The area was finally starting to take shape and look ait, but it took way more time than it should've. All I needed was a chunk of the forest, which used to cover most of the island, with really thick leaf coverage, but thanks to my vagabond pack I couldn't find a place like that. They ended up clearing out most of those areas of food, so I had to scout the whole damn island for this one spot.
That said, its actually pretty good now. I spent a bunch of time removing trees which weren't providing coverage from the sun and rain, and gathered the logs into one massive pile.
"That should be enough." I admired my months' work for a moment.
Almost three hundred fully grown trees, all ready to get used for a project of mine.
You see, there's a bit of an issue I've found. The amount of food on this island is low, so I need to conserve it. I figured the smartest thing to do was sleeping. Now, normally vagabonds avoid the process of sleeping entirely, because it's not necessary for our species, but it does slow down your energy loss, and I have lots of time on my hands anyways so I may as well conserve the energy I'd waste on nothing useful.
It's what I've been doing until my pack went for their unsuccessful "journey", but without their presence, I don't have a line of defense for when I'm, well, defenseless..
The last thing I want is to get jumped by some dumb creature and just die before I realize what's going on. Luckily enough, small creatures like "plate bugs" or "leaf leapers" don't pose much of a threat, so I only have to be wary of are the bigger guys.
And that's where my master plan comes into play. I borrowed a few ideas from the humans for my own profit. Heh, I bet the other vagabonds wouldn't think of that because of their stupid traditions, but now that everyone's dead, I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I wish for my survival.
~~~
"The humans take full advantage of the environment, converting trees to walls, leaves to roof, and metals to tools." I quoted a line the elders carved into a bark a while ago. It served as a sort of reminder; three more reasons to resent humans.
When I first read that, I thought the humans were genius. To use the environment like that is just so.. smart.
"I wish I could come up with this stuff." With that thought, I got to work. There was a river you always had to jump to cross, which was a perfect opportunity for my experiments.
Thinking back at that time, I was a weak little guy. Took me many days to break a boulder down into lots of smaller rocks - I did so in secret from the elders to surprise them once I was done -, and then I pushed those rock into the river. They got washed away at first, but after lots of trial and error, I made a working bridge.
The flowing river stream was able to pass through the gaps in the rocks, and they were high enough off the ground. I made a bridge. It was a pretty flimsy construction, with little chunks often falling off when you tried walking on it, but I was the proudest lil guy.
That same night, I rushed to the elders and excitedly hopped around them until they eventually gave in and followed.
God, their stares were the scariest thing. Apparently it did a bad thing. Mimicking human behavior and taking their ideas, the whole process of building something, was a taboo.
Maybe that's why nobody interacted with me when I was small. After all, who in their right mind would play with a "mentally unwell", as they wrote, kid.
~~~
I shaped my blades into curved sheets of metal with a sharp edge. A light thrust into the ground and it was in. Then, I changed the angle and pulled out my arms, creating a small hole.
"Nice, it works." I nodded. It's not like somebody was watching me. I just nod to myself.
"Now, to do this exact procedure a thousand more times.." It seems like I won't be taking a break for a while.