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D.A.B.
D.A.B. - Day 7, prey

D.A.B. - Day 7, prey

D.A.B. day 7

Prey

Bad noises wake me up with a jolt. It's just dawn, but I'm getting good at recognising noises like that and sure enough; something big is getting eaten way over in the grassland. By something big. I miss my binoculars. There is no way I will sleep with all this adrenaline, so I might make the best of it. The kiln is hot and I decide to risk a few of my pots, plates, a couple of spoons and a few sections of rain gutter and parts for the forge-kitchen and kiln. I'm kind of impatient for better eating standard and that soap. I've decided to try and bring up a large piece of slate to use as a table since it will be easier to keep it clean and it will be flat without wood splinters that might leave infected wounds, and I will need more than one table. It will be a bitch to get up here in one piece, but worth it. I will eventually need more grass to make cord, and the sun have come up. The wind is from the valley but I can't smell anything from the feeding frenzy over there. Then again, I guess I stink quite badly. I really want to make soap as it would be nice to feel clean. Shaving would also be nice, and lets just ignore the teeth.

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It's about one and an half hour since the big predator left and there are several small scavengers, birds and probably smaller predators moving over the corpse. It's nice to have this sharp eyesight, but I feel uncomfortable why I have it. Why the hell would those damn alien bastards care to fix that? The possibilities aren't nice as I can't help think what else they might have done. I'm probably tagged like a dog, but I can't find a new scar or weird lumps under my skin.

Oh well, I can't do shit about that.

Overall it feels safe enough to go down and collect more material. I make sure to feed the kiln first as I'm slowly going for a higher temperature, and eventually it might use a heck of a lot of wood. Lucky I did this before the roof is in place over the kiln as it is getting hot enough in here, and that upper hole is nice for air circulation. That eyebrow dormer window will be a very good idea. If the need develop, I might compensate for a sleeping bag by make some kind of heated bed area by making a separate fireplace with its chimney under the bed and up and out. I just have to think about being able to remove soot and keep it clean.

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I caught something in my net trap! I caught something that is still there! Something bigger than expected! I use my bodyweight to bend the tree down and whatever is in that net starts to make high angry grunting noises and squeal a bit like a pig. I take a thick branch and whack its head area really hard a couple of times until it stops. I untie the cord and bring the surprisingly heavy animal and a few sturdy branches with me to the beach. It feels like a bad idea to bleed it here or in my hut. Sure, blood in water is bad too, and although it would be interesting to see what shows up, I decide to dig a hole closer to the rocky knoll further up the beach and bleed it into that hole while hanging it from a tripod, and also gut it there. I can collect a big slate piece while it drain and wash my hands of in the sea, collect the salt and get back up to my hut.

I stab the animal in the neck area before opening the net. Wow, its some kind of pig looking animal but also.... not. It got way more fur than pigs should have and it is more like a little fluffy bear. It doesn't seem to be a meat eater with that snout, teeth and pig looking feet.

"Eh, fuck it, I will call that a fur pig."

I guess I know what the smaller predators prefer hunting, and the fur pig might have been smart enough to realise that it needed to be quiet in the net. But hey! New food! Maybe I should try to do salted bacon. Oh man, thinking of any food is always a bad idea. I always add what I don't have like some kind of vegetable, which would be so nice! Might combine it with a bit of coconut.

I quickly collect the big slate I want and shape it so I don't carry unnecessary weigh, and take the pack on my back. Yeah, that is damn heavy. And I have that pig thing too. I try to find my hut up on the ridge as I move back. It is visible and doesn't quite blend in, but I can improve that. The slates colour doesn't really blend in, but it doesn't totally stand out in nature, so it's mostly seems to be the edge between the terrain and the roof. A few fern things should help diffuse it, and I might bend a small tree down over the roof. I will add simple camouflage netting over the front to diffuse internal light and avoid a big horizontal dark line, and I've already planned to make a form of railing and protected porch of the remaining ledge. I want to be able to have stuff out there or stand there and have some protection, especially going out to take a shit in the middle of the night. The birds are big around here, and I've see at least one bird looking thing flying that didn't look as a Dino. Still huge. Obviously. Probably have a nasty beak and claws like razorblades. That are poisonous. Or just have nasty bacteria that will give me gangrene.

I return to the fur pig, and gut it. I really don't want to stay here for long doing this, but the wind direction should carry any scent out over the ocean. My work is not pretty but it gets the job done fast, and I fill in the hole. The blood could be used, but I'm not that desperate yet, and my food probably isn't lacking in iron and such. Vitamins and carbohydrates are an issue.

I take another break from carrying the backpack and fur pig as I visit my salt shells. I take the salt with me and quickly fill my salt shells up with new seawater, before hefting the heavy pack and animal and making my way up.

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Screechy bird welcomes me when I get close and just for tradition I salute him with the bird, but I don't mean it in a bad way. It feels good to actually go into something that feels like a hut, slip of my heavy pack and hang up my kill, then lean my spear and axe against the wall, and take of my shoes. That stone have to weigh 40-50kg or more and I had to take three breaks going up here. Being too tired and unbalanced is a bad idea on that trail, and there is that final ladder. My hut might be almost finished but I should still make a hoist, and I am kind of surprised that my so called backpack held. I should measure the stone and find out how heavy it is. Stone usually have a density a tad lower than Aluminium at 2.8grams/cm². Anyway the stone is here, and I should make that table and a better stool with back support. I should make a weapon rack. And shelves for the pots. Plus that bench with back support. And the kitchen bench with my planned foot operated tipping water tap. Some kind of deck chair to relax in would be nice too as my back is fucking killing me. And that loft. Lots of split logs to carry up for that. I'm going to get so many splinters. A wood planer would be nice.

But time to feed the kiln, cut up the pig and prepare the meat before I continue making roof slates. Oh! I can try to use the smoker function in the chimney! And see if I can use that fur.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

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I don't think my clay is that good and I'm letting the kiln and pottery slowly cool down. The reason I think this is that the pottery started to glow yellow instead of just glowing red when I remembered to removed the stoppers and look into the view holes, instead of just keep on feeding the fire. There is no way my wood fire got really hot since I was planning on using charcoal in the future, so I didn't expect the pottery to become more than hopefully glowing red. The wind have picked up and might have been a bit too much, and the kiln have been eating lots of wood. Well, I will know how it went in a few hours and it's a lesson learned. I can't do anything about the clay being bad, and I hope I can glaze the pottery so it's waterproof. The small fire in the forge-kitchen is slowly grilling all the meat, and overall I'm very pleased with how the kiln and forge-kitchen work. My design seems to work well. It just feel so much nicer and more civilized than a fire on the ground. And better for my back.

I eat a good meal and it's better than the bird. I'll try to work my ass of to get the roof ready today, and I've definitely gotten the hang of shaping slate a bit, making holes and getting it tied on the roof. That temporary door is also a priority and I work on it to get some change. I should do an early evening run to get more long grass, and I might as well check the fish traps since I got distracted by the pig. Then bring more cutoff wood from where I chopped down the trees to make projects, or just collect more dry wood to burn. Tomorrow I will fell a couple of trees and start to make furniture, and I am really looking forward to all of it, but mostly a better bed. Then the loft, do something creative with that cliff gap up high, and add that eyebrow dormer window.

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There is a fish in my trap! Not the biggest I've caught, but hey: Success!

Seriously, today have been a good day. I caught that fur pig. The roof will be finished and I have a door. That big table stone is up there. A new batch of salt is ready. And I might take out the pottery. Yeah, that pottery is probably broken or melted together, but I kind of don't care. I expected failure so it's good experience for my next attempt. I should get more clay when I'm here, but first I add a bit of fur pig bait and coconut into my fish traps. Want to see if I can catch different fish. From here my hut is now very hard to see, and I know what to look for. I cut a few bundles of grass and move over to the clay area. It's good the bank is full of clay as I might build at least one high terrace. I should have a terrace ready to go if I find something to plant, and just hope that plant likes it up there.

Noise and movement over the low muddy bend upriver catch my attention, and what the hell is that? Dino in the water? No. A rolling log with branches? Fuck! I know that movement. That is at least two dudes paddling a canoe. Holy shit! There are other humans here! And they're heading right for me.

Shit! They're heading right for me!

Shit! Shit! Shit!

I hurry back down stream and I've gotten used to this route and I avoid leaving footprints. This is also the second time I have to run like hell back from here and there have been a couple of high speed returns just from nerves too. I need to get to that rocky knoll before they reach me so I can see who they are before deciding if I want to say 'Hi!', but they have the current helping them. I can't just dump my backpack and leg it as they will see the backpack, and the pack is my camouflage, which should help me blend in and make my movement hard to interpret, especially from the back. Shit! My black pants might be a problem. Shit!

I reach the river mouth, but I take one last look and it's no doubt about it. Two dudes in a canoe, and they're really giving it the beans. Shit! They must have seen me! Shit! Shit!

I crouch down and leg it to the rocky knoll and quickly scamper up. I will be visible on the horizon so I have to peek between the grass. As I reach the top I see the two dudes almost ramming the shoreline on my side of the river about 250 meter or so away. Shit! They're really... after... me? What? They're looking over their shoulders and being frantic?

OooohH SHIT!

Screeching roars from that direction confirms my instant fear that I have incoming, so I just slide down the knoll and run like hell along the beach. This isn't the time to be subtle, but at the same time that is humans being hunted and probably in my direction. The first humans I've seen since I woke up here. And I feel ashamed that I think about that saying that I only have to be faster than them. The problem with that idea is, that that sounds like several screeching roaring dino's like from a pack, so they will probably hunt all of us.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

I hear indistinct shouting, but the screeching have increased in volume, and I just go 'Fuck it' as I leg it towards my trail up to my hut. Why did I even think those thoughts about securing my hut? There is that big gap in the roof! And that hole up high on the cliff side! My heart is beating like a base drum, and this beach run feels like it takes forever! I can't help to glance over my shoulder expecting a dude come jumping down the beach with a vicious hungry dino following, but I'm happy for the hard packed dirt my feet are pounding. My pack is light as I hardly got any clay in it, and in my half panicked mode I forgot to drop the pack once I understood I had incoming, but I'm about to leave the beach and I don't want to waste time now, so I might as well carry it. I look back over the grassy area as I jump up from the beach and see that there is a running dude just 20 meters away coming to a stumbling halt as I show up. The other dude is way behind and getting chased by at least 3 dino's. I just run as those dino's are faster than a human, and the distance probably takes less than 10 seconds for them. I just shout "Follow me!" in Swedish before I remember to repeat it in English and I do a hand wave and point. The closest dude doesn't hesitate to run after me. That camouflage cloak, spear and bow won't do much against those big fucking dino's, and I'm not enough of a bastard to not save someone from that gruesome fate, but the second dude must be fucked.

"SHIT!!!"

I just rush up the hill. I've done this trail dozens of times, and several times in high tempo. Fucking Dinosaur planet! There is sadly a good obvious trail once you're on it, as much of the middle slope is so steep, rocky or thick jungle that there wasn't much option, which is also a good thing. Easy to follow is hardly bad now as getting lost might mean gruesome death. In quick glances and peripheral vision I see the other dude hurrying up behind me and the thick canopy means I no longer see the grassy area until we get higher, but I hear some indistinct shouts and then horrible sounds. SHIT!!!

Quick glances, peripheral vision and sounds makes it obvious that something big is following us so I just scamper and climb up as quickly as possible. Those fucking dino's aren't small! There is screeching from the grass area, but no more shouts, and a loud screech and other noise behind us makes me glance down when the trail serpentine. HA! The big fucking dino's feet are too big and it slips on the rocks, and cannot make the turns between the trees! YES! Just like I hoped!

I grab the prepared blocking log door and as the other dude wisely just rush past I force it in place and force in the wedge to lock it. A human could probably pass but needs to climb and balance, but most dino's shouldn't be able to pass. No leverage or way to apply speed, and they should give up way before it breaks. The wedge lock isn't visible from the other side, but there is a blocked peep hole to make sure nothing is lurking outside before I open it again. But I won't even peek before I've peek out from trail lookout about six meters above. It's possible to attack something lurking from there.

I hear that bird screeching from above, so I guess the dude wisely have moved ahead and I hurry up after. I sneak a careful peek down from the trail lookout and see the big dino seems to have given up the chase 100m meters away and 40 meters below and is moving back down to the beach. That is a horse size and really mean looking dino!

"Feel the double bird you fucker!"

Shit. I probably shouldn't antagonize it as it might be intelligent enough. A human is probably just enough for a meal for one of those fuckers, and I hope the dude on the beach died quickly. That was far far too fucking close! I continue up and climb up to my hut and see the dude waiting outside, crouched down and leaning forward supported on the stone tipped spear while catching breath and looking down towards the beach. From here we can see the beach and grassy strip quite close to the ridge, and four large dino's are heading back up towards the river a few hundred meters away. I just pull up the ladder, open the door, step inside and dump my backpack. I sit on my stool catching breath. Far too fucking close. Eventually my luck will run out. Like it did for that poor dude down on the beach.

What the hell do you say in a moment like this? So I stay silent.

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