Marriage is Murder

"Good. You're mixing it up. That's good. I'll work with Kate, then," Lee said, "If Jess and Angus can survive a couple hours."

"Not a problem" Angus said, finishing his arrows for his longbow.

"Then Jack and Steven can take the breakfast shift," Lee said. "Angus?"

"Jess and I will take the first watch," Angus replied.

"Let's take the 1 to 4 shift," Kate said.

"Good thought," Lee said. "I can work with that. That leaves Jim and Cassidy for 10 til 1. Does that work for everyone?"

"Sounds like a good plan," Kate said.

"We'd better get more wood," Angus said. "Those gray clouds are going to bring snow."

"They certainly are," Lee said. "And you're right. We dont' want our guards having to leave the fire in the dark to find wood. Alright. You've all done well. So I'll add an extra bonus." He opened his bag and drew out a bag that neatly fit into the palm of his hand. When he restored it to its natural size, it proved to be a 10 pound bag of potatoes. And with it he put in a tin that had smaller tins inside--salt and a few herbs and spices." That should help a bit," he said.

"Potatoes," Angus grinned. "Brilliant! You wouldn't have any butter in there, would you, Mate?"

"Nope. Sorry."

"That's alright. If we save the fat from our game, that will add flavor," Kate said.

"Not much fat in fish," Angus said.

"I thought you were going hunting," she scowled at him.

"Ah, thats' Kate-speak for Angus, go get meat," he laughed.

Jim chuckled and stood up with his now dry bow and arrows up from the ground and walked over to Angus " ready?" he asked " no man or woman should go out at night alone " he said looking at lee as he looked at the others too. Jess nodded she was all right with the guard duties.

"I om with that " she said and they others said the same thing they were happy with the arrangement of duties. Jim paced as he knew meat would be nice with the potatoes but he waited for Angus to be ready so they would move off together to find meat to cook.

"I'm ready," he said, standing up. "I'll get more wood when I get back, Kate. Stay by the fire."

"You're a lovely young man to worry but I do believe I did not freeze to death," Kate smiled at him, patting his arm. "Go. And enjoy yourself. I know you like hunting."

"Sometimes," he smiled. She pulled the string out of the hood on her coat and lashed his arrows together since he had no quiver. "Thanks," he said, taking them from her. He looked at Jim. "Shall we?"

"Try the thickets down in those trees," Lee said, pointing down a hill into a thick, dark bunch of trees grown close together. Angus nodded and looked at Jim. "Be back by dark or you'll have a devil of a time getting back," Lee warned. "You've got about 4 hours before sundown."

"We'll manage," Angus said. He headed in the direction that Lee had pointed.

"More coffee, anyone?" Lee asked.

"A warm up please," Kate asked. "It does cool off a lot faster out here."

"That it does," Lee laughed, refilling her cup.

Jim nodded to Angus and chuckled as he took Kate's hood tie to hold his arrows together . Jim smiled and picked up his three holding them in his hand as he moved with Angus. Cassidy moved for a refill.

"yeah it does, barely finish it and its cold " she said smiling she'd found she liked Coffee especially black thought still bitter it was hot and wet and she eventually would get use to it. Jess offered her cup for more jack though staid to one side of the group poking the fire and adding more wood if it needed it. Steven moved to pull more branches to one side of the shelter he'd noticed a small gap that could let in cold air and snow, looking up he felt the first snow fall against his face.

" ok here comes the snow " he siad .

"Yep," Lee said, noticing how large the flakes were. He refilled their cups. It was going to get deep and cold quick. In the back of his mind, he was wondering about either returning their powers or calling it off. This was starting to look to him like a storm. "Looks like you might get to prove how tough you are without your powers before morning. Hope you're up for it."

"Not a problem," Kate said.

"I'm going to find more firewood," Lee said. "We're definitely going to need it. Anyone want to come? I'd like to double what we have, if we can." He took his own plastic tarp to use to drag wood back, and grabbed his hatchet. "When the wind increases, it will be tougher to keep a fire and it will burn through the wood quicker. We'll have to have more."

Steven looked at Lee and nodded " I'll come with you" he said grabbing his own tarp and carrying it " two people twice as much wood " he said following him out into the woods, Jess moved closer to Kate as did Cassidy Jack moved over to them and handed her one of the sleeping backs in fact it was his own he'd given them.

"Best to keep warm " he said " I don't fell it like you guys do" he moved to place more wood on the fire before he sat down. Jess stood up and moved to sit with him holding him close.

" body warmth only " she said looking up at him he looked at her and nodded.

Angus knew how to creep through the forest undergrowth without making much noise. Even so, the snow was going to crunch a bit under his feet. That was unavoidable. There was no being entirely silent in this stuff. Not without magic. They'd been out only abot 30 minutes when Angus saw a large buck with a fine set of antlers. But he didn't have a good shot at it. The buck was smelling humans already. He was nervous. Angus looked over and saw Jim had a much better angle. Angus hated to kill the magnificent beast but it was that or starve. He motioned to Jim to take the shot. What Angus didn't want was to try to take a bad shot and leave the animal suffer. If it could be done cleanly, instantly, then it wasn't going to be him. Not today. Jim had the shot. Angus did not.

Lee took Steven the opposite direction to a part of the woods in the other direction from where Kate had gone. There were a lot of burned trees in the heart of a thicket. The nice thing was that the wood was dry here. "We had a fire here in the fall," Lee said. "Kieran was on it quickly, but we didn't have time to clear it before winter weather hit. So this nice dry wood has been sitting here aging all winter. I think if we just collect it, we could be warm for a week at least. What do you think?"

Jim looked at Angus as they moved he looked over an stopped in his tracks he saw a large buck in front of him looking at Angus he knew what he had to do slowly he took an arrow and took aim letting an arrow fly he hit it and it went down into the snow taking out his knife he ran over cutting its neck he held it still while he let the blood flow into the ground. Jim looked at Angus " hes a big one " he said.

Steven followed Lee and noted the snow around them already an inch deep, he helped fill one tarp with wood and smiled when Lee said it would burn for a week " well at least it will be warm "he said and took a corner of the tarp. puling it with him now over the snow witch was easier than over undergrowth.

"Good shot," Angus said. He helped Jim process the carcass quickly and then buried the residue in the snow and in the undergrowth. He used his own plastic tarp to load the ample supply of meat onto. "Well, that would feed us for a long time. They won't have to fish in the morning unless they want to. And if we're careful about how we keep it food safe, it will be a lot of meat to feed the others in the main house when we're done with this exercise. Did I miss anything?"

Lee helped Steven collect a huge supply of firewood and helped him return it to camp and stack it on the wood pile. He fueled the fire into a large, warm bonfire that would keep them warm even if the wind kicked up. He noticed the daylight was fading.

"We need to get the potatoes ready to cook and then fix whatever they bring back as soon as they get back," he said. "I don't know how much longer the weather will hold."

Jim looked around and shook his head " nope I think we got it all unless you want the antlers for you wall ?" he said chuckling as he took hold of the tarp and pulled with Angus to take it back to the camp.

Steven nodded as he pulled the tarp with the wood stacking it with Lee close to the fire, " if we had a pot or something to cook them in " he asked just as Jack handed him a large pot Jim looked at him and took it handing it to lee to use for the potatoes hoping Jim and Angus would have something else to add to it. he smiled seeing them return " wow nice catch " he said helping drag the meat to the pot.