Ride with you

4

Darryl woke up to the feeling of someone nudging his side, he slowly sat up and yawned, stretching out his arms like usual. He looked up and saw Zak standing above him. "Is it morning already?" Zak nodded, "You slept in," Darryl squinted and looked around! "But it's Dawn?"
"Exactly!" Zak ruffled Darryl's hair and chuckled, "Grab your stuff, today is the day I teach you how to live out here."
"Huh?"
"You want to learn how to stay alive right? Then come with me!" Darryl squinted once again, "But it's-,"
"Rule 1! Wake up at first light so you can get more done!" Darryl yawned a final time before finally getting up and grabbing his bag, looking through it to make sure everything was still inside it.

Zak and Darryl walked through the forest, hearing the crunches of the leaves underneath their feet. Darryl sighed as he heard his stomach grumble, "Rule 2!" Zak piped in, "Never get too hungry because if you become too hungry you will lose energy faster!" Darryl groaned, "I'm sorry but I'm not used to having to stretch one piece of bread out for 2 days..."
"Rule 3! Learn what you can eat," Darryl chuckled, "You know, you can stop with all these rules and just teach me what to eat,"
"Nah, I think rules are fun!" They arrived at a small clearing where Zak stopped and dropped his bags, signalling for Darryl to do the same. He dropped his bags and took out his water bottle where he took a large gulp. "Oh! May I add," Zak said walking over to a plant with long green stems and pod-shaped leaves. "Rule 5. Don't dehydrate. A good way to do that is by finding this plant. Cut the stem in half, then drink the liquid that comes out of it. If you drink from the pod, it'll be a little sweeter than the rest of the liquid," Zak spoke as he cut a stem in half and drank from it slowly.

Zak grabbed his bag and shuffled his hand around inside it until he found what he was looking for. He pulled his arm out to reveal that he was clasping onto a long dagger and a leather drawstring bag. He handed them to Darryl and he opened it, revealing 3 throwing knives. "You, throw knives?"
"Yeah, but I'm not very good at it. I just have them because I don't have a bow."
"Oh ok..." Darryl looked for a couple of seconds and then made a realisation, "Wait, do I have to kill-,"
"Yep! You don't want to go hungry, do you?" Darryl sighed, "I guess not..."

The two wandered around for a while until Zak crouched and pulled Darryl into the bushes next to him, causing him to hit his head on a branch, "Ouch! Zak!"
"Shhhh!" Zak hushed Darryl and pointed towards an animal. It was made from the same substance as the small fox from before and in the form of a doe. Zak looked around, "I don't see a herd or at least a Buck. You can have this one." Darryl grabbed one of the throwing knives and grasped the handle between his fingers and angled it towards the doe, closing one eye to try and be as accurate as possible. In one swift motion he thrust his arm forwards and let go of the blade, it spun directly towards the deer and hit its abdomen, just above one of its back legs. The doe let out a loud screech and began to run further into the forest. Zak jumped to his feet and pulled Darryl upwards, "Yes! Come on! It won't be running for very long." The two boys ran after the doe, following the bloody trail it left. Soon the trail became thicker and the blood splotches became more frequent, until they finally made it to the doe. It was laying in a pool of its own blood. The blood of this creature wasn't red like human blood, it was the same colour as the deer and formed large globs when in large amounts, the doe was now a pale grey colour. Its eyes had become pale and cloudy as its mouth hung open. Zak crouched beside and gestured to Darryl, "We have to cut out all its organs, then we can eat the meat. With cooking it of course. That reminds me, Rule number 4! Yellow = Good, Blue = Bad. You can't really hunt at night,"
"What animals are blue?"
"Any animal basically. All animals turn blue during the night time. For some, they even become more violent." Darryl nodded and looked down at the lifeless doe. "So, what now?"
"We cut her up and cook the meat. Now help me carry her to a good camping spot." Darryl nodded as he helped Zak lift the doe onto his back. Taking Zak's bag for him.

They made it to a small, rocky area on the side of a mountain. There was a small cave on the side and provided a place for them to sleep and take shelter in. Zak dropped the doe and sat down with a huff, "We can stay here for a few nights. It's good shelter and there's plenty of silk bag bushes around here,"
"That's what they're called? Silk bag bushes?" Darryl chuckled and Zak rolled his eyes with a smirk on his face. "Don't blame me, your kind came up with the name because you can get silk from the sacks of the plant!"
"What do you mean? By, your kind?"
"City folk!" The two laughed then Zak jokingly shoved Darryl, "Now go get us some firewood. We need to make a fire before nightfall," Darryl nodded.

As he walked back into the forest he smiled, the colour of roses began forming on his cheeks. It had been a while since he had to good laugh or even had as much fun as he was having now with Zak. He didn't want them to be strangers, he wanted them to be friends, or more.