Alex Summers is no hero (hesnohero) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-11-03 19:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alex summers (havok), lorna dane (polaris) |
I thought being on top of a hill would protect us, but half the house is covered up.
Who: Alex and Lorna Summers
Where: in Dakota Territory
What: homesteading, lost in the past
When: the late 1800s
Warnings/Rating: PG-13 for sexual talk, and for making out, and for mentions of hunting and butchery
Status complete
Lorna sighed as she turned her battery powered lantern up a little. “The snow’s about to cover the windows. Do we need to worry about ventilation? I’d hate to asphyxiate in our house.” She was working on a shawl with the yarn she’d brought. Luckily she’d been smart enough to bring a natural looking color, but the yarn was about to run out and they were still in February. She was going to have to find other things to crochet before too long.
“We can open the top of the house, there is an escape door from the attic, roughed in. I reckon the first owners discovered the issue with snow as well.” He chuckled.
“Also, I think I can cut a pathway out, you know, with my powers, if need be.” He waggled a hand. Air holes or walk ways, either way, he could do it.
She nodded. “We’ll just have to make sure it’s during the day. I’m going to check on the attic thing. Make sure it’s clear.” She sighed and stood. “Man, I wish it was spring. I’m excited to see what it’s like to actually do farming.”
“We'll get there, dear.” He was repairing some tools, for those days ahead, when they might just make a life here. “Just got to live.” He grinned. “I’m thinking of cutting a path out and hunting something. I heard some howling last night.”
“Poor wolves are probably hungry. I’m not sure what you’d hunt. It is better than sitting around all day.” She started toward the closet, pulling on a heavy winter coat. “I’ll probably come out too so I can stretch my legs and see some sunshine.”
“Sounds like fun. Not sure how much sunshine there is in this storm, but the nightvision goggles Nate packed should work here, too.” Alex was ready to track some wildlife.
“The particles are the real problem, not the lack of light. I’ll keep the lantern on, so I can find the house again.” She squeezed his hand before going up the stairs, pulling the buttons on her jacket shut.
He followed her, sliding into his own jacket, and then nodding and following along. This could eb fun!
The door was cold and heavy when they reached it and Alex was glad it opened inward. He concentrated on his hands, and then nodded to Lorna. “Ready…”
Lorna nodded. “Yep. Do it.” She stepped aside to make sure she didn’t get snowed on.
Alex yanked the door open and as snow started falling in, he let loose with a short and contained blast, straight forward. The snow vanished and superheated steam, blocked by his powers, shot away from them, and caused a longer pathway to form. Right out of the snowbank.
Alex grinned and let up. The ground was clean to the end of the path, and would be until it melted, or was packed down by too much snow weight above it. “Lets go.”
Lorna hovered out, pulling Alex up. The sun was diffused but visible. She sighed softly. The cold was bitter and her exposed skin felt too cold immediately, but it was better than being trapped inside. “Man, it’s snowing like crazy. No wonder the widow left.”
Alex smiled as he looked outward. “There’s something peaceful about it, though.” Then he pointed toward the woods in one direction. “Thatwaway, if you please…”
“I like it, but it’s our powers that make it tolerable.” She pointed out, then started off in the direction he indicated. “We seem to be getting hit from all sides. I thought being on top of a hill would protect us, but half the house is covered up.”
“Hopefully the snow will actually stop before we are a snow-covered ant-hill.” He shuddered, then looked downward, keeping his hands warmed up. He stroked one along her side, letting her feel the extra warmth.
Lorna shivered, stopping to kiss him. It felt nice. Her face was already freezing. She let the kiss linger, then slowly pulled away. “We’ll clear it off if we have to. It’s not like anyone will notice.”
He kissed her back, and smiled softly. “I know. Now… there are tracks, some, on the snow, even with it snowing, look there, under the trees.” The snow that was there did not have new snow on it yet, and it had lots of tracks. “Maybe wolves?”
She nodded. “Could be. Do we want to track wolves?” She wasn’t sure that was a great idea.
“No.... definitely not. “ He glanced around, then pointed another way. “Lets see what we can see that way.” More heavy forest, and a stream seemed to wind off in the distance.
“Sure!” Lorna said with a nod, tromping off in the direction he pointed.
“A little lower, please?” He was curious about what they might find. After a few minutes, he started spotting tracks of something that looked like a deer. Far away from the wolves and more well defined, so it must have been recent. “That way!”
Lorna angled them lower, but it slowed them down a lot. She smiled at the deer tracks. "We'll need to be quiet now."
“Very quiet. A deer out in this will be jumpty.” Then he kissed her, before concentrating on watching below.
It was a little while later when he spotted movement below and pointed to one area of bushes and trees, where brown moved…
Lorna saw it too and moved them both closer, carefully avoiding the trees and shrubbery. She felt a momentary pang of guilt, but they needed fresh meat badly. The excess salt from the canned food was messing them both up pretty badly.
He waited, bringing one hand up and wrapping the other around that hand’s wrist, steadying himself in her grip, and waited. He had to wait for a clean shot. It took a few minutes, and then, the dear stepped out, a large male with quite a rack, and Alex didn’t hesitate. One quick shot of plasma energy shot out, pencil thin, and the buck dropped without a sound.
“Okay. We’ll have to clean it and skin it, quickly, and we can leave the guts for the animals, this far out, so it will keep them far away from us” He nodded as he reached for his knife, glad now Nate had insisted people take the stainless steel ones that took so long to go dull.
Lorna nodded and took a deep breath. Poor guy. “How can I help? If I’m eating him I can help prepare him.”
“Ah, well, how much gore are you willing to get up close to?” Gutting and cutting and skinning was a nasty job, even when you knew what you were doing.
“If something happens to you I’ll need to know how to do this.” Lorna said with a nod. “I can take it, I promise.”
“Okay. Then the best way is for you to use your magnetism on the knives and for me to tell you how to do it.” ANd he proceeded to lead her through the process of slicing the skin away slowly, and then hooking the bones out that liked to be stubborn. Then in gutting it the rest of the way, and strewing those across the other side of the clearing. Finally, they cut the meat into smaller portions and wrapped it up in the large stitched together bags they had for that purpose.
“There. Now we can haul it back and cook it, and freeze what we don’t want to eat now.”
Lorna’s stomach turned as they worked, but she did her best to observe and learn. If they were going to survive she couldn’t be squeamish. “Luckily our freezer will be in service for another couple months.” She said with a laugh. She was shaking a little, but she blamed that on the cold. “We should get back. I don’t want to get caught in the woods in the dark.”
“Definitely.” He kissed her and then grabbed the bags. “OKay, ready to go.” He grinned at her. “At least we can go back a lot faster.” He was now very glad he had brought in water for cooking, washing and bathing before this trip out.
“No kidding.” Lorna said with a laugh. They shot up into the sky and back down again. This trip only took a couple minutes. “Oooh, once we get Bambi stored I’m going to have to defrost for an hour.”
“Yeah, both of us. Can you start the boiler oven up? I’ll measure out the portions we are cooking tonight and then we can haul the rest downstairs.” He was ready to be snuggled next to her in the kitchen and cooking good hot venison.
Lorna nodded and started the boiler with her powers as she shed her clothes. “I’ll have to work on the clothes immediately, and we’ll be lucky if they dry out this week.” She sighed. “Luckily we have a lot of deer.”
Alex shed his too as he started cutting and measuring meat, and he smiled at her. “We’ll be eating these and the veggies we have stored at least for a month. Good thing there are several ways to cook them.”
“Yeah, we’re lucky we married someone who could cook.” She said with a laugh, collecting their clothes. “You do your thing and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
“Okay.” He kissed her and then got to work. It would be a good dinner and a good night, thanks to this little trip. He was finding he was not hating life back here at all.
Despite the deer murder Lorna was pretty happy with how things were going. They were definitely getting to know each other better, and they were getting a lot of attempts to conceive in. “Man, it’s going to be funny when we get back from this trip and introduce everyone to our son or daughter.”
Alex smiled as he worked and finished it, grinning, putting the meat chunks in the pot, and dumping in water to go with it. “There.”
He grinned at her. “Definitely. They won't even see that coming.”
“Nope.” She pulled some water out of their bucket. “I’ll be back later, sexy, once I’ve conquered the laundry.”
“See you later, beautiful!”
And he got to work cooking.
~fin~