On day four I did my morning routine started the fire, checked the traps, looked for sticks and pine cones, and started melting water by the fire. When I checked the traps I found a rabbit and killed it with one blow, I also found 23 pine cones. I butchered the rabbit and cooked everything I could, I saved some of the food I ate about half of the rabbit and 8 pine cones.
I used the rabbit hide to wrap the cooked meat hoping it would keep it warm, picked up my spear from the cave, and started to walk south. So I know how to get back every so often I cut a portion of the bar around trees in the direction I am going, and I also with my pocket knife carve two arrows one in the direction I am going and the other in the direction of the last tree I did this to.
After walking for some time I reached the top of a small hill and saw a lake frozen over with a small house with smoke coming off of it. the scenery around the frozen lake was stark and beautiful. The ice glistened under the weak winter sun, reflecting a pale blue sky streaked with the remnants of clouds. Snow-covered pines encircled the lake, their branches heavy with fresh snow, creating a serene, white border. The small house, crude and simple, stood at the edge of the lake. Its wooden structure was rough-hewn and rustic, now partially engulfed in flames. Smoke rose in thick, dark plumes against the backdrop of the tranquil, snowy landscape. The contrast between the calm, icy surroundings, and the raging fire created a sense of urgency and unease as I hurried towards the burning house.
When I got into the house, I yelled, "IS ANYONE IN THERE?" There was no response, so I ran around the perimeter, looking to see if there was another opening other than the front door, but there wasn't. As I frantically searched, I noticed a bucket lying nearby. I grabbed it and ran over to the lake, breaking the ice to fill the bucket with water. I dashed back to the house and doused the flames. After repeating this process thirteen times on the outside of the small house and fourteen times on the inside, the fire finally stopped burning. Exhausted and shivering, I stood amidst the steam rising from the smoldering remains, the icy wind biting at my wet clothes. The once-crude house now bore the scars of the fire, its charred wooden beams contrasting sharply with the untouched, snowy surroundings.
On the inside, almost everything was charred—the walls, the roof, two wooden beams, and the furniture. What seemed to be some meat and pelts from a large animal were also scorched. Underneath the collapsed and blackened debris, there was a body. The pile was near the bed, and the body was burned to a crisp, barely recognizable amidst the devastation.
/It seemed to be a male body; however, his eye was a gem. There was not much else to note. The inside of the house was burned far more extensively than the outside. The interior was very cramped, seemingly divided into two rooms. One appeared to be a bedroom and storage room, while the other seemed to be a kitchen with a furnace.
The roof had collapsed, but if I could manage to fix it, probably replace the pillar in the center of the house, and maybe touch up the flooring and walls, I could move into this place.
I continued searching for anything that might be of use, particularly looking for some sort of metal pot. I could use the bucket, but I didn't want to. As I was searching, I came across five clay bowls. Two were cracked and unusable, leaving me with three usable bowls. There was also a bear trap, though I wasn't sure if it worked yet. The last thing I found was a book, surprisingly untouched by the fire.
It had no title, just a weird symbol of a golden flower. When I opened the book, it was signed by someone named Eloise. It seemed to be some sort of journal. The first couple of entries described their situation, similar to mine—they woke up with hazy memories and a letter saying they were here for 25 years. For the first day and a half, they just walked until they found this place. The next entries detailed how they made makeshift tools and started constructing the house. By the time I read this much, it was starting to get dark.
I walked back across the frozen lake, following the trees with arrows carved into them to know which way was home. On my way to the cave, I heard a distant cry followed by the crunching of bone and the tearing of flesh. Hearing this in the pitch-black forest, I started hurrying, running in the general direction of the cave until I got there. The fire in front of the cave was still burning, but that didn't matter. I opened the makeshift door and hid inside. Through the cracks of the door, I saw a tall, lanky creature walking around my base camp. As it got closer to the cave, I could hear its breathing and sniffing. The clouds moved, allowing the moon to illuminate the creature. It had a deer skull for a face, a skeletal figure with decaying skin, glowing eyes, and sharp claws.
As it inched closer to the cave entrance, resting its hand upon the makeshift door, it slowly began to move the door. Then, suddenly, I heard the growling of wolves. One of the wolves ran up and bit the creature on the arm. The creature quickly spun around and batted the wolf away. I heard the wolf smack against a tree with a loud crack, followed by a whimper and then silence. More wolves ran up against this monstrosity, taking chunks out of the rotting flesh left on the creature. The creature, with its claws, managed to cut a wolf's stomach open, letting its guts sprawl across the ground. The wolf whimpered for about a minute or so, then died. This trend continued: one wolf would attack the creature, and then the creature would kill it with one blow. By the time half the pack was dead, the other half had run away, and the creature followed. I was too terrified to move for the rest of the night. I used the rations I wrapped up in the rabbit pelt and ate them. They were very cold and tough, but they filled me up.
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I woke up the next morning very cold and hungry. I crawled to the other end of the cave and opened the makeshift door, seeing the chaos that had unfolded last night. The wolves that had died were perfectly preserved by the snow from the storm that must have occurred while I slept.
All of my firewood was covered in snow and wouldn't light easily, so I chopped another small tree, which took me an hour or so. I brought the small tree back to the main camp, chopped off the branches, and split the trunk into logs for firewood. Using the flat rock I had planned to cook on, I used to move the ashes and snow that had accumulated over the past couple of days about seven feet from the cave entrance, piling more snow on top of the ashes.
After finishing that, I started a fire, which took me about 30 minutes of rubbing a stick against another stick. Once the fire was going, I began skinning the wolves that had been killed last night. I was able to salvage four wolf pelts, their teeth, talons, and meat. The wolf pelts still had lots of excess skin and flesh. I knew that if I were to make anything from these, I would need to scrape off that flesh. So, I grabbed my pocket knife and began to scrape away.
After about an hour and a half, I managed to scrape all the bits of flesh off of one pelt. At the rate I was going, this was going to take the entire day. So, I bundled up the three other wolf pelts along with the one I had worked on and put them into the cave. Then, I gathered all the wolf meat, brought in a bunch of snow, and packed the snow around the wolf meat in the cave, making sure it wouldn't go rotten.
After this, I grabbed the bucket that I gathered from the burnet house and filled it up with snow and with a strong stick dangled it above the fire. While I was waiting for the snow to melt I relieved myself then went to check the traps and also gather more pine cones. There's nothing in the traps probably because the monster came by last night and scared them off. I got back to the cave and the snow in the bucket was melted yet probably won't be for a while so I continued reading the book.
I continue to read the journal left by Eloise. I continue reading where I left off. To summarize what I read Eloise constructed a temporary shelter consisting of a bunch of sticks and pine needles that formed a cone pointing upwards and she lived there for about a week while she was constructing the wood cabin. When she was about halfway done she encountered a similar monster to mine however it had tails spreading out of its back and it had six legs and a wolf-like head as she described it in their writing. After she finished the house this very old man with a huge backpack almost double the size of him if he could stay in the cabin. He offered them various tools like clay bowls, a small furnace, an iron bucket, iron-tipped arrows, a bow, a book with endless pages, and a quill. She accepted the offer having proper tools she would be better off.
After she got back from checking the traps that she set days before this and cooked the contents of what she gathered the old man who would like to be called Merchant by the way. Started to talk about monsters in the danger level of sand monsters. He listed off a few different names of monsters and descriptions of said monsters but the one that stuck out to me the most was the Wendigo.
The Wendigo and a deer-like skull for a head were very bony with minimal flesh the flesh it did have were rotten Claws that can cut open the bellies of any creature With ease an insane level of smell Rumor Has it that Wendigos can even smell fear.
Maybe that's why it approached the cave last night. Anyway, I put the book down after reading this I looked over at the bucket that was filled with snow it was not filled with water with a stick I grabbed the bucket handle and slowly moved it down to the ground. I grabbed one of the clay bowls and some water out of it and drank it and for the first time since I've been here, it was warm water.
After I drank some water and ate some pine cones then I began to train with my spear. The training consisted of me thrusting the spear into a tree 50 times, slashing the tree 50 times, and throwing the spear 50 times.
After I was done training I skewered some of the wolf meat and let it cook above the fire. Well, the meat was cooking, and went up to to one of the bigger trees and with my pocket knife sliced stuff a huge chunk of bark about 3 m in length. Begin cutting the part of bark that would be closest to the tree itself into long thin strands once I had about five I began braiding them together wrapping them around and around each other then cut five more thin strands and wrapped them around the same one. I rinsed and repeated this about 10 more times until the meat was done, then ate the meat they went back to this. The plan was to make twine so I could Stitch the wolf pelts together so I could have some warmer clothing because at the rate I'm going I'm going to be freezing to death any second now.
After I was done making about three strands of twine night was about to fall. so I ate the wolf meat and as I was about to get a bunch of firewood I thought about the monster from last night. The Wendigo. I decided instead of letting the fire I would use the wolf pelt that I defleshed as a blanket for tonight.
I woke up the next morning in a cold sweat heavily breathing Vivid memories of the dream I had. There was this monster chasing me and as I was running my limbs would slowly freeze until I couldn't move. That's all I could remember from that dream. After setting up and gathering my thoughts I couldn't remember what I was streaming about.
I slip the makeshift door crawl it out of the cave and stretch. The plan for today was to go back to the burnt-down house on the lake. I did my morning routine check the traps, pick up Pine cones, start melting some snow in the bucket, cook 2 meals worth of wolf meat, train with the spear, and chop down another tree for firewood for tomorrow.
After I was done this I used some of the twine that I made yesterday and the wolf pelt. I pierce the hole with one of the wolf's teeth through two ends of the wolf pelt, threaded the twine through tied not to both ends, and cut the excess off. I made myself a little coat for my upper torso. After I finished this I defleshed the rabbit pelt used another wolf tooth pierced holes throughout the rabbit pelt threaded the twine through it tied two of the ends together and cut off the access. I've made myself a little pouch so I can keep little trinkets or pieces of meat in.
By the time I finished this, the snow finished melting and I drank half the bucket of water while reading and reading some more of Eloise's Journal. A quick summary of what I read in the journal a little bit of it was about how she was able to turn the tree logs into Lumber. And the rest was some cooking recipes for example how to make rabbit stew how to create beef jerky which I can probably make right now and a few others but all of them require vegetables which I do not have on me. After I was done reading I decided to tie some twine on my tools and wrap them around my body the spear would go around my shoulder and let it rest on my back. The ax would wrap around my body as well and rest on my back adjacent to the spear.
After that, I was done preparing for the day so I picked up the bucket in one hand and in the other I had the small pouch made of rabbit hide filled with wolf meat.
As I was walking the clown servant to clear out just the satisfied so I could see the sun this was the first time in two days that most of the time it's either very cloudy or incredibly stormy I guess it's a rare occasion when the sun breaks through the clouds.
After walking for a bit 2 hours or more I was finally in sight of the lake. I walked across the frozen lake and got back to the burnt-down house. Luckily the door from the outside was a pullout door because if it wasn't the entirety of the inside of the house was filled with at least three feet of snow. After spending around an hour clearing out the snow it was time to think. "How am I going to fix this"