Page 19 of Wolf's Whisper

Not bad, at all.

I glanced at Darren's construction. Somehow, he brought two pots, a grilling rack, and he had put up a roasting spit. Mmmm, roasted meat... I wouldn't say no to that.

Maybe staying one day longer wouldn't be the worst thing, if the boys went on a hunt and I got a nice piece of leg, I would allow them to stay in my camp a little longer.

I heard a low grumble and the pile of humans seemed to move. A sleepy Danny appeared from between the male bodies and to my delight, she looked like a rampaging horde of cows had just run her over.

Her hair was a mess, there was more than one twig sticking out of her ear, and sleep lines were embedded in her cheek.

Thank god, another messy sleeper.

I threw an angry look at the perfect pair of siblings that were now happily chatting away, looking even better than the day before.

Nobody should be allowed to wake up that pretty and perfect.

"Wake up, Darren!" I suddenly heard Aspen call from behind me. Regan seemed about as awake as a mountain that had awoken from being, well a mountain. JP, on the other hand, didn't seem to be too bothered by the morning as he was already splashing water in his face.

But Darren, well he didn't seem to be too fond of waking up. He pulled all the remaining furs over his head as he curled up into a ball. "Five more minutes."

I smiled, now that was more my style.

Danny touched Aspen on his shoulder. "Let me handle this."

She skipped over to Darren, poked him against the shoulder and lifted the furs. However, instead of waking him up, she crawled next to him with a happy "Night night, guys".

I chuckled again. What a random group of people. But I already loved them. I mean, how could I not?

"A-A-Akira? W-Will you collect s-some snow?" JP asked me, handing me the biggest pot of the set. "I-I'll start cooking up some b-breakfast."

I felt my stomach grumble. Yum, breakfast.

"Hey, I want to make breakfast!" A shout came from the heap of furs as Darren jumped up, suddenly wide-awake. He threw on a shirt and whilst jumping on one leg as he put on his boots, he took over JP's place at the fire.

JP happily handed him the spoon. "Works every time," he grinned at me, looking rather pleased with himself.

Not bad. So there was more to JP than just the stuttering, nervous, sweet-looking guy.

"Nice. And I will get you that snow, is that okay, Darren?"

"Yes, that is great," he vaguely answered as he was rumbling through his pack and seemed to conjure many different kinds of edibles. I felt my mouth water as I saw him pull out of sack of potatoes, a couple of strips of dried jerky, and surprisingly, a couple of eggs. How and why he carried eggs all the way with him, I didn't understand, but I wasn't about to question him. I would kill for some eggs!

"Akira, how do you like your eggs?" he asked me, like it was a given they were sharing their food with me. They had been with me the whole time and so far, I hadn't heard any of them discuss it, they all seemed to be in agreement that I was included in their eating arrangement now.

Well, I wasn't going to say no to that!

"Whichever way you’re making them," I answered, not really caring how they were made, as long as I got a portion of them. "Oh, I have a whole bag of freeze-dried vegetables with me." I added, deciding if they were going to share food with me, the least I could do, was offer my bag of cardboard veggies.

"Sounds great, throw em my way," Darren nodded as he started heating up his skillets and quartered his potatoes.

I rumbled in my backpack for the untouched bag of vegetables and threw them his way. He seemed rather happy with them and I wondered how he was planning on making them edible.

"You want a lot of snow?"

"Yeah, fill her up!"

"Right," I called back, grabbing the heavy pot as I wandered around the camp, looking for a nice pile of fresh snow that didn't have a lot of twigs and dirt in them. I already slept the whole night far too close to the ground, I didn't feel like eating it for breakfast.

It didn't take long before the air was filled with the delicious smell of food and a group of impatient people were hungrily staring at Darren. Not that I blamed them, I was one of them.

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