Day 2

Tẽra Trazzie was woken up

“Hey sleepy”

Nicolette Sintonarta said

“Time to get up and help out, we need fire wood.”

Tẽra looked around she was still in a jungle it wasn’t a bad dream. It had been a not so good night’s sleep. She rinsed out her mouth in the river and started collecting fire wood.

Tẽra thought Nikki was amazing she just knew all this stuff and she was taking such good care of them.

Nikki was in the river catching fish Tẽra collected wood.

Tẽra found it was strange not to have milk in the mornings.

Nikki watched as the duchess Tẽra collected fire wood. Some people where just not meant to be in the wild and Tẽra was one of them. She was polite and not stuck-up which Nikki liked but she was delicate and had never done a hard day’s work in her life. But at least she was trying and all her horse’s stuff really came in handy. Nikki was treating this like a ‘learn to survive in the wild’ trip for children.

She called for Tẽra to come learn how to fish.

Tẽra stood at the bank with big eyes.

“But how do I get in she asked?” staring at the water.

“Maybe you should take your clothes off,” Nikki suggested.

“What!? Fish in my nickers?”

“Yes” Nikki replied.

Tẽra looked at the water,

“I am wearing light pink,” Tẽra said “If it gets wet, it will be see through,”

Nikki smiled

“Here, wear my T-shirt and shoes, and then come fish.”

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Tẽra undressed and put on the T-shirt it had cat-like silver eyes on the back. She put on the wet takkies and mustered up the bravery to get into the very cold water.

Nicolette gave her a sharpened stick spear.

“Now wait, and as the fish swims passed, stab it with the spear” Nikki said.

“Like this”

She stood perfectly still and waited for the fish to be by her feet, then she stabbed it. Then with the other hand she grabbed it by the tail and brought the fish and spear out of the water.

Tẽra tried. She caught nothing; it wasn’t even fun. She fell over and over again slipping on the rocks and now she was soaking and freezing.

Tẽra thought ‘This is awful!’

Nikki then had her gutting the fish. This was gross, disgusting and smelly!

Nikki then cooked the fish.

They ate and dried off by the warm fire.

Then they gathered up their stuff and moved down the river talking about where they were from and what they did back home. Their hobbies, dreams and even romantic interests, which was a short conversation as Nikki wasn’t dating and Tẽra would have an arranged marriage.

They took turns riding Sherralee, Tẽra’s horse.

Nikki thought she heard a distant gun shot.

“Come this way” she told Tẽra

She followed with Sherralee plodding behind them.

“I thought I heard something maybe we can catch up.”

(But Chris and Rachael were on horseback and they weren’t walking.)

They came to a well-made tree house. It was low but good. Stones marked where a fire had been.

“They are long gone” Nikki said.

“We will find people,” Tẽra said encouragingly.

“Let us rest and eat.”

Tẽra was not use to walking through the jungle. Her feet needed a break. Between them they had enough clothes to be warm at night and Sherralee was carrying all the extras. The fishing spears, their extra clothes. The big flat stone they used for cooking the fish all the stuff they wanted.

So, they rested and ate.

Sherralee became restless, stomping her hooves and scratching at the ground.

“What’s wrong” Tẽra asked,

“Show me,”

“Duchess Tẽra, horses don’t understand us” said Nikki helpfully,

But Tẽra knew better and she kept talking to her horse. Sherralee kept pointing towards a trees and snorting.

“I think something is there” Tẽra said as she moved towards it.

“Be careful!” Nikki exclaimed jumping up and grabbing one of the wooden spears.

Tẽra walked over

“It’s a cub” she called excited.

Then the mother must be nearby, we must move. Tẽra fed it some cooked fish, it ate. It was hungry.

“I think it’s lost” Tẽra said.

“Mom’s don’t lose their babies.” Nikki said with tangible concern, packing up all their things.

“Leave it” Nikki ordered.

“No!” Tẽra said

“Look at it”

Nikki looked at the cute cub. It must have been about eight weeks old. It had one blue eye and one yellow.

“Arrr” it moaned.

“It’s mom or dad or both could kill us while we sleep. Leave it some food and come.” Nikki insisted

Tẽra finally left it with two fish which was all the food they had left. They walked down the river bank. It was about two hours of walking when they found a leopard- Jaguar like creature that had been shot. It was a female and possibly the mother of the cub they had found.

“Wasteful,” Nikki said,

“We should take its skin.”

“What!” Tẽra cried in shock

“Yes,” Nikki looked up at her horrified face.

“Fine we will leave it”

“Shouldn’t we bury it or something?” Tẽra asked.

Then a little cry caught their attention, the cub had followed them it was the same, one blue eyed cub. It rubbed itself on the big dead cat and cried. It nuzzled under its paw and licked its face.

Tẽra picked it up. It tried to get away. She spoke to it trying not to cry. It was heart-breaking.

Nikki quietly without a word took a spear and started to catch fish. While Tẽra held the cub and stroked it.

“Otchulissa” she said,

“I will name you Otchulissa, and you will be mine and I will look after you.”

‘I will end up looking after it’ Nikki thought

Hearing Tẽra taking to the cub.

After feeding Otchulissa and getting her to sleep. They buried the big cat.

The sun was going down so they made camp for the night. Tẽra made a collar and lead from part of Sherralee’s extra stuff. She tied the lead around her wrist so the cub couldn’t run off during the night.