Evie's POV
The new day was upon us and Moose had managed to wake up me and Bri by licking us on the face. The fire that we made had burn out and sun was shone brightly in the sky.
I wake up dusting of the dirt on the dress and wiping the boogers off my eyes. I also discovered twigs in my hair so I pulled them out one by one and decided to put my long brown curly hair into a neat bun. I noticed that Bri kept trying to go back asleep but she noticed that Moose wasn't letting her off easy and continued licking her face.
With a pout, Bri finally got up and looked at Moose tiredly.
"We should go into town but I'm starving." Bri said.
"Preach, girl. I'm hungry too. I was just about to go hunt some deer."
"Hunt? You have gun on you?"
"No something better." I exclaimed with a smirk on my face.
Hunting. Most Americans treat like a sport and hunt for the fun of it collecting the bodies of animals and using it for fur, food, and entertainment. Which is their prerogative, no judgement here.
Cree taught me that the natives and indigenous believed that hunting is a way of survival and end the hunger of empty bodies that go hungry on the reservations. They respect the craft of hunting and not only respect the elements of nature and have used every part of the animal after the hunt. He taught me how to shot a gun, throw a knife, and archery. He believed that I should be able to learn how to protect in case that he's not there.
Cree believed that a woman should be able to do all that a man can and even twice as better as a man. Cree allowed me to spar and fight him and a few of local natives on the reservation. Cree not only taught to me how to box but showed me martial arts. He use to box professionally and competed nationally and internationally all over the world but he gave it all up after he had to take care of me. I still till this day don't know why he didn't go back to boxing.
Every time I ask him about it, he says "You, my daughter are the most important thing in this world to me and I will move mountains for you, Ahote. Nothing can separate us".
I shed a tear just think about that moment. My Agidoda, I miss you so much.
Cree has been there for me during my brightest and darkest moments. In the event that my parents died, Cree was there for me. The night the police came to our door, forever my world was changed.
My parents were everything to me and more. My mother was beautiful woman with caramel skin and blue eyes that changed color when she was mad. She had blonde shaved hair cut that similar to Eve. She always tucked me in and read Pippi Longstocking which was my favorite book to read because I always thought that I was going to become like Pippi one day. Not having the dead parents part but traveling the world and being unapologetically myself. At least two things that I wanted came true.
I inherited not only mother's looks but another hereditary trait that I despised. Heterochromia. I have different colored eyes. I have one blue eye turns that green when I'm angry and my left eye is light golden brown like the color of whiskey. I wear contact brown colored contacts because I was bullied in school because of my eyes. Kids can be so mean.
My dad had mocha colored skin and small dimples that were noticeable when he smiled and he had long dreadlocks that reached the middle of his back. He was a forever a jockster, always cracking jokes and being the "class clown" of any room. He always be what he call "throwing some meat on the grill" and become the life of the party. He take me to go to football game with him and even though I don't like football and couldn't understand football, I would go with him to spend time with him.
"Are you okay?" Briana asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's look find a spot to hunt." I say wiping my tears.
Step 1 of hunting: Listen. Listen to what the wilderness has lurking about. So far, I see birds tweaking, a squirrel running through forest in search of a acorn, and a deer in running about in the forest and suddenly it stops. It's eyes are focused on something on the ground in what seems to be a acorn.
Step 2: Tread carefully. When you see the animal, it can be easy to directly aim first but that's every hunter's first mistake. You find a position to hide and stay there. Try not to make noise. This can be very distracting to the "target" and cause them to flee from the scene.
Step 3: Grab your weapon. I hide carefully underneath the bushes with Brianna in tow. I carefully unzip my bag and got my pocketknife. Bingo. This is not the first choice as far as weapon goes. I'm excellent at the bow and arrow but with my limited resources this will do.
I count carefully in my head. One. Two. Three.
I aim carefully at the deer and aim towards the stomach. As knife is thrown, the deer shrieks and notice the knife cut deep into the deer's skin. I walk towards the deer with Brianna following.
"Wow, that was amazing! How did you learn to do that?"
"My dad Cree. He taught everything I knew" I kept it vague.
I start a fire and drag the deer near the campfire. I cut the deer into sections. I used a stick to place the deer meat and roast it over the fire.
As we patiently wait for the food to get ready, Bri tells me she wanted be an engineer before she time traveled here. At Stanford, she told me that changed her major from history to mechanical engineering. She figured out that making inventions will not only make people happier but society easier to live in with more modern technology.
"I mean theoretically you still can. You can make 18th century standard of living more comfortable and modern but I would advise to do it discretely."
"What you do mean? You saying I'm that I shouldn't share my inventions to the world?"
"I'm not saying that. I'm saying people in this era become afraid of something that they aren't familiar with. That's like me as a doctor introducing anesthesia to the 18th century and expecting people to be okay with this being apart of surgery. If I introduced this and the patient is allergic to anesthesia, they blame me for the patient's death and try to hang me for witchcraft."
"Hmmm. You have a good point." Brianna said.
Brianna says, "We should head into town."
After we finished eating, all of three headed into town.
As we were walking further out of the forest, we got into the topic of relationships.
"So anyone waiting for you back home?" I asked being nosey.
"One guy. His name is Roger. We kind of left on bad terms"
"Ooh. Roger. Tell me about him. What happened between you guys?"
"He wanted to marry me. I mean I care about him, I really do but marriage. Marriage isn't something that you want to do, you have to know for certain that something you want to do. I'm not ready, I mean I'm only 22. He's a little bit older and he knows what he wants. And I'm still figuring out myself."
"And that's okay. You're still figuring yourself out and that's okay. But let me ask you this, is there anyone else that you think about spending the rest of your life with other than Roger?"
Brianna thinks carefully.
"No, but- This is too much. My Ma was deeply in love with my Da, Frank. And then boom, she met Jamie, got married, and felt madly and irrevocably in love with him. She realized that her love for Jamie overpowered her love for Frank. How do I know if he's the one?"
"You don't know. You just take a leap of faith."
Brianna listens carefully but takes Evie's advice into consideration. Maybe she was thinking too much about this. Maybe marriage with Roger is something she wants. She wished she left in better terms with him. Curious all of sudden, she asked Evie about her love life.
I laugh, "Nonexistent."
Brianna looks at her confused, "What you mean?"
"I never been kissed, in relationship, and the all of the above that you can think of."
Brianna starts to ask, "But how do you..."
"My parents. They were the ideal couple at least to me. My example for how real love should look like. They always teased each other and sat on the porch together just breathing the same air. My Mother was the "smart one" and always thought she was right. Sometimes she was wrong but my dad was the bigger person, and let her think she always right. He would me her laugh with his words and buy her gifts just because.".
As we kept walking, we realized that made into town. We entered what seems to be a tavern. And we saw all eyes staring curiously at us as we entered the tavern. We saw a short man with his daughter. His daughter looked scared and worrisome. She had pale complexion with long brown hair.
Brianna had a uneasy look on her face. Brianna and I entered the room, not knowing that we will change that girl's life forever.
N/A: Do you guys like long chapters or short chapters? Let me know in the comments.