Wild Avalon

6

Half way through my planned hike, everything had gone smoothly. Hiking up mountains grew easier as my body adjusted to the new physical activity. The fresh air and wide open spaces agreed with me. The longer I spent out on the land the more like home it felt. I was glad that after my solo adventure I wasn't heading straight back to the city. The research project would come first.

Even though I no longer planned to continue my researching or TA job at the university, I was a woman of my word. I said I would collect field data, I would fulfill that obligation and submit my notice when I returned to the university. I would normally have jumped into prospecting for another job. Mom and I didn't have a lot of savings between us to rely on. The only fact keeping me calm was that the field research position came with a generous enough paycheque at the end that I knew mom and I would have some room to breathe. While I figured out my next step, and helped her fix up her apartment.

I hadn't spent much time at home with mom since I had moved in with Aaron when we were both eighteen. I knew mom's apartment was rent controlled, which gave some protection. She was a librarian at an underfunded public elementary school. I should have known she was struggling before I moved back in and saw the shabby furniture that had been repaired until there wasn't anything left to try and reenforce,

I was approaching the crest of another mountain. Every one got easier. Aaron and I had been living comfortably. I should have been helping her more. Mom wasn't perfect, I knew she had only every tried her best. She had left her herd for love. Then when he had rejected me. Her herd, her parents wouldn't take us in. We had been alone ever since. I had never gone without, mom had worked hard to ensure I had everything. Ever since I had moved with Aaron it seemed like I had tunnel vision. All I had seen was him.

It wasn't my fault. I hadn't done anything wrong.

Fate knew he wasn't mine, and made sure I knew it.

I didn't cry anymore when I thought of him. I was glad. Without this pain I would have settled into a life that would have left me feeling unfulfilled. I had a chance to get my life right. I wasn't quite at the level of serene where I felt peaceful over recent events; I hadn't had a rage attack in days now. The only problem was my self induced isolation from technology and the greater world at large was keeping me from acting on the freshly found itch to get to work changing my own fate.

The weather had been holding out the entire six days I had been hiking through land unlike anything I had seen before. An unusually long stretch of good weather. My quick research before I set off had indicated that rain and fog were common. I had been taking the good weather for granted.

I was awoken from my sleep to gusts of winds strong enough that I worried about the tent withstanding it, and ceaseless waterfalls of rain pelting the sides of the tent. Lightning flashed nearly the same time the thunder crashed so loudly I felt it in my chest. I had never liked thunder. 'Close your eyes Avalon. It's just noise.' I felt Hilda, taking some of the control from me. Enough to force her own calmness into me.

"It's just noise." I repeated. Closing my eyes like she said. The rain eventually began to ease, a more normal pattern of rain falling against the tent. There were still exceptionally strong winds occasionally, and the echoing rolling thunder as the storm continued to move overhead. I did manage to get a little more sleep before the sun began to rise and color the world gold with the first rays over the horizon.

The rain hadn't quite stopped, I didn't care. I wanted to see if I could move quickly, maybe shave a day off my hike time. Not just to get back to internet access, I wanted to prove I was stronger and faster. I checked my map. I was essentially at the farthest arc of my planned trip. Figuring out where I was, as I planned a new path, one that I hadn't chosen before because of the challenging terrain. I reassessed the elevation lines and notations. I felt like I was up to the challenge now.

New plan made, even with the rain still lightly persisting. I exited the tent. To Hilda's protests, she did not like being in the rain. Quickly and methodically deconstructing the now very familiar tent. The jerky restock I had been working on was ruined in the rain. I had to leave it behind and snacked on a protein bar for breakfast. Hopefully the sun would dry everything today at some point, or I was going to be eating more of the ration meals than I really wanted to. I was rather accustomed to eating fresh meat with foraged greens and berries. I wondered if I could hobby farm in my future. Could I find a place where I could farm and still have good sushi delivered?

The friendly babbling brook I had come to consider my travel companion, was in a much different mood today. The rain fall had caused the brook to become a real river. Rushing by with a roar today, white water frothing over the riffles in the flow. Logically from my studies, I knew that the rainfall in the mountains that all fed into the watershed here, would force any rainfall on their slopes down to the rivers in floods with every rain. Reading about a phenomenon was much, much different from experiencing it.

As the day wore on, I could almost measure the flow rate in the river changing with every hour. As all the rain from the mountains last night worked its way through the water system, water always moving towards its goal of meeting the sea. By lunch the air was hot and humid. The warm sun moving higher and higher in now clear skies, the excess rain water evaporating back into into the air.

For the first time since I let my hair down before the start of this hike. I had to braid it together to save myself from sweating to death in the humid air. Not a complicated layered french braid. No pins or clips. Nothing like how I had been wearing my hair every work day since I landed the TA job and wanted to make sure I looked more professional than the students I was supposed to tutor and grade assignments for. Today my braid was for practicality. One straight braid tied off with some jute twine I had in my pack.

My adjusted hikinging route was more challenging just on the first day alone I had to scale a sheer ten foot drop of flat rock. Running, leaping, getting one and only one chance per jump to land a foot in a place where I could get the extra height I needed to finally clutch at something tangible at the top. Pulling and rolling my body over the edge. Sweaty and out of breath. A touch embarrassed over the number of attempts I had made, thankfully the swell of pride that I had still done it regardless of how many tries it had taken filling me. I was relishing every new chance to prove my strength to myself. At the end of my first day on the new path. The river who was my constant companion had receded back to being the low ambling brook I considered a friend, gently bubbling away nearby.

Tired from the extra challenge of today's hike, I set the nets in the river, hoping a fish or two would fall into the easy trap. With the nets in place I worked on raising my tent, and settling in for the night. Once my fire was going strong, I added extra fuel to check the nets. Only two little trout. Not enough on their own, filled out with some of my supplies it would make a good meal.

I returned to my fire. Still burning strong, it looked like the logs had burned down and shifted while I was gone. I didn't think I had taken that long to retrieve the fish. I sat down, cleaning the fish, before roasting them over the coals on sticks. Pairing with some crackers, and blueberries from yesterday. I missed french fries now far more than I missed anything else. Except internet access. I thought two weeks unplugged would be a breeze. I was finding myself feeling more and more cut off from the world. Like I was missing something. Wars could have started, some sort of enormous world altering event could have happened and I would only know after the tour boat picked me up again.