Read Adventures on RV Traveler (Free Trader Series Book 3) Online
Authors: Craig Martelle
When the caravan arrived in Greentree, every villager stood in the square. There were new people and new babies, and the same aura of joy that the companions had embraced when they decided to live here. The people cheered and waved. Flowers decorated the entrance to their home.
Ditarod stood in front, smiling and waving. Behind the crowd, Braden saw the wagon, with Candela and Tanner sitting on the buckboard. The entire Earthshaker Herd pranced to their right, kicking up clouds of dust.
‘And you thought no one loved you. Shame on you, partner mine.’
Micah’s thought voice caressed Braden, comforting him. He felt warm all over. He wondered why the noise hadn’t upset the children.
Bronwyn. She had talked with them nonstop since they met her. Now she was holding ‘Tesh’s little hand up in the air, helping her wave at the crowd. Micah was doing the same with Ax. Braden looked around to find Skirill watching them from the branch of a tall tree.
‘Come down, my friend. I’ve missed you.’
Skirill executed a shallow dive, back winged to a hover and landed gently between Braden’s face and Max’s neck. He helped the Hawkoid steady himself, tail feathers draped down Max’s shoulder. Braden had one arm around the Hawkoid while he scratched the bird’s wing-root feathers with the other. One cycle of the seasons was a long time.
The return of Braden and his clan to Greentree resulted in a celebration that included people from all the villages. How they managed it, Braden and Micah could only guess.
“Let’s do this twice each cycle. We gather in a village to celebrate. A festival. Each village hosts one, then rotate to the next. The elders can talk and we keep the peace. People need to travel more, see the world, appreciate other people!” Braden threw the idea out and let it go, but the right people heard. When they were alone, the village leaders committed to making it happen.
Bronwyn was completely taken with the babies. She was eleven cycles old, but mature as an adult when it came to handling them. She told Braden and Micah emphatically that wherever her little sister and brother went, she would go, too. Micah looked at her parents, who threw up their hands in surrender. Bronwyn determinedly claimed two sets of parents and extra siblings.
Even Brandt shouldered his way into the celebration, where Ax and ‘Tesh got to meet him fully. Most people were intimidated when they saw the King of the Aurochs for the first time. Not the babies. They couldn’t walk yet, but they could stand. When Bronwyn introduced them to Brandt, he had to put his nose on the ground, where they each grabbed a horn to pull themselves up. His eyes were as big as their heads. The moment he talked with them, they both put their hands over their ears and started crying. Bronwyn had a sharp word for the great beast, who hung his head even lower.
When he tried again, they were recovered. They climbed his horns as if they were toys. He lifted them off the ground a hand-span or two then dropped them back down. Braden hugged Micah to him as they watched. She leaned into his shoulder, feeling both proud and happy.
‘You know they will be in the best of hands,’
Braden started. Micah’s eyes glistened as she thought of their future.
‘I can’t imagine a day without my babies, but I know we have to do this. It will take me some time, that’s all.’
Micah finished with a sigh. Braden looked at the device in the palm of his hand that Holly had given them. Anyone could use it to communicate with Braden or Micah as long as they had their neural implants active. This put their minds at ease.
Old Tech used for the right purpose. If each village had one, they could all talk. It could bring the villages even closer together, but Braden believed they weren’t ready yet. The traders, plying the routes, would be effective enough. Plus, Braden and Micah didn’t want the others to know about New Sanctuary.
Everything they brought back--the wheel hubs, the saw blades, the books--were supposedly found by the Amazonians deep in the rainforest at a secret location. This would keep treasure hunters away.
Whoever they gave the communication device to would have to keep it secret.
“Where were you for the past cycle? Did you go back to the north?” Someone finally asked the question they’d prepared themselves for.
“No. We went south, but we got trapped because of bad weather. When we reached the southern edge of the rainforest, we went east, found a lake. Fish, game, and wild vegetables. The babies seemed close for a long time, then when they were born, they needed more time. But Max and Speckles took good care of us along with Aadi and the Golden Warrior.” If anyone tried following those directions, it would lead them away from New Sanctuary. Without Skirill’s keen eyes and a horse to ride, searching for New Sanctuary would be fruitless.
Then again, the cart tracks through the dry grasses would lead someone straight to it. Braden opened his neural implant and asked Holly to send a Development Unit to erase their trail and then make a false one heading east. He closed the link.
“How did you decide on their names?” a young woman asked Micah.
“Well now, that’s a story in and of itself. Let’s just say that our companions suggested the names and the babies liked them.”
“How funny! You can tell the babies like their names?”
“Yes. Like Bronwyn, we can talk with our companions and they can talk with the babies. The way it worked, we had little choice in their names. As long as they’re happy, what else could a parent hope for?”
‘Ass,’
Braden whispered to G-War over the mindlink. He heard the ‘cat laughing. Micah choked her laugh into a cough.
They continued meeting and greeting well into the darkness, until they were exhausted. They found Bronwyn with the children asleep in the bed of their home. Someone else had been living there, but that was okay with them. They hadn’t needed it. Both instantly thought back to the comfort and luxury they enjoyed at New Sanctuary. If they hadn’t set up a routine of exercise and training with their weapons, they would have grown fat and lazy.
They squeezed into free spots on the bed. G-War joined them. The babies adjusted themselves so they could each put a hand on the ‘cat. That’s how they had slept from their first day in this world. As Braden had told Micah long ago, the ‘cat and the companions would be their parents as much as the humans.
Micah fell asleep right away. Although Braden was exhausted, sleep eluded him.
He thought about New Sanctuary. Micah had gained skill with the recurve bow and the special carbon fiber arrows. They both learned how to use the blasters, dialing the beam to a pinpoint, or opening it up to throw a fire wide. They perfected both short and long bursts. The Security Bots had taught them well.
Braden replaced his long knife with a shortsword produced in New Sanctuary’s factory. It was longer, sharper, and more sturdy than his trusty blade. They discovered that Micah’s sword was Old Tech, as were all those recovered from Elder McCullough and his men. That begged the question, where did they get them?
Maybe these were a hand-down, like the blaster that Micah carried. Their history didn’t matter. The Old Tech weapons were in the hands of good people who were doing the right things. As he thought back to today’s festival, he didn’t remember seeing anyone carrying weapons.
Except for he and Micah.
Next time, they’d secure their weapons and arrive as friends, not conquerors. But they needed to be ready, just in case. The Bat-Ravens. Hostile Amazonians. Someone had to carry the responsibility of making war to keep the peace. He and Micah were armed so no one else had to be. They were trusted. No one cared that Braden and Micah had weapons. Aadi called it purity of heart.
Was it that simple?
Bronwyn’s parents were more than happy to take responsibility for Ax and ‘Tesh, especially since Bronwyn was there. The little girl went from being the strangest one in the village to the one others wanted to be like. She carried the authority of the King of the Aurochs and of the Hawkoid, Master Skirill. When Akhmiyar visited, he first went to Bronwyn, then to Brandt.
The only one they could trust with the Old Tech communication device was the eleven-cycle old girl. They gave it to Bronwyn and showed her how to use it. Micah wanted to talk with her every day when she was apart from her children. Morning, mid-day, and evening, Bronwyn was to have it where she could hear it. She needed to carry it on her belt when she was outside so it could charge itself. She was not to give it to anyone else.
Braden and Micah went to work. They wouldn’t leave until the books were passed out, traders were identified and plying the routes, and Braden’s caravan had made a circuit of the villages from Coldstream to Dwyer.
Sweet pork. The fabricator couldn’t make anything like it. Besides Skirill and Brandt, the next thing that Braden missed the most was Coldstream’s finest delicacy. From what he’d heard from new travelers, he wasn’t the only one smitten by their pork specialty. Others were trying to duplicate it, but there was only one original.
Old Tom. He could incorporate the new wheel hubs into the next two wagons. Those would roll better than any others on Planet Vii. Braden also had a couple hints for Tom to further refine his metal. Holly had the sample examined and then made recommendations for two different types of steel. One that was pliable and another that was rigid and strong.
The Traders. Braden stopped Candela and Tanner from leaving until he could check their progress with reading and writing. They shied away. They’d stopped writing the heartbeat Braden and Micah left. Braden was furious, but contained his anger. He gave them one school book and three blank books. He helped them draw a map in the front of the book, showing the trade route from Dwyer to Westerly. He scaled it to give them a perspective of the distances. He included a legend, with travel times for humans and Aurochs. He wrote the village names at the top of a page, leaving multiple blank pages for the trader’s notes before writing the next village name.
He drilled the young couple on their alphabet and made them do math problems until they were ready to cry. Micah ended the day’s lessons, without yelling at Braden. She knew the importance of his rudder, but dragging the south toward civilization wasn’t going to be easy. He needed to give them time. Make reading and writing important to the traders where they wanted to learn instead of assuming that they would just do it because he said so.
Braden lightened up as he watched the escaping forms of his trader apprentices. Micah shook her head. “How can it be important for them? And the right answer isn’t because I said so.”
Braden couldn’t answer that. Not yet anyway.
Micah taught the following day and the next, while Braden talked with people. Everyone wanted to tell him what they had done over the past cycle. He listened, praised, and encouraged. His role was simple, now that the hard work of establishing the trade route was done. He needed to keep people excited about trade and buying in to the future it created.
Braden occasionally disappeared into their hut. Micah knew he was talking with Holly. They’d learned the matter transfer system was ready, and the people of Cygnus VI wanted to leave. They had to travel to the ship first, and Holly hadn’t been able to establish communication with anyone on board. It was Braden’s intent to go there first, explore, verify, and make the connections Holly needed. Then the people from Cygnus VI could move to the Traveler and stay there. Braden was hesitant to bring them to Vii.
He thought if they were free, they could do a great deal of damage to the fragile balance in this world. If they were willing to stay at New Sanctuary, then maybe that could buy time until they figured out what was best for everyone. The scientists from Cygnus VI had nothing in common with the people of Vii.
It had taken him a long time to build the people up. It would take the ancients no time to tell the villagers how backward they were. He didn’t need that kind of help.
Braden and Micah would travel to Westerly. Candela and Tanner would go east. When they crossed paths, the young traders vowed to share their rudder with Braden. They wanted to make him proud. He wanted them to do right by the trade. Negotiate. Trade. Deliver. He didn’t care about his cut, although he’d miss seeing Old Tom’s face when the young traders gave him the Old Tech wheel hubs.
They left. Even not having traveled together for nearly a cycle, it was like time had never passed. Skirill flew ahead, while Brandt, with Bronwyn & G-War riding him, set the pace. Aadi held in his beak a thin Amazonian rope tied to Max’s saddle. Micah rode in the cart with the twins.
The first stop was Coldstream, where they secured some of Braden’s favorite, the sweetened pork. The festival had drawn down the supplies, although with the opened trade routes, Coldstream had vastly increased their animal stock. The size of the pen had tripled, if not more. They’d captured wild boars to increase the size and quantity of the pigs. It was refreshing to see. Dantan promised that their supply of sweetened pork would be refreshed when Braden passed next. He said he’d hold them to that and with a smile and a wave, the caravan moved on.
They avoided Bliss. No one was there. Skirill confirmed that the village was empty.
They traveled across the open plains, the sparse trees, grasslands. and rolling hills. Candela and Tanner hadn’t mentioned that they’d come this far, but the wheel tracks across the plains were clear.
Were these their tracks from over a cycle ago? They had blazed a trail that would last. Maybe it was symbolic. Maybe it just was.