blue bird

10 - We Make A Pretty Good Team

Luckily Keiva and I have some experience with hunting since her dad participates in hunting season every year and we usually tag along. I've never shot any animals because I just got my license but I have caught a few partridges, turkeys and hares from the traps I've set up. Keiva has killed a few animals with a gun before but we're not the best hunters. In fact, we love animals, so it sorta contradicts itself but we make sure to show gratitude to the animals that feed us. We didn't have access to a gun at the moment, so traps were our best bet.

I sat Hunter down in the cave so he could rest while Wiki was already fast asleep. Keiva and I set out to find some materials to make weapons. We had to work fast so we could prepare before dusk. Neither of us wanted to run into any wild animals or bad people so we made sure to be quiet as we searched the area around the falls. Unfortunately there was nothing we could use so we walked into the forest to look for materials. We looked around the trees and on the ground but all we could find was a sharp rock and some smaller branches. I found some burned twine and attempted to make a spear but it was barely functional.

We walked around the boulders surrounding the waterfall when I noticed a sparkle from the sun's reflection hitting something within the stone. I approached the shiny object and cleared some of the rubble and moss. I could see a handle and a sharp blade; and I realized that it was a sword.

"Hey, look at this!" I said with excitement. Keiva came over and saw the sword.

"Nice find, that'll work perfectly for hunting." She said. I handed the rock and branch to Keiva so I could try and get the sword out. It was wedged in between a few rocks and was rusted near the bottom. I tugged and pulled on the handle but the sword wouldn't budge. I jiggled it and cleared out some more rubble and finally the sword came loose. I raised the sword to the sky and noticed that it was broken. The bottom had been broken off where the sharp tip usually was. Luckily the sword was broken on an angle meaning it was still sharp enough to impale any prey. I took a closer look and saw there was writing on it down the middle but the language was unrecognizable. I ran my fingers along the letters and shrugged before heading back to the cave. Keive and I sat down and planned our hunting trip, I couldn't help but focus on the sword however. I looked at the writing one more time and as I was staring at the letters, the writing magically shifted and changed to english, it read;

"through the iron and the flame, we honour...."

I was unable to finish the sentence since it was broken. The grip was black and the silver quillons were positioned straight out, perpendicular to the blade. There was a red upside down triangle on the chappe and an olive green up right triangle on the pommel. The sword was very unique and looked sentimental, I figured that the Blacksmith that created the sword must have had the details designed and specially made.

Keiva was in charge of hunting with the sword and I was in charge of collecting dry sticks and leaves to create a fire. We went our separate ways and on my way back I picked up some edible berries to have with our meal. I headed back to the cave with the materials we needed and when I got back Hunter and Wiki were still asleep so I carefully and quietly knelt down and placed the sticks on the ground. I went back out and around the cave to find some rocks to place around the fire. I could only carry four so I set those in the cave and then went back to find more rocks. When I got back, I knelt down and started to assemble the fire.

I placed the rocks in a circle near the back of the cave so the water from the falls could not interfere with the fire or dull it down. I laid the dry leaves down as a base and piled the sticks on top. That was the easy part, I then had to actually start the fire. I first tried to create a spark by clashing two rocks together but that method did not work. So I then tried the most known method which was with stick friction. I got two sticks and placed one under my knee to keep it in place and with the other I started to rub the end of the stick against the one under my knee. After a while the sticks started to generate heat and then smoke. I blew on the stick on the ground and continued to rub the sticks together. I repeated the movements until I thought it was ready to be moved to the fire pit. Soon enough one of the leaves caught on fire and therefore caused a domino effect of flames. Once the leaves were on fire, the sticks caught on fire as well. I had set aside a few extra sticks to feed into the fire when it was too dull.