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3rd POV
Amelia and Dantae came through the door the massive Nerix catching his hornes on the door for a second before ducking further and sauntering into the cave.
As the Nerix wandered over to the stables Amelia hoped off his back with what looked like a blanket and walked over to the fire room. Leaving Scott to put the Nerix in his stable.
When she arrives she sets the blanket down and unfolds it to reveal two smaller rolls of fabric and some bones.
The bones were perfectly clean and dry but were fresh. Amelia grabs some of the smaller bones and sets them aside along with the two rolls of fabric. She then wraps the remaining bones back up in the blanket and unwraps one of the rolls. It pops open and she immediately wraps it back up mumbling a small "wrong one" under her breath. She then unwraps the second one to reveal meat rolled into a cylinder several layers of meat sit on top of each other thinly separated by some type of paper. She pulls one of the slices off and lays it on the hot stone.
The meat sizzles and bubbles as Amelia fills any open space with the meat slices occasionally flinching when a bit of hot liquid hits her skin. She then grabs another set of tongs and flips the meat ensuring it is evenly cooked.
"Here the acorns are done cooking you can have the rest of the grill"
Ava rolled the acorns off the stone and into a bag before pulling the drawstring closed and setting them off to the side.
"I'm going to finish the soup"
Amelia nodded before brushing off any acorn residue with another tool and adding more of the meat.
Ava started chopping Vegetables and plopping them into the broth as she employed Taylor to roll out the dough, she had made, into noodles. Scott was walking back and forth between Ava and the pot delivering Vegetables, and noodles, and occasionally trying to steal a piece of meat.
"Scott can you grab me a plate"
Quickley scraping his plate of noodles into the pot Scott hurried over to one of the cupboards and grabbed a plate carved from a rich dark wood before handing it off to Amelia.
She quickly loaded the meat from the stone onto the plate and laid the rest of the uncooked meat onto the stone.
"Scott can you take over for a second I've got to grab something I snagged along the way"
After handing off the tongs Amelia stood up and ran into the next room. Where Scott had been nice enough to put Dante into his shared stable with Laurence and take his saddle off.
She mumbled something about not breaking them and opened the saddle bag that she had sewn into her saddle for hunting convenience. She pulled out five large eggs. They were colored yellow and so covered in different brown speckles, spots, and blotches that you couldn't see the yellow at some points. Quickly kneeling and setting the eggs carefully on the stone floor of the cave she inspected them. Turning the eggs over in her hands multiple times to ensure there was no damage before scooping up the baseball-sized eggs and making her way back to the other room.
"Ava do you think we should use these, I found a nest"
Glancing over her shoulder Ava quickly put her knife down and helped Amelia put the eggs in a basket that she pulled out of one of the cabinets.
"Let's use them tomorrow at camp we have more supplies there and we can make more."
Nodding Amelia set the eggs off to the side and took her place back to cooking the meat.
Ava finishes the rest of her chopping and grabs the rest of the noodles walking over to the pot pouring them into the broth and stirring. The broth boils around the noodles and veggies releasing a wonderful aroma into the air that dances with the smell of freshly grilled meat.
As Ava continues to stir the pot Amelia removes the rest of the meat stacking it onto the already overflowing plate before grabbing Scott and walking over to a cupboard on the far side of the room where she stacks Scott's arms with bowls before waving him back over to the fire as she turns back around to grab utensils.
Ava grabs some cloth and uses it to grab the handles of the pot, remove it from the stone and place it on the ground, just as Scott arrives setting the bowls down on one of the benches around the fire.
Amelia walks over not long after placing spoons in each bowl as Scott separates them and lays them in a line on the bench. Ava walks behind laying four to five pieces of meat across the bottom of the bowls with Amelia's help.
Once finished Scott grabs the pot and moves behind Ava as she spoons the soup into each bowl. After the Soup is served the bowls are passed out along with a few of the roasted acorns. The small bones set aside earlier are cracked into Amelia's and Scott's bowls and everyone begins eating.
Dinner is eaten in silence, yet the gratitude for the meal is still felt. After not having a proper filling meal like this in a few days this was greatly appreciated.
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Amelia's POV
It didn't take long for everyone to finish eating, even with the seconds and even thirds some people were served. The Noodle soup was completely gone as well as the meat so the newbies were going to sleep like rocks tonight.
"Ok bedtime Tiah, Taylor, Sebastian, and Mae all of you need to go to the huts in the back of the cave bed sheets and blankets are in the wire basket under the bed if it's empty check the bedside table when you are ready carefully close the glow flower and go to bed we have one more travel day but we have to pull an all-nighter for it so chop chop"
Ava clapped her hands waving everybody out of the room with Scott as they gave further instructions on how tomorrow morning would go.
I put out the fire, which was mostly just coals at this point, and walked out of the cave. It was pitch black other than the small glow that came from the cabins and the few small glow flowers that decorated the stables on the far side of the cave. The cave had a cool chill to it due to the coming cold season but the huts were always a bit warmer. Probably because the walls were covered in plants.
I shuffled over to the front of the cave walking through the archway and gazing out the large windows.
The lake stretched out in front of the cave the waxing moon glowing off the surface beside the clouds. The waterfall thundered off to the left of the cabin sending undoubtedly bone-chilling spray to cover the windows on that side. Animals were just barely visible running along the lakeside the glowing spots on their body's giving away their positions. The world was beautiful but its beauty showed it as a disaster.
This world was nearly ripped to shreds by the greed of someone unknown. They were long gone but their fingerprints still lingered. However, the beautiful bioluminescence is a bittersweet thing. Beautiful yet a stinging reminder of someone forcefully pulling this word apart.
Snapping out of my thoughts I turned to my right ensuring the entrance was firmly closed and walked back to the huts. Mine is on the top far side so I climbed the stairs and crossed the loft quietly, not entirely sure of how long I was watching the lake, and brushed the curtains aside entering my hut.
All the huts had the same general composition: a bed with two wicker baskets underneath and a bedside table with a drawer. Mine had the foot of the bed facing the door and the head on the back wall. The bedside table to the left side of the bed with the right being pushed into the wall. The back wall a beautiful mural, abstract art of a flurrit, covered the back wall. To the left in the corner by the door was a small circular chair. Kneeling I opened the top of the chair and pulled out a cream shirt and some brown pants that I could sleep in changing depositing my other clothes into one of the wicker baskets under the bed. Before reaching up to the large glow flower in the corner above the bed and gently closing it leaving only the moss blanket on the floor for dim lighting in the room. Laying down I closed my eyes, focusing on the dim humming of the waterfall as I drifted off to sleep.
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I squinted my eyes open to the dull sound of shuffling leaves, Scott was getting up to wake up the new arrivals. Sitting up I rubbed my eyes and carefully pulled open one of the petals on the glowing flower above my bed causing a chain reaction and fluttering open the rest of the flower.
The sound of pots shattering reached my ears and continued to echo around the cave for a few seconds. I could almost hear the collective groaning as the rescues rolled out of bed. Scott's new thing was finding the most obnoxious way to wake the rescues up. I flipped the blanket off and shuddered at the cold.
The winds must have shifted overnight; it's a bit early for snow chill. It's only the beginning of the migration season.
I grabbed my last clothing item in my stool which, thankfully, was one of the Iru-lined coats I made for the colder seasons. Slipping the chocolate coat on I stepped out onto the loft. The sun wasn't quite up yet but there was a slight purple glow coming from outside. The lack of any bioluminescence in the cave allowed it to seem bright outside despite the absence of the sun. The majority of this cave was often too cold for glow flowers so we stopped trying to grow them across the walls like the other camps.
An ear-spitting screeching filled the cave as Scott started sweeping up the shattered clay bowls he used to wake up the rescues. The horrible sound rattled around the cave for a solid minute waking anyone who wasn't already awake. Ava appeared over the loft rail, she walked over and opened the nerix stalls. Watching as the nerix stood patiently waiting for their saddles.
Turning to my right I crossed the loft and walked down the stairs. I watched as the bleary-eyed rescues shuffled out of their huts and toward the nerix.
Everyone saddled up, mae still needed some assistance hopping onto her nerix but at the same time, she no longer needs her harness to stay on so were making progress.
After saddling Dantae and trotting around the cave I hopped off his back and walked to the front of the cave. The house structure was chilly and the moon was still glinting off the lake. Turning back to the cave I hollered across the open space.
"Hey Scott, Why'd you get up so early?"
"If I'm honest I didn't really mean to, also I'm excited to be back in our camp after this and having to travel to see the elders about helping"
"Fair point is everyone ready, I'm gonna open the door"
Walking away from the windows, and unlocking the door I pulled it open. Holding it as everyone rode through. I directed Dantae through and walked out pulling the door shut and securing it.
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The cold air bit my cheeks as I hopped on Dantaes saddle.
Waterfall spray peppered the ground as I rode off: cautioning Dantae so he wouldn't slip. Dantae and I walked down the pathway out to the forest where the group was. People's breath could be seen in the light of the nerix horns spiraling upward like fire in the orange glow.
"It's a bit cold for migration season"
"Yeah if it's still this cold tomorrow we might need to move the Naepa hunt forward, they might migrate early in this chill"
Ava shuddered at the thought of hunting in the cold.
"Let's hope it gets warmer hunting in this would be the worst"
"You're tellin me, let's get going"
Ava and I took the lead again the rescues followed and Scott followed behind keeping the group surrounded in a safety bubble. It was going to be a long day.
3rd POV
The group trekked around the lake following the tree line.
The lake was much larger than the rescues had realized and the group had only started off into the forest away from the lake when the sun started to streak the sky with orange. Their was much change in the terrain here. Their where large cliffs and hills that seemed to spring out of the ground with no warning. Bushes almost took up the entirety of the forest floor and their where worn paths that suggested frequent travel. The group came to a fork in the road. It was just starting to get dark and the group was exhausted. Half of the group had managed to lay on top of their Nerix and some of them where even asleep. Their where two paths at the fork. One was well worn dirt and diped down into a valley. The other was a newer path, moss and small flowers still grew on the path it went right and started sloping upwards.
Much to the disappointment of the rescues amelia and ava took the right path. Anyone who was sleeping woke up as they almost fell of their Nerix because of the hill and a few groans where heard as they walked away from what looked like civilization. By the time the group reached the top of the hill the sky was black as ink. The moon was blocked out and a faint orange glow hovered through the forest ahead accompanied by the small white flowers the teal glowing moss and anything else they wanted it's presence known. As the group rode forward voices could be heard and it became evident the orange glow was a fire. Eventually the group broke through the trees. From the trees they could see what looked like a railing to keep people back. From the look of the trees their was a drop of some sort. Ava directed her nerix forward and amelia patted Dantaes neck signaling him forward tward a break in the railing.