Wild Desperation

Chapter 7

I quickly learned that the mutt was quite fast on his three good legs. I tried to catch him only to miss several times and have him come trotting back with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth like he was mocking me. "Well fine then! I have better things to be doing than chasing you all over the freaking park! Go ahead and run, when that paw gets infected don't come whining to me about it!" I growled as I picked myself up from the dirt after a particular fail at getting closer to him.

 I huffed as I put out my fire and gathered my things, I needed to work on finding a good winter base and I had one in mind. The overhang that I often visited was made of strong sturdy stone and underneath it sat a decent cave that I had sheltered in during a few rainstorms. The mouth of the cave was covered by the overhang and opened into a decent sized area, it also overlooked some prime hunting grounds which were extremely important once the snow fell. 

I knew that the cave would need some work, and I had an idea to keep away the animals from around the overhang. I collected my ready made sled and slipped on my gloves that I'd made from an old deer hide, they weren't the best made but they helped keep out some of the cold and hopefully would keep my hands from getting too torn up with what I had in mind. First I collected a bunch of sturdy vines that I would use to hold my little barrier together and then I headed for the important part, brambles. 

Sticker bushes, thorn bushes whatever you wanted to call them, everything hated a thorn in their hide including the beasts that prowled about. I knew that if I could somehow make a fence out of them that I would have that much more added protection for my winter camp. I started to cut and shape them, tying the bundles with the vines I collected before setting them on the sled. I winced whenever a stray thorn got through my gloves but kept on making the bundles, when the sled was full I took the load to the overhang then went to collect more.

 I spent the rest of the day collecting loads of these brambles and dropping them back at the overhang, my four legged shadow following not far behind as he limped after me back and forth on each trip. I nibbled on a piece of jerky whenever I got hungry and tossed a few pieces to the mutt when he barked a complaint at me. I was exhausted by the time the sun started to set, I had collected a lot of the brambles but I would need more to build a big enough fence around my camp.

 I groaned at the thought of all the more thorns to draw my blood and decided to call it a night as I picked up my stuff and headed into the woods to make camp, the husky fella following behind me. I made a fire and he settled down on one side while I settled on the other, he licked at his injured paw while he laid there. I wanted to try and help him with it so bad but he still didn't trust me enough yet, at least his licking the wound would keep it somewhat clean.

 I tossed him his share of jerky and nibbled on my own before calling goodnight to the mutt and climbing my tree for the night. I fell asleep easily, working so hard seemed to help that, and I had much more work ahead of me. I woke early, wiping the sleep from my eyes as I gathered my things and warmed up by the fire, this time instead of growling at me the dog whined when he saw me awake, waging his tail a few times when I pulled out my jerky and tossed him his share for the morning. 

I ate mine quickly only giving him a piece extra despite his complaining whimpers, when I put out the fire and grabbed my sled he sighed but slowly followed after me. Again I spent all of the day gathering loads of thorns to serve as protection until I deemed that I should have enough to make my fence of thorns. I headed back to the woods once more to make camp for the night with the mutt happily following, he again settled on the other side of the fire as we shared our meal of jerky and more blackberries that I was glad to have as a welcome add in to the dried meat.