The Lady of Despair by Mark Steele

Author:Mark Steele [Steele, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: X30
Publisher: Old Elm Tree Press
Published: 2021-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

“One’s ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.” --- Sherlock Holmes

Once I had killed the remaining pyger, I went out of the cave briefly to get another bag which I filled with another five to ten kilograms of saltpeter. I was here. I had barely made it out. I did not really want to have to try again later.

By the time I left the cave it was almost sunset. I dragged the sled and my gear back to the campsite and got a fire going just as the sun was setting. I also dragged the carcass of the pyger a bit further away from my camp. I started to walk away then turned back and looked at it for a moment. I took out my knife and cut into the side of the pyger and then slid the knife under the skin in a more or less straight line following the line of the body. I then turned down toward the belly and stopped and turned and made a parallel cut back once I reached the edge of the belly feathers. Once I got back near the front legs, I turned up and met my previous cut. I then slipped my gloved fingers under the skin that I had cut and began to peel it back, cutting bits of muscle and tendon away from the skin as I went. I ended up with a somewhat rectangular, bloody, piece of pyger skin.

If I lasted long enough on this planet before being rescued then I would eventually need to replace articles of clothing with local materials. I thought I would try this pyger skin and see if I could turn it into a useful piece of leather. I remembered from some class that that process was known as tanning although I did not remember how it was done. But I still had Exandra and her databases for now.

I went back to the camp carrying my rolled piece of rawhide which I wrapped in a plastic sample bag for safekeeping. I washed my hands and made a quick campfire. I was not actually hungry but I did make a large cup of tea. My hands were shaking a bit. Killing did not make me happy. I would have preferred not to have to kill any pygers on this trip. They had left me alone more or less since the first two that I had killed early in my life here. The fact that I was in their den was a mistake on my part but we certainly were not going to sit down with a cup of tea and talk it out. The eggs were a nasty bit but it was doubtful that they could have hatched without the body heat of their mother. It was another beautiful night full of stars as I sat on the low stone wall and thought about the day's events and whether my future would become a literal fight against the planet's animal life.

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