Internally Driven, Ben Burton [general ebook reader .txt] 📗

never actually verbally pointed out that his brother had been wrong in this case, but the playful smirk he shot him every time he passed him the pouch was much more gratifying than any words that could be exchanged. The fish was eaten for sustenance and strength, not taste, but often times, on their travels, they were so hungry by the time they ate that almost anything they ate was savored and and even at home, they would miss the subtle tastes of the different woods that would make their way into the meals they cooked while traveling. Night had fallen, and the small light from their modest fire died out. It was not a particularly cold night, and the light, though small, was still an unnecessary risk for heat they did not need. Dirk rising before the sun, as he always had, put a few pieces of small wood and dry leaves over the ashes of their small fire, and uncovered a few still warm coals that had been covered by ash. With a few breaths the fire came back to life. He went to the tree he had climbed the night before, and even before checking the trap he climbed it once more. It was still too dark for most people to see anything from any distance, but Dirk had trained himself, and even with just the dim light of the not yet risen sun, he could see what he was looking for. This morning, he did not see any suspicious movements, changes in landscape, or torches. Satisfied he climbed down and checked the trap, inside, with the blade lodged between the left hind leg and abdomen was a rather large hare. He pulled it out and brought it with him as he checked the second trap at the base of the huge tree towering over the north side of their camp site. In this trap all that was found was an uneaten fish tail and a few new scratch marks around the top of the trap. A couple tufts of fur and the very end of a tail that looked like it was once attached to a squirrel like creature was lodged between the end of edge of the door and the bottom of the trap. It looked like it was going to be a small breakfast for the brothers. He carried the hare to the camp and started to skin it.

Drake woke up rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The woods messed with his allergies, and his eyes were quite productive leaving crust around the inside of his eyes every time he slept outdoors, but for the most part that was the extent of his allergies, just an annoyance. At times he woke up with a nose that did not want him to breathe normally, but a quick face wash and a little walking cleared things up quickly. He looked over to see his brother working fast on the animal, and noted that he truly was a skilled adventurer. Then he noticed, although Drake had already removed the head, that the animal had large rear legs and an odd shape that was not the typical weasel or canine type of animal, they typically caught. "What did we catch last night?"

"A hare. The other trap was empty. Whatever tripped it got away." Dirk replied without looking up.

"That's odd isn't it?"

"It happens sometimes. Looked like some sort of rodent type. They are fast. The trap is still good but..."

Drake interrupted him, "No, I know that happens, I'm talking about the hare. We don't normally catch hares do we? I didn't think they ate fish."

Dirk stopped immediately and looked up at his brother. "They don't." Drake, genuinely surprised by his brother's reaction stopped rubbing his eyes and looked at his brother. The concern was set deep in Dirk's face and Drake knew they would be going hungry this particular morning. However, the expression looking back at him led him to believe that hunger was the least of their worries. After a few moments, Dirk got up, leaving the half skinned hare in the dirt at his feet, and walked to the trap the hare had come from and inspected it closer. Nothing seemed out of order, but he knew that it was always better to error on the side of caution. He carefully picked up the trap and carried it down to the stream where he cleaned it more thoroughly than he normally would, and called back "Get that other trap and bring it here. We need to get moving. If we leave now and make good time, we will be in town by lunch and be able to put something in our bellies. Just make sure you don't gather any berries or plants from these woods. There must be a reason that the hare chose fish over flora."

While Dirk carefully and meticulously cleaned the traps and his knife, Drake took up the slack repacking the fire tent and two thin leather sheets used as padless sleeping mats.. He then carefully spread the fire and took care to cover signs of their presence as best he could. It would of course be easy to tell that someone had been there if they happened across the site, but someone just passing buy or traveling down the stream would most likely not take notice. He then helped his brother breaking down and packing up the traps once they were cleaned, and the two made haste through the forest following the route they had taken to get to the site. The road may have been closer if they tried to find a direct route to thee road, but attempting to shorten their trip by only twenty to thirty minutes could prove to add hours to their travel, or run them into perils that they simply could not afford.

Less than two hours past day break the brothers found the road they had traveled the night before. Though he did not say anything, Dirk took note of the road. Something did not seem right to him. There was nothing that he could pin point at the time, and the last time he had seen this part of the road, it had been dark. As they started their way down the road Dirk looked around them, constantly scouting, looking, listening for some clue that would put the unease in his stomach to rest when he heard a distant low growl. He froze still as stone and quickly commanded Drake to do the same. As he listened, the sound continued. He could not tell what direction it was coming from, it seemed to be all around them, but sounded so low that it could not be close. Drake opened his mouth do speak, but Dirk shot him a glare that communicated that silence was vastly more important than being still. Drake started to look around also, but did not know what he was looking for. The sound seemed to be getting closer, and lower; not just in volume, but almost like the creature may be traveling underground. Dirk quietly laid down and pressed his ear to the ground. Unable to hear anything unordinary from the earth, he quickly but silently got up and and went to the edge of the road where stones had been scattered. Selecting a particularly flat stone, he inspected it for the smoothest surface and placed the stone on the ground with the smooth surface facing up. He laid down pressing his ear to the stone and stayed on the ground for several minutes before Drake quietly approached. "Shouldn't we be getting the hell out of here Dirk? What do you hear?"

"It's not getting any closer. It seems irregular, but I haven't heard anything in a few minutes. I'm not sure if the creature is underground, or if it's even a creature. I don't remember ever hearing a growl like this one. Get down here and listen with me." Drake placed the two packs on the ground near Dirk and found a stone of his own to use. He laid down only a couple feet away and started to listen. Only a few moments went by before they heard the growl again. "Did you hear it?"

Drake quickly got up, not being careful to keep quiet and swiftly kicked his brother in the side. "You may be brilliant traveler, and decent tracker, but you are a half brain dead buffoon when you're hungry! Get up. Getting to the next town and putting food in your belly is the only thing that's going to stop THAT growl from following us." It took Dirk a few seconds to realize what Drake was telling him; he was half brain dead.

As they continued down the road, time seemed to slow down. The sun can up and hung in the sky beating down on them. The mild warm nights had amazing merits, but the benefit of warm nights usually meant grueling days. At times, the cold, almost unbearable nights were welcomed by the promise of cool easy traveling while the sun was up. The heat, coupled with the lack of food, made the brothers count each step, and dread each stretch of road that seemed to never end. As some consolation, at least there were not threats that could be perceived, past starving to death, which was not really a true treat, but only a very uncomfortable inconvenience. However, the lack of threats, was not necessarily a gift. Truly dangerous threats were obviously unwelcome, but the occasional traveler or rider was normal and very mild 'threat' that kept Dirk and Drake on their toes. This road, though not the busiest road they had traveled, was still normally well used, and the two of them had yet to cross paths with a single living creature, human or otherwise, in the three to four hours (it was getting hard to keep track, as it had felt like a full day had passed) they had traveled. The day before, there was rarely a single hour between sunrise and sunset that did not bring another traveler into their path. That was not the only thing that was strange, but whatever was making Dirk and Drake's stomachs uneasy, beyond the hunger, was something they could not quite identify.

A few hours had past and the seemingly endless unchanging road opened up to signs of an approaching town. Farms along the sides of the road seemed to appear out of nowhere. Though they did not see any horses, sheep, pigs or any other animals out on the farms, they could hear them moving around in the barns and coops. It was a particularly hot day, and the sun was beating down harshly, and as hot as the barns and coops were during days like these, most animals would rather be under a roof that protected them from the rays. It was much too late in the day for the farmers to be out tending the farms. Manual labor on a farm was already brutal, but during the heat of the season, necessity drove farmers to accomplish the tasks in the early morning, usually before the sun even rose. Many farmers took to night farming, and learned to complete their chores entirely before breakfast was on the table. Oddly however, the crops did not look the same, seeming to have deeper green leaves and more vibrantly colored vegetables, Drake and Dirk had been working on their own family's minimal farm for years, and though it was a small farm, and not their source of livelihood, their crops had never looked so healthy and rich. For a fleeting moment, Dirk had thought about taking some particularly bright green pears from a tree on the edge of an orchard as they passed, or sneaking in to take a few tomatoes from another farm a little ways up the road, but as hungry as he was, theft was not in his nature, and they had the coin to