It was Beth. She had found a stone with mysterious markings, too strange and accurate to be natural. Especially because it was a perfect heptagon with a round hole in the middle. This was not only basic proof of some kind of civilization, but also reason enough to believe we were heading in the right direction. She decided to take one of the unused shoelaces and wear it as a kind of talisman. It looked cute on her.
After we ate and it got dark we huddled up together and used some towels for blankets and a makeshift bed. The nearby fire kept us warm. Beth and I switched between lookout, letting the kids sleep through the night. The next morning we decided to do the gathering in the morning so Flint could check on his trap. Belle and I went for some more berries and also looked around where she found the stone, but didn't find anything else. When we got together again at noon, Flint proudly held a horned rabbit in his hand, so we had some grilled meat for lunch.
In the afternoon we continued upstream. The landscape was mostly grass with some smaller forests close by. You could see the mountains to the far north, but we always stayed relatively close to the river. While I set up camp for the night, the others went for another round of scouting the nearby surroundings.