After a while Buddy untied the orcs, and slung the rope across his chest, sailor like.

“So… You guys are going to behave right?” [Buddy]

“... Yes!...” [Orcs]

“Ok, show the way to your home, and we’ll see how I can help you out.” [Buddy]

The three orcs went ahead through the forest, with Buddy following.

The grasses in between the trees were green, and Buddy didn’t notice any red grass anywhere. 

“Huh, maybe the hill I woke up on was special?” [Buddy]

“Hill special? [Orc1]

“Yeah, a few hours from here there is a hill where the grass is red, not green…” [Buddy]

The orcs stopped and looked at each other, then looked hard at Buddy.

“That hill of the Goddess - no orc, hue-man, or beast allowed there… magic barrier! You… were there?” [Orc1]

“Sure, I woke up on top of that hill… now that you mention it, I didn’t see any animals on it… but if it is Auntie Goddess’s hill than I guess that makes sense... Oy, is that what I think it is?” [Buddy]

Buddy strode over to a nearby tree with familiar looking fruits on it.

Plums!

Some were even just becoming ripe.

“Hey, do any of you guys have a bag, or a net? We can pick some of these here!” [Buddy]

“No bag… Is what that?” [Orc2]

“Plums! These are sweet yummy fruit. Here, catch! Don’t you guys eat fruit?” [Buddy]

Buddy tossed each of the orcs a plum, and bit into a ripe plum himself, the sugary juices dripping down his chin.

The orcs looked at the plums in concern.

"Not poison? We tried eat green of these before and... belly hurt all night..." [Orc3]

“You need to wait until they go purple and ripe! The green ones are not ready to eat. Now... Eat eat! It won’t kill you!” [Buddy]

The orc Buddy thought of as Orc1 took a ginger bite from the plum…

“Oh oh oh… sweet!” [Orc1]

“Well, I am starting to see another part of your problem - you don’t know what is edible and what not, do you? Hm… there is some long stiff grass over there. Here, let’s make a few grass bags, so we can harvest some of this for your clan…” [Buddy]

With that, Buddy wove a few primitive grass bags, complete with carrying handles.

The orcs watched but did not try to copy him.

“Well, maybe weaving isn’t one of your talents… Anyway, lets get as many of the ripe plums as we can. Don’t touch the ones that are green - you say you got tummy aches, and yeah, they are inedible - carefully pick only these purple ripe ones! Try not to bruise them, otherwise they go bad faster.” [Buddy]

There were two more plum trees near by, and half an hour later they had filled all the grass bags Buddy had made - there were enough plums to feed a dozen people for a couple of days. 

“Well, lets keep going. The sun is already past the noon mark.” [Buddy]

“We still not close, walk more…” [Orc2]

---

About an hour or so more, they reached a slow moving but wide river.

Wild reeds grew on this shore, and Buddy could see the silver glint of fish.

And right now they were standing at a handy bend in the river, which was a natural area for fish to gather in search of easy game in the form of insects hovering over the placid water.

“Do you guys catch fish?” [Buddy]

“Tried… they too fast…” [Orc2]

“And slippery… no can hold…” [Orc3]

“Tried spear and club - sometimes catch - usually not.” [Orc1]

“Tst… you either need a fishing rod, or in this case, why not build a trap? Hm, how far to your home from here?” [Buddy]

“Now, just over there, not far…” [Orc1]

The orc pointed at a tall reddish cliff that towered over the trees about what Buddy estimated was twenty minutes away.

“Good. Ok. Gather some sticks, about this thick, and this long… as many as you can find, and as straight as you can get.” [Buddy]

The orcs shrugged but didn’t argue, and spread out into the forest again.

While the orcs were gone, Buddy collected some mud and a small pile of the hardy reeds that resembled papyrus.

Some of the reeds Buddy split into strands and twisted them together into a sort of string.

This was something his grandmother had taught him - she had been a wilderness nut, and would drag him out to hike whenever she could.

And although in his life as a blacksmith he had never needed the skills drilled into him, Buddy was offering up a silent prayer of thanks in his grandma’s memory.

To think that she was right with saying “One day, you will thank me for this. It might not be tomorrow, it might not be in 50 years, but one day!”

Buddy wondered how surprised his grandma would be if she found out how right she had been.

Just not in any way a “normal” circumstance that she probably envisioned!

---

The orcs returned with a surprisingly large amount of dry and straight sticks of various lengths and thickness.

“Perfect guys! So this is how we make a simple fish trap! See this shallow and almost still area of the river? Fish like to come here to try and catch bugs that are on the water or close to the surface… oh look, there is one now…” [Buddy]

Just as Buddy was explaining, a long silver scaled fish hopped out of the water and skilfully caught a wasp like insect that had come too close to the water surface.

“Now… we are going to build a live trap - that means we can leave it for a few days and any fish caught will still be quite happy, and can still feed. Just they won’t be able to escape!” [Buddy]

With that Buddy removed his boots and socks, rolled up his pants up past his knees, and waded out into the cool water.

His reflection in the almost still water looked back at him.

<<Eh…? Who is this guy? He looks familiar… but it isn’t me… oh… I’m… I’m young again! Well, Auntie Goddess sure was super kind! Hm… I’m what now? Around fifteen? Huh... >> [Buddy]

Buddy thought about what he saw reflected as he worked, pushing the sticks a palm width apart into the mud in a large ellipse, with the long part of the ellipse being about ten cubits¹A cubit is the length from an average person's elbow to the tip of their fingers., and the thin part about seven cubits.

“Oy you guys, I think you get the general idea. Now, we need reeds - lots of them! We will be weaving the reeds into the sticks loosely, so that water can freely flow, and smaller fish can escape, but anything of a usable size will be stuck in the trap…” [Buddy]

“Get reeds, OK…” [Orcs]

The 3 orcs wandered a bit away to the reed patches on the edge of the river and started pulling out long reeds in bunches.

Every so often they would return to Buddy, who showed them how to loosely weave the reeds into the standing sticks - after the second time, Buddy let the orcs do the work themselves.

“Oy, not bad… there is an old saying my Grandma used to say - give an orc a fish, and it will feed him for a day. Teach an orc to trap fish, and it will feed him forever! That is what we are doing here, now.” [Buddy]

After a bit more than an hour with all four working, the trap was almost built.

“Ok, now just the final part - the entrances. With the size of this trap, we can make two openings, one at the up-river end, and one a bit off to the bank side. What we do is weave a sort of open ended cone, like so... Then install it with the large open part facing outwards, and the pointed stick side on the inside, like so. That way its a one way road for fish!” [Buddy]

And with that, after a few more minutes, the trap was complete.

“Oy… good work guys… now… we wait. Might as well rest while we do…” [Buddy]

"Un... rest good." [Orcs]

---