14 - Meats
Andrew glared up at the sun from his position near the creek. Things had started slowing down for him, in both a mental and physical sense. He had been wandering the strange land for five days, and he was only now realizing how much more land he had left to explore. The new plains to the north only served to inflate Andrew’s fatigue, the human wishing more than ever to be home, warm and fed within his apartment. Lying still for a couple minutes longer, Andrew finally pushed himself upwards. Today, he had supplies to gather, and lots of ground to cover to reach the flying pegasi.
Food was the number one priority for the moment, and Andrew wished more than ever that he had brought his knife with him.
'Plants have protein, right?' He looked around him, frowning at the lack of food. 'Even if there were vegetables around, I would have to eat a lot just to survive a single day.' The stomach cramps had not started yet, but he suspected they would soon. Quickly running a schedule through his mind, Andrew agreed with himself on a plan of action; find meat as soon as possible. Stretching his sore limbs, Andrew grabbed his discarded pack and began searching along the stream for fish.
Andrew knew that he had to tread carefully, for he knew that not too far to the south was the grove of apple trees controlled by the spiders. He guessed that the thinly spaced trees of the forest around him lacked many creatures that he could hunt, and he was not too interested in eating squirrels, no less ones that could understand him. The sound of a quiet dropoff reached Andrew’s ears after a time, and he could only grin as he came across a tiny crevice in the glen. It would be a good place to look for freshwater prawn and fish.
However, it seemed that another creature had the same idea.
The brown grizzly looked up at him, raising its paw from the flowing water to let it hang in the air. Andrew froze, unsure of what to do; his knowledge of how to safely escape a bear encounter was nonexistent. Yet again, Andrew cursed the safety of the forests his friends and him camped in. The bear crawled up the incline, and Andrew took a hesitant step back. The grizzly sped up and was immediately upon Andrew. The teenager could only let out a weak squeak as the bear sniffed at him. As it nosed Andrew’s hoodie pocket, he realized what the bear had found; his berries.
Cautiously, Andrew withdrew the pouch of berries from his pocket. “Y-you want some?” he peeped. The bear let out a low growl and plucked a berry from the offered pile. It let out a grunt of appreciation and took the hood in its mouth, turned around, and walked back over to the stream. Andrew was prepared to run, but his curiosity held him in place. He screamed internally to flee, but he instead planted his walking stick firmly into the ground and held on tightly. Andrew stood stock still and watched the bear.
The mass of muscle gingerly poured the berries out from the bag and onto the ground, then set the bag down off to the side. Andrew stepped closer, watching from the ledge at the top of the small waterfall. The bear held its claw above the water, eyes glancing about. Andrew sighed, preparing to leave, only for the bear to lunge out into the water and grab something. Leaning in closer, Andrew spied the large sunfish the bear had grabbed. This time, Andrew turned to leave, but the bear’s roar brought him back, the brown beast glaring him down. The bear sank its teeth into the fish, and the creature ceased its movements. Dropping the fish into Andrew’s hood, the bear returned to the water.
Andrew watched as the bear repeated the process and dropped another fish into the hood. Seemingly satisfied, the bear picked the makeshift sack up and went over to Andrew. With no little amount of fear, Andrew reached out and took the fish-filled hood back from the bear.
“Thanks?”
The bear gave a grunt and returned to the pile of berries it had poured out. It gave a hum of content as it greedily gobbled down the fruits, and with the bear distracted, Andrew made his escape.
“Great, now my hood smells like fish.” Andrew peered into the bag once he was a decent distance away from the bear. Both of the bright silver fish were quite large, and due to that, the bag was quite heavy. He would have to either store the fish for the long term, or eat them immediately. Andrew didn’t know how to do either of those tasks with what little supplies he had, but he could improvise.
Stepping out of the thin forest, Andrew took a moment to stare at the black sky to the south. The fire still seemed to be raging, and he prayed that the ponies would be fine until he reached the pegasi. The pegasi wouldn’t go over the snowy mountains to the north to graze, would they?
Andrew looked around, recalling that there was a stream to the north. Before he left the forest behind him completely, he knew that there was one thing he could do to prepare for the journey north; gather campfire supplies. He fiddled with his right pocket, and was thankful to find the piece of flint still there. Had he not kept the flint with him, he was sure that he would not find another piece. With his striker stowed away in his pocket once more, Andrew went about gathering dry branches and tinder.
Storing a generous amount of material in his hiking pack, Andrew moved north. The smell of the fish was overpowering now, and Andrew desperately wished that he could wash out his hood at some point. Andrew sighed, disheartened at the fact he wouldn’t be getting a real bath any time soon. For about an hour he walked, silently carrying his load of fish in one hand, whilst supporting himself with his walking stick. Andrew was still thankful for the earth pony who had delivered the stick to him, and he hoped that the ponies were doing alright without him.
'What am I talking about?' he snorted. 'They’ve been surviving without me for years, and I act like they can’t do it without me.'
At the end of the hour, Andrew took notice of the fact that he had walked at least a couple of miles when he looked back to see the mountain he had climbed down from quite a distance away. He turned about and found that the river flowing from east to west was nearby. Walking over, Andrew paused at the stone banks of the wide river. Off in the distance, a plume of smoke began to rise. His eyes flicked to the fish in his hood, and back to the smoke. He had been prepared to clean the fish the best he could and eat, but he thought of whether or not he should find whoever was starting the campfires before he ate.
Shrugging his shoulders, Andrew plopped his backpack and bag of fish on the ground. He would walk later, but for now, he wanted to rest and recuperate. With a goal in mind, Andrew put all of his focus into the task of lighting a campfire, gutting two fish with nothing but stones, and cooking them over a fire with sticks. All in all, Andrew felt that it wasn’t the worst thing that could be happening to him. He threw a look over his shoulder at the forest of spiders, now far in the distance.
'It could be worse.'
Andrew sighed in relief as the gallbladder of the fish popped out and into the stream. Somehow, he had been able to recall some of his knowledge in gutting fish, and was able to avoid puncturing the disgusting organ. The taste would have been ruined, and at this point, Andrew wasn’t starving enough to eat something that tasted like garbage. The fire was crackling next to him, and within a few minutes, Andrew had skewered the first fish on a stick, leaving it to cook over the fire. It definitely wasn’t the best way to cook a fish, but it would serve for now.
He sat down, eyes flicking to the smoke north. Andrew figured that whoever was out there was doing the same as him; settling down to cook something. If he finished up quickly, he could be to their camp by nightfall. At least, he assumed so; it was difficult to tell distance by smoke. Andrew turned back to his own fire and began to spin the fish on a spit. After thirty minutes, Andrew figured that the fish was cooked well enough and pulled it off, stabbing the long stick into the ground nearby to keep it still. Repeating the process with the other fish, Andrew was done cooking within the hour.
Andrew dug into the first fish. The fish was smoky, and it tasted a little undercooked, but it was better than nothing. It went down easily, and with his stomach grumbling for more, Andrew reached out for the second fish. A thunderous flapping caught his attention, and Andrew stood up suddenly, half-expecting to see the dragon flying over. When he saw the flock of pegasi that flew above him, he almost jumped up in joy, glad to have found them.
Except, they weren’t the pegasi he had been expecting to see.
As the ponies landed around him, Andrew could tell that this was a different herd. It was also much bigger, over double the size of the original ten-pegasus herd. Andrew smiled invitingly at the pegasi, careful not to let his teeth show. Opening his mouth to speak, Andrew stumbled off to the side as something hit him hard. Grunting, he stabilized himself with his stick; the blow had knocked him off balance, but he was still standing. He turned back to the pegasi, his emotions quickly flooding with anger and confusion.
To start with, the pegasi were all staring him down, some even pawing at the earth beneath them. Off to the side, a couple of them were flapping their wings in an attempt to extinguish his fire. What angered Andrew most, however, was that a burly black pegasus had pulled his stick of fish from the ground and begun to eat it.
“Hey!” The pegasi watching him whinnied at his yell, advancing with flared nostrils. He took his stick up in two hands and prodded them away from him as they came too close. “That’s my fish!” Suddenly, the herd halted their advances and stepped back. Suspecting something astray, Andrew’s eyes snapped to the burly pegasus. It had finished eating his fish, and was now pushing past most of the pegasi to meet Andrew. Standing as tall as it could, the pegasus reached up to Andrew’s chest. The sheer size of the creature barely intimidated Andrew, so he readied himself for the pegasus.
It gave a low growl.
"This is our land."
“Again?” Andrew made a sound of annoyance. Feeling cocky, the teenager grinned. He remembered what he had said a day or two before, the phrase that had angered Mint. Coughing into a fist, Andrew grinned at the black pegasus.
He simulated the same snort that he once assumed meant ‘yes.’ Still grinning, he finished the phrase in English. “You.”
Fuming, the pegasus let out a loud war cry, lifted up into the air, and zipped down at Andrew. Time seemed to slow for Andrew as the pegasus grew closer and closer.
These ponies had angered Andrew, and this time, he wouldn’t be pulling any punches.
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Oh hell no, you do not eat another persons meal! I suggest giving that Pegasus a damn good spanking.
aaaand it's 5:00. AM.
...Fudgebuckets. Curse your story for being so good I stayed up till 5 reading it.
8051744
I knew I should've submitted later, haha. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you stick around for updates.
Enjoy your Sunday, or what little of it you don't sleep through. Thanks for commenting and reading.
CURSE YOU CLIFFHANGER! Once again you thwart me!
Can't wait to see how this goes down.
Eggs benedict
So he is going to dodge their attacks and make them crash into their surroundings?
8051944
You'll see.
"I came here to kick ass and eat fish... And you dun stole muh fish."
Wow, pegasi seem just be jerks in general, good job by theway.
Now that was a really nice Bear, it had a good mentality, a favor for a favor.
Also, i know i said it before but those Pegasi are really jerks and are in dire need of a lesson in manners, Show them the might of your stick Andrew!
I hope the bear shows up.
Grab the diving pegasus by the neck and knee them in the chest causing them to lift up and flip around onto their back. Slam them into the ground and deliver two solid punches, one to the solar plexus another to the gut, with a final hard smack across their face.
Lift them up and throw them back down onto the ground, pinning them with a heavy boot as they squirm and vomit.
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This is one of the few times I'll let EQG pass. Thanks for that, haha.
darned fish stealers!
Looks like most of the animals are actually great
Except pegasi, I'd choose the squirrels over them anytime