74 Years of Bad Luck - Gale Hawthorne X Reader

Chapter 9: the girls' on fire

It was late. Well after midnight I assumed. I had taught myself how to tell time by where the moon was not long after I got into the arena. Like the sun in the arena the moon moved across the sky as time went on.

I looked down to check on gale and noticed the whole base of the tree engulfed in flames. They were huge and we're spreading to more than just our tree now. I woke gale up by kicking his shoulder and he soon noticed what was happening. We began to pack our stuff frantically into our bag. Gales snares were set up down there. The homemade traps were long gone now.

Gale and I swung down and tried to leap over the flames but they seemed to fallow us and we still landed in a pile of flames. We ran for our lives. Our clothes were burning so we dropped to the ground and put out the flames. Our clothes were in taters and we had both sustained horrible burns to the legs and arms.

We could barely walk and both took turns splashing water over our burns to ease them. We were desperate for relief from the pain so much so that we used up all of our water and the only source we knew was currently in a forest fire.

A few agonizing minutes later a silver parachute fell at our feet. It was a small little bottle of burn ointment. Once I realized this I dug my fingers in and started rubbing it on the large patch of burnt flesh that used to be the smooth skin of my leg. I felt instant relief than realized I had a companion with me who also needed treatment.

I rolled gales pant legs up and smothered them in ointment also. An audible sigh escaped his lips and he sat up.

"We need to find a place to recover." He said and I noded. I stood up with much effort and held on to gale while he used the spear as a walking stick.

We hobbled through the woods for the entire day and into the night. Temperatures were dropping significantly when we came across a very hidden cave. We crawled in and covered the very small entrance with a boulder.

It was just as cold in the cave as it was outside. The cool weather felt soothing against our burns but the rest of us were freezing. We heard a clunk above us and gale moved the boulder to check. He came back inside with a lamp and handed it to me than moved the boulder back.

I began to set up our sleeping bag as gale pulled out some food for us to eat. There was a singed hole in our bag and what was once raw rabbit wrapped in cloth was now a little underdone but still cooked rabbit. Gale cut that up and we each had a bit. We were out of water. We would need to get that in the morning.

Together we crawled into the sleeping bag and turned out the lamp. We used the bag as a pillow and we each had a knife in hand. Gale pulled me into his chest and we held each other trying to stay warm through the brisk night.

Gale woke up first and checked outside. There was a silver parachute with a large tin box attached to it. He looked at the sky. It looked like mid afternoon based on the placement of the sun. Gale crawled back in and woke me up.

We opened the tin to find it had matches and a little piece of paper to strike them on. It also had some foil in there.

"Gale I think we should cook our food in the box." I said. We scavenged around the bed of the cave and collected some sticks and kinnling. I started the fire and got it going while gale sliced the leftover rabbit and squirrel. I placed the pieces in foil, wrapped them and we let them sit.

After the pieces were done cooking we disposed of the animal carcasses and gale set off to find water while I foraged near the cave for plants.

Gale returned a few minutes later with a full bottle of water. "There's a river a few minutes down." He said and I took the bottle so he could move the boulder.