Madeline and I stood in the open forest, our eyes unmoving from the bear's corpse. Eventually, the caw of a bird broke the silence, and I spoke up, "We should head back to camp, get ourselves cleaned up." I walked over to Madeline, "Come on, let's go."
"But what about the bear's meat?" Madeline responded, still in shock, "Shouldn't we bring it back?"
"No, the bear had eaten a rageshroom, if we eat it, the mushroom's effects will carry on to us, and we'll end up like him."
"Oh, *sigh* ok"
We walked back in silence. I was a little turned around at first, but after I saw a leaning tree, I knew where to go. It took another hour to get back, and so everyone had already returned as were waiting for us to bring some meat. When we got within sight their expressions quickly went to shock, seeing the two of us covered in enough blood to fill a well bucket.
"Are you both alright?" Mrs. Smith asked, breaking the silence as we entered the camp.
"I think so." I said slowly, "There's a river about 20 minutes that way," I said gesturing in front of me, "we'll be there cleaning ourselves off."
"Ok," Mrs. Smith said before turning to Holly to say, "Grab some of the cloth we used to wrap the tools. It'll help them get the blood off."
"Of course, be right back." Holly said, briskly walking toward the carts, and coving back with four ragged brown cloths. "Sorry we don't have anything else."
"Don't worry about it, Holly. These are fine." I said before grabbing Madeline's hand, "Come on, let's get cleaned up."
There was no resistance when I pulled her hand. She didn't say a word while we were walking to the river, but I didn't have to help her over roots or rocks. As we walked we could hear the leaves rustling in the breeze, insects skittering through the brush, and finally, the sound of water flowing over rocks.
The river was small, only about 5 feet across and about 1 foot deep in most places, but it was enough. I let go of Madeline's hand and it dropped slowly to her side as I soaked one of the rags in the water. Walking back over to her, I rung it out over her head, which is when she finally snapped out of it.
"Ghah! What the hell're you doing?" she jumped as she said this, her eyes looking more awake than before.
"Nothing," I said handing her the wet rag with one of the dry ones, "just clean the blood of yourself best you can."
"And what are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna go to where you're just out of sight and do the same."
I walked along the river until I hit a long drop, and decided I would clean off there, that way I'd still be within earshot just in case something happened. I took off my jacket, pants, and shoes. Luckily none of the blood stained through to my shirt or underpants, so I didn't need to take those off. I took the first cloth and managed to get all the dried blood off my body, but my clothes took more effort, and they were still stained red. I brought spares, so it's not a big deal, but I'd rather not be down a set of clothes for a while.
I was about to go check on Madeline, when I tried to run my hands through my hair and they got caught on dried blood. I had no way to comb the blood out of my hair, so after running my hands through it for a while, I decided to just cut it off when we get back to camp. My hair isn't too long, only going down to my jaw and usually tied back, but I liked the way it looked. It wasn't an easy decision, but it would make things easier from here on, especially when I go exploring on my own. Shorter hair would be less likely to get in the way.
To make sure Madeline was done and dressed I shouted up, "Hey, you done yet?"
"Yeah."
And with that I headed up to where I left her. She had her jacket resting on a rock next to the river and was trying to get the dried blood out of her hair with the same amount of difficulty I had.
"Hey."
"Hey Prestin."
"You having trouble with your hair?"
"Yeah. You still have blood in yours, what're you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna cut it when we get back to camp, easier to get the blood out."
"Ah. Maybe I'll do that to."
"Ok. Well let's go back."
"'Kay."
The walk back was filled with the same awkward tension as our conversation. I wasn't sure how to break the silence and I spent so long thinking about how to that we ended up back at the campsite before I could. The silence was broken for me my Mr. and Mrs. Smith coming up and making sure we were both ok.
"Prestin, Madeline, are y'all alright?" Mrs. Smith asked.
"Yes, I think so." I responded, putting on a smile, "It's not our blood, so we weren't injured."
"That's not what I meant." Mrs. Smith said, which caused the both of us to fall silent, luckily the second awkward silence was broken my Mr. Smith, "What happened to y'all out there?"
It was Madeline who spoke up, "We were attacked by a crazed bear. I thought I was done for, but Prestin saved me."
I quickly said, "It wasn't just me, if you hadn't blinded it with your arrows, I would've died."
"So it looks like ya both saved each other's skins ay?" Mr. Smith responded with a smile, "Don't worry about the huntin', I've asked Jack and Holly to handle it."
"Ah, make sure to tell than that if they see a bear corpse to stay away from it. It had eaten a rageshroom, that's why it attacked us. If you get too close, it's effects will spread to you."
"Ah, thank you Prestin, I'll let'em know." Mr. Smith patted me on the back, "Now get some rest, and clean the blood out of yer hair."
"Thank you, Mr. Smith. About that, I'm just gonna cut it, make it easier."
"Ah I got it, then go see Jane, she took Madeline to cut her hair while we were talkin'."
I nodded, "Thanks."
"You got it. Go on ahead now."
I walked over to where Mrs. Smith was cutting Madeline's hair, and I arrived just as she finished. Madeline's usual shoulder blade-length hair was now only down to her jaw, about where mine was, but it was only like this on the top, everywhere else was as short as you could get using a knife. She had it parted over to one side, and it gave her a more adventurous feel than her previous hairstyle.
"What 'cha think?" she said looking at me, running her hands through her hair. I was surprised she would ask my opinion, but I have it, "I think it suits you."
Mrs. Smith smiled and said, "You want me to cut yours too, Prestin?"
"Yes please."
As Mrs. Smith she asked for more details about what happened with the bear, "Madeline is like a different person after coming back with you. Exactly what happened?"
I told her the same thing I said earlier, about the rageshroomed bear, Madeline blinding it, and me finishing it off.
"I see," Mrs. Smith said, pausing, "and at the river?"
I could feel my face flush as I could guess what she was talking about before telling her.
"Ah ok, so nothin' happened at the river then."
"No ma'am."
"Good."
I sat in the third awkward silence of the day, and when she was finished my hair was as short as possible around the sides and back, with very little on the top, it was still scruffy, as Mrs. Smith put it, but most of the blood came out already, so there wasn't much for me to do with it.
"By the way, Prestin, where's your walking stick?" Mrs. Smith asked, and I told her that it snapped under the bear, "Oh I'm sorry, you've had that for years, haven't you?"
"Yeah I have, but I'm not gonna risk it trying to get a broken stick back."
It was around that time when Jack and Holly got back with a deer and two rabbits, so we went to work, skinning and bleeding them. We decided to use the meat to make a stew, and while that was cooking, Holly used the deer leather and rabbit fur to make new clothes for me and Madeline. Madeline was made a cropped top jacket to "not get in the way of hunting," as Holly put it. I on the other hand, got a regular jacket with sleeves going to about halfway down my forearms, and it tapered down around my waist. Holly added hoods lined with rabbit fur to both our jackets so, "just in case, you don't need to cut off your hair again." I chuckled when I heard this, and thanked her for her great work.
"Oh no, sewing is only a hobby of mine."
This goes beyond sewing, I thought, this is full on tailoring, but I didn't press and thanked her again before sitting around the fire and getting some of the stew. Madeline sat next to me as she got hers, and I wonder what that's about. Usually, she stays away from me. I'm not complaining about it, but I guess Mrs. Smith was right, maybe she is like a different person now.
After we all finished dinner, and I recounted what had happened to everyone, I went up a tree to go to sleep, as per usual. What I didn't expect was for Madeline to go to sleep under the tree I was sleeping in. I thought it was weird but went to sleep and woke up just like normal, and when I did, Madeline was still under the tree. I hopped down as quietly as I could so I didn't disturb her, and went to start packing up the campsite with everyone else.
After everyone was awake and ready to go we set out on our sixth day of the journey. For the next few days everything went smoothly, but Madeline was around me more and more often. She asked me to accompany her on her hunting trip on the seventh day, and continued to sleep under the same tree as me on the eighth. I wasn't sure what was going on with her, but I accepted it by the ninth day and talked with her like a friend. I think. I've seen people talk more familiarly than acquaintances but less respectful than family, so that's what I'm basing friendship on.
"Hey Prestin," Madeline said while eating dinner at the end of the ninth day.
"Yeah Madeline, what's up?"
"You don't need to use my full name all the time."
I wasn't expecting something like this, but I guess friends seem to call each other things other than their names, so I went along with it, "Then what should I call you?"
"I don't know, maybe Maddie?
"Maddie?"
"Yeah, Maddie. I like the sound of it. But only you can call me that, ok?"
"Oh," I guess this is the type of thing that friends can do, "Ok Madel—" I caught myself for a second, "Maddie."
On the tenth day, Maddie and I were talking at the front of the pack, when she asked, "Hey Prez, what's that?" Prez is the nickname she's given me, I was against it at first, but it's grown on me, "That's a…" I had to look where she was pointing, "an elder tree, I think."
"Wow, so they really are huge!" Maddie said.
"Yeah but," I strained my eyes to get a better look, "this one is discolored, maybe it's dead."
"Hmmm…," Maddie thought before saying, "Maybe we should set up camp for the day there, that way we can look around it and see for sure."
So, at Maddie's suggestion, we stopped near the elder tree, and after everyone had eaten dinner, the two of us looked around the tree for anything, and eventually, we found an opening in the tree. It was circular, about 5 feet across, and when we crawled inside we found out why the tree was dead. Something had carved out the inside of the tree and made a nest within it. The caverns were large enough to stand comfortably in, and when we found a room close to the bottom, it had webs and mushrooms growing in it. We had found a Royal Spidder Nest.