Chapter 10 #3
Kyle didn’t reappear the entire time we were at camp, and Clarisse didn’t even turn around once to look at her now ex-fiancé. I had a feeling we wouldn’t get much help from either of them, which wasn’t a particularly good look for Kyle since he was our self-declared group leader.
When Martin and I returned to the river, I was almost certain the water level had risen again, and the current was a bit faster than before. I wondered what was causing the change, and I hoped it wouldn’t affect us at all, since our camp wasn’t too far from there.
It turned out, even with our homemade spears, catching those fish wasn’t easy. Martin and I both had to remove our shoes and socks, as well as roll up our pant legs to wade into the water.
And we still ended up soaked.
The current was strong, but not quite strong enough to knock us over, and we didn’t wade in too far where the river grew deeper.
Massive, silver fish swam by us without fear, and I even had a few brush up against my leg, but every time I raised my spear to strike, they’d dart away at the last minute.
The fish weren’t any species I was familiar with, not that I was some professional fisherman. But Mr. Seaburst had taken Jesse and I on several week-long fishing trips growing up, so I was familiar with a lot of the basics, and I was usually pretty good at identifying the different species.
These fish were huge, and they looked exactly like salmon, but salmon weren’t colored like that. I wondered if maybe these were some sort of mixed breed, or maybe even mutated.
As long as they were still edible, I didn’t really care.
The water was cold, and the current made it splash up around us, which soaked the bottom of our rolled-up pants.
Despite that, I was still doing better than Martin.
Twice, Martin stepped onto a slick patch of algae-covered rocks and slipped.
He lost his footing and fell, butt-first, into the cold water, and I had to rescue him each time to prevent him from being swept away by the current.
Despite our difficulties, with a little patience, we were able to catch several large fish. I was noticeably more successful than Martin was, both with actually catching the fish as well as keeping my footing, and I wondered if maybe my skill points had something to do with it.
I was steadier on my feet, faster than normal, and I also had a better sense for when to strike. Not all of my attempts were successful, but it did make me wonder if I would’ve failed a lot more without those earned skill points.
When we caught all we could carry, we bled the fish right there and used my knife to gut them, before we cleaned them in the river.
It wasn’t my best work, but there was only so much I could do without a fillet knife. Once the fish were fully cleaned, we reclaimed our shoes, packed the fish into the backpack, and headed back to camp.
By the time we got back, the others had a fire pit dug, with wood piled inside and ready to go. Kyle was back as well, but he sat away from everyone else, including Clarisse.
Clearly, he was still pouting like the manchild he was.
“Oh, good, you’re back,” Sadie said with a relieved look on her face. “We were beginning to worry.”
“Sorry,” I apologized as I shrugged off my backpack of fish. “It took a lot longer than we originally planned.”
“Were you successful?” Parker asked.
“Oh, yeah,” I said with a grin as I opened the backpack to show them our harvest.
“Oh, wow,” Tyler murmured. “That’s a lot. Great job, you guys.”
“We don’t really have a way to properly remove their scales or bones without losing most of the meat, too,” I replied. “So, we tried to get as many as we could. They also will taste pretty plain since we don’t have any seasonings with us.”
“That’s okay,” Parker assured me. “The skin will come off a lot easier once they’re cooked, and we can just carefully eat around the bones. The important thing is we won’t go hungry now, so I think we can live with a little bit of plain food for the night.”
“Awesome,” I said. “Well, the fish are already cleaned, so let’s get a fire going and cook them. Hopefully, the smell won’t attract anything else, but I don’t trust that these will be safe to eat raw.”
We used some of the extra sticks to create a makeshift spit, and then we got all the fish skewered and cooked over the fire. While the fish cooked, I sat down with my knife and made more wooden spears, and by the time I finished, there was enough for everyone to have one, plus a few extras.
I also took it a step further and heated each spear over the fire, so they’d char and become much stronger and more durable.
I was nothing if not prepared.
None of us dared to explore further into the woods and risk running into something that could potentially destroy our tentative peace, so we all remained at the campsite for the entire day.
Eventually, even Kyle and Clarisse joined us, though neither of them spoke to anyone else, and Clarisse remained by Kyle’s side the entire time.
Martin did an excellent job of pretending not to care, but I could see how much their closeness bothered him.
We ate the fish long before it got dark, and Martin and I threw the scrap pieces into the river while Tyler stayed behind to watch over the women. I hoped that would be enough to keep animals from smelling the food and coming over to investigate.
When we returned, we spent the rest of the evening talking and sharing stories about our lives.
Sadie explained more about her job, and I could see how fascinated Parker seemed to be by her work, and Parker shared more stories about adventures she had while out camping, both alone and with her family.
I even talked a bit about working in the mechanic shop with Jesse, and Tyler expressed how he’d always wanted to work on cars, but he had no clue what he was doing. He was more of a tech guy.