Disclaimer: Bleh...
Just to avoid confusion. The ATC is an organisation for 13 to 18 year olds organised by the Royal Air Force. ATC stands for Air Training Core. The ATC do all kinds of activities from walking expeditions to flying and many other activities!
Chapter 3 – Dinner with Dumah
Rachel trudged over to the cooking area of the campsite, cooking utensils and pre-packed meal in hand. She had never really liked the military issue, shrink wrapped, pre-cooked meals they were given on these walking expeditions. Rachel thought that they were given all the military's rejected stuff; so the army guys got the decent grub, while the little ATC people received all the crappy stuff.
Arriving in the cooking area, Rachel placed her cooking utensils on one of the 'tables' (some bricks cemented together with a stone slab on top) and started to set up. She put the meths in the meths burner, and realized she had no matches to light it with. "Aaron! Do you have any matches I could borrow?" He did, and she could now begin heating her pre-cooked 'food'.
While Rachel was waiting for her food to warm up, she noticed someone lurking in the trees over on the far side of the campsite. Peering into the darkness, she could just about see that he was pretty tall and was wearing a coat simmilar to the one she had seen Turel wearing earlier. Thinking it was just one of the other campers, Rachel ignored the person and continued watching her food cook.
After a short while, Rachel poked at the silver package in the little saucepan of boiling water, and saw that it hadfinished heating. She fished it out with a convenient stick, and cut it open with her pen-knife.
She looked inside.
She curled her lip in disgust.
She-
"It looks like something someone hauled up at the side of the road!"
"AAaahhh!"
Rachel suddenly jumped out of her skin at the sound of this stranger's voice behind her, and inadvertently skalded her hand with some of the hot food that had sloped out of the foil packet. She swore to herself under her breath, waving her hand about in the cold night air, trying in vain to stop the burning sensation.
"Argh! Don't do that!" Rachel said angrily, spinning around to face the stranger."You made me spill some of my food!"
Had she realised who she was speaking to, she probably wouldn't have said that to this person.
He was dressed in a simmilar way to Turel, but his over coat was a deep blackberry purple instead of green. He was rather tall, a bit taller than Turel; but he was built like brick wotzit. In other words, he would have put Arnold Schwartzanneger to shame.
As Rachel stared at the towering figure before her (she's only a mere 5'4"), she blanched, and began to stagger backwards untill she was stopped by the 'table'. She continued to stare unabated, untill she managed to utter "Dear Gods!"
Unperturbed by this, for this was the usual reaction Dumah recieved from mortals, he raised an eyebrow and gestured to the foil packet Rachel still clenched in her hand. "I've seen you mortals eat some pretty disgusting things in my time, but that just has to be the most revolting thing I have ever witnessed a human attempt to consume."
Rachel smiled meekly, and replied in her shyest voice, "Well, y'know what Croc Dundee said,'You can live on it, but it tastes like shit'."
There was a moment of tensed silence whilst Dumah locked the girl with a stern gaze, as if contemplating what she had just said. For several long seconds, Rachel thought that this man was going to beat her into a splintery pulp for her impertinence.
But just when she least expected it, he grinned fiendishly and said, "I'll see if I can get you something better to eat! Just watching you eat that turns my stomach." and with that, he headed off into the woods, leving behind a rather dazed and confused Rachel. She stared after the towering figure stride off into the woods. "Ooookay then..."
For a long while Rachel and the other people in the D o E group sat around their tents doing various things. Aaron was checking tomorrow's route with the maps he kept in his tent, Katrina and her boy friend Nathan were kissing by the gentle glow of a campfire, and Rachel and Liz were talking about boys and various other things.
Just as the team decided to turn in for the night, Aaron caught some movement at the edge of the woods. He put his glasses on, and said more to himself than anyone else, "Who's that? And what's he carrying?" Rachel followed where he was looking, and replied, "It's that big guy, I met earlier." As the team watched him come closer, what he carried on his shoulder became more discernable.
"It looks like a hunk of meat." Nathan said.
"Yeah. I think it is." Rachel replied.
As Dumah aproached, he said to the team, "Now here's some food worthy of being consumed!"
"Now your'e talking! I haven't had a decent steak in ages!" Nathan sprung to life and put some logs on theglowing embers of the fire and blew on it to get it burning. Soonflames billowed from underneath the smouldering moss covered logs, and it quickly became hot enough to cook the meat on. Amongst the ashes and hot embers, the meat promptly emmited a sweet aroma that had the team's mouths watering in anticipation.
Whilst the team were watching their sizzling meat, and occasionally prodding it with a stick or penknife, Dumah had wandered back to his tent. "Unusually generous of you, Dumah." It seemed that Zephon had been watching them the whole time.
"Well, I found a man living in some kind of hovel in the forest, so I thought I would indulge my thirst. You must agree with me that livestock is hardlytheapropriate sustenance for a clan lord."
"Yes, this rule that we aren't allowed to kill humans in this land is utterly ridiculous!"
"Anyway; I found this man in the woods, and I drained him dry. Then I remembered what those humans over there had to eat. So I thought, waste not want not."
"Fair enough." Zephon replied with a shrug. "Buthow will they reactif they find out they're eating a fellow human?"
"They shouldn't notice. Iv'e heard that the flesh of humans tastes similar to pork when cooked."
GASP Will the team realise what's going on? Or will they remain oblivious? I think not!
Again, I realise that the humor in this chapter isn't blareingly obvious, and I generally prefer to use much subtler humor than I think most people do. My favorite part in this chapter is when Dumah first comments on Rachel's food!
Anyway, please review!
