The strong need to relieve her bladder woke Kyla sometime after daylight. She grabbed a book out of her bag and quietly crawled to the front of the whole. Trying to be quiet so she didn’t wake Lily and Josiah she pushed the logs out that she’d covered the gap with last night and climbed out of the den. The urge to pee was even stronger now that she was standing up, but first she needed to know what had been sniffing outside their den to know if it'd hold another night. And she needed to do it now before anyone walked over the tracks. 

She opened her book for tracking that she’d picked up the other day and started flipping pages while looking at the small footprints on the ground. Having never done this before it took her awhile to find something that looked right. When she finally found some tracks that looked similar she stopped and compared. They were only raccoon tracks, she could’ve smacked herself in the forehead. To think, she'd been so worried over a little raccoon. Kyla would have to study this book more later to figure out all the tracks and how to follow them. Right now though she needed to find a bush.

Just as she was returned to the campsite Josiah's head popped out of the den. “Whatcha doin?” he asked, with wide curious eyes.

“I just got up, haven’t really decided what to do yet. What about you, any plans for the day?” she asked in return.

“Hmm not yet, but I think I need to pee,” he said, walking off towards a tree.

She chuckled and went to grab her hair brush and something for them to eat from her bag. She returned with two packs of slightly squashed white powder donuts. She looked in the direction Josiah had gone and didn’t see him, her heart skipped a beat. Maybe she should’ve watched him, but she didn’t want him to feel weird with her just staring at him while he peed. She started to call out to him when she heard one of the horses nicker softly. When she looked in their direction she calmed down immediately. Of course he was with them, she thought rolling her eyes at herself.

“Josiah, you hungry? I’ve got donuts.”

He smiled and came running. “How did you get donuts?” He asked, sitting down beside her eagerly.

“I got them from the store before we left,” she answered.

“Oh,” was the lasting thing he said before scarfing them down excitedly.

Kyla brushed her hair in between bites of donuts occasionally wincing when she caught a tangle. When she was done she threw her hair into a ponytail and asked Josiah if she could brush his for him. He agreed but only if when she was done he could brush the horses. She didn’t relish the idea of picking horse hair out of her brush but she agreed anyway.

Lily woke up to the pleasant sound of Josiah’s laughter. She was enjoying the sound so much that she lay there listening to it for a few minutes before she got up. Eventually her curiosity won out and she got up to see what he was laughing about. What she saw scared her.

“Josiah! Get out from behind that horse right now! One kick from that thing could put you in the hospital!” She yelled, walking towards them.

“It’s okay Lily. She’s not going to hurt him,” Kyla said, reassuringly. 

“How do you know that? We barely know them,” she said, unconvinced.

“I-I just do,” Kyla stuttered. How did she explain it to someone that didn’t know horses? You just know, it’s something in their eyes and their body language. You can see how they feel.

“She’s not gonna hurt me mama. We just wanna braid her tail,” he said, giggling when she swished her tail at a fly and some of the hairs tickled his face.

“Josiah,” she stopped, and took a calming breath. Maybe she was overreacting. She didn't know horses, but Kyla seemed to. “Can you just stand beside the horse instead of behind it please? And watch your feet, you don’t want her to step on them.”

“Yes mama,” he said grinning.

“What’d y'all have for breakfast?” Lily asked.

“Donuts!” Josiah answered enthusiastically.

Kyla giggled, “There’s another pack in my bag.”

“Okay thanks,” she responded, going to retrieve them.
 
Kyla finished up with the mare's tail and went to talk to Lily about what they could have for dinner. They had a bit more food in the bags but she didn’t want to use it if they didn’t have to because she knew there could be times when they might really need it, especially during winter which wasn’t far off. 

“As long as you don’t need me here I was going to go fishing, hopefully catch something for dinner,” Kyla said.

Lily looked up from the banked fire she’d been about to start back and responded, “I like fishing too and Josiah’s never been, if you don’t mind the company.”

“Of course not, the more the better. I’ll just go get my stuff then,” she responded smiling.

In her pack there was a small fishing kit with line, hooks, a couple bobbers and led. She grabbed it and they were almost ready to go. Now they had to dig around in the leaves to find some worms or crickets. Really about anything would do, she just preferred worms. They all dug around looking for anything that wiggled or crawled. Josiah squealed in delight, and Lily put the worm he’d found into a beanie weenie can. Kyla found a cricket next that she also put into the beanie weenie can. Josiah seemed to have a ball looking for bugs which was great because he found the majority of them. They kept looking until they had five worms and two crickets then they headed off towards the stream.

Kyla and Lily waded a little ways downstream until it was more of a river before they casted their lines. Josiah sat on the bank with his line in the water but mostly he played in the dirt occasionally looking up to watch them. After a couple hours of fishing and digging for more bait  they finally had a couple of trout. 

On their walk back from the river Kyla stopped several times to pull wild onions and other such things from the ground. Lily even caught her pulling pine needles off a tree as they passed it. She looked at her with a raised eyebrow but said nothing. Last night's dinner had been good and she hadn’t felt the least bit sick today so how could she complain.

When they got back to camp Lily had to completely restart their fire. Since neither of them had banked a fire before they weren’t sure if they’d left it too long or if she just hadn’t done it right. While Lily worked with the flint Kyla had the nasty job of cleaning the fish, something she had done before. She used to go fishing with her mom and dad all the time growing up. Her dad couldn’t clean them because he had a weak stomach, so she learned how to keep her mom from doing it alone. He did try to help them once but he got sick and even almost passed out. Being that no one wanted to clean up vomit, it was just better for everyone if he helped catch the fish and they cleaned them.

As she cleaned each fish she dropped them into their pot not wanting them to get covered in dirt. When she was done she walked back to the stream and washed the fish, her hands, and the pot. She started to head back to camp then realised she’de forgotten something and went back. She waded out into the water and reached down feeling along the stream bed until she found a nice flat and somewhat thin rock. After washing it as best she could she returned to camp with it too. 

“Do you mind letting this get hot on one side then flip it and do the same with the other side? I need to season the fish,” she asked Lily, holding out the river rock.

“Sure, anything to help,” Lily said, dusting her hands off on her wet jeans before taking it from her hand.

Kyla ground up her assortment of freshly picked seasoning between two rocks then rubbed it all over the fish. She’d never used stuff like this before but she knew how some of it tasted because her grandmother used to use all sorts of things to make tea. However even that wasn’t a good judge of the flavor because tasting it in a tea was not the same as cooking with it at all. When things soaked in boiling water it tended to intensify the flavor. She just hoped it wouldn’t taste too bad to eat. With that thought in mind she said a quiet prayer and laid them on top of the hot rock and they started to sizzle. 

“Crap,” Kyla said, wanting to kick herself at her sudden realization.

“What is? Did you forget something at the creek?” Lily asked, concerned.

“No, but I should’ve pulled up some more cattail roots to go with this. Fish isn’t very filling by itself.”

“I could go get some if you want,” Lily said, starting to stand up from where she’d been drawing in the dirt with Josiah.

“No it’s okay, getting too dark now,” Kyla said, staring at the fish as she flipped it over.

“Actually, I think there was some bread in the bag right? We could make sandwiches that would be good enough. We need to eat the bread before it goes bad anyway,” Lily said, jumping up to get it.

Kyla watched her go then went to flip the fish again, but it started to flake apart. This signaled to her it was done and she took them all off and placed them in a bowl. Lily returned with the bread and helped her make the sandwiches. It actually tasted pretty alright, not the normal flavors you were used to, but still good. Josiah was so hungry from all the activities that day that he gobbled his down so fast they doubted he even tasted it. They were all pretty tired from their long day so after they were done eating they wasted no time in getting ready for bed. Lily banked the fire and then they all headed towards the den for bed. Kyla crawled in last and made sure to pull the logs securely back over the whole behind her, before cuddling up in her blanket and closing her eyes.