Chapter 8

Several more weeks passed and the youngsters managed another two successful hunts - killing another two deer.

Thomas had been extremely excited at the gift of the flints that the boys had brought back for him and he showed he had a natural aptitude for working with the stone - not only lighting fires easily, but shaping the stone into workable arrow, spear and axe heads.

They all kept an eye out for the hemp plants that Ben had thrown in the river, but either the river in the mountains was a different river after all, or the plants passed when they weren't looking.

Over those two weeks Ben was aware that Sarah and Hannah were definitely more affectionate towards each other. He eventually put it down to the fact that the girls had shared their loneliness while he and Adam had been on their trip.

Elizabeth made a breakthrough in weaving her grass by first of all plaiting several strands together and then employing a basket weaving technique that she had a memory of. Several screens and mats were soon made and they proved to be useful if not terribly exciting.

It had to happen at some time and it did - rain fell for the first time, catching them all by complete surprise. Ben and Sarah were swimming in the ocean at the time and stopped to tread water, looking at each other and at first trying to work out why their were water droplets splashing all around them.

Thomas was sitting doing nothing other than stare at his precious fire when the drops began to fall and he panicked when he realised the water was in danger of dousing the flames. He foolishly tried to shield the fire by using one of Elizabeth's grass screens, but it soon caught fire and he had to drop it before he was badly burnt.

Hannah and Adam ran back to the campsite when they heard Thomas' yelp and they found him sitting disconsolate in front of a smoking, but no longer burning fire.

"Cheer up Thomas, it's only rain. You'll be able to get another fire going before long," Adam laughed.

Hannah was dancing around, enjoying the feel of the raindrops hitting her and soaking her hair and skin. She held her face up to the sky so that it was soaked by the rain and she laughed out loud with unbridled joy of feeling something new.

After five more days of continuous rain the novelty had worn off and the youngsters spirits had fallen quite badly. Stocks of food were low and the rain was so hard that everything was being washed away. Even Ben's oven was in danger of being lost - not because the clay bricks were being affected by the rain, but because his stone foundation wasn't deep enough and the structure was being undermined from below.

Ben and Sarah still ventured out to add to their stock of food by catching fish and collecting shellfish, but the others spent most of their time huddled under the trees with drips falling on them constantly.

The temperature had also dropped noticeably and the absence of a fire seemed to exaggerate that so that the youngsters felt both cold and miserable. The mood amongst six bored and uncomfortable twelve-year-olds began to turn increasingly fractious and petty squabbles were escalating into full-blown arguments when once again Ben intervened.

"Why can't you get a fire going for goodness sake?" whined Hannah, "Adam and Ben got you the flint, why can't you make it work?"

"Everything's too wet, it's not my fault," snapped Thomas defensively.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Adam growled, feeling very protective towards his twin.

"Well, she shouldn't ask stupid questions then!" Thomas snapped again.

"Take that back! She's not stupid!" Adam shouted and he stood up to tower over Thomas.

"He thinks everybody is stupid apart from himself," Elizabeth threw in, remembering the fact that Thomas had accused her of the same thing weeks before.

Thomas also stood up and the two boys were squared up, taking turns at pushing each other in the chest.

"Take it back!" snarled Adam.

"No way pretty boy, you deal with it!" Thomas replied.

"Okay, then we're going to fight."

"Fine, you start it then," said Thomas.

"No, you start it."

"No, you."

Ben and Sarah ran up at that moment, a small hall of crabs and shellfish tucked into their rawhide kilts.

"What's going on?" asked Ben.

"Thomas accused Hannah of being stupid and he won't take it back," accused Adam.

"Oh for goodness sake! Can't you all see that it's just the weather that's getting us all down? You four have been sitting under these trees for five days now - getting on each other's nerves and just growing more and more bored!" said Sarah.

Once she had put into words what was going on, the others could see that she was probably right and some of the tension drained out of Thomas and Adam. Ben saw immediately that something would have to be done - none of them had any idea how much longer the rain was going to last and there was going to be a fight before if they didn't take some kind of action.

"I suggest both of you calm down and sit down too. Sarah's right, we're all getting bored, we're cold and the rain has got everything soaking wet. I can't sit down without getting covered in mud!"

"And we're going to run out of food soon," Elizabeth piped up.

"We need to do something instead of just sitting around getting annoyed at each other. Surely we're smarter than that?" challenged Ben.

"What? What do you suggest?" Thomas' reply was extremely petulant.

"Well we need a fire for a start," said Ben.

"I've just told her that everything's too wet to get a fire lit!" Thomas snapped again, feeling as if the group was ganging up on him. "It's not my fault!"

"We all need to help you dry some stuff out then, don't we? There's bound to be some dry wood under these trees somewhere, so what you're really complaining about is that you've got no dry tinder.

"First off, why don't we try to stop the rain coming through these trees and dripping on us?

"Elizabeth, how many screens and mats have you got?" Ben asked.

"I did have six screens and eight mats until somebody set fire to one of the screens," she replied spitefully and gave Thomas a black look.

"Okay, okay. We need to use some of the screens to keep the wind off of us, but we can use the others up in the branches to make a roof. That should keep the worst of the rain away."

Ben allocated tasks to each of them and it didn't take long before the spirits in the group have lifted quite markedly. Part of that was the fact that they actually had something to do, but it was also the realisation that they were seizing back some kind of control over the elements, another big step for the inexperienced youngsters.

Forming the roof was somewhat trial and error. The first effort allowed water to gather on the grass screens and mats until eventually it poured through in a sizeable deluge. Ben told them they had to angle the mats so that the rain ran off of them. When they adjusted things they found that Elizabeth's screens worked just like a thatch and this small victory over the rain spurred them on to achieve more.

"Okay. We each need to take some grass and keep it close to our skin so that our body heat dries it out. Why don't we start with the girls doing that while the boys try to find some dryish wood and bring it under our shelter?" suggested Ben.

It took hours before they had enough dry tinder for Thomas to work his magic with a flint, but it was worth it when they once more had a fire blazing away. There were cheers and Hannah even danced again, as the childlike happiness seeped back into the group.

"Now all we need to worry about is getting more food," said Ben and that halted the celebrations for a little. All eyes were on him again, but this time he was smiling rather than frowning at the responsibility.

"I think I've got another idea that should help us. Adam, can I count on your help?"

"Of course. What's your plan?"

"When we were up on the escarpment, I noticed there were lots of birds around - big birds," said Ben.

"You're right. I saw turkeys and pheasant, but how are we going to catch them?" Adam asked.

"I'm just thinking. If we've been sitting around under the trees, trying to keep out of the rain - what are the chances that the birds are all hunkered down too? Wouldn't that give us a chance of surprising them?"

The others grew excited again and the chatter started up once more between them. It was agreed that Ben and Adam would make the relatively short trip up the cliffs to see if Ben's thinking was accurate.

"Why don't the rest of you see if you can gather up some more wood and bring it under the shelter to dry out by the fire while we're gone?" suggested Ben.

The climb up the cliff was treacherous and the two boys almost gave it up, but they were both competitive and neither wanted to be the first to admit defeat. Ben almost fell at one point, but Adam was climbing below him and he managed to provide a shoulder for Ben to stand on for a moment while he found a safer hold.

They grinned at each other in triumph when they eventually pulled themselves up onto the escarpment. The rain was still falling very heavily and Ben led the way in the direction they had seen the birds on their last trip.

Once they reached the edge of the treeline, they slowed down and became extremely vigilant. The noise of the rain on the canopy made it difficult to pick out the sounds of wildlife, but they strained to do so and held their spears at the ready.

The trees weren't growing that close together and thick underbrush had grown up on the 'forest' floor. It was in this brush that Ben expected to find the birds they were looking for, but it proved to be a painful and frustrating business.

The brush tore at their exposed legs and made it difficult for them to move quickly. As often as not, the first sign that they were close to a bird was when they heard it scuttling away ahead of them and they had no chance of catching up. Ben called a halt to discuss a change in tactics.

"They're smaller than we are and it appears as if they're used to moving through the brush. We're never going to catch anything if we continue doing what we're doing. Why don't you wait at that break in the brush and let me drive whatever's in there towards you? Get ready to whack anything that comes out."

This new approach worked better - after a fashion. Adam did get the opportunity to try to hit something at last, but it was still difficult to react quickly enough to stun the fast moving birds. Nonetheless, several hours later, the boys had a decent haul of two large turkeys and three smaller pheasant.

"These won't keep us in food for as long as a deer would, but at least it's something. I'm looking forward to tasting them too," said Ben.

They shared the birds between them and started the trek back through the rain towards the cliffs. Conditions had worsened by the time the arrived back at the point they had climbed up on to the escarpment. It was clear from the water cascading down the face of the cliff that they wouldn't be able to climb down safely.

"What do we do now?" asked Adam, reverting to being a young boy with no confidence in his ability to think for himself.

Ben paused before replying, the rain lashing down on him and plastering his long blond hair to his scalp and shoulders.

"I guess we'll have to walk until we find an easier way down," he eventually replied.

Sarah, Hannah, Thomas and Elizabeth were much happier now that they were sheltered from the rain and they had a roaring fire. All four of them had spent the first hour or so after Ben and Adam had left in gathering more wood and dragging it under their roofed shelter. The fire was now large enough and hot enough to cope with the slightly damp wood and they kept the flames going easily enough.

Elizabeth encouraged them to help her weave additional screens and mats and surprisingly, she found that the grass stalks were much easier to work with when they were damp. Thomas didn't stick at the weaving for very long, but instead assumed his usual position flat out beside the fire.

When several more hours passed without any sign of Ben and Adam returning, the girls started to get a little worried. When darkness fell and there was still no sign of them, Sarah and Hannah grew increasingly concerned and that showed in the conversation when they shared some venison.