Chapter 63
The last of the meat was tough and took a lot of water to wash down. Jool hadn't had any luck in trapping a rat of his own. At least he was more aware of them. He'd even spotted other animals, not all of them as violently inclined as the rat. But just as quick.
If only he could have followed Niimmo. A few lessons in survival would have been welcome. Learning by trial and error, mostly error, proved exhausting and almost cost his life a few times.
The longer he spent in the wilds, the more he truly grasped the impossibility of bringing a large group of people out here to live. The valleys he'd found thus far, while getting successively better the deeper he went, couldn't sustain too many. The growth was sparse and stunted, more from the proximity of the mountains and lack of sunlight than the pollution he'd wager.
With no plants to feed on, his lack of hunting skill chafed.