The Girl with the Key

Chapter 3

    We walk off from the camp after giving the others a quick farewell and begin to go down what appears to be an animal trail. We slowly continue for a few minutes, until I see something barely moving in the distance. It appears to be a ground hog like creature. Although it is too far for me to tell what exactly it is. I stealthily signal at Henry. We crouch down really low and begin to quietly sneak up on the creature.

   As we got closer I was able to identify what the animal actually was. I quietly whisper to Henry, " It's a Capybara. I read about them once. But...they are indigenous to South America."

    "Should we kill it?" Henry whispers.

   "Well it's either kill it or possibly starve." I tell him.

   I signal to him that I'm going to try to strike the animal and to watch my back for any oncoming predators. Then I quickly raise up and throw the spear directly into the side of the animal. It squirms for a moment as it lets out a last blood curdling cry and then falls over dead with a small thud.

   "Well, looks like we are goin to eat good tonight." I say in an excited manor.

    "You have such a good aim. Have you done this before?" Henry asks me as well walk over to the animal.

   "No I actually have not hunted with a spear before. And thanks." I say as I pull my spear out of the animal's side.

    I pull out my knife and open it. I then roll the animal over on its back and begin to slice open it's stomach. As soon as my knife arrives at the rib cage, I start to violently tug to get the knife to cut through the sternum area of the animal's chest. Once it does, I flip the animal over and dump out it's organs, being extra careful to not bust its cecum pouch and to get as little blood on my hands as possible.

   "I'd say this is a job well done. Wouldn't you?" I exclaim with a smile toward him and wipe the sweat off my forehead. I then look away and begin to clean my knife.

    "Y-ya. I'd say so too." Henry states with a slight smile.

    "Alright. Since you are a big, strong guy, I'm going to let you drag this back since I killed and gutted it and I'm going to skin and cook it. Is that alright with you?" I ask Henry as I fold my knife and put it back into my pocket.

    "...ya that's fine. Totally fine." Henry mutters in what seems to be in an embarrassed tone and begins to drag the animal behind him as we walk back toward camp.

    "So...you...think I'm strong?" Henry asks after a few moments of silence passed between us.

    Startled at the sudden question, I turn to him. "Ummmm ya sure. You and Nate pulled both me and Sara up from the cliff. You have to be pretty strong to do that. Plus I am kinda chubby so I'm heavier, but what can I say, food tastes good. But anyways, yes I think you're strong." I laugh as I finish speaking. Although I did laugh I meant what I said.

    As we arrive back at camp, Sara and Nate run up to us. "Did you get anything? We are half starved!" Nate exclaims as he looks behind Henry.

    "What did you kill?" Sara asks as she looks at the animal's corpse.

    "It's a Capybara. I read about them once. They are native to South America. That, in turn, gives us a small clue as to where we might be at." I say to them with a small glimmer of hope. "Well I need to skin it and set up our fire so I'll get to it." I tell them as I take the animal from Henry and drag it to a big rock and place it up on it.

   "Is there anything else that we should do while it's still light out?" Nate asks as he walks up to me.

    "Ummm...well has anyone seen any type of a water source?" I ask as I begin to slice away the flesh from the meat.

    "Ah! Yes! I believe that I did earlier while we were looking for a place to set up camp." Sara speaks up abruptly. "I believe it was a small spring."

    "Ooo. If it is a spring, we will be able to drink the water. If it isn't we will have to either collect the water and figure out how to boil it, or collect rainwater, or find another source of hydration such as coconuts for the time being. Do you care to go check it out?" I ask as I begin on the other side of the animal. The animal was about the size of an extremely large groundhog.

   "Ya. No problem. It wasn't too far from here anyways." Sara says as starts to walk off.

    "Make sure you don't go alone. We still don't know what all predators or people are here with us." I say quickly as to tell her before she leaves.

   "I'll go with her." Nate speaks up and walks over toward Sara as they walk off into the woods.

    "Alright, I just have a little bit left on this side then I have to cut it off from around the feet and cut it up to the back of the ears and then we can tie it to the limb that is placed over the fire pit and then we can light the fire and cook us some meat." I say as I begin the last steps of skinning the animal.

   "Sounds like a plan to me." Henry says as he sits on a medium sized rock next to where I am standing.