by Spoor, Garry
“Thanks again for all your help.”
-You would have figured it out… eventually.-
Kaza replied as he took to the air.
She watched as the crow flew high above the tree line, disappearing in the grayness of the evening. Clouds were beginning to form now, and there was the scent of moisture in the air. Could more snow be on the way? She began to worry about the boys’ progress. Carter could take care of himself, there was nothing involving the physical side of being a hunter that he couldn’t handle. Daniel and Alex on the other hand would be struggling, well… maybe not so much Daniel, but definitely Alex. She could not see the small boy surviving alone in the woods, and his edge wasn’t going to help him much. You can’t eat an illusion. If there was a way she could help she would, but it wasn’t like she could go searching for him in the woods to lend a hand, and besides, she still had one more obstacle to overcome.
It was well into her second hour when she started to get worried. The squirrels had been gone for a long time and she was beginning to wonder if they had forgotten her. She use to watch the squirrels play on the feeders in the front yard, and although they were clever in their means of getting food, they didn’t exactly strike her as being the most focused of animals. It was too bad she didn’t have a few yarrow to help her.
No sooner had she resigned herself to go foraging for food when one of the squirrels finally arrived. He scampered across the landscape until he reached her shelter and presented her with… a nut.
It was a single walnut, although she hadn’t remembered seeing any walnut trees around, but at least it was edible, and it was a little more than she had expected. She had completed her assignment with time to spare.
“Thank you.” She said as the squirrel dropped the walnut beside her.
-Food.-
“Yes… food, thank you.”
-Food.-
“Yes… food.”
She wasn’t really catching what the squirrel was trying to tell her. The images that surrounded his words were rather confusing as all the pictures were jumbled together and didn’t make much sense, until she saw a second squirrel arrive on the horizon.
“Is that what you mean, more food is coming?” She asked the squirrel.
-Yes… food-
She watched as a third squirrel topped the hill, then another, and another, and before she knew it, there was a sea of them heading her way, their furry little tails bobbing behind them. There had only been, maybe, twenty that left the trees around her an hour or so ago, somewhere along the way they picked up a few dozen more. They came, not just with nuts and berries, but with apples, pears, onions, potatoes, even a wedge of cheese.
“What the… where did you get this stuff?” Kile asked a she started to panic. “What did you do, steal somebody’s supplies.”
-Food.-
They kept saying as each one dropped off another item, and with so many of them talking at once it was difficult to understand any of them. Somewhere, someone’s pantry was slowly being emptied.
“Tik… Tik where are you?”
One of the squirrels climbed over the others until he got in front of the group.
-Kile… help Kile.-
“Tik?”
-Kile… help Kile.-
“Yeah, you helped… I am so dead.” She exclaimed as she looked at the pile of food that they had provided for her. “Thank you Tik, but you’re going to have to bring some of this food back.”
-Back?-
Yeah, like that was going to work. Who would want an apple with little squirrel teeth marks in it?
“Look I don’t know if there are any more of you guys heading this way, but get word to them to stop the food… please.”
-Kile have enough food?-
“Yes, Kile has more than enough food… thank you.”
She had enough food to last her a fortnight.
It was like the shattering of a fuzzy piece of glass as all the squirrels scattered in every direction and disappeared among the trees. She was amazed on how fast they could move when they wanted to, but she wasn’t sure why they had. She moved slowly back into her shelter and quickly scanned the tree line of the forest, and, although she wouldn’t admit it even to herself, she sniffed at the air, there was the scent of mushrooms and wet earth, somebody was coming.
He was moving through the woods quietly, as if trying to sneak up on her, but she knew which direction he was coming from, and it didn’t take her long to figure out who it had to be.
“Folkstaff.” She whispered to herself and looked down at the pile of food; this was going to be difficult to explain. She quickly scooped up as much as she could and push it to the back of her shelter, and then piled a few stray branches over it in order to hide it. What he didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.
She kept a few of the walnuts and apples aside to show him, that she, at least, had some food to meet the requirements. She set the walnuts close to the fire, and the apple she placed in her hat, which was now filled with fresh water from the melted snow. She kept one of the apples for herself. She had no problems with little squirrel teeth marks. This was what Folkstaff must have meant by overcoming the desire for comfort.
The Hunter stopped somewhere back in the woods, out of her sight, but not out of her range of smell. He was waiting and watching, probably trying to evaluate how she handled herself in a survival situation. The only thing she could think to do was to roast the walnuts. She started to break the shells and set the nuts on the stones surrounding the fire.
“I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”
He had somehow moved from that place just beyond her sight to a place just beyond her fire, and even though she knew he was around, she was still startled to see him just appear before her like that.
“Master Folkstaff.”
He said nothing as he crouched down beside her fire and looked into her shelter, then at the floppy hat filled with water and apples, then at the roasting walnuts beside the fire, and slowly shook his head.
“Did I do something wrong?” She asked as she quickly ran over everything in her mind, and she was sure she did everything right, or as right as she could remember, had she forgotten something? Food, shelter, water, fire, no, that was everything that he told them to procure.
“I have observed twenty three campsites so far.” He said as he sat beside her fire and warmed his hands. “I will admit, I did not have high expectation, but what I had seen so far, had me completely baffled. Cadets eating cold snow, chewing on pine bark, fires that were either out of control or smoking so badly it was hard to tell, that was assuming that they had fires at all, shelters that couldn’t withstand a sneeze let alone a winter wind, and then, I come here.”
“Did I do something wrong?” She asked again.
“Why do you want to become a hunter?”
The question kind of caught her off guard; it was the same questions every member of the staff had asked her at one time or another. She couldn’t recall any of them asking one of the boys the same question, only her, but she had thought she had put those days behind her.
“It was something that I’ve always wanted, every since I first met Erin Silva.” She replied, giving him the short version.
“But is this… what you really want to do?” He said, stretching his arms out to encompass the entire forest. “Is this where you really want to be right now? No roof, no walls, no protection, no comfort, no one to talk to, no one to share with, alone out here… in the wild.”
“Within nature… among the trees… with the animals…” She added and she knew she had hit on something as the hunter’s eyes lit up and he grinned. They were seeing it the same way. “Yes, this is where I want to be.”
“I am impressed cadet Veller that you, out of all your colleagues, are the only one that truly understands. In order to survive within nature, you must embrace it, not fight it, you must become it, not stand outside of it. As I see from your campsite that is exactly what you have done.”
“Thank you sir.”
“I do have one… simple… question.” He said as he reached into her hat and pulled out one of the apples. “It’s the dead of winter, where did you find these?”
“Ah… yes… that isn’t as simple to answer as you might think.”
“There isn’t an apple orchard or an apple tree in this province, let alone a walnut tree.”
“Oh… well… you did say we could use our edge…”
“Yes I did, and I am not aware of an edge that can produce fruit in the middle of winter?”
“It doesn’t sir, not exactly.”
He looked at her from under his wide brimmed hand, and slowly grinned.
“Hmm… Well, I know the Hunter’s code as well as anyone I guess, and I won’t ask you about your edge, but I am taking this apple as evidence… or as supper, I haven’t decided yet.” He said as he wiped it on his jacket. He was about to take a bite when he noticed the small teeth marks on the outer skin and looked at her curiously.
“Squirrel” She told him.
“Squirrel” He repeated as if he had to think about it for a moment. He shrugged and took a bite, then headed back to the woods.
If the apples had confused him, what would he have said about the wedged of cheese she wondered as she lay back in her small shelter.
“Tik… Tik, are you here?”
-Kile wants Tik-
She looked up to see the squirrel sitting on one of the lower branches.
“If I… showed you someone… do you think you could find them in the forest?” She asked the squirrel. She wasn’t really sure how this would work, if it would work. She had received visions or images with a few of the animals she communicated with, but she had never tried to, for lack of a better word, send an image.
-Tik know woods, Tik will try-
“His name is Alex.” She said and she pictured the small boy, his ever smiling face, his mop of brown hair, his constantly moving mouth, and forced the vision into the word as she communicated it to Tik.
-Yes… Yes… Tik can find him.-
“Great.” She exclaimed. That was easier than she thought. “How about Daniel.” She said, and then pictured the taller cadet with his beak like nose, crooked smile and vivid blue eyes merging the image with his name as she spoke it to the excited squirrel.
-Yes… Yes… Tik understand, Tik can find them.-
The squirrel seemed to be enjoying this as much as she was.
“Okay, third times the charm. This one is named Carter.” She said as she closed her eyes and pictured the larger boys, his broad shoulders, his close cropped hair, those dark eyes and that cold hard stare that he gave her whenever she messed up during practice.
-Yes… Yes… Tik know. Tik see this boy.-
“Great.” She said a she pulled the twigs off the pile of food that was hidden in the back of the shelter. “I want you and your friends to take some of this food to those boys that I showed you. Do you understand? All you have to do is just drop the food off and come back here.”
-Yes… Yes… Tik understand.-
And it appeared that the rest of the squirrels understood as well as they started to take the food away and head out into the woods. Kile managed to save a couple of apples, the onion, a few potatoes and of course the wedge of cheese.
“Good.” She said as the last of the squirrels disappeared over the hill. “Let them try to explain that.” She grinned.
She woke up to a cold winter wind and a rather bright morning sun reflecting off a coat of new fallen snow. Her fire had survived through the night, although it was dwindling fast as she fed it a few more pieces of wood to keep it alive. The sun was pretty low in the eastern sky, which meant it was still early. Master West wasn’t even ready to ring the morning bell yet. He was probably still huddled in his room, trying to keep warm. She pulled her cloak about her as she shifted toward the fire.
This was what it was like to be a hunter she thought as she stared out over the field. To wake up and face a new day with new possibilities. At this point she felt that there was nothing she couldn’t do; she was also sure that at some point during the day the feeling would fade.
She grabbed the flat stone that she had found the night before, when she rolled over on it while trying to get some sleep. It took her nearly twenty minutes to dig it out and it took her another twenty minutes to fill in the hole that it left behind, so she could get back to sleep. She had set the flat stone beside the fire as a makeshift frying pan. She wasn’t sure if it would actually work, but what did she have to lose. Mashing up the last apple and spread that over her cooking rock, she used a thin stone she had sharpened to slice, or mangle, the two potatoes before tossing them onto the heated stone. The onion was easier as she peeled it, crushed it and tossed pieces of it onto the potatoes; finally she broke off chunks of cheese and sprinkled that over the top.
While waiting for her potatoes to cook, she took a drink from her hat and started to make mental notes about all the equipment that was vital to survival. She would improve the list for that book on adventuring she was gong to write once she retired. It wasn’t that she needed everything on the list, just those few essential items that would serve more than one purpose.
“I’m not even going to ask.”
“Master Folkstaff.” She exclaimed as she looked up to see the Hunter standing in front of her. She didn’t smell him coming or even hear him approach this time. She even looked behind him to see if the new snow had been disturbed, there wasn’t even a single footprint to mark his approach.
“I was making my rounds to see how everyone survived the night.”
“And did they?” She asked.
“Some, it would appear, better than others.” He said, looking down at the fried potatoes.
“Care to join me?” She asked, “I’m afraid I haven’t gotten as far as plates or fork for that matter.”
“All things can be improvised.” He said as he drew his knife and set about cutting off sections of bark from one of the fallen trees nearby.
A knife was definitely on the top of her list of essentials for wilderness survival, and looking at the pieces of bark that Folkstaff brought back, plates would definitely be at the top of that list too. The fork was replaced by a stick, which served its purpose quite well, so flatware wouldn’t have to be at the top of the list, maybe somewhere in the middle.
The potatoes didn’t cook all the way through as some of the larger pieces were raw and a bit crunchy, but Master Folkstaff wasn’t complaining and seemed to enjoy the unexpected breakfast.
“So… how did the other cadets do… if I’m allowed to ask?”
“To tell you the truth.” Folkstaff said after swallowing. “Not as well as I had hoped. Twelve students had to be taken back to the academy last night.”
“Nothing serious I hope.”
“No, nothing that can’t be treated” He replied “Mostly over exposure, though there were two burns and a poisoning.”
“Poisoning?”
“There are a lot of uneatable plants and berries in the wild.” He replied, “But I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” He said as he finished off his plate, or bark. “Although, it would appear that a few of your colleagues share the same taste in food. I was unaware that there were so many apple orchards around, or pear trees for that matter.” He added with a raised eyebrow. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that… would you?”
“No sir.” She replied, “But if I did… know something. Would something like that be considered… cheating?”
Folkstaff shook his head.
“No, in survival, there are no real rules, therefore there is no cheating.” He replied. “As I said, anything goes. I allowed you to use your edge during the assignment since it was a part of you, it is a part of your identity. In order to past this… exercise, you had to know and understand all the parts that make you who you are. Your friends, whoever they may be, are a part of your identity. Now, clean u
p and be back to the clearing by midday, you can find your way I assume?”
“Yes sir.” She replied. “But sir…”
She had only turned for a moment, and when she looked back, he was gone. There were still no footprints on the ground, and snow had only been disturbed were the hunter had sat and where he had cut the bark from the tree, no other place marked his passing. He was just there one moment, and gone the next.
She was in no rush to break down camp. She finished off her potatoes, onions and cheese, making a mental note to write down the recipe for further evaluation. A few herbs and spices could have made that a very palatable dish.
She finished off the last of her water, hung her hat over the fire to dry and proceeded to deconstruct her shelter.
-Kile going?-
Tik asked as he came down the tree and sat on one of the lower branches.
“I’m afraid so Tik. Thanks for all your help thou.”
-Tik helped Kile.-
“Yes, Tik Helped Kile.” She grinned. “There’s still some food left under the tree. You can divide it among your friends, although I’m not sure how far it will go with the amount of friends you have.”
Tik hopped down from the branch and searched through the last of the food. He grabbed something, although Kile couldn’t see what it was, and took off.
She finished taking apart the shelter and returning the tree to its original condition, then doused the fire and broke down the small stone firewall. When she was finished, she left the site just as it had been. It was a bit sad though, she was going to miss her home away from home, and in many ways it was more comfortable than her cell back at the academy, except for the bathroom, that was one comfort she was looking forward to.
She headed back the way she came, up through the woods, remembering every landmark and tree in order to find her way back. When she finally arrived, what she found was not what she expected. The entire clearing was filled with large tents and campfires. There was even a large fire pit in the center of the camp where food was being cooked for the cadets.
“Kile Girl.”