thearena | Reunion [open]

Current Location: arena 4 - forest

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Reunion [open]

WHO: Eliot Spencer, Lindsey McDonald and OPEN to anyone else who stumbles across the scene
WHAT: Eliot finally tracks his brother down. Or is it the other way around?
WHEN: majorly backdated toa day or two after the Cornucopia
WHERE: somewhere in the forest
WARNINGS: none that I can think of

Eliot opened his eyes and pushed the netting off of his face. He rolled out of the sleeping bag and began packing his camp site away, leaving the traps he'd set around the perimeter for last. He hadn't seen Lindsey's face in the sky last night which was good. Now he just had to find him. That was, likely, going to be the challenge. He never had managed to find Momoko in the last arena. He opened a can of what turned out to be some kind of beef stew to eat as he walked.

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Eliot walked through the woods, hand on his ax. It wasn't terribly long before he heard footsteps. He dodged behind a tree, pulling the ax free of his belt. If it was a friend, great, but he'd been taken off guard twice and didn't intend to let that happen this time.

Lindsey sensed before he heard the presence of someone else. Clutching his small knife tightly, he tried to move himself to a more defensible spot, unknowingly passing by Eliot without having seen his brother hidden behind the bend of the tree.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the snap of a twig all too close behind him. Instinctively he turned, striking out with his blade before he thought to see who or what it was.

Eliot felt the attack more than anything else and spun out of the way. His axe came up, just defensively for now. He was ready to attack if they didn't back off. And then he saw their face. "Lindsey?"

Thank the lord that his brother had good reflexes. "Eliot!" Dropping his arm quickly, Lindsey took a step back and broke into a genuine smile. He hadn't thought he'd find his brother again before this hellish game was over. "I never thought I'd find anyone in these forests."

Eliot tucked his axe into his belt with a grin. "Yeah, these arenas can be like that," he admitted. "Could be worse, though. At least there's water and food here."

"You mean the... things that run through here?" Lindsey had seen them, they didn't look like any animal he ever saw back home. Rather, they did, if they joined up the X-men. "I got a few cans... ate one already though. I was thinking of eating another soon."

"Not just them," Eliot pointed out. "There's berries and other plants in the forest. Or there should be, anyway. Besides, we could be stuck living offa rats. Hang on to those cans. Save 'em for if we can't hunt or cook some night."

"Berries... and other plants. Eliot, I'll say I can't hunt or cook right now. I don't know a poison berry from a sweet one." Frowning, he looked back at his brother. "If you asked me which ones can be used to cause amnesia in a witness, that I'll know."

Eliot couldn't help a laugh. "That really doesn't surprise me," he teased. "You never could tell the difference. Between food and something that'd kill ya. But ask ya to come up with a way to make the teacher forget to tell the principal he gave either of us detention?"

"Really? Nostalgia at a time like this?" Although even Lindsey's lips did lift slightly in the beginnings of a grin. "Well, that still doesn't take away the fact I'm hungry. If you want me to save those cans, you're going to have to find something else to feed me, and fast."

"Why not? And I can get something to eat in two minutes in these woods. Of course, then you'll have to eat it raw unless you can wait to cook it."

"Two minutes?" Lindsey gave Eliot a dubious look that showed he clearly didn't think much of those words. But then his brother didn't look like he was kidding and Lindsey frowned. "You're jokin' right? You can't even find the right plant in two minutes."

"Do I look like I'm joking?" He slipped his axe from his belt. He threw it at a nearby tree and walked over to pick up the axe and what looked like some kind of misshapen tree squirrel. "You were saying?"

Lindsey opened his mouth to speak, then looked at the squirrel and had to hand it to Eliot, his brother knew what he was doing in this place. Still, Lindsey would maintain Eliot had an unfair advantage with the axe.

"I'm not eating that raw."

Eliot smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Ya sure? Some of the best meals I've ever had were raw meat."

Lindsey gave Eliot a look that said his brother was clearly out of his mind. "Yeah, savage, fish. That's a dead X-Squirrel. I'm not eating mutant meat before we cook it."

Eliot gave a put-upon sigh. "If ya insist. In that case, ya wanna gather firewood while I skin this thing?"

Heaving a long pained sigh, Lindsey disappeared into the woods and did as he was told.

By the time Lindsey came back, Eliot had the squirrel skinned and ready to cook. He set it down on a tree root and began to set up the wood for a small fire. He pulled some bark off of a nearby tree for kindling. Then he grabbed a rock and used his ax to throw sparks onto the wood. In a few minutes, he had a fire just hot enough to cook with.

He came back with some small sticks and then some larger chunks of wood, mostly dry since he couldn't chop down anything live anyway. He set the armload down and spent some time brushing the dirt off his arms.

"Is it safe to light a fire? I thought we're trying to avoid people."

"It's safer during the day. People are less likely to notice a fire when it's already light, especially if you use dry wood and don't through leaves or grass on it."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lindsey set the wood down beside it and let Eliot deal with the sticks. He didn't know much about starting fires and decided now wasn't the best time to learn.

It didn't take Eliot long to get a small fire going. He stripped the bark off of an extra stick and used it as a spit to roast the squirrel. "Your breakfast, Linds," he said, handing it to his brother once it was cooked.

Lindsey picked at it, then looked up at his brother. It was so strange, the two of them together like this after all these years. "You want some of this?"

Eliot shook his head. "I'm good for now. Already ate somethin' this morning."

Shrugging, Lindsey tore into the mutant squirrel meat. It was bland and stringy and he grimaced as he ate.

"This can use salting." Not that there was any and he knew that, but it required saying anyway.

"And probably more than just salt. Some curry, a little coriander..." It was really too bad he couldn't bring his spice collection into the Arena with him.

"Mint?" Lindsey asked. It was one herb that he knew that was quite normally found in the wilderness. But on second thought, he wasn't sure the meat would taste any better with mint. "Nevermind."

"Not for squirrel," Eliot replied. "It'd go with lamb or goat, though."

"Well, sor-ry. I've never had mutant squirrel before." Lindsey scrunched up his nose at Eliot then went back to chewing on the cooked meat. Honestly, he was hungry enough to not care.

"Ya also can't cook to save your life." He couldn't resist teasing his brother.

"I don't usually need to cook." Alright, and he really couldn't cook, or produce food either, to save his life.

"That's the problem with workin' a fancy job like yours. Ya get spoiled and can't do things for yourself." He ruffled his brother's hair to complete the older brother act.

Lindsey shook his head out from under Eliot's hand with an annoyed look. "I'm not a kid anymore, Eliot."

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Reunion [open]

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