It would be difficult to determine if hunger, cold or pain woke Jemman up. It certainly wasn't the light as it was pitch black. Her hands were throbbing with pain. Around her, Jemman could hear animals scuttling about. None of them seemed too big but fear made her unsure of herself. Jemman decided that she needed to go down and get her gear. She could feel a fever coming on and she didn't think she would survive if something stole her food. Half way down the tree she slipped. She could feel a fingernail rip out of her left hand as her other wounds also tore open.
Eating a small banana-like fruit, which Jemman called a banana out of habit, Jemman felt her energy increase slightly. It was enough to make her decide to go and bury the 'devil-Doberman' before it could infect anyone. She used her small dagger to dig a fifty centimetre deep hole. The hour it took was pain-filled and her wounds and fingernails filled with dirt. Eventually she had refilled the hole and found a dozen three- or four- kilo rocks to place over the corpse. She scrubbed her hands again in the rain that had restarted as she'd worked before sitting down sodden and circulating qi. She was deeply worried about infecting herself and other animals with whatever it was that turned something into a qarm. It outweighed all hr other discomfits and concerns. After forty tortuous minutes Jemman saw the light of an oncoming dawn. She walked back to the tree when she could see properly, and collected a thin rope that she'd found when searching for the blanket the night before. The now-shivering girl climbed the tree with the rope wrapped around her waist. Once she got close to the top of the tree she looked to see if there was any hint of civilisation. Off along the way she had walked the day before she though she detected a thickening of trees that might suggest water.
She hadn't needed the rope but decided to keep it wrapped around her waist. Jemman decided to rearrange the pack. She hid money in a pair of socks except a silver and a couple of coppers. She looked and saw there were maps but nothing had enough information to help her out in her current predicament. After sorting out her food she determined that she could last one more day. Finally, placing her wet blanket in the top of the pack she made her way back to the path. Once on it she draped the blanket over the pack so it could dry and then, colmar in hand, made her way to her future.
Ten weary hours later Jemman determined she'd walked about forty kilometres. The road was flat, she was fit and she rarely stopped. She didn't see another creature. The forest around her was filled with the sound of wildlife so she spent all day using her qi to blend into the environment. Well before dark, she found a clearing near a creek where people (a term she used to include whatever sentients Strolm might include) regularly used. She, of course, knew there were elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins and dragons as Jardin and Kraem had mentioned them. But there were also wolofs and a variety of other sentients that she'd heard of. Basically any animal might be sentient. Many of them used cultivation techniques and bloodline infusion to metamorphise into stronger or more cunning creatures. When you got around to it she supposed she was one of them herself.
A cold or flu had begun to set in so she quickly made a fish trap using reeds and a small, legless, dead frog. The frog hadn't started dead, of course. She'd actually also removed the meaty legs as well. Jemman cut a number of extra dead reeds and used them to cover a crude shelter. They had made starting a fire much easier.
She ate the frog legs, and the last of her food, before dark set. After banking the fire, vomiting her guts out, washing her wounds and having a drink or five of boiled water she went to bed. It was almost not worth mentioning that she had the runs, mostly because they complimented her fever nicely.