Nightspell || Michael Clifford

Chapter 14

'Good morning sunshine.' Michael chirped when I opened my eyes.
I groaned and turned my head to face the wall.
Michael grinned 'I know. Waking up is tough, but we've got a lot of things to do today. Plants and trees to safe, animals to search for and coral to protect.'
I sighed and leaned up a little to prevent myself from falling back asleep.
'Animals to search for?' I asked, rubbing my eyes to try and wake myself up a little bit more. 'I thought you said there weren't any animals here.'
'No,' Michael frowned 'I said there aren't many. As in, there are a few. But most of them live in the trees. There's a couple birds and they show up at certain places around the same time every day. Which is why we need to hurry otherwise we will never find them.' He explained.
I nodded and clumsily sat up straight. I had told Michael he was going to sleep in the hammock a few days ago but so far I've been the only one sleeping in it. Simply because by the time we would go to bed, I would be too tired to fight him and he would insist that I sleep in the hammock again.
Michael handed me my leg brace and I quickly slipped my leg in before standing up and tying my hair up in a ponytail.
Life was going to be tough when my hair elastic would break.
'Where are were going first?' I asked as I pulled the shoes over my feet.
'Well first we're going to grab some breakfast to eat while we're walking. But then we're going to go in the direction of Greenbeach. We should be able to find some brown kiwi's and some reed-warblers on our way there.'
I nodded and we made our way to the shadows of the cabin where the food was stored.
'You do realize I have no idea what those animals look like right?' I grinned.
Michael pulled the cover away from the food and signaled for me to go first.
'I know,' he said as I grabbed a jar filled with blueberries. 'Which is why I'm showing you. You just have to point out every animal you spot because we need to know if they're all still alive. Obviously we won't find all of them because most of them are very good at hiding, but as long as we don't find them dead on the ground, it's all good.'
I nodded and took a step back to let Michael get his breakfast.
'Is that all?' he asked, frowning slightly.
'I only have 2 hands.' I grinned 'If we're going to eat this while walking I'll have my bottle in one hand and the jar in the other. There's nowhere else I can keep any food.'
Michael looked at me for a few seconds but agreed eventually.
'We'll make sure we take a break at the berry bushes for lunch then.' He said as he grabbed two bananas and covered up the food supply again.
'Alright, you ready? You need a wee before we leave?'
I grinned and we walked back to the front of the cabin.
'I kind of do but it can wait until later.' I said, unscrewing the lid of the blueberry jar and popping a few in my mouth.
'Nope, you've got to go now. I'll wait here. When I said lunch I meant like a late lunch because we won't be back for hours. And it's really hard to find a place to pee in the middle of that forest. Also, holding up your pee that long might cause a bladder infection and we're not taking that risk if it's not necessary.'
'Okay, alright. I'll go,' I laughed, handing him the jar of blueberries. 'I'll be right back.'
Michael smiled happily and waved at me as I made my way to the back of the cabin.
Together with not being able to take a shower and not owning a tootbrush, going to the toilet was one of the things I wish could be done differently.
Since there wasn't actually a toilet on Nightspell, we literally just had to dig a hole and use that hole to do our business inside of. Then at the end of the day, we'd have to close the hole and the next morning we dig a new one.
Digging this hole was the most terrifying experience because I had no idea where Michael had made his previous toiletholes and therefore I was afraid that I was going to end up digging up his poop.
Luckily though, this hadn't happened yet, and today was another lucky day for me.
I walked to the trees where Michael had shown me where his toilet was when I got here and quickly dug a hole, without digging up Michael's previous dumps.
I quickly peed in the hole and made my way back to Michael who was still patiently waiting in the threshold of the cabin, eating is bananas in peace.
'Okay, I'm ready.' I sighed when I stopped walking beside him.
Michael smiled up at me and stood up, handing me the blueberries and a bottle of water.
'Good, let's go. Oh and by the way, there are no animals in specific spots at a specific time every morning. I made it up because you had to get out of bed.'
I laughed and followed Michael inside the forest. 'Well it worked.'
'I can't believe you actually fell for it, I was kind of surprised.' He smiled, expertly moving branches to the side so we could pass through.
'How was I supposed to know that you were making it up?' I replied, my face slowly heating up.
'Well, first of all, we can't keep track of time. I'm pretty sure we don't wake up at the exact same time every morning so we can't be in a certain place at a certain time. Second of all, birds usually live alone unless it's breeding season which it isn't.'
'Right, but the only thing I know about animals is that they exist. Especially birds. I know the difference between an owl and a pigeon but that's about it.' I smiled, trying to keep track of which way we were going.
Michael looked back at me and smiled. 'You have a whole new world ahead of you then.' He said, holding another branch to the side so I could walk passed it.
We walked in silence for a while, Michael was looking around. Searching the trees for birds and searching the ground for the kiwis and other animals that lived down there. While I was mostly trying to make sure I didn't step in a hole or get hit in the face by a branch.
I didn't really have the time to eat the blueberries in the jar because I constantly needed my hands to make sure I could keep walking.
Michael looked back every once in a while, making sure I was still doing good but we didn't say a word.
'Let's take a break.' Michael suggested after about 30 minutes.
I just nodded, completely out of breath from all the walking. Michael didn't look like he needed a break so he probably said it more for me than for him.
Unscrewing the lid of my water bottle, I took a few sips and looked up at the trees above us.
'You hear that?' Michael suddenly asked, his voice just above a whisper. 'Sometimes I just stand here and listen. Because you barely ever see the birds, but you can definitely hear them.'
I nodded and listened to the singing birds around us. 'You can identify them like that?' I asked.
Michael looked down at me, before nodding his head just slightly. 'I'd like to think so. I can identify a few birds but it's really hard.'
'You can identify this one?'
Michael looked back up at the trees, listening carefully to the short but fast chirps of the bird.
'That is probably a noisy scrub bird.' Michael nodded. 'Remind me to write down our location when we're back at the cabin.'
'Why?' I asked, though I was pretty sure I could come up with a reply by myself.
'Because I have a notebook in which I write down the location of the animals. That way it's easier to track them down if I have to.'