Back To The Roots (REWRITTING)

9: Fishing

The strong need to relieve her bladder woke Kyla sometime after daylight. She grabbed a book out of her bag and quietly crawled to the front of the whole. Trying to be quiet so she didn’t wake Lily and Josiah she pushed the logs out that she’d covered the gap with last night and climbed out of the den. The urge to pee was even stronger now that she was standing up, but first she needed to know what had been sniffing outside their den to know if it'd hold another night. And she needed to do it now before anyone walked over the tracks. 

She opened her book for tracking that she’d picked up the other day and started flipping pages while looking at the small footprints on the ground. Having never done this before it took her awhile to find something that looked right. When she finally found some tracks that looked similar she stopped and compared. They were only raccoon tracks, she could’ve smacked herself in the forehead. To think, she'd been so worried over a little raccoon. Kyla would have to study this book more later to figure out all the tracks and how to follow them. Right now though she needed to find a bush.

Just as she was returned to the campsite Josiah's head popped out of the den. “Whatcha doin?” he asked, with wide curious eyes.

“I just got up, haven’t really decided what to do yet. What about you, any plans for the day?” she asked in return.

“Hmm not yet, but I think I need to pee,” he said, walking off towards a tree.

She chuckled and went to grab her hair brush and something for them to eat from her bag. She returned with two packs of slightly squashed white powder donuts. She looked in the direction Josiah had gone and didn’t see him, her heart skipped a beat. Maybe she should’ve watched him, but she didn’t want him to feel weird with her just staring at him while he peed. She started to call out to him when she heard one of the horses nicker softly. When she looked in their direction she calmed down immediately. Of course he was with them, she thought rolling her eyes at herself.

“Josiah, you hungry? I’ve got donuts.”

He smiled and came running. “How did you get donuts?” He asked, sitting down beside her eagerly.

“I got them from the store before we left,” she answered.

“Oh,” was the lasting thing he said before scarfing them down excitedly.

Kyla brushed her hair in between bites of donuts occasionally wincing when she caught a tangle. When she was done she threw her hair into a ponytail and asked Josiah if she could brush his for him. He agreed but only if when she was done he could brush the horses. She didn’t relish the idea of picking horse hair out of her brush but she agreed anyway.

Lily woke up to the pleasant sound of Josiah’s laughter. She was enjoying the sound so much that she lay there listening to it for a few minutes before she got up. Eventually her curiosity won out and she got up to see what he was laughing about. What she saw scared her.

“Josiah! Get out from behind that horse right now! One kick from that thing could put you in the hospital!” She yelled, walking towards them.

“It’s okay Lily. She’s not going to hurt him,” Kyla said, reassuringly. 

“How do you know that? We barely know them,” she said, unconvinced.

“I-I just do,” Kyla stuttered. How did she explain it to someone that didn’t know horses? You just know, it’s something in their eyes and their body language. You can see how they feel.

“She’s not gonna hurt me mama. We just wanna braid her tail,” he said, giggling when she swished her tail at a fly and some of the hairs tickled his face.