Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue ridge mountains, Shenandoah river
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia
Mountain mamma, take me home
Country roads
-John Denver, Take Me Home, Country Roads
“I. Hate. Chopping. Firewood!” Hanzo shouts, hurdling his axe toward the forest. He doesn’t even have the satisfaction of it embedding itself in a nearby tree. The handle of the axe thumps against the bark and the tool falls lamely to the ground. Hanzo stares at it in defeat before picking up his armload of wood and trudging through the snow back into his cabin. He could retrieve his axe at a later time and felt no sympathy for the tool laying in the snow. When he enters the cabin he glares at the large black and white akita lounging on the couch inside.
“You should be carrying wood inside, Yasushi .” Hanzo reprimands, only to earn a grumble in response. Narrowing his eyes, Hanzo drops his armload of wood into a box by the stove.
“One day’s worth of wood, Yasushi. Two hours of chopping and I only have one day’s worth of wood.” Hanzo sinks down onto the couch near his dog and pats her head, “I think I have gotten myself in over my head.” He whispers, like it’s a secret, as if he didn’t want to admit to himself that moving out here was a bad idea.
Hanzo sighs as he looks out his picture window, rising to his feet once again. Night is almost upon them and he needs to light the lanterns and lock up his belongings, “At least it will be warm.” He tries to remain positive, looking down at his side where Yasushi appears. If he goes outside in the dusk she is always with him, like she knows many things lurk in the woods surrounding their homestead.
Leaving the main log cabin, Hanzo patrols his property, securing the padlocks on both his outbuildings and picking up any equipment he left around the yard (like an axe). He takes a moment to breathe in the crisp, mountain air before looking down at Yasushi, forever loyal at his side, “Dinner then bed?” The suggestion earns a bark and Hanzo rubs between her ears.
When they are safely locked inside the cabin Hanzo goes to his fridge. He was not sure how well this would work but the insulated metal box that is embedded in the wall of his cabin succeeds as a refrigerator. The largest part of the box hangs outside, chilled by the early winter air, and keeps his food cold.
Hanzo opens the metal panel and pulls out two packages. One contains two rabbits that he shot and cleaned yesterday, and the other has the last of the carrots he had bought in town on his last visit. Hanzo tries not to worry about his dwindling food storage and the fact that the road off the mountain is now blocked by snow.
Chopping the carrots and browning the meat proves to be somewhat relaxing, and even if the stew he makes was cooked quickly and lacked flavour it warms their bellies.
Hanzo blows out each of the oil lanterns as he and Yasushi make their way toward the back of the cabin toward the small bedroom. Hanzo waits until Yasushi has jumped up and settled herself on the bed before blowing out the last lantern and following suit. As he pulls the covers over his body he listens and knows all the work this life takes is worth it. The silence of the woods is reason enough, especially when he can fall asleep so easily in an uninterrupted slumber.
----
Hanzo’s homestead is viable but it needs a lot of work. The cabin is solid and provides him a living area, but the outbuildings were sorely lacking in their usefulness. One held a portion of his hunting gear and was used to skin and clean animals, but he didn't have any method of preserving his game. The other was the workings of a greenhouse with a plexiglass roof that allowed the sun to shine in. Unfortunately he didn't know a thing about growing plants, other than the cactus that sits inside the cabin which he never tended to. He wished he were as resilient as the cactus sometimes.
With enough firewood for the day Hanzo wants to tackle one of his problems before he has to go in search for food. He decides that finding a way to preserve the game he hunts would be the best use of his time.
It becomes apparent to Hanzo that he would not be preserving the meat he caught later as building a smokehouse would be quite a large job. It was simple in his head, a small stove with a pipe leading into a ventilated wooden cabinet. Thin meat would smoke and dry until it was jerky and the then thick cuts he could store outside in the freezing temperatures so it would keep.
Hanzo had two problems with his plan. The first being he didn't have a small stove to spare, his only one was heating the cabin. The second being, despite having hammers and nails, he didn't have prepared lumber for construction.
“... I am chopping more wood today, it seems.” He announces, a low whine sounding from the porch where Yasushi sat. Hanzo nods in agreement, “Sad indeed.”
Thus begins Hanzo’s day of work which starts by felling a small tree. Instead of chopping the lumber into clumsy logs like he does for firewood, Hanzo is very careful to try and cut straight pieces of wood to build his smoking cabinet. He realizes quite quickly that an axe and handsaw are not the right tools for this job, but it is all he has. As the sun begins to set Hanzo stacks the last plank of wood on his porch. They’re crooked and clumsy but he believes he can manage to build what he needs from them. Unfortunately a day of chopping wood means he didn’t go to hunt, and he enters his cabin for the night feeling dejected.
“You work all day for what feels like no gain.” Hanzo says, putting the remains of last night’s stew on the stove to eat. He reluctantly pulls a bag of dog food from the corner, much to Yasushi’s displeasure, and pours her a bowl, “You will not starve and this will not kill you. Do not be ungrateful.” She grumbles at him before digging in. Food is food and you take what you can get out here.
Hanzo eats his stew and decides that he deserve a bath tonight after the physical exertion of the day. He boils a pot of snow on the stove and uses the warm water to wipe himself clean. Removing the sweat and grime from his skin is a small luxury for you can’t bathe everyday in the mountains with no running water.
Feeling like he managed to achieve something , Hanzo locks up for the night and climbs into bed. Tomorrow is another day, but for now he rests.
----
Hanzo’s do-it-yourself lumber proves itself as he builds his smokehouse - a two-by-three foot and four foot high shed - next to his hunting outbuilding. He woke before the sun and the project was complete in the early afternoon. Hanzo stands back to admire his handiwork, ignoring the fact the shed leans a little to the left, “One hurdle has been conquered…” Finding a stove would be more difficult. It wasn’t like there were metal trees he could chop down for material.
That’s when he remembers, the repairmen who fixed the cabin had told Hanzo they left their extra materials underneath the cabin since he’d paid for them. Turning toward the cabin he grimaces. It is surrounded by snow and he’ll have to shovel out whatever remains, with the possibility of the materials being useless scrap. That was his only choice if he wished to somehow preserve his game.
Shoveling is a close second to chopping wood when it comes to the chores Hanzo hates. Thankfully he actually has help with this task because Yasushi jumps right in to help him, digging in the snow, “Be careful.” He warns, “I believe there is metal under some of the snow.”
He is right, there are many tin sheets, lumber that he could have used for actually building the shed - Hanzo takes a deep breath, doesn’t get mad, doesn’t shout his frustrations to the world - and blessedly, a steel drum they’d used to carry water up the mountain.
“Yes!” Hanzo shouts, victorious for once instead of irritated. It takes all his strength to pull the drum from the snow, but soon it is out. He also finds an extra piece of stove pipe that will work wonders for connecting his stove to the smokehouse.
It only takes Hanzo another hour to fashion the drum into a stove and get smoke flowing, and this time when he stands back and admires his work he is truly proud.
Looking down at Yasushi, who looks equally impressed, he announces, “It is time to hunt.”
Hanzo is thankful for the archery lessons forced onto him as a child. If his father hadn’t been so concerned with him majoring in business he could have likely made the Olympics. While animals certainly make a more challenging target for him, Hanzo is thankful for his skill, and for his hunting partner.
Bow at the ready, and camouflaged in white snow gear, Hanzo gracefully moves through the forest, Yasushi at his side. There’s a rumble in the bushes not forty feet in front of him and Hanzo raises his hand, getting his companions attention. When he flicks his fingers forward, pointing to the bushes, Yasushi runs an ark around bushes and flushes them out in Hanzo’s direction.
Two rabbits, pelts white as snow, come his way, “Scatter!” Hanzo yells, alerting Yasushi to get out of his line of sight. When she darts left, away from the prey, Hanzo shoots. His shot lands in one rabbit and the other is quickly dispatched when Yasushi comes in for her own kill, tackling the animal to the ground and snapping its neck.
Hanzo fistbumps the air victoriously and comes forward, taking the rabbit from Yasushi where she delicately held it in her jaw, “Excellent work, my dear. A fine kill.” Collecting his own prey Hanzo looks to the sky where the sun was close to setting and realizes he's exhausted.
“Let us return home and enjoy it. Maybe smoke one of these rabbits and see how it treats us in the morning.”
Unfortunately completing a hunt does not mean the work ends. Hanzo guts and cleans the rabbits when he returns to the cabin. One would be cooked this evening for their dinner, the other he hangs in the smokehouse. Night falls just as Hanzo and Yasushi lock themselves in, Hanzo preparing their dinner before bed.
“As of tonight, I feel more confident. It has been a long time coming, Yasushi.” He hums, looking out his picture window with a feeling of satisfaction, “I did it…”
Sometimes it hits Hanzo, the realization that he’s left everything behind to pursue this life. He often questioned whether he made the right choice, the choice that was smart, responsible, profitable. Those things didn’t matter in the end, because he made the choice that made him happy.
Hanzo and Yasushi both perk up when they hear a wolf’s howl in the distance, “If they are awake, it is best if we are asleep.” He decides, hoping nothing breaks into his homestead in the night.
----
Hanzo decides that his greenhouse can wait for two reasons, the first being the ground is frozen solid and he won’t be able to dig soil, the second being he doesn’t actually have any seeds. Hanzo believes foraging for wild roots and hunting game will be his food source this winter, then in the spring he will worry about adding more greenery into his diet.
Thankfully his smokehouse had not been broken into by wolves and the charred and smoked rabbit he pulls from it in the morning looks fantastic. He puts it into his fridge inside and there’s a smile on his face the entire time he chops firewood. Now that he’s not just warming himself and actually using it for preserving food the task seems a little less tedious. Just a little less, Hanzo is still very happy when he can put his axe down around nine in the morning.
He has bigger plans for today that are much more exciting than firewood. Small game was nice but nothing could compare to a big kill. One deer or boar would feed him for the rest of the winter if he could find one. There’s been evidence of deer in the woods surrounding his cabin. Droppings and tracks in the snow confirmed they lived there, even if Hanzo has not seen one. Today would be the day.
“Yasushi.” The akita perks up from her place in the snow, “Are you ready to really hunt? Not just an hour or two. Immersing ourselves in the bush, nose to the ground, tracking and hunting to sustain our way of life?” She barks and Hanzo grins, picking up her front paws and shaking them excitedly with his hands. He earns some kisses to his beardy face and laughs, “That’s the excitement I like to see! Yes I do, pretty girl, yes I do.” He coos, giving her a good pat down before standing, “I’ll give you all the belly rubs you want if we get a deer.”
She certainly can’t say no to that.
Gear collected and camp locked up for his departure, Hanzo stands on his deck – his trusty dog at his side – and looks off into the woods, “Left or right?”
Yasushi sniffs the air, looking unsure for just a moment before she starts walking toward the right of their homestead and into the woods. Hanzo is right on her tail, literally, giving the fluffy thing a playful swat, “Good girl, nice choice.”
The woods are quiet this time of year, many creatures and plants have settled in for sleep this season. Hanzo hears the wind through the trees and the occasional scurrying of a small animal, but it is mostly their steps crunching through the snow that notices.
Yasushi leads their pack of two, nose to the ground as she searches for her prey. Hanzo wonders how her nose doesn’t get cold as he releases the hold on his bow for a moment, just so he can reach up and adjust his scarf. He has not actually adjusted to the cold of the mountains yet, he’s been used to central heating and cars to drive him to different locations. There was no trekking through the forest with only your gear separating you from the elements in that old life.
Hanzo is pulled from his thoughts when he hears a branch crack. Turning on his heel toward the sound, bow drawn, Hanzo sees nothing. Yasushi is interested as well and trudges into that area, sinking in the deeper snow. She doesn’t see anything either and trots back. Hanzo sighs, “A bird, then. Let us continue.”
As they continue their journey occasionally Hanzo hears the snap of a branch or twig nearby. Unfortunately, when he turns to see the culprit, there is never anything there. It begins to be annoying, as there has been no sign of any deer. More than annoying, Hanzo becomes a little bit anxious when the snapping of branches continue, loud against the silence of the forest.
“Perhaps I am becoming paranoid.” Hanzo whispers, “Do not let me become a crazy woodsman, Yasushi. That would be an awful fate to befall…” There’s another snap and Hanzo whirls on it, prepared to let an arrow fly no matter what is standing there.
To his absolute amazement there is a deer standing there this time. About sixty feet to his left a buck is grazing on some greenery that peaks through the snow. Hanzo thinks he sees eight points on its rack of horns and smirks. They would be excellent mounted on his wall.
Yasushi narrows her eyes, getting in position to chase the deer down as her master draws his bow. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out-
The arrow hits the deer in its front shoulder and he drops to the ground with no need for Yasushi to chase and finish the kill. She barks, looking up at Hanzo who immediately pushes her to the ground and rubs her belly.
“I promised you this, didn’t I? You’re the best little companion, yes you are, yes you are.” Hanzo laughs, watching his friend wiggle on her back in delight, “Such a good girl, Yasushi! Good job!”
A whistle rings out through the forest, “ Damn . Yer a mighty fine shot. Hate to‘a been that deer.”