WILD

Chapter 3 "You Can't Teach An Old Dog, New Tricks"

Chirp chirp. Tweet tweet. Myeyes ping open and I shout "shut the fuck up, you loud bunch ofpricks." as a knee jerk reaction. These fucking birds are soincredibly annoying, I don't want to hear them when I first wake up.I leap up out of my sleeping roll and head towards what I have nowdubbed as the "piss tree". I'm walking with a spring in my step,looking forward to the plan that me and Juliette made. I'm not areligious person but I'm praying that she actually shows up. I undomy trousers and pull them down enough so that I can "empty thetank" so to speak. I finish up what I was doing and take a casualwalk over to the campfire where father is already sitting. The fireis ablaze and the last rabbit is roasting over it on a sharpenedstick once again. "Morning, kiddo." Father says in hisparticularly deep husky morning voice. "Morning, dad." I reply inmy nowhere near as deep as his morning voice. "I'm going to fill upmy water pouch, I'll be back in a minute." I tell my father as Ihead towards the nearby stream of water. One of the things out of themany that my father has taught me is that it is always best to setupcamp near to a clean water supply. I take out my water pouch and tipout the remaining little bit of water that I had left before I startrefilling it. I pull out my toothbrush and dip it in the water beforeI begin brushing, there's no toothpaste so it's not great but it'sbetter than not brushing at all. I brush solidly for 2-3 minutesbefore putting my toothbrush back into my satchel. I reattach mywater pouch to my waist and get ready to head back to camp. I ponderhow I'm going to slip away for a little while without my dad worryingor getting suspicious. Think Jack, think. I can't see anything elseworking except for me telling him that I'm going to hunt some morerabbits so that I can regain my confidence to hit my shot on a deer.If I say I'm going to hunt anything bigger then he'll want to come.If I say I'm going to do some mundane task, he'll tell me not to goalone. This is the only thing I can think of that he would let me doalone. I arrive back at camp and sit beside the fire for breakfast.Father splits the last remaining rabbit in two once it's cooked andwe eat a half each. I glance up at the sun to see how far across thesky it is, I notice that it's not far off the centre. Now is my timeto speak up. Upon finishing our food, I break the silence "I'mgoing to go hunt some more rabbits until I feel confident enough inmy aim to go for a deer again."

"Oh alright, let me come with you." father replies.

"There's no need for that, you've shown me plenty of times how todo it and I done it on my own last night so it's no big deal. I'll beback in no time." I reply back with a false confidence as the lastthing I want is him to come with me and I end up not showing up towhere me and Juliette agreed upon. "That's true. Alright, if you'resure." He replies. "I'm sure. I'll be back soon." I leave himwith those words as I disappear beyond the trees. I begin to searchfor the marks I left on the base of the trees with my knife. Itdoesn't take me long as I scan the area and find the first mark ofmany that begins the trail back to our meeting location. I arrive atthe heart that Juliette etched into the true and run my hands overthe marking. I take a brief look around and realise that I'm allalone, suddenly I begin to panic. What if she doesn't turn up? Whatif something happened to her on the way? Then it'd be all my fault,oh fuck. I'm staring at the ground, pacing back and forth while Iwait, debating in my own head whether I should go look for her ornot. I lift my head to get my eyes off of the ground and that's whenI see her, she arrives at the heart carved tree and our eyes meet.Suddenly I forget everything I was thinking and feeling before hand.She's even prettier than I remember and I am at a loss for words. Herblonde hair and blue eyes set my heart racing, she smiles at me andbegins walking towards me.

"I was scared you wouldn't be here, I'm glad to see you."Juliette says softly while letting out a small giggle towards theend.

"I was thinking the same thing, I thought maybe you were lost orhurt and I was about to go looking for you!" I reply with a smileand small chuckle of my own.