Trying to Touch the Stars

Chapter Four

As I woke up the next day I again began to think of the possibility of having access to weapons. I would definitely need them so I could get meat and skins and also protect myself from anything living in the mountains. I thought maybe a bow and some arrows would be perfect. I could use wood for the bow part and for the arrows too then at the end of the arrow a sharp rock. For string on the bow I could use some vine. I thought this was a good idea and started off to find wood, vine and rock. As I began walking towards the lake to find some sharp rock I heard a loud SCREECH!!!! At first I thought it was human, but as I got closer and the sound became clearer I realized it was some kind of animal. I followed the deafening sound and soon came to a baby bird that looked half dead. The sound that came out of the bird was the worst noise I had ever heard. I didn't know what kind of bird it was. It was brown with some white patches, truthfully it was beautiful but, it looked like it needed a lot of help, so I picked it up and raced back to my "tree house" to try and nurse it back to health. I could do nothing but to let it rest so I left it and went back to look for the supplies but I thought about the bird the entire time. If I could fully nurse it back to health it could capture food for me. Then I would always have food and the bird would have a good home. I thought of things I could call the bird. Only one name sounded right which was Blank Space. It seemed to fit so I would go with it. When I got back to the tree trunk I gave Blank Space some of my left over fish. I needed to make it strong and healthy again. I ate some of the fish and berries for myself and then went fishing for more fish and went to collect some berries. I took my homemade fishing rod and tried to catch some fish. But, when I got up to my little brook I couldn't catch any fish. It's like the fish knew I was coming and all disappeared. I guess I was gonna be eating berries for a while. I went to go collect some berries but when I got to the bush all the berries were gone. This could be a problem. More importantly where did all the food go? I considered the possibility of the bear coming back, but a bear would have left footprints and a big mess. Maybe another person was on the mountain. If there was I needed to find them or I would end up starving and now I have two mouths to feed with Blank Space and myself. If there truly was someone on the mountain I needed to find them before they found me. At this moment I could not worry about my worrisome situation, I needed food so I set out to work on weapons. I first searched for materials. I was going to build a bow and arrow so I needed a curved but strong and supported stick. After dedicated searching I finally found a perfect stick and set to work carving it with my knife into the perfect shape. Then came the arrows. For them I found some long, skinny sticks. I took the sticks and carved a sharp edge at the front of the arrow and for the I put some feathers on the end that had fallen from Blank Space. As I looked over my "master piece" I decided to go and try it out to see if it worked so I covered Blank Space with my jacket and set off. The first time I tried it fell barley a foot from my feet in front of me the second time, it flew off within sight but the third time, it sailed far away. I went to retrieve the arrow but it was no where in sight just like all the food. Then I heard it, a twig snapping. I immediately turned around and there she was. She looked about my age, 12. She ran, I ran. Finally she tired out and was forced to stop. I went over to talk to her, asking her name, where she was from, all the basics. Her name was Maya, she was twelve years old just like I thought she was. It turns out she was from the same village as me. Like me she had been swallowed by the mountain and gotten lost. I invited her to my "home" and she willingly came. I told her I had no food to offer her but she had food so we ate some. That night I ate a dinner of fish and berries with a new friend. She stayed in my tree house that night. And that night as I drifted off into sleep I hoped that my new friend would not become my new enemy.