Making camp

Sitting as she watched Taty busy herself Zelda stoked the little fire. The warm light felt good on her skin. Once the fire was going Zelda went to pick up the steel cooking tripod. As she lifted it she felt a shiver of pain shooting out from her shoulder. She bit down on her lower lip as she moved the thing onto her good shoulder as a sweat formed on her brow.

As she carefully took one step after another the tripod suddenly became light. When Zelda looked around she was nose to nose with Taty who had lifted the metal away from Zelda as if it was nothing more than a few bits of doweling.  “I can do it.” Zelda protested even as her body flushed with relief of having the weight of the metal off her.

Taty looked back over her shoulder. “It’s okay I’ve got this, why don’t you collect some snow?” She gives Zelda a smile before turning her attention to the fire and setting up the tripod.

Zelda comes to the sleigh and finds the tin pot. She empties the pillows that were shoved into it to be left with the rest of their gear, and also takes two small balls of prepackaged pemmican that each proudly proclaim their robust 400 calories, along with a small pick.

Taty has made quick work of the tripod getting it set up and moved some of the pieces of wood to keep them from pouring out of the cooking area. She turned to look at Zelda, pausing for a moment as she watched the other woman waddle with the tin pot bouncing off her thighs.  She gave a weak smile and a shake of her head as she let the other woman work. Going back to the tripod to make certain that it wouldn’t shift and spill everything onto the fire below.

With the pick in hand Zelda had gone to a snow drift and filled the pot with broken shards of ice and the clean white powder that had been under it. She pressed it down with the back of her gloved hand until she couldn’t any more and the snow and ice came to the brim of the tin.

Coming back to the fire Zelda has to squint, the sun was low on the horizon despite when she looked at her watch, seeing that it was nearly midnight. As she came the last few steps to the fire a deep part of her missed the regular diming of the lights when it was night, not the seemingly endless summer days that the surface had.

“That looks great.” Taty says to Zelda as she hooks the pot to the centre of the tripod. As Zelda turns back to Taty she notices the other woman holding up a pair of bowls. “So what’s for dinner?” Taty asks, holding out one of the dented bowls as Zelda fumbles in her pockets for the two pemmican balls. Taking the bowl she places the pair of balls in in. “Uh we’ve got, reindeer and cranberries or mackerel and candied peach.” She says offering Taty her choice even if her eyes betray her true wish as she watches the reindeer ball.  

Zelda watched as a treacherous hand went and plucked up the reindeer pemmican. “Oh I think you’re really going to like that one.” She manages to say as she takes a seat beside Taty in the pair of old nylon camping chair that had been patched at least a dozen times she could spot and probably more times that she couldn’t.

As the water got hot Zelda ladled out enough of the hot water to turn her pemmican into a stew. The two ate talking about nothing, Zelda with her pemmican stew and Taty enjoying hers dry. Taty then gave out a small gasp of surprise. Zelda looked up startled at what could cause Taty to make that sound when Taty pressed in close against Zelda’s good shoulder. “Do you see it?” She whispered into Zelda’s ear, her arm pointing to something off to their side. Zelda looked her eyes following Taty’s arm to a mount not far from where she’d been gathering snow before.  A part of her fearful that there’d be a raider standing there with a couple of his friends coming up over it. But all that her eyes could find was a few puffs of white cloud in a dimming side. “What?” She asks, lost as to what she’d missed.

“There was a fox!” Taty whispered to her with the excitement Zelda thought should be reserved for finding a lost friend like in so many stories she’d read growing up.

“N-no…” She says, feeling like she’d somehow recked the moment as Taty pulls away from her.

“Oh that’s too bad.” Taty says, going back to what little was left of her pemmican. “I’m sure you’ll spot one first soon.” She teases Zelda.

Letting out a sigh at missing the chance to see another living creature beyond Taty, Zelda turned her attention back to her stew, she took a few more bites from her stew she noticed a chunk of pemmican she’d failed at breaking up into her stew. She had to wonder just how tired she was to make a mistake like that.

Zelda mixed in just a bit more water to help break down the pemmican and took a hungry bite of it and her eyes went wide. The mild lean taste and explosion of tart in her mouth, she knew this. Her gaze shot over to Taty who looking just far enough away from her that Zelda was certain she could be seen from the corner of Taty’s eye but far enough that she’d deny it no matter how much Zelda pestered the woman about it.

Grumbling to herself got Taty to look over to Zelda. “Is your shoulder bothering you?” Taty asked, causing Zelda to glance away. In truth it was bothering her, there hadn’t been a point since getting wounded that it wasn’t, even if it was better than it had been. “We should check it.” Taty pressed with, after not getting a quick enough answer.

“Okay.” Is all that Zelda can say surprised at the force of the insistence. She angles her body a bit away from Taty for a little bit of privacy. “Do we have enough water for the old bandages?” She asks Taty to give her something to focus on as Zelda peels off her coat and top to check her wound.

It stings a bit as she unties the bandage and pulls the fabric away that has started to fuse with the skin. She presses with her finger around it and whinces as she does, while trying like always and failing to see the wound with her own eyes, even though it has remained out sight.

“Taty?” Zelda says, hearing the woman jump a bit as she readjusted some half-burnt wood. “Do you mind?” She asks, stretching out her neck even as it makes the wound scream out so that Taty can get the best look. “Any colour change?” She asks once Taty is over to her.

With the most gentle touch Taty’s soldier fingers can manage. Zelda can’t help but jump a little at this touch, her stiches bulging but never tearing.

Taty smiles so that Zelda can see her expression before answering. “It’s still red, but it doesn’t look like you’re getting any infection or anything.” She says happily and truthfully before adding on. “It’s starting to close up to.” She says with a bit too much excitement in her voice even as the wound still looks to be as long as her index finger, the same as the day she got it.

Zelda gives out a relived sigh, it hadn’t felt like that, she’s glad to hear, that she isn’t screwing up everything.

Once Taty was done examining Zelda’s wound she went to check the perimeter of their makeshift camp for signs of other travelers while Zelda went and got the bedroll so they could get some sleep.

With the sun finally set the two were in a single large sleeping bag on top of some feather weight panels that insulated them better from the ground. The two were close, they couldn’t afford the lost energy by each having their own sleeping bag.

When they started out they’d agreed they’d take turns sleeping on the fireside but each night Taty would forget who had been fireside the night before and claim it was Zelda’s turn to be fire side, and when Zelda corrected the record on that Zelda would still wake up fireside.  After a point she just had to give up on this.

Every night went the same they would bed down and as soon as her head found the pillow she’d be out, only stirring to find Taty’s warmth when she got cold.

This night though Zelda woke up when it was still dark, the sun not making its quick march back to the sky. She could hear Taty saying something but couldn’t focus on it, her stirring causing Taty to stop saying what she had been. Once she was awake to understand what was being said all that she heard was. “Hush, you need your rest, go back to sleep.” She was tired and couldn’t deny it, so she followed the gentle charm that Taty’s words placed on her.