Chapter 1
Hunting for food
I wish the work could end. I never get a break not in the morning or afternoon. I only get about 30 minutes maybe even 1 hour of free time.
"Meric!" Mom yelled across the room.
"What?" I replied.
"I need you and Leo to go trade for some milk with the little food we have and go pick some berries out by the forest." mom said.
"Ok." I responded.
I started walking toward Leo's bed when I had this sudden feeling. The feeling was like something horrible was going to happen something dark I didn't know why the felling even came to me. I continued walking.
"Leo." I said
"What?" Leo groaned while getting out of his bed.
"We have to go and get milk and pick berries today" I said.
"Ok, but at what time?" Leo asked.
"Right now," I replied. "Come on, get ready."
I took two apples and the little cheese we had from the basket at our table. One apple for me one for Leo. That was the last of the food we had.
"We will be back at sun set" I said.
We walked out the door hoping we wouldn't die. The town was filled with people selling, trading and buying. We walked through the crowd trying to find Rulf's trading stand. We saw in the distance of the crowd. We rushed to the stand and looked around to see if he had any milk left behind or on the stand.
"Hey boys," Rulf said happily. "What can I get for you two?" Rulf asked.
"Do you have any milk?" I asked.
"I don't think he is going to have any." Leo whispered behind my ear.
"You two are very lucky we only have one more left." Rulf said. "What do you have to give me?" Rulf asked.
"We have a little cheese." I replied.
"And two apples," Leo yelled.
I looked at Leo in anger.
"Deal," Rulf said
We took the milk and handed the cheese and apples to Rulf. We started walking toward the edge of the building. Then turned at the corner I grabbed both of Leo's shoulders and shoved him against the wall. He struggled to get free.
"Why did you give him all the food we had!" I screamed.
"I thought he wouldn't take just the cheese." Leo mumbled.
"Well now we don't have food to eat today!" I yelled.
I let go of Leo and continued walking out of town. We barley saw anyone outside of town. Mostly just travelers. We started walking into the woods nearby the town. It was the time of fall so the woods looked very colorful. The trees had orange, red and yellow leaves some of the trees lost their leaves already those trees were very spiny. We then started searching for berries.
"I found some berries Meric." Leo pointed out.
"Are they poisonous?" I asked.
"Let me check." Leo said.
"No they aren't poisonous berries." Leo explained "They are just regular black berries."
I laughed.
"Good enough." I announced.
We started to pick the berries there wasn't much in this area only about one bush of berries. It took us about five to ten minutes to pick the bush out. We used our bag that held the food we gave away to carry the berries. The bag was under half full.
"We need to find more berries." I said.
"Don't move and don't speak!" Leo whispered.
"Why?" I asked.
"Just do it." Leo whispered in anger.
Leo pointed in a direction. I froze and looked where he was pointing to. There was a white fluffy rabbit eating little bits of grass ripping out the roots and chewing the grass until his food was very soft.
"I think we just found our dinner." Leo said.
"If we can catch the thing," I added. "One question how are we going to catch it,"
"I don't know but we have to think fast before it goes away." Leo explained. "The only thing I know is to keep this rabbit away from its den." Leo said
I started having ideas popping up in my head like crazy I didn't know which idea to choose. Then I saw a long thick branch from a tree about 10 feet high that lead strait above the rabbit. Then there was a really sharp stick from another tree. It looked breakable. I then saw a rock about the size of a bowl. I told him what we were going to do with these items. He nodded and I started going near the rocks while Leo went near the sharp stick. We both made sure we were quiet while we were trying to go as fast as possible. Leo broke the small sharp branch and went behind a bush with the sharp stick in his hand while I climbed the tree with the rock and on to the long thick branch.
I looked at Leo and nodded. I quickly let go of the rock in my hand. The gravity pulled the rock down very fast. I was hoping the rock would hit the rabbit before the rabbit would notice. It was too late the rock was about 7 feet down and the rabbit noticed and dashed towards a opposite bush of Leo. The rock smashed into the earth's surface. Leo quickly sprung up and out of the bush and sprinted toward the bunny as I started climbing down the tree. Leo was sprinting as fast as he could he was sprinting so fast he was like a cheetah. I took a glimpse and saw the white fluffy bunny go down a tiny hill. I then saw Leo dive for the bunny. Then I started sprinting in Leo's direction. It took me about 5 seconds to reach him.
I saw he had the stick in his hand lying on the ground.
"Did you get the bunny?" I asked.
"What do you think?" Leo said.
He turned around and had a smirk on his face. I then saw the white fluffy bunny scrunched up in his hands with the stick inside him. I saw that bunny was still breathing.
"Kill it before it suffers anymore." I said.
Leo then put the bunny in his lap and took his hands around the bunny's head and did a quick movement and snapped his head. I heard a loud crack.
"At least we have food." Leo said
"Let's go look for some more berries" I said
"One more thing where do we put the bunny," Leo asked.
"Just carry it." I replied.
We then looked for some more berries.
"Where do you think more berries might be?" I asked
"I don't know maybe close to wildlife." Leo answered. "It's getting close to sunset Meric."
Leo said.
I looked up at the sky. Leo was right it's getting dark.
"Let's start going home." I said.
We started walking to our town it took us about 10 minutes to find our way back.
"Meric."
"What?"
"Do you see that?" Leo said while pointing at town.
From the distance I saw lots of smoke and fire from the inside of town