Ai Latier- District Three male (12)

After some missteps and U-turns, Team Huldra triumphantly reached camp. At least, as far as we could tell. There was a somewhat clear area of grass and dirt under a canopy of trees from the forest all around. On their own they would provide some shelter from the rain but we'd definitely need to build up more than that. On one side of the camp there was a ravine. The other side led to thinner trees and then grassland. I'd never been camping before. It sounded like a fun adventure, though I suspected I might get tired of dirt and mosquitos.

"I think this is it." Kendall turned the map one way and then the other, comparing it with our surroundings.

"It definitely is. There's the rock right here." Birdie pointed at the rock on the map and then the human-sized boulder twenty feet away.

"The water's down here!" Kallik called from just outside camp and down a ravine. "We're gonna need a fire to boil it."

"I can build a fire," Shep said.

"You a firebug?" Val teased.

"No, just a farmer," Shep said.

"We should really take a moment to get to know each other," Trydan said.

"Yeah, let's all sit in a circle and tell our names and one interesting fact about ourselves," Taylor said sarcastically. She didn't protest when we all circled up, though.

There certainly are some cool people in the world. In a few minutes I'd learned that Kallik grew up in a place pretty much just like this and Shep was a weird old-timey farmer, which was pretty lucky for our tribe. It didn't take long for us to separate ourselves into tasks. Birdie wanted to look for plants, since she didn't eat meat. Shep started on the fire. He said it might not work without flint but he might as well try. Trydan appointed himself head of shelter-building and a few of us, myself included, got to work helping him.

"We should do a lean-to against a tree. It's the easiest," Trydan announced. I didn't know anything about building shelters but it sounded reasonable.

"You wanna come get some wood with me?" Clover asked, holding the machete.

"Sure," I said. We headed into the woods. I hadn't really known how big woods could be. There were just trees and trees and more trees after that. Most of them were pine trees, which weren't my favorite. There were a few of them in the VIctor's village and they always had gross sticky sap on them.

"Oh hey, if we cut a bunch of big ones we pretty much have a shelter," Clover said as he examined a big needle-covered bough. I felt a little bad tugging off living wood, but we didn't take more than two or three from each tree. We left plenty for the tree to grow back.

"Look what we got!" Clover called as he and I lugged back the boughs.

Trydan looked up from the lines he'd been drawing to mark out our shelter and ran over. He frowned. "You were supposed to get long narrow branches for the frame."

"We can just lean these against a tree like a tipi," Clover said.

Trydan exhaled through his nose, clearly unsure. Truth be told I suspected he knew we were right. He was just mad we hadn't done it his way. Oh well, there are always going to be some bossy people. It wasn't the end of the world. I'm let him have his way when I could and we'd all get along.

"I guess I can make that work," Trydan huffed. "Thanks for getting all this," he added. See, he's not such a bad guy.

"Hey, there's a pot under that tree!"

I looked over where Taylor was pointing and saw her pick up a cast iron pot with a handle like a basket.

"I was wondering how we were going to carry the water," Shep remarked.

"Is there anything else around?" Josie asked. We all hunted around the camp but nothing turned up.

"Looks like we got one pot and one machete," Leo summed up.

"And half a shelter," Clover added proudly.

At the sound of rustling foliage I turned to see Birdie making her way back to camp. "Great news!" she said.

"You found some more food?" Kendall asked. Rice would keep us alive- for a while- but some other stuff would be nice.

"Not exactly, but close. I went to pick up a mushroom and a big ol' red X flashed over it. I guess since no one is dying this time they're going to warn us if we're about to eat something poisonous."

"You were gonna pick up a mushroom you didn't know wasn't poisonous?" Trydan asked.

Birdie gave him a disdainful look. "Yeah, so I could look more closely, silly. I don't just eat random mushrooms. You can tell since I'm not dead."

Octavia Jacobs- District Two female (18)

I didn't think I cared much for the woods. They were very dirty, for one. I didn't mind the outdoors part or the sleeping on the ground part in themselves. I just could already tell it was going to be a very long, stinky few weeks if none of us could shower. Nonetheless, I'd volunteered myself to look around for edible plants or useful things in the woods. Not that I knew much about edible plants.

Vikings are from Denmark, right? What did Vikings eat? They ate potatoes, right? That sounds right. What does a potato plant look like?

In truth I wasn't looking for edible plants at all. I was looking for something else. The other camp, for one, so I could find Val. Mostly, though, I was looking for the immunity idol. I'd had time before leaving to watch a few episodes and I already knew the immunity idol was make-or-break- pretty obvious from the name. It was generally hidden somewhere not too far from camp and usually there were clues.

Where would I hide it? Me, I'd hide it in the camp, just because people wouldn't think to look there. Too obvious, right? Oh, I'm so sneaky.

Is that an asparagus?

For a moment I was so surprised I didn't move. I actually found something? It seemed… bizarre. There was just an actual asparagus standing there in the dirt. It sure looked like an asparagus, anyway. It looked just like the asparagus I bought grocery shopping, except still in the dirt. I'd never seen an asparagus actually in the dirt still. I'd barely seen any vegetables still in the dirt. I got my food in a store, not a garden. But sure enough, there was a real live asparagus below me. A bunch of them, in fact. Just a bunch of real asparagus. Asparaguses?

I bent down and tugged one of the asparaguses. It broke off in my hand with almost no resistance. I think I heard that means they're ripe. I turned the stalk over and sniffed at the broken part. It smelled like an asparagus. I went ahead and picked a bunch, holding out my shirt to collect them. Asparagus and rice didn't sound so bad. Weird, but not bad. And, since I'd gotten my cover story down, now I was free to look for idols.

When I got back to camp, a crackling fire awaited me. I wasn't surprised. In the few short conversations my tribemates had had, it had quickly come up that Enzo was very eager for fire duty. At first we'd been hesitant just because of that same eagerness, but he'd thoroughly outlined all the fire safety things he'd learned and it became clear there was actually no one better to trust. Better to put your faith in someone who's set a million fires and never burned himself alive than someone who's never tried.

"Ooh, what did you find?" Robbie said when he noticed my distended shirt.

"I think I found some asparagus," I said.

"Asparagus?" Dorian wasn't doubtful, just as surprised as I'd been.

"Yuck," Amberlynne said.

"Yum," Trayne said at the same moment.

Amberlynn gave him a grossed-out look.

"More for me," he said.

"We can make asparagus and rice soup," Virgo said. "Now we're cooking."

To Amberlynn's relief, Virgo came back from her own botanical expedition with some butternuts, which were more to her liking. I kept a close eye on Virgo as she dropped off her harvest near the A-frame shelter Robbie, Alara and Persi had been working on. I didn't see any idol hidden under her shirt or in a pocket. She might have buried it, but I didn't see any dirt on her hands.

"So the first challenge will be tomorrow?" Rowena asked as we sat around the fire eating boiled rice and planning for the next day.

"I hope so," Robbie said. "There are prizes if you win. Maybe we can win some blankets or something."

"It is already getting cold," Alara said a little fretfully, hugging her knees.

"We're going to have to all pile in and snuggle," Enzo said.

"That's all right. I'm a cuddler," Dorian said.

"I'll take the end. I don't mind the cold," Cactus said.

"We're barely gonna fit." Persi looked doubtfully at our little shelter.

Enzo looked up at the setting sun. "We have a little more time before it's dark."

"Good idea," I said. "I'll go out and get some more wood."

Interview clips:

Amberlynne's interview: We seem to have some pretty cool people on this tribe. Rowena's really been getting out there in the woods and just getting a ton of firewood. Persi rigged up some sort of water purifying system. Cactus seems kind of dodgy. I think he might be doing his own thing.

Amberlynne's interview after production edits: Cactus seems kind of dodgy. He's... really been getting out there in the woods.

Enzo's interview: The sunset here was really pretty. It's kind of cold but I think the fire will help. I think I already have some friends and I'll try to keep that going. They're really cool.

Enzo's interview after production edits: The fire is... really pretty. I'll try to keep that going. It's... really cool.

Birdie's interview: Trydan is a little bossy. He thinks he's the only one who knows how to build a shelter. The shelter turned out pretty well, though, once he let Clover and the rest of us give him some ideas. It's really hard to work with the rocky ground here but Ai kept working until he got it. We're all really nervous for the first challenge. I hope we don't embarrass ourselves.

Birdie's interview after production edits: Trydan is really bossy. It's really hard to work with... him.

Just thought I'd get some behind the scenes stuff before our first challenge!

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