THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART THIRTY THREE )

Just as dawn was breaking Meradith got up from her
sleeping corner. Evelyne, Fern and Jay were still
asleep.

Quietly Meradith started to strip her clothes off,
she knew what she had to do, she picked up the
spear that Ivan had made for her, then she took a
deep breath and crept to the cave entrance, stepping outside, the weather looked promising for
what she had in mind.

The sun hadn't quite come up yet, as she wandered
very slowly and quietly down to the river. She
hugged herself as she walked, shivering...looking
all around, keeping her ears open...all seemed calm.

As she approached the river, she kept down on her
belly in the long grass, moving as fast as she
could, everything still seemed calm.

It was not long before she was at the rivers edge,
she felt an incredible fear, as she realised what
she was about to do, 'I must stay calm,' she thought, she took some really deep breaths, filling
her lungs with enough air.

Then she slipped down the bank into the icy cold
water, she thought her heart was going to explode,
it was beating so fast.

Taking one final long breath, she dived under the
water, she found it pretty easy to see the fish,
but hard to stay under long enough to catch anything.

She came up for air once more, again she took some
more deep breaths, this time as she went down under, it seemed easier, but again she couldn't
seem to spear the fish, the pressure of the water,
made it hard to actually get the spear to move fast
enough to catch a fish, yet Meradith could see many
swimming around.

'Have patience,' she thought to herself. She wondered how Ivan did it so easily, but then he had
been fishing since he was a boy.

After a while and many goes, Meradith found she was
actually starting to enjoy the experience of diving. As she went down again...spear in hand, she
saw a fish feeding along the side of the bank, she
aimed her spear and with all her strength she could
muster, she pushed hard...this time it worked.

The fish wriggled, as Meradith came up for air,
mouth open...eyes bright, she smiled and laughed to
herself. "I did it!...I did it!" it was quite a big
fish too.

She quickly waded through the water to the bank and
crawled out, making her way slowy back to the cave.

She was so cold, she shivered as she walked in.
Evelyne awoke, "where have you been Meradith?"

"Look!" said Meradith...proudly holding up the fish.

"Oh you are so clever, I could never have caught a
fish," said Evelyne.

Quickly Meradith got dressed and Evelyne woke Fern
and Jay.

"We must get a fire going," said Meradith.

"Why the hurry?" Evelyne enquired.

"Because I want to get this fish cooked, for us to
eat before I leave." said Meradith.

"Leave, what do you mean leave?" said Evelyne shocked.

Meradith carried on dressing in her bear skin, as
she told Evelyne, "I'm going to look for Bella, I
can't just sit around not knowing what's happened to her."

"Don't be silly," said Evelyne, "you can't go out
there on your own, it's too dangerous."

"Listen!" said Meradith, "I have to go, you will be
safe here, you have your children, I have nothing."

"In that case, I'm coming with you." Evelyne decided.

"But you can't, what about Fern and Jay?"

"As long as Fern doesn't leave the cave, she will
be fine with Jay, she more or less looks after him
anyway, don't you Fern?" said Evelyne, looking at her daughter.

Fern was not sure about her mother's plans, "mother
you can't leave us, I won't know what to do if we
get discovered."

Evelyne approached Fern, "look you have fish now,
the chickens will have layed some eggs. I will build a fire and get plenty of kindling, all you
have to do...is make sure the fire doesn't go out.
Neona is producing enough milk. I cannot let Meradith go out there alone, you will be fine, as
long as you stay here."

Meradith was not so sure, she tried to persuade
Evelyne to stay, but she wouldn't have it.

Evelyne said to her daughter, "think of this as an
adventure, you know how much you love adventures."

Jay started to cry and it tore at Evelyne's heart
strings to leave. She picked Jay up, "now listen to
me, I'm going to help Meradith find Bella, I want
you to be a good boy for Fern, she is your mother,
till we get back, now do you promise?"

Jay looked at his mother, wiping tears from his eyes, he nodded, that he would be good.

"Good boy Jay," said Evelyne.
Fern felt that her family and friends were slipping
away from her.

Later that morning Fern and Jay kissed their mother
and said their goodbyes.

To be continued ........THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART THIRTY FOUR ) | ABCtales