Chapter 11

When I woke up, it was dark and my back felt like it was on fire. I could see flickering light. For a moment I thought I was actually on fire and started to panic. Large hands pressed me back down flat on my stomach in the cool dirt. “Don’t try to move Nameless, you need to rest,” Hammer’s voice. I immediately relaxed back down. I picked my head up and turned it the other way. There was a small fire burning near us, Knick was sitting on the other side of the fire, looking on worriedly.

“Where are we?” I croaked, looking around. It seemed there were a bunch of thick logs rising up at a forty five degree angle to a low point above us, the large cracks between the logs were covered with leafy branches.

“Hammer built something called a tipi. He said you told him about it.” Knick shrugged. The top of Hammer’s tipi wasn’t very high. I doubt Hammer could even stand up in it, but it was pretty impressive. Those were not small logs.

“Nicely done Hammer. Although the original concept used rather thin logs that were about three or four times higher, and the outside would have been covered in animal skins. Just for future reference,” I chuckled and then winced at the pain this elicited. “This may well keep me alive for the next few weeks while I heal, so thank you,” I glanced over at Knick, “Thank you BOTH.” Knick looked embarrassed and shrugged, looking away.

I smiled and closed my eyes. I was asleep before I knew it.

I woke to dappled sunlight streaming in through the roof and walls, the leafy branches covering the sides of my ‘tipi' didn't go up very high. I saw what looked to be Hammer’s belt holding some of the logs’ branches together at its zenith. I was alone.

The fire had gone out, and I saw a bucket sitting nearby. I crawled over and looked inside. Water. I realized how thirsty I was and lowered my head, drinking straight from the bucket, sucking up as much as I could swallow. Oh fuck, that was good. I moved back away from the bucket so I wouldn’t spill it in my sleep and laid back down. I passed back out immediately..

When I woke it was dark and the fire was burning. I drank from my bucket again, noticing that it had been refilled. Must have been Hammer, I thought, smiling. By now Knick would have returned home with his grandfather and mother. There were a couple of apples near the bucket. I grabbed an apple and reflexively brought it to my mouth, only to remember with a grimace that I didn’t have teeth to bite into it. I fell back into the warm embrace of sleep still holding the apple.

The next time I woke up, it was day again. The water had been filled and there were more apples. Sitting next to the apples were a familiar coin pouch and sheathed knife. “Fuck yeah,” I muttered to myself. I took the knife and carved slivers off an apple. I still had four or five molars left on the right side of my mouth and used these to mash up the apple until I could swallow it without fear of choking. It was delicious, even as it burned the cuts in my mouth. I have the best friends ever. I managed about half the apple before I found myself exhausted. I slept some more.

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I woke, drank, ate, and slept. Over and over. I never seemed to see Hammer, but there was almost always more water. The apples were less frequent but apples cost more money. I hadn’t been eating very much though and had a half dozen stockpiled at this point. I checked the coin pouch and found it empty. Hope Hammer was the one that got my coin and not that asshole mayor.

I smelled like piss. I hadn’t been getting up to pee outside, so that makes sense. Gross though. Lucky I didn't shit myself too, really. Not that I’m about to use my precious water to wash myself or my pants. I didn’t know how long it had been, but I finally didn’t feel like sleeping and sat up. The fire must have just gone out a bit ago as it was still smoking. I pushed a couple of logs next to it into the makeshift fire pit and managed to kindle the coals enough to light them. It felt familiar enough that I realized I'd pushed logs into it earlier, must've been half asleep. I sat and watched the flames grow. Seems I may not die from that whipping after all. Got lucky though. If I hadn’t had two good friends in that shithole town I’d be dead right now.

I sighed. Time to live rough. Even rougher than I had been. I kinda hate this world. Of all the cool-ass magic I could have been born with, I'm a glorified translator. Killing monsters to stay alive would be so much easier if I could just yell ‘FIREBALL!’ and roast them whole. Speaking of which, I checked my waist and found my sling was still wrapped around me beneath my rope belt. I smiled, well at least I can kill birds and rabbits. Just need to steer clear of the local apex predators, wolves, bears, and croc monsters, primarily. While owls and eagles grew to massive proportions in the forest, they generally left people alone, other than children anyway. I’d heard there was some kind of black furred cat monster out there too, but apparently they stayed well away from the town so I shouldn’t have to deal with any of those, or so I hoped. Wish I could hunt the giant deer, boars, and elk in these woods, but they’re a bit outside my weight class.

I slowly stood up, keeping my back straight so as to not tear the scabs covering it. I tried to get a look through the leaves and branches but quickly grew dizzy and sat heavily. Guess I’m not there yet.

I started digging my fingers into the ground by my side looking for stones I could use in my sling. Gotta be productive, make the most of my time. I only have a month or so until winter at best. Shit is going to get hard, if not downright deadly, if I can’t skin enough rabbits for a decent coat before then. I’ll freeze if I'm not proactive.

Something rustled the branches across the fire. I immediately snatched up my knife and sprang to my feet, only to drop to one knee as dizziness pushed me back down. I gritted my teeth, or what was left of them. Fuck, sounds like a bear. Here we go.

Well, like Knick always says, ‘if they’re going to kill you anyway, make them bleed.’ I got ready to take the fucker with me as the branches started getting torn away.