Silent Graves

With everyone back at camp, the boys took to discussing the food they'd brought back with them, almost tripping over each other as they spoke. It was an exciting time for them, coming together to make their meal as good as it could be. Usually, it was just one or two of them going off together. Never before had they been allowed off on their own like they had been today. It was a good experience for them.

"Okay, boys," smiled Open Skies, stepping out of his tent. "We're all back in one piece, with baskets full of good food. We checked to make sure it was all safe to eat, right?"

"I made sure mine was safe to eat," smiled Star. "Tasty stuff, too."

Nestor nodded in agreement. "Almost everything I have can be found at any supermarket."

"And Star helped me with mine," finished Red. "We're in safe hooves."

"Well, it's not quite ready yet," said Open Skies, shaking his head. "First, you have to wash it all. And since we don't have a sink, you know what that means."

The boys let out a collective groan. They would need to go down to the creek and wash them in the freezing cold water. If it were later in the year, and the creek was warmer, that would be a different story, but it was the middle of spring. That water was only just thawed. Still, it had to be done.

They grabbed two tarps that they knew were clean and their baskets. The baskets doubled as colanders in which they could wash everything, but they would have to do it in steps. If the basket was full, there wouldn't be enough water flowing through to wash anything. Knowing that this had to be done, and knowing it would go faster if they decided roles ahead of time, Star turned to the other two.

"So, we know that nopony wants to do the washing," he said. "That said, we can decide like civilized adults who wi--"

"Not it!" shouted Nestor and Red in unison, quickly pulling their hooves up to their noses.

"Damn it..." sighed Star, shaking his head. "Fine, I'll go. But I reserve the right to assign you two as I see fit for my trouble."

"Fine by me," smiled Nestor. "The other jobs may be boring, but I'll take either of them over that freezing water."

"You'll be doing the running, and Red will be doing the sorting. Now, let's finish this up so we can go back and eat."

They set up the tarps, then dumped everything out of their baskets onto one, leaving the other empty. They loaded a hoofful of food into Star's basket, then he went to go wash it in the stream. As he did, Red and Nestor prepared the second basket. Nestor brought the second basket to Star, and took the basket of cleaned greens back to the clean tarp and dumped them. As he returned to Red, the third basket was ready to go, and the first was ready to be refilled. They cycled like this until the tarp of dirty food was emptied and the tarp of clean food was full. Stuffing the food haphazardly back into their baskets, they rushed back to camp, eager to have their dinner.

Open skies had set up a prep table while they were gone, as well as four foil pouches in which he would cook their dinner. He'd just finished cleaning his knife and was prepared to chop up everything the boys had brought. It's not that he didn't trust them, merely that he thought it would be good to let the boys relax a little. He knew they liked to talk about their trading card game, and since there wasn't much use watching birds without light, he was going to let them talk until bedtime. They were young; they deserved to have some fun with their friends.

Sure enough, as soon as they were back, they all sat down and began discussing their cards again. Open Skies shook his head and chuckled. He didn't understand the game, nor did he really want to. He was just glad the boys were having fun.

Truth be told, there was a reason he didn't want to spend too much time at home. He and his wife had been fighting, and he thought some time apart to cool off would do them both some good. He'd long been suspecting that she was seeing another stallion, and after seeing her hugging the beet vendor a little too amorously, he'd become progressively angrier. He wanted to forgive her, he really did, but he couldn't move past it. At any rate, he wasn't going to file for a divorce yet. He looked over to his son, the reason he had stayed. He loved his son, and he didn't want to hurt him with this news.

He shook the thoughts out of his head and continued to chop the food up. He had spent a lot of time with the boys, and knew how they liked their packets. Nestor, for example, had an irritable bowel. He added in a bit more lemongrass to his for the extra fibre. His son, Stargazer, didn't like the taste of daisies very much, so he left all of them out of his pouch. Likewise, Red Cap didn't like mushrooms, so he wasn't given any. There were no alterations to his own meal, as he wasn't particularly picky.

The pouches has a little bit of cooking oil added to keep everything from burning, and were sealed up tight to keep everything inside of them, and the coals out. They were marked O, S, N and R to ensure that everyone would receive the right pouch and tossed them all directly onto the hot coals. While the boys went on and on about their trades and such, Open Skies began cleaning up. It didn't take very long, so after that, he plucked a long strand of grass, placed it between his hooves, and played a short tune on his grass kazoo.

After about forty minutes, flipping it at every five, the pouches were full of cooked food. Everypony took their pouches and ripped open the top, spilling the contents into their camping plates. For a time, the only sound to be heard was the crackling of the fire and the scraping of forks against wooden plates. When all was eaten, save the four grapefruits that had been put aside for breakfast, everpony was happily fed as they retired to their tents for the night.