Feather

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Shraya and Feather walked and walked for about 2 hours, until the stream came to a fork. The fork was almost perfectly in thirds, so she didn't know which one to take. Soon she decided that she would go left, because the ground looked more even and more open. That would be a good thing and a bad thing. Good - she could go fast without having much trouble. Bad - She had to go quite far before the squad wouldn't be able to see her. But she figured if she could go fast, she would win in the end. So, off to the left she went.

She road for almost the entire day, except a few stops to rest, eat and drink. When night rolled around, she and Feather were both beat. All Shraya did was build a low fire and a make-shift shelter of a few branches over a fallen down tree. She knew she couldn't stop and build a good shelter yet. She would ride for another day perhaps, then she would settle down for a few days. After that she would make the long ride home and all would go back to normal.

That night she dreamed that there was a horrible pain in her foot. It hurt so bad and it wouldn't go away. Then She realized she wasn't dreaming! Something was on her shoe! She stood up as fast as she could and tried to see what it was, but it was too dark. She ran 'outside' and saw that the fire was still going somewhat and she noticed that there were thorn like objects stuck into her shoe, all the way to her foot. Suddenly she realized what the pain was. She must of rolled in her sleep and kicked a porcupine. The pain was intense. It hurt so bad that it almost made her want to throw-up. But, she knew she could not leave the quills in her foot, which meant she had to pull them out. She built up the fire so that she could see quills clearly, and she counted 8 of them. Slowly, she grabbed the closest one to her leg, and pulled. She screamed! It hurt so bad, she had to hold herself from crying. She knew if she would wait in between pulling them, it would increase the pain, so she reached one in each hand this time and pulled the other 7 out one right after the other. She laid down close to the fire and swayed back and forth, taking deep breaths and wishing that porcupine to death.

The next morning her foot was swollen and she could hardly take her shoe off without screaming. Once she got it off, she hobbled to the stream and cooled it down in the water.

She had untied Feather and called her over now. The swelling went down slightly and she attempted to put her shoe on again. After she had it on, she limped over to a stump, which she stepped one to mount her horse. They walked over to where Shraya had made she shelter for the night. She took the branches and flung them to the other side. She didn't want it to look like anyone had been here before she took off. Once she had finished with the shelter, she went over to where the fire was and kicked at the ashes until you couldn't tell there was a fire. She kept the quills from the night before and picked them up. She felt satisfied and limped back to the stream to fill her container with water and had a little bit of food from her pack. She hadn't eaten from there for a while and was getting extremely hungry. She took some trail mix from a huge bag she had brought and ate a hand full. It was so good, and she wanted more, her stomach screamed for more, but instead she put it away and took out her dried apricots. She loved dried apricots and she ate at least 10 of them. She took a big gulp of water and she was good. She checked all her things and made sure everything was there, and scrambled back on to Feather with her bummed foot. She started along the stream at a lope, because it was a smooth gait, yet a fast one. She didn't want to bump her foot around too much because it still hurt like mad. She decided to go through the stream to mess up the sent a bit before she really got going.

She didn't know what she could use the quills from the porcupine for, but she was sure they would be useful somewhere. Maybe she could use them for a weapon, or maybe for a needle. She probably didn't need a needle for anything, but it would still be cool to have.

Shraya and Feather road until it was about noon. Her foot was sore from ridding but some of the swelling went down. Then she refilled her container and picked a handful of wild raspberries. After the handful, she knew she wouldn't be back here and she decided that she would pick all the ripe berries in the patch. So, she drank her fill of water, the emptied out the rest. She picked and picked the berries until she couldn't find any more, and filled up the container she had. While she was doing this, she let Feather graze her fill. By the stream was the best grass because there the sun could reach it and it had plenty of water. Shraya gave Feather a treat of berries too. They had been out here for 3 days and if it weren't for Feather, she would of been caught by now. But, if Feather wasn't here, she wouldn't have ran away in the first place. She was glad she had Feather though. She was her best friend. She wouldn't know what to do without her.

They headed on their way again after picking all the raspberries she could find, and was eating them happily when she heard a crack. It sounded like someone had taken a base-ball bat, and swung it against a tree as hard as they could. Feather heard it too. She stopped in her tracks and raised her head high. Shraya could feel Feathers' heavy breathing stop immediately when it sounded. But, the crack seemed farther off, about a mile away. That could not possibly be something hitting a tree. It wasn't loud enough to be a gun either. At least not a high power. It came from behind her and she decided that she should keep going, because no animal could make that noise, therefore, it must be people following her. They might of seen her shelter and fired off a round to tell others they were on the right track. Whatever it was, she knew she couldn't hang around much longer, or they'd be going home early.

* * *

"My dog found something!" One of the search and rescue people exclaimed. "She's hot on a trail, and it seems fresh!" That's when he fired off a special type of signal gun to get the others attention. They were going down a different trail, trying to find a sent after Shraya had gone through the stream.

Mr. and Mrs. Lea knew why Shraya had gone, and they knew that search and rescue would never be able to catch her. The search and rescue also said that she had packs with her, meaning that she had food and tools to survive. They knew that the more they would follow her, the longer she would stay, and that she would do anything to keep her horse. So, they called off the search and rescue squads and said the only time she'd be home is when she came home by her own will.