie took from her pack a dagger-like tooth which had the girls oohing and aahing in open admiration.
“Monster it was, but Hood smiled on us that day, none of us had suffered so much as a scratch from the beast.” Her voice went quieter. “By the time we had finished, it was nearly dark, so we all settled down in the cave to a poor supper of berries, biscuits, cats arse and bad dreams.” Her voice trailed away and finished in a whisper and then she paused with a faraway look in her eyes. The girls glanced at each other sideways as the silence dragged on. Was she seeing again?
She looked down and sighed. “But that’s another story, and it’s none of your business. Them dogs are the only bad things in the woods now, and cos we’re not Homestead girls, we might need this to be our passport to the other side.”
>
“How will that keep us safe then, is it magic or summat?”
“No such thing as magic Kes, only different ways of doing things. Now, we put away all our weapons and go through the wood holding this little tooth in plain sight, and Daggit, the boss dog will make sure that we’ll be left alone.”
In Burnt Wood
“Time to move girls,” said Dorian, “You know what to do. Single file, Joannie in front, Sami in centre and I’ll take the rear. We should be at Homestead in three hours.”
“One more thing girls,” warned Joannie. “Only Homestead girls are supposed to know about the dog clan,” she paused and looked them all in the eye, one by one. “So if, one day, you think it would be clever to tell anyone else about this, then make your funeral arrangements first. Because I would know, and I would make sure you suffered before you died. Sabe?”
The frightened girls hurriedly assured her that the secret was safe with them, and then they tied their spears into a bundle and moved on. The woods were now a bad place by reputation only, but that was enough to keep the recruits, and Sami to a certain extent, on edge, and when five shadowy figures emerged from the trees ahead of them, it was Sasha who gave a little whimper of fear, but Jenny, the youngest who peed herself.
Dorian spoke quietly, but her voice carried the length of the line, “Stand still and quiet, and leave it to Joannie.”
Expecting to see actual dogs, the Docksiders were surprised by appearance of the warriors in front of them. Firstly, these were not the sorry specimens from ten years previously, and they were more human looking than anything else, with slightly 'doggy' features, and with lots of hair rather than fur.
Wearing brown tunics, breeches and boots, with leather breast plates and wrist guards, each of them had a spear with a bright metal tip, and short swords or daggers were at every hip. Two of the dogs wrinkled their noses and looked pointedly at the ground at Jenny’s feet.
When she spoke, Joannie was loud and confidant. “Looking for trouble then? Cos if you are, then you’ve found it, cos I’m the cat killer.” She held the fang out like a weapon. “Lost your voices? Who’s boss dog here?”
“Hello Joan Tulip, my old flower.”
Joannie laughed. “Toldo Sharptooth. I didn’t recognise you with that fancy head gear.”
Toldo swelled with pride. It had taken him and Flair, his mate, weeks to make the feathered hat.
“Found it on the rubbish dump, did you?”
The insult struck home and as Toldo wilted, Joannie laughed. “Sorry, Tollie. Only joking, it’s beautiful. You look magnificent.”
Toldo smiled again. “Hear that, you scruffs? Magnificent she said.” He lowered his voice again. “Got a message for you Joan.”
“Tell me then oh mighty warrior.”
"Not here." He said quietly, looking briefly at the other girls. "Daggit say this for you only. Come talk with me."
Joannie bit her lip, narrowed her eyes and frowned, thinking hard. She hadn’t seen a dog for nearly three years and things may have changed. Decision time. Turning round she said, “Stand fast girls, got some private talking to do with soldier boy here,” and she then walked forward between the trees and out of sight of the girls from Dockside.
As ten years earlier, the groups of girls and dogs just stood and looked at each other.
No longer the poor relations, the dog soldiers bristled with confidence and it was the humans who were on edge now. A short while later, Joannie returned and the dogs melted back into the woods.
“They say that there’s trouble in store at Homestead, but they don’t know the full story. We’ll have to be ready for anything when we get there. Full speed ahead now boss.”
“No bother ahead in the woods?” Asked Dorian.
“Not now, there isn’t, let’s go”
No longer so careful, the group made good speed through the empty woods and reached Homestead as the sun was setting.
The untold story
“What’s jeans then?”
“Dunno, ’s genes, innit”
Beryl thought about that for a moment then dismissed it as not important.
“Ever skinned a cat? Gotta do it while it’s fresh, and it’ll take all of us to do it proper.” Killing a big cat was quite an event in village life and a trophy was called for.
Sylvia joined in, “We can’t leave till it’s done, and it’ll soon be too dark to get home. Any suggestions?”
“We should be safe in Hood’s Hole. It’s big enough for all of us,” replied Jade. “We can share the night watch. One of us and one of them.”
Beryl cocked her head on one side and addressed the dogs. “Soon dark. Stay with us?”
And they did. Possibly they felt safer in human company after the cat affair? While Sylvia watched the tree line, the dogs joined in with the pulling and tugging as Jade and Joannie cut the skin away, then Beryl got to work wrenching out its claws and fangs. When it was done, it was clean up time, and the girls and dogs went in pairs to the nearby stream to wash off the blood and gore from skin, hair and clothing.
A fire was lit in the cave mouth to roast the cat meat over, and as night fell, what passed for doggie small talk went back and forth across the cave.
“Where you come from?”
“Why don’t you walk on four legs?”
“How you make knives like that?”
“Where are your families?”
“Where you go?”
“So the first dog was called Loner?”
“How far your village?”
“What are jeans again?”
The dogs were searching for a new place to live, for reasons known only to themselves, and were about ten days from their home in the North.
Eventually, both the fire and the small talk grew smaller, and they settled down for the night. That night was nothing special for the dogs, but the four girls suffered a night of fever and bad dreams. In the morning, Sylvia and Jade woke up with fierce headaches and were still drowsy for most of the day, but Joan and Beryl slept all through the day and the next night.
The dogs repaid the girls actions of the day before by caring for them through the two days of their illness.
They didn’t know it, but they were responsible for the girls fever. Was it a virus, or flea bites? It would never really be known, but something of the dogs persona was transferred to the girls during their time together in the cave, and Sylvia and Jade were amazed to find that their hearing and eyesight were improving, then horrified that their sense of smell was improving as well. Eventually they learned to live with the intense odours of their companions, but at first, it was just… not nice.
“’s genes innit.” No one would ever know how the new dogs were created, (the why was discovered much later) but an unbreakable bond between dog and human was made in Hood’s Hole cave. Both humans and dogs, (especially the dogs who had shared the night watch), were relieved when the pair were finally roused the f
ollowing day, but Joannie was not coherent or sensible for some time, and Beryl kept tripping over her own feet.
Eventually, it became apparent that Beryl’s reactions had been accelerated, and that her body was struggling to keep up with her senses. Beryl told no one that she could see her own immediate future, and in the years to come, that ability made her a fearsome warrior when she joined Martha’s patrol. As a new recruit, the usual nasty tricks were tried on her by the older women, but they were repaid with instant painful response, and she got a reputation as the baddest of the bad, so was given a wide berth by everybody.
Joannie got the full package in the seeing department, and it took her several months to learn to decipher the maybe’s and wannabe’s from the isbe’s, and eventually she moved to Dockside to give Constance Nesbitt some elbow room.
The dog tribe settled in Burnt Wood to the North East of Homestead and enjoyed a mutually beneficial and secret relationship with the Homestead girls, who had no fear of spending the night in the woods.
Ten years later, Toldo gave his message to Joan Tulip. Daggit was worried that Joannie had not been to the wood for some time and was sure that she needed all her seeing power for the ‘bad days’ ahead. The dogs couldn’t, or wouldn’t say what form trouble was coming in, but knew that strangers were in the area, Sylvia had been missing for some time, but was back now, although different, and Martha’s lot were up to no good.
When humans and dogs went their separate ways, Joan’s senses had been given a boost by being in close contact with her old hunting partner, and after she recovered from the runny nose and headache that always followed, she would be a formidable guru again.
Cycle of Life, the rise and fall of Tanya Vine Page 7
