Nothing, Never, No One

Part 2

A/n: The music is Winter's Dream by Felicia Farerre. It kind of contradicts the setting, but I thought it went well with the chapter anyway. Enjoy !

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PART TWO

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Day Seventeen:  I spent the last four days in bed. Stupid radiations.

Mother and I decided to move our shelter. Right now, it's exactly the path of the storms and they keep getting bigger. This is not a world where you tempt fate.

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Day Eighteen:  Today, I was awakened by a scratching sound. I got up, opened the door of the house - if I can call it a house - and found a fennec busying itself with digging its nails in the shelter's wall.

Here, fennec are a plague: the radiations provoked strange mutations in the local insects, which are now bigger than my fists put together. The fennec changed their diet and started eating the large insects, and are now one of the only species faring well in this new world. Most stay clear of humans, but this one seems to be persistent: I was about to send the annoying pest to  the other side of the desert with an angry and frustrated kick, but the fennec sent me a look so pitiful that I softened a bit. Suddenly, though, the little creature sneezed.

The sound echoed amongst the dunes for a long time, and I looked back to the fennec with a raised eyebrow. It raised its head with a sheepish expression, and I couldn't help it. I howled.

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Day Nineteen:  Mango the fennec seem to like our shelter very much. He's managed to almost break all of the three plates we've still got, and to tear my blanket apart. And  he eats more than Mother and I put together. But... I suppose I'll keep him.

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Day Twenty:  Nothing.

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Day Twenty-One:  Not much.

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Day Twenty-Two:  Mother and I keep fighting over who will keep Mango. It's true that working is much more fun with a sneezing fennec at my side.

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Day Twenty-Three:  That's a problem solved. With all the insects Mango brought back, we've got enough to eat for two weeks at least. What's good is that when the Shell's supplies will dwindle, we won't starve. Tonight will be the first time I taste fried scorpion.

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Day Twenty-Six:  I seem to have started my fennec initiation. Mango dragged me outside - with my mask - and took me to the mountains. There, he signalled me to stop making noise. He crawled to a small rock and jumped suddenly. On the rock. Which turned out to be a viper ! They normally stay far away from the dunes, so we have very few encounters with them, but this one was gigantic ! Mango turned back to face me, very proud, with his prey still in his mouth. We'll see what viper meat is worth.

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Day Thirty-One:  With all the meat Mango is bringing back, I soon won't need to go back to the Shell at all. That or the insects - and the vipers - around here will go extinct. I've spent these last few days working on my hunting technique. (Yay me who finally caught something, and yay Mango who didn't bite me once to motivate me - almost.) I also used the time away from the shelter to scout for a new place for our next house,  and found a good site. I'll begin building the shelter tomorrow, and we'll have moved by next week.