The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning by Harold Straugh (best e reader for academics TXT) 📗

a large handle.  They skewered the meat on that rod and the men lifted it over and set it on the forks.  I’ve seen it done many of time before but, never in a carved-out cave in the middle of the Artic.

I also noticed there was no seasoning being applied, Noemi would have been having a fit, if she saw that.  The meat smelled good though.  After about thirty-minutes, the fat started to render down and drip onto the fire, making little sizzling and popping noises as it did. After about another forty-minutes Mylicious walked over and tore a chunk of meat off and tossed it to me.

“Try that brother, you won’t be disappointed,” he said, the fire danced off his eyes.

I caught the meat with one hand, it was tender to the touch and juiced dripped from in between my fingers and onto the fur-covered floor.  I easily tore a piece off and put it in my mouth.  It was tender, juicy and Mylicious was right, I was not disappointed. The meat had a mild gamey taste, but not over powering, it was unlike any other meat I had sampled before.

“What is this?” I asked.

“They call them Yeti’s, they live in the mountains on the far side of the land. We try to stay away but, they tend to venture into my land.  They put up a good fight, they’re huge, eight-feet tall was the smallest I have ever seen.”

Tarkik and Kallik took the pointed rod off the fire, turned the point downwards and stuck it in the ice.  Mylicious tossed another piece to me, then nodded at the rest of the pack.  They attacked the meat as if it were still alive.  They didn’t use utensils, wooden or metal plates, they used their hands. They ripped it apart, gross slurping and chewing sounds filled my ears.  Even innocent looking Yura was on all fours, pawing at the food.  I ate my food away from the pack, in silence, and disgust.  As usual I didn’t even get to swallow most the food, it just absorbed into my body.

Mylicious’s kids were the first to walk away, they came closer to me than before and sat down, staring at me.  Amka, the girl, came a little closer, I wanted to hiss at her, to get her to go away, but I didn’t.  I just looked at her and turned my attention back to the feeding frenzy.  I watched with my peripheral vision as Amka inched closer.  She then slowly reached out her tiny hand and touched my hand. I looked over at her and she had a look of curiosity on her face.

“What?” I asked her.

“You’re not as cold as the ice, but you look like the ice,” she said and moved the hair from her face.

“Perhaps I should be as cold as the ice, so I don’t feel anything,” I said to her not expecting her to fully understand my concept.

“I’d much rather die than live a life like that,” she said, then got up and walked away, I looked over at Amaruq and he followed.

I’ll give it to the brat, she was smart for her age, but her dad was Mylicious.  I wondered for a minute what it would be like to have kids, a wife, a family.  Then I shook the horrible thought from my head. I wouldn’t have made a good father at the time, I couldn’t even embrace myself, much less anyone else.

Soon, there was nothing left of the leg-quarters except bone.  Mylicious looked at me and wiped his mouth, “I shall make you something out of one of these bones brothers, I think you’ll appreciate it.”

“I’m sure I will,” I said, curious on what he was going to make me.

Mylicious and Yura came back over to me, the rest of pack, including the wife and kids left. Mylicious sat down next to me on one side and Yura on the other.

“Where are they going?” I asked.

“To get some fish, they’ll be back tomorrow, they must go a few islands over, where things aren’t so frozen.  I like to fish here, it’s harder to catch something though.  Yura likes to fish the way I do as well.”

“How do you fish here?” I asked.

“We head out to the only frozen lake on the land, I have holes cut into it, we drop our bait and wait,” Yura said.

“No spears?” I asked, only to get a chuckle from Mylicious.  He pointed to the spools with the hooks on them.

After we cleaned up the mess by the fire pit, put the bones off to the side and the metal rods up against the ice-wall, we each grabbed a spool and headed down the fifth tunnel.  Once again there were steps carved out, but this tunnel was lined with torches. The tunnel was six-feet wide and at least eight-feet tall.

We walked for several miles through the tunnel before surfacing above ground.  Then we literally took two steps before Mylicious announced we were on the lake.  I noticed three torches off in the distance.

“That’s my where my holes are at to get to the fish,” Mylicious said.

“Built this entrance a little close to the lake, didn’t you?”

“All I have I had to do is punch through third step down and I’ll flood my home.  It’s in case of an invasion, I can get away quickly and drown them even quicker.”

“Isn’t the ice thick on this lake?”

“Indeed it is, thirty-five swipes with my claws, which is just an inch above the third step,” Mylicious said, he truly was the smartest of us all.

“Yura, did you grab the bait?” Mylicious asked.

“Yes, I did,” she said and produced a small, gallon sized, burlap sack. There was blood dripping out the bottom of the sack.  She opened it and showed me it’s contents. There were