William walked in front of Celestino. The old man had been teaching him how to track game in the desert. The thin line in the sand of a snake or the small tracks left over from the previous night. William had a fair idea about most of this. But the intricate knowledge of tracking that the old man was teaching him been unknown to him before now. Tracking a thin, broken line through the sand, as soft as a whisper and fragile enough to be blown smooth with just a sharp gust of wind, was miles apart in difference from tracking a deer along a known mountain trail while studying the recently broken branches and twigs to mark its passing.

Suddenly Celestino moved in front of William at speed. William wondered if he had done something wrong. He chased after him. The old man hunched down at a trap, shaking his head.

William walked up and saw the old man take out a knife and grip a small rodent in his hand that had been caught in the trap. Celestino slit the neck of the thing. The small animal died quickly. William wasn't exactly sad at the death of the rodent but it did seem a bit sad in any case.

"What's wrong?" William asked, "Why did you shake your head?"

Celestino looked up as he slid the dead animal into his pouch, "What's the name of that boy? Nicolas?" William nodded not sure what he was getting at. "Well, look at this trap? See all these frayed ends? It's almost like he wanted animals to get away. I'm surprised the one we got didn't rip through the wire." He yanked down the trap and slid the messed-up bundle of string and thin wire into another pouch.

William scratched his head, "Well maybe he just needs some more practice. It looked pretty complicated to me too."

"Son, don't try to cover for your friend's incompetence," Celestino he said with a sigh. "When I was half your age, whether I went to bed hungry or not, depended on how well I made and set my traps. The desert kept me alive and I have done everything I can to do the same for our traditions. If you know what you're doing, this desert is a land of plenty. But if you're lazy or stupid, it'll kill you faster than just about anything."

William nodded. The old man had taught them a lot in the last few days that they had been with him. It was like he wanted to pass on knowledge, all he had learned, an entire lifetime of experience. They had learned very early in their stay here that the old man's past was just that, the past, and he wouldn't speak of it with them. William assumed that it had to do with a dead child, a daughter or son, perhaps. But he knew better than to ask.

Without a word Celestino turned around and started heading back to his house, William followed. The old man lived on the very outskirts of the reservation of his tribe. He preferred it out here. He had a truck that still ran, but he chose not to use it, instead allowing his wife to use it to go into the town and buy certain food items, fuel for the generator, and propane to refill the tank.

Stolen novel; please report.

"What are we going to do with the skin?" William asked.

The old man glanced over at him with a wry smile, "Well, it's too small by itself to be much use for anything except maybe a moccasin. Even if that's all we tried to do, we'll still need some more skins to complete even one set. But for now, we're going to eat him and give thanks to Terra for sustaining us for another day."

They got back to the house as the sun was starting to set. There was still two or more hours of daylight left though. William sat down with Katherine and watched her as she laced two skins together with leather chords.

"What'cha making?" William asked casually.

"I'm attempting to sew these two pieces of dead animal flesh into a shoe," she replied a bit harshly.

"Um, did I say something wrong?" William asked.

She huffed and dropped her hands and her project into her lap, "No. No, you didn't say anything wrong. I'm not used to any of this. I've never sewn anything before in my life and that…woman in there," Katherine jerked her head towards the house, "has been riding me all day about my technique and how if I wore these shoes I would have blisters along the inside of my feet because I wasn't using the right side of the leather and…I don't know Will, I just don't think I'm cut out for this."

William chuckled a bit, "Hey, I'm not that great at this stuff either. I just hope that some of this stuff gets us somewhere. Apparently, Nicolas' trap that he set wasn't all that great. Celestino said that there were maybe two or more animals that ripped through the trap because it had been put together wrong."

"Oh great, yeah that makes me feel sooo much better," She looked up at him and gave a half smile, "I guess I know that if we ever get stranded out in the middle of the desert, we're all done for."

The both laughed at the absurdity of the comment. Maybe they wouldn't ever really be desert survivalists, not like the old man and his wife. But then again, if worse came to worse, they could always risk going into the Whyte Plain and go somewhere else.

"Did Celestino say anything about the tribal council? When is this thing going to happen? Is it going to happen at all?" Katherine asked.

William shook his head slowly, "No, he didn't say anything about that. I know he made one or two phone calls this morning before he took me out in the desert, but he didn't talk at all about what might happen, or any progress that he might be making."

Katherine shook her head, her long wavy brown hair, being tossed over her shoulders as she did so, "Honestly, I think Ansuya might have better luck just going to the tribe council herself and talking to them directly."

William shook his head, "No, I don't think so. We are in a pretty tight spot right now. The best option we have is to let Celestino do his thing. The tribal council will listen to the insane ravings of one of their own, before they listen to anything any outsider might say." He smiled wryly as, "Besides, we are talking about monsters and legends coming to take away their people. The council would call us crazy too."

"Except we can prove that we're not," Katherine shot back.

William raised his hands in defense, "Hey, I'm not saying you're wrong, I just think that going with Celestino's plan and letting him go through his channels are the best course of action we have right now."

Katherine's long wavy brown hair moved in the breeze as she nodded, "I know Will, I'm just getting impatient." She looked out at the setting sun and picked up the two pieces of leather that had been in her lap, "Are we really going to eat desert squirrel for dinner?" She asked with a wry smile.

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