Last edited August 1st, 2016
"Damn it!"
I feel my body hit the ground face first. I groan. Stupid tree root, tripping me up when I wasn't paying attention. I knew it was ultimately my own fault for not looking but I needed something to blame.
Up ahead of me is my new companion, Wendy. She's leading the way, having been around the area far longer then me. She knows what berries are safe to eat, which are apparently those red berries I saw my first day. Hell, it's the only type of berry I've seen since coming here. She also goes to a few select trees with bird nests and would usually come away with a handful of seeds. We can roast them, she said. She's far up ahead and so seemingly lost in her own world that she didn't notice my fumble. Good to know if I ever needed help, I thought sarcastically.
It had been a rough week -at least I thought it was a week, since meeting Wendy.
She's mostly silent and even when she does speak it's quiet. As a result I have to watch her body language more closely. It's still better then a crow, in any case.
We started by simply wandering around, Wendy explaining to me what was safe to eat and generally letting me get the feel for the area surrounding our little fire pit. None of the mushrooms or berries here I've seen before, so it was important I learn the laws of this new land and fast. She mentioned that even she was still learning. While she knew about the berries, the mushrooms were still an uncertainty; the two of us decided not to risk them yet.
When I gained familiarity of the area and of a certain blue-eyed woman, Wendy mentioned that before long we should probably relocate.
"The bushes around here don't have any berries left on them. Besides, do you want to live on berries for the rest of your time here?" She looked me in the eye.
I crossed my arms. "Do we need to now? You just showed me around on this magical tour of the forest and now we need to move somewhere else?" So maybe I was a bit agitated at this idea, I saw the reasoning behind it, but I was still annoyed at the waste of time.
Well, maybe not a total waste of time, she got to know Wendy a little better.
The blonde looked bored, but came closer anyways. "Listen, you can stay, try and scavenge food when there is none," She was within arm's reach now. "But I plan to survive." Face-to-face now.
I had noticed then that I was taller then she was by only a few inches.
"Alright." I sighed, defeated. She pulled away, pleased with herself or my answer, I have no idea.
The day after the conversation we prepared -not that there was much to prepare-, got a full night's rest, and the following morning kicked dirt over the smouldering ashes of our fire.
I bite back a laugh at the sight of Wendy with her foot stuck in a rabbit's hole. Her leg was completely buried to the thigh and as a result she had to sit on her other leg for support.
"The rabbits sure do make them deep here, apparently." I grin, helping pull her out of the burrow.
She glares at me for taking so much amusement in all this, but there's no malice behind it.
As we walk away, I hear pounding behind me and turn to see a frightened hare bolting across the hay scattered ground, no hope of catching up to him. He came from the hole Wendy got stuck in. So there was a rabbit in there.
Hearing a chorus of screeching rabbits as they all started to freak out, I start to see all the other rabbit burrows dotted around the plain. Maybe I could set up a trap for them.
"This spot looks good." Wendy tells me before pointing towards the horizon, "In that direction is a forest for wood each night, and the rabbits make a good source of food. I also wouldn't be surprised if there's more berry bushes around here."
Nodding, I get to work finding a good spot to put the fire pit. I start to clear the hay from a fairly large circle around where I want to make the pit. All the loose hay is pushed into a pile at the center. Tinder. Check.
I go to start finding stones to place around it when I stop. "How long do you think we're going to be stuck here?"
It's not really been bothering me like it should have, but I ask to fill the silence.
"Honestly? Who knows." Wendy shrugs.
I didn't expect her to know, but for now I give up on communication, the setting sun spurring my movements. There are more important things to be doing right now. Together we find enough rocks to use; I assemble a rough circle and dig out a small groove in the loose dirt inside. Then I place all the hay we've swept up in the center.
"Hay won't be enough." I tell her, watching in the peripheral of my vision as she runs off to find twigs and branches.
With a sigh, I look out at the disappearing light source, taking in the beauty of it all. I clear my head and relax. Should I be ashamed I'm not more worried about what I've gotten thrown into? I idly strike my lighter, not too concerned about the stray sparks as I wait. Eventually, I decide to look around some. I notice there are places with larger clumps of hay and walk towards them. I gather all I can up in my arms and make the trip back.
Multiple trips are required to achieve the result I wanted but I feel it paid off in the end.
By the time Wendy returns our circle has grown bigger, only to accommodate the now significantly larger fire pit. Pit wasn't even the correct word. No, this was a bonfire of hay now; I looked on in pride, eagerly awaiting the chance to light it up.
A giggle slipped out of me and this caused her to stare. "You are really something else, Willow." She was smiling, try as she might to hide it.
When night finally arrived, we were more then prepared. Hell, I could see for several yards in all directions as opposed to only a few feet from the measly temporary one we had before.
I sit down even though I'm full of adrenaline. I had the urge to do something, but the time made it all but impossible to go very far.
In-between me and Wendy rests a bunch of materials the blonde managed to find before. Logs, flint, stones, some grass for the fire, more berries, and... even carrots?
"I didn't know we had carrots out here." I mutter idly, reaching to pick up some flint before examine the gathered wood. Finding a satisfactory size, I reach for it and begin my little project.
Wendy notices my activities, but shrugs at my statement. "I didn't either."
"Guess that's for the best, huh? At least we know we can eat carrots." I finally wedge the flint in just the right way to create a crude axe. I hunt the ground for something that can be sufficient twine to tie it securely. "Assuming these are actually carrots and not some slightly different species that's actually poisonous."
"Paranoid, much?"
I finish the makeshift tool, about to retort, before Wendy cuts me off.
"Don't worry, it's a useful outlook to have out here." She smiles a bit, but I notice it doesn't reach her eyes.
I hand her the axe for her to examine, already focusing on another task. Finding the right shape of flint, or possibly having to shape it myself, was an annoying task, but a required one. It takes longer then the previous tool, but eventually I hold out a crude pickaxe to my companion. She studies it before setting it on the ground next to the axe.
"Willow," She grabs my attention, passing me a handful of berries. "Where did you learn this?"
I quickly eat the morsels of food, the fruit hardly doing anything for my aching stomach, while I think of a reply. "Girl Scouts. I earned all my badges." A happier time. To distract myself I grab myself some of the long hay in the pile of things Wendy brought earlier and begin to fiddle with it.
"You still remember all of it?" She looks surprised, almost.
"I lived in the woods, isolated, so I had to rely on myself." Nevermind why you were alone in the first place. I push away the thought, losing myself in the fire once more, a source of comfort that ironically started all the problems in my life. "It gave me an excuse to keep in practice, I guess."
"The Scouts teach you things like making a pickaxe?" She grabs the object in question with a skeptical look.
With a shrug I respond, "That's more from the living in the woods part."
The blonde doesn't say anything else; I'm glad.
I stare at the long grass in my hands, now a halfway braided cord of... could it really be called rope? The edges still frayed enough to potentially combine them to be longer., but it was too thin to hold under any strain at this point. If they combined several of these things, however...
A good idea, but I was feeling groggy and heavy. Something about the night makes me exhausted, as if it seeped energy straight from my bones. I wonder if that's why Wendy looks the way she does? I set the poor excuse for a rope back down on the pile and lay back. I glance over to the woman in question, who's staring at the bonfire in a daze, like she's looking at something only she can see.
Or maybe she's just looking at the bonfire and simply tired, just like I am.
I waste no time in falling asleep.
