Novels2Search
Betrayal of the Dead
5. -Fire and Water-

5. -Fire and Water-

He shook the 'coconut' up and down for about 5 minutes.

Then he poured out the contents once again, and repeated this process 4 times.

After he stopped and poured out the sand-water smoothie one last time the now empty 'coconut’ was squeaky clean.

With a final rinse he filled it up and put in the stick he used to make the hole as a stopper to keep the water from leaking.

"New item acquired... Water gourd"

...

Isla had made his way back to the cave.

He had been tracking the position of the sun as he was walking around.

A lighter coloured rock lay on the cave floor, he picked it up and started drawing a map of his surroundings on the wall.

First he scribbled on a compass, he then marked down position of the brook, it was situated about 5 minutes north-east of his cave.

"Now that I think about it... I don't really have anything else to write down... I really need to scout out the terrain more"

Isla had no knowledge of this world’s flora and fauna, so getting something to eat that wouldn’t kill him was going to be tricky.

And as he didn’t want to play berry roulette his options were limited.

He made up his mind.

Hunting.

He had previously seen some rabbit-like creatures flitting between the trees, their population seemed to be quite large as wherever Isla went he saw their raisin shaped droppings.

“Trapping these small bastards will allow me to get a meal”

He recalled some of his old memories on how to create a pitfall trap and started to gather the needed items.

Sticks, branches and leaves.

But he still needed something that he could use to dig the pit.

More memories flooded into his mind.

He had to make two specific sticks.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

One a half sharpened stake which he would place into the ground.

Two a club that he would us to beat the other stick to lodge it into the ground.

After about half an hour Isla was kneeling on the ground about 2 minutes away from the cave, around him he had his makeshift tools and other items needed to make the pitfall trap.

He grabbed the stake lodged it into the ground and started beating away at its flat end with the club.

With every hit it went in a few centimetres deeper, after it was about 20 centimetres in the ground he stopped banging and push down hard on the stake, it dislodged a good amount of dirt which he pushed away with his hand.

This continued on until he had a pit about one third of an Isla in height and a fourth of an Isla in diameter.

“That should do…”

He said under his breath as he started covering the hole with twigs and leaves.

As for bait he had seen the creatures eat a yellow berry that grew scarcely near the ground but more higher up, this meant that he could gather them easily while the ‘rabbits’ had to make do with what was left near the ground.

So he decided to pick some.

He picked up a rock that was conveniently shaped a bit like a bowl and after going to wash his hands and the ‘bowl’ at the brook he started picking.

Once his ‘bowl’ was full of the yellow berries he went and placed a handful on his trap as the bait and quickly left for his cave.

He knew there was no point in sticking around as the creatures had previously scrambled away from him when he had approached.

With him he brought his new tools and the ‘bowl’ full of berries.

He remarked.

“If the rabbit things are eating these berries then how bad can they be?”

He plopped one into his mouth.

Chewed.

And waited.

Waited.

Still nothing.

He hadn’t died.

“Well that’s new”

A taste similar to that of a citric nectarine filled his mouth.

The berries were really sweet.

His hunger got the better of him and he started shoving handfuls of them into his open mouth, stopping only to chew when his mouth was full.

In the blink of an eye the bowl-stone was completely empty.

With his hunger temporarily satiated Isla sat down on a boulder and took a sip of water out of his gourd.

“Finally I have food, water and I still haven’t di-”

He grabbed his stomach.

Although the berries hadn’t been poisonous it didn’t mean he wouldn’t get stomach pains from eating too fast.

He got hit with a bout of nausea.

But he kept the food down, barely.

It was starting to get dark as his stomach pain went away.

Isla said to himself as he shivered slightly.

“I need to get a fire going… it gets way too cold at night…”

He picked up 2 rocks and after banging them together they created a spark.

“These’ll do…”

He then went and gathered some relatively dry wood to use as firewood.

The branch shavings from before had been drying in the sun for the entire day and would make great kindling.

After checking the direction of the wind and clearing out a spot for his fire place he started to make a teepee out of sticks and branches around the kindling.(Classic)

“Now the hard part…”

Isla murmured.

The night was visibly about to start when the sparks coming from the stones finally lit up the kindling.

Quickly Isla got down on his knees, his previously bored face painted with a look of desperation, and started to blow onto the kindling urging on the tiny flames.

Then.

Success.

The fire had spread out towards the twigs and was slowly making its way to the thicker branches.

Isla took out a stick that he would use as a poker to adjust the fire with and used it to place and adjust the position of some logs that he put on the now blazing fire.

*Squeal*