The Settlement

Before long, everyone had returned to the settlement and were making themselves busy, preparing the evening meals as well as other necessities. The women gathered some water from the stream while the men were building some kind of wooden rack by typing up several long branches together. Curious at what they were doing, I sauntered over.

"Ah, Young Master... We are building a rack to dry the meat into jerkies. This way it would be able to preserve the meat much longer after it was sliced into thin pieces and hung here to dry through the wind and sun."

"We could let it dry here or we cns even smoked them. However in this situation, we try to make less smoke in the day and fires in the night. It could attract unnecessary attention to us."

I nodded apprehensively and I knew meat if preserved in this manner would last longer. Even though it would be best eaten fresh, but these jerkies would be able to last for some weeks if properly preserved.

It was between late winter and early spring as most wild game were still in their hibernation during this time. Bob tailed rabbits would be abundant in the day time while the long eared grey hares would be found in the nighttime.

There was a crude chest made by branches they were bound with twines that had been prepared by the women as well. This crude wooden chest is meant for storing the edible plants as well as some herbs.

I pondered at their ingenuity and felt it was such a blessing to had met them along the way. If not I think I would have perished when I'm overdone with hunger as u am totally unfamiliar surviving in the wilds.

"Gwen, since you are very familiar in these parts, how far is it to the nearest civilisation?"

"It would be a full three-day trek to the nearest civilisation, Young Master. There's a small town more or less with three to five hundred inhabitants and their main trade was wheat. I was there last autumn since they had just completed their harvest."

"Why do you ask, Young Master? Do you intend to travel there?" Gwen questioned me as though I might have a better plan than to set up a settlement here by ourselves.

"Three full days of trekking. With 2 elder folks with us, it would slow us to even a 4 days worth of trekking. However, there are still a number of young ones travelling with us so I don't think it's a good idea at this moment." I thought to myself as I placed one of my hand on my chin and rubbed it subconsciously.

"Don't worry Gwen. It's just a general question. Furthermore, considering our current situation, it would be best to stay put and make use of whatever resources that we have on hand right now."

I replied and immediately dismissed the idea. Actually, I was speculating that the nearer a neighbouring settlement was, the higher chances that it could be found by the rebels and higher chances that it would be pillaged and massacred as well.

Thinking about the ruthless killings that the rebels had performed recently, I gnashed my teeth together and balled my fist until the knuckles turned white.

Heather came to my side and joined in the conversation that I had with Gwen earlier. Seeing Heather arrived, Gwen detached a small pouch to Heather and remarked, "Maybe you could show our Young Master here how to fish. Would the be alright, Heather? I'd be off now to skin the game and make them into pelts or anything that seemed useful."

With a wave of her hand, Gwen walked away leaving Heather holding on to a small pouch and when she peered its contents, she saw some animals bones that were fashioned into fish hooks with some twines attached to them.

"Let's go catch some fish for our dinner or supper. We could also smoke these dishes to consume them in the next few days." Heather motioned to me as we walked together to the river bank where some parts of it had some clumps of wild reeds growing.

Heather took a piece of wood and began to scrape the ground just near the moist part of the river bank and before long she had unearthed some of the fattest earthworms I had ever seen.

She deftly took an earthworm and dissect I before inserting into a fish hook and threw it into the water while holding on to the twine securely in her hand.

Before long the line was taut and she hauled in a fish about 6 inches long and I nearly whopped in joy. The idea of staying close to the body of water is fresh flowing water and lots of fish to catch from. At least this greatly enhances our survivability rate higher.

"Here, try your hand at fishing. Maybe you are much better than me. Come, let me hook the worm to the hook. Remember not to let go if the twine. Once you feel something biting, jerk lightly."

I tried my hands at catching some fish and tried to avoid losing the fish hooks and twine as I threw the line with a fat grub at the end of it. Soon, I could feel a strong pull and a fighting struggle underwater at the end of the twine and I pulled it up and discovers that I had managed to catch a fish on my own.

It was a small palm-size bluegill fish and this would be enough for a person's meal. Soon, we both were hauling fish after another and soon a small heal of fish formed on the ground next to us. Heather picked a piece of wood and used it to pierce it through the fishes' gills and through its mouth.

I followed her example and soon we have 3 thin branches that had a collection of fish on it. Words don't seem to be necessary as Heather looked at me and I smiled back at her. Heather soon packed the simple fishing gear back into the small pouch and we proceeded back to camp.

It was almost time for dinner and when we brought the fish over, the settlers were delighted and immediately went about the task to scale and clean the fish. After the fished were cleaned, pieces of wood were pierced through the mouths of the fishes and were set aside near the fireplace for it to be roasted, just like a skewer.

The children were delighted when they saw us bringing the fishes back to the encampment and by the looks of it, it would be enough for a day or two.

The remaining of the fishes were being sliced open from its dorsal and was split open like a halibut. The fishes were then placed on top of the drying food rack to be preserved. Salt was rubbed onto its insides to hasten the process of preservation.

Plenty of salt had to be rubbed in or else tiny grubs would come out of it as flies and bluebottle were notorious in laying eggs on these type of meat. If salt was present, the flies would not even dare to come near.

Those fishes of that were in the process of preservation and dried would be consumed by roasting it or fried with a little bit of animal fat. The simplicity of the meals prepared by the settlers brought warmth in my heart.

Soon, once dinner was ready, we all sat down to have our meals and everyone was enjoying the freshly caught roasted fish.

After dinner, everyone sat down around the fireplace and were sipping hot tea brewed by Kayla, who had discovered some herbs during her earlier expedition and decided to brew them. Fortunately for her deep knowledge of herbs, we would never be short of tea or other drinks with medicinal values.

"What's our next course of action? Young Master asked earlier about the nearest civilisation and I told him that it would take a 3 full days of trekking to reach there." Gwen started off the discussion.

"This is the start of late spring and early spring. A lot of animals would still be in hibernation. I won't know of any wild beast around here but their telltale signs were not visible when I hunted for our food earlier." Gwen casually pointed out and the tell tale signs were actually faeces or claw marks left on the trees.

This means that bears would either be non-existent nor would still be hibernating till the second or third week of spring. I looked at Gwen's direction and nodded in acknowledgement as well as her deep knowledge of nature and wild.

"We need to build a shelter first. Not for us but for our Young Master here. I am sure Young Master had not the experience of staying in the outdoors and living off the land before, am I right?" the wise old man Jack Levi spoke up and suggested.

"Ah... Don't you worry much about me. Why not build the shelter for the children instead? It would be more significant this way. At least the children won't be exposed to the harsh environment." I retorted since I do not wish to have special privileges borne towards me and I simply redirected the proposal towards the children's welfare instead.

"But Young Master..." Ben spoke up but was interrupted by me as I waved my hand towards the former. "No buts... Take care of the young ones' welfare first before discussing mine. There's no difference between me or the rest of you. I am considered as one of the commoners even though I may be from the Royal Family."

"Once we had settled the young ones, we should be settling for the Levi's. I am sure these cold early spring winds would not be beneficial to the poor old bones, am I right?" I motioned to the rest of the settlers and they sat there and discussed among themselves.

Even in the face of an extreme environment and even after going through a horrendous experience back then, I managed to maintain my composite and think of the welfare of the children and the elderly.

Without the expertise of the two elderly, the future might be bleak and it would be best to partake a task for the elderly Kayla Levi to hand down her knowledge of herbs and gathering to the young ones instead.

As for Jack Levi, due to lack of the present Blacksmithing equipment, it would be best to hand down some knowledge in forging weapons and tools by using the bountiful of flint stones that the children and I had cleared the ground of our clearing as well as those near the stream.

I had seen Gwen squatting near the piles of the rocks and stones gathered beforehand and she had set aside some stones that had a waxy and shiny appearance. Seeing my curiosity, she explained that these were flintstones that could be used as a striker to start a fire.

Secondarily, it could be chipped and be made into flint arrowheads and axe heads. Even though it may look fragile, but saving on their current tools and weapons was the next best thing to do at the moment. They would not know how long they would be able to chance upon another piece of metal tools and weapons.

I remembered that our kingdom had not been visited by any travelling merchant for the past few months due to the winter season and the frequency of robberies made by the rebels upon these hapless merchants. Furthermore, we do not have any idea on the duration of this misfortune that had befallen our country.

For the next following days, the settlers were busying themselves in building 2 shelters which were meant for the young ones and the elderly Levi's. Basic flint tools were being made to be used as axes to chop some trees down while a few flat and long pieces of flint were being fashioned to make a kind of plane to make planks.

Tree barks were not discarded and wasted as it was being as a layer for the sides of the shelter to make a wall to prevent the cold winds from entering the shelter. It was like building a cruck house minus the clay walls.

It was then, during one of the lunchtimes, when we had an unexpected visitor.

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