Chapter 14: A shock to remember
Rika was shocked too. Idonu finally replied after many minutes.
'I did it because you were unsafe around me. 'They' were after me, but after I left, it had made things worse. They are now after you – please, please forgive me!', she begged him.
'Wow. Um, that.', he took a death breath, ' That is a lot to take in at the moment.', he tried laughing it out, but it wasn't the best time to. It was a lot to take in. It had been fifteen years since he had seen his mother. A long, long time. 'I'm sorry that I may be overreacting.. Um.', he looked down and shook his head in shame.
'No. No. No, you are not overreacting, son. You have every right to be mad at me.', she crawled on her knees to Maheegun and with her hand, pulled his head up.
'Mother..', Maheegun giggled, 'I have not said that in years!'. Maheegun hugged Idonu and Quirnoc, and his uncle Aklof. And then hugged Rika.
'Then let us celebrate that!', said jolly Aklof, holding in one hand a drink made from sassafras roots, he gulped it down and started singing, a more manly version of the song When the breeze from the mountains.
When the breeze from the mountains,
blows in the valleys,
come the elk and the moose at the waters edge.
The warrior's strength comes from the mighty auroch,
The tracker's from the wolf,
The fisher's from the whale,
And the trapper's from the mighty mountains!
Oh! The hunt has begun!
The hunt has begun!
The wilderness calls us men home!
Maheegun and the men were singing it gruffly. Rika and Idonu crossed their arms and shook their heads. 'Let us leave them be, silly men', Idonu said harshly shouting "silly men" at them. They would later come back.
Ufffff! Ufffffff! Uffff!
The wilderness calls us men home!
The boys went wild. They drank a lot, and soon passed out. When Idonu and Rika came back, they each went to their man (Quirnoc and Maheegun) and woke them up helping them move to a shelter.
'Where am I?', asked the drunken Maheegun.
'In my shelter…you better not stink up the place!', she exclaimed at him, he was barely awake.
'Good night Rika…', Rika took off his wet and stained jerkin and covered him with animal skin blankets. He soon started snaoring.
Rika sighed and walked across the shelter to her bedroll. She heard Jargo walk through the entrance, ' Good night, Jargo'. He walked over and licked her on the nose. He then fell asleep on her side, as Maheegun's side smelled really bad.