Over The Top: Going Wild

Spotty had thrown his entire rubber mat onto the fire. It blazed brilliantly, lighting up the darkness with a deep red glow.

"Burns well doesn't it!" Spotty shouted.

"What did you do that for?"

"I don't know!" said Spotty.

Pundi and I stood by the fire as the last of the mat was consumed by hungry flames.

"What are you going to sleep on?" asked Pundi.

"Your mats!" said Spotty.

"But they're ours!" I protested.

Spotty pulled a large pocket knife from his back pocket and unfolded the largest blade.

"I want them." he said.

Pundi and I backed away again. We seemed to be always backing away. We didn't want to tangle with a knife. We hauled our mattresses out and passed them to Spotty, who took them with a satisfied grin.

"I thought you'd see it my way." he said.

We didn't sleep very well that night. Every stone and bump in the ground seemed to gather underneath us. I lay back in mild pain, chewing on one of my candy bars. Pundi seemed to be asleep. I called to him but he didn't answer. I lay there for a while, wondering how on earth anyone could sleep on the ground.

Pundi was up very early the next day. He had a fire going before I crawled out of my tent. He had a pot on the fire, balanced on some stones he had gathered. He was making soup.

When Spotty came out of his tent, the first thing he did was walk over and sniff the stuff in the pot. It smelled delicious.

"That's for me, isn't it?" he said.

"Yes" said Pundi, "Have as much as you like"

Spotty took the pot and a spoon and sat beside the fire, slurping. Pundi went back to his tent and ignored him.

"This is crazy!" I whispered.

"I know" Pundi whispered back.