Kace led us further and further into the forest changing directions so many times while it was dark that we had no clue as to where we had been or where we were going. We stopped a few hours after it got light enough to see.
Kace pointed to a small area ahead "we will stop here for a few days while I teach you the basics," he said as he started to scout the area for predators and to see if water was nearby and abundant.
He had told us to start to set up our field tents and to be on the lookout for predators while he went and scoped out the area, we were all extremely tired and hungry after the week we had and the long walk with no food that had happened today.
After getting the tents set up into a circle leaving enough room for Kace's tent where he said he wanted his to go, we all started to check out the area, as well as our curiosity, came out to the area we had been left in.
To me, this was like when Reed and I had set up that camp a long time ago, I'm thankful we learned some bushcraft from his father, it looked like I was the only one who knew what to do in a camp setting. Hazel and Bell found a downed log at the edge of the clearing and they sat and chatted, The twins set up tents right next to each other and were just getting bedrolls put in, and Richard was still struggling to get his tent up but no one moved to help him, just because we had been forced to work together didn't mean we were all buddy buddy.
I got my tent up first and started to look around as well, I knew we would need water and food soon as well as a fire before the end of the day and started to organize my exhausted thought towards that end after I told the others I was going to look around and asked if someone could gather some wood for a fire. I was hesitant to ask any of them to go find berries as I didn't want them to pick any poisonous ones, 'guess I have to find some food for us' i hope Sergeant Kace has at least one day of rations for us in that bag of his,' i thought to myself as I took a drink from the shallow stream.
Looking into the water I could see little silver fish that were about 8 inches long and a few inches wide, I grabbed the small knife I had belted on before leaving the camp and went to find a stick about 4ft tall and I sharpened one end into a sharp point so that I could fish.
Reed's dad had taught him how to spear hunt before he had taught the boy to light a fire so I was quite proficient at it as well because it was also the first thing Reed taught me at the edge of the pond all those years ago.
The first dozen throws I missed the fish, a bit out of practice it has been a while since I fished this way. After I got my first fish it became easier, I would get another one every couple of throws after that and within a few hours, I had caught 4 fish! it wasn't enough to feed us all, but at least it would give each of us something to eat while I would have to go out with someone to look for safe berries to eat or maybe root vegetables if our luck was any good today.
When I came back the group had finished the tents and had gathered some deadfall for a fire, they all had huge smiles when they saw the fish. Not long after I had gutted the fish before pushing sticks through them lengthwise through their kills to the end of their tails so that they were easier to roast over a fire I was gina start in a minute but while I was gutting the fish the group quickly got out flint and steels with some tinder and made a little fire slowly adding bigger pieces of wood, as the fire permitted without getting smothered.
Fes and Hes took over tending the fire, I pushed some sticks that had the shape of a V on the top into the ground so that I could lean the fish towards the fire before I went and sat down on a couple of logs someone had brought over to the fire area to rest and dry off from the fishing I had done earlier.
A half-hour later Sergeant Kace walked in with a few birds over his shoulder and a sling hung on his belt with a small bag beside it. Seeing fish already being roasted he had a smile before looking at me. "well done Bruni I assume this was your work?" he asked but already knew the answer.
"Yes sir," I got up and saluted him "we hadn't eaten today and I didn't know if you had any rations so I figured it would be safer if we had at least a little food in about stomachs," I replied honestly as everyone looked at me and nodded I didn't want this to be any harder then it was and being hungry AND tired was a terrible thing to go to sleep too and I knew we had much more work ahead of us.
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