Your Future
Chapter 15
It is now one month later
Kate was making the rounds this morning to check on how things were going.
Seeing smoke rising, she went there first. What she found were three groups slowly burning stumps from trees they'd cut down. Crafting their one and only canoe had shown that it could be done and these three stumps were next on the list to be gotten rid of. They could really use the space.
One of the main 10' x 30' tents had been taken down to make room for a couple of teepees. They now had 28 teepees in total spread out all over. All of them were the same size and they had gotten pretty good at building them. But as many as that might sound it wasn't even half of the number of teepees that they needed.
The tent was down because it had been put up on the very far edge of what had become their compound. They were still branching out and it was likely the other tent would eventually be moved as well. The idea for the future was that those tents would become community tents and not used to live in like they still were.
Seeing burning tree stumps had her moving to the second canoe that was under construction. This tree was just as large. However, getting it here had taken a lot more work since it was a lot farther out. If they didn't need them so badly Kate would have just dropped it. But fish had become a new part of their diet and since it was new, everyone, including her, wanted fish now.
"How's it coming?" Kate questioned the small group that made their canoes.
"Just like last time. We still have to debark and flatten three sides, but we'll get there. Practice makes perfect." Kate left them to it.
Clothing with Hannah was next. "Just the bride I needed," Hannah announced as Kate got close. "I need you for a fitting. Your place or mine?"
"Yours, I don't know where Castle is and since he's not supposed to see it before the wedding it needs to be yours." Kate followed her into her teepee. Kate stripped down to her panties and put on her wedding dress.
Her dress was very similar to one in a children's animated movie that came out decades ago. Her left shoulder was covered. The bodice of the dress was fitted and the skirt flared out in an A-line. There was fringe around the bottom of the skirt, across the top of the sleeve opening, and over and around the sides of the bosom. There was also a braided belt.
It wasn't white, it wasn't long and it wasn't overly ornate. However, it was hers. Besides what the dress didn't have her headdress did. It was made of strands of ivy with wild snapdragons and other late blooming flowers to fill it all in.
"How does it feel?" Hannah asked her after Kate was done putting everything that was part of her wedding dress on.
"The dress itself is incredibly soft," Kate said with a smile. This head thing is maybe a bit scratchy but it really looks nice."
"This headdress is a practice piece. I wanted to make sure it would look all right. I'm going to make another one just before the wedding so the flowers don't wilt. I wish I had a camera. You're gorgeous!" Hannah was all smiles.
"My cell phone has one except like everyone else the battery is dead." Kate wished she had a camera as well.
"Well I think keeping your hair long and letting Rick braid it was the right choice. Maybe a couple feathers right at the end on both sides for the wedding," Hannah suggested since that might be just what she needed.
"Feathers?" Kate wasn't sure she liked the idea of using feathers. The only feathers they had easy access to were turkey and chicken feathers.
"Little ones, maybe." Hannah used two fingers to show her just how little. "Okay, you can change back. We're done and you're ready to get married. Our very first wedding." Hannah was ready to start crying now and not actually wait for the wedding itself.
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Kate left Hannah and headed for their skin makers and found both of them still hard at work. Everyone wanted a home and Kate wanted to give one to everyone. It was just that trying to divide 500 plus people down to groups of two or three meant they needed over 170 teepees and they didn't have anywhere near that many. Building a high rise apartment was out so eventually they were going to take up a lot of space one day.
Kate left them, went to the horse corral, and as expected she noticed six of them missing. Two of their hunting groups were out hunting by horseback today after getting an early start. Riding bareback was something you had to get used to. Another was how to get the horse to go where you wanted it to.
The cattle corral was going back up again. It had been argued that they just needed to get the milk cows into it long enough to milk them then release them. Then they could use the milk for all kinds of things so when that corral was done they would find some milk cows and get started.
Next was a stop at the chicken coops. They actually had three of them now. They were end, to end, to end with ramps on either end. It was decided that they wanted the chickens to keep laying eggs and hatching into little chicks and growing up. Once they had another set of three built and in place next to these three they would revisit if it was time to start taking some of the eggs for their use.
"OH, SHUT UP! The sun has been up for over an hour already," Kate yelled at the stupid rooster. He wasn't the only one they had but he was the only one that crowed before and after the sun came up. They had also noticed that the chickens went pretty much anywhere they wanted and since they had three coops, there were a lot of them.
As she headed for the next site for teepees she finally saw Castle. "There you are." She was happy to see him since he was gone when she woke up yet again this morning.
"GO AWAY!" Rick yelled at her.
"What? …Castle?" Kate took another couple steps.
"I SAID GO AWAY!" He even turned his back on her after yelling at her again.
"Well good morning and I love you, too." Kate stomped away. "At least I'm the one that's supposed to have PMS. Not that I can have PMS at the moment" she muttered. Kate knew she wasn't just late. She was a lot late. She couldn't see it or even feel it but she knew it. She was pregnant and hadn't found the courage to tell Castle. But she would. Just as soon as he stopped yelling at her.
What she didn't get was what he was doing. He'd been doing this for over two weeks. Just going away and working on something. She had never actively sought him out until now. Granted that was because she had found him. Since no one was complaining and things were getting done she hadn't found it necessary to question him. Besides he always came back, made love to her, and told her that he loved her.
As was typical she found five more teepees with poles at the ready. They just needed skins. That was another reason two of their hunting groups were out on horseback. They needed to hunt farther and farther away. To get the skins they needed that meant hunting something the size of a deer and that was proving to be more and more of a challenge.
"KATE!" Kate suddenly heard someone yelling her name. "KATE!" Rick was rubbing off on her and her first thought was that something bad had happened. Drowning came to mind. A child had fallen from a tree and broken something. Whatever it was their tiny medical group with limited equipment and no medicine couldn't fix it.
Then she saw two women and a man running toward her after spotting her. They were all just a little out of breath. "We found these. They were on the ground and while they're useless now we might still be able to use the seeds. Just like the seeds for the orange and other fruit trees." They handed over what they'd found. To Kate it was rotted and the seeds which where large and black meant nothing to her.
"It's a pawpaw. We can eat these," one of them explained.
Kate's eyes opened wide. She knew what a pawpaw was even if she wasn't sure she'd ever eaten one. "Go gather up all the seeds that you can. All you can find then get them to Dotson and get him started. …Nice work, very nice work." Kate liked the idea of finding more food even if its ripe time was past.
Now she needed Castle to find out if he knew when they ripened. It was just last time she found him he had yelled at her. So she went somewhere else instead.
"KATE! KATE!" Great, now someone else was yelling her name. "This better be good news."
She finally saw who was yelling for her and found out why before they said anything at all. At first she thought they had a gator. It wasn't huge but it was big enough.
No, it wasn't a gator but that didn't make it good news. It was a damn shark. "Where did you get that thing? I thought sharks were all salt water." Their river and lake were both fresh water, not salt water.
"It was in the lake. We think it's a bull shark. Probably feeding on the same big mouth bass we've been catching lately or other fish."
"The lake? The same lake we've all been swimming in? The same lake for our Go Jump in the Lake game? That's just great!" This was not good news. Not even close to good news.
"Go find Castle. I don't care what he's doing, get him down here." Kate watched him run off, looking for Castle.
Kate stood there looking at the damn thing. It was too late to move. At least no one had seen alligators yet so that was good and bad. Good that no one had been attacked and killed by a gator but bad since they could use the meat and the skin.
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"A shark?" Rick joined Kate who was still looking at this thing.
"That's a shark. About a three footer, I'd say," Rick looked at it carefully.
"Dangerous?" That was all Kate cared about.
"Looks like a bull shark. An adult bull shark can be up to 10 feet long and are considered very aggressive and very dangerous. I don't know about around here but in other parts of the world they are known as man-eaters. …You actually found this thing here?" Rick pointed at the ground.
"They caught it in the lake," Kate said.
"Maybe he's the only one. In any case everyone needs to know before they go swimming in the lake. Still no alligators?" He was more concerned about gators than sharks. Gators could hide under the water, jump out and grab you, drag you to the bottom and drown you, before eating you.
"Not yet," one of the men told him.
"We're moving our teepee today, Castle. I don't know where yet, but we're moving." All this talk of sharks and gators had her concerned about being eaten.
"Castle?" He hadn't answered her yet.
"Moving, got it." Rick wasn't concerned about the stupid shark. He just wanted to know when anyone saw a gator and where.
"What are you working on, Castle?" He was here and he wasn't yelling at her.
"It's a secret."
"Castle?" They were almost married, she didn't want secrets between them. She didn't want to screw this up.
Rick glared at her. "SECRET! Got it?"
"I got it, I got it." She didn't like it but she got it. "Just promise that you'll tell me eventually?"
"You'll be the first to know as soon as I'm done," Rick told her in a much softer voice. "Now gut this guy, then cut him up and soak him in fresh water for at least 48 hours. All sharks pee through their skin so unless you want to eat that you need to soak it first." Rick left them to go back to what he was doing before being interrupted. Then he paused and said, "Be sure and save the skin, though. It can be used as sandpaper." He waved and walked off.
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Kate had Rick and three volunteers to take down their teepee and move it and put it back up again. She picked up the ends of two of the poles and proceeded to drag them behind her. "This way, guys." She'd already scouted out a new location for their home.
"Right here." Kate dropped her poles on the spot. "Little river from the north. Same river goes south. Basically the same river though smaller west and another one east. It's a crossroads and not very deep. Far enough inland that a gator can't jump us and not big enough for a shark. And eventually we'll keep clearing land down this way as we build teepees."
She even helped to put their teepee back up and while they put the skins on she went looking for a shovel to dig the trench around it for when it rained.
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Kate thanked the guys that had agreed to help move them.
"A little ways away, aren't we?" Rick questioned.
"For now but that will change as we build more and more teepees. Besides fresh water is nice and close but not too close. And we can check it out and go skinny dipping later…unless you're afraid," Kate cooed at him with her bedroom voice. Even if her fears had gotten them down here in the first place.
"Challenge accepted, Mrs. Castle." Rick smiled at her.
"Soon, babe, soon. So are you ready to tell me what you've been doing all this time?" Kate hadn't forgotten.
"Not just yet," Rick shared with her. Like during their wedding kind of soon. The thing had been driving him to near madness and he was about to give up. However, his second attempt was working out much better. He just needed to be very careful or he would break it, too, and that would ruin everything.
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Kate was about as ready as she was ever going to be. Thankfully their hunting teams had come back with two big bucks for dinner. Along with everything else they had available, the dinner was ready.
They didn't have any electricity, naturally, so they didn't have any music. They didn't even have any instruments to play anything with. There might be a few ideas but so far no one really had the time.
Kate had stripped down to her panties and was in her wedding dress inside Hannah's teepee and was standing perfectly still while Hannah adjusted the flower and ivy wreath that went on her head. She even let her stuff these two little feathers at the ends of her braids.
Kate had even let them talk her into switching out her boots that were still holding up pretty well for a pair of just finished moccasins. She decided that after the wedding she'd give them to someone who needed them more than she did.
"Will you stop? You're going to get me started." Kate saw tears shining in Hannah's eyes.
"Sorry, I can't help it. I always cry at weddings and this is a big one for us. Our very first and it's your wedding." Kate was still in charge and so far no one was fighting her for the position.
"Let's go see if your groom is ready." Hannah opened her teepee and let Kate go first.
The wedding had the backdrop of a river but not so close that a possible gator got any ideas. They didn't have any chairs for people to sit in. Well, technically they did, they just didn't even come close to having 500 of them.
The smell of roasting deer was the first thing that anyone noticed. The second was everyone standing on two sides with an aisle down the middle of the crowd.
The oldest male they had had volunteered to escort her down the aisle.
Ramsey held out his arm for her to take. "Ready?"
Kate willingly took it. "Thank you for this." She was truly touched. Her own dad was long since dead and was never going to get to do this.
"I've had practice. You'll do great." Ramsey patted her hand and walked her to where they would start.
Somehow despite the lack of instruments everyone began humming the wedding march. It brought tears to her eyes as they slowly, step by step, walked down the aisle.
At the end Rick was waiting for her inside a circle of flowers. He was dressed in his same old slacks and shirt. And even though one of his shoes had given out on him he was wearing them both. He was also wearing a jacket that someone must have loaned him. He even had a tie. He was the most handsome man she'd ever seen.
Ramsey left her on her side of the circle of flowers and she stared at a smiling Rick. She knew she would always love him and returned his smile.
They didn't have a Bible or any other religious items save for occasional necklaces a few women were wearing. Ramsey's wife Angela had attended her fair share of weddings and so had volunteered to officiate.
She did it from memory until she asked if they had something they wanted to say.
"I love you with all my heart, Rick, and I'm still so very sorry I made us wait for this day." If she had just talked to him before Gina had shown up, who knows where they would be now.
"You've always been worth it, Kate. I've told you before that you're extraordinary and I still mean it. I love you with every fiber of my heart. Always" Rick saw her tears flowing a little more unabated.
"I don't suppose either of you have rings?" Angela asked softly since that was next.
That had Kate snapping her head up to look him in the eye. HE HAD A RING?! He'd said he'd left it behind.
Rick repeated the words after Angela and slid it onto Kate's finger. He even had to push a little since it was a bit tight.
Kate only had eyes for her ring. It didn't have a diamond. In fact it didn't have any gem on it at all. Though it was extremely colorful. Maybe a little thick for her hand but she couldn't help but stare at it.
She barely heard Angela say the words that they were now husband and wife and that the groom may kiss the bride.
Kate beat him to it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the passion she could muster.
Then flowers rained down on both of them as everyone watching must have had a handful or two and threw them when they got close enough.
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She was Mrs. Castle and she loved the sound of it. She was standing next to him, nibbling on her piece of venison. "Is this what you've been doing these last few weeks?"
"I didn't want you to see it before the wedding. The first one shattered into a gazillion pieces and I feared so would all the others. I had to come up with a different method so I've been filing away on that thing for days.
"Someone found this hunk of green quartz and I managed to split it into two pieces to make you a ring." Though getting that sensitive piece of rock to do what Rick wanted without fracturing had not proved to be easy.
"You made me a ring." Kate didn't know how she could love him more but somehow she did. "What do we do for a honeymoon?"
"Pray we're both asleep on our plane, that we get to wake up and aren't crashing."
Leave it to Rick to come up with a wild theory. "I don't think even your little gray guys with big black eyes are going to get us out of this."
