The Last Cavalier, Part 3

This is the conclusion of the partially (ha) written novel about the survivors of the Great Dying and their first encounter with The Ark Lords. There is a lot stronger reference to long-lasting effects of global warming. It isn't much but it's all I've got.

     Chapter 3
     Mom was tough. She steeled herself and put her arm around me as we watched Dad ride off. Mostly Dad was gone for six months. Sometimes a little less. Recently, a little more. Dad wouldn’t tell us but the last time he came back, I watched him as he unpacked his arrows. He only had thirty left. I wondered what he did with the other twenty. Maybe he shot a rabbit or squirrel. Maybe something bigger. Mom always packed him enough jerky for the whole trip so I figured maybe he did it for variety. For fresh meat. But he never brought any back.
     He usually left in late November, just as the heat was easing up a bit. He did it for Tige who was in his twenties. The trip would have been too much for the old horse in the summer, what with the temperature in the hundreds. Walter, my horse, could have done it. But he was just a colt. We still had some practicing to do.
     Mom told me that there used to be four seasons, not two. She told me that summer only lasted until September then they had a season called the Fall. She said a long time ago, there used to be trees that grew their leaves and they’d fall off in September. That doesn’t happen any more. The only trees that live around here are evergreens and they don’t even have any leaves to fall off. In late November, there is a break in the weather and it gets tolerable for a few months. That’s when we plant our crops. We call it winter but Mom said that winter used to be cold. That there used to be white powder that fell from the sky called snow and it covered the ground. I can’t imagine. It doesn’t seem possible. What I wouldn’t give to be cold.
     So we planted our crops. Walter helped. He pulled the plow but he wasn’t very happy about it. We had to water every seed by hand. Sometimes it rained. Sometimes it poured. But every few years, there’d be no rain at all. I guess we were lucky. Our well never ran dry so the soybeans always had enough.

To tell you the truth, I don't think the story was dramatic enough to sustain an entire trilogy so I think the version I have now is good enough to give you a sense of the era, the Cavaliers and the rebellion against the Ark Lords. Even though this whole episode is a mainstay of the future history of Rome's Revolution, this is about as much detail as you are even going to get.