Trading Day

Trading Day is always exciting.  Back when it was just Soren and me, before the other orphans joined our clan, while I was still little.  Soren would always let me get peppermint sticks.  But that was then, and this is now.  Now I am the trader, and Soren lays dead in our Yetim graveyard, or at least his fingers do, as we never found his body.

So, I walk up to the counter and old Trader Alpheus Avery, and he just glares at me.  His daughter Lillian, smiles, and says, "Don't minded my father.  He is still bitter that we lost Soren."  My brother had been sweet on Lillian, and old Trader Avery much to the surprise of everyone had seen Soren a good match for Lillian because he had picked himself up out of nothing, and become a good trader.  They had even talked of setting up a story atop Canyon above the Caves of Yetim. Then came the accident and Soren's death.  Sometimes I still think Lillian thinks she is my sister, and I wonder if Soren had proposed or something.  Well, what ever it was, it is good for business.

"$152 for the skins, $100 for the saddle, $75 for the rug, and $45 for the solar panels."
"What of Silver's items?" I ask.
 "$50 for the lot." Lillian replies, with a hint of special treatment.
I am getting nervous, "What does Trader Avery think?"
"The Kasa trades are mine from now on." Lillian assures me.
That is all I need hear.  I give her our list.  "100 lb of flour, 50 lb of spaghetti, 10 lb of coffee, 2 lb of cloves, 1 lb of nutmeg, 1 lb of ginger, 10 yards of Brown Calico, 2 yards of Black Calico, 1 Stetson hat, and 4 pairs of jeans.  Also, add in one cast iron dutch oven and one cast iron griddle."
"Your trade total was $422, and your change from your purchases is $300.18.  I am throwing in a lb of peppermint sticks in honor of Soren."  Lillian quickly makes me the change. "Oh, and the A'ts'inna Ceplin toy Soren order for Murk is in.  Paid in full, so no charge today."
It is then as she hands me Murk's Ceplin, I see the bad burn on her left hand.  Strange, as it looked like about 6 months old and like it was from an older type of steam-land speeder, a flash of hope crosses my mind, 'Was Soren driving Lillian's speeder, and Lillian following?  Could Soren be alive?' but I dare not ask.
"Any thing else?" Lillian asks, drawing her hands into her serapie.
"Not today, Lillian.  My thanks for the very fair trade.  You are welcome to visit the Kasa Cave in Yetim, any time.  If you wish, you can even move into Soren's cave, the agreement to open a post for Yetim stands, Soren living or not." I tell her.  That will make her father Trader Avery happier and life easier for all of us.
Lillian gasps, "I am honored.  I know that is a rare offer, not many non-orphans are invited to live and work at Yetim."
With that Lillian and I silently load Bleska with the purchases and Lillian gives Bleska a mutton jerky treat she keeps for her.   I am of again.  Always good to do an early trade.  If weather holds, I should be home in 2 days.

~ Wryn Kasa

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* Sale prices are based on actual prices from 1880's for dry goods, and 1880's to 1920's on furs. Check trade prices page for more info.  ~ MMN

At A'ts'inna

The trip here was without event, other than a small monsoon rain*.  "Bleska, I am glad to be inside and not camping tonight."  A'ts'inna is always busy this time of year.  Many families with funds are prepping to send their children off to boarding school and the next pueblo over, Zuni, has their fair around now.  "Bleska, I am glad I can spare the Kasa clan orphans of Yetim the pain of boarding school.  Boarding schools were bad in the 1880's, and they are bad again in the 2110's.  'Tis not an experience I would wish on my worst enemies, let along fellow orphan's I call my 'children'.  They force everyone to learn only English and learn proper society.  Out here that finery will just get us killed.  No, Clove, Silver, Murk, and Luna are safer at home being taught from the land and the books my mother left us; just as I was with Soren as my teacher."

My lodging is modest.  A simple one room with a wash bowl, oil lamp, rope bed, and floor rug.  On the

bright side, they let Bleska sleep in the room.  This is all a trader like me needs.  

As I sit looking out the window, I sigh, "I wonder what the valley looked like 100 years ago?  I know the Beale's Railway Station use to be the El Morro National Park Ranger Station, now it is home to numerous passenger and supply trains.  Beale's Railway itself runs along Beale's Trail and old HWY 53 from Albuquerque to Flagstaff past A'ts'inna and Zuni."  I yawn.  "They even brought camels back after nearly 240 years of not using them here.  Imagine, not using camels in a desert!"
Bleska looks at me like, "Come to bed. Tomorrow is for trading and visiting."
"Alright, alright, I'll go to sleep.  Sleepy head tiger."  I tease Bleska.  She just flicks her tail and doesn't open her eyes. Two more days and we will be back on the road.  Good night for now, big day of trading tomorrow.

~ Wryn Kasa
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*It rains hard nearly every day during the American southwest desert's monsoon season.  In the desert we call a "small monsoon rain" one that does not last long and doesn't over flow the rivers. ~ MMN

Packing for A'ts'inna

 As I am prepping to go to A'ts'inna, Silver walks up from the bottom of the canyon, to our cave home.  "So you head to A'ts'inna, this Bini’anit’aats'osi, Time of Lean Harvest?"
"Yes, Silver, I am heading to A'ts'inna in the Time of the Lean Harvest.  If I remember right, the older timers called this month August."
Just then, Bleska, my beloved friend and Desert Tiger raises her head.  
Murk looks at me, "What is a Desert Tiger? When did they come to America, sissy Wryn?"  Murk never triers of asking me this over and over, but as he does have ongoing memory issues, I tell him again.
"Well, Murk, before the Great Plague, they did not exist  and where and when exactly they came about no one is really sure.  It is though that the Great Plague morphed the Vegas White Tiger genes to where they could breed with both the effected Mountain Lions and effected Black Jaguars, thus creating a new breed totally fit for the desert southwest."
Luna asks, "Wryn, how did Bleska become part of our clan of Orphans?"
I smile, "Bleska befriend me when she was just a wee tiger.  Her mother would watch us play together.  When Bleska came of age, she had bonded with me, and I became a tiger rider."  A good thing, since after Soren's death, I will not touch a land speeder.

I throw my ridding blanket onto Bleska, something we use only for longer trips.  Then I throw on the saddle bags.   First Silver comes, "Here you are, Wryn, the last 6 months worth of my silversmithing, both jewelry and stirrups and two rebuilt travel sized solar panels."
Next Clove walks over to the saddle bags, "One Navajo Rug that took me six months to weave. Be sure Lillian Avery trades with you for it.  Her father is not fair with his prices"
Luna comes skipping up. "Here are the translations of old Anasazi pictographs from the First Chacoian Age (pre-1492)."   
Murk comes running up, "Turkey feathers." He runs back off, lost in his own little world.
Personally, I  made several tiger harnesses, and  a detailed leather tiger saddle.  I also packed the remainder of last winters furs, which I had saved for an emergency, including a rare white coyote fur.  
"Silver, as eldest you are in charge while I am away.  Clove, make sure Murk eats and gets at least one bath while I am away.  Luna, don"t you or Murk go to far from the safety of the Caves of Yetim.  The other orphan clans will keep an eye on things for us while I am away."  with that I climb up on Bleska back.  "Let's be off, Bleska!"
She bounds down the canyon wall, follows the stream, and then up the narrow trail out of the Caves of Yetim.  After we are out of Yetim, it is open desert most of the way to A'ts'inna.

~ Wryn Kasa

"Mother" Wryn, the Trapper Gal

Greetings from 2113 or there abouts.  My name is Wryn Kasa, "the little bird dressed in furs".  I am just 19 years old, and have been an orphan since I was 9.  I watched both of my parents die of the "Great Plague" before my eyes.  My elder brother, Soren Kasa, was a tinker and land speeder builder.  He died on his way back from a major trade event, less than 6 months ago, leaving me the "mother" and sole trader for our clan of orphans.  So it is in this hard land of the Anasazi Desert I dwell.

As I sit thinking how we are going to survive without Soren, Murk, the youngest of the 4 other orphans that dwell with me in our 5 bedroom cave dwelling, climbs in my lap, "Wryn, when you going to A'ts'inna? I want peppermints and a toy Ceplin."  Ceplins, also called A'ts'inna Ceplins, are smaller airship holding about 30-40 people, compared to full sized Zeplins which hold over 100.
"Soon, Murk, soon.  But first I need to figure out what we need."  I tell him, rubbing his white hair.  He cant remember his parents, and all he has is us and his sister Luna.
Luna pipes up, "Murk found some pictographs by the Anasazi, while we tracked the turkey yesterday.  I went back and translated them.  We also saved all the turkey tail feathers, we could trade half of those."
Silver shakes his head, Luna is just 9 and tries to be too grown up sometimes.  "We need some games for the coming winter, plus I need some more silver to melt down.  Any cheep tools.  Oh, were not you needing new tips for your arrows?"
I shake my head, "No, I have the tools to make new tips, but thank you Silver, that is more what I was thinking of."  He is 17, and just two years younger than I.  He has been like a brother to me for the past 8 years along with Clove.  "Now, my cook and weaver, what are you needing, dear Clove?"
"I will make you a list.  My food trunk is nearly empty, though the root cellar and smoke house is full our garden and hunting items, all our store bought items are gone...lost when brother Soren died."  Clove replies, ever practical, sometime to a fault, even though she is just 16.  "Oh, and I need some sewing fabric.  We will need new dress shirt and dresses soon."
I make a icky face.  "Very well.  I will go inventory what we have to trade.  I will go soon, like in the next few days. Make do with what we have until I figure out."  Well, it appears if we will survive this winter, I best be planning a trip to A'ts'inna, the Chacoian city atop El Morro.
~ Wryn Kasa   

Introduction

The year is 2113.  A "Great Plague" swept through the world nearly 75 years ago, with flare ups happening still in 2113.  A kin to the Black Plague, but this one many of the Native American, Gypsy, and Desert Dwelling cultures seemed to have stronger immunity to than other cultural groups, in part some scientist theorize because they had dealt with the same plague generations before.

Many great nations fell to the plague, but other like England, Ireland, France, Egypt, Mongolia have thrived...  England even tried to regain her colonies in the in the former USA after the nation collapsed.  Little did Queen Victoria II (granddaughter of King George Alexander Louis, the grandson of Princess Diana) know that she would be met with the revived Iroquois Confederacy, rebuilt Tsalagi Nation, and strong Seminole Nation.  Even  the Lakota Nation and Apache Confederacy of the prairies sent warriors.  So wisely Queen Victoria II signed a trade agreement, and left the new Native Nations in peace.  The Chacoian Confederacy and Dine' Nation at the time had been preoccupied with the Aztecan Empire in one of the Emperor's many attempts to invade their nations.

While the USA as it was known did fall, some of her larger cities and some of her smaller ones too, grew into strong city-states.  Among these are Wichita, the Air Capital, of the former state of Kansas.  Another is Chicago which had burnt down for a second time, and her Water Tower withstood for a second time and much of her Uptown survived. Phoenix, Flagstaff,  Albuquerque, and Gallup are boarder towns to the great Native Nations of the Southwest.  Other city-states exist, but are not well known at the present, as trade route are still in development.

It is this strange new world that the Orphans of Yetim dwell in...

Writers Note: Creative Commons Info

Anasazi Desert Chronicles: The Orphan Caves (CC) 2013 by M. Morria Nickles

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2013

Anasazi Desert Publishing
Farmington, AZ 87499

anasazidesertpubl@gmail.com

Please contact us for more information, and we will be happy to work with you

Anasazi Desert Chronicles: The Orphan Caves  are supplemental works that fall between, Anasazi Desert Chronicles: Soren's Lament  and Anasazi Desert Chronicles: Secret of Yetim, both of which are in the works.