Boot Camp for Heroes » Places

         

After washing his dishes in a huff James had gone back to his cabin to grab his day pack. 2 Water bottles a whistle and a compass joined his hoody and rain jacket. Looking at it all he strapped his machete, a gift from his uncle, to the side of the pack. Preparations complete he took a bearing and started walking into the surrounding forest. He had about an hour still until training, and having grown up in Canada and spent a lot of time in woods just like this he was confident in his ability to navigate them quickly. He had been walking for almost 15 minutes when he came across what he had been looking for, a small stand of red oaks, not yet mature most of them. He took his machete out and started chopping. After he'd cut down one of the larger saplings, just large enough to encircle it with his hands, he stopped. It was something he'd always wanted to try but had never had the materials or time to do. He set to shaving and shaping the wood, with 15 minutes left to get home it had just started to take shape. He was happy to be building a bow, archery had been one of his pastimes as a youth and it had always helped to center him. He started jogging back out of the forest, now that he'd found his way in getting back out was just as easy, the forest here was largely deciduous with all the open space that entailed. Scrub brush would grow, but the actual mature trees lacked the density of a coniferous forest like pine, or spruce. Those forests got people lost, sometimes forever.

He had just had time to put his stuff back when he ran into Noah, the boy from breakfast, both on their way their respective combat training classes. He went over quickly to address him.

"Hey man, listen, sorry about breakfast. It didn't have anything to do with you, I just don't like being pushed around. I was just mad at Jeremy. I know it was a bit childish. I'm James." He held out his hand.