"Alright!" Darren said with a loud clap. "Now that we have decided she will do the cooking-"
"And the cleaning!" Jacob put in. When Everyone looked at him he shrugged and said "What? I'm the one that usually gets that chore and I suck at it. You guys are always complaing about how I rip your shirts while washing them and I'm sick of it!"
Darren gave in. "Ok then so Mel will do the cooking, laundry-"
"Does she know anything about healing? If she does she should do that since it's easy to get hurt out here. Plus, I usually get it and I end up hurting you guys even more!" Conor said. There was a murmed agreement in the whole group and Darren sighed.
"Fine. Mel, you will be doing the cooking, the laundry, and the healing. Anything else?" He asked, glaring at the men. They actually had the nerve to think about it before answering him!
"No, I'm good." Conor said.
"Me too." came from Jacob.
I was fine with her just doing the cooking so I'm ok with it." Arthur said.
Last was Sebastion and he looked like he was still thinking. "Does gathering the food go with the cooking?" he asked Darren.
"No we will hunt for the-"
I cut him off. "No I will hunt and gather the food."
They all stared at me like I was crazy.
"You will not do the hunting! Your a girl for Petes sake!" Darren said. I found it funny because apparently when he's surprised his voice gets high and squeky. He seemed to notice my amusement and cleared his throat before talking again. "Besides. your our prisinor and could run away while you 'Hunt'."
"First off, don't think that just because I'm a girl means I can't handle myself." I said in a cold voice. "I have been living on my own for at least three years now and have done perfectly fine. My father aught me how to hunt when I was young and I have the best shot in my whole village. And no they are not all old geezers." I cut Conor off when I saw he was about to speek. "Second, girls are smaller then men so they make less noise that sacre the animals away. So that would mean I would probably be a BETTER hunter then you five. And third, I swear to you on my father's grave that I will not run away if you let me hunt for the food." I finished without breaking eye contact with Darren once.
Darren looked like he was going to rufuse again when Arthur stepped in. "Come on Darren, you know she has some valid points. If she doesn't come back from hunting in an hour, we will go look for her ok?" he turned to me. "You know how to make bird calls right?" I nodded afirmative and he continued. "If you get hurt or need help carrying back the kill make chikady bird call ok?"
I shook my head. "Chikadys aare too commen in this area. I'll make the raven bird call instead. It is known to nest here but not as commen. Arthur looked impressed and nodded.
"Alright since we have that settled let's untie her." Arthur turned to the rest of the group as he was saying it.
Darren looked me in the eye. "If you try to run away we will catch you. If you give us to much trouble we will kill you. Do you understand this?" I gave him a grave nod. Sebastion came up behind me and cut the rope binding my hands. I rubbed my wrists in an attempt to make the pain go away. As I got up the five males tensed as if I was going to run away. I stretched my muscles and turned to the tree where this all started and climbed.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" Conor yelled up to me.
Without looking at him I yelled back to him "I need to get my bow and arrows. You don't expect me to hunt with one of YOURS do you?"
I finally got to the branch I had been sitting on. Alittle to the left on the thick trunk of the tree there was a cranny large enough to hold my things. In it, I had my bow, arrows, another pair of boys clothing, and the dagger my papa had given me for my sixteenth birthday. The next month he had died from being shot in the heart by a knight. I also had the arrow that peirced his heart in this cranny. I planned to find who killed my father and punish him. That's why I had trained so hard to become the best archer I could. I wanted to take this arrow and shoot that man in the heart like he did my father. I wiped away the tears that always seem to come when I look at the knife and tied it's sheath to my belt. I put that cursed arrow into my quiver with my other ten arrows and put it over my shoulder. I readied the string of my bow and put that over my shoulder as well. I grabbed the clothes and started climbing down. When I got to the bottom the men were staring at me.
"What? You thought I would know how to hunt and not have a bow?" I asked them, raising one eyebrow.
The all shoke their heads like I just snapped them out of a trance.
"Of course you had a bow we just didn't know you would have it with you." Sebastion said. He said it as if he were hiding something else. Conor was the only one who was blunt enough to ask though.
"If you had a bow and arrows and you say your the best shot in your village, then why didn't you just shot us instead of run away?" The four other me glared at him and he gave them a look as if he didn't know what he did wrong.
I laughed at his expretion. Conor was just lik a child sometimes. Not afraid to say what he's thiking even though a lot of times what comes out his mouth doesn't make sence.
Then I remembered hi question and all my happiness left me. "The reason I didn't shoot you five is because I don't believe in shooting living things without good reasons." I told them with a blank face.
They looked at me like they wanted to ask more questions but didn't. I'm glad for that. I fear that I would most likely breack down and cry if I had to relive the past. I shook my head like I could shake away the memories and smiled at the men in front of me. "
Ok so I'll make the raven call in one hour If I need anything. If I'm not done hunting though, I will make two raven calls one after the other. If you need me for anything important, make three raven calls alright? That will also be my distress signel if I'm hurt. Any questions?" They all shook their heads no.
"Ok adn while I'm gone DO NOT eat any berries. I don't care if you think you know what they are, don't eat them. Ok?" I asked, looking each man in the eye.
"But what if we're hungry?" Conor asked.The four other men rolled their eyes at him. I answered his question with a question.
"You don't have any other provisions?" I asked in a surprised voice.
"No. We have been on this trip for three weeks now and haven't seen a town in three days." Darren told me.
I sighed this was going to be harder then I thought.
"Ok here's the deal. We will have to go to my village and stock up there. I won't tell them you are taking me prisinor." I quickly siad when they all opened their mouths to argue. "I will say I want to travel around and learn new things and you guys were willing to help me. They won't find that surprising given my nature. We will get what we need and leave for where ever you are going after. Ok?"
"Let us talk about this in private for a moment." Darren said. They all got in a huddle and started whispering. I sighed. They acted just like children sometimes when actually they were grown men. They got up and came torwards me.
"We have decided we will go along with your plan Mel." Darren told me.
I nodded. "Good now for what you can eat while you wait...." I remembered then that when Sebastion had found me, he had already had some herbs in his hand. I looked at him "What happened to those herbs and berries you had when you found me?"
He went over to where he had been standing when he saw me and looked at the group. He bent down and picked up a small, brown leather bag. He brought it over and gave it to me. I reached in and grabbed some of the contents and showed the group.
"This blueish berry here?" I said while pointing to a ripe, juicy berry. "It's deadly." I stated. They all stared at it in wonder.
"That looks like a regular berry to me though!" Jacob said.
"I know it does that's why I'm telling you not to eat them." I told him dryly. The four men around me smiled at that. I continued my lessen on what was poisonous and what wasn't. "This is posionous. This is used to heal headaches. This is used to make tea. This is deadly. This will kill you in five minutes. This is the cure to this berry." As I said each one I pointed them out so they knew what to look out for.
"So does everyone know what to avoid?" I asked them all. They nodded slowly and i sighed. "Do you guys have paper and a pen?" I asked.
"Yes but why would you-" Darren started to ask before I cut him off.
" Do you know how to read?" I asked.
"Yes but again why-" I cut him off again.
"I know you guys won't remember a thing I just said so I'm going to right it down on a peice of paper. If you go looking for food you will bring it back and look for it on the paper. I will desicribe what it looks like and what it does to you if you eat it. If it's not on the list, do not eat it. Understood?" I asked them.
They all nodded solemly and Conor went to get a peice of paper and a pen. He brought it back and gave it to me.
I looked at them for a second then asked "Can one of you turn around so I can right on your back?"
They looked at eachother for a moment before Jacob turned around. I quickly described all the berries our flowers I could think of that might be here. In the end I used both sides before I was done. I handed it to Darren and took my bow off my shoulder.
"Now that that's done I'm going to go hunting ok?"
they all nodded and when I turned to leave I heard a silent "Be careful."
I turned around and stared at them before nodding and saying "I will."
At that I calmly walked into the woods to find our dinner.