The walk was silent as they made their way to the mountain. Daylight was slowly fading from the sky. The mountain was in view now. Jim wanted to reach it tonight but it wouldn't be safe to go looking for shelter with the sun as low as it was. "Alright let's stop here for the night. I saw a stream not too far from here. I'll go get a water sample. See if it's safe for our consumption."
"I can go." Spock spoke up as he set his things down. "We had an agreement Captain. You would be the first one to rest when we made camp. A proper rotation as well."
Jim opened his mouth before shuting it. After earlier he didn't want to talk to Spock. Not until he could figure out how to apologize without explaining why. "Fine. Just...take someone with you. No one should go anywhere alone."
Nodding Spock paired up with Sulu before leaving camp. Jim wanted to follow. He sighed and sat down. Everyone else set up camp. It was like having sand under your clothes watching them but he knew they would refuse to let him do anything. He poked at the fire they got going. It was a small one requiring attention throughout the night. It would keep them warm enough. Except for Spock. He took his blanket, thankfully they had been some placed with the emergency rations, and laid it on Spock's pack. He would be fine as long as he laid next to the fire. Besides if he got too cold he could always bug Bones' into letting him sharing a blanket.
He streached out his legs and wiggled his toes. They felt fine. Not pinching anywhere in his boots. "Hey guys you might want to check your feet and shoes for sores and pinching. If we can't find anything tomorrow we'll have to keep looking." He went back to poking at the fire as everyome called out to him.
"Arn't you bored of just reading all day?" Jimmy called to the boy sitting against a tree. Said looked up from his book. His face distorted and never settled on any clear features. Still Jimmy knew the other boy was annoyed with him.
"How can you become bored when there is so much to learn from books?" He placed his PADD beside him as he got to his feet.
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. "Because I've already read what's available. Twice." He bit down on his bottom lip. Stupid. He didn't want to make another person call him a freak.
"You already read them? When?" Sai asked. Something close to excitement in his voice. Jimmy rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged.
"I don't know. Somewhere around two, three, three weeks after I got here." After he had taken a single look at the class room and bolted. It had been a challange his Aunt had given him. Read all the books on the PADD and he didn't have to go to school. Joke on her he had already read half of them before he got here over the years. As an added bonus he wrote a report on all of them.
"Well which is it? Two or three weeks?" Sai asked. It was almost as if he took it as a personal challange.
Jimmy laughed. "Does it matter? It could have been four weeks. I don't remember all that well. Hey common shorty let's go do something fun. Books can come later."
The child balled his hands into the cloth of his pants. "I am not short! My kind are-"
Jimmy patted his head ruffling his hair until it was a mess. "You are shorter than me. So that means I can call you shorty. Nothing wrong with being smaller than normal. I'm betting you'll grow taller than me one day."
Jim jerked out of his thoughts when a hand tapped him. He glanced up at Bones. "You alright there? I was calling you for a few minutes now." Bones asked as he sat down beside him. Spock and Sulu hadn't returned yet.
"Yeah. Just lost in my head for a bit." Jim shook his head trying to clear away the fog. Those weren't memories he was seeing. He never met a kid like Sai. Likely a side effect from stopping his medication suddenly. "What do you need?"
"Well I'm here to see if you want to eat dinner." Bones held up the food in question. Field rations did not sound appealing at the moment. His stomach was still trying to decide if it was going to empty it's contents or not.
"Nah I'm good. I'll snag something before bed if I get hungry. Where's Spock?" He waved to their small camp not seeing either of them.
"Gone to bring back more water. It's safe to drink. Why don't you go lay down for a bit? We can take care of oursleves for a few hours." Jim nodded to the suggestion. He could lay down. Not like he could fall asleep.
