Mook's Odyssey

By B.S. Adkison

Do you believe in global warming? That is like being asked if you believe in Jesus. Of course there was a man named Jesus, Roman records are clear about that. But did he rise from the dead? Walk on water? Turn water into wine? Well..., that's hard to prove. Will wind and solar power, electric cars and other measures save us from climate change? Well..., read Mook's Odyssey and make up you're own mind. This vision of the future is crystal clear. What will happen then is a direct result of our actions and choices that we make today, and the measures we must consider might not be what you expect. Be brave and embrace what lay ahead. What will come will come but how you are remembered is something that you do have some control over, so make the best of it. Read Mook's Odyssey, what do you have to lose? Not much. What do your children have to lose? Everything! Why take a chance? Learn how painless these measures will actually be and the fulfilment and happiness they will bring everyone! Simple, logical solutions for complex problems is what you'll find. You're welcome!

• Language: English
• Publisher: B.S. Adkison
• Release date: Feb 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463803639

B.S. Adkison

Air Force veteran. Fleet manager for a contracting company.I Have built and/or restored several vintage racing and collector cars over the years. I Won a racing championship in 2010. I am an avid reader of mostly history, science and science fiction. I tend to find the topics of magic and time travel intellectually vacant, vacuous and tedious but don't let that discourage you if that sort of thing is your interest, it's my problem, not yours! I'm a hopeless romantic but I tend to shy away from that theme as well. (Too personal.) What little I do write regarding sexuality is usally from an unapologetic hetero-sexual viewpoint because of my comfort of that concept and I admit that I can sound somewhat near the verge of misogynistic, and I do apologize for that, but I certainly won't condemn, criticize or denounce anyone's differing views. Live and let live in freedom and peace is my viewpoint and I will fight like hell for other's rights in that regard if i have to, but, I insist on being able to exercise my own thoughts and opinions so please don't take it personally. Go ahead and hate me if you must but not the free-speech forum or the intellectual freedom that I exercise and love. I really just want to have a fun and pleasant life on this earth and I hope others also want that and I try to treat everyone well with that in mind.

Book preview

Mook’s Odyessy

By: B.S. Adkison

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2020

Chapter One: Hunter-Gatherer Mining

Mook drops the handles of the skid-sled with a contented gasp. He is more than a mile from the forest where he had constructed the contraption and it has been a great help for him to carry his burden of tools and supplies during this last push, up the face of the foothill to the ‘mining’ site that he had discovered. He must admit that he misses the comradeship of his brother Dak as they usually go on these treks together, but this time, Mook is enjoying the solitude. There are a couple of reasons for that change of heart; one being Dak’s way of ‘dividing’ the spoils so that he always gets a larger and higher quality share. Mook, being the younger of the two brothers, had grown used to that version of ‘fairness’ but that is not the issue that prompted Mook to go at it alone this time. Mook is weary of that situation and other issues revolving around his brother’s concept of ‘fairness’ but the last straw, the reason for the ‘falling out’ was over something that he had no say in and that he had not the right nor the fortitude to speak-up about. Leaving Dak, and the entire clan for that matter, was the only way he could think of to handle the disappointment and the pain of his broken heart.

Suki, Mook’s companion and closest friend for as far back as he could remember, just took up with Dak when she became of age as if it were the most natural thing that could ever be. The endless time Mook and Suki had spent together, the private thoughts they had shared, the dreams they had, the future they (or apparently only Mook) envisioned, it was all just an illusion, a miss-guided fantasy, or as Mook had come realize in the darkness of his imagination- a lie!

How dare she! Mook thought to himself over and over as he treaded up the foothills to this place. A place he discovered while on another anger filled, head clearing ‘escape’ that seems to be his go-to coping method when things don’t go his way. Mook is smart, smarter than Dak. Why can’t Suki see that? She can and does, but that isn’t why Suki ran to Dak. Dak is bigger, stronger, more self-assured, more confident and as the first born, he reaps the attention and admiration of both of his parents in ways that Mook cannot understand or except.

Mook would seek out Suki when he felt unfairly slighted and she would patiently listen and say some soothing words just as Mook would do when she was upset. Was that a mistake? As far as Mook can tell, Dak would never seek consolation for anything with anybody. He is careful never to show that kind of weakness. She must find that sort of thing attractive. Thoughts such as this turn over and over in Mook’s mind as he sorts and files his way through his troubles and tribulations. He wants to hate them both. He wants to hate everybody and everything, but as the burden of the trail clears his head, he realizes (as always) that the problem is with him.

Being smarter than everyone else is a weight on his shoulders and a thankless burden. Remember when I noticed the river shifting and the hillside becoming unstable? Did praise and congratulations follow when the landslide wiped-out the former village site? Maybe for about a minute before the ‘blame’ of all that extra work followed as the village was rebuilt on higher and safer ground. Thankless jerks! But all the disgruntled muttering in the world wouldn’t change a thing. Suki is gone. She is with Dak now and everything her and Mook had ever shared is also gone. To be close with her now would be frowned upon. Even if Suki wanted it all to stay the same, Dak would see it as disrespect. Certainly, Dak could handle her feelings and emotions from now on, and even if he couldn’t, he wouldn’t dare let any ‘weakness’ show. Ha! Perhaps they deserve each other!

That thought brought Mook a small measure of satisfaction as he looked over the worksite and started to prepare for the several hard-working days ahead. High up in the foothills and well above the tree line, the bears should not be any trouble, they rarely venture out of the protection of the forest but just in case, Mook prepares his spear and spear thrower (an extension device that increases the hitting power of the weapon) and he keeps it close at all times. The most common threats up here are mountain lions (called Pole Cats by his people, for some reason) and perhaps surprisingly, mountain goats. (Called Billies.) The Pole Cats tend to stay hidden and they mostly mind their own business but Billies, they are unpredictable. If one blocks your path, you had better find another way around or wait him out. They are so stubborn and territorial that they will defend themselves and charge even if there is plenty of room for both of you. They are so mean that if one of them sees you first, and if they can, they won’t hesitate to rush up and headbutt you right off a cliff! As dangerous as they are, a campfire seems to keep them at bey and after Mook places his bow and arrows within easy reach, he prepares a fire pit and stakes out a sleeping area.

Mook has two rabbits and a nice, fat quail that he had bagged on the way up here. He will roast one rabbit tonight by the firelight when it becomes too dark to work. The other, he will mix with the tubers, wild peppers and rice that he has brought with him and make a stew which will feed him for a couple of days. The quail he will leave hanging from a piece of string for at least three days to enhance the flavor as the aging will reduce the gaminess and promote tenderness. To relieve his hunger during the workday, Mook has a stash of venison pemmican and a treat from his mother of special rice squares sweetened with syrup made from corn. Mook’s mother is not blind to his love-lost grief and the rice squares, packed in a basket for safe travel, is a message of affection that Mook can’t deny. Mook doesn’t know that Suki spent all afternoon with his mother helping her make them. Regardless of what Mook may think, Suki feels bad about what happened, and she hopes to eventually salvage some of what they had together.

Mook’s bow and arrows, although a dangerous and deadly weapon system, is kept handy mostly to bag any small game that may come around. The spear, with its razor-sharp, forged-steel barbed tip is for big game and personal protection with its hard-hitting killing power. Mook may not be as physically strong as Dak, but he is well versed in the technics involved with the spear and its power enhancing extension device. His life depends upon it. It will stop a pole cat or a billy in its tracks and even a bear will be slowed considerable with a solid hit. But what of an ambush of other men? Shouldn’t that be one of Mook’s greatest concerns? The problem with that is, there just isn’t any others.

Suki was brought long ago from the south to Mook’s village as an orphaned baby. Once each season, the Southerners arrive for celebrations and trade. They are a nomadic tribe and lack smithing facilities and they don’t tend crops. Oh, they have planted areas, but they limit those to plants that will survive until they return later. Their lifestyle is to follow the game herds, hunting them in the great plains of the south. They depend on the spear points and arrowheads manufactured at Mook’s village. But of more importance to the codependence of both tribes is something else, especially important for Mook now due to what has happened regarding Suki.

Because Suki is adopted from the southerners, that meant when she became of age, she would be available for marriage to a man of this tribe. Of course, Mook, as perhaps the smartest young man in his tribe, instinctively knew this, and that was obviously his motivation as he established a close relationship with Suki when he was just a child, before he really knew what he was even actually doing. This may have been a brilliant display of ingrained intellect, but when Mook, who is a few years older than Suki, had found that his parents had become annoyed when his desires towards Suki became lust filled, awkward, clumsy, overbearing and blatantly inappropriate, they felt they had to step in. Suki may have been flattered, but she wasn’t ready for that type of attention. It had progressed to a point where the elders intervened and Mook had to back-off.

Mook was embarrassed, humiliated and deeply wounded, but it was Suki who presented the so called ‘olive branch’ of peace with renewed, friendly attention towards him and that began Mook’s deep descent hopelessly into the ‘friend-zone.’ After it was known that Mook must back off, Suki really thought that she was free to become as close as she wanted with Mook and nothing would become of it. She never seemed to have the slightest idea that she might be leading him on in any way.

Mook didn’t see it that way, he didn’t see it that way at all. He was doing everything right. He was giving her space. He was becoming a permanent fixture in her life, building himself into something that she couldn’t live without, being incredibly patient, letting her come to him when she was ready, he was executing his brilliant plan one step at a time. He watched her as she flowered into a young woman, and he saved himself physically for the glorious day when they would be together.

Dak held no such restraint, and he acted on his fantasies and desires just about whenever and wherever he had the chance. He was doing just that when Suki happened upon him when she was out for a walk in the woods one day.

Only the thought of a suitable suiter arriving this season with the Southerners kept Mook from complete despair. But the time of the season for their arrival had come and gone. A search party was dispatched and after several weeks, they returned without seeing any sign of them. This set back, along with the humiliation of his dashed intentions towards Suki was more than Mook could bear. The sight of Dak and Suki being all ‘lovey-dovey’ around the village, the thought of maybe meeting someone else suitable from the south also apparently dashed, and now the entire clan preparing for Dak and Suki’s wedding, it is all too much. He kept his feelings to himself, (without Suki to talk to, who was the only one who seemed to have any interest in his problems, meant he didn’t really have anyone to confide with anyway) and he told everyone he was going off to find a suitable wedding gift. (That itself was a painful statement for him to make.)

Mook looks over the worksite. A black, ‘powder ring’ protrudes from the hillside with the signs of some of the sharp, metal ‘hair’ poking-out from it. Usually one of four, this black disk is partially exposed to the weather and will crumble to dust as he scoops it into a basket, but back at the village when it is boiled in a mixture of fat and salt, the black substance will soften allowing the women and children to pull the metal ‘hairs’ out so they can be used to attach arrow points to shafts, and to make strong stitching in belts and shoes and for dozens of other uses.

Mook is in luck, exposed at the center of the black disk ring is the tell-tail gray powder of the substance that they call lou-um. Why does it have that name? Mook has no idea. It is an ancient word, as ancient as this entire site. This is lucky because many back disks have a center of only useless, crumbling ‘ruddy-red,’

Mook is always full of wonder and amazement whenever he uncovers one of these sites. He has never been given a straight answer as to what these things were as they occasionally pop out of a hillside or are uncovered from a riverbed or a sand dune. All the elders can say about it is that it is from the joke-time when men were stupid, and they squandered all they had. But Mook can see that these relics, these ‘assets’ were not made by stupid people, not by a long shot.

He is careful and he takes his time as he breaks the sandstone away from the backside of the exposed black disk that he is working on. In the areas that are not exposed to weathering, he sees some more of what he has seen before. The indentations in the sandstone that has been transferred from the surface of the black disk and Mook correctly believes that it is some form of communication system from long ago. He has realized that it must be some sort of coded information storing system that has been long forgotten. He copies the most legible symbols with charcoal onto a piece of cloth that he carries with him and he will add it to the others that he has stored away back at his lodge in the village:

CORSA LT265/R16

What on Earth could it mean? It drives Mook crazy trying figure it out and he is no closer now then he was the first time he had seen such a thing as a child