Laila, Spock's Granny (Book 1: Vulcan Gladiatoress and Klingon Slave)

A New Home 2

My Vulcan mind got to work logically, the sun set westward of the farm. The forest had been northward of the farm. With the sun setting in about an hour or so, it was easy to determine West through the trees now. I had to head southward, logically. After ten, twenty minutes, I came to a lake. It was beautiful. I guessed, if I walked alongside the bank of the lake, I should hit the creek at some point and that was so. However, the vegetation along the rim of the lake was vast and hard to get through. Landslides had to be circumnavigated and by the time I hit the creek, it was almost dark. There was some wired heap of overgrowing vegetation and I decided to inspect it. I might not be able to get back today anyways. Turned out, the overgrowing vegetation was an old cabin which nature was about to claim back. I used up the tiny little rest of daylight, to free the entry door from the vegetation with my knife. It was a fishermen's cabin, because nets and a fishing rod were inside, even a bed, a table and two chairs. In my situation, that cabin was a very lucky find. The bed even had a mosquito net and soon comforted my body. Sleep claimed me and in my dreams I lived in this cabin at the lake in total freedom and happiness.

Next morning, when I woke up I felt my empty stomach claiming breakfast. When I opened the door, the daylight shone brightly into the hut and its deteriorated status was revealed to me in full. The roof had big holes and the floor was littered with debris. All of which I did not see when night fell, yesterday. The debris was mostly natural, which was not so bad, but also animal and partly Klingon waste as well. The most disgusting was the bed. It was dirty, the matrass molded and mice must have lived in it for some time. It totally groused me out that I had spent the night in there. To get rid of all residue, I submerged into the lake with all my cloths. The water was nice and refreshing and I decided to do some swim training. When I felt exhausted, my stomach started rumbling, so I went back into the hut, picked the fishing rod and sat down at the side of the lake, when the logic Vulcan side of my mind talked to me: stupid girl, you have no bait and even if you had a fish, you would not be able to cook it. My happy and motivated Klingon Mutant side had to admit that it was true, even though it destroyed all my dreams. My dreams of freedom and happiness here at the lake. Disappointed I put the fishing rod back, closed the door and followed the creek until I hit the familiar spot with my fish traps. Today, there were no fish in it, but no worms either. Meant, I had to come back later and fill the weirs with bait again. Getting back to the farm was easy now. Nethis was again busy fixing the shed, which gave me an idea. If I would help him, I would get access to tools and building material and with that, I could fix the cabin before it fell apart. On top, I would gain knowledge about woodwork and fixing a building. Thought turned into action: "Nethis, can I help you?"

In surprise, he turned and looked at me: "Oh, 'ehtl tits, of course you can help me. Where have you been last night", he inquired inquisitively?

I quickly lied: "I was looking for a good running trail and got lost. I spent the night outside."

"I see! I guess you must be hungry? Go to Tsuw, the cook, and get your breakfast and dinner, then come back", he answered with a grin.

Breakfast and dinner, woke my dormant stomach to relentless craving and gravitationally attracted my fine, young, female, Vulcan gladiator body with empty, growling stomach to the kitchen. I dreamt of eggs, bread, butter, cheese and tomatos. Seeing me, Tsuw greeted me: "Good morning."

My stomach relentlessly demanded to immediately inform him about the true nature of my visit: "Hi. I'm hungry and Nethis said, you have food for me.

Tsuw prepared a plate with a nice portion of rice and handed it to me with the words: "We have no fish curry left, because it was so good. I'm sorry, I can only give you rice now."

The word fish curry made my saliva flow in rivers and my belly suffer from the lack thereof. Still the big portion of rice, satisfied my cravings for carbs and with regained power I reported to Nethis.

Nethis showed, me how to fix holes in the outer, wooden shell of the shed. Wherever there was light coming in from the outside, I cut a big enough piece of wood from planks and nailed it onto it from the inside. That was easy.

I scrutinized my work and rated it a cheap job. It did not look professional, all those holes mended with some cut pieces. Vulcan logic could not help itself, I had to say something: "Eh Netis, is that not a crap job we are doing?"

"Off course it is, but as long as we don't have new planks, it will be better than nothing. You are right though, I have to talk to the farmer about it."

After an hour, the farmer came and observed, what we were doing. He was actually surprised to see both of us working now. Soon though, he and Nethis were deeply submerged in their talks about fixing the roof and Nethis listed all the materials and tools he needed to fix it. In the evening, the farmer asked us to his aircraft and inside were a lot of materials, which were all dedicated to fix the roof. The aircraft had a temporarily attached undercarriage, which held the long planks. After unloading the aircraft and storing the materials, Nethis asked the farmer to follow him. He led us to the western side of the shed and said: "See, we have fixed the holes on the weather side already, but in reality, we should replace all the planks here. Look." To proof his point, he pressed into one of the mended holes and the cut piece inside came lose. "The planks are just too rotten already. All other three sides are OK, but the weather side is not anymore."

The farmer agreed to also get these planks. During the next couple of days, while working together with Nethis, I learned that he was a carpenter and I figured that he was a good craftsman. We had tools, we had building material and I learned valuable traits on carpentry. Fixing the roof was atrocious though. Loading the building materials upon my shoulders, climb up the ladder and then further up the roof. For everything I unloaded on the roof, I had to make sure, that it could not get feet and slide down again. Every freak'in piece wanted to play a prank on me and follow gravity. Nethis had stacked the roof tiles in various places and thus the inner wooden support structure was exposed. As such, I had to balance the weight of my body and the load on my shoulders and dance from one crossbar to the next or straight up a support beam. My hands had to hold the load on my shoulders and could not be used to hold onto something. Nethis was like a ballerina, jumping from one end to the other. He was fast, while I was slow. I carefully placed every step, as I had no intention of falling through the open grid of beams and crossbars. That's where we walked on. He replaced all the rotten crossbars and strengthened weak beams, for which I had to cut the pieces to size on a workbench on the ground, then bring it to him. I really hated it, when the fricking peace did not fit. Often, they were a tiny bit too long, sometimes however also too short. I was running up and down, down and up the ladder and I felt every muscle in my body. Not only my legs, no, every single muscle and my knees. Boy I felt my knees. One time, a crossbar on which I stepped, broke and I barely managed to hold onto one of the beams which supported it, before I would fall all the way down. Looking down, I reckoned it would have ended with several fractures. Now it was just bruises around my breasts, ribcage and arms. After having worked on the roof for more than two weeks already, I wondered, where our owner had remained? I feared, he might have died in an accident or got killed.