Lara yawned after sitting up from a peaceful sleep in the tent. Julia groaned, and curled herself up into ball once she lost Lara's warm body at her back.
Despite the morning light, it was still somewhat dark under the tree canopy, and darker still inside the tent. The two girls felt safe here.
Lara crawled out of the tent and tip toed out a ways to relieve herself. The sound of birds singing their morning songs filled the dark interior of the forest.
The morning air was cool but not cold. A warm day yesterday was looking to make things a little more warm today.
Lara was hungry again.
The blackberries she ate yesterday didn't take long to digest. She knew her first priority was to find more food, and water too. The moisture of the blackberries she and Julia had been eating the past two days was just barely enough to keep them hydrated. And if the day were to get more warm today, they'd need more water.
Julia peeked her head out of the tent, and smiled at Lara. She stepped out and walked a ways into another direction and relieved herself.
"We're going to have to find more food and water" Lara said. "There's a dry stream bed that way, maybe if we follow it far enough, we might find some water, and maybe more blackberries."
"Yes! Blackberries! I'm hungry!" Julia answered.
The two chose to pack up the tent and take it with them in case they found a better place to set up camp. They headed towards the dry stream bed where Lara had found the blackberry bush. This began Julia's third full day in the nude, and by this time she was getting used to it.
"I think I'm starting to like being naked!" She said.
Lara chuckled. "Well, it's definitely more fun when you have a friend to share it with."
"I bet this is probably like what you and Teresa used to do at the nudist resort."
"Yeah, sort of. Except it's different at a nudist resort. You're still confined to a space. Out here, you can go anywhere."
The girls found the dry stream bed and followed it down stream. The growth of trees on either side were thick with low brush that they were forced to walk down the stream bed, tip-toeing over rounded rocks and occasional junk that other people had tossed.
"Keep your eyes out for blackberry bushes!" Lara said.
The two had walked about a half mile down stream, just further than what Lara had done the evening before. There was more trash and abandoned junk laying about. And old demolished couch was seen at one side of the stream, plastic bottles and planks of plywood could be found throughout.
Julia walked closer to one side of the stream bed.
"I think I see blackberries over here!" she said.
Sure enough, the girls found more, and spent the next half-hour picking off all that they could reach without pricking themselves with the thorns.
"I think I see a bunch more over here." Julia pointed. Except she couldn't reach them with her arms. They were behind some other bushes and tall grasses. She looked for a way around. There was a small ditch, and she made an attempt to jump over it.
"Ahh!" she yelled.
Julia lost her footing after she jumped and fell down.
"Are you OK?" Lara asked.
Julia laid there squinting her eyes. "Ouch! Damn it!" she exclaimed, touching her ankle.
"Are you alright?" Lara asked again.
"I don't know, it hurts really bad. I think I might have broken it!"
Lara stepped into the ditch, and knelt down to provide what help she could offer. "Do you think you can stand on it?" She asked.
"I guess I'll have to try."
Julia held her hands out, and Lara grabbed them and anchored herself as Julia attempted to stand up.
Julia let out a wincing groan, and then hopped on her other foot as Lara helped her maintain balance.
"It really hurts to walk on it!" Julia said, as her faced turned red from the pain and agony.
"Can you move your ankle at all?" Lara asked.
Julia was able to move her ankle left and right and up and down.
"How does it feel?"
"It hurts, but not as bad as when I stand on it."
"Maybe you just twisted it."
"I don't know, it's just hurts" Julia whined, and started to cry. "What am I going to do now?"
