The Spider and the Moon

Survival of the fittest

Day 1.

A lot of time had passed since they all gathered, most of them asleep as Moon was the first one to stay guard, he found it easy to stay awake during the night. He was sitting down on a rock, with his backpack under him as he silently enjoyed the calm sounds of wind rushing through the trees, his eyes closing a little at the soothing sound. He took a deep breath and inhaled the humid air, his eyes glancing a bit through the forest as only the moonlight and stars lit it up. Moon zoned out for a moment, and he turned his eyes down to Spider who was laying two meters away from him, peacefully sleeping with his mouth slightly open. He stared at him for a moment, softly tilting his head as he decided to get a little closer to him. Kneeling down beside his head, he scanned his facial features almost with adoration, bringing his hand up a little to lightly touch his hair. He touched it carefully enough so he wouldn't wake up from it. The strands of his hair slipped through his fingers as he gently played with it, while looking down at Spider peacefully sleeping. He felt himself warm up inside, a smile creeping on his lips. After a few seconds, he slowly leaned his head down, parting his lips to gently peck his, until he heard a branch snap in the near distance. He snapped up and stared towards the source of the noise, seeing nothing but leaves and trees. Moon's eyes narrowed a little as he let it process, swiftly yet quietly pulling out his dagger from the side of his pants. He looked down on the ground as he crept closer towards the noise, making sure he doesn't step on anything to make noise. He could hear and feel his pulse at this point, as he blocked everything except the focus on that noise. His lips softly let an exhale slip past, the grip on his dagger tightening as he heard something rustle right infront of him. The moment he heard the rustling, he froze, his eyes tightly locked on the moving leaves. His knees bent as he crouched, carefully digging his feet into the ground. He tensed his muscles, in a brief second he pushed himself towards the noise, gripping whatever was hiding behind the bush and slitting its throat. Moon looked down at the animal, seeing it was a small doe. A sigh came from his mouth, his free hand gently brushing over the muzzle of the doe. "Sorry, love.." He spoke gently as he momentarily shoved his knife back in his pocket, lifting the doe up on his shoulders as he walked back to the others.

Once he arrived, he found a free spot to safely put the carcass on, ontop of a flat rock. He scanned his surroundings as best as he could in the darkness, spotting some thyme a few meters away from him. He pushed himself back to his legs, quietly making his way over to grab a couple. He grabbed a small rock with him as well, to place ontop of the thyme to store it until tomorrow. As he walked back, his eyes scanned over the others, noticing they were still sleeping with a relieved sigh. He put the thyme under the rock he grabbed, as well as grabbing an armfull of leaves off the ground to cover the carcass with, to loosen the odds of a predator stealing it.After he was done, he stepped back over to his guarding spot, sitting down on the rock. He continued watching over them for the rest of the night."Moon? Moon!" Spider said as he snapped his fingers infront of his eyes, Moon slightly groaning before he opened them. Spider chuckled a little, bringing his hand up to ruffle his hair. "I see you fell asleep while you were guarding. Normally I'd scold you, but I see you somehow caught a deer?" He looked at him with a surprised yet proud look in his eyes, causing Moon to stutter a little. "Oh- yeah, I found her rustling in the bushes while all of you were sleeping, I was able to quietly ambush her." Moon mumbled through his words, as he made himself sit up more."Hey, Moon! You caught that?" Hurricane asked with a surprised smile as he saw Moon finally woke up, the rest of the group standing by him as well as they waited for Moon's answer. "..Yes." They all smiled, looking between eachother with excited grins. "Nice! Let us know if you need any help with preparing it." Dust said beside Hurricane, as they contineud to chat amongst eachother.
Moon smiled a little flustered, his eyes looking at the doe he had caught during the night. Spider just watched him with a glint in his eye, raising his hand to gently put it on Moon's head. Moon expected him to ruffle his hair again, but felt nothing except his touch. He moved his gaze up to look at him, with almost a confused look. Moon saw how Spider looked at him, he was just staring down into his eyes as they met his. His fingers started gently caressing his hair as they stared at eachother for a bit, until he slid his hand down his head and over his cheek, poking his nose. "Alright, I'll assign the others their tasks for today, yours is to skin the doe so we have something to cover ourselves with, as well as anything we find and need to hide. I'm sure you know how, considering all the survival games we used to play." Spider muttered to him with a quiet hum, causing Moon to blush. He chuckled at his reaction while he stood up properly, walking to the others to give them their tasks for the day. Moon just kind of sat there for a second, processing to himself what just happened. He was suddenly so gentle towards him, he was confused if he was just feeling nice today or if it was something else. Moon shrugged it off after a while, pushing himself to his feet.

Moon had hung up the deer by its legs on a strong tree branch with selfmade rope, crafted from tying plant fibers together. He held his knife in his mouth as he secured that the doe hung tight, feeling a pat on his shoulder as he turned his head, seeing it was Wasp. "Hey, Spider didn't really give me anything to do except offer assistance if you needed, so.. if  you need help or anything will you let me know?" Moon took the knife out from his mouth as he wiped it, turning around to face Wasp. "Yeah, of course. Do you think you could find me some plants we could use for seasoning? I found thyme last night, but there could be more I didn't see, it was dark." Wasp let it process for a moment, nodding after a while but looking at him a bit confused. "Okay.. but is seasoning really important?" He asked him while cocking his brow a little, causing Moon to smile a little amused. "No, it's really not, but having a meal that actually tastes good is going to prevent you from losing your sanity." He slightly joked as he looked around, thinking of other things Wasp could do. "Alright, do you think you could expand the campfire a bit? I'm gonna spit roast it. I'll also need 5 sticks for it. Can you do that?" Wasp quickly nodded with a smile, saluting him as he went off. Moon chuckled at his gesture and shook his head. He brought his knife up to the bottom of the doe's abdomen, carefully applying pressure but not too much. He slitted down to the neck, carefully seperating the pelt from the flesh. He stuck the tip of the knife under the skin, almost in a sawing motion as he began to seperate the pelt all over.

After an hour of skinning, he finally finished. It wasn't ideal as the pelt was thinner than expected, but it would be better than nothing. He rolled the pelt up as he tucked it under his arm, walking over to the stream nearby. When he arrived, he kneeled down and washed the pelt and his hands from the blood, feeling the cold water hit his hands. He thought to himself for a moment as his gaze followed down the stream, a thought popping in his head as he hurried back to the site. He saw Spider and Sour arrived back as he had gone to wash the pelt and himself, as well as seeing the spitroast completed. Moon's face dropped a little in shock seeing it being done so nicely, quickly scanning his eyes looking for Wasp. "Hey, Moon, nice job with everything." Spider approached him when he saw him, giving him a smile. "I see the pelt isn't very thick, but it should do for now. And the spitroast is amazing, it'll work wonders." He grinned as he patted his head, Moon smiled up at him as he shook his head a little. "I didn't make the spitroast, Wasp did."
Spider looked down at him a bit surprised, his gaze also wandering to look for him. "Really? Wow, I didn't expect that honestly." Moon arched his brow at his sentence, lightly nudging his chest with his hand. "Don't be rude." His tone and expression was amused, causing Spider to grin. "Alright, damn, sorry." Spider raised his hands up defensively, causing them both to laugh a little.

A few hours had passed by this time, and Moon was beginning to get worried as none of them had seen Wasp return yet. Moon had already hooked the doe up to the spitroast, and he was waiting for Wasp to return to start cooking it. "Where the fuck is he.." He mumbled to himself as his eyes stared through the forest, Spider noticing his concern as he sat down next to him. "Don't worry about Wasp, did you know that my first time doing this I managed to get myself lost for a whole night?" Moons eyes widened in a slight shock as he turned towards him. "Wait, really? How did you find your way back??" Spider shrugged a little, wrapping his arm around Moon's shoulder. "I picked up things that looked familiar and turned when I saw something I didn't recognize, eventually I stumbled upon the camp. I was scolded, sure, but I taught myself a good lesson. Maybe Wasp will be like me one day." He joked with a grin, causing Moon to shake his head and stare at him. "You're so narcissistic." A slight laugh slipped from Moon's sentence as he spoke, he leaned into Spider a little as he enjoyed his comforting presence. Spider smiled and felt himself warm up inside as Moon leaned into him, causing his body to slightly relax against his. Spider looked up, seeing everyone was staring at their interaction with a sheepish grin on their faces. He glared at them which made them move their eyes away, but they kept the smiles on their faces as they just looked at eachother, knowing well that Spider had a big soft spot for Moon. He coughed a little to break the awkward silence, causing everyone including Moon to look towards him. "Alright, doesn't seem like Wasp is coming back for a while. Don't worry though, he's probably just lost. I was too my first time. I'm sure he'll come back. If not, he's either gotten eaten by a pack of wolves or found a place to stay." He said with a shrug, causing everyone's face to drop at his brutal honesty, including Moon. Moon elbowed him a little in his rib, causing Spider to flinch and rub his side. "Okay, he'll be fine, alright? Don't worry about him. Let's get to cooking." They all hesitated before they nodded, feeling slightly relieved. Moon shot a smile up at him as he gave him a nod in approval, causing Spider to smile back at him.