The sun set, and the air cooled under a light breeze as a few cottony puffs of gray clouds drifted through under a red sky before Madelyn stopped and got off Mia. "This is far enough for today. We'll camp here for the night."

Relieved, Jackson immediately jumped off Gizmo and flopped on the ground a good twenty feet from him. Gizmo snarled at him, then walked off a few paces, and did the same.

Kyle jumped off Lucky, stretched, and walked towards the woods, planning on getting some firewood. Madelyn slid off Mia, and the two cats lay down next to each other with a purr. Madelyn looked around their campsite for a minute, then put her hands on her hips and sighed. 

It wasn't home, but it had a little creek for water, some woods on their side of it that could house some food, and a short-cropped grassy field on the other side, marking the end of the forest and the beginning of the far outskirts of Bermit. The houses still looked no bigger than a fingernail, and skyscrapers as tall as a finger, but to the Jewelclaws, and Madelyn somewhat, they were too close for comfort.

"Go on and find some prey," Madelyn told the Jewelclaws, "but don't be seen. Watch for any hunters' traps. The traps would be for smaller game, but they could still trip you up and create a commotion. When you're prowling, keep a sharp eye out for humans. Don't let them see you. Gizmo, this is mostly for you. If they do spot you, do not eat them. Just let them think the whole thing was their imagination. People are friends, not food."

The look Gizmo sent back read, said the defenseless person to the hungry Jewelclaw.

Jackson felt a little unsettled that Madelyn had to keep his last ride on 'please don't eat humans' terms. Had she put him on Gizmo on purpose? And Mia and Lucky were obviously really close. Was that on purpose too? No, it couldn't be, he dismissed uneasily. she wouldn't do that.

"Kyle, get some dry leaves and grass. Jackson, some solid firewood. I'll look for some good fire-starting stones," Madelyn instructed.

Collecting firewood takes longer, he thought. And for dry grass, you only have to cross the stream...and even then you'd still be within a conversation's length of each other....Did Maddie do that on purpose? Wouldn't be unlikely. Maybe just cause I'm so much stronger than him. Oh, there I go again!

By the crestfallen look on Jackson's face, Madelyn realized what he thought. "Jackson, I'm not trying to get rid of you," she said. "You're stronger, and can carry more wood. Here's my ax. It'll cut down smaller trees, and hack branches off bigger ones." 

She untied a small ax from around her waist and handed it to him. "Mia found it before we left. Don't use it for big stuff, but you can shorten some thin logs with it." The blade was only the width of about four fingers, and the length of half a hand. It was small, but it got the job done.

"Thanks!" Jackson said cheerfully, grabbing the handle of the blade, grasping around her hand, holding it for a few seconds.

"You can let go now, Jackson," Madelyn sighed. Jackson's smile lessened, but he accepted the ax, and walked off into the woods. He still felt a bit happier because of the fact she had spoken to him so gently, and given him her own ax, trusting him to use it wisely. Okay so, she trusted him to use it, but she wasn't so sure about the 'wisely' part.

Kyle was already across the stream getting the grass. They didn't really talk much at all while Jackson was gone at first, and the silence was only split by Kyle's stomach rumbling. He didn't think Madelyn had heard, but she looked up at him surprised. "Hungry?"

"City folk usually have three meals a day," Kyle admitted.

"Wait, really?" Madelyn gasped. She'd thought they were hungry because cityfolk ate like pigs. "I'm so sorry! I remember now! I've just gotten so used to having only either an evening meal or morning meal."

"You mean dinner and breakfast?" Kyle asked.

"Is that what they're called?" Madelyn asked, a perplexed expression on her face. Kyle raised his eyebrows. "No, I'm kidding. I know what breakfast, lunch and dinner are. When Jackson gets back, I'll show you how to set a good trap."

"I know how to set traps," Kyle said. "The basic one, with looped string on a bent sapling."

"Oh, good, because that's the one I use too," Madelyn said. "When I was seven, I saw a hunter's trap set like that, and I copied it and used it as my own."

There was a pause. "I'm done," Kyle said, and walked through the stream, set down the dry grass, and put his shoes back on.

"Good," Madelyn said. "I haven't found any good rocks yet, but if you want, you can go snag another hunter's string and set a trap. Leave the ones that are nearby, because the hunter, if they show up while we're here, would probably start looking around in the area he knew it was, hoping he'd find it. Where there's one trap, there's more."

"Sure," he said, and set off. Madelyn was glad Kyle was such a good outdoorsmen. That, and Kyle would part from her presence whenever asked, unlike Jackson.

In reality, though it might not seem like it, Kyle actually liked Madelyn. How could he not, was the real question. He was just able to put his feelings aside for the task at hand; journey and survival.

Jackson returned soon after Kyle left. "That was fast," Madelyn noted.

"Yeah," Jackson said proudly. "I tried to go pretty fast, knowing that collecting grass doesn't take very long. Did you find some spark rocks yet?"

"I've found one," Madelyn said. "This rock here might...perfect! Yep, I found them."

"Want me to go out for more wood?" Jackson asked. Madelyn turned around and saw the armful of wood he had.

"Oh, wow, that's a lot." He had thick sticks piled up to his chin. "That should last us for a while. Great! So I'm going to go find some Y-sticks and cross-sticks for the water bag over it."

"I already found some," Jackson said. "I spotted some nice Y-sticks, and remembered we'd need some, so I brought them with me. Oh, and there's a rabbit trap set only an eighth of a mile off. Where's Kyle?"

"He looking for rabbit traps," Madelyn said. "And that one sounds a little too close for comfort....I hope Kyle knows to leave it. Wherever the traps go missing, the hunter looks around the area, thinking it must've been another tree. I've done it before. If he takes one further of, we're safe."

"Did you warn him?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah."

"Then I think he'll be alright." Jackson shrugged. He sat down, and handed Madelyn a few of the sticks. "Do you want to make it or do you want me to?"

Madelyn was utterly confused. Jackson was never like this. Maybe he was getting the hint she didn't like him. "I'll start it, but you can add to it as you want. But leave the fire as small as possible; we don't want that rabbit hunter to see the flames if he comes at dark."

"Okay." Jackson nodded, and Madelyn piled up some of the grass in the clearing. The clearing they had settled in was a little distance from the tree line, just so that anyone in the field that was nearby wouldn't see the firelight. There was a small, but fathomable chance the houses of Bermit on the other side of the meadow might see them.

Madelyn set up a short, stick tee-pee with grass under it. "Beautiful," Jackson congratulated, looking at her. Madelyn, not used to Jackson having relative sanity and complementing her work along with her, looked at him reproachfully and turned back to fire, utterly confused.

"What did I do?" he asked.

"Do you ever leave me alone?" Madelyn asked.

"Hey, I was talking about the fire," Jackson protested. Madelyn turned and looked at him, surprised. "Alright, and you."

Madelyn scoffed and rolled her eyes, but this time she smiled a real smile. Jackson went a bit easier on her than usual the rest of the night, even after Kyle came back with a rabbit he had retrieved from a hunter's trap. "I didn't even need to steal the trap," Kyle had said. "I just took the rabbit and reloaded the sticks." That's a better idea than what I had, Madelyn had thought.

So while Madelyn prepared the rabbit, Kyle tended the fire, and Jackson boiled the water. Once the water and rabbit were done, they all let the water cool inside the bag, sitting in the stream, as Madelyn put on the rabbit. By the time the rabbit was done, the water was cool as the chilling air around them and the rabbit was nearly as warm as the fire. 

The boys ate their first thorough meal since they lost their parents. Madelyn ate the first meal she ever had with another human being since she ran away from home.

She couldn't understand why they insisted on talking to each other while they had food in their mouths. One little thing she remembered her mother always scolding her for was 'close your mouth when you chew, there are people watching.' Madelyn hadn't bothered to obey the rule, as said, she'd never dined with another person since she was six, and attempted to apply it then, but the boys didn't seem to acknowledge nor care about the rule, so she gave up trying to confine the burning hot rabbit in her mouth.

It couldn't be more perfect out, except that it was a little on the cold side. Even Madelyn was a little cold, and that's saying something. She hadn't shivered in weeks, despite her choice of fashion. A cool breeze bent the campfire flames, rippled the creekwater, and wove around the branches, as if teasing the twigs to chase after it. Every once in a while, the breeze would lessen, then it would come back, harder than before, making everyone shiver.