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Day Two
When Eva wakes you it is not yet light,
and it is to these words. "Everyone in my village was
eaten by rats." She gives you a look like you aren't going
to beleive her. “It was horrible. They would attack
in these little swarms. Running right up a man and eating
pieces out of his face. The men would stomp and slap like they
were on fire, but it didn’t kill the rats. They just kept
eating and ripping."
She looks down
into the small campfire. "Women were freaking out.
Babies were screaming. John Elliot was trying to stab the ones
on his wife’s back.” She chokes back a sniffle.
“Old Miss May was swatting them with a flaming log in each
hand. They just got back up and tried to get in the crib
again.”
Tears are streaming down
here cheeks now. “Miss May! They’re eating
your neck. Miss May!” She drops here head to her
hands and cries. You can see her holy symbol gleaming in the
fire light and the pre-dawn darkness.
[Get five experience points for listening.]
After dawn the two of you quitely put the pirogue into the bayou and set off. The water is a muddy brown. There is not much of a current. With the steady rhythm of dipping paddles y'all move out. The bayou is scenic and peaceful. Things go smoothly until noon.
A strange
plant grows on top of the bayou waters. Drifting with the
current, and bunching up around fallen trees and stumps. It is
called Hyacinth. It is a flowering type of Lily that floats,
roots and all. Sometimes crawfish (They look like mini
lobsters.) crawl up on top of them.
Lady
Eva is laying in the front of the pirogue scooping crawfish. As
you are rowing down the bayou Lady Eva kneels down in the front.
She leans forward so the upper half of her body extends out over the
water. It reminds you oddly of the figureheads you sometimes
see on large ships. She is holding her right hand up. As
the pirogue approaches a cluster of Hyacinth she strikes with her
hand and scoops a crawfish off the plant and over her shoulder in one
graceful stroke. The crawfish lands in the pirogue. After
an hour of this there are about thirty of the little bugs crawling
around in the bottom of the pirogue. “They make good
eatin',” She says over her shoulder.
The splash and strike of an alligator gar.
One of the
times you see Lady Eva raise her right hand to strike, there is
a loud splash and she sits straight up and pulls her hand in close.
She didn’t get a crawfish this time. She slides back into
the pirogue and turns around. “Almost lost a hand.
An alligator gar beat me to that one.” She picks up her
oar and starts to row. "We've got enough to eat anyway."
[Get five experience points for learning
a new way to catch lunch and another five for finding out the hazard
involved.]
An hour
before sunset y'all pull up to the bank, set up camp, and she starts
dinner. She quickly gets a fire going and a pot of water
boiling. Then she drags the Pirogue closer and climbs in.
Deftly she picks up a crawfish by its tail and throws it into the pot
of boiling water. Within two minutes they are all in.
With the addition of some spices it really starts to smell good.
Half an hour and they are ready.
She takes the pot off the fire with a forked stick, walks to the
bayou’s edge, and strains off all the water. She comes
back and puts down a pot full of bright red cooked crawfish.
She picks one up and says “Only eat the ones whose tails have
curled up. Those died when they hit the water. She grabs
one whith a straight tail. “I think you stepped on this
one when getting out of the pirogue, but no point in taking a
chance.” She flings it away into the bayou. She
picks up another one. With both hands she grabs the upper body
and the tail where they join. With a twist the tail comes right
off in her right hand. She throws the upper body into the
bayou. “I don’t think your ready to learn how to
suck the brains yet.” She shows you how to widen the tail
shell with your thumbs then pinch the very tip and pull the meat
out. In two quick moves she has a clean piece of mini lobster
meat. It disappears in her mouth. “Try one.”
You do, but the meat breaks into pieces. You have to peel the
rest of the shell off fragment by fragment. Reluctantly you
taste the meat. It is spicy and surprisingly good.
[Get five experience for eating your first crawfish dinner.]
Nothing happens that evening, but in the morning you wake up to sounds of something scuffling around in camp. You are laying there and open your eyes to see a baby black bear sitting with the pot in its lap. It is holding the pot in both its paws and licking it. Uh, oh. She forgot to wash it out. The mother can’t be far away. It is pre-dawn and dark as the fire must have died out during the night. You put your hand on your spear which is laying right beside you. You wait patiently. Ten minutes later the baby bear is done and ambles off into the woods. By playing dead, you didn't scare the bear. It didn't howl, and its mother didn't come rampaging over in a protective fit.
[Get 45 experience for sparing the life of the baby bear, and possibly its mom.]