15C sunny

it would have reacted, it had no fear!

  He knew that if he moved quickly it would move even more quickly, and disappear.  Moving as slowly as he could, he gradually stretched out onto his stomach, two beady little eyes watching, the slow movement didn’t alarm the creature so he reached to the side where he saw a heavily laden grass stem. He reached the seed head and massaged the seeds into his palm then slowly brought his hand around in front perhaps two feet from the mouse.  It kept eating, its whiskers twitching as it chewed and discarded the husks.  After several minutes it stood on its hind feet balancing against its tail and looked over to where the palm full of seed was waiting.  It dropped down and hunched forward a few inches at a time.  It came right up to Nat’s hand then put one tiny clawed hand on the edge of his palm and pushed itself upright again.  Nat was barely breathing, his eyes half shut willing the mouse to go for the seed.  It put its second paw up then quick as a wink it was in the center of Nat’s palm and started to feast on what had been provided.  Nat waited a few seconds more then summoning with all his will every bit of speed that he possessed he closed his fingers.  The mouse reacted, but not quick enough, Nat had it by one hind leg and the tail! The mouse responded by curling up and biting an offending finger.  Nat rolled over with, “You little bugger!” He got up and ran to where the hillside ended and threw the mouse as hard as he could onto the rocky surface.  In case it was only stunned he picked up a stone and hit the small head.  A few moments later he had the body skinned and after hesitating drew out the tiny half a thimble of guts and discarded them, he cut off the tail and proceeded to eat what was left.  He looked at the head and after sucking off the meat, split it open and sucked out the tiny brain.

  He went to the second pool washed his face and hands, then with a thoughtful look searched until he found the tiny pile of guts he had dropped, he cut off the anal tract and swallowed the rest.  He had remembered his old cat that only ate the stomach of the mice he caught.  There must have been a reason.

  He went back to the first pool, drank again then got ready to head out.  As he was leaving he smiled and said, “Well Nat, you a man or a mouse?” He threw back his head and laughed then sobered quickly, ‘God I hope I’m not loosing it, not yet anyway’.

  He headed out sticking close to the bottom of the hill, but whenever the going looked good he struck out across the marshy ground.  A few times he found himself getting into surface water and had to move back against the hillside.

  As he moved along he noticed that there were occasionally small birds flitting about.  He didn’t think he could capture any but it was only the middle of May and there could be nests; eggs would be great but nestlings would do.  Suddenly two towhees flew out of a small black spruce as he was passing it. He turned at first seeing nothing then spotted the nest well hidden against the trunk of the small tree.  It held four speckled eggs the size of the end of his thumb.  He gathered them carefully, stored them inside the knapsack and moved on.

  He walked through the day, as each mile went by his steps became more plodding, to keep himself aware and focusing on direction he took frequent compass shots, he forced himself to recall songs and sang aloud.  The latter was as much to stop from talking to himself as it was to force hunger and exhaustion from the forefront of his mind.

  Late in the day the terrain started to change, he found himself a couple of feet higher than the boggy ground he had been on, the black spruce was replaced first by cottonwood, then by poplar and a scattering of white spruce.  Now unable to see far ahead, his compass shots had to be more frequent, remembering past experiences, for the first while he alternated left and right when ever he came to an obstacle in his path however his focus wavered and at times could not remember to which side he had last gone.  Slowly he realized that he needed to rest, he needed food or in spite of his compass he would start to wander; time and distance would be squandered.

  He came to a small clearing and slumped to the ground, removed his pack and lay back.  He half dozed as he rested then remembering his eggs, he opened his pack and took them out.  Gingerly he opened the first one, inside was only egg, he slurped it back then in succession did the same with the remaining three.  He moved over to the trunk of one of the small poplars and leaned against it looking about.  Already he felt stronger and fresher than just a short time ago.  His gaze fell on something white pushing up under some fallen leaves.  Crawling over he found a round white mushroom, a puffball? God he hoped so. He looked around and yes there were more.  But what if they weren’t puffballs?  He crawled around zigging and zagging gathering as many as he could find tossing them into a heap much like the frogs of yesterday or was that two days ago?

  As he searched he was thinking, ‘how many do I eat, should I eat them at all?’  Finally realizing that although not plentiful, there were a lot and there would be more, he selected one, sat back against the same tree and slowly ate it.  It tasted faintly musty or was that just the smell?  He sat back and waited to see what would happen.

  He dozed again and though he didn’t know when he suddenly awoke it was an hour later.  He stood, walked about, stretched; he could feel no reaction to what he had eaten.  His mind seemed clear, but then he thought, ‘what if I’m dreaming, maybe I’m hallucinating’, then aloud, “Don’t be stupid, stupid; if you’re hallucinating how can you remember what you ate and where you are?”  Satisfied with his response to himself he dropped to his knees and slowly ate a half dozen more mushrooms.

  A few minutes later his stomach felt uncomfortable and a pang of fear flashed through his body then reason took hold as he thought ‘ that’s the most I’ve eaten in a while, stomach’s probably shrunk, nothing more’.

  He waited a little while longer then opening the knapsack he pushed the rest of the mushrooms inside, retied the pack, slung it and started off again.