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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 40: Hastings 243
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 136
By the time everyone had been to the bathrooms, Lauren decided it was time to start pulling meat off the fire and distributing it. She had rinsed her knife and run it through the flame, but instructed the group leaders to find as many people among their groups that had knives of their own so they would be able to cut up the meat for everyone to eat.
Tommy asked about the showers, and Lauren said that it was a bit late in the day, and even in late spring the night would be a bit cool, so they should wait until tomorrow to try the system.
Indeed, it was dusk by the time they had finished dinner; Tommy commented on how long the day had been. “Yes,” Lauren said, “but I think before it gets dark I need to see this flood. Leaders? Let’s go have a look.”
Boronir struck out through the trees and onto a worn but overgrown path that went over a rise and then consistently downhill. Then the trees opened, and ahead was a meadow surrounding a large lake.
Large, Lauren thought, but it was about the size of the lake back in the parakeet world. That was significant. She use to bathe in that lake, and drink its water. More importantly, she use to fish in that lake.
She followed the path down to the shoreline. There was something of a beach, and the remnants of a pier or dock.
“Wait here,” she said, and waded into the water up to her thighs, then stood very still.
“What are you doing?” someone called, but she raised a hand to silence them.
Yes, in a moment a few good-sized fish approached, apparently curious concerning what had entered their space. Had she brought one of her arrows, she could have speared one now. Well, they had all been fed. Tomorrow they would learn to spear fish.
“Back to camp,” she called as she waded back to shore. “Pick up any firewood you see along the way; we want to keep the fire burning all night, and tomorrow we’re going to want to build several more fires.” Not to mention, she thought, that I’ll want to dry out before bed.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #465: Characters Wander. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
