Bohemian Apes
Ruff story
Water Collector
It was another hot morning in the town of Tabes, Elric Bohemi woke up early, it was time to start his daily water search. He sat up in his small cot and brushed the sandy blond hair from his eyes. He looked around his small room and stepped down and touched his feet to the rough wooden floor. He walked to his small dresser and pulled out his trousers, a sleeveless shirt and a long tunic. He walked to the door and pulled his leather canteen from the hook beside it, he opened the door and walked out, he peaked into his little sisters room before entering the small kitchen. He opened a cupboard and pulled out two pieces of dried desert fish, something to give him energy for later.
Elric stepped outside the small mud home and into the morning sun. He raised his hand and held it to shade his eyes as he looked out into the desert wasteland. His father, who was also named Elric, had found a way to collect water. They went out into the desert and would dig holes. They would place a bucket into the hole, stretch a animal hide across it and placing a stone into the center so that it would droop until it was almost in the bucket the condensation would build and drip into the bucket. It was a long process but it helped.
Elrick slung his canteen over his shoulder and walked around to the back where the family kept their two pelicans tied up to a post. a lot of the animals of the land, the land that once flourished with greenery and moisture, have adapted to the desert land. The pelicans were large, Elrick saddled Herman, the larger of the two, and gave a little shout to get him moving. Elrick was going to have to collect any water that they had collected the night before and he planned on starting to dig some new holes over the next dune.
I wonder what this land used to look like. Elric thought to himself.
The elderly of the town told him and the other young people of how their land once flourished, how the trees grew tall and green, how the grass grew and the whispers it would make as it blew across the hills, how there were rivers and lakes everwhere And then how it almost disappeared over night. No one knew how or why but the water dried up and slowly the land became a wasteland.
Elrick made several return trips to the village, bringing back what water he could find. On one such occasion he walked into his fathers small drawing room to see what he was doing, he sat quietly drawing a map of yet another area that may serve well for gathering water. He looked up and smiled at Elrick motioning him over.
Elrick walked over as his father asked him how the collecting had gone.
It went well father. Elrick responded.
His father showed him several things on the map, Elrick nodded telling his father that he thought that those would be good places to start digging. After they were done Elricks father pointed at the corner. There, standing in the corner, was a fishing pole. Elricks eyes lit up, this meant that he would be able to take a break from finding water and go fishing for a while, something he loved doing.
Elrick ran for the door. He was so excited that he just ran to his favorite fishing spot instead of taking one of the pelicans. There were areas in the desert that were soft, soft enough for a fishing line to sink into. The fish also congregated to these areas for some reason. Elrick threw his line in when he heard the soft padding of footsteps coming up behind him. Elrick looked back to see a short girl in a threadbare grey dress with sandy blond pig tails with pink bows tieing them off walking up to him. His friend Lily walked up the hill behind him with a big smile and green eyes almost glowing in the evening sun. He smiled and motioned for her to sit beside him.
Hi, she said, watcha doing?
Just fishing. Elrick responded, do you want to try? He asked starting to hand the pole over to her.
No, she said, you should try and catch something.
Elrick smiled and went back to fishing.
They talked about their day, Elrick excitedly told her of all the water he had collected and the new holes he had dug. He told her about the map that his father was working on. Lily seemed uninterested. She changed the subject and began telling him about how her mother wanted her to learn to clean the house and sew and take care of the town children. She explained how her mother wanted her to do all these “womanly” things but all Lily wanted to do was explore and play.
It didn’t take too long before they both heard the evening bell tolling.
“Meet here tomorrow and we can feed our pelicans.” Lily told Elrick.
“Sounds good!” Elrick responded, “Can’t wait!”
They both raced back to town, said goodnight and went to their homes.
Dessert Bandits
Bohemi, Elricks mother called, It’s time to get up, your father is waiting for you in the drawing room.
Elrick was the name of his father as well, so everyone called him Bohemi. Bohemi got up and got dressed. He grabbed his canteen once again and headed for the drawing room. He found his father there once again and he walked over.
Hello son. His father said
Bohemi said hello.
His father pointed to the corner and said, “You can take the day off and go fishing if you would like. I’m going to take the map and see if these new places will sufice for water.”
Bohemis face lit up, it was rare that he got an entire day off. He thanked his father as he ran from the room. This was perfect! It was still early so he would be able to get some fishing in before Lily could go out to feed the pelicans. He went around the back of his house and got the reigns for the two pelicans, he struggled with Hilshire, the smaller of the two, as he tried to get the bit into Hilshires mouth.
“A little upset that you didn’t get to go out yesterday are you Hilshire?” Bohemi soothed.
Hilshire calmed a little bit. Bohemi got the reigns on the two and began to walk them toward the hill, he was able to put his fishing things on Hermans back. He led them slowly up the dune to wear the sand was soft. When Bohemi got to the top of his fishing dune he tied the pelicans to a dead tree that was standing nearby. The pelicans were a little iritated but Bohemi ignored it. He knew that it wouldn’t take long before Lily would be trapesing up the hill with her pelican. Bohemi had a nice hour before he saw Lily exit the town, by now he had caught a couple of nice size brown belly fish. These fish were about two feet in length and about six inches wide, they were green with brown bellies and would swim upside down to stay camoflaged in the sand. Herman and Hillshire were getting very agitated at this point, seeing Bohemi pull those two fish out of the sand they started to honk and stomp about.. Bohemi tied his fish to the side of Herman and put his other fishing gear on Hillshire. By the time he had finished Lily had come up to the top of the hill.
“Good morning!” She said
“Good morning.” Bohemi said, “Lets take the pelicans somewhere else today, see how they like it. There is a small pool of water that my father and I dug that they can drink from.”
Lily smiled as they started walking. The feeding grounds weren’t too far away, it was a little further than the other place but they both felt like going somewhere new. As they walked they talked about how the land they lived in must have looked like years ago. They wondered what it would feel like to have tall grass tickling their feet and the sound of the breeze as it whispered through the full, green branches of trees.
After about a mile walk they finally reached their destination. It was on the other side of a small dune, there was a nice little valley with some soft sand and a few old holes that Bohemi and his father had dug. They were perfect for watering the towns pelicans. The two children let go of their pelicans reigns and let them run about. Hillshire and Lilys pelican, Feathers, made a mad dash for the soft sand while Herman went straight for some water. Bohemi watched as Hillshire opened his large beak and slowly dipped it into the sand and slowly pulled it back out, the pouch under his beak full of sand. Bohemi could barely make out his pouch flopping back and forth a little bit.
“Must have got a fish.” he said.
Lily looked up and then looked over at the pelicans. The sand was now seeping out of small holes at the bottom of hillshires beak. They were there to let the sand out so that the birds could eat the fish that they caught. She too could see the pouch of the bird flopping, more violently now. She nodded and began drawing in the sand with a stick. It’s what the children of Tabes did quite a bit to help pass the time. Bohemii took a knife from the leather sack that he kept his fishing gear in and began gutting the fish that he had caught, Lily watched and talked to him about the stew she had to make for supper the night before. Bohemi just listened as he continued to prepare the fish. He would have to salt it when he got back home. Lily complained about how the stew had tasted horrible and how she never wanted to cook again. She looked up as Herman finnished his last beak full of water and began heading toward the soft sand. The other two birds raised their wings and furled their feathers a little in a warning to Herman. He just nochalantly strode over and dipped his beak into the sand. The other two backed away a little bit. They all settled down a little bit and began to eat again. Herman was an older calmer bird where as the other to were younger and a little bit more skittish.
When Bohemi was done preparing the fish, had wrapped them in cloth and put them in his bag he tagged Lily and ran shouting, “You’re it!”
Lily was a little surprised and imediately got a mischeavous look on her face. “That was completely unfair!” She squealed as she chased after Bohemi. Bohemi ducked behind a dead tree and waited for Lily to catch up. She ran up to the tree and tried to get around to him but he kept evading her, he tricked her into going left and then he bolted to the right instead. However he took off too quickly and lost his footing in the sand. His right foot slid out from under him and he fell to the ground. Before he could recover Lily had come around the tree and tagged him. “Darn!” He exclaimed hitting the ground with his fist. He got up and began chasing her. This went on for a good half an hour. The pelicans just watched in bewilderment.
Bohemi stopped dead in his tracks and looked to the sky. Lily rean past and slapped his shoulder, “Got you!” she exclaimed but stopped once she realized he wasn’t chasing her. She turned around and slowly walked back to Bohemi. “What’s the matter?” She asked bewildered. All Bohemi could do was point to the sky. Lily looked up and gasped. There was a cloud of black smoke rising from the direction where Tabes stood. Bohemi ran and snatched up the reigns for the three pelicans, he quickly got them ready to go and jumped onto Herman, he reached down and grabbed Lilys arm and pulled her up behind him. The pelicans knew something was wrong because before Bohemi could utter a “Yip yip!” they took off running back toward the billowing smoke. It only took ten minutes to get back to town, however ten minutes to Bohemi and Lily seemed like an eternity.
“You don’t think it could be bandits do you Bohemi?" Lily quivered, “They havent attacked since I was a little girl!”
“I don’t know". was all that Bohemi could get out.
