Wings air Down (manxman)

Avalanche

Hello. Have not updated for a couple of days. Sorry about that. I have been busy and also reading a story: "Winds of a Dragonfly" By Immlaaarr. Simply beautiful. I have therefore dedicated this chapter to her, even if I don't know her.

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December 22, 16:00 (4:00 pm)

The sun is already behind the mountains, soon it will be dark and another day gone. At least we did not have any incidents as Roberto was put in charge by the pilot to explore the plateau on which we are stranded. With a group of 10 people they left this morning and haven’t come back yet. The smell of the pines fills the air. Considering the previous day success, nobody got sick, we have harvested a lot of pine needles with their small branches. We will add the sap from these branches to the soup. The idea comes from Maple syrup which I used plenty of during my Canadian stay. Once again, I was part of the group that volunteered to be used as guinea pigs. I was a lot less worried about this experiment then the previous one. Normally if one part of the plant is edible, there is a big chance that others may be as well.

“The soup looks more like tea then soup.” I tell Beatrice as I get close to her.

“That is because it is more tea then soup. All I had left was scraps.”

“You mean we run out of food again?”

“Yes. dear.”

“When will the captain tell the passengers?”

“Tonight at the meal.”

“I dread already the time.” I say with a shiver.

“At least now we use the pines’ needles, branches and sap for the tea. All thanks to you. I have to give you credit for volunteering twice to test the food”

“I could hardly say no when it was my idea to begin with. Even if, just for the record, I did not imply that it would be safe to drink the sap. I simply said that in Canada they use the sap of maple tree to turn it into syrup.”

“Considering that people are starving that is pretty much the same as saying to start chewing on the trees bark to suck the sap. I would not put it past some people to try just that tomorrow.”

I make a disgusted face.

“What we need though is some meat. Too bad we don’t have any hunters or some other passengers with the skill. We could use some meat in the soup.”

“Mm, meat!” I salivate, “do you think there is game around here?”

“I am not sure, but there must be some kind of animal, even a small rodent would look very good in the soup.”

“Strange. If you would have told me that a few days ago, I would have want to throw up. Now, I would actually be Ok with the idea.”

“You would never know anyway. The animal would be cut in little pieces, no one would know what it was.”

“Would you actually do that?”

“I grew on a farm near Brindisi, in Puglia. I killed and prepared all kind of animals.”

“Puglia, southern Italy. Never been there.”

“You would like it. We have the most amazing sea you have ever set eyes upon. Water is so clear that if you take a boat to go fishing, you can actually see the sea bottom even at 8 or 9 meters depth. The region is full of olive grooves with trees that are over a 1000 years old. Full of historic towns some of which have been there since the medieval times.”