and a horse called Straton

Chapter 10

Caitlyn woke to the uncomfortable bark of a tree. How did I get here?  She wondered. Then remembered when she saw her bleeding and bruised knuckles. She sighed and stood up, as she did so, she became painfully aware of how bony she was. Thinking back, she hadn't really eaten anything substantial.  She held her injured and still encased arm close to her body to try and ease the pain.

Caitlyn walked drowsily over to her dying fire. No, no, no!  She thought. A dying fire meant she would have to relight one rather than keep it going or save a coal. She quickly ran over to the old man's beard, feeling the cool air against her toned stomach and legs.

She blew gently on the small flames, praying that they would catch alight. Small embers began to flow on the edges of the green substance. "Come on, come on."  Caitlyn muttered to herself.

Suddenly, the small flames caught onto the rest of the plant, it was alive!  The fire obviously, not the plant. She added small twigs and branches to build it up.

She stretched in the sun and walked over of Straton. "Hey boy."  She murmured. "How are you?"  Her own marred hand reached to the stretched skin that was beginning to scar. A tear slipped down her face as memories cascaded over each other, tumbling and twisting.

"No Cait, listen...  I need to tell you....  No time..."  His words echoed around in her brain.  They bounced around the walls as the image played before her eyes of the lightning bolt, of the bay mare. She screamed, shrill enough to curdle milk and raise hairs of anyone near.

Her breathing quickened as she ran towards Luke. "LUKE!!"  She screamed. "LUKE!"  She couldn't help him, he looked up at her. "It's your fault."  His darkened eyes bore deep into her heart like a twisting blade. Straton looked at her, his leg bleeding as he lay down, the infection too much. The wild dog's teeth snapped at her nose, nearer and nearer to her neck....

She came back to reality in a shaking ball on the ground when she felt the pain in her arm. Her breaths shook and her memories still awake in her mind. Straton lay down beside her and nosed at her sun bleached golden hair, concerned for her.

The buckskin horse curled around her, as if trying to fight away the bad memories of it all.  Caitlyn shook between his long legs, feeling comforted by the large horse. But if she were to look into his eyes, she would see the same fear. He knew.  He understood.

***

Caitlyn hobbled along to search her plants for food, picking her medicinal herbs and plants along the way, but it was to no avail. She heard a rustling coming from the shrubs.
"Wh-who's there?"
She called, afraid it might be a wild dog again. Her hand and leg were still sore. She looked down to the twisted, scabbed skin of her hand, it was healing nicely. But, to her horror she noticed for the first time that the incision on her leg has festered and seeped pus down her leg.

But the rustling sound distracted her again as she looked up. "H-hello?"  The rustling got closer and closer, Caitlyn was silent as she reached for the knife on her saddle.

A small rabbit hopped out of the plant, seemingly unafraid of this human because she has never seen one. Caitlyn breathed a sigh of relief. But it soon turned to hunger as she saw how plump the rabbit was... 

It was a wild one, you could tell. The mange and unkempt hair.  She debated within herself, she had killed an animal before but that one was in pain. This one seemed to be reasonably old, but not necessarily in pain. She needed to make a decision. She would probably starve without the food.

Gently grabbing the rabbit, she gently turned her over and took her life, the rabbit felt no pain.  Tears came down Caitlyn's face.  The blood of the rabbit reminded her of Luke's that still stained her shirt that held the long grass.  The emotions from that night bubbled up in her throat and she tried to muffle them but it was to little avail.

Caitlyn built up the fire to cook the rabbit, she knew how to do that; it was simple enough. She scooped some mud from the creek and smeared it thickly over the rabbit, fur and all.

She then tossed it in the fire, waiting hungrily for it to cook. It's funny. She thought cynically, how I always said I wouldn't kill an animal without it being in pain, but here I am. Hunger and the need for survival does strange things to you.

It took quite a while for the plump rabbit to be cooked, too long for her anyway. Once it seemed she could wait no longer, she used a stick to get the hardened mud out.

Once it had cooled to the touch, Caitlyn harshly bashed it against a tree, cracking the mud off. The hair left with the mud, leaving the good meat.

She ate hungrily, it being the largest meal she had eaten since the storm. She licked her fingers clean and searched for more meat but was saddened to find none.  She set the bones to dry out in the sun for later, there was nothing else she knew how to use from something so small.

She thought about what she would do with the remainder of the day. She would collect fire wood, well try to anyway, with just one working arm and leg. Then she would weave some more mats by the firelight.

So for the rest of the day, she collected enough fire wood to last quite a while then collected up her bruised grass and willow branches. Her nimble yet hardened hands made light work of two decent sized mats before the moon was around a third of the way through his travels before she put them aside and slept yet again out in the cool night.

A/N
Ok guys, I'm really sorry for not updating but I haven't been great with exams, dislocated shoulder with nerve and tendon damage (fun!-.-), doctors, hospitals, ultrasounds, you name it haha XD. But don't worry, I'm okay, but I'm really sorry for not posting!  I'll try and get another up tonight.