13C cloud
Into Victoria yesterday.

Holding the rest by their legs he whacked them onto a jutting rock, dropped them then continued with his pursuit, this time killing them as he went and tossing them into a loose pile.

  Fifteen dead frogs later, he gathered them all together and proceeded to butcher the two hind legs from each small carcass.  He smiled as he worked remembering the one time he had eaten frog’s legs. That time they were almost the size of a grouse’s drumstick; the French wine he had washed them down with certainly wasn’t bad either.

  Finally finished he laid them in a small pile on some willow leaves then set about gathering up twigs and dry leaves.  Under the willows there was a good quantity of dead twigs from previous year’s growth, they were dry in spite of the rain from two nights earlier.  When he thought he had enough he went to where his clothes were heaped and reached into his pants’ pocket for the lighter he had salvaged from the plane.  It wasn’t there! He frantically searched his other pockets; through the knapsack, Fred’s pants pockets, it was gone! “Gone.” He moaned aloud.  “I must have lost it in the river. Oh Christ!  Now what?”  He sat back, his face twisted in despair; he lowered his head onto his bent knees but suddenly looked up again.  “What the hell Nat, what’s a little rare meat, juicier that way!”

  He went to his little mound of legs, picked one up, put one end in his mouth and started to chew. ‘This won’t work’ he thought as he chewed the flesh from the tiny bone and spat out the skin.  He took out the knife again and laboriously scraped the meat off the remaining twenty-nine legs.  When he was finished he picked up the little gobs of meat and chewed, spat skin and swallowed what was left.  As he ate he unconsciously swatted at first one then another then another mosquito.

  With the last swallow he got up and walked over to the hole he had excavated earlier, the tiny clay well was full of clear water.  He lay down on his stomach and sucked it dry.  ‘Damn near as good as that French wine’ he thought dryly.

  As he arose to get dressed the first of a swarm of mosquitoes arrived. In moments they surrounded him in a black cloud.  No amount of swatting and flailing about deterred them.  As fast as possible he dressed, gathered everything up and repacked.  Any thought of spending the night there was quickly dispelled by the hungry little hordes.

  Nat quickly took another compass shot and hurried away from the pond; in a few minutes he was once again back on the plain and heading towards the notched mountain.

 

  

6

A

s he trudged along, Nat was weighing what was best.  Stop for the night now or keep going?  He knew it would stay light for many hours yet, but he felt he might rest better with a bit of food in his stomach.  Had he made his ten miles today? He didn’t think so, eight maybe, there that would be his goal!  He should be able to do two miles in another half hour, that would give him his ten, why not go for an hour give himself a cushion. ‘But I have no way of timing myself.’

  His decision made, he kept going. He stopped sometime later, he had fallen back on his experience and counted every second step which equaled one pace, twenty-two paces to the chain, ten chains per finger, start over again when eight fingers are clenched, eighty chains to the mile; sixteen fingers later he looked around, this would be where he slept.

  The terrain had remained fairly consistent, small ups and downs, brush, grass and lots of rock left behind from when the ice age had last retreated.  He found a spot on the south side of a large boulder on the premise that there may be some residual heat from the day’s sun.  He gathered dry grass and supplemented the cushion as a mattress for his upper body; rummaged around in the knapsack, found the remaining half apple now brown and bruised and sat back against the rock, he looked at the apple remnant and thought, ‘dessert or bed time snack? Doesn’t matter it won’t keep.’

  He lay down covering himself with the spare clothes and the blanket, there were a few mosquitoes which kept him awake for a few minutes, but the exertions of the long day soon over came the annoying buzzing and he fell into a deep sleep.