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While Eron went out for wood, Shoneah put the rest of the dragon meat in the scales to keep them off the ground. It was a pity it was a coniferous forest, she mused sadly. If it had been deciduous they could have used leaves to wrap the meat, but as it was the meat and everything else they would be taking with them would simply have to go loosely into Eron's case.

Once that task was done, however, she set about creating a small shelter for them, hacking long branches off of nearby trees and leaning them together to create a sort of wall/roof. It wasn't much, but it was the best they would get, for tonight at least.

When Eron returned, she was still working on the shelter, and she acknowledged his presence with a silent, grim smile.

"That should be big enough," she murmured when she finished, eying her work. It was large enough that she would be able to curl up in it, and she was more than half a foot taller than Eron, so she figured he would fit as well - and as she'd pointed out, since one of them needed to keep watch at all times, it would only have to fit one of them.

Shoneah stiffened when Eron asked his question, though she tried to hide it. She turned her eyes to the darkening sky above them, and in her native dialect she murmured, "Give me strength."

Then she turned to Eron and explained. "While one of us sleeps, the other of us stays awake and out of the shelter. Tends the fire, makes sure it doesn't to out ... listens very carefully for noises that shouldn't be there. Voices. Footsteps. Animals. People. Watch. Listen. Protect."

She couldn't believe that she was explaining what a watch was, of all things. To her, it was one of the most basic jobs, no matter where a person was. There were always things to watch out for. It was a matter of protecting the tribe!

A light breeze picked up, and she closed the snaps on the front of her blouse. "The most important thing is staying awake," she said, a bit more calmly. "If both of us are asleep, anything could happen and we would be dead before we knew it. And I don't mean just physically awake - I mean remaining mentally alert. Not letting your mind wander, thinking about other things."

She sighed. "That's the hard part," she added softly. "Keeping focused."

It was so easy to let one's mind wander from sheer boredom - hour upon hour of silence, being unable to do anything other than listen and look.

"Might I suggest two hour shifts?" Shoneah suggested, sighing. "Time enough to rest but not so long to stay awake. We'll each end up taking a few shifts through the night, but ... hopefully it'll be enough."

She looked around at their small campsite. The lean-to was finished, but the parts of the dragon still needed tending before they would be able to be put away.

"Why don't you rest first," she suggested, her tone softer now. "I'll finish smoking the dragon meat so that we can take it with us when we go, and take care of the rest of it as well, maybe see about making you a weapon of some sort."

As soon as Eron lay down, Shoneah got to work. Keeping alert for anything that might be approaching them, she started on her long list of things to do.

Stoke the fire.

Set meat to smoking.

Weapon for Eron.

Clean her sword.

Store the meat, set new meat to smoking.

Dispatch a raccoon that tried to steal some of their food.

Skin and clean it. Prepare it for smoking.

And so on.

By the time Shoneah felt that she'd finished enough that it was safe for her to rest for a while, four hours had passed rather than the proposed two, but she didn't mind. She was tired, but she had accomplished quite a bit, and it had helped to keep her warm. Still, she needed her rest, so when the moon was high in the sky, she shook Eron's shoulder to wake him up.

Shoneah closed her eyes to keep from rolling her eyes, which she was severely tempted to do.

"I was busy," she replied quietly. "We have a bit more meat than we expected. If you're thirsty, I left some raccoon blood in one of the scales for you."

She pulled one pistol from its holster and held it out to Eron. "Here. Emergency only, bullets are limited. Don't go shooting at every sound you hear. And there will be a lot of them - insects, owls, raccoons, maybe even bigger ones. If there's something that needs killing but isn't dangerous - like the raccoon I killed - use this instead."

She unsheathed her sword, but kept her hunting knife in its sheath in the back of her pants. She wanted something to defend herself with if necessary.

"Listen for frogs," she added, holding the hilt of the sword out to Eron. "I haven't heard any yet, but if there are any, they could lead us to water."

She thought through what she'd told him, and then she nodded, satisfied that she'd covered everything that needed covering.

"Any questions?" she asked, just in case.

Shoneah nodded and, taking the pelt of the raccoon she'd skinned, she laid down in the lean-to, pulled the pelt over her back for some protection from the cool night, and tried to sleep.

Her sleep would be a fitful one, and every so often she would wake, glance about to check on Eron, and then drift back into sleep again.

Shoneah was still tired when she finally woke for the day, which really came as no surprise, considering how little she'd slept and the poor quality of sleep she'd had when she did manage to nod off. Nevertheless, it wasn't until she heard Eron muttering that she forced her eyes open and sat up.

"What's odd?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep. She rubbed her eyes and stretched before crawling out of the lean-to.

Shoneah frowned as her tired brain tried to figure out what he meant. Longer days? That couldn't be ...

... could it?

"Magi?" she repeated, her voice cracking slightly. "What for? And how can the days be longer?"

Sure it felt longer, as the night had felt longer; but she had attributed that to the stress and anxiety of finding herself so far from home all of a sudden, without any explanation.