Chapter 681

The Retreat

Jeff came to his feet. “I have things to do. What say we return to our training schedule starting at eight tomorrow morning?”

“We have flight training in the morning, so let’s meet out back at seven. That way Ann and I can be there to help,” Arlene suggested.

Jeff looked toward his Clan Queen, who smiled and said, “The hot bar will be ready at six as usual.”

“Okay with you guys?” Jeff asked, directing his question at Morales and his wives.

“We’ll be there at 5:30 to help with breakfast,” Jasmine responded. “As far as training goes, hopefully, we didn’t lose too much in the days we were off. We couldn’t jog outside safely, so we got up early, donned our headlamps and mostly jogged to the ice cave and back. There were places where it was still too rough to jog, but with your having moved most of the boulders out of the way, Jeff, we managed while scrambling past the bad areas as fast as we could. I guess it became our own little obstacle course.”

“Yeah, and we had the skinned knees and elbows to attest to it,” Christine said with a grimace as the rest chuckled.

“Which is good,” Jeff broke in to say. “You’re going to get some of that on my obstacle course too.”

“I got a sprained ankle, but I only hobbled a hundred yards or so before it got better. By the time we were back, it wasn’t bothering me at all. It must not have been sprained as badly as I thought at first,” Ashley commented.

“Or the enhancement healed it, which I suspect was the case,” Jeff said.

Morales seemed to think for a moment. “I know that you told us we would heal faster, but I guess I never really thought that much about it. You might just be right at that. I cut myself with a wood chisel a while back. I went inside to get Jasmine to bandage me up while knowing I would probably need a couple of stitches. By the time I had thoroughly rinsed the wound, it was much less serious than I thought it was. I wound up putting a Band-Aid on it. Later in the day, I was moving things and accidentally pulled one end of the Band-Aid loose only to discover that the wound had disappeared. That’s when I remembered your telling us about healing quickly. I just never thought I would heal that quickly.”

Jasmine commented, “I have run before, although it has been several years. When we were training here, I went home knowing I would be too sore to make it the next day, but most of it went away before we returned. I suppose I just didn’t think much about the enhancement, though.”

“On tiny cuts, you can literally watch them heal,” Arlene assured them.

“I know you told us all that, but it’s ... different when your own wound heals that quickly,” Morales insisted.

“See you at breakfast,” Jeff said to the Morales clan before leaving.

Dessie and Phillip at the Castle

Six weeks earlier continued.

...”Well, the sky was clear the next night, so we weren’t worried,” Dessie said.

“You might be right, though,” Phillip agreed. “Lightning also hit another tree on the other side of the ravine, which seems to indicate something, although I don’t know just what,” he finished with a grin.

“So, are you going to use the same camping spot when you go back out?”

Dessie and Phillip looked at each other before Phillip spoke, “We hid our tent and some of our heavier equipment under an overhang a hundred yards or so from the campsite. So, unless it’s going to storm again, we’ll stay in the same place as our first night out. Although the area is on a hillside, the campsite is nearly level with only enough slope for good drainage. There’s a stream just below the campsite that we have to cross, but there is a downed tree that makes it fairly simple. Hopefully, that will continue to be true with our cart. I would hate to think about dumping our food supply in that rushing water.”

“Maybe you need to take some strong cord with you to tie the cart off as you cross the stream,” Karl suggested.

“I think we have some. Fischer will know where it is,” Mia said as she came to her feet and hurried out of the room. When she returned a couple of minutes later, she handed Phillip a roll of strong cord.

Phillip thanked her, and the conversation went on.

“You didn’t say how late it was before you got to your campsite. If Glenda and I ever get to go with you guys, we might not make it that far in one day.”

Dessie smiled at Glenda. “Oh, it was well before dark when we got there, and even so, we had not pushed at all. There’s no real reason to go farther the first day. We can easily make the falls area in another day.”

“We should be able to,” Phillip corrected. “Remember, we haven’t actually gone all the way. We did check the falls area out with our binoculars, and as far as distance goes, it would be only a few hours from where we stopped. However, the last part of the hike appears to be quite rough, so no telling how hard that part of the trip will be. We’ll probably have to pick our way until we find the easiest route.”

“I thought you said you were going to be at least two hard days’ travel into the mountains?” Karl questioned.

“I think we veered somewhat to the left of the route you two took. Of course, I could be wrong, but...”

Dessie enthusiastically interrupted, “There is a whole series of waterfalls coming down from the mountain. We didn’t get all the way there the second day, but we saw the falls through the binoculars. They’re beautiful, and I’ve always wanted to camp next to a waterfall, not to mention taking a shower under one,” Dessie finished.

“If we don’t like the area, we can go farther, but I saw at least two places through the binoculars that seem perfect for camping,” Phillip offered.

“Maybe we can go with you two sometime in the future,” Glenda said wistfully.

“Oh, we would just slow them down,” Karl commented, but there was a bit of wistfulness in his voice as well.

Phillip was shaking his head. “The falls are two days’ easy hiking. Once you two are back to a hundred percent, I’m sure you could make it with ease.”

Dessie smiled as she enthusiastically said, “We’re going to take all the food we can in the hopes of stretching our stay to at least a week plus travel time and maybe even ten days. We have a cart with two tall wheels that the salesperson said was made specifically for distance backpackers. The tall wheels are supposed to make it easy to pull along a rough trail.”

“Considering how much it cost, it had better work,” Phillip inserted. “It folds up, so once we’ve used up our food, it can be attached to a backpack for the return trip.”

Mia quietly said, “Stephan and I did some hiking, but we could never stay away long because of the work that was going on here at the castle. When it was finished and our visitors began arriving, there was too much going on to even think about backpacking. We’ve had many hikers and a very few distance backpackers over the years, but we were never close friends with any of them, so we only got to hear generalities about their trips.”

From the look on Mia’s face, Karl and Glenda both knew that their host wished to go on the backpacking trip. She wouldn’t ask, though, because she knew that Dessie wanted to be alone with her husband. The doctors had been married a long time, and as they passed a prolonged glance, they subtly agreed to make it possible for Mia to go with the other couple sometime in the future. Besides, running the castle might be fun for a few days.

As the chatting continued, Mia left for a couple of minutes. When she returned, she handed Phillip a can of bear spray. “We were told there were a few bears in the mountains, so we bought this when we first came here. I don’t smell anything, so I assume it hasn’t leaked.”

“Goodness, Mia, we don’t want to take that. You won’t have anything to run a bear off if one does show,” Dessie said.

“So, bring it back when your trip is over. I think the chance of one showing up here while you two are gone is slim to none. We’ve loaned it to hikers before, and so far no one has had to use it. Better safe than sorry, though.

“Oh, and be careful with it. If you do have to use it, make certain you don’t get it on either of you or breathe it. I’m told it is absolutely devastating to humans. Also, I would suggest reading the directions so you will know how to activate the spray correctly, should you need it. Chances are you won’t have time to read the directions if you meet a bear on the trail. There are also suggestions on the back of the can for things to do before the bear gets too close. It would be a good idea to keep those things in mind.

“However, and as I’ve said, I’ve never seen one on the castle grounds, and supposedly there are none in Germany, but people have claimed to have seen them out near the mountains. All I know about them is what I have read. You should not run from them and should stand your ground. They can run far faster than a human and can climb a tree many times faster than we can — some say a hundred feet tall tree in thirty seconds.”

“I’ll keep it where I can get to it in a hurry, and hope I never have to use it,” Phillip finished grimly.

Glenda whispered something to Karl, and he got up and left. “A few moments later, he returned with a box, which he gave to Glenda. Smiling, she handed the box to Dessie. “It’s for both of you.”

“This is what Mia told us you had overnighted?” Dessie asked as she turned the box over, but it was only the shipping box, so it revealed nothing about what was inside it.

“Open it,” Mia encouraged as she handed Dessie a box cutter.

Dessie ran the blade down the seams, retracted the blade and handed the tool back to Mia. Inside was another box, but this one had a picture on it. After pulling the tabs, she worked the contents out. “Look, Hon,” Dessie told her husband, “It’s a frypan and Dutch oven combination, and the sticker says it’s all of titanium.”

Before either could say anything more, Glenda spoke up. “I know what you are thinking: Titanium cookware has hot spots when cooking with it, and it just isn’t worth the weight savings. However, the manufacturer has a new type of coating that prevents the hot spots to a large degree. I’ve used identical cookware before, and it works great. The frypan is a snap to use, and the Dutch oven bakes biscuits almost as good as you could at home.”

There wasn’t a price tag, but Dessie had seen the brand name when they were at the sporting goods store. She knew that it was top of the line and several times as expensive as comparable cookware.

“The handles are detachable and lock firmly in place when needed,” Glenda told her. “I prefer cast iron, but this comes in a very close second. Cleanup is easy, and you don’t have to worry about drying to keep it from rusting the way you do cast iron.”

“Glenda, you shouldn’t have. This is expensive, and you barely know us,” Dessie said.