Sweet Home Yetim!

Bleska and I came in to our cave home in Yetim, "Home sweet home at last!"  I look around our main room, there is Clove's cooking stove with steam boiler, Silver's work bench with his silversmithing tools strewn about, Luna's books for translations sitting on her barnwood bookshelf, and Murk's toy box.  Soren's chair still sat in his spot, though a layer of dust covered it...
"Wryn!"  Murk came running and bolted into my arms.
Clove shook her head, "It took 2 extra days to get home, what happened?"
 I shivered, "I had to camp out waiting for the Puerco  River in the Gallup area to go back down from a heavy monsoon rains."
"Well ,now that that has passed. Bleska and you must dry off and get warm in the cave for a night." Clove instructed.   "Besides, nothing is like a cup of Navajo Tea to warm the body and the soul after camping out for 5 nights. True?"
"True, Clove." Thus we sit on our pillows, and warm up while the others unpack.  The look on Murk's face when he saw his Ceplin was priceless.  Time to rest.

~ Wryn Kasa

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