Chapter 5

I awoke with a start, and found I needed to retch as well, the imagery had made me sick to my stomach, and I swore that my genitals felt a little tender. It was as if they felt a miniscule fraction of what had happened, and it only made me curse Brant even more. Once I had finished throwing up, I got some water, and went about cleaning up after myself. Once I had that done, I went about my morning business, after putting some more wood on the fire.

When I returned to the cavern, I went to check on the status of the rabbits I had hung the night before. They looked to have dried nicely, so I took them down and brought them to the other ‘room’ to butcher. I made sure to leave myself some shanks and cut the rest into as many large chunks as I could. I then took salt and coated every single surface of each piece, before wrapping them tightly in one of the leather covers. I then bound it with twine, pitting it in my satchel, before heading outside to look for a place to store them. I spent ten minutes examining the rock face, until I found a possible path. I took my time climbing up and found that my strength and dexterity made the job easy. When I reached the top, I was happy to find a flat surface that was three meters wide by five meters long. I was confident that there were not many carnivorous animals that could make it up here and there were no birds of prey anywhere in this province.

Once that was taken care of, I went inside and grabbed my saw and some rope. Though I was strong enough to snap the branches and limbs I would need, that would weaken them. I set off north, this time, and started to look around for some of the larger, older trees, as they would work best. These trees would have much thicker branches closer to the ground than other younger trees would. They would also be long enough that, once fashioned together, would make a large rack rather quickly. There would be no need to try and make it longer. Instead, I could lay out the hide, and trim the branches to the length I would need. It took me around fifteen minutes to locate a group of trees suitable to my needs. I would only take a branch or two from each tree, as too many would only do unnecessary harm to the tree. It took me around an hour to collect the necessary branches, and I was happy with the cuts I had made, as they were as clean as possible. There were sixteen in total, and I bound them in the rope, before flinging the bundle over my shoulder. I was surprised that they did not seem very heavy, and I had very little problems getting them back to camp.

I cleaned the cuts I had made to the ends that had connected the branches to the tree, I then went and found the deer hide. I spread it out, and took up four of the branches, as I had hoped they were more than long enough. Only after I had built and tested them would I be sure that the branches would hold up to the strain of the lines stretching out the hide. Once I had the outline, I placed the cut ends exactly on top of one another, while I let the other ends overlap. This would tell me where to cut the excess wood off, as I had a plan for putting the ends together. I would cut a section out of the end of one branch, making it look like a ‘u’ shape, I would then cut the opposite end into the next branch. This would allow me to slide the tab I made on one, into the notch I had made in the other. To keep it sturdy, I would place glue on both ends and drive a nail through it. It took two hours to trim, cut the notches and tabs, as well as glue and nail them together. I used the pieces I cut off to make an ‘l’ shape that I attached to the back on both sides of the rack. This would stand it up on an angle, and if the top rested against a rock wall, would keep it from tipping over.

I then used the fishing line and hooks to set out stretching and attaching the hide to the rack. I made sure the hooks were into the hide at least thirty centimeters and pulled them tight to the frame as I went. I also made sure if I went one direction, I did the opposite directions directly afterwards. It took me another two hours to get the hide stretched as I liked, and I was happy to find that the rack held up.

I stopped working and grabbed some of the fruits I had bought the day before: they would spoil the fastest and I found I wanted something different for a change. The meal was delicious, and a nice change of pace from the meat, berries and apples I had for my time here, so far.

When I was done, I set out to make the other four racks, and get the first one outside. Now that I knew the general dimensions, I made two slightly larger and a second to the same size as the first. Three hours later, they were done and ready to go, I placed the empty ones along a wall beside the entrance of the cavern. I then grabbed the rack with the hide and made my way out to where I had left the meat to cure. It would have enough room for at least two at a time, and this would also tell me if it would be visible from the ground. The rack went up to my waist, and I hoped that I was right in my assumption that it would not be noticed.

It took me a few minutes to get up there and set the rack where I thought it would catch the most sun. In a few days I would come up, check the status of the tanning, and work it if necessary. I would be up tomorrow to collect the meat, as it should be cured enough, through the sun and salt, by tomorrow evening. I would need to go out later to check the status of my traps to see if I had been successful in catching anything larger than a rabbit.

I sat on the edge and reflected on how I was progressing, as well as the revelations I had learned from the journal and my visit to Fardun. My ability to build these racks showed I was starting to get a handle on my strength, but until I was able to have control of my emotions, it still was not safe. I was sure that if I continued reading that journal, it would lead me to having outbursts. While those would be opportunities to ensure I could still exercise control, I was not looking forward to them, nor was I looking forward to the dreams that still seemed to plague me.

Without thinking, I pushed off the edge, and it took a moment for me to realize that I was now falling at least four and a half meters. I braced myself and hoped that I could at least move into a roll, to lessen a bit of the impact. As soon as I felt my feet touch with the ground, I crouched and rolled over my left shoulder, back into a crouch. I was surprised that the initial contact did not hurt, nor did the roll. I would not make a habit of it but knowing that I could easily survive a fall from that height filled me with a bit of pride. It was taller than most houses in Cartha, save for my own, and I had no doubt that it would prove useful in the days to come.

I returned to the cavern and collected the soap that I had bought during my time in Fardun. I was surprised that Trina had not thought to include that when the pack was being made, but she may not have thought I would be staying so far away from such amenities. I grabbed a towel that I had stored in the storage cave, one of my sets of clothes and headed north again from camp, towards a deep river that ran west to the small lake that Fardun was built near. It took twenty minutes of walking, before I began to hear the rushing water and another thirty before it came into view. I placed my goods near the shore and began to remove my various clothing. I would take all but my boots into the water and wash them along with myself. Once I was ready, I placed the dirty clothes near the shore, and walked into the cold water. Given the season, it was still rather warm, and I found myself adapting quickly to the temperature. I then started the task of washing myself, which took a bit of time, from the dried sweat and grime that had collected over the past few days. I would need to make sure that I was doing this every evening so that I did not become too ripe.

As I turned to return to the shore, I found that the black she-wolf was watching me from the shore, not far from my clothes.

I felt rather exposed, but she had proven to not be my enemy, so far, so I began to walk to the shore slowly. As I approached the shore, I saw the wolf looking at me more attentively, as more of me was revealed. It was almost if the wolf was sizing me up, and soon all of me was exposed to the wolf. She quickly got up, her eyes not leaving me, then it did something very unexpected. In a flash of speed, it grabbed my undergarments and ran off into the woods with them. If I had been dressed, I would have run after her. Resigned that they were now lost, I grabbed the rest of my clothes and returned to the water to clean them. It took about half of an hour, but I got them cleaned to my satisfaction and wrung them out so that I could set them to dry when I got back. I carefully got out of the water and hung the wet clothes off a tree branch, as I got dressed into my clean clothes. I started for camp and noticed the wolf track went towards there for a little bit before veering east from there.

I continued towards camp, maintaining a leisurely pace, and my mind drifted to Violet. I had only been gone a few days, but I was missing her terribly, hoping she did not hate me too much for doing this. It was not easy for me to do this, but I feared for her safety. Between the two attacks while we were away from Fardun and Ruben’s betrayal and death, I could not guarantee she would not be harmed near me. She was not alone, she had her mother, brother, and our friends to keep her company.

Soon I was arriving at the rock outcropping and looked up to see if there was noticeable smoke or if the rack was visible. I could not tell there was a fire, and I could not see the rack despite looking at the area that it had been placed on. Confident that someone would not accidentally come across me, I went inside to hang my clothes to dry near the fire. It only took a few minutes to prepare the clothes to dry.

I took my satchel, my bow and my quiver, before I went out once again to check some of my traps. On the way, I collected berries, and apples to increase the variety of food I had available but was upset to find the traps had not been set off. I replaced the bait and prepared my bow and nocked an arrow. The sun was starting to set, which gave me a little time to see the birds in the trees, before I would have trouble finding a target. I then focused less on what I saw, focusing instead on what I was hearing around me. I tried to pick out the sounds of bird calls, and after a minute or so I heard quail. The fact that they moved along the ground, instead of the air, gave me a slight advantage. However, they were crafty, and were not out in the open much. I would have to be very careful in my approach, but the distinctive sound of a female’s call gave me a direction. I slowly approached, keeping my eyes fixed low, looking for sign as well as ensuring each step was carefully made. One snapped twig, or sound of that nature and my food would dart.

It took me twenty-five minutes to slowly close in on the female, and I was quickly losing light. I could see where the sun was setting through the trees and figured I had another fifteen minutes before it would set past the horizon and I would lose what light I had. While I had been distracted, the female had moved off and I followed, carefully. By the time I caught sight of the female, the sun was on the verge of setting. I took a deep breath, raised my bow and drew back the bowstring. Slowly releasing my breath, I released the arrow towards its intended target, hoping that it would strike true before the quail ran off. I watched the arrow sail through the air, and land where the quail had just been. The bird had not been startled, it just moved along to get some more bugs, but the thud of the arrow startled it. I cursed my luck as the bird ran off and ran to collect my arrow. The sun had now set, and I did not expect the moon to rise for another hour, which would make my job a lot harder. I closed my eyes and once again focused on my hearing, hoping to hear where the quail may have run off to. I could hear movement a few meters away, moving away from where I was and assumed that it was my target. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to find that I could see as well as I had only moments before. I decided to be slightly reckless and moved quickly to close the gap between me and the quail and nocked another arrow in preparation. I started trying to focus on any slight amount of movement, and soon saw my prey. I then quickly took aim and let lose my second arrow, this time it struck true, and my prey fell. I could feel my blood pumping at the chase and knew that I would enjoy this meal tonight.

I picked up my dinner for tonight, and I made my way back to where I had first tried to kill the quail, collecting the arrow I had left there. I then decided to make a run back to camp, seeing how I would be able to navigate in the dark, without the aid of moonlight. I was surprised how easily I was able to see and move around, it seemed that my eyesight had changed to make it easier for me to see in the dark. I still tried to focus my hearing to try and pick up things and gage where they were relative to me. I was slowly getting a feel for it, and it looked like I could hear and differentiate sounds up to a kilometer in all directions. I wondered how much more I would change, but I felt like there were still adjustments occurring, because I had not had this kind of sight when I first left. The hearing had been changing over time as well, so it would be interesting to see what further changes were in store. I continued to my camp and hurried into the cavern so I could start preparing the quail. I dressed the bird and put its innards into a bucket I had for just this situation. I then slowly began to remove the feathers of the bird, keeping any that could be useful as fletching for arrows. Even if I did not make my own, I could sell them in Fardun or Cartha, so keeping them would be most advantageous. Once I was done with the feathers, I removed the head and feet, ensured the interior cavity was cleaned, and then ran my knife along the birds skin to remove anything else left over from the de-feathering.