Arendil: The Eagle's Egg

The Hunt

Arendil first let his eyes get used to the dark of inside the forest.

Then he started to make his way to the different locations he had marked.

He still knew the way, and it didn't take long for him to reach the first place. The first place was by a old large tree with rough, thick, bark. He looked for the broken twig to make sure he was at the right place. Arendil looked and looked but couldn't find it. That is strange he thought, he was sure he was at the right place. Then his eye caught a twig sticking out of the tree. He first hadn't noticed it because he was looking for a broken one. But this one was whole! Impossible he thought, it looked exactly like the one he had broken before and it was on the right place. But the problem was, it wasn't broken! His mind was playing tricks on him, it had to be. He probably had imagined he had broken it. He shrug his shoulders and placed one of the smaller traps. As he walked to the other traps he had the feeling the forrest was changed somehow. It had a different feel or look, he didn't know. As he came to the second place he had not seen one broken twig, while he thought he had broken at least three to guide him to this place. Luckily he still knew how he had walked, so he found it quick. Again no broken twig! Had he been day dreaming again this morning? Had he all the twigs he broke just imagined?

He kept thinking about it as he went to place the others. It was like he had imagined the whole first trip, because he could find none of the clues he had left behind. Sometimes easy and sometimes with some struggle he had found all the places and had placed all the traps. He was happy to see there were new tracks of animals so he was confident they would capture something. Now he had imagined breaking all those twigs it was a little bit difficult finding the way back and when he left the forest, he found out he had again swayed out a little bit down river. He walked back and saw Eoward still busy with building the smoke oven.

He was almost finished though. The smoke oven was made of rocks and wood and clay that Eoward had found at the river bank below the rocks. He had made the walls of stone with clay keeping them together. It had two floors, the ground floor was for the glowing coals, the second floor was for the meat that would be smoked. It ended in a chimney. It was about four feet high and at it widest point about two feet wide. After it was finished Eoward build a small fire to make the clay harden and throw on the outside sand over it to protect it a little bit from rain. While Eoward was busy with making the oven, Arendil started to make a dam in the river. They would use the dam for fishing. The river current was pretty strong, so he needed to use heavy stones and rocks witch he roled or throwed in the river. He tried to make the dam in the shape of a V pointing down river. This would guide the river through a small hole of three feets tall at the point of the V. The river was not very deep. The water at its deepest point would come to his waist. But he tried to avoid the water because it was freezing cold as it came from the hights of the mountains, he also wanted to avoid getting sick. So he started at the river bank, and building from there in to the river, so he always had rocks to stand on.

It was heavy work but also a strangly satisfying, it was fun to see the water change course pushing it self through the small hole he had left over. As he was finished, he looked at it an was satisfied. He could never dream to stop water from getting through his dam, but he had achieved what he wanted to, changing the river flow guiding it to the V point. At both ends of the small hole he had placed heavy boulders, on which he bounded ropes.

Two on each. On those ropes he bound the fishing net his mom had made. Each corner to one rope. Now the river current would guide the fish in the fishing net.

It was late when they were finished but now they had their camp ready.

Eoward started a small fire and they used the small pan Arendil had took with him to cook some water. In the water they throwed some herbs and plants Arendil had found nearby, making a soup. It filled not very much but the food their mother had gave them was eaten, and it was hot, what helped them to stay warm. After dinner, they throwed some real hard wood they had found on the fire. This would burn and glow longer so it would keep them warmer in bed. They talked for a short time by the fire, enjoying the warmth, but both were tired and went for sleep. Tomorrow would be the first hunting day. Arendil had to get out early, so he would not get much sleep before the morning. With that thought he went straight to sleep, forgetting the creepiness of the night.