“What?” Ryan queried, before following Lee’s glance on up into the boughs of the trees. He flinched in surprise at the sight.
A number of small, rodent-like creatures were cautiously emerging into sight on many of the upper branches.
They were chittering in high-pitched, squeaky voices, and their long snouts vigorously sniffed at the air in apparent excitement, likely emboldened by the sight of the three dead birds. Were it not for their prehensile tails, anchoring their dark-furred bodies to the tree limbs, Lee would not have doubted that their raised level of fervor would have caused more than a few of them to tumble out of the trees in the expanding commotion.
Lee understood immediately what the lay of the land was.
In more usual settings within this new world, it was creatures such as those above that were eaten by the carnivorous birds now lying below. Caught foraging on the forest floor, before they could reach the refuge of the trees, the creatures that Lee now saw all around him would be very easy prey for the large, predatory birds.
In what was probably a most glorious moment among their furry little race, their great nemesis’s body would now be serving as a feast for their own kind.
Lee surmised that with the killing of three out of the four birds, he and Ryan had effectively decimated the rodent-like creatures’ main threat within the area. If the small tree-dwelling creatures had been able to speak a succinct language, Lee would not have been surprised if they acclaimed the two humans as saviors.
Ryan grinned as he stared at the odd little creatures. “Yeah, we probably are heroes to the little guys. And you know what? I don’t mind that. Nature’s not really a very friendly thing, you know?”
“In reality it can be pretty brutal, and the tables aren’t often turned, so they should celebrate it while they can,” Lee remarked. He slung a bird carcass over his own right shoulder, with a grunt accompanying the exertion. “But we gotta survive. And so do they. So that’s that. Now what do you say to getting some breakfast going?”
“And making up for a few other meals… but you clean it,” Ryan replied as they started on their way back. “And I’m not watching. I prefer to get meat already cut and readied.”
“I thought you young people were afraid of nothing,” Lee chided, laughing. “Well, you can be happy that we landed birds. I’ve prepared chicken and duck more times than you can count. This will be on a bit of a bigger scale, but I’m sure the approach is not too different. But you are not off the hook. While I’m on this, you work on a fire.”
“Don’t know how,” Ryan said.
“I’d bet one of the women might still have a lighter in her pocket,” Lee said with a wink. “Didn’t you notice Erin’s coughing?”
“Good point,” Ryan replied.
In time, they reached the campsite and set about their tasks. As Lee had suggested, Erin was a habitual smoker and did indeed have a lighter in one of her pockets.
In another moment of fortune, it was discovered that Lynn had one as well. She half-reluctantly confessed that her uses for it went further beyond tobacco. She also had a small pocket-knife in her possession, which Lee enthusiastically borrowed to help with his immediate tasks.
Ryan helped Lee get the carcasses carried over to the creek. Ryan soon disappeared as Lee started attending to the job of preparing the newly acquired food. The process was not as hygienic as Lee would have liked, as well as being much more awkward, but with some effort he finally accomplished his task.
When he finally came back, lugging several cut sections of meat in his hands, Ryan and Lynn had a small part of the ground cleared, and demarcated with a ring of stones. A fire was burning steadily inside a hollowed out area located within the stone circle.
Fashioning some rough spits, Lee soon had the meat cooking. The flames licked at the fresh meat, as the juices hissed and crackled in the heat.
In minutes, the scents wafting off of their cooking breakfast inundated the air. Lee’s mouth watered in anticipation, buoyed by his gaping hunger, but he noticed that Erin was looking very sullen and hanging far back from the fire. Erin quickly saw that Lee was staring at her, and apparently recognized his puzzlement with her demeanor.
“I’m not eating that,” she remarked edgily, her nose turned upward. In a tone that sounded like a judgement being delivered on all the others, she stated curtly, “I’m a vegetarian.”
Lee chuckled openly, unable to hold back his amusement given their stark circumstances and options.
Ryan evidently could not hold back his incredulity either. “Oh, your kind really amaze me. See these? They are called canine teeth… C-A-N-I-N-E! They are used for eating meat,” Ryan said in a patronizing tone, as he pointed at the sharp teeth in his own mouth.
“And what about it?” she snapped back hotly at him.
“Herbivores are not equipped with them. Omnivores and carnivores are,” Ryan replied in the same condescending tone. “Oh, and did you know that your jaw moves back and forth, and also moves up and down? That’s what a natural omnivore’s jaws do.”
“So what?” Erin replied irritably, her face now a hard scowl.
“Oh, and guess what else? Large brains in humans came about because of meat consumption,” Ryan continued, clearly deriving some amusement from her vexation by that point. “I won’t get into what that implies for the future of vegetarians, other than your brains will probably shrink over the generations, but you had better consider yourself real lucky that we can eat meat. Otherwise you would have had to continue starving.”
Lynn half-heartedly moved to defend her friend at that moment, interrupting Ryan abruptly, “Take it easy on her now. She’s been that way for years. Not my thing either, but it’s what she wants to be. And we really do need to find some other food sources around here, eventually.”
“And I will find something else,” Erin added obstinately. “We’ll find something soon enough.”
Lee shrugged, but was not about to change his plans. “Have it your way then, but I’m going to eat now, and I’m eating what we manage to find. There’s no menus out here. Just reality.”
“Makes two of us,” Ryan commented with a glare at Erin.
“I can’t deny it either,” Lynn said, with a sideways grin to the two men, out of Erin’s line of sight, which showed that she understood their mystification at her friend’s obstinacy.
They were able to satiate their hunger easily, for there was an overabundance of food for one meal with what Ryan and Lee had procured. Even with the crude manner that Lee had been forced to use to prepare it, the meat was surprisingly good. It had a tender, juicy quality that was not unlike well-prepared turkey, a quite pleasant surprise in the midst of the wilderness.
Erin watched the others eating from a few feet away, with a series of disgusted, sullen looks parading upon her face. Her juvenile display was almost to the point of being obnoxious, as far as Lee was concerned.
If she had intended to ruin Lee’s enjoyment of the meal, it was to no avail. With each and every bite, Lee felt stronger, and more revived, while he knew that she was left lightheaded with an expanding hunger, by her own stubborn choice.
Finally, Erin got up with a curt exhale and stomped off into the forest. Lee was incredulous at the highly immature response of the young woman, especially from one whose life had hung by a precarious thread just mere moments after her entrance into this dangerous new world.
“No time for philosophical debates,” Lee said. “We have to live. A starving lion wouldn’t have any problem making short work of her.”
“Exactly,” Ryan said. “Neither would a shark.”
“Which brings me to another point,” Lee said quickly. A scowl crossed his face as he stared off towards where Erin had disappeared. “After what I’ve seen, there’s no place for childish tantrums and stomping off into these woods alone.”