(no subject)
It turned out to be easier to get a meal than I'd expected. When we left the road we made snares from thread unravelled from Marty's clothes. That was a waste but it gave me an idea. His jacket's pretty much as it looks but the scarf's made of strong stuff. I unravelled some of that and tied the thread to one of my darts.
I shot a fish. It was a challenge, maybe only a Diran could have done it. Water changes the way things look. If you dip a straight stick in the river the wood looks bent. I never tried it before, even during training, so I missed the first few times. The fish weren't where they looked as though they were and by the time I got used to it the thread was wet and it was all getting a bit old.
I got two. The troutfish went away from the splashing when I got the first but after I cut it up I dropped a bit in shallower water and a bigger, ugly fish came in after the bait. I shot that too. It almost broke that strong thread when it went under a log, but the dart was weighing it down and I got it when it died. It was an ugly dark green thing with a long snout and sharp teeth that snapped shut even after it was dead. The head was frightening. We ate it anyway.
The fish were difficult to clean, almost like animals but not quite - and icy cold even when they were first dead. They don't smell like meat. Marty has a lighter so we had a small fire. I did that trick of cutting the food into thin strips, heating the rock and then putting the food where the fire had been. It works better with fish than with meat. We were both nervous about that fire. Anything around might have seen it from a distance. We tried to have the camp in the shelter of a some old trees, but every time I looked up one of them seemed to be further away.
We damped the fire down and killed it dead when we left. The soil was mostly peat and that can burn loong and slowly and kill everything. We should be coming back this way, later. Dead ground can be useful, but fire burning into the ground and spreading slow doesn't make for safe travelling. The Greckle checked too, once I'd explained.
I shot a fish. It was a challenge, maybe only a Diran could have done it. Water changes the way things look. If you dip a straight stick in the river the wood looks bent. I never tried it before, even during training, so I missed the first few times. The fish weren't where they looked as though they were and by the time I got used to it the thread was wet and it was all getting a bit old.
I got two. The troutfish went away from the splashing when I got the first but after I cut it up I dropped a bit in shallower water and a bigger, ugly fish came in after the bait. I shot that too. It almost broke that strong thread when it went under a log, but the dart was weighing it down and I got it when it died. It was an ugly dark green thing with a long snout and sharp teeth that snapped shut even after it was dead. The head was frightening. We ate it anyway.
The fish were difficult to clean, almost like animals but not quite - and icy cold even when they were first dead. They don't smell like meat. Marty has a lighter so we had a small fire. I did that trick of cutting the food into thin strips, heating the rock and then putting the food where the fire had been. It works better with fish than with meat. We were both nervous about that fire. Anything around might have seen it from a distance. We tried to have the camp in the shelter of a some old trees, but every time I looked up one of them seemed to be further away.
We damped the fire down and killed it dead when we left. The soil was mostly peat and that can burn loong and slowly and kill everything. We should be coming back this way, later. Dead ground can be useful, but fire burning into the ground and spreading slow doesn't make for safe travelling. The Greckle checked too, once I'd explained.