15 Fishing

After another day of failed firestarting attempts I began questioning my existence. It truly felt like the world was against me. Was being able to start a fire in peace that much to ask? Alas, I awoke the next morning to rather visible hypothermia and bad news from Alice.

Silvana had given her lady's veto and made all private grain milling illegal. Any who were caught doing so would be denied food rations, and the blacksmith was chastised for offering his furnace as an oven. Thus, Silvana continued her tyrant's reign.

I must admit it made me rather distraught at the time. My clothes were rather poor, and I lacked a coat that I needed to keep myself warm. If it rained and I was caught outside, I may be at real risk of falling too sick to move, even with the deerskin I recieved. I was growing weaker by the day, and catching my own food was getting harder as a result. Hunger made this cycle even worse. The young deer I caught provided a skin that would keep me warm enough, just barely. The meat would be shared with the villagers, and the portion I kept for myself would only last a few days. Not an ideal situation, to say the least.

We were at a loss for our second community service meeting. Team peasant's dozen had shrunken down to less than half a dozen, and the situation appeared rather hopeless. Eric and his brother tossed rocks into the river as me and Alice proposed ideas that each seemed more desperate than the last.

Strangely enough, it was gazing at the rocks being thrown into the river that gave me the inspiration I needed.

"Hey, any of you kids know fishermen?" I called.

Eric and his brother looked at me. "Fish men? No,milord." Eric said. I sighed. Even the children had taken to calling me lord. Never mind Silvana throwing me out. They didn't seem to care.

"No, not fish men. Fishermen. Men who catch fish to eat." I said.

"Dada catches fish sometime. Four, wiek." She said, holding up four fingers.

"Where is his fishing rod? Can he make more?" I asked.

"Fish... rod?" Her face scrunched up.

Only then did I realize that fishing rods did not yet exist. If they did, they were not popularized. I looked down into the river. It was not large, only a dozen or so meters, but I could see hundreds of fish swimming by. Into a lake or the ocean, if I were to guess. "Is the deer carcass still there?"

"Yes, milord?" Alice asked.

I got to work as soon as I laid my hands on it. Fishing rods were not difficult to make. Twisted animal guts made good string, and wood was plentiful. The deer's bones were also useful. There were joints near the knees of the deer that made for ugly but passable fish hooks. It took hours to find a balance between the strength of the string and placement of the hook, but I was able to get it right.

Alice looked doubtful until I caught my first fish. Then another followed, and another. By the end of the day several hundred fish that had been sent over to the village for dinner. With the blacksmith's firewood working as fuel for a cookfire, we would finally be able to solve the issue of hunger.

Still, much of the fish were out of reach as they would swim by the river streams, and my fishing rod was flimsy. Already I could see signs of tears in the string and hook. If a few days passed, it would break. We needed a better solution. A good thing that I had one.

By the next morning several dozen villagers had joined team peasant, and we were put to work making fishing rods and the first prototypes for nets. In addition, wood was being gathered for the village's first ever fishing boat. It was a wonder how fast technology advanced when hunger was not a constant threat and exhaustion not a daily issue.

Imagine our elation when the issue of hunger faded into the past! These poor villagers, none of whom had ever had a decent meal, absolved of their greatest enemy overnight. Two days, two days for their biggest problem to be solved, and by children! What could they have done had Silvana allowed them food and rest? Only god knows. Ask of me why the rule of lords and ladies fail, I will answer, look here. How many lives could have been saved had these men been free?

By nightfall, we were ready to test our first boat.

"So, any volunteers?" I asked. I prodded the hull with a stick. It was a simple craft, and had room only for one fisherman.

"Me!" Eric cried, raising his hand. "Me want to see da lake."

The surrounding villagers chuckled. "You? Can you swim?" I asked.

"Yes, me bath in da river everyday." He replied.

"Is there anyone else?" I called out.

A hollow silence was my response. "Nobody here can swim?"

Ambrose spoke up. "No, milord. None of us be children, we be working in day. No time be wasted playing." He said.

"I'll go then." I said, walking over.

A chorus of protest arose. Alice grabbed my arm. "You can't, milord. You be injured, men with no legs be bad swimmers. Unless you be a fish milord?"

"Eric is a child." I protested.

Ambrose spoke up again. "A boy of ten, milord. A man in two yaers. Let him row, he be strong and brave."

I sighed. "Row, but do not, and I repeat, do not enter the lake. The boat is not meant for deep waters. Do you understand, Eric?"

His expression turned to stone. "Yes, milord!" He held up his hand to his chest in a salute. I had to laugh.

"Row slowly, we will be following you." I said. He nodded. In hindsight, I should have known that the boy's overblown sincerity meant nothing good.

He rowed slow, for the first minute. Then he began speeding up until I got worried. "Eric, that's a stream, slower."

He stopped rowing. "Eric?" The stream was pushing on the boat, and even as he paddled the other direction he headed towards the lake.

The lake came into view. "Eric, jump! Swim!" I cursed myself for not realizing how strong the current was. Of course a child wouldn't be able to fight it.

As it turned out, my advice was no longer necessary. I heard a scream fill the air behind me as it flipped over. "God damn it."

I jumped, and swam like I had never swam before. I had exercises in water before, bobbing up and down a makeshift river, floating on the back, retrieving items. I did them all with my arms and legs tied together, and by the end I was declared drown-proof. But even so, I was not so familiar with cold water. Each push forward was a nightmare as pain bit at my legs like a shark. Water filled my lungs, gulp after gulp inevitably swallowed. It had me in it's icy grip, and words left me. The last thing I remembered was Eric's face, frozen in a scream.