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Of course, being that Black Elk was Lakota, there wasn't much that he hadn't been able to use. The skin had been removed and was stretched out and drying on a rack, ready for Tisha to start working the hair out, and the bits and pieces of blood and muscle off the other side. Sitting next to the rack, in a smallish bucket, were the brains from the buck. Those would be used to keep the skin soft as she worked the hide. But for now, the hide needed to dry in the smokehouse for an hour before being brought outside.

The air in this area was just humid enough to keep the hide from getting too dry before she got a chance to work the hide. On two smaller racks on either side of the deerskin were the two rabbit skins. As they got to the corral, Tisha swung down, looking over at Black Elk. "I need the rabbits for dinner tonight. And I got more of the vegetables you showed us before we got that buck."

Black Elk nodded and then quickly went about digging a hole and dumping the contents of the bucket into it, then covering it again, before returning. Marco waited for Tisha to dismount, then he did as well, and patted Brute on the side. The horse wandered away to a trough and began to drink heartily of the water in it, gulping it down. Marco headed out of the pen, "Anything I can do? Blood and guts don't bother me..."

Tisha grinned at Marco. "How are you with brains?" She walked towards the smokehouse, finding another small bucket and put the vegetables into it before heading into the house and looking over the deerskin. "I'll show you another thing that the Lakota women normally do, but, as with any group, there are always people who take on other roles than the norm. Women are expected to know how to skin and clean the meat, and cure the hides for clothing, as well as cook and keep things in the house ready for a fast move. Men are expected to hunt, defend and war as well as caring for their weapons. Most women do not touch a male's weapons, especially during her moon time. But as I said, some women hunt and some men cook and tan hides. It depends on the mental state of the person, I believe."

He laughed and shook his head, nearly making a quip about how he had blown them out before, but he decided not to. "Nope, no problem with brains." He followed her into the house and stood, arms folded, as she talked. "Ok, so I understood everything you said there, about the women doing the household type of tasks, cooking, cleaning, making sure everything is done for their men and such, while the men take care of the hunting and the war and such. But what do you mean about a woman not touching a man's weapon during her 'moon time'? Is that her period?"

Tisha blushed and nodded, her eyes focusing on the brains of the deer in the bucket. "Yes," she murmured, then grinned again as she looked up. "Because women brought life into the world, it was a superstitious belief that if she touched his weapon, especially during her moon time, it would cause his weapon to lose its edge in battle or a hunt. The warrior whose weapons she touched would fall in battle instead of the opponent. It was more likely that he lost himself in thought about his wife during a rather inopportune moment than anything else, but for the most part, when I'm up here, I do a little of everything, since I like to hunt, and I don't use the same weapons as most of the warriors do. I have my own crossbow, and I tend to hunt smaller animals. In fact, this is the first buck I brought down. Deer and other large animals are usually hunted by groups of hunters, and I tended to go out on my own, so I only caught hares."

He laughed and snorted, not to cause any disrespect toward the Lakota or other Indian tribes, but because he thought that superstition was ridiculous. He shook his head and smiled. "I promise that I won't keep you from touching my weapons." He winked and grinned, then came over next to her and said, "So you want me to help with this bucket of brains and stuff?"

"It's the one part of tanning a hide that I hate. They gotta get mashed up." A shudder raced through her at the thought, and her face scrunched up in disgust. "I can make this the softest deerskin you've ever felt, but that is the one part I hate doing. Usually the other women of the tribe do it and then I help with the scraping and tanning of the hide. If you can do that for me, I'll get dinner started then come back and we can move the three hides out here and I can show you how to tan them the old way."

He laughed and wrinkled up his own nose. "I'm not bothered by brains, but even I think that's disgusting. When the tribe gets up here, I'll stick with cleaning my weapons and hunting and taking care of you, and someone else can mess with brains." He laughed and shook his head again, then said, "Just mash them up?"

"Yeah, mashed up, but we need them to go into a different place, and we need to find all the salt around here. We need to store the brains in one of the unused houses for the moment, in the 'icebox' so they stay cool, with some water to keep them moist. The salt is for the hide, to help dry it out enough to remove the bits of meat and sinew still attached before we use the brains to make them soft." She looked at him and giggled. "Be glad I'm not making you do the original method. After you brain tan the hide, you have to chew the hide to make it softer and softer. But anyway, the salt and brains will help get rid of anything we don't want on both sides, though when we get some bears, we want to leave the fur on them for warmth when winter arrives."

Marco nodded slowly as he listened to the process that she explained in reference to them tanning the deer hide. He probably would have preferred to help Black Elk clean it than have to deal with the brains, but he wasn't one to shirk duty. He sighed out and smirked at her, then said, "Alright, let's get this show on the road." He picked up the bucket and readied to follow her.

Tisha grinned at him again, then picked up a second bucket and took it to the river to get some water in it. They went to one of the houses and stepped out of the sun and into the slightly cooler building, where Tisha led Marco to the icebox. "Ok, just do a quick mash in that bucket, and I'll pour some water in to help keep the brains moist, then you can rinse off in the water bucket. While you do that, I'll search for any extra salt here. We need a pound of salt per pound of deer hide, and most hides are between two and three pounds, so we need a lot of salt. So when we go to town, we need to really stock up on salt. Grab every can, jar, block, whatever there is, we need it."

Marco nodded and chuckled, setting the bucket down and kneeling next to it, "Smells like shit..." he laughed, then stuck his paw right into the bucket and began to mash it up. He didn't know the whole process or what it would entail, but he would trust her to know what to do. It took him only a short while, wincing and shaking his head the whole time to try and get the job done as quickly as possible. Then he nodded, "Alright Tish, how does it look?"

Tisha walked over to look over the mashed up brains and nodded. "It looks like mashed ick, which means you did it right." Picking up the water, she added some to the mashed brains, then held the bucket for a moment. "Go ahead and pull your paws up and hold them over this bucket. After I set it down you can rinse off. I'll move the other bucket to the icebox, then find a hand towel for you to dry your paws off with so we can take the salt back to the smokehouse."

He pulled his paws out and held them like she said until she had set the bucket down, then he dunked his hands in it and proceeded to scrub them clean the best he could. He got up then, still dripping, and waited for her to hand him a towel so that he could dry his paws. He grinned, "First time I've ever mashed deer brains." He stuck his tongue out and shook his head, "Not sure I'll be hungry for a while."

Tisha grinned and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Oh, up here, you'll work up an appetite. Come on, help me carry these pillow cases that I've filled with the salt and salt containers and all that good stuff." She hefted one bag up, then picked up the other to hand to Marco to take. "We can drop these off at the smokehouse, and Black Elk can salt the hide. Tomorrow we'll work on removing the hair and other matter from it and start the actual tanning process."

He nodded and hefted the bag that she handed him, putting it over his shoulder and holding onto it while they walked across the lawn and back over toward the smokehouse. The day was beginning to wind down already, and Marco was amazed at how fast the time could move sometimes, but then, also how slow it could move. He sighed out and breathed in deeply of the clean, fresh mountain air, then pulled open the door for the smokehouse and held it for her.

She sashayed past him into the smokehouse, giving a look full of promise to the handsome husky as she passed him and went into the darkening depths of the smokehouse. "Life might be tough from here on out, but damn, it's beautiful up here. I love it up here. It would be a tough decision if I had to choose between this life now and the past life. Only thing I just really want back from then is not a thing, per se. I wish I had my family back, though finding my brothers would be something I would love to do."

He smiled at her warmly and nodded. "I know what you mean. I can't believe that I live at the bottom of this mountain all my life and didn't know such beauty was here." He sighed out and watched her as she went about her business, doing what she needed to. He was happy that she was able to talk about finding her brothers without crying or looking like she might break down. He glanced around, staring at all the beauty around him, and somehow he thought the most beautiful thing was her.

Tisha wasn't a mind reader, so she didn't know exactly what he was thinking, but she could read faces, and the look on his told her more than any words could ever say just what he was thinking at the moment. Her smile wavered on her lips as she looked at him, then she stepped towards him, slipping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder. "Now you know one of my driving goals. Getting my brothers back. But that's not the only one. I have one that I think is going to last me a lifetime..."

He smiled as she laid her head down on his shoulder, holding onto him about the waist. He nodded, "We'll try to find them, first though we have to make sure that we have a solid base to look from...." he smiled then, and his cheeks became tinged with red as she told him that she had one other driving goal....something that would last a lifetime. He knew what that was and he smiled even more warmly as he leaned down to kiss her for a few moments, his tongue brushing her lips, "Mmm... I think that the same goal has become mine.."

She nodded, blushing herself as she felt his tongue brushing over her lips. The caress was gentle against her lips, almost to the point of hesitance on his part, but she knew he was just making sure she was comfortable with the intimacy that was growing stronger between them. If she'd been a coward, she could have stopped everything before they happened, but her parents didn't raise cowards. She and her brothers were tough as nails if they had to be, but as the baby of the family, and the only daughter, she rarely had to be tough, thus her innocence in many things.

And that was the side of her that had lead to the rape. Now she had to toughen up even more, except with Marco. She felt so at ease with him that she let down her guard and was able to be the innocent girl he'd rescued from worse things happening to her. She found it rather amusing as well that she was able to teach him about life up here, and show him the beauty she always saw up here. It seemed to her, in this case, he was the one that was innocent.

In some ways she was more innocent than he, but in others he was so much less knowledgeable than she, that it made him seem naive. In that way they were the perfect match for one another, their knowledge overlapping and making it so that they could teach one another about what the other did not know. He slipped his arms around her waist once again and their mouths remained touching, his tongue gently probing about her lips and then pulling back. A moment later there was a "Ah Hem" from the door, as Black Elk stood there with raised eyebrows and a half smile on his lips, "Lovebirds..."

Tisha looked at the door, her face turning redder as she noticed her friend standing there, then leaned her head against Marco's chest for a moment. She needed to get over her fear, normal or abnormal, and the sooner the better. After all, she would be of no use going to town to get supplies if she couldn't handle a brief touch. Besides, Black Elk didn't deserve to lose his friend over those brutes. He hadn't been one that hurt her. Straightening up, she walked towards Black Elk, holding up a hand to Marco, letting him know she was trying to get past what had happened to her.

Marco followed her as far as the door to the smokehouse and then leaned against the frame as she walked out toward Black Elk. The Indian stood there with raised eyebrows, not sure what she was doing, but letting her come toward him. He glanced between her and Marco, then back at her, before tilting his head at her. He wasn't going to move to touch her until he was sure she was going to be okay, and if that meant just letting her touch him, well, so be it.

Tisha trembled as she looked at Black Elk, needing to make sure she could do this. She didn't want to hold the little holding the three of them had started up from succeeding in helping others like her. Slowly her hand came up... reaching for his face... then dropped as she caught her breath, shaking her head. "I can't. Not yet," she whispered, almost brokenly. How she wanted to have the courage to rest her hand against her friend's cheek as she used to. To be able to laugh as care-freely as she had in the past.

Marco came off the side of the shed and came up behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You can. I know you can. You have it inside of you, Tisha," he whispered, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her shoulders before letting her go again, but not stepping back. "Try again." He wanted to be able to get her past this, but he would never force her.

Tisha looked over her shoulder at Marco, seeing that he believed in her and was there for support, but not acting like a crutch for her to lean on, or forcing her, though he was pushing the limits of what she was comfortable with right now. Those memories haunted her nightly, as he knew, but he also knew how much it was hurting her to not be able to innocently touch her friend, and how much she wanted to help make their lives here a success. Taking a shaky breath, she tried again, lifting her trembling hand and reaching out with it... But once again, her hand dropped, though she'd gotten closer to Black Elk this time. Tears ran down her face as she tried to get past what happened, and she knew she only had a few days to get past the past and look forward to the future, especially since they needed that run down to town.

Her suffering would only get worse when the tribe came to live up there. They wouldn't understand why she was being the way she was. Only a select few would ever be told. He would have to ask if he could tell those that asked what had happened. Right now though, he could tell she couldn't do it. He didn't push any more. His hands came to her sides and held her softly, drawing her back against him. "Shh... Don't cry, you tried. We can't ask for more than that." He nuzzled her. "We'll try again tomorrow."

Tisha seemed to sink in against him, her fingers running through her fur. Her body shook from the effort to relax enough to touch her friend. Giving a little grimace of distaste at her inability to touch her friend, she looked at Marco and stuck her tongue out. "Cooke women do not cry. For that matter, neither do the men. Crying means I'm giving up, and I'm not giving up until I succeed or die trying." That inner spark was back, but it was wavering, flickering with hints of self doubt that never got vocalized.

Marco got a fire that appeared in his eyes when he heard her fiery words. He grinned and said, "Then let's do this. Come on." He gave her a lick to the lips and a smirk appeared on his face, and he nodded. "You don't have to give in to the fear. You can fight it. You can take it on. You can overcome it. I've seen it before, baby. People who become afraid, they can't act. They freeze. But you don't have to let that rule you. Now do it."

Tisha nodded, giving him a nuzzle and inhaling his scent. She hadn't let it hold her back when they had to get here. And she wasn't about to let it hold her back now. His belief in her, his conviction that she could do this bolstered her own flagging confidence, and she forced herself to breathe slowly and steadily. She lifted her arm and forced her fears away, though a hint tried to come through as her arm trembled slightly. The goal was in sight and that was her hand on her best friend's cheek. She could do this. Slowly, her hand inched towards his face, seemingly moving centimeters at a time, but each time she started trembling, she forced her fears back. She would not let her fears bring her down. She was in charge of her life, not her fears. Focusing on beating them back, she didn't realize how close her hand had gotten until she felt her friend's smooth cheek under her fingertips.

Black Elk remained as emotionless and still as a statue might, until her warm skin touched his cheek. His face lit in a small smile then, and his hand came up to gently brush the back of hers. Marco did not touch her until he was sure she was not going to back down, then his hand went to her other shoulder and gently brushed it. "That's my girl. That's the Tisha that I know." He smiled, knowing that now the worst was past. If she could do it once, she could do it again, and again, and again, until she had no more fears.

Tisha stiffened slightly when Black Elk's hand covered hers, but she knew that was another thing she needed to handle, and she held herself still as she looked at her best friend, seeing his smile, and slowly, the fears faded from her. At least with him. Letting go of the fears was actually harder than anyone could imagine if they've never been through it before. She looked at Marco then, her eyes shining as she wordlessly thanked him for pushing her just that little bit more. At least there would be no more dropped dishes... at least for the next few days. Who knew what would happen when the tribe got here and they went into town for supplies and brought back more people.