Ch 9

                                    

                                          
"Took you long enough" Kayla said putting the rest of the black berries in the bag. "Sorry. How much do you have?" I said as I was peering into the bag full of plants. "all of the berries on this bush." I nodded "Lets go farther upstream." I follow Kayla through the rocks "What if we come across a snake?" she asked. I shrugged my shoulders "Kill it, its food." I said. Kayla shot me a look of disgust.  I mimicked her, she rolled her eyes at me. We made our way through the rocky terrain, Mo and Minnie froze and started to growl. I follow their gaze to find out that they were facing off with a copper head. One of the most poisonous snakes. I walk over to them and pulled them back by their collars. "Hey Kayla. Remember when you asked me what we would do if we came across a snake?" She stopped and turned around quickly "Yeah, why?" She asked. Still watching the snake I said "Come here and get the dogs." She scurried over to my side and silently took the collars out of my hands. "Now back up." She backed three paces back. My eyes trained on the snake I pull out my knife, it's small but it will have to work. It hissed and flashed off it's fangs. It coiled up and lashed out at me, I jump to the side bouncing on my toes.   Mo and Minnie growling behind me, reminding me that I have back up. It coils again for a second strike, as it jumps at me again I lash my knife out and make contact with its worm like body. Kayla screamed as I step on its head and stab the knife through its neck, cutting the head off. "You killed it!" she yells. I pick up the snake and lay it flat on a rock "Don't give it much thought, its food so it didn't die in vain." I say pulling the skin off, ¨We need to eat to survive.¨ I said setting the snake straight. "Are we going to have to eat the scales?" Kayla asked. I laughed "no we skin it."  Kayla looks back at the headless snake "Oh" she said. I pick up the snake and hand it to Kayla "Put it in your bag, we will skin it later." She takes it from my hands with two fingers and drops it into her bag. Mo and Minnie sniff at the head and I shoo them off, the poison could kill them if they ate the head. The dogs start to trot around sniffing at the earth, looking for something to get into. I turn back to the black berry bush and start to pick some more. 
                          
The sun has started to set and we have bags full of berries. Kayla looks at me with tired eyes and said "Can we go back now?" I look at the sun and nodded my head "lets go. Alex is waiting on us."