Young Writers Society

James was relieved to see that his bag was still on Nightmare, and grabbed a bite of food just to keep himself going. He looked over to Tasha, still feeling the uncomfortable tension between them.

"Do you have everything?" He asked, hoping the thieves hadn't nabbed anything too important. It wasn't like he had a lot anyway, but he didn't know about her.

"Yes," she answers curtly.

James inhaled sharply, sorry that he asked. He simply gave her a nod, and decided to back off, giving up on verbal communication.

"Lie to me again and you'll walk the rest of the way home," she informs him dryly.

James only nodded again, internally, relentlessly beating himself up for how he'd already messed up. He knew she meant it.

"Do you prefer Tiberius or James?"

James looked at her, "...James."

She throws him a large stick and tosses a knife at his feet. "Then start whittling, James. With luck we can spear us some fish."

James caught the stick and looked at Tasha peculiarly. He had a feeling that she was going to hold this over his head for a long time. Again resorting to nonverbal communication, he only nodded and did as she instructed, and began peeling away at the bark with the knife.

Tasha gets her own stick and does the same, whittling it down with the ease of long practice before standing on some rocks, barefoot, in the creek.

James joined her, ditching his boots and socks before stepping into the creek with his pants rolled up to his knees. He watched the flow of the water, carefully calculating where and when to go for a fish. With a quick and timed thrust of the stick into the water he nabbed a fish.

She nearly gets one but misses by about an inch, cussing and getting one on her third try.

James missed a few times but caught two more, figuring three would be enough to work with. He looked at the skewered fish on his stick for a moment, watching the light reflect off their scales with mild interest.

Wolfsbane is leaping around in the water after fish like a puppy, and failing to get any. She seems to be having fun, however, as she splashes through the water.

Tasha guts her own catch and starts a small fire.

James joined her by the fire, gutting his fish and prepping the fish.