On with the story.

In the village.


Going down stream, they came to a well defined trail through the trees
and brush. Up the trail they came into a very large clearing. Linc
could see A big garden. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes and such. A patch
of hemp was growing back against the tree line around the clearing.
There were around ten rock huts with thatched roofs and a number of
people. Some with dark skin and some with light skin and red hair.
An old man with white hair and beard was sitting in what looked like a
big lawn chair. He stood up and held out his hand as Linc approached.
The old man said, " Well blimey, if you ain't a sight for sore eyes.
I gave up ope I would ever see another anks around ere". Linc was a
bit dumbfounded , then realized here was the Hanks the time masters
sent here before him. But these people were different than the small
black men he had seen through the other portal. These people were
wearing short robes. This was strange indeed. Then he looked and saw
there was a big home made loom standing off to the side of one of the
huts. The old man shook Linc's hand and motioned him to have a seat in
a home made lawn chair next to him. He could see some women working
around a couple of what looked just like the picnic tables you see at
a park. The old man said, " we got a lot to talk about, but now it's
supper time. We got plenty time to palaver later."
After eating they went back to the lawn chairs, that had now been
drawn up beside a very nicely made fire pit. Since it was almost dark
now, the air had began to chill. The old man said, " my name is
William Bernard Anks. I came ere round sixty years ago. Left a few
times and went back thru the portal to get things." The old man
proceeded to tell him about his family and why he took on the time
masters journey. His Father was Joseph Bernard Hanks and his Mother
was Abigail Fortnum. His Dad was a jeweler and a gemologist in
Wessex. He both cut gemstones and made jewelry. Bernard helped his
Father around the shop, and saw a lot of gemstones in the rough. His
Father was murdered by a robber when Bernard was only sixteen. And his
mother sold the shop and pined away and died when Bernard was
eighteen.
He was all alone when the time master came to him and asked
him to look for a way that they may have lost the power to travel
through time. He told Linc how he came through the portal the first
time and went to the right, up the beach, after marking the portal.
How he ended up over on the spit of land with the small mountain. He
told him about one of the portals he went into and what he saw. How
he was disappointed when he found there was another bay on the other
side of the spit, so he turned around and started back. He said he
saw what looked to him like sparkling in the sand at the beach there.
Picking up a stone, found he had a large diamond. Looking around he
found more. He ended up stuffing his pocket with many diamonds. What
he was going to do with them he didn't know right off hand but he was
going to take them back with him. He talked about how he camped when
it got night time.
When he was approaching the portal, he looked up the beach and
swore he could see several people up the beach beyond the big rocks.
Told how he found a nice abalone shell and put the diamonds in it and
placed it on top of the mound in front of the portal, then hurried on
up the beach to see about the people he thought he saw. When he got
to the rocks he saw footprints, so he knew he was not alone here. He
followed the footprints on down the beach and found they went up a
stream away from the ocean. Going up the stream he found a well worn
trail through the trees and tall ferns and followed it. Little did he
know that it would take him right into a village of dark skinned
people. They were all as naked as jay birds and they were overwhelmed
to see him. Some of them fell on their knees and bowed down to him as
he walked into the village. He thought they were going to grab him,
but he was able to walk right up into the midst of them. An old woman
with hair of grey that grew almost to her feet, came up to him and
touched him. Touched his clothing and red hair, patted on his backpack
, and patted on his boots. muttering all the while. Clearly, he knew
he was the first other human they had ever seen. What few men he did
see, hung back. This must be a matriarch led village. The old woman
pulled him to the ground and sat down beside him. She rubbed his hair
again, gibbered and waved her hands around but he couldn't understand
her. He tried to talk but didn't know what to say. He pointed to her
and said Mama. Then pointed to himself and said Bernard. He did this
several times, then the old lady repeated what he said. Well he
thought, maybe we can get somewhere yet. He got up, walked around ,
pointing at things and named them off. The old women and some of the
others followed and repeated the words. He went back to a couple of
things, pointed and held out his hands to the old woman. She told him
what he had called the item earlier. Yes he defiantly was getting
somewhere. Not every item was renamed but enough to encourage him to
keep at this line of communication. He looked around him. He could
see that there were about 50 natives. The village contained 20 or so
daub and wattle huts. He walked all around the village. They didn't
try to stop him. He followed a few paths into the ferns and trees to
see where they went. He saw where there was a boiling hot spring and
another larger one that wasn't so hot. He could see a lot of potential
here. Going back to the center of the village he could see they
didn't have a fire pit. Did they eat all their food raw? What did
they eat? He took off his backpack and laid it aside then he gathered
up some rocks with the help of a couple of the men and built a nice
big fire pit. Then he went around the village clearing and picked up
sticks and dead ferns and took them back to the pit. Took the flint
and steel from his backpack and lit the fire. He heard a scream and a
bunch of moaning. The fire had taken them by surprise. They had never
seen fire like this before. He held his hand out over the fire, and
then the old women did it too. She smiled a big smile and held both
hands over it until it got to be too hot. He wondered what they ate?
How they cooked it if they didn't have a fire? Did they eat meat raw?
Later, he found out how they ate when a couple of the men came into
the village with a bunch of fish on a sharpened stick. He watched as
they took them to the boiling spring and dropped them in. Un-cleaned
and all, waited a few minutes then fished them out with sticks and
laid them on a rock by the spring and all the people reached out and
grabbed fish and ate them The old women tried to give him a fish but
he pushed it away and she ate it herself. He was hungry, but not that
hungry. Instead he ate some fruit and nuts one of the women had put
out by the fire pit.

Bernard replenished the fire as it grew nightfall. Most of the
villagers had gone into their huts to sleep. He put backpack down,
laid his head on it and laid down by the fire pit to sleep. A couple
of the men laid down there too and went to sleep.

Morning


Bernard went on to tell Linc about how he woke up the next morning
with someone petting his hair. He had seen only two small children in
this camp, and both of them were squatting by him. As he raised up,
they ran away. He picked up a stick and probed around in the ashes
looking for a live coal or two than added some sticks to build the
fire up again. He needed to find something to do. So he took up his
backpack and left the village. Went down to the stream. Looking
across it he could see a patch of bamboo. Lots of it. He took off
his pack, and took a hatchet out of it. He cut and trimmed four big
piles of it. Went back farther in the trees and found some gourds
growing up the trees. He gathered up four nice big dry ones and took
them back out and placed them by the piles of bamboo. Going back into
the trees he picked some berries and ate them along with a few nuts he
found . He found a tree that had great big leaves on it and decided
to gather a bundle of them when he heard a noise. He thought maybe
some of the villagers decided to come across the stream and see what
he was up to. Something dropped onto his back, and almost took him
down. He shrugged it off and found it was a huge sloth. He whacked
it in the head a couple time with the hatchet, and killed it. It was
the first animal he had seen since he got here. He grabbed up some
of the big leaves he had cut off, and dragged the animal back out to
the stream. Some of the villagers were sitting on the other side and
when they saw the sloth they were yipping and howling. Five of the
men came across the stream and watched as Bernard took a big knife out
of his pack and cleaned the animal out. He cut off the head then had
a couple of the men hold a couple of bamboo stalks between them he
draped the sloth over them. He gave the gourds to another and bamboo
sticks to another one. He picked up more bamboo, the big leaves and
then went across the steam, the rest followed. Back at the village he
had the men put the sloth up on a big rock. He had the men help him
and they pushed a couple of big rocks together where they were about 3
feet across. Then he took a clew of heavy twine out of his pack.
Lashed and tied a bunch of bamboo stalks together, he made a table
top out of them and put it up on the rocks they had pushed together.


He added more wood to his fire along with some bigger chunks so he would
have some good coals.

He skinned the sloth and placed it on the makeshift table and
disjointed it. He gave the leg quarters to the women , then using the
hatchet he trimmed the rib pieces. Cut them free of the backbone and
cut off the lower portion of the ribs. He then sharpened some
sticks and threaded the ribs onto them. By then the fire had died
down. With a bit of attention to his setup he put the ribs over the
fire to cook, turning them ever so often. In the meantime the women
had put the leg quarters in the boiling spring and they had eaten up
every bite. One gal even grabbed the backbone and tossed it in the
spring too. Some of the others were chewing away on some of the fat,
eating it raw. Bernard took a bar of soap from his pack and went to
the hot spring. He washed all the dirt and blood from his hands and
arms. The natives watched his every move. They put their hands in
the water and made the same motions that Bernard did. Looks of
bewilderment on their faces.
Back at the fire, Bernard turned the meat again. It was almost done.
He had one of the men help him and they turned the table top over.
He then laid out the big leaves on it. When the meat was done he
placed it on the big leaves and cut off pieces for each of the
natives. Cut up a big chunk into pieces, placed them on a big leaf
then went to the fire, sat down and ate. The old women came and sat
down by him. He rubbed his belly and said, "good, good". She held
her hand out to the fire and shook her head up and down, and smile a
great big smile.
After eating and sitting by the fire for a while, Bernard gathered up
all the greasy big leaves and placed them down in the fire pit
alongside the fire.
He took a gourd and using the knife he cut the top out of it. Cleaned
out the seeds, then took a rock and scraped and scrubbed the inside of
it clean and smooth. He opened another and gave it to one of the
women to clean and fix like he did. He did the same with all the
gourds then took the women down to the stream with the gourds and they
filled them with water. He drank from his then refilled it to take
back to the village. He took a sip from his gourd then gave it to the
old women urging her to drink. She did, so the other women offered
their gourds to the others. Another thing learned. He took his gourd
and went over to the hot spring and filled it with water from it, took
it back to the makeshift table. Had help to turn it and then he poured
the spring water on it and with a rock, he scrubbed the blood off the
bamboo. And turned the gourd upside down, to dry out. The women all
turned the gourds upside down to.
Bernard motioned for some men to follow him, and the went back across
the stream, into the trees to find more gourds. They picked about
twenty of the dry ones and four green ones and took them all back to
the village. Bernard took the green ones and cut them open and cleaned
the seeds out onto a flat slab of rock he had found Placed the slab
down onto the edge of the fire pit.
Then proceeded to open the dry gourds and handed them to the natives
to clean out for them selves, so they would each have their own
gourd.

Bernard took the hatchet and found some bigger wood and, with a lot
of help, cut a big pile of it a placed it by the fire pit. Now that
the seeds were dry, he put them in a gourd and set them aside He
would deal with them in the morning.
He started to get ready to sleep by the fire, but the old lady came
and took him by the hand and took him to the hut of one of the women.
She pointed down at the ground next to the gal and pushed him down.
Well now! This was something new. He curled up next to the gal and
thought about this. He was going to have to do some thing about this
if it was going to be a norm. The old women left the hut and Bernard
kept his back to the gal. He was going to have to get her into the
hot spring for a scrub, before he would touch her, she stunk so bad.
And this hut reeked too. He laid there for what seemed like hours,
the sneaked out and went to sleep by the fire.