[The Bronze Wood] A weekend adventure

[Jecon]

31st of Spring, 510 AV Jecon rode under the woods canopy and released a breath he had been holding for a while, it was good to be away from civilization. Though he had only been in town for a couple weeks the atmosphere had seamed to be smothering him, this hunting trip was just what he had needed. He rode for a few miles until he hit a small river, there he dismounted and walked his horse over to drink. He slipped the halter off Elnartin and murmered, "drink up boy, I know you must be thirsty." Elnartin whinnied and tossed his head, seeming to say, "More than you can imagine." Jecon smiled, "Yeah, I thought so," he looked around as Elnartin drank deeply from the stream, he saw fish swimming in the stream, deer tracks, and a nice little clearing, this would be better than most places he'd camped. He went to pitching his tent after making sure Elnartin had some good grass to munch on, his first attempt was a complete and utter failure. He had gotten the poles up and was trying to get the canvas on them when it fell in on him, he flailed around like a fish in a net trying to get out. When he had finally extracted himself from the mess he looked over at Elnartin who was looking at him, and Jecon would have sworn he was smiling, and at that moment he whinnied and Jecon found himself yelling back, "Well I'd like to see you do better!" Elnartin whinnied as if to say, "I could do better with one hoof tied behind my back." "Yeah, I bet you could," Jecon said as he shook his head, mystified at how well he and Elnartin understood each other. Jecon sighed as he looked at the mess of what was supposed to be a tent, he decided to not bother with a tent for now, and put his tarp up as a temporary shelter. A while later, Jecon had put the tent away and had the tarp stretched between two trees, and he walked over to Elnartin. He smacked his forehead with his palm when he realized he had left the saddle on, "I'm sorry, I completely forgot your saddle, I feel like ten kinds of an idiot." Elnartin looked at him, communicating with a flick of his ear, "No, eleven kinds, you still haven't take this saddle off, now hurry up!" Jecon smiled as he unbuckled the girth strap, "I was getting there, you could have given me a second." Elnartin responded my flicking his ear again, this time Jecon didn't even want to think what Elnartin had said. As Jecon pulled the saddle off Elnartin started rolling in the grass, all four leg pumping in the air as he rolled around, grass clinging to his coat. Jecon watched for a moment, then burst into laughter as a particularly big clump of grass got stuck in Elnartin's left ear, which he was twitching like mad to try to get it out. Jecon walked over and plucked it out of his ear for him, "You're welcome." Elnartin ignored Jecon and continued rolling until he seemed satisfied with himself, then he rolled over and stood, shaking the loose grass off. "You are one dirty horse!" Jecon said aloud, "what are you going to do about it?" Elnartin walked casually over to the river and jumped in, he swam around for a little while then came dripping wet and mostly clean. "You know, that's a good Idea, I could use a good swim to wash off." Elnartin tossed his head in agreement and Jecon smiled, he quickly got out of his clothes and jumped into the river. The shock of the water hit him as he hit it, it was slightly cold but not to cold, and it was so clear he could see to the bottom ten feet bellow. He swam against the current until his arms were beginning to burn, then he let the current push him back towards camp. When he got back he was about to get out of the stream, when he saw Elnartin with his clothes in his teeth standing over the river. "No, no you don't! Put those right back where you found them!" "What are you going to do about it?" "Don't make me do somthing." "Oh very threatening, but fine, I'm bored of it already." Elnartin deposited Jecon's clothes back on the bank and Jecon quickly ran over and grabbed them. He dried off and put them on, keeping an eye Elnartin the entire time. Jecon then looked around and soon found some little logs, twigs, and dead moss, he took these, cleared out a small section of ground, and proceed to make a fire. His first attempts were met with failure a singed hand, but he persisted and soon had a small fire going, he then rigged a small rock, which had a depression in it, over the fire and started a stew. He added some dried meat he had with him, some wild carrot, a little of this, and a little of that and after letting it simmer for a while had a serviceable, if not slightly good, stew. He tried a small spoonful and brightened, it was better than his usual failures, it was probably the patience and the thyme that he had put into it. He ate his meal quickly and put the rest away, when he had cleaned up he lay his bedroll under the tarp and pulled the blanket over him, with his sword under it as well. As he was falling asleep he looked over at Elnartin, who was sleeping close by, and sighed, this looked to be a promising weekend.

[Jecon]

Jecon felt something wet touch his face, he was instantly awake, but did not move or open his eyes lest he give away the fact he was awake to whoever was there. Without disturbing the blankets he grasped the hilt of his sword and opened his eyes mere slits to see who was there. He saw his horse standing over him with a look that said, "It's six o'clock, I let you sleep in a half hour, now get up!" Jecon rolled over and groaned, the one bad thing about traveling with Elnartin, he was a very early riser. Another nudge from Elnartin made Jecon sigh, "You won't stop til I'm up will you?" Elnartin nickered, "I thought not, ah well," Jecon stood up stretched and yawned, then laid back down, "There, I got up, now I'm going back to bed." Elnartin rolled Jecon over with his muzzle and stood over, eyes locked, Jecon finally got up and went down to the river to wash up, muttering curses. *splash* Jecon felt the cool, almost cold, river water cover his head and it nearly stole the breath from his lungs. He burst out of the water spluttering, the cold felt refreshing, it helped ease the nightmares of late. He shook his head, ridding it of those dark thoughts, and struck out vigorously against the current, like yesterday he fought the current until he felt he could fight no more and then let it carry him back to camp. When he got back, he didn't see Elnartin with his clothes about to drop them in the river, what a relief, but where was Elnartin? He quickly got out, dried off, and got back into his clothes, wondering where Elnartin had gotten off to, he pushed it from his mind, wherever he was he would be okay, he always was. Jecon moved to make a fire, he failed the first try because he was shaking so badly from the swim. He stopped and sat as still as possible and let himself have a few moments to relax, and like it always, it worked. He then set the fire, lit it, and rummaged around for what to have, a few biscuits, some jerked meat, not alot. He wondered what he could do with this meager fair, he had an idea, cut the biscuits in half, fill them with the jerked meat, and then brown them with hit make-shift stone pot. He set about getting everything ready and soon was browning away at the biscuits, they turned out... He pulled them from the pan talking aloud to himself, "Black is a shade of brown, right? Of course, these biscuits are perfectly 'browned,'" his first bite was rather crispy and he made a mental note to not make them so 'brown' next time, although they were a little crispy they were good an he wolfed them down in record time. Just as he finished the last one Elnartin plodded in, "Where have you been boy? Elnartin nickered a noncommittal answer, Jecon shrugged and went to cleaning up after his breakfast, and soon he had everything put away. He walked up to Elnartin and asked, "Feel like coming hunting with me or are you feeling bad?" Elnartin didn't respond, which worried Jecon, and walked over to the river and started drinking. "If you're not coming, then I'll go by myself." Elnartin nickered halfheartedly, and went back to drinking, Jecon was perplexed and slightly worried, this was complete unlike Elnartin. Jecon was divided on what to do, should he stay or should he go hunting? Jecon threw his arms up in annoyance, he wouldn't get anything done until whatever was wrong was resolved. He walked over to Elnartin and sat down, "I'm not leaving until I find outs what's wrong." Elnartin ignored Jecon and kept on drinking, they both sat in silence for a few moments, then Elnartin left. Jecon was about to follow when something pushed his from behind and he fell headlong into the river. He came up spluttering and shaking the water out of his hair, "Why you two bit, back stabbing, no good, nag!!!!" Elnartin was on the bank nickering his head off and pawing at the ground. Jecon pulled himself out of the river, staring daggers at Elnartin, and walked over to dry himself off. When he had dried off as much as he was able he turned around to Elnartin's muzzle in his face. Jecon was about to give Elnartin a piece of his mind, when Elnartin licked Jecon, Jecon smiled, "You know how to make a guy mad then make it up." Elnartin nickered, and Jecon laughed, "Well now we can go hunting!" Jecon crouched into the underbrush, his bow ready with an arrow on the string, Elnartin was a little ways away hiding. Jecon had been waiting here for quite a while, a deer trail not five feet to the north, and was wondering if anything would happen. he was finishing this thought when he heard something moving in the underbrush to his right. Long years of practice made Jecon not turn his head to see, and it was a good thing he didn't. A young doe was hesitantly making her way down the trail, Jecon relaxed, a doe this young wasn't worth it, let her grow up then maybe. But what followed made Jecon be on alert, it was a very large buck, in fact one of the largest bucks Jecon had ever seen, and it didn't look happy or nice at all. A few minutes later when the two deer had gone Jecon let out a long sigh of relief, that was close. Jecon waited until it was starting to get dark and then decided to head in, but before he moved another sound made him freeze, he hoped it wasn't that mean looking buck again. But instead of the buck it was a doe, that wasn't to young and wasn't to old, Jecon ever so slowly raised his bow and sighted along the shaft, and the let fly! The deer leapt away just as Jecon loosed the shaft, the shaft missed by a hair and flew off into the forest. Jecon cursed his black luck and went after his arrow, he was casting around in the bushes when he found an odd sight, a big young rabbit was dead, transfixed by Jecon's arrow through the throat. Jecon scratched his head, wondering if this was bad luck or good luck, he shrugged and picked up the rabbit, thinking it was better than nothing. As he pulled the arrow out carefully he heard a sound back on the deer trail, Jecon froze and listened intently. He hear voices, not human voices they were more guttural and sounded harsh and grating. He waited until whatever it was was gone then hurried over to the deer trail, he found two sets of tracks, they were humanoid with three toes instead of five and a little more preasure on the toes. Jecon didn't know what made these, but he was pretty sure hew didn't want to meet them. He quickly made his way back to Elnartin and headed back to camp wondering what could have made those tracks and what they were doing here...

[Jecon]

Shortly after getting back to camp, Jecon had - after several mistakes and an almost messy blunder - cleaned the rabbit and was in he process of curing the meat, when his mind wandered back to what he had heard earlier. He shook his head, the tracks had led away from his camp and he had taken pains to not leave a clear trail back here, but it still was a constant nagging thought in the back of his mind. Jecon finished curing the meat and hanging it, out of reach of most nocturnal scavengers, quite a bit later and was practically asleep on his feet when he finally crawled into his bed, and fell into the blackness of deep sleep. The next morning Jecon awoke on his own as the first rays of dawn were filtering in through the treetops. He stretched and yawned lightly, what a great sleep, he felt refreshed and ready for a new day, the strange happenings of earlier in a distant part of his mind. He looked around and saw Elnartin laying down a yard away, apparently sleeping. Jecon stood and walked over to where he had hung the meat, and was happy to find it had gone through the night without drawing the serious attention of any scavenger. He reached up and undid the bag holding the rabbit meat and took a portion large enough to make a halfway decent breakfast and put the rest back up. With the meat in hand, Jecon made his way back to the remains of his previous fire and proceeded to make a new one, he separated the old coals from the ashes and used the coals along with some wood to start his fire. When he had the fire blazing well, he got his stone and washed it out in the stream, taking his time so as the fire had a chance to die down. When the fire was down to hot coals, Jecon put the meat on the stone and put the stone in amongst the coals. After making sure everything was perfect, he quickly got out of his clothes and jumped into the river for his daily swim, when that was over he dressed and made his way over to the rabbit steaks, which were just starting to darken when he got there. With a a deft flip of a twig he had the rabbit flipped and cooking on the other side, while he waited for this to be done, Jecon dropped and started doing push-ups. He did push-up after push-up until his already heavy muscles were burning with the effort, but he didn't stop, he pushed himself past the pain until his arms and legs gave way beneath him. He slowly made his way to his feet and started slowly walking in circles to cool down. Still breathing heavily, but not nearly as shaky, Jecon, made his way over to the fire and his cooking rabbit, it was just a minute or so away from perfection and Jecon almost couldn't wait, almost. Jecon licked his fingers, that rabbit had been good, he had supplemented it with some local vegetables and it had tasted delicious. The one side was slightly blackened from him being a little later from his swim, but the other side had been very nearly perfect, you can't really ruin some thing your grilling, Jecon thought, well at least not badly, he admitted. Jecon cleaned up the mess breakfast had made and looked at Elnartin, his horse was happily grazing and didn't seem to be paying any attention to him. He sighed, last night's hunt had been halfway decent, he might not have bagged what he had wanted, but he had gotten something. He decided he would try some fishing today, it didn't sound to hard, put bait on a hook, throw it in the stream, and pull up when you get a bite. With confidence and his fishing tackle in hand he walked over to the river bank and began digging, soon he had a little pile of worms. He put the first one on his hook, this was the first sign that things might not be as easy as he had first thought because it took three minutes to get it on. But with his baited hook ready, Jecon started to fish. Hard? That wasn't the word to describe this experience, more like impossible! Or boring. And definitely annoying. He would put his bated line in the water and he would sit there for half an hour waiting for a bite, even a nibble, but nothing was always the result. And on top of that, when he pulled his line out, all that was there were scant remains of his worm. Jecon was on the verge of giving up entirely when he felt a tug on his line, he quickly jerked hard on the line and began bringing it in. He felt stout resistance which elevated his expectation and excitement. He finally landed the fish, with visions of giant fish waltzing through his head, or maybe it was a tango, either way he was sorely disappointed to find it was less than four inches long. This was his huge catch, the fish which had put up the great struggle? Jecon shook his head as he unhooked the fish and let it go, this was pathetic, how could anyone even like fishing, it was the most unfulfilling sport out there, only pansies could enjoy something so lame! Although Jecon was past the verge of giving up, he decided to stick to it anyway, and stick to it he did, for another four hours with only one halfway descent sized perch to show for it. He sighed, this was going to be the last cast of the day, so he put all the worms he had left on his hook and let fly, it sailed almost halfway into the river, which was farther than he had cast all day. He smiled as he sat back to enjoy his perfect cast all day, he was thoroughly enjoying it when he was almost pulled off the bank by a very sudden and unexpected force. With what had been happening all day Jecon thought to himself, so how big will this one be? One inch? But one inch it most definitely was not, Jecon knew this instinctively. He was pulling on the line, making almost no headway, and was wondering what to do, when the fish made up his mind for him and started swimming downstream. Jecon knew he only had seconds to decide what to do and made a decision. In a moment he had unbuckled his sword belt and had dropped everything on the bank, except his knife. He then cut the fishing line with his knife, wrapped the line well around one hand, and dived after this monster fish knife in one hand, line in the other. Jecon hit the water with a splash, his clothes instant started to get saturated with water and weighed him down, but he payed no heed top this and concentrated on pulling the fish to him or him to the fish. He was fighting the fish for what seemed like hours and his lungs began to burn, he knew he had to get air and reluctantly let go of enough of the line to make it to the surface. He released what was left of his pent up breath and gulped in a new one, just at that moment he felt the line go slack and he went bellow the surface again, just in time to see a giant pike swimming straight at him at almost thirty miles an hour. He had no time to react and was nailed in the stomach by the pikes pointed snout. It drove the air out of him and made him see these little dots of white in his vision, when they cleared he saw the pike swimming back to ready for another assault. He painfully made his way to the surface and didn't even have a breath to let out, but gulped in a new one, which made daggers of pain lance through his stomach, and went under again. This time he was ready for the high speed assault and at the last second moved to the side and stabbed with his knife, before he could withdraw it, it was wrenched from his grip as the fish sped by. Now unarmed, and from the signals his stomach was sending his brain, hurt, and rapidly running out of breath again, he wondered if this had been the right choice. He pushed these thoughts from his mind and faced the direction the pike had gone, resolved to end this one way or another. He didn't have to wait long, the pike was swimming back, although Jecon noticed it wasn't going as fast as it had before, again he moved to the side but this time the pike moved with him and again hit him in the stomach, although this time Jecon was slightly ready and didn't have the breath driven out of him, in the seconds the pike was right there Jecon grabbed his knife, pulled it out, and then sunk it into the pike, right in the head. The pike started flopping around and its tail nailed Jecon in the stomach, Jecon groaned inwardly at the beating he was getting and started swimming painfully towards shore. A short while later he had pulled himself painfully onto the bank, he looked down at the line in his bloodied hand and started pulling it in. He finally landed the giant pike on the bank and fell sideways, completely exhausted, the smile slowly easing its way across his face, maybe this wasn't only for pansies after all. . .