Tanning Chapter 26

But not to the point of killing.

"Nikolaos it's enough we need to take him back and make him pay proper dues to Nero."

"...Fine." Nikolaos spits on the boy as he continues to lay down crying.

"You are coming with us, Litos. You tried to kill our friend yet we offer you the mercy of not doing the same to you. Now get up now."

He tries to stand under the common of my words but constantly drops.

"It's okay Damon. Let's get going." Nikolaos starts walking away dragging Litos by his cape. Litos refutes it by quickly standing albeit limping as we begin to take the walk back to the creak.

The trip goes smoothly as we three 12-year-olds walk through a large forest to find a creek. Eventually, we make it back to a set fire and a darkening sky. 

"So it's Lysanders son? How could someone like him father someone like you?" Georgios stands by the fire eyeing Litos.

"It's because I'm not, my family is nothing but poor Spartan warriors of no importance," Litos answers and Georgios walks up to him with his fist clenched. Eventually, he releases it to instead add dry wood to the fire.

Nero avoids Litos and instead stays slumped on a tree covering himself. Nikolaos stands right beside Litos eyeing him showing a clear difference between the two. Litos is big standing several inches taller than I but Nikolaos is huge and he is better.

"Nikolaos your job is to watch Litos while you both go out to find building supplies for a camp. Georgios I want you to scavenge the land for any sort of food. While I cleanse the water and once I'm done I will join the scavenging." Everyone nods and gets to work.

I begin to think of ways to make a large bowl to hold the water above the fire when Nero limps toward me.

"What would you like me to do?"

"I want you to rest Nero. Litos is making his dues by making up for the work you can't complete."

"He's injured too, shouldn't he rest then also?"

"NO, because he hurt you and left you for dead. You are our friend, we almost lost you so rest and heal up."

Nero accepts his fate and lays down as I begin to find a large log lying around. I begin to dig a hole into it with the sharp rock I used earlier to mark our location. Eventually, it gets dug into enough for a few pounds of water for each visit. I pick up the log then submerge it under the creek and bring it out full of water.

Once I set it down I pick up a few rocks from the fire with sticks and rinse them into the creek. I set them into the water log for several minutes. Once it finishes I offer Nero a drink and he gratefully obliges.

"Woah this water tastes pretty good!"

As to how water can taste good I don't know but clearly he is grateful as he smiles largely. I take my turn gulping down the water until it is all gone. Leaving me to repeat the process.

I then go out of our little creek and begin to scavenge as well. I collect all sorts of food and even a rabbit through the accurate throw of my spear knocking it out and then putting it out of its misery.

"Is that a rabbit?" Georgios appears out of the nearby shrubbery.

"Yeah, did you catch any meat?" I look Georgios over as he holds nothing but vegetation.

"Hahaha nope, hopefully you can share yours."

"Sure I'll give you a foot!" Georgios chuckles at my comment as we walk back to our creek. I skin the pelt of the rabbit and then place it on a stick. I place the stick over the fire as both Georgios and Nero eye the meat.

"Could you both find something to hold the stick up? This is tiring ya know!" Nero lightly touches his nose as Georgios runs off to complete my request. He eventually comes back with two nice stumps to place the stick over.

"When will Nikolaos and him come back?" Nero's question leaves both Georgios and me to ponder.

"Probably any minute?" Right after Georgios responds Nikolaos walks back with a large log with Litos helping.

"I found this baby and decided they would be perfect to build on!" Nikolaos drops the log making a large thump noise.

"Hmmm, Nikolaos do you see those two trees?" I point at two trees fit for the log to hang on top of. Nikolaos nods and begins to start the trek with Litos to place it over.

"Georgios, you and I are going to find large sticks to hang off the log." Georgios nods and we both grab large sticks. Eventually enough to where we place them on the now hung log.

"What now?" Nikolaos's question leaves everyone to look at me.

"Find smaller sticks to place over the large sticks. Then place dead leaves and even mud over them! After that place inside the shelter more dead leaves and perhaps sticks under them for us to sleep on top of. " Everyone nods at my command and soon we have a large shelter for all of us to rest in.

"Great job guys! Now who's ready for the rabbit!" Everyone smiles, even Litos. I cut the rabbit into 4 pieces leaving Litos left out. We gorge on our found vegetation while enjoying our dinner. Litos's belly growls yet everyone ignores it except Litos himself and Nero hesitating to finish his rabbit piece.

We all head to bed but before doing so Nikolaos ties Litos by his own cloak onto a tree. Likely for the best in case he tries sabotaging us. The night is a war in itself as we all struggle through the cold.

Getting to the point of us having to stay body to body. Cupping our manhoods to avoid any awkward conversations to have with each other. 

Eventually, morning comes and we all groan and yawn our way outside of the shelter.

"Last Night was horrible…" Nikolaos rubs his eyes and immediately looks over to Litos.

"Did you get any sleep?" Georgios questions the boy as he comes in and out of consciousness. 

"No…" Nikolaos laughs and Nero offers a soft gaze, his kindness being incomparable.

"What should we do today?" Nero looks towards me and to be honest 365 days in that shelter would be torture…

"We hunt! We need to find deer and other prey so we can give proper flooring and even blankets. Also.. clothes." The whole day was painful as we all maintained formal eye contact so finding something to cover ourselves would be most ideal. Unless we eventually get used to our nude states which would happen eventually as the Olympics are taken nude based on my prior knowledge.

I show them my rabbit pelt from earlier and begin to take the steps of tanning it after a few days it will be ready. Maybe more due to the lack of proper materials but everyone gauges an understanding of the skill now ready to hunt.

"Then let's get to it!" Nikolaos grabs his spear and gives a few hoo-rahs while gulping down some of our last grapes. We untie Litos and make him join us on the hunt with his job being to track our location. I give him my sharp little rock and the likelihood of him making us lost is close to none as Nikolaos would make him live or die to regret it. 

We walk silently for hours walking in a loose formation to spot anything. Our appearance is akin to cavemen, the days of wearing a backpack and hoodie just trying to make it to the next class are long gone.

I will be more Spartan than an American in only 6 more years, a disturbing thought. I need to start writing to remember my modern past and the modern inventions that came with it.

Georgios taps me on the shoulder bringing me to the attention of a fallow deer and her fawn. Everyone else seems alerted as we begin to circle the two deer ready to ambush them.

"Now!" Nikolaos yells as we spring into action. The fawn starts running with the mother trying to stand over it for it to escape. Thus allowing us to give blows to the mother as she eventually falls to the ground.

"Should we allow the fawn to live?" Nero questions as I hurl my spear to the fawn knocking it out.

"No, it will likely die by something else without its mother." I walk over and quickly twist the neck of the fawn giving it a quick death. No need to make it suffer longer than it has to.

"It's time to walk back now. All this meat can last us weeks if we properly preserve it fast!" If we don't cool down the deer meat in an hour it could spoil. We could dig a hole in our shelter and wrap it in a cloak perhaps to place it under.

We need to travel as fast as possible to our creek to avoid any bacteria growth which would make the meat unusable.