Land Down Under (KJDarKnight & Treasure)

Peter grinned and nodded "Sounds like fun!" what little boy didn't like to play in the mud, even the academic sort like him.

Whence Pepper translated to Badru Justira lead the way out into the snow. she had wrapped her feet in cloth, not having any shoes. She'd already beaten a trail down to the river though and pointed out the sand on the bank then knelt on the ground and dug up a clump of clay and showed them both the difference between mud and clay. Simple enough, collect sand and clay .

then she pointed out to the field then signed "Dry grass, sand and clay, as much as we can bring inside"
 
Badru caught on quickly. His people had not made bricks, but they had built similar houses out of mud and wattle and sticks. They were good, sturdy houses, and now he was curious about how Justira would do things differently. He easily gathered up a massive load of clay and another of sand in a bucket normally used for water.
 
Justira busied herself cutting and pulling up as much grass as she could while Pepper helped load the bucket with sand and got a good armload of clay, used to heavy loads.

with that done Justira lead the way back again and showed them where she had been stacking the different supplies "Tell Badru we need big flat stones like this to bake the bricks" she signed to Pepper.

"Badru.. she needs flat stones" she pointed to the one by the fire "Maybe Jonah and Mathias can help too..." she noted, they could make the bricks after sunset too but could only gather supplies during daylight
 
Badru dipped his head. He went to Mathias and Jonah. "Justira will make walls. She needs help to collect stones for baking," he told them seriously. "I will collect rocks. More supplies needed."

Jonah shrugged. "Sure, I can carry a few rocks, but how are rocks going to help bake bricks?"
 
"I suppose we will find out but Justira did live in burrows, I trust she knows what she is doing" Mathias said, getting up again, he glanced around "I don't like leaving them alone in here though, we'll collect supplies in shifts, two at a time one of us three here at all times"
 
Jonah started to point out that Gray was with the women and Peter then realized it was Gray he was talking about. What help could Gray possibly give them? "Right. If I go out first, then Badru could follow a few paces behind, then when I get back, Mathias goes out," he suggested. "That would be faster, I think."

~~

Lynna shivered despite her coat. "It's nippy out. What do you think, Charlie, time to head inside and warm up? At least we found a few things."
 
Mathias frowned "I'd rather you two stick together, safety is more important than speed in the end" he was not going to lose anyone else. Whatever it took he was going to make sure everyone stayed safe

__

Charlie nodded "Yeah I think we got enough for this trip" he looked into his bag, he'd found a patch of wild carrots and plucked quite a few but left some they could come back for, they would keep better in the ground
 
Jonah shrugged. "Alright. Come on, Badru." He thought Mathias was doing a bit of overkill, but whatever. As long as the job got done. He headed down with Badru following along behind.

~~

"I wonder if Justira or that wolf-girl would know if those gourd things we found are good," Lynna remarked.
 
"Probably" Charlie said "Justira is particularly good at it I think, she always seems to know what's good to eat and not when Badru doesn't" between those two, someone would surely know, as they were getting back Jonah and Badru were just heading out
 
Badru paused long enough to nod at the pair then kept going.

"Good gathering?" Jonah asked conversationally, slowing to talk to them just a bit.
 
Charlie nodded "Yeah found some good stuff and good spots for future gathering... can even see where someone started a garden at some point, all wild and overgrown but carrots, onions, herbs and garlic all together"
 
"It's pretty awesome!" Lynna grinned. "That old garden especially will really help us out!"

Jonah nodded, glancing around. "Wait. I thought Misty was with you?"
 
Charlie shook his head "Not seen her" he frowned "She's not with Gray? Thought I saw them go off someplace before we left" he glanced at Lynna for confirmation
 
Lynna nodded. "They were off that way inside the cave," she said, waving a hand vaguely.

Jonah frowned. "Well, they aren't together now." He fidgetted then shook his head. "She's probably fine." He headed off to help Badru. If he didn't see Misty soon, he'd look for her, then tell Mathias. She probably just needed a bit of privacy, that was all.
 
Charlie frowned a bit, didn't seem like Misty to go missing but Jonah knew her better so he left it at that and went back inside with Lynna where they could sit by the fire, warm up and make food for everyone
 
Lynna stopped short when they arrived at the fire and found wolf-girl (Lynna knew she had a name and couldn't remember it) calmly plucking the feathers from birds and piling them up. It looked like she'd already cleaned four birds with several more to go. "Oh... looks like we have protein, Charlie."
 
Charlie grinned "Perfect! we'll have a good hardy meal with these, nice work uh...." he realized he didn't know her name "Do you have a name?" he was awkward but not shy about it anyway. Confident in many ways at least. a good thing to be.
 
"Arena," she told him. "They are for Mathias. He says they are to be shared. So they are for you. You make the food, yes?"

"He makes excellent food!" Lynna told her proudly. "He'll do these things justice!"
 
Charlie grinned "thanks Lynna" he said, taking a seat by the fire "And yes I do generally make the food" he said "These birds looks great, we can wrap a few of them up and keep them fresh in some snow... Lynna think you can put together an ice box?" Justira's bricks would be good for that and a good flat stone for the door, would keep the cold in

--

Meanwhile, Misty was starting to feel pretty good about herself. She had managed to forage actual food that would store well. Nuts mostly. She knew if they kept them in their husk and shell and kept them dry they would keep.

She was still kneeling on the ground loading her bag full of nuts when she heard the crunch of leaves or twigs. Something. She looked up and found herself mere feet away from the strangest looking animal. Small hard feet and a long face with a big nose...a pig. The big snout gave it away.

It didn't seem aggressive just sniffing around for food like her.

Just when she started to relax she heard something much larger charging through the underbrush. She scrambled to her feet just as mamma pig burst out, coming right for her with big tusks and angry eyes.

Misty bolted, heart racing, going the way she thought was their new home.

She didn't realize her mistake until the tree's seemed much closer and the light dimmer.

She slowed, realizing the pig hadn't chased her far but now she was lost and deep in the woods. This was bad, very bad. Worse things than angry mamma pigs roamed the thick of the wood. There was good reason trade crews never cut through the forests. Now here she was. Alone. With a small kitchen knife and a bag of nuts.
 
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Lynna did her best to make an icebox, noticing with some amusement that Arena was watching her, apparently mistified. Apparently, she'd never seen any kind of storage with ice. Then again, she supposed wolves would not be big on storing for the winter, so maybe Arena couldn't figure out what Lynna was doing.

Time passed. It grew darker. Jonah paced restlessly. He'd gone out twice to look for Misty while staying fairly close, but there was no sign of her. Looked like she really was missing. Finally, Jonah went to Mathias.

"Misty is gone," he said bluntly.
 
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