Chapter 4: Fire with a lone wolf

After the day came to an end and the sun began to go down again, the three boys decided to stop walking and build a campfire. Luckily they found a lighter and some matchboxes in the scattered baggage that day. That would help creating a fire to keep them warmer at night.

Near stood a few steps away from Mello who tried to light the wooden branches they gathered. Some stones formed a circle around the wood.

The blond grumbled something that he couldn't hear, but it was probably some curses. It was already at least fifteen minutes since Mello tried to create a fire.

Matt took a hesitant step towards his friend. 'Mels... I don't think you'll succeed making fire before the sun comes up again tomorrow morning. Don't you think it would be a good idea to let us-'

'No!' Mello growled. 'This is going to work! Just watch.'

Sometimes I wonder if he's half animal. He looks so often as if he's going to bite you if you anger him or piss him off.

'We're already watching you try long enough,' Matt sighed. 'Just give up.'

'I never give up! And certainly not with something simple like making a fire with a lighter.'

And so Mello went on trying. Near knew the lighter wouldn't do it forever so at some point the lighter would be useless. And at this rate it would be empty before the fire was lit.

We need something that will catch fire better instead of lighting the wood as first.

Near averted his glance off Mello and searched for something useful. It hadn't rained since they were here so everything was dry. His eye felt on the green moss growing on a tree close by. He thought it was worth a try.

He walked to the tree while Mello was still focused on the pile of wood with Matt beside him. He grabbed a handful of moss and went back to the soon to be fire. When he crouched down next to Mello the blond looked up with a grumpy expression on his face.

He's almost like an open book. His emotions are as easy to read as you would with words written on paper.

'What do you want?' Mello snapped at him.

Near put the moss in silence down between the wooden branches before replying.

Mello watched him as he frowned slightly in confusing. 'Why are you putting moss in the campfire?'

Near simply pointed with a finger at the moss. 'Try once to light this with the lighter.'

Mello's eyes went from Near to the moss to his lighter and back at Near again until Matt said to just do it. It was beginning to grow pretty dark. Finally he put his lighter to the moss and flicked it on. A small flame touched the dry moss and it caught on fire. The fire spread out further from the moss to the branches and they finally had a fire.

Near and Matt expected the other to make a mean comment at the smallest boy, but he just stared silently at the burning flames in front of him. His eyes narrowing slightly.

He's thinking why he didn't thought of that solution and why he didn't understood the moss at first.

Near knew Mello was so focused on lighting the branches to create a fire, he hadn't thought that there could be another solution to help the branches catch fire. It was one of the flaws of Mello he knew.

'… Alright. Good job, Near! Now let's eat something before sleeping,' Matt interrupted the silence.

Matt went to get a bag of chips out of his own backpack and Near started to get his own to get something to eat. It was mostly junk food that they had found earlier, but it was better than nothing. The healthiest things in their backpacks were plastic bottles with water.

Mello huffed once and grabbed a chocolate bar.

They ate mostly in silence with Matt trying to get a conversation going. Near didn't speak much at all normally and Mello was still moody about the fire so Matt gave up eventually.

/\/\/\/\

Something felt wrong.

It was now completely dark in the forest except for the little space around the campfire. Matt lay next to him in the sleeping bag snoring softly. The redhead thought it would be better to let Mello have one for him own for tonight.

I feel eyes on me... someone is watching me.

He gave Matt a poke in his side. 'Matt,' he whispered. 'Wake up.'

Matt murmured something and opened his eyes slowly. 'Please don't tell me you're gonna keep me from sleeping every night.'

'Someone is watching us.'

He turned to look at his friend and saw the blond still sound asleep. His eyes widened in realisation when Near's words came through.

'What could it be?' he whispered back.

'A wild animal maybe? We haven't thought about the wild life in the forest yet. We have no idea in which part of the world we are so we can't know what animals live here,' Near answered.

A low growl went through the silence of the night and it sounded way too close for comfort. This was defiantly not a human like growl like Mello often did, but a growl of something that wasn't human at all.

Mello was instantly awake and turned to see both of them staring at him. Near had no idea what to do. It was too dark to run away and he was not strong enough to climb into a tree like Mello did the first day.

Very slowly Mello started to get up out of his sleeping bag. He tried to not make any sudden movements. Matt followed his example and slowly crawled out of the sleeping bag they shared. Near decided it was best to do what they did.

A bush, no more than a few meters away, made a rustling sound and slowly but surely a big wolf appeared in the light of the campfire. It's pelt had a greyish color and his eyes stared intensely at them all.

'It's a wolf. It's a real fucking wolf,' Matt squeaked nervously.

'What do we do?' Near murmured. Not daring to talk louder.

Is it a lone wolf or is it part of a whole pack? Are we in it's territory? I wish I knew more about wild life.

Mello didn't break his eye contact with the wolf and slowly moved his hand to the fire, grabbing the end of a burning branch. He held it in his hand for a moment and began to wave it vigorously in front of him while yelling at the wolf.

Near's eyes widened at the noise that he made, but understood that the noise and the fire could scare the wolf away. He grabbed a branch himself from the campfire and waved it just like Mello did. Matt joined them not long after.

The wolf watched them waving the fire and it's ears moved nervously at the loud yelling. It was most likely this was a lone wolf searching for a pack and a own territory for it's own. The wolf hadn't claimed this piece of land as his and had been only curious at the unfamiliar scents of humans.
Slowly the wolf took a step back and more followed. Just before his tail touched the bush watched the three weird creatures one more time and then quickly turned around, disappearing in the night.

Mello sighed relieved and threw his branch back on the fire. 'That went surprisingly well.'

'What do you mean "that went well"?!' Matt hissed. 'Didn't you know for sure this would work?'

Mello shrugged. 'I've once seen an documentary on the television about wolves. I know not that much, but I remembered that making noise and not breaking eye contact could work.'

Matt let out a deep breath and dropped on his knees on the ground. 'I sincerely hope things like this won't happen to often. Otherwise I'll piss my pants from fear.'

Mello snorted humorous. 'Then I hope you have an extra pair of underwear in your backpack because we're stuck in this forest for awhile.'

Matt fell face first on the sleeping bag. 'Great,' he groaned.

I'm sorry for the pretty long wait! Normally I try to update the stories I'm busy with at least once a week, but this story is harder to write than I thought... It's because I don't have a big plot going on I think. They only have to survive and get to contact L or anyone who can help them, so every chapter I just begin typing and see where it's going xD

I do have some ideas and an OC that's coming some time later though :)