Wild Desperation

Chapter 27

                                               Sang

I was about ready to give up on explaining how to turn meat into jerky for the 10th time but the boys finally got enough of what I was saying to make it work. "So you really learned all of this through reading?" Kota quizzed as I watched our lunch cook over the fire. "Most of it yes but some of it came with practice which turned into experience, the books were a decent start though. I still have a couple I carry around but they are starting to get old now, I do occasionally refresh my memory on the one about plants even if I remember every word and picture in it." I sighed as I reached into my bag and pulled out the somewhat frayed older book and handed it to him, watching as he turned the pages with great care.

 "You memorized all of this?" He breathed out and I shrug back in response. "Yeah it took me a couple months but it's all plastered into my memory bank, you're welcome to borrow it if you'd like." I smiled to him. "I couldn't keep this, it's obviously important to you if you've kept it this long." Kota defended. "Not really it just has it's share of uses besides you guys could use it more than me, after all you thought I was trying to poison you the first time I brought back some edible plants." I snorted. 

"Can you blame us, you did drug the Doc and Luke with some?" Kota raised back. "True, but only out of necessity. It's not like I'm forcing you to take it, but you might learn something you can use later if I'm not around to show you." I huffed as he frowned. "You're not planning on dying on us are you Peanut?" Nate asked as he pressed a hand to my forehead to check my temperature, the action annoyed me but I tolerated it. "No, not planning on dying at all, but when we do get to Charleston chances are we'll never see each other again after we go our separate ways." I stated. 

"Well you could always come with us, there is a safe and disease free colony of sorts where we are heading." Luke offered shyly as I frowned. "Like I've said before, I don't plan on staying around any sort of settlements with large groups of people. I've seen the consequences of places like that on people like me, and I have no intention of being caged like that." I hid my shudder at the deadly memories flashing in my mind. "It wouldn't be like that, you would be free to come and go as you pleased and no one would try anything." Sean pressed. 

"I find that hard to believe, I'm sorry but my answer is still no, besides I have my own reasons for needing to go to Charleston." I said firmly. "Sang as much as we would all like you to accompany us, we will not force you if you do not want to stay with us, as I've explained before." Owen said as he offered me some more tea. "I know you won't, last I checked none of you seem to be that stupid." I huffed back as playfully as I could despite my still aching body.

 "So Pookie why is it you're heading to Charleston if you had things so good where you lived before?" Sean smiled back although it seemed forced. "I have something I need to do, my father, well I'm not even entirely sure what I'm doing myself, but hopefully I'll find some answers there." I sighed out. The conversation was quick to change after that as food was dished out to everyone, I ate my share to keep my strength up before I rummaged through my bag for my next little project. "What are you looking for Aggele?" Silas murmured softly as I pulled my bag of feathers and my collection of stones free and laid them out.

 "These, do you think you can give me those sticks there?" I pointed to the ones I'd asked them to gather earlier as he handed them to me curiously. "I'm going to make up some more arrows since my supply has been diminished a good bit." I explained as he offered to help and I nodded. "So how does it work?" Silas asked with the tilt of his head as he took a seat at my side. "First you have to make the stone into a decent enough point, doesn't matter how, it just has to be sharp enough to go through flesh." I said as I handed him a few of the thin and smooth stones that I loved to use as arrowheads, he learned quickly which I was happy with since it meant he could keep up easier.