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Chapter Seven – Treetop Breakfast

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The dawn chorus was well underway by the time that Ril awoke. It seemed strange that even after her life had been turned upside down, existence went on as normal for every other animal on the planet. Amazingly, she had managed to get a decent night's sleep despite the fact that they were in a maimai halfway up a tree. After the first nightmare, she had slept deeply without any more dreams. Remembering her conduct last night brought heat to her cheeks. Did soldiers have nightmares like that? If so, Jud had been kind enough not to say anything.

Ril wondered briefly whose maimai it was? Most of her friends enjoyed hunting down the large avians that were native to the woods of Rekohu, but she preferred collecting plants to killing birds. Before he'd passed, he father had once taken her hunting with him in a blind similar to this. Despite her father's efforts she'd fallen asleep waiting for their quarry to show and then brought up her breakfast when he had gutted his catch. He'd laughed good-naturedly at her and thankfully had never taken her out with him again.

Her stomach growled, reminding her that her last meal had been yesterday's breakfast. With everything that had happened yesterday, there just hadn't been time to get something to eat. War tended to interrupt daily routines, she thought bitterly.

She started to stretch then paused as a thin blanket fell off her shoulders. She couldn't remember having put it on—one of the troopers must have put it on her at some point during the night. Setting the blanket to one side, she sat up and looked around. The maimai was a large one, tall enough to stand up in and with enough space for two hunters and their gear. Even so, there wasn't really anywhere for anyone to hide. She was alone with only an army pack for company.

A tendril of anxiety stirred in her stomach—where could the others be? She padded out to the deck—empty. She looked around, but there was no sign of them. A loud thud behind her startled her and she spun around, letting out a yelp of surprise.

"Easy, ma'am. It's just me." Jud had dropped down onto the platform.

"Where did you come from?" she demanded before she could stop herself.

"I was higher up the tree getting a bird's eye view of the land. I didn't want to startle you—you seemed like you could use the extra sleep."

She couldn't think of a sensible response so she retrieved the blanket and handed it to him. "Thank you," she murmured.

Jud shook his head. "That wasn't my idea, ma'am. Fitch is the one you should thank."

"Oh. Okay." Her belly growled again, breaking the silence before it became uncomfortable.

Jud grinned unexpectedly at her. "It seems like I'd better feed you, else your stomach might call a bunch of Seps down on us." He cracked a dim joke as he went back in the rude hut and started rummaging around.

Ril took a seat on the platform and looked out at the forest. She could only see a few meters before the screen of leaves and branches drew together, blocking her view. Jud's mood had improved since last night and his favourable humour reassured her. He had been so silent the entire trek that his outburst the previous day had scared her, she'd been sure he was going to punch the younger man. He'd been nice enough last night but she wasn't sure who she would find this morning—the guy who laughed at snores with her, the wooden trooper, or the berserker who was ready to hit his own brother.

A clatter behind her heralded Fitch's arrival. His shiny white helmet popped, bobbing around as he clambered up onto the branch.

"Good morning, ma'am." His unlined yet serious face emerged from under his helmet and he nodded politely in greeting. He looked so much like his older brother. The resemblence was uncanny.

She smiled in return. "Good morning, Fitch."

Jud emerged from the maimai with a couple of canteens and several foil packages in his arms. He handed them each a packet.

"Chow time!" he said cheerfully.

Ril tore open her parcel to find a small, pale and greasy bar. This was food? She sniffed it unobtrusively, but it didn't seem to smell of anything. She took a tentative bite. It didn't taste of much at all, maybe a hint of blue milk in the aftertaste? Even the texture was unpalatable, sticking to the roof of her mouth and gumming up her teeth as she chewed. She swallowed with difficulty and eyed the rest of the bar with distaste. Suddenly it looked a lot bigger than she'd thought. No one could actually eat this stuff, could they? She looked up and saw the brothers, their mouths full, staring at her with obvious amusement.

Jud swallowed his bite. "I take it you've never eaten dry rats, err dry rations, before, ma'am?" He chuckled.

"Dry rats? Um… no. Is that what you call this… ah stuff?" She raised an eyebrow at them. "This is what you eat normally?"

She didn't know how they could live on food that just tasted so… blah.

"We normally get hot meals when we're in barracks, but in the field it's usually dry rats, dry rats, and more dry rats." Jud explained.

Privately Ril thought that a dried rat might be preferable. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and glanced at Jud and Fitch only to find that they'd both gone back to scarfing down their bars.

Fitch spoke up. "Dry rations are designed to give you maximum energy and nutrition with a minimum of bulk."

"Minimum taste too," Ril muttered defiantly underneath her breath as she resigned herself to eating the rest of the blah-bar.

The other two had… somehow finished eating and went back into the hut. They seemed to have made up after their spat last night. Ril was no stranger to family disagreements, her own parents had never quite managed to mask their disappointment that she hadn't yet married and started a family to carry on the family bloodline, but watching the two brothers' argument last night had been... uncomfortable, intrusive. Friction between family members ought to be private. Jud and Fitch's parents must be very tolerant if they allowed both sons to join the military, perhaps there were other brothers who stayed home?

She tried not to eavesdrop but couldn't help it, the sounds of their voices wafted out of the entrance into the still morning air.

"I managed to scout the immediate vicinity. There's a small stream five minutes to the nor'west of our position. The water is potable—I recommend we detour and top up our water supplies before heading for the rendezvous point."

"Good work, Fitch. Any trace of friendlies or clankers?"

"Negative."

Ril heard one of the men sigh, but couldn't tell who.

"As Sergeant Wiki says…uh, said—no news is good news."

"We're pretty low on food supplies too, sir. We've got enough dry rats for maybe two days if we limit ourselves, but after that we're going to have problems."

"Hopefully Endeavour will be back before we get to that point. As far as I can tell, we're less than half a day's travel from the rendezvous."

"I hope the others made it."

"I guess we'll find out when we get within comms range."

Ril managed to choke down the last of her bar. It filled the ache in her gut, even if it left her craving something with flavour. She joined the brothers inside the hut. "I guess we're doing more walking?" she inquired.

Jud nodded. "Not too much farther to go, ma'am. We should meet up with everyone before night fall."

Before she could stop herself, she heard her traitor mouth blurt out, "it's Ril! I'm not a ma'am and your mud has rubbed off."

With perfect comedic timing, both men looked down at themselves then at each other before bursting into laughter. Ril just stood there for a moment, but couldn't help it—she had to grin at both of them.

"Guess we'd better add muck-rolling to our to-do list…" Fitch looked impish. "Sir!"

Jud rolled his eyes comically in feigned annoyance. "I'm not a sir, Fitch!"

"Yes, sir! Jud, sir!" Fitch snapped out a perfect salute and managed to keep a straight face for all of ten seconds before he dissolved into laughter again, taking them all into a fresh bout of mirth. It seemed that a decent night's sleep worked wonders for everyone.


Their trek through the forest went smoothly. The weather, which had looked so promising in the morning, had instead turned into sulky grey skies that leaked a steady drizzle through the forest canopy. The optimism of breakfast vanished as time crawled onwards. Fitch's chrono showed that they'd been walking for almost two hours. Ril seemed to have taken Jud's earlier warnings about silence to heart and hadn't uttered more than a half a dozen words.

Fitch was on point, keeping an eagle eye on the forest in front of them. He'd been trying hard to follow all the standard procedures and not make more mistakes. Jud hadn't corrected or rebuked him over anything. He even gave him an approving clap on his shoulder when Fitch had spotted a droid transport convoy in the distance. His mistake last night seemed to have been forgotten altogether.

To his right, a small bird fluttered onto a branch beside him. It cocked its head from side to side, cheeping as it inspected him. The birds of this world seemed to be very curious; a number had fluttered down and perched at eye level to get a good look at their rag-tag group. If this world had animals, it seemed like they were staying out of sight. Not that Fitch minded of course. It's just that his training had mentioned that most planets had unfriendly and dangerous indigenous animals. Perhaps he should ask Ril about it during their next break.

Over the curious chirps of the bird, Fitch heard a faint sound—almost like voices. He halted and slowly crouched down, scanning the woods around him, decee at the ready. His HUD showed that Jud and Ril were doing the same behind him. He strained to listen, feeling like his ears were growing out of his helmet. Around him all he could hear was the sound of raindrops pattering onto the leaves mixed in with the echoes of bird calls. Perhaps he was just hearing things? That was the worst part of all this sneaking around. As time went on, you got more and more paranoid, and less and less able to tell if your paranoia was justified.

Behind him, he saw Jud carefully positioning Ril beside the best cover. A slight creak of armour heralded his arrival at Fitch's side.

"What've you got?" Jud asked.

"I thought I heard voices…" Fitch shook his head. "Now I'm not so sure… Wait! There it is again!"

"Yeah, I heard it that time too," Jud said.

"I don't see anyone though… and those birds haven't moved. They'd get spooked if something was wrong," Fitch said carefully.

Ril shuffled up to join them. "What's happening?" she whispered.

Despite Jud's lecture this morning, it seemed that she followed instructions only when it suited her. Fitch heard Jud making small noises of frustration over the com-link. Then he realised—it might be a Republic comm signal! He rerouted power to his receiver and made out a snatch of Vode An over the radio. He grinned. Not even the rain could dampen his spirits now.

"I think I've got a comm signal from another trooper!" Fitch was elated. "This close to the rendezvous point, it's got to be the others! We're probably only nine clicks away from them."

Ril's brow furrowed. "Clicks?"

"Kilometres," Fitch translated.

"Oh! How long until we get there?" she asked.

There was a muted click as Jud patched through to Fitch's com on a private line. Fitch felt a bit rude but Ril tended to ask lots questions about things she didn't understand which turned a quick update into a long-winded translation session.

"I'll flash the boys a message," Jud said, "and let them know that we'll be joining them shortly."

"A text-only message has less chance of being distorted over this distance, sir," Fitch warned.

"Don't teach a Jedi how to wield a lightsaber, shiny… and quit it with the sir."

Even through his visor, Fitch could feel Jud's glare.

"Go update Ril," Jud growled.

Fitch heard a quiet click as Jud closed the private line. The other clone moved on to survey their surroundings. Fitch turned to Ril who was waiting patiently. "We should be there in approximately ninety minutes, ma'am. We're all supposed to be at the rendezvous by dawn tomorrow. So provided nothing has happened, you should meet up with your family and friends then."

Ril grinned with relief. It didn't seem to Fitch that she was used to trekking for long distances, but she had managed to keep up. Fitch grinned back. That was better than he expected a civilian to do. They'd needed to stop earlier to treat her blisters but she hadn't grumbled any more than a clone would in her position.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ril got up and made to move past him. He grabbed her arm.

"Remember what Jud said earlier, ma'am. You stay in the middle and you keep a ten metre distance between us at all times. We can protect you better that way and the distance makes it less likely we all get taken down at once by an enemy attack."

"You could've just said so rather than mauling my arm" she grumbled.

"My apologies, ma'am," said Fitch.

"Ril," she huffed. "Not ma'am. Remember?"

"I'll do you a deal—you remember the rules and I'll remember not to call you ma'am," he wrangled.

She rewarded him with an ear to ear smile. "Deal!"

They'd gone another few clicks when a crackly voice cut through the silence in Fitch's bucket.

"Jud, Fitch, this is Stolli. Transmission acknowledged. You are clear to approach from the nor'east."

"Stolli, this is Jud. Copy that. You boys better save us some caf."

"Had to do something while you lot were busy sightseeing," Stolli said dryly.

"Everyone made it?" Jud asked.

There was a pause before Stolli replied and Fitch's heart sank.

"We'll debrief once you get here. Stolli out."

Questions welled up inside Fitch. He wanted to grill Stolli, but Jud was the ranking trooper in the group. Regs said that he was in charge of communications unless he formally delegated that duty to another clone, which he hadn't. Fitch was just going to have to wait for answers.

He paused a moment as he looked back at Ril. He wondered if he should update her, let her know that not everything had gone right, but what should he say? Especially since he didn't know the details himself? He figured that nebulous bad news was worse than no news. They'd all find out what had happened once they met up with the others.


Hope you enjoyed today's update. As always, I'd love to know what you thought of it and which bits you liked or didn't care for. To listen to Ril's dawn chorus: youtube dot com /watch?v=1Ilh-ttbhyU&feature=watch_response

Next week's update: Ril, Jud, and Fitch meet up with the other survivors.