Flashback A Wild Experience

[Samuel Longwell]

A Wild Experience Date: 15th Fall, Year 499 Location: The Bronze Woods Samuel Thoughts Others Samuel eyed the horse warily as he ran the brush over its dark brown coat as he'd been shown. Preparing a horse for riding was the one part of being a squire he still hadn't gotten used to. The fact of the matter was that he was scared of getting kicked. He'd once seen a man kicked 10 feet by a restless horse, so the squire was constantly cautious around the big beasts. Samuel moved carefully round to the back of the horse, making sure to brush all the dirt he could see. Ser Brock, the knight in charge of this this training exercise, was a serious man that Samuel did not want to get on the wrong side of. The horse shuffled slightly and Samuel flinched, much to the amusement of a nearby squire. “You've got nothing to fear from old May,” the older squire sniggered, “she's as gentle as a mouse.” Samuel nodded dubiously, keeping his mind on the job. Once he was satisfied May was truly clean he saddled the mare and mounted up. Once aloft he felt much safer, he was far enough away from the legs to be able to relax. Several chimes later the small collection of knights and squires rode out of the city. The plan was to spend a night outside the walls in order to teach the squire some important survival techniques. Samuel was a little nervous, but overall was excited about the trip. He kept a loose grip on the reins, his body moving with the horse below him. It was ironic that although he was apprehensive around horses, riding was something he took to naturally. Samuel wondered if it was something he got from his grandparents, they loved horses. The group rode into the Bronze Woods and continued down the road for several chimes. Samuel spent that time focusing on his posture, he knew it was important for his body to be in the right position while riding. Eventually Ser Brock called for a halt. “We'll be setting up camp not far from her,” he said in his distinctive low voice, “so dismount and follow me through here.” Samuel was quick to obey, jumping down from May and leading her by the reins off the road.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others Samuel led his horse to a clearing, where the others in his group had stopped. Ser Brock gathered the squires round and his companion Ser Aonwey began to lecture on the basics of surviving outside a city. Ser Aonwey was a Chaktawe mage-knight that loved to tell stories, he was a firm favourite among the squires. “If there is one thing that I want you to remember above all else”, said the Chaktawe, “it's this motto. Find shelter, get water, start a fire. Those three things are almost always what you'll want to sort out first. There is a stream not far from here, so the other two are going to be the main focus of this exercise.” For the next several chimes the mage-knight demonstrated how to start a fire with flint and tinder, ensuring that the area was surrounded with rocks to reduce the risk of the fire spreading. Then flint and steel, a small knife, and little scraps of black cloth were handed out to each of the squires and they had to replicate the process. Samuel began by gathering some stones, protecting the surrounding area from the fire had been stressed as extremely important. Once he had formed a small circle of rocks he started to think about tinder. The black cloth had been referred to as char cloth and would be important for catching the spark produced by the flint and steel and transferring that heat to the tinder. Ser Aonwey had described the process of making it, saying that it was incredibly useful for helping to start fires. Samuel thought about the different materials that had been discussed as tinder. He decided that wood shavings would be easy enough to make and so grabbed a branch and began to scrape it along the wood. The result was a selection of irregular chips of wood that flaked away from the branch. Next was kindling, Samuel collected up a small bunch of sticks to fill that role. Finally he grabbed some more branches, they would provide the fuel. Satisfied with his preparation, Samuel decided to begin the fire.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others Samuel grabbed his piece of char cloth and sat down near his circle of stones. Then he remembered he needed to be upwind of the fire, another thing that the Chaktawe knight had stressed the importance of. Samuel guessed it made sense, you didn't want fire blowing back onto you. Samuel frowned, pulling himself back to his feet and knelt down. He placed the cloth on the flint and brought the steel in his right hand down onto the side of the flint. Nothing happened so he brought his hand up and struck the flint again. At that moment Ser Aonwey arrived at Samuel's shoulder. “Try and keep your wrist loose when you're striking with the steel.” he suggested to the squire. Samuel nodded and tried again, focusing on keeping his wrist loose. This time a spark came loose and landed on his char cloth. He let out a small exclamation of joy and started to blow on it. Fairly soon the char cloth started to glow. He smiled and continued to blow until the spark spread. Now to light the tinder. Samuel placed the glowing cloth into the the kindly and continued to provide the flames with oxygen. The kindling started to smoke and Samuel placed the twigs on top before continuing to blow. However he had been too hasty, the twigs suffocated the fledgling flame and the fire died before it even truly got started. So the young squire had to start again. The squires continued to practice lighting fires for a while until each of them had started a proper fire. Samuel glowed with pride when he finally got his first fire started, pumping the air with his fist. One fire was chosen to remain and the others were extinguished. The next job was to build a shelter. The squires were split into two groups, each group given some rope and assigned a leader. The idea was that each group of three squires would race the others to building a usable shelter for the night, which they would then have to sleep in. Samuel was chosen to be the leader for his team, so he needed to try to make the team work together efficiently.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others Samuel gathered the other two squires in his group and suggested a possible method for building a shelter. The others made suggestions and they refined the idea until they fixed on a plan. “Right, we need eight long strong branches. You two go and find some and I'll find a suitable tree.” Samuel said. The others nodded and dashed off. Samuel started searching through the nearby trees to find a tree with some low down branches. Once the first squire arrived back, Samuel asked her to start stripping the leaves off the branches she had found. The other squire arrived back fairly quickly, so Samuel sent him off for leafy branches to make a suitable covering for the shelter. Samuel found a decent tree and started to arrange the stripped branches around the tree. He joined the girl in stripping the remaining branches with his knife, then they finished the skeletal structure of the shelter. It would be a tight squeeze, but it would fit the three inside. The pair used the rope to fasten the stripped branches to the tree, making a mess with the knots but attaching them well enough. By this time the other squire had a large selection of foliage to cover the shelter in, which the squires proceeded to do. Finally finished, the group went and notified Ser Aonwey that they were done. He seemed pleased with their first attempt, particularly appreciative of the fact that they'd built it around a tree. “The other group tried to build a free standing structure, it would have more room but it's harder to get standing securely.” the knight said, “I would suggest having more leaves on top, otherwise heavy rain is still going to get you wet.” The squires nodded and did as he suggested, increasing the thickness of the roof to increase water resistance. They were then instructed to go and collect water from the nearby stream.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others Once they'd returned the water to the clearing it was put onto the fire to boil, which Samuel found interesting. He didn't think hot water would be pleasant to drink. When he asked it was explained to him that it was to remove any badness from the water, he shrugged. The water seemed clear enough, but he was happy to defer to the experts. It wasn't long until the other group of squires had finished their shelter and the next lesson began. “Now we have the three most important things down, we need to think about food.” the knowledgeable mage-knight said, “I'm going to show you how to make a simple trap and you're going to try and replicate it.” The next several chimes were spent watching as the Chaktawe showed how to make a noose that would hang the prey when they walked into it and the mechanism that would make it possible. Then the squires were told to go and try themselves. Samuel did his best to make a usable trap, but he found the whole process very fiddly. He managed to make a usable noose, but his attempts to make the rest of the trap were less promising. His structure would not stand in the correct position, no matter how hard he tried. He peered over at the nearest squire's effort, she had an effective looking trap already and was working on making another. Samuel tried to copy the process as she did it, which worked to some extent. He finally had something which looked vaguely like the trap they had been shown how to make. The young squire wasn't sure if it would actually worked at trapping an animal, but it wasn't bad for a first try. Once each of the squires had something that looked like a trap, their teacher started to explain good places to leave such traps. The Chaktawe led them round the forest not too far from the camp, pointing out possibilities for traps to go as he went. Samuel placed his trap in one of the locations and marked the area with a few cuts on the nearby trees with his knife. Once they''d all placed their traps the group went back to the clearing. “Now whatever you catch will be breakfast tomorrow,” Ser Aonwey said with a smile, “so I hope for all your stomach's sakes that you made a decent trap.” Samuel immediately wished he'd spent a little longer on his trap, he did not expect it to catch anything.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others The group gathered around the fire as the night drew in, Syna giving way to her lover. Leth's cold light combined with light given off by the flames meant the area around the clearing was still moderately well lit. The squires were instructed to prepare the dinner, another vital part of surviving in the wild. On the way back from laying the traps the group had picked up a variety of vegetation that would help flesh out the rations for the evening meal. Tomorrow morning Samuel decided he would try and find some more to eat for breakfast. Samuel sliced the stalks he had been asked to prepare with his small knife. He could already see why having a knife was so important out in the wild, grabbing one when he got back to the city would be an excellent idea. He added the sliced greens to the hot water, the beginning of a stew. Dried beef from the ration packs and the other vegetation that had been collected was added in. Samuel stirred the watery concoction, it didn't look particularly appetising. One of the knights produced some salt from his backpack, which was added to the dish as well. The watery stew was served with a hunk of hard bread, hardly the most inspiring meal. However it was the first meal Samuel had ever had a hand in preparing, so he was proud of it. Once the meal was finished the watch schedule was organised, each squire would keep watch with a knight. It was another important part of survival, but it was not something Samuel was looking forward to. Two bells of boredom where you had to force yourself to stay awake was not something he was looking forward to. Samuel had one of the middle watches, so went to bed not long after dinner. It took him a while to get to sleep due to the uncomfortable ground, but he eventually drifted off. It felt as if his eyes had just closed when he was roused by Ser Brock for their watch. Samuel nodded and extracted himself from the shelter as quietly as he could to avoid waking the others from his team. He moved to sit by the fire, blearily rubbing at his eyes.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others Ser Brock nodded slightly as Samuel sat down. “We're going to keep the fire going,” the serious knight said, “there shouldn't be too much risk of anything too dangerous this close to the city but it pays to be careful out here.” The next couple of bells were spent in quiet watchfulness, making sure that nothing hostile could sneak up on the group. Samuel didn't notice anything out of the usual and was relieved when he could go back to sleep. He was particularly glad there were so many people to take turns on watch, so he didn't have to miss too much sleep. He slept fitfully for the rest of the night, it seemed that every time he moved a new rock positioned itself to poke him in the back. It was a part of sleeping outside that would take some time getting used to. The sunrise was accompanied by a loud wake up call from the knights and so the squires dragged themselves from their makeshift shelters. Samuel examined the shelter he had constructed, it still seemed secure. It would possibly hold together for a few more days, but he wasn't sure. As promised, the group went to visit the traps to see what had been caught. Well over half the traps had something in them, but Samuel's trap was nowhere to be found. He searched around the nearby area, but there was no sign of the trap. The young squire frowned, Samuel had a good appetite and he was sure that he was going to be hungry due to his inferior trap making ability. Once back at the clearing the next job was to prepare the meat from the caught animals. One squire was particularly squeamish about skinning the squirrel he'd caught, so Samuel volunteered to do it in exchange for some of the meat. To Samuel's delight the other squire agreed. Under the watchful eye of Ser Aonwey, Samuel gutted and skinned the squirrel to the best of his ability. The job was messy, but Samuel eventually had several decent chunks of meat. The next job was to cook the meat, each animal on an individual fire. Samuel admired the idea. It meant the squires would have to practice a skill they had learnt the day before, therefore helping them to commit the process to memory.

[Samuel Longwell]

Samuel Thoughts Others Samuel mentally ran through the steps for making a fire, asking the squire who'd caught the squirrel to find some small twigs for the kindling. Samuel still had the flakes of wood from the last fire starting attempt, so he set up his char cloth and flint and steel as before. Samuel managed to get the fire started more quickly this time, patiently blowing and waiting for the fire to truly catch before moving onto the next step. Once the fire was up and running the squires pushed the meat onto sticks and held them over the fire to cook. “How about I go and find some more of the plants we ate last night while you hold my meat over the fire” Samuel suggested. The other squire nodded and so Samuel moved out into the forest to do some foraging. Several chimes later he came back with a couple of handfuls of greens, which he pushed onto the sticks with the meat. Once cooked, the two squires sat back and ate the modest fare. Samuel enjoyed the hot meat, it was a significant improvement over the broth from the night before. The greens were bland and still hard. They had clearly not been cooked enough but Samuel ate them anyway, thankful for the extra food. Once the group had eaten it was time to pack up. Samuel re-saddled May and packed his saddlebags with the stuff he needed to bring back to the city. The whole process took less than half a bell, then the knights and squires led the horses back to the road. They all mounted up swiftly, many of the squires were eager to get back to the relative comfort of the squire dormitories. Samuel felt differently, as he rode along the road he looked back on the experience with a smile. He would always remember fondly the first night he spent outside the city. Samuel rubbed May's neck idly as their bodies rocked gently together, the young squire adjusting his body almost unconsciously to the mount below him as he thought about all he had learnt over the last day.

[Dove Brown]

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Samuel Longwell

Skills

• Horsemanship 1
• Animal Handling 1
• Riding (Horse) 2
• Wilderness Survival 5
• Leadership 1
• Construction 1
• Foraging 1
• Negotiation 1
• Trapping 1
• Butchering 1
• Cooking 2
• Observation 2

Lores

• Survival: water, shelter, fire
• Starting a fire from scratch
• Haste smothers a fire
• Shelter: build around a tree
• Thicker roof sheds water better
• Wilderness Survival: boil water before using
• Trapping: making a simple snare
• Cooking: a broth of dried meat and greens
• Cooking: fresh meat on sticks over a fire

Comments: Remember to include all the senses for a more vivid scene. Detail will get you more points than a summary will. Otherwise, enjoy your grades.