It had been a miserable night. Despite not getting as bad as Derek had feared it had still gotten cold. Too damn cold for someone lying on the dirt with nothing but a hemp blanket to keep them warm! On the bright side, nothing had come along to make him into a late-night snack, so despite his discomfort and lack of sleep, he chalked it up to a win. Now that it was morning he could get to work so that his next night would be less awful.
Dragging himself out from under his “shelter” he did up his kilt, this time in an anorak configuration, and set about taking stock of what he had. The bow-drill set had worked as well as he could've expected, considering it was made using un-tested materials. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten to bring it in under the blanket with him and it was now covered with morning dew, rendering it useless until it fully dried. It seemed he'd have to go without a fire this morning. The Seeds were un-touched but the pot was empty so he'd have to wait until he found some dry wood or his bow-drill dried out before having a drink.
Speaking of Derek had decided that he'd follow the river downstream today. With some luck it'd lead him to a larger body of water which would act as a landmark, hopefully leading him to people. He was well aware of the limitations of solo survival, and last night's mad dash for fire ad been a stark reminder. If he'd had even one more person with him they would've been able to do so much more with the limited time he'd had. He was worried about possible conflict but figured it'd be good to get in with a group sooner rather than later. Hopefully, he'd group up with some people before the “us vs them” mentality started to take hold. He really didn't want to fall into the “them” category before being part of an “us”.
Gathering up everything he could use he set off towards the river, keeping an eye out for something he could replace his crooked little “spear” with along the way. It wasn't long before he was following the creek downstream at a reasonable pace. He was hungry and thirst was a problem but there wasn't much he could do about it for now. If he didn't find a replacement for the bow-drill set soon he'd just dig a well along the riverbank and risk it. At least he'd be able to filter out the worst of it through the earth.
After about an hour Derek decided enough was enough and decided to just risk it. Thirst would shut him down if he neglected it and he couldn't afford to sit around doing nothing until his fire kit dried out. He had to move, and so he had to drink. Finding a spot with a low bank and relatively sandy soil he started digging a hole a few feet away from the water, using his spear as a digging stick. It didn't take him long to get a hole deep enough to start filling up with water, now he'd just have to wait for it to fill and for the murkiness to settle.
Rather than waiting around doing nothing, Derek started combing the riverbank looking for more flint. If he could get a few more suitable pieces he could start knapping some usable tools, something that wouldn't cut up his fingers every time he tried to use it. Now that he knew what to look for he found that it was rather abundant, finding a few good pieces without much effort. He also grabbed a few stones that would make for good hammerstones and abraders. Sitting himself down by his well and started to spall out one of the larger pieces, breaking away larger flakes as he started working it down into a biface. A biface was a relatively simple cutting tool made by knocking of flakes from both sides until all you have is a roughly serrated core. It could then be used as-is or worked down some more into an ax head, knife blade, or whatever other cutting tool you wanted.
Derek spent about an hour chipping at stone and drinking his fill from the well once the water cleared. It had taken a bit to shake the rust off and start getting the piece to behave how he wanted. It had been a few years since he'd done this, and it showed at first, but it didn't take long for his body to start remembering what to do. Soon enough he had a biface the size of his hand as well as a slew of flakes ready for him to use as-is or make smaller blades from. He picked some of the nicer ones then wrapped them together with the biface in some junidar bark so they wouldn't cut a hole in anything before stuffing the bundle into the sack of hempseed. It barely fit but it would work.
Continuing on his way downstream Derek kept an eye out for anything edible he recognized. The hunger was gnawing at him and while he knew wouldn't starve right away, the lack of energy would make getting anything done significantly harder. After a couple of hours of walking, he still hadn't found anything to eat. Instead, he found something valuable enough to change his plans. Almost three hours down from where he made his well the riverbanks were obscured by a large break of rivercane.
Rivercane was something that he'd seen plenty of online but had only gotten the chance to work with once. The cane was similar to bamboo except it only grew to about thumb thickness and was straighter than its eastern relative. Finding cane was big. It, like flint, was a hugely important resource. Used for everything from atlatl darts, to baskets, to roofing and instruments, cane was a versatile and robust material that would be indispensable.
With such a valuable resource right there Derek decided he would stop for camp early and make use of the resource as best he could before continuing on his way later the next day. He quickly got about finding a good location and setting up camp. Tonight he would make sure he had a proper shelter and enough firewood to last him. It didn't take him long to find a spot and get the start to a lean-to built. He made sure to gather all the firewood he could while getting the building materials. He even found a patch of wild onion while he was at it, he grabbed some but made sure to leave about half to go to seed.
After a couple of hours of gathering and building Derek was happy enough with his camp. He figured he still had a couple of hours of sunlight so he grabbed his newly made biface out of the hemp sack and made his way to the creek to harvest some cane. It didn't take him long to have a couple of armfuls to take back to camp, where get got to sorting the cane by thickness and pliability. The thinner more pliable stuff he'd make baskets from while the thicker pieces he'd use to start making his first real weapon, an atlatl. The Atlatl, also known as a spear thrower was a set of lever and dart that was used by ancient man to hunt everything from fish to megafauna. The bow beat it out in terms of range and ease of carry but the atlatl was still a highly effective weapon that gave humanity a massive advantage over other animals. Who needs claws when you can just impale something with a six-foot length of cane from twenty yards away?
Tonight though Derek would focus on something else, a fish trap. He spent a while weaving the cane into two cones, one larger one that was completely closed on one end and another smaller one with a hole for fish to swim through, that would fit in it. The idea was that a fish would swim in through the large opening then get trapped once inside the chamber made by the two cones, the jutting ends of the smaller opening keeping the fish from getting out.
While he had been walking along the creekside Derek had seen a number of small fish, but lacking a fishing pole or proper gig, he'd left them be. Now though he hoped to catch some overnight with this trap. After digging up some assorted bug and grubs to fill the trap as bait Derek brought it over to a spot near a pool he'd seen fish in earlier. Using a rock to weigh it down and a few more to make a rough wall to funnel fish towards the trap he left the trap submerged just downstream of the pool. Hopefully, he'd have something to eat in the morning.
After making his way back to camp Derek figured he should get a fire going and finish up his shelter. Thankfully it seemed the bow-drill set had dried up enough and he had a fire going in short order. He spent the last while before sunset gathering more firewood between tending the fire before settling in as it got dark. Resting by the fire as he began working on a basket under his lean-to, it wasn't long until an exhausted Derek nodded off to sleep. Pleased with the gains from his second day on Tercius.