THE FOREST IS OUR LARDER

Saturday 5 March Continued

Barry was an amazing guide, but I already knew this. Back at the Warlock Tower's godforsaken tropical jungle, he was our "local guide" - not that he had ever lived in the tropical jungle. Barry did hail from the islands, but he grew up by the coast.

Anyway, Barry was an amazing guide, "The Forest is our Larder."

Barry showed us the leave his had picked, they were Stinging Nettles and the tender new leaves made a nutritious and delicious tea. Wolfgang was most interested in delicious tea. Flynn came over to check it out too.

I made a face… I knew what Stinging Nettles were. As the name suggested, touching the plant would sting.

"What are you guys doing back there?" Kendell yelled.

"Come help us pick leaves!" I yelled back.

The three boys actually came over to see.

"What are you doing?" Trevor demanded.

"That's not tea leaves!" Kevin sounded alarmed at once, "That's Stinging Nettle."

"Don't touch that!" Kendell recognized the plant too, "It'll hurt your hands."

I guess he had some personal experience with this plant?

"Princess, the pups are right." Wolfgang acknowledged, "It would be best if you left the picking of these leaves to the men."

Having said that, Wolfgang produced a pair of gloves. Barry produced a bag to collect the harvest, "Pick the light green leaves on top."

"We're trying to do an orienteering exercise here." Kendell reminded us crossly.

"Oh, yes." I pretended I just remembered, "I knew I forgot something."

Shannon laughed, he pretended to look at his watch, "No problem, we've got lots of time TILL DINNER."

"We need to get back by lunch!" Trevor told us, "There's going to be a picnic!"

"Ooooh… " Shannon made a face at his watch, "I guess we don't have that much time after all."

The pups were furious.

"Stop delaying us!" Kendell yelled.

"What kind of guides are you?" Trevor reprimanded sternly.

"Sirs!" Kendell turned to Flynn and Teacher Cal, "Why aren't you stopping them?"

Flynn looked at Teacher Cal and Teacher Cal looked at Flynn.

"I thought you pups said you didn't need an adult around." Flynn's eyes glinted evilly.

"Yeah, but…" Trevor said.

"Come on, guys!" Kevin shouted from the path, "The first checkpoint is just up ahead!"

So we stopped gathering the nettle and continued on our way.

All along the way, Barry would point out the different edible things we passed. He pointed out the berry patch behind the packhouse, these would be good come late Summer.

Yes, they were. Most pups knew about this berry patch. It was just behind the packhouse and right next to the walking trail.

As we followed the boys, Barry talked about responsible foraging and pointed out all kinds of edible things. This was just the usual trail behind the packhouse. I've walked down it millions of times, I knew what not to touch. E.g. the Stinging Nettles, but I didn't know it could be boiled into tea. "Cooking it removes the toxins." Barry explained.

Up above us there were maple blooms. Those could be eaten too. Actually, Barry made the forest sound like a well stocked supermarket - at least the fresh produce aisle anyway.

Today, there were a lot of green things. Some of it was good for medicine. Others could be eaten if you were really hungry (I took that to mean that it wasn't that delicious.

Every now and then, we would stop to pick something. Barry didn't just have a foldable bag to store his forest finds, he also had a knife and gloves and some zip lock bags.

"You never know when nature offers you something delicious." Barry explained.

I had no idea nature was so generous with healthy treats.

The three boys were less than pleased with our dawdling though.

"What now?" Kendell spun around to yell at us when he realized we had once again lagged behind. When he saw that Flynn and Teacher Cal had stopped with us, he groaned, "Not you too, Sirs!"

"MUSHROOMS!" I said.

Flynn grinned, "Delta Barry here says we can eat this."

"We need to keep walking!" Kendell said. That's future Delta material right there - very mission focused.

"BUT MUSHROOMS!" I protested.

"Are you sure they can be eaten, Barry?" Flynn was now frowning at out mushroom patch.

I watched Barry pick the weird looking mushroom. It was pointed like a fat closed umbrella, and its cap looked like the shell of a peanut in color and all its ridges.

"Ah yes. I'm sure, see." Barry held one up for Flynn to inspect. "It's taller than it's wide, and the growing patterns along the drip line of the trees…" Barry cut the mushroom longwise with his knife, "See, its hollow inside."

We all nodded even though I had no idea why Barry said it like it was a good thing.

It was pretty early in spring, so Barry said this find was lucky. If we came in the fall, there would be even more variety, "But Spring is the right season for Morels and its been raining loads. It's not that common, so finding this much is pretty lucky."

Kendell was unimpressed, "Sirs! We're supposed to be on an orienteering exercise!"

"What are you all doing?" Kevin had come back to us all on his own.

But we did have a new convert.

"TREVOR!" Kendell scolded, "Not you too!"

Trevor stopped midway in picking his mushroom. He was using his cap as a basket, "Look! I got a really big one!"

We all stopped our own mushroom foraging to admire Trevor's. It was the size of his palm.

"Wow! That must be the biggest one in the forest!" I said. I was very impressed. I had been selectively picking the larger ones and so far, I only had several thumb--sized mushrooms to show for it. My girly thumb size - not Flynn's or any of the big guys.

Shannon had collected a bunch too, "I'm bringing this home for my Mum. She likes mushrooms."

This was very fun. It was like treasure hunting.

We spent at least 20 minutes carefully inspecting the woodland ground for the little mushrooms. Even Kendell got on board.

It was actually Kevin, who was still holding his map and compass who reminded us, "Hey, guys... You know if we come in dead last, your brothers aren't going to forget it."

"No s***." Trevor exclaimed.

"Ahem." Flynn cast him a censuring look for the s word.

"A warrior does not cuss in front of ladies or his Alpha. It's disrespectful." Wolfgang informed the pup.

No, wait. That's a first grader Wolfgang, not a warrior.

"Oh sorry." Trevor quickly apologized, "But Tristan and Travis are gonna call me Turkey Toe for the rest of my life!"

"Hurry, let's go." Kendell got back to leading the group, "If we come in dead last, I'll have to take out the trash for the rest of the week."

Which I realized was the main motivation behind Kendell's leadership.

"I told you it was a dumb idea to bet on chores." Trevor told him.

"Just keep walking. Do you want to be Turkey Toe?" Kendell snapped.

"What about you, Kev?" I asked the third pup when we were back on the trail, "What's in it for you?"

Kevin shrugged, "Nothing. I don't have big brothers."

"You have a little brother." Flynn said, "Derek right?"

Yes, Sabre's first boyfriend. The one who she forced to call her princess and dig snow caves for her to sit inside.

Kevin shrugged, "Yeah. So?"

Flynn shrugged back, "What's he like?"

"Nothing." Kevin shrugged again, "He's normal."

We reached a fork in the trail.

"Which way, Kev?" Kendell demanded.

Kevin looked at his map, "Left. But..."

"But what?" I asked.

"But it goes a big loop." Kev said. I checked the map from over his shoulder. He was right. "If we just walk through the field, we'd get there sooner."

I looked to the glade. It was down a short slope, but otherwise, it was a nice open space. I ran through here the night I had my first shift... Actually, I think I shifted here.

"Okay!" Teacher Cal decided to remind the boys, "You aren't supposed to leave the path."

Trevor's face lit up, "You can't stop us if you can't catch us, Sir!"

And they were off. The three troublemakers were suddenly running away from us again.

Flynn grinned his evil grin, "I believe it is the guide's job to not let them stray off the path."

Grrr... So Shannon and I had to run too. I'm not sure why by Barry and Wolfgang followed us.

The three boys were fast, I'd give them that, but please! I was the alpha! And Shannon was a good runner too. Okay, fine. No matter how fast a first grader could run, a teen was probably faster. Anyway, we caught all three.

"That was a dumb plan." Kendell grumbled, "Now we're wasting even more time than before."

While on the way back to Flynn and Teacher Cal, Barry made a sudden stop, "Wild Asparagus!"

We all stopped to take a look at the little spears, "So many of them too."

"And Chickweed." He pointed out tiny little white flowers, "That's good for pestos and salads."

Oh... we were on a natural salad field.

I usually didn't like green stuff, but I was piqued enough to stop. Barry took out his knife, "Help me with this Wolfgang. Wild Asparagus is quite a rare find."

Wolfgang actually nodded, "Since this is a delicacy, we should bring some back to the Alpha's table."

He told the pups, "It is entirely appropriate to gift a token to the Alpha's family after a successful hunt on his territory."

Barry produced a second knife and taught the boys how to cut the asperagus spears off cleanly.

Flynn and Teacher Cal came over and ended up helping us gather a respectable amount of spears for our Alpha.

The spears were green with a purplish tinge. We got a small bunch.

"Don't clean it out." Barry told the pups, "We should never take too much. Leave some for nature and the animals and you'll always find more when you need it."

I think Barry had to be the master of foraging.

"How'd you get so good at this Barry?" I asked.

"What?" And then Barry laughed, somewhat embarrassed, "I guess I was always hungry..."

Opps, I just remembered that Barry was kidnapped and shipped to the vampire's cages as a teenager. Did I just stir up some bad memories?

"I grew up by the coast, and my Dad had a family restaurant there. We lived quite close to the beach so most of the pups knew how to swim and fish. There were also crabs and mussels...and all sort of stuff if you knew where to look." Barry said, "Later on I joined the adventurers club at my elementary school, and we did some survival camps. I was pretty good and finding stuff like fruit or sweet potatoes. When I got here, I just read up on some of the local wildlife. Keys gave me a really good foraging guide for my birthday... And I guess I just like anything that is food."

At this point it struck me that Barry had a very normal life for most part. He skipped the entire bit about the fight cages - which was what, like 2 years? Maybe less. I was told the average lifespan for a dog in the fight cage was about 2 years.

If Barry had never been captured, I wondered if he would have graduated from Highschool, met his soulmate, took over his dad's restaurant and lived happily ever after.

But then I wouldn't had ever met Barry either.

I looked at the small bunch of asparagus Wolfgang had tied together with his handkerchief like a bouquet of flowers and felt a little guilty.

It wasn't just Barry. A lot of my new wolves had suffered something before getting here. In the end, all their suffering became a blessing for me.

"What's wrong, Sam?" Shannon asked.

Suddenly everyone turned their attention to me.

"No, it's nothing." I shook it off quickly. No one looked convinced, so I lied, "I'm just a little tired."

"You're tired?" Flynn asked carefully, "From this?"

Oh right. Flynn had been my trainer for a while now, he would know this was nothing for me.

"Are you feeling unwell, Sam?" Flynn narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me.

"I'm fine!" I quickly assured him, "I urm... I just woke up too early this morning."

"The news..." Teacher Cal told Flynn, "Her drink was spiked last night. Maybe she is still recovering."

Flynn frowned more.

"No, no, I'm fine." I blamed LyNCh entirely for reporting rubbish.

"Looks like there's no helping it." Wolfgang decided, "I will carry you, princess."

Go to hell.

Luckily, I came to my senses in time to stop the words from leaving my mouth. I ended up just flaring at everyone in silence.

And then I turned tail and left. Like just wherever my lucky sense of direction led me. I was running away again. I think old habits die hard.