Chapter 3

A herd of deer. There were two or three dozen. The stags walked along the outer edge of the herd; heads held high as a warning to any that approached. The wind brushed their fur coats as they trotted past, keeping their eyes open for potential predators.

Chase let out a sigh of relief when they walked towards the river. Although he considered going back to collect their stuff, startling them would be a bad idea. He didn't have any weapons he could use to ward them off if they charged, his spear hardly counted, it would snap like a twig against the antlers of a stag. Hunting was out of the question without a bow and arrows.

If he had a sling he might've been able to catch something, but without any rope he couldn't make one. Maybe throwing rocks could work if he got lucky and hit one on the head, but he decided against it as it would more likely agitate them than result in a successful hunt.

Instead, he looked for somewhere they could sleep tonight. He had a bit more time to create a shelter than last night and spent some of it finding a place they could hopefully set up a more permanent camp. It should be close to the river, but hidden from sight.

Ideally, he'd want to make a tepee, but he didn't have the time for something like that, so he started working on another temporary shelter, something a bit larger this time.

There was a waist-height rock that would make a good support.  After some looking around the nearby foliage, he came across a young tree that was leaning at a dangerous angle. Its trunk was no wider than his wrist and would be perfect as the main beam of their makeshift shelter. There was the faint smell of rot coming from the roots of the tree, maybe infestation? He gave it a faint nudge with the sole of his foot, and the tree swayed without much resistance.

"Elie, stand back."

He put half his weight onto the tree and felt a resounding groan as it fought to stay upright, but it was already on its last legs and started to give away. He felt a snap reverberate along the length of the tree as it collapsed onto the ground, defeated. There was a small bit of wood that still stubbornly connected the trunk of the tree to the stump. Chase took out the flint he had used to start the fires, it would do as a makeshift saw.

"Elie, can you get me some leaves? We need something to sleep on, make sure they aren't wet." he said, rolling up his sleeves and grinding away with his tiny piece of flint.

He stopped, "And don't go back for the goat." he said.

"Fiiiine, I won't go back for him." she replied, sulking as she grabbed one handful of leaves after the next.

Eventually there was a tree trunk resting against the rock at an angle and sticks lined on either side of it to hold the shrubbery they were going to put on top in place. With the addition of saplings, wild grass and bushes, the gaps were covered to the extent that you couldn't even tell it was a shelter from most angles.

It was much improved from their last, but Chase knew that sleeping like this for a long time would be risky. Although nothing had attacked them yet, that didn't mean they were safe. He would want something a bit sturdier and secluded than this.

He curled up with Elie inside the shelter, this time there was enough space for them to lie down side-by-side, and the bedding she found was definitely better than what they got last night when fumbling in the dark. Chase lay inside, exhausted from the day’s work, it would only get tougher from here on. What would they do for clothing? How long would his knife last? These thoughts tortured his mind. He was just left staring at Elie in the faint moonlight that made its way through the gap in their shelter.

He stroked her as she slept, watching the light shine of her hair, giving it a pearlescent glow. She would have to be ready to survive on her own, he didn't want to think about it, but he knew deep down that if anything was to happen, he'd probably die. At least he could rest in peace if he knew she could go on without him.

He lay there brooding in silence. Thinking about his dream and the mangled roots that appeared in the morning. Just remembering the sight sent chills down his spine. He thought of ways to get out of the forest, then slowly eliminated them as impossible or unlikely, and once he got to the end of his list, he looked over the unlikely ones again for any scraps of hope.

A fitful sleep was all he got; Chase woke up more tired than he began.

He didn't want to open his eyes; he didn't want to know what it was he'd see this time. He couldn't remember what he had dreamt last night, but it was not likely to be anything good. He slowly peeked and found Elie snuggled up to him for warmth. The sight should have been a wholesome memory that he would cherish from then on, something he would think of on a bad day to lift his mood.

Her white hair that he had admired lovingly last night was in the mouth of a goat made of wood and root and vines, its eyes weren't in the right places on its head and the lower jaw jutted out unnaturally, but the two distinct horns meant it couldn't be anything else. The neck seemed to go through the wall of the shelter and into the outside.

Beside the goat, there was a hand that was grabbing at one of its horns, trying to tug it away. The fingers seemed to meld into the horn where they touched, as if there was honey glueing the two of them together.

Without speaking a word, he slowly reached for his knife. Unfortunately, as he tossed and turned last night it had slipped under him. He tried to get at it, but the movement caused her to wake up. She blinked groggily; a few strands of hair were in her mouth. She pulled them out and wiped the saliva off her face.

"Goo mornin..." she mumbled, looking around her. The moment she saw the disfigured goat she froze. There was an audible gulping sound as she turned to Chase, "Look daddy, it's mister goat." her lips quivered.

"Elie, I'm going to cut your hair, don't move."

"Ok." she whispered as quietly as she could.

He brought the blade to the trapped end of hair, and slowly cut it away. They got out of the shelter as quickly as they could. Like the last time, outside the shelter was the rest of the statue. The goat’s body was there, alongside the impression of Elie's mother scolding the goat and trying to pull it away.

Chase sat on the rock, trying to take a moment to think. He almost jumped out of his skin at what Elie did.

"Don't!"

Elie put her hand on the back of the goat, running it up and down. Petting the morbid statue.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her away. "What do you think you are doing?!"

"It looked like a tree so I-"

"Why would you touch it?! You don't know if it's dangerous! What if it hurt you!"

"But it's mister go-"

"You and your fucking goat!" He shouted, kicking the leg of the goat. It snapped like the twig it was. He kept heaving, the anger and fear the moment she tried to touch it was something he had never experienced before, after taking a second to calm himself, he got on his knees.

"Listen to me Elie, this place is dangerous. Very dangerous." He said as evenly as he could manage, "That," he pointed at the wooden statues, "Is not natural. What if they could move? What if instead of a goat or your mother there was a wolf, or bear? Would you touch it then?"

"I'm sorry." She said, her lip quivering like before.

"No. Promise me." he said, trying to hide the terror in his eyes, "Promise me you will be careful, that you will always think before acting."

He held her hands waiting for a response.

"...Yes."

He looked into her eyes, trying to tell if she meant what she said. He looked as if he could see, as if he would know the moment she lies. But even if she did, love is blind to lies, deaf to falsehoods and mute in the face of deceit.

The two of them made their way back towards the river. Their thirst had gotten the better of them and they both took a drink.

Chase was still riled up from before and didn't know what to do, should he make a new shelter every night? No. That was a waste of time and not something they could do long term, even a week of this lifestyle would start to take its toll on them. They didn't have the resources to go looking for a way out of the forest, they couldn't stray too far from the river without being able to carry water with them. This would be the bare minimum for them to start moving around in the forest.

Elie's presence complicated things, he would always need to prepare two of everything, and she wouldn't be able to help him until he taught her how to do some basic tasks. Even then, if this was a normal forest, he could rest a little easier, knowing she was able to get by. But in here, there was no telling what could happen, even he couldn't recognise many of the plants. How was he to instruct her on which was food, and which was poison?

As he was thinking about their next move, he felt Elie tugging at his tunic.

"Dad, my stomach hurts, I need to go poo."

Although he had expected this, it came faster than he anticipated. He dug a hole for her with a stick and waited for her as she did her business. After burying it with the same stick, he brought her back to the river to clean up. Throughout, she groaned in discomfort.

He hadn't had the chance last time, but from now on it would be wise to boil the water before they drank it. He was more used to drinking river water than Elie, but even then, he avoided it if he could, nobody liked getting the runs.

Once they were back out of the river. He picked up his spear and they walked towards where he had last seen the herd of deer. They weren't there anymore, probably looking for a new grazing spot. However, in their place he found something that put him on edge.

The forgotten remains of one of the deer was left behind. However, he had never seen a carcass picked so clean. If there wasn't the dark stain of blood soaked into the soil underneath it, he would have thought it had died weeks ago. The white bone was stripped of all muscle fat and hide. Anything that could be chewed was long gone and there were even signs of bones broken in search of marrow.

Chase studied the remains. There were lots of bite marks all over it. This likely wasn't a bear as there weren't any distinct claw marks, also the fact that the remains were so spread out suggested that there were multiple feeders. A pack of wolves was the obvious answer, but some of the bites were quite large for wolves. Just the thought of a wolf the size of a donkey made him break out in a cold sweat.

Although the ribcage and a few other bones were scattered around, there was no sign of its head. He looked around but gave up after finding one of its antlers stuck between two rocks in the river. It was a shame; they might have been able to use its skull as a makeshift bowl. Still, even without the skull bone was valuable material. He started looking over the carcass for something of use.

Elie stood away from the remains, she didn't like the smell, neither did Chase for that matter.

"Come on, I'll make a dagger for you." He said, trying to coax her in with a promise of gifts.

She hesitated, "And a necklace."

"Ok fine, and a necklace."

He started off by getting the femur, if he got it to splinter down the shaft, he could turn it into a makeshift blade. The biggest issue with his spear was that it was difficult to use if they were surrounded by trees, he needed another weapon if he wanted to keep them safe.

He tried to chip it with a rock, and after some ginger attempts gave it a good knock. It broke apart pretty well leaving a long splinter that he could shape into a suitable blade. The smaller splinters had to be filed down with a flint and could be used as needles. There were four such splinters he could use, one of them would have to be sacrificed to make a hole for thread.

It had yet to turn into an issue, but they had to keep their only set of clothes in as good of a condition as they could manage. The only issue was the lack of thread, but Chase knew one or two ways they could make some.

Of the four, only two turned successfully into needles. He wrapped them in fresh leaves and put them in his pocket. The largest splinter would work as a sword of sorts, the blade didn't quite go all the way down to the hilt, but it was sufficient for an emergency. He fashioned a crude handle and flattened the edge by chipping at the bone with his trusty flint.

Elie brought the other femur that had probably been dragged away as the wolves tried to dismantle their kill. She left it with Chase and immediately went to go wash her hands.

The second femur was to be used for two daggers, one he could use where his flint failed, and one to get Elie used to handling knives. He splintered them and tried to work a handle onto them. Once they had some string, he could wrap it around the handle to give them a better grip, but until then they would need to use it as is.

He handed Elie her knife, which she stared at with awe. He had made a passable sheath out of leaves and grass, but they would likely have to make a new sheath every few days.

"Be careful, it's sharp. I'll teach you how to use it later." He said, before prying out ribs they could use them as stakes for a tent. Although wood worked, bone was better, it would last for years in rain and drought. He would be lucky if his wooden stakes didn't rot before the end of the month, having spent weeks in moist soil.

He made almost a dozen stakes before tying them up with some grass and pocketing them. His bulging pockets did look a bit silly, but he would have to make do until he could put together a bag of some sort.

He got up, ready to start fishing and build a new fire. But stopped when he saw Elie waving her sheathed knife around in excitement.

"Elie, you have got to respect the blade. It can gut you just as easily as the wolves gutted that deer." He said pointing behind him.

Elie nodded as if having heard but continued to gleefully look at her new dagger.

"Don't daggers have names in stories?" she said, "Mine's called Bone Dagger!"

Chase looked at her antics in amusement with his arms folded, "Why don't you try to think of a better name? Don't they have names like King Killer in stories."

Elie stared at her new dagger in thought, her little brows furrowed as she tried to come up with a better name. A moment later her face shone in excitement.

"I've got it!"

She raised her dagger into the air.

"Boner!"