Chương 89: Book 3; Chapter 88; Price of a steak

Next morning, they started early, but the further they travelled, the more and more agitated Blake became. No matter how far they went, there were no signs of human settlements and all around, as far as the eye could see, was taken by wild nature. The forest was closing towards the cliff, leaving them less and less space, and it seemed that further in front, the forest would take over all the space, not leaving them any passage at all. But that wasn't what was weighing heavily on Blake's heart.

"But what will we eat today?" he finally voiced his worries. Rainee looked at him with curious eyes. She knew that something was worrying him a lot, but didn't realise what it was.

"Do you have to eat every day?" she asked. It was strange for him to be worried about it, as she knew that he was not hungry yet; that's why she never connected this worry with a lack of food.

"Don't you?" Blake asked with surprise.

"Not necessarily," Rainee confirmed.

"What would happen to you if you did not eat for a day?"

"I don't know," Blake confessed, "I never tried it. I never even thought it was possible…"

"What? To go a day or two without food? Why wouldn't it be possible?" Rainee was surprised. It was very strange to hear Blake saying that he doubted he would go without food for a day. Yes, he was skinny, but not to the degree that he would perish in a day or two. And it was strange for him to be worried so much despite never going hungry even for a day.

"My mum says that I have to eat every day. So I thought it was how it had to be. I didn't know that it could be any other way." Blake still looked not entirely convinced. Of course, he is afraid of hunger! It dawned on Rainee. How could she forget about it? It might look silly, but his mum was so worried about not being able to earn enough to provide enough food for herself and Blake that surely this worry was passed to Blake, and he is carrying it as his own despite never going hungry for a day.

Most likely, his mum was never short of food either, but such petty details as reality are not important for worry…

"What would you like to eat?" Rainee asked.

"Bread," Blake suggested.

"I don't think we will get any bread," Rainee said, "bread doesn't grow in the wild, and to make it requires a lot of work and input."

"Cheese?" Blake suggested.

"Same," Rainee said, "can you cook?" she asked, surprised at Blake's suggestions.

"I can," Blake confirmed, "my mum is a cook, so she taught me. But I cannot cook in the wild as I have neither a frying pan nor a saucepan. Nor do I have any ingredients."

"I see," Rainee said, "you are right, it is not easy to cook without a pan, but it is not easy to make cheese in the wild either. I doubt we will find an animal that would be willing to share milk with us, or would even have enough to share. Even if they did, making cheese takes time, so no cheese. What about some fruit? Do you like any?"

"I do," Blake confirmed, "but it is just a snack, not food." He stated firmly. Rainee looked at him again with eyes full of curiosity. Snack… What a strange way of thinking. Surely, to live just on fruit for a long time might cause some issues, but to live on it for a few days was never a problem. What is she supposed to do with this newly found hungry friend of hers?

"What about steak?" Blake suggested.

"Steak as a meat?" Rainee double-checked.

"Is there any other steak?"

"I don't know. How are you going to get your steak? What animal do you want to kill?"

"To kill… No, I don't want to kill any animal," Blake said in a slightly sad voice. Want a steak but don't want to kill… How then to get that steak?

"I guess you don't want to kill any animal either? …" Blake double-checked.

"No, I don't want to kill any animal," Rainee confirmed, laughing inwardly to herself.

"I thought you might not want to. So no steak then…"

"Don't get too desperate," Rainee smiled at him, "if you want to eat meat, just don't want to kill, then we might find something." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that there are loads of dead animals in the forest. It is just a matter of finding one fresh enough."

"But I don't want to eat a dead animal!" Blake disagreed strongly. Now Rainee was truly confused…

"Then how do you want to eat your steak? From a live animal? As I don't know any other way to get meat, just from animals. And usually it is dead before you can get a steak…"

"Well, yes," Blake was no less confused now than Rainee was, "I know you are right, but still… it has to be fresh."

"But isn't that what I said? That the difficulty is in finding a fresh one?"

"Yes, you did," Blake could do nothing but agree.

"OK then, I will keep an eye out for it," Rainee promised. Blake could do nothing more than just agree. He didn't know how one could keep an eye out for fresh dead animals in the forest, so he could not help. A few hours passed, and he long ago forgot all about the promised steak when Rainee told him to be silent and follow her as quietly as he could. Blake didn't argue and followed her lead. By now, they were already travelling in the forest, as there was no opening left next to the canyon.

Rainee was slowly walking forward and listening to something, while making sure that Blake was following. After a few minutes, she looked around, chose one tree and told Blake to climb into it, helping him to get to the bottom branches. When he was in the tree, Rainee lightly jumped into it too.

Not very long after, they could hear some disturbance in the distance that was getting closer, then there was a turmoil not too far away from their hiding place, and a doe, followed closely by a pack of wolves, rushed past their hideout. By the time Blake could understand what had happened, all had disappeared out of sight again, but hadn't gone too far, as it could be heard that wolves must have caught up with the doe, as there was a distant sound of struggle and growling.

"Is it fresh enough?" Rainee asked, looking at Blake for approval. But she couldn't get any as Blake was sitting all frozen whilst holding onto the trunk of the tree.

"Well, I don't think we would get any fresher than this, so you wait here, and I will go and get you a steak." After saying that, Rainee jumped out of the tree and disappeared into the forest. Seeing her disappear out of view woke Blake up from his frozen state. Never before had he seen wolves hunting. In fact, he had never before seen wolves. People used to say that they were dangerous, but Rainee wasn't afraid of them, so maybe they were not that dangerous after all.

He jumped out of the tree and rushed towards the sound of growling, hoping to catch up with Rainee. He didn't have to walk far. The scene that opened up in front of him was very disturbing. The doe was lying on the ground with no signs of life left in it, and its skin was ripped open in a few places. The sight and smell of blood were very unpleasant, and under any other circumstances, Blake would probably turn around and leave.

But now he couldn't care too much about the bloody scene as all of his attention was occupied by Rainee, who was slowly walking towards the dead doe, and four wolves were slowly backing off from it. The wolves were not even growling any longer, instead they looked silently at Rainee and were walking back as if obeying some command. When Rainee reached the dead doe, she took her knife out and cut a piece of meat from it. After doing so, she turned around and, without looking back at the wolves, walked away.

Blake waited for a few seconds to see what would happen next, but nothing changed. The wolves were standing a good deal away, not showing any intent to return to their game. So Blake made up his mind and quickly ran to the doe while at the same time pulling his little foldable knife out of his pocket. He didn't understand why, out of all this, Rainee cut only a small piece of meat when they were going to travel for a few days. He got on his knees and tried to cut a much larger lump.

But he wasn't very successful at it, as the sight of this dead and bleeding doe was terrifying, and the smell of blood and open guts was overwhelming. While trying to cut through that flesh, his hands got all bloody, and he was getting a bit dizzy. Never before had he been so close to a dead animal, never mind trying to cut a piece of it.

He was so disoriented and submerged in what he was doing that he completely ignored everything that was around him, until suddenly someone yanked him from the ground and half-carried, half-pulled him away. Just then, he realised that ferocious growls were uncomfortably close and no matter that he and Rainee, who was dragging him after herself, were running very fast now, these growls were not left behind, but were getting closer instead.

He looked over his shoulder and saw all four wolves chasing full speed after them. Strangely, but no matter how fast the wolves were, they were catching up very slowly. But still they were catching up! Now he was running! Rainee didn't have to drag him any longer. No! He was running very, very fast by himself! Blake didn't know before that he could run so fast! Luckily, the wolves didn't chase after them for a very long time, and eventually slowed down and stayed behind.

"What were you doing!?" Rainee asked after they were finally allowed to stop. She still couldn't believe what just happened.

"I… I was getting a piece of meat," Blake managed to stammer out. He looked for Deamon and was relieved to see him not too far away.

"Why would you try to get a piece of meat? It didn't belong to you!" Rainee could not understand.

"Why did you expect that they would just let you take it?"

"But they let you take it!" Blake pointed out.

"Yes, but I asked, and they agreed. Did you ask? It didn't look like you asked. Even if you did, you didn't get an agreement."

"Ask?" Blake was confused.

"I didn't know you asked and got into an agreement. How do you ask?" Rainee was still walking rapidly away, and Blake was following her.

"Gosh!" Rainee laughed at this situation, "I don't remember the last time I ran away like this. Probably never. You ask by connecting to the animal you want to ask something. If they accept the connection, then they listen to you."

"Then why didn't they listen to you any longer?"

"Because while chasing us away, they didn't want to connect anymore. Why did you want to get more meat? Are you really so hungry? You don't look that hungry to risk your life for a piece of meat."

"I thought we were going to travel for a few days, and you got only one small bit. What good is it? It is hardly enough for two of us to eat once."

"No, that is just for you," Rainee corrected him, "I don't eat meat. I never understood this strange habit that many people have. And why would you take more than for one meal? Didn't you say yourself that for you to eat it has to be fresh? If you carry it around for a day or longer, then it will no longer be that fresh. It will start to stink and will attract many flies, and you will have to throw it away after carrying it. It makes no sense."

Blake tried to argue back, but couldn't find any arguments against what she said. To his even greater distress, he realised that after walking a large round, they must be returning to the same place as he could hear the sound of wolves again, and it brought a lot of fright to him.

"We have to take my bag," Rainee explained to him. And she was right, as they did leave her bag in the tree where they were hiding.

"Besides, if you don't try to steal from them, they will not come after you. Wolves are not like people; they don't keep a grudge, nor do they care what we do as long as it doesn't interfere with them. They already know that we came back, and they are keeping a close eye on us, not knowing if we will try to take their meal again. But they will not come after us for no reason. Why would they? They already have enough food, and they are tired after hunting the doe and chasing after us."

"I was so scared!" Blake admitted after a while, when the wolves were left far behind, "I ran so fast that I didn't even know that was possible until I did." He added, finally laughing for the first time after being chased. Rainee didn't say anything but laughed together with him. She knew that Blake couldn't run that fast by himself without her help, but didn't say anything, as he would hardly be able to understand it anyway, and he had enough excitement for a day.

"But still, what are you going to eat?" Blake asked after they stopped at the small stream of water to wash the blood from their hands. Rainee's hands were not that bad, but Blake was in a proper mess.

"To be honest, after seeing how this meat looks on a dead animal, I don't want it that much myself," he admitted.

"But we don't have anything else." Rainee was about to say that she was not going to eat anything as she was not even hungry, but after hearing the second part, she changed her mind.

"I will show you," she said. The rest of the day, they spent walking through this seemingly never-ending forest, and Blake was already falling a little bit into despair that they might be walking in circles, but Rainee said they weren't, and he chose to trust her. On the way, Rainee was picking up some plants, and when they stopped for a rest, she fished out of her bag a small saucepan and made them a tasty stew using the roots, mushrooms and plants she picked.

Blake was very happy to accept it, and that piece of meat that Rainee got for him earlier in the day was left untouched and forgotten. The following day, in the late afternoon, they finally left the forest and not long after that reached a small farm. After seeing two tired but happy children and a dog walking from a side where there wasn't even any road, the owner of that place wouldn't let them go any further before they got a proper rest.

The next morning, he himself took them to the closest town in his chariot, and after leaving them, he was still waving for a long time, thinking to himself that these children were the most interesting people he had met in years.