Young Writers Society

Jerica hesitated and took a deep breath, then sighed and nodded. She'd been so relieved to be done with the wolves that she'd -- momentarily -- forgotten that they were still completely, absolutely, fucked.

She walked over and crawled back into the odd clothing she'd woken up in the first time, glad to be back in clothes, then looked around. She kicked the shoulder of one of the corpses. "Think these are edible?"

Evaline had crossed her arms, drumming her fingers on them as she stared out towards the clearing they would have to take. Just follow the map. Follow the map, and they could finally leave this place.

Her attention was ripped away from her when Jerica asked if the wolves were edible. Did she heard that right? She stared at her blankly, blinking once.

"You want to eat a dead wolf?" she spat out.

They were royally screwed. In the middle of who-knows-where with nothing but a bow, a few arrows, a crappy map, and bad company (both of them). You know that this is going to end badly for the hotheads. Yes, you, at the keyboard. You've been following this story long enough to know this is going to end in an argument. Anyway...

Jerica stared at Eve for a moment. Jerica didn't want to eat the wolves. Obviously. But who knew when they'd find food again? Who knew how long this hell would last before they found a way out? "We're not really in a position to be picky. Food is food."

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Evaline had to bite back a scoff. Her stomach twisted up in knots, begging to for food. She didn't want to eat an animal, even if dead... but how long was she going to be here? Surely real food would show up eventually, right? In the floating present?

It felt like she was losing her mind. She didn't even know where the presents came from.

"We don't know if it's safe to eat," she said, trying to appeal to reason. "It could upset our digestive system, or be poisonous somehow. There are a lot of unknowns."

"Yeah..." Jerica kicked the wolf's shoulder again, wishing there was a way she could make it safe for certain. And palatable. She had the distinct feeling that the wolf meat was going to be horrific when she inevitably had to eat it. "But we know what starvation's going to be like, if we don't get a better option... I don't know any of the animals in this realm. Or any of the plants. For all we know, all of them are poisonous."

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Evaline grimaced, but didn't have much time to respond because another present floated through the air. What was in the box? It was almost perfectly timed, like someone was watching them from afar, calculating their every move. Evaline found herself frozen, unable to grab the box.

Jerica stared at the box dumbly. What now? She'd spent all night in a tree and just killed nearly a dozen wolves. And now there was another twist? She swore to the gods, if it wasn't food this time...

Jerica reached out and grabbed the box even though it was clearly meant for Eve, and yanked the lid off, angling the box away from her face -- and towards Eve's -- in case something jumped out of the box.

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On instinct, Evaline kicked the box back towards her and tumbled to her side, apprehensive of whatever was inside. It was a gut feeling that something was off.

"What's inside?" she asked, a few feet away now.

Jerica smirked at Eve's melodramatic reaction but then she cautiously stepped forward to see what was in the box. She tipped it over and a bright red bag fell out. On the front was a large white + and the words First Aid were stamped below them.

"First aid..." Jerica murmured, looking down at the bag. She prodded it suspiciously. It didn't look like aid to her. It was just a bag.

Oh. It was just a first aid kit. Evaline's paranoia was getting to her, but she didn't care. Slowly, she crawled back towards Jerica, still wary as she stared at her poke the bag for whatever reason. Well, she supposed it could be possible that something else was inside.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No..." Jerica answered absently, watching as Eve poked at the useless bag. "Is... there real aid coming to help us? A... second aid?"

Evaline stood over the first aid kit, slowly looking up at Jerica and giving her a long look.

Did she... not know...

She slow blinked, deciding to ignore her comments for now, opening the kit and rifling through the contents to figure out what they all had. Bandages, gauze, antiseptic, even needles and thread for stitching... It really had everything.

"Well, this is actually useful, for once," she murmured as she went through the items. "I'm sure we'll run into more dangers and could use the kit. The only thing we really need now is food and water."

Jerica watched in confused silence as Eve started rifling through the bag. None of the things inside looked familiar in the least. Until she got to the needle and thread. Jerica picked it up and looked it over, ensuring that it was what she thought it was, then went "Ooh, sutures! I know how to do this."

Eve was right, though. It didn't help with food or water. And Jerica still wasn't sure how safe it was to eat the wolves. She glanced up and saw another present floating down towards them.

Evaline gingerly plucked the needle and thread out of Jerica's hands, not fully trusting Jerica knew what she was going to do with it. She probably did know how to stitch since she mentioned sutures, but considering that she didn't recognize a first aid kit or even knew what a whistle was, Evaline wasn't sure she wanted Jerica to be one to stitch her up if it came to that.

Did she even know about germs? Antiseptic? Basic medicine? She'd rather keep going back in time and prevent any injuries rather than test her theories out.

She closed the kit up and followed Jerica's gaze, noting that another present was floating down. It seemed that the wind was blowing it away since it was a balloon, though.

Evaline could sense that Jerica was possibly going to chase it, so before either of them could move, Evaline spoke again.

"Can you shoot an arrow at the balloon?" she asked. "That way we don't have to chase it down."

Jerica tensed, ready to go after the present, but stopped when Eve gave her a better idea. "Oh, huh, yeah sure."

Jerica took an arrow from the quiver and notched it, then pulled it back and fired in one fluid motion, not pausing as she aimed it. The arrow flew through the air and pierced the balloon, making the present fall swiftly towards the ground.