Anshi: The Lost Eagle of the Steppes

Selection

Dawa Tuya was a cook, not a butcher. She was practical enough to know what three days of feasting would take to prepare and be considered worthy of entertaining two related chieftains, their families, plus approximately 300 people. Lots of livestock would need to be sacrificed and making the decisions, especially with the larger animals, the ones bred carefully, nurtured during the cold, and watched as they matured in adolescence, would be difficult for her. However, Anshi's policy of eating only what his people ate, forced her to feed them all like kings. But renewing familial relations for Anshi had to be as perfect as possible.

First, she visited the pasture where the young yak steers were hobbled and fed. She had Qiang and several men on horseback, cut out the ones between 3 and 4 years old. They were sturdy males, already hefty and well-muscled. She found a prime one that looked like it would yield at least 500 pounds of prime yak beef. They roped him and he was led to the isolated yurt, set up strictly for the dispatching and butchering of all the livestock. He would need to cure the longest and would be used for the final feast. She shoved down her pity and continued. They were all expendable when it came to the well-being of the caravan.

Next came the hardest decision for her. The camels were the next to visit. They were all magnificent as adults, but she had to lay all of that aside. She was here to cull young ones, and she hated this part of the job. Camel mothers were exceptionally close to their offspring for three years after birth and her first culling requirement was that the yearlings only come from mothers who had given birth to twins. Having one left by their sides would ease the period of loss for them. These two must be less than a year. Two more would be best to consume at three to four years old. The main table had to feature the rarest cut of the rarest herd animals, the humps. A caravan never slaughtered a camel unless it was a wedding, a funeral, or a political event. This gathering demanded camel for all, but the specialty was to be the tender, succulent humps from the yearlings. They were earmarked for the Chieftain and his honored guests.

To salve her conscience a bit, she found two yearlings in wonderful condition that had worried the herders for a while. One had a stress fracture in his rear leg that slowed him down and made him unusable in the future. The other one, despite his neutering, had a fierce temperament that meant he was not proving out as a pack animal either. The older ones were also not optimal as pack animals. One was lazy and simply refused to train. The other was as cantankerous as the yearling. Disrupters had no place in the caravan's train. if they could not earn their feed they were consumed. Nothing was wasted.

The camels had to begin roasting the day before the event, slow and long in large pits. Dug deep and completely lined with river rock, they would hold in the heat. A pulley system would be attached to the large beasts that could lift them so that fresh logs would replenish the ones already burned into huge beds of coals that would lie under large rectangular metal racks for the animals. The meat would then be turned so roasting remained even. A sheep would be stuffed into the hollowed abdomens of the camels, and the sheep's stomach would be stuffed with several tender pullets, all the animals would be stuffed with rice, root vegetables, apricots, dates, and raisins. Her mouth was already watering in anticipation.

And there was one special dish to be prepared, one certain to pique the curiosity of a particular guest. She would be taking a chance with its preparation and reconnecting with someone who might repudiate her. But Dawa Tuya had walked too long alone and she was willing to take the risk. And rejection was no stranger to her; she would survive it again if it came.