19 A major change

Travelling as I have, I'd come across many types of landscapes; wetlands where I was bitten to death, arid areas where I longed for water, dense forests where the wolf packs roamed, bamboo glades filled with ants, the numerous poisonous snakes, frogs, and of course, the blackbear, it was one long succession of change, fear and new adversaries.

I needed change, but of a positive kind, I was tired of having new animals seeing me as their food for the night.

I needed somewhere I could stash my belongings now I was so close to people, where I could sleep without getting soaked, attacked or invaded. I started to look about and aimed to find an outcrop of rock where there maybe an overhang or something, but this area was known for bears and I wasn't willing to poke about in any caves around here.

Then again, overhangs often squirreled away snakes and spiders. I shuddered having met a cobra a few years ago and was lucky to get away with my life.

"Mind you," I mused, "with so many poisons and toxins available, it was easy to lace the knife before hunting and get a quick kill."

Then I saw it, a small, white building sitting on stilts above a stream on one side and woodland behind. It looked intact and wary there might be someone living there, I approached with caution.

Moving toward the house from the water's edge, I circled the building, noting a small outhouse built to one side. The trees had started  invading the walls and there was much debris on the roof. I looked through the window and inside it was obvious this place had been empty for years.

Finding the front, I Iooked around. 

Nothing. 

No-one. 

Just invading tree saplings,  dead leaves and old pots. I looked inside them and reeled back, the smell inside was acrid and sported strange colours associated with nasty fungi and bacteria. I shuddered, they'd not been in use for years. Bouncing around the courtyard, shaking my arms, body and pulling faces, I tried to get the smell out of my nostrils, "Ew, yuk, yuk, yuk, dreadful They'll have to go." I pushed the lids firmly back in place. I shuddered again, "Ew, bleh!" sticking my tongue out for no particular reason, "not nice, not nice at all."

Gingerly I went inside, scanning as I went all my senses on high alert.

I spotted a fire grate, an old, collapsed chair and table with someone's belongings scattered on the floor. Everywhere reeked of damp and decay.

"Well, its better than the oiled skin and if the roof is sound, should give me a dry place to call home for a while," I muttered as I looked round. "OK lets take a closer look, see if it'll work for me and if it will, then...." 

My musings tailed off as I spotted the remnants of a corpse in the corner. By the looks of the clothing it had been a woman who I can only presume lived here alone. 

"Died here too," my mind conjectured.

"Well madam, I have no idea who you were but everyone deserves to return to Nature, so I'll bury you out the back if that's alright and as long as you do not object, I will use your home."

Bowing to the corpse and paying her due respect, I gathered her up in the oiled skin and took her outside to be buried.

She was long since dead and little remained of her save some flesh on the bones and the bones themselves. The clothes hung off her  resembling dirty rags, but even though she had long since flown this body, I buried her with as much dignity as I could and placing stones on top of her grave, I allowed the creatures of the earth to return her to the dust from which she had come.

"I hope I get this done for me when time comes, " I thought, and with that, bowed to her grave and returned to the house to begin cleaning.

First stop was the roof, to clear off the debris as well as check its integrity. I found a few areas where tiles had slipped but was able to patch this up with some tiles I found on the ground. Easily solved, I would have a dry place to call home.

Next was inside. 

I sprinkled the floor with water from the stream and swept the place with an old broom I found outside by the door. Chances are it was last used by the old lady. I laughed. This would be the first time I was under a roof since that strange man in the woods all that time ago.

As I worked I mused on the book I had read, its blank pages filled with words I understood. I still found the whole experience baffling. I've never been able to read or write, I was never taught, but that book read itself to me somehow. I shook my head, "Still don't get it," I said putting it out of my head.

Patience paid off, and after a long morning 's work, the small home was cleaner and my belongings were inside in one corner.  I had taken a look at the fire grate and it was still usable, so I went out and gathered some wood in preparation of setting a fire when I came back from hunting. "Tonight I cook on it, but first get things sorted," I muttered as I placed the cooking pot on the fire.

"Ok, knife, gut string and," I paused, looking at the state of me, laughing, "well the prey won't know I'm coming tonight!"

It took a while but I set my bearings and aimed to bag a couple of rabbits or similar. I dug up some wild vegetables and found some leaves to wrap the meat. On returning I checked where the house was in relation to the forge. I didn't want to be too far away if it were at all possible, as I wanted to get back there tomorrow.

"Second Master must be wondering where I am, the women would be quick to tell him I didn't appear today."

The food was welcome but the night was cold. I had no skins, the ants had invaded them. I slept on the hard floor. I was dry but that was all. 

I missed Alpha and cried at my loss.