THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART TEN )

It had been an arduous journey for the two families, they had been travelling for two days and
two nights, Ivan wanted to put as much space between them and the hunters. Luckily they had not
seen anyone else on their journey. They pulled up
the wagons, Ivan had decided they had gone far
enough.

Evelyne was a lot better now, although still upset, she had managed to drive one of the wagons,
which gave Meradith a chance to sleep, Fern and
Bella drove the other wagon, with Jay up front
with them while Ivan got some sleep.

"We will make camp here, we need to rest," said
Ivan.
Meradith collected some Kindling, it was imperative
she build a fire before nightfall. She took her
piece of flint from her purse, she wore on a belt
around her waist and managed to get a spark going,
soon she had a fire.

The fire was burning well, Jay thought the flames
looked like dragons rising from the embers, his
mother would tell him stories of dragons breathing
fire, they were his favourite stories.

Once they had unloaded everything and seen to the
animals, Ivan decided he would search for food. As
he was walking, he came across a cave, he looked
around checking very carefully to make sure this
wasn't a bears cave, he crept in slowly, there
didn't seem to be any sign of life, but he knew you
could never be to careful, he thought he would come
back later.

Ivan managed to catch a couple of rabbits, but he
knew that between two families they would not last
very long. He told Meradith that if they were to
survive while he was gone, then he would have to
fish in the river, he knew the fish would be plentiful, he could catch enough to last them a
couple of days.

Meradith knew the dangers of fishing in open rivers, but she also knew they could starve. Now in
these days women were not hunters like men, who
learnt from their fathers, but Meradith had an idea. "Why don't I come out with you and you can
show me what to do?"
Ivan was not sure about that, but then he thought
about how long he could be away, he decided it was
a good idea.

He showed Meradith how to sharpen a branch into a
spear, she had a go and found it quite easy, then
he told Bella and Fern to stay at the camp and
look after Jay and Evelyne, Evelyne said she would
keep the fire burning.

Meradith crept stealthily through the thicket with
her husband, he knew only to well the dangers of
being out in the open. They hid in some long grass,
they could see an opening where the river ran, it
looked so inviting.

Ivan sensed that all was quiet, then he signaled to
Meradith to creep forward, telling her to stay down
on her belly. They crawled through the long grass,
Ivan smelt the air, everything seemed okay. As they
reached the edge of the river, he told Meradith to
stay down and watch carefully, then he slithered
down the bank into the river, he could see the fish
clearly, he took his spear, then took a deep breath
and dived under the water. He had been under for
quite a while, Meradith became anxious, but knew
Ivan was an expert. When finally he came up, he
had managed to spear ten fish which sat neatly on
top of one another on the spear.

Suddenly the birds began to fly, a sure sign of
hunters. Quickly she saw Ivan climb up the bank,
then they both moved through the grass and back to
the camp as quickly as they could. They managed to
get back without being seen, or so they thought,
the hunters must have gone another way.

That night they had a wonderful feast, the best
food they had tasted in days. Ivan took Meradith in
his arms, he told her not to worry, that he would
be back as soon as he could, he felt sure Nathen
was still alive. He kissed Meradith, she felt a
longing for him, it had been a long two days. Soon
they fell asleep in each others arms.

To be continued ........