“Can you believe it’s the first day of fall?” Andor remarked, as he propped his head up on his arm and turned to look at Lilli. “Wow! Really?” She smiled as she rubbed the small bump protruding slightly under her t-shirt. “They say ‘time flies when you’re having fun.’” “Homesteading with you up here in the mountains sure has been a lot of fun.” he replied as he stroked her belly too. “Do you think we’re ready for winter?”  “Well, we certainly have enough fire wood to last us through the winter,” Andor answered with a wince as he recalled the massive piles of firewood he and Lilli had stacked. “Yeah, that was a lot of work…” Lilli’s voice trailed off. Collecting her thoughts she continued, “Finding the wild orchard was great though.”  “Oh for sure,” Andor said as he picked up an apple and took a bite. “I think we’ve dried and preserved enough apples to feed a small army.” Lilli chuckled. “It’s too bad there’s no fish in this lake though…” she mused.  “I saw a bear catch one in this lake when we first came...” “Wait what? You never told me that…” Lilli shrieked, interrupting Andor mid-sentence.  “Umm…” Andor's voice trailed off as he realized his tactical error. “I didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t want you to worry... Plus it was on the far side of the lake.” “Well, how come we can’t catch any?” Lilli asked incredulously. “I guess we’re terrible anglers,” Andor said with a smile, glad Lilli had not decided to pursue his admitted indiscresion. “It would really help if we had more meat to get us through the winter.”  “The land has taken care of us,” Lilli said as she sat up and peeled off her t-shirt. “It won’t let us down…” “Where are you going?” “I’m gonna go for a swim,” she answered. “Care to join me?”  Before Andor could reply Baba Ghanoush, who had been sleeping peacefully in the shade of a pine tree close by, sat up abruptly and snorted - her hair standing on end. “What is it ol’ girl?” Andor asked, sitting up in alarm. “Babe!” Lilli hissed. “Look.”  Andor spun around and looked where Lilli was pointing. At first he didn’t see anything. Then his eyes caught a shadow shifting in the forest and he held his breath.  Not more than thirty feet away from them a huge grizzly bear lumbered out of the forest. It was headed towards the edge of the lake. Then it stopped, grunted, and lifted up its nose and sniffed. “Fuck!” Andor seethed under his breath. “It smells us.” In an instant the bear spun around and stared right at the terrified couple clutching each other on the warm sun bathed boulder.  “Don’t move.” Lilli whispered, as Andor pulled Lilli behind him slightly. It was a token effort at shielding her from the bear, but it was so big it wouldn’t really matter. It could kill them with one swipe of its paw.  The grizzly stared at them briefly, then reared up onto its hind legs and let out a terrible roar. “Oh my god,” Andor muttered. “It’s hu…”  Before he could finish his sentence the grizzly dropped to all fours and charged.  _This is it. This is how we die._ Andor thought. He had had the same thought many times in Syria. A singular moment which had stretched for an eternity as he waited for the dark abyss to swallow him. However, like then the black abyss was not to swallow them that day. His iteration wasn’t up just yet… Andor turned, smiled weakly at Lilli, and wrapped his arms tightly around her.  As he waited for the pain of sharp claws and teeth to begin shredding their bodies an explosion of brown musty smelling fur erupted from the forest. Out of the corner of his eye Andor caught sight of a huge moose with impossibly large antlers crashing through an alder thicket. With its head lowered it slammed into the grizzly and flung it into the air like it was a child’s plaything. The grizzly landed with a heavy thud sending a comically large cloud of dust into the air.  Sufficiently distracted from the act of mauling the helpless couple the grizzly turned and faced its aggressor. The moose pawed the ground keeping its head lowered and the impressive array of antlers aimed at his opponent. The grizzly snorted, sizing up the moose for a moment. Then in an instant they both charged. The grizzly slammed into the antler fortification pushing the moose back onto his haunches. It looked as if the moose was about to meet its demise when with a sudden display of awesome power it lunged and began pushing and slamming its antlers into the grizzly - over and over again.  Lilli and Andor sat there on the boulder frozen in horror as they watched these two incredible animals locked in mortal combat.  For a moment the grizzly would appear to gain an advantage and its claws would find purchase and tear away a chunk of moose flesh. If the moose was experiencing any pain though it wasn’t showing it.  “Get up!” Lilli hissed, snapping Andor from his trance. “Right!” he bellowed. “Get to the cave.” Hand-in-hand Lilli and Andor ran to their cave. “Grab the spears!” Andor yelled after her as they tumbled into the cave. “Where’s Baba Ghanoush?” Lilli asked as she tossed Andor his spear, which was leaning against the wall by their bed. “I didn’t see her. I think she took off into the woods,” Andor replied as he peeked out the door. “Babe - look!” Lilli pressed herself against the window and gazed out at the beach. Below them they could see the beasts fighting desperately. Their battle had carried them clear across the beach. Now, the grizzly was backed up to the edge of a small cliff - the one they used to jump off of. The water though which used to lap peacefully at the base of the cliff had receded significantly once the snow had finished melting off. Now below the cliff, which was about twenty feet tall, was a jumble of boulders. With a last desperate heave the moose shoved the grizzly off the edge of the cliff. The bear let out a furious roar and dragged the moose off with it.  “Holy shit! Did that really just happen?” Lilli whispered, as quiet permeated the landscape. “Are they dead?” Andor asked, as he held his breath. “I don’t hear anything…” Lilli offered. “Well I don’t know about you but I’m not going down there to find out.” Andor sighed as he remembered to breath.  “Why not?” Lilli chuckled. “Let’s give it a few minutes. If we don’t see or hear anything we’ll go take a look.” “I’ll go take a look.” Andor offered, his voice dripping with uncertainty. “In a little while… I don’t want anything happening to my you or our child.” After what felt like an eternity Andor crept silently out the front door carrying his spear in one hand, an axe in the other, and their largest knife tucked in his belt. “Wish me luck.” he said over his shoulder. Lilli stood watch from the front door clutching her spear, ready to run to Andor’s aid if things went sideways. Silently he crept to the edge of the cliff. When he was a few feet away he dropped to his knees and began to crawl slowly to the edge of the cliff. Cautiously he peered over the edge. A moment later he stood and waved excitedly for Lilli to come down. With a sigh of relief she ran down to the cliffs edge. When she got to Andor’s side she was out of breath. “What… is… it?” she huffed in excitement.  “Look,” Andor offered as he took her hand and led her to the edge of the cliff. “The moose’s neck is broken but it fell on top of the grizzly and I guess it couldn’t get up and drowned.”  “Damn,” Lilli gasped. “See, what did I tell you? The land will provide.”  --- Far from above the couple, in a cave perched high up a craggy peak two mysterious figures peered down at the scene below.  “Clever trick,” the figure with dark hair and a muscular figure smirked. “Convincing the moose to save them.” “Thank you,” the fair one replied. “Their time hadn’t come… but I didn’t want to blow our cover coming to their aid.” “Tactically, it was a brilliant move. Now they’ll have plenty of food to get them through the winter too.”  “Thanks. I’m glad you appreciate my genius.” they said sarcastically. --- “It’s going to take days to process all this.” Lilli said, surveying the two massive carcasses.  “I’ll grab the rope.” Andor called over his shoulder, as he ran up the beach towards their home. _What are we going to do with a rope?_ Lilli thought to herself. _What we’re really going to need is a crane._ Andor returned a minute later, out of breath carrying a rope and an assortment of carabiners they had recovered from the village on one of their last resupply runs. “I think…” his voice trailed off for a moment. Regaining his train of thought he continued. “I think we can slaughter the moose right there on the beach. Once we have processed the animal into more manageable portions it will be a lot easier to move.” “Dressing it will take a long time.” Lilli said as she rolled up her sleeves. “We need to have to move fast so the grizzly doesn’t spoil.” “You’re right,”Andor offered as he took out his knife and got to work cutting into the moose. “What do you want me to do?” Lilli asked. “Can you tie this end of the rope to the tree there? We need to get this moose flipped over so I'm not butchering it standing waste deep in the lake." Lilli nodded and trotted into the forest dragging the rope behind her. ![[asi-ii-bountiful-land.jpg]] They spent several days skinning, trimming, and smoking the grizzly and the moose. After days of nearly non-stop work they were both exhausted. To keep scavengers away they took turns sleeping at night. While one slept the other kept the multiple fires burning and stood watch.  Towards the end of the third day they finally had most of the meat butchered, trimmed, and rendered into meal sized portions and smoked.  “Where are we going to keep all this preserved meat?” Lilli asked as she surveyed their massive stockpile of food.  “I think we’ll need to build another elevated cache…” Andor’s voice trailed off as he considered the prospect of yet another daunting task.   Lilli turned to look at their elevated cache by their cave home. Building the first one required a lot of trial and error,” Lilli mused. “But I think we got it down pretty good now.” “Where should we build it?” Andor asked. “It’ll need to be close to our cave. So, we can get to it easily in the winter.” Pointing at a stand of trees about twenty feet from their cave home Andor suggested “How about that stand there?” “Works for me.” Lilli said as she picked up the axe.  They constructed the elevated cache by cutting the tops off of four trees, leaving sturdy trunks about fifteen feet tall. The trees, which had grown roughly six feet apart in a square formation, served as natural pillars. They then laid crossbeams between the trunks, and placed split logs across the beams to form the floor. Using wire, they fastened the flooring securely in place. Next, they wove saplings into a large basket structure which narrowed at the top, leaving an opening about one-third the width of the base. For a lid, they repurposed a few boards scavenged from the village and weighed it down with a heavy rock. To keep small critters like squirrels and mice out, they smeared clay over the outside of the basket. They also peeled the bark off the trunks to make climbing difficult for animals. Finally, they cleared the brush away from around the platform and strung cord with cans and other metallic objects to act as bells —an improvised alarm in case anything tried to approach in the night. --- "Let's hope the land doesn’t harvest any more large mammals for us,”Andor grunted as he climbed the ladder of their elevated cache with the last load of meat tossed over his shoulder. “Oh my gosh, I second that. It was so much work,” Lilli retorted as she picked up their tools. “Between all this preserved meat and our stockpile of dried and pickled fruits and veggies from our garden, the apples from the orchard, the dried mushrooms, jars of acorns and other nuts, and the remainder of the canned and shelf-stable goods I think we’re very food secure right now.” Andor smiled and blew her a kiss from the top of the platform. Then he climbed down and lowered the ladder to the ground.  “I hear Baba Ghanoush baying for her dinner,” he said as he took her hand.  Together they walked back to their home as the season’s first snowflakes drifted down in the chilly night air. ### Next Chapter: [[11 - Ijape 🐺]] ### Previous Chapter: [[9 - Window of Time ⌛️]]