THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART EIGHTEEN )

Four days had passed and Meradith and Evelyne were
kept busy, just trying to survive without the men.
It was hard, but Fern and Bella were a great help.

They had made quite a cosy home in the cave, luckily they had not seen any bears.

It had been raining that day quite heavily, so
they had collected enough rain water in the cooking
pot to make a stew.

Now the sun had come out and things felt a little
better, but there was still an uneasy feeling in
the air, Meradith felt they were being watched.

She stirred the stew and added a few herbs they
had found close to the cave, it wouldn't be as
tasty as usual, but at least it was meat. She decided, she was probably imagining they were being
watched and carried on stirring.

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Meanwhile it was getting late, Ivan was tired, he
had been travelling without a rest for two days, he
looked around and found some green pasture for
Shadow his horse and unloaded some sleeping covers.
Even though it was high summer, at night there was
a chill in the air.

As day ended, he decided not to light a fire, that
night, he had enough food, but he would have to hide Shadow, or for sure the horse would be tempted
to run off, if spooked.

As luck would have it, Ivan managed to find a small
opening in the bank. Shadow came up and nuzzled
Ivan, he had enjoyed the lush green grass he had
grazed on.

'Wow!' thought Ivan, 'it's not a cave, but for a
temporary shelter, this is perfect.'

Ivan had found two old trees, that were growing out
of the ledge of the bank, he flung one of the covers over the top of some branches, that sprouted
out of the trees, then he covered the blanket in
more branches, until it looked just like ground
cover.

Ivan led Shadow down the grassy bank and into the
shelter, he would need to cover the entrance with
more branches. He was very tired, it was starting
to get dark.

He settled into the shelter and had some of the
corn bread, Meradith had packed for him, it was
a bit stale, but substantial, because of his hunger. Shadow lay down and Ivan put one of his
blankets over the horse, the other he put over
himself, he lay as close to Shadow as he could for
warmth. It did not take him long to fall asleep.

To be continued .........