Chapter Ten

Grabbing my collapsible shovel, I dug a small hole and then pulled out my wallet. I don't know what the future has for me in this new moon, but I was sure the paper bills and plastic strips I had would be useless here. Taking everything out except the three pictures behind my license, I buried every other trace of the old me from Terra in the last little bit of it I had access to. Keeping only the pictures, I left my license in the hole as well. I don't know if the fae are a real thing but until I find out for sure, the name I had been born with wouldn't leave my lips, I can only hope that the cards that were now being buried here wouldn't give my name out into the aether. With my final housekeeping task accomplished, I started heading downhill towards what remained of the cove, now that the water had disappeared down the mountainside. I had to remind myself to take my time, take my time and be careful, I no longer have a backup plan I told myself. While I had never thought of myself as reckless, I have always been able to see the path I needed to take and then follow through on it. That being said, there are several people out there who have been on hikes with me that would call me crazy, with my off trail detours that may or not have sometimes ended in having to repel down a cliff, that's why you learn to carry paracord. Not my kids, they were worse than me, not being tempered by age and as many incidents that I have had. But part of following through on things has always included knowing that on the times that I needed to push myself to one hundred percent, was that if I did fail I had modern medicine to pick up the slack. It is easy to go bouldering with a couple of friends when a broken leg means months recovering in a cast, not starving to death. I didn't mind breaking the golden rule of diving alone, because I wasn't going out into the middle of the ocean and I had an emergency air supply (discard pile along with its pump to refill it). I was confident in pulling myself out of any emergency I could imagine happening. The same thought process was why I didn't mind hiking for hours alone with no one around, I had an emergency satellite phone (now smoldering with rest of my electronics) and I carried insurance. So on the very narrow chance I needed it, I could call for a medevac and it wouldn't put me into bankruptcy. All of that was gone now, with the only saving grace being that I was here alone. So a stupid mistake wouldn't get my kids killed along with me, it would just be me starving to death or ending up in the bellies of this world's version of wolves.

Reaching the tidal pools, a few of which still managed to hold a tiny bit of the Pacific still inside of them, despite the tilt that they now had, I gave myself a quick grin. The lack of water had sent all of the bigger monkey-faced eels to start circling the bottom of the pools, rather than hiding deep in the crevices which were their normal lairs. Not a true eel, these fish nevertheless, if grilled and basted properly, still managed to serve the same purpose for me when I turned them into sushi and nigiri at home. So for the next several days it looked like I would at least be in no danger of going on a starvation diet. Taking off my pack, I again looked around for any dangers that this new world had in store for me, before being willing to take my spear and literally go shoot a bunch of fish in a barrel.

Down the mountain side facing what had once been the mighty pacific on my old world, there was about four hundred yards of pretty flat, sand and rock radiating out in a half circle from where I was. But it was easy to tell where the wall of Order and Chaos Qi had ended upon bringing us here. Cut, like with a knife of the gods, or perhaps a space laser, the sand ended immediately. It maintained such a perfect half circle that I had no doubt that if I went to the edge and started digging. It would not be a circle, but instead I would find that what came with me from Terra, was the globe I had seen with the strange vision powers that I had gained and then lost. Part of me was already beginning to doubt what had happened. Not that I had been taken from earth, the demarcation line from sand to grass and scrub would have made that clear enough. Even without the Jupiteresk like planet, hovering above like the moon. No, I was not ‘delusional’ enough to think I still remained on earth. But I was beginning to question what happened on the trip here. Had I really been trapped in a ball of magic, siphoning it off to give myself the ultimate channels and meridians, or was that just a delusion my mind sent myself into to maintain its sanity. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like I would be finding that out anytime soon. Looking out, past the line downhill, I didn't see any large creatures at all. Either they weren't there or they had been swept away by the gravity induced tsunami. Out of sight when the remnants of the once mighty pacific drove over the cliff, disappearing into the scrub at the bottom. Or conversely, the mountain I was on didn't have any large prey or predators. With an inward growl at my crazy hamster I sent him crashing off his wheel, as I tried to maintain my focus on the task at hand.

Continuing with my gaze going through its circuit to look uphill, past the pile of my trash and debris lay on the still smoking ground. Where it seemed like that my electronics had, if not gone up with a blaze, were at least in the process of destroying themselves of poisonous smoke. I thought about what it meant that I was still able to walk and move about. Did the fact that I was walking around like normal, mean that the planetoid slash moon that I now found myself on was the same size as earth? Or, was it bigger and the Giant above me was exerting enough gravity that it was pulling me up just the right amount to offset a bigger moon's size, making it feel like the gravity here was still the same.

Shaking my head, I once again forced the hamster off the wheel before he could really get going. I promised him that I would let him have a good run tonight before I fell asleep, but for now I was really going to have to start working on harvesting these fish before they died and went bad. While I had gone on cleanses in my past life back on Earth, once voluntarily not eating for ninety-six hours before, just to see if I could kick start a diet. That had been done more as a test of will power and desire to lose weight, not because it was forced upon me. With grocery stores and fast food off the menu, I was not looking forward to the time that started happening because the universe imposed it on me instead of by my own insane choices. Looking past the smoldering pile of electronics and the smoke that it was giving off, I saw the scrub oak and undergrowth that had come with me from earth. It disappeared into some grass and what looked to be the occasional pine grove before cutting off out of sight with only a snow covered mountain top farther off into the distance. Despite knowing that was where the bear had gone charging off to, I resolved to also go that way myself after I gathered as much fish as I could carry. I would smoke them higher up so that I could use the greater heights to gain more information on the small slice of the new world that I had found myself on.

Finishing my circuit with nothing alarming in sight, I sighed. The unfortunate thing being that I was going to have to force myself to just be prepared to react to everything without focusing on having an answer for each individual worry. For all I knew I could be dead tomorrow from microscopic toxins in the air. Worrying about everything, and trying to spend too much time preparing for dangers I couldn't possibly know about, with this being a new world. This would just end up with me being exhausted and getting nothing done constantly staying paralyzed with anxiety. Taking a deep breath I prayed to my grandmother's spirit and did my best to focus on serenity and putting the hamster down for a nap. “I know you always said to pray for Courage Grams, but right now I feel like I need Serenity a whole lot more. Otherwise I am just going to spend all day making plans for every eventuality. I know I didn't get along with God as well as you had hoped for me. And I have no doubt, if I let the hamster in my mind run wild, I would starve thinking of endless possibilities and get nothing done. So please put the Courage on hold and send more Serenity my way.” I let myself pray out loud for the first time in decades, and with another deep breath to put the rodent farther into a daze, I resolved to actually get to work.

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Taking off my pack, I pulled out the tarp for my tent, along with some of the small D-rings I kept in one of the pockets. I laid down my hiking poles out into a triangle and quickly clicked the D-rings through the grommets in the tarp to attach them to poles making a quick and dirty traviose. Pulling out several pieces of rope I had cut from my crab trap and one of the bundles of paracord from the bottom access point in my pack. I wrapped the trap rope tightly around the tarp and handles of my walking sticks, while taking the paracord and wrapping the middle of it around the point of the triangle I had made. Putting a bowline on each of the ends of the paracord to make a harness that wouldn't tighten up on me. I Wanted something that I would be able to use to pull the load easier up to the crest of the hill, while still maintaining the ability to drop quickly if I needed to leave it and my pack. Hopefully there were more trees up on the ridgeline where I could find some dry wood to smoke and dry the fish before they started turning. Unrolling and unzipping the fish bag I had left out in my repack, I laid it on top of my makeshift sleigh, before grabbing both of my buckets and spear.

Climbing up onto the now bare tidal pools, I had to be careful. It hadn't been that long since the transition and the rocks were still wet and covered with seaweed. While I was normally a fan of drying and eating it as both chips and as part of a salad, right now I needed to get to the fish as a better source of calories. Ripping entire stalks out of the sand and off the wall, in a move that would have me screaming at my kids, I dragged them over next to my new sled. Cutting off a few of the bigger leaves to help keep the fish cooler, I placed them in my buckets while leaving the rest to rot on the ground leaving me with a cleaner path to the top. Now that it was now less slippery with the removal of the kelp, I was able to pick my way carefully past the rocks covered with mussles and urchins, having no desire to fall and cut myself on them, with infection sure to swifty follow and the venom on the urchins spines that would no doubt be debilitating. While I had a tiny amount of iodine and rubbing alcohol in my small first aid kit, It was only enough for maybe one good sized gash. So although it took me a couple of minutes longer than I would have gone back on earth. I eventually made it over to where one of the small pools of seawater still remained. Looking in I smiled, as several of the monkey-faced eels were swimming around on the bottom, tightly coiling around each other. I quickly speared one, and pulled it up next to me, before taking my knife out next. Setting the fish down and I picked my knife up by the blade before bashing the handle onto the eel's head to kill it and put it out of its misery. On earth I would have thought nothing about taking my knife by the handle and giving it a quick flick to catch it by the blade, but here caution was reigning king. With all of my heavy files gone forever, and no hunting stores or online shopping to turn to if I nicked the blade because I dropped it. I had no desire to risk breaking one of what was sure to be my primary survival tools, because I was showing off for this new universe. Setting my knife gently back down on the rock, I picked up the spear and jabbed it back into the pool, it was still crowded enough that I didn't have to risk a full-hearted swing, or using the elastic band it came with to shoot it forward. Both of those actions brought with them the possibility of cracking the spears tines on the rocks making up the bottom of the pool. Another hit, and I repeated the process, with three lying beside me now there was more room for the remaining five to swim around, with a sure strike no longer guaranteed I tried a couple of slower jabs, still being careful not to strike the rock and break the spearhead. Missing every time I sighed, not wanting to waste too much time on one pool. I quickly cut off the heads and gutted the three I had on the ground next to me. I then dumped the kelp leaves out and placed them in the bucket alternating leaves and slabs of fish. Dipping the bucket carefully, I let a little bit of saltwater into the bucket to help keep them fresh before I headed off to another pool. As I started walking away, I sighed with annoyance at myself. I don't have to worry about fish and game wardens anymore. Also even if they had been around, this was now a survival situation instead of a fishing trip. I would be willing to risk the ticket knowing that even if I had to pay it, the ticket giver would be able to get me back to my car. Opening my backup bucket I stepped into the pool and started bucketing it out quickly, while still making sure I left the fish alone. Around five minutes and a couple hundred gallons of seawater later, the remaining eels flopped around on the rock laying on their sides, twisting around, desperately trying to keep water on their gills. Grabbing my knife by the blade I walked around to each one, quickly clubbing them over the head and putting them out of their suffering. I then again cut off the rest of their heads and gutted them before filling both buckets with both kelp and fish. Pulling one of the spare rags that I had brought from my pack out of my pockets, I dipped it into the salt water. Wetting it to wipe down my knife before drying the blade on my shoulder and sheathing it. Wiping down my spear from the eel blood the same way, I forgo drying the spear tines and instead bent down to pick up a bucket in my left hand, while my right reached down while holding my spear to grab the second slightly smaller one. I then made my way slowly back over the sharp uni and mussel shells, to the sand where my makeshift sled lay.

Working quickly but deliberately, instead of just dumping the buckets, I took the time to lay down kelp, then layer the fish and place more kelp on top of them. Then dumping the remaining seawater on top, to help keep them cool, before I again picked up my spear and buckets and went back to go through the remaining pools. Making three more trips, I also collected some of the smaller rockfish, along with more of the eels. Ignoring several of the crabs I had found, content to know they would live for several days. I also left the mussels and uni alone, unwilling to risk the slightly higher risk of food poisoning as they were harder to preserve and would go bad faster. I would probably be okay, but with the large amount of fish I had available, it wasn’t worth the risk. Looking at my sled and the fortyish pounds of seaweed and fish I had gathered. I decided that was probably all I could risk trying to haul on the ramshackle, wheeless cart. With no desire to risk tearing through the bottom and waste the time and energy of making several extra trips up and down the hill.

With no watch or any way of telling time according to hours or minutes I once had used, I could only guess that about half the day was gone. While there was no sun to judge by, with the massive planet that was drowning it out with its own glow, it now only took up about half of the sky with the edge just starting to hit the horizon. Although I wasn't seeing darkness creeping in yet, I really didn't want to push my luck and have to set up a camp and start a fire in the moonlight or whatever passed for night here. So carefully pushing my spear handle into the sand until it could support itself I let it go, and I then put the rope loops to my sleigh on top of it. I stood up, shouldered my pack, and then I placed the ropes around my shoulders in the crude imitation of a harness. I picked my spear slowly back up and carefully picked my course up to the top of the hill, anxious to look for a good spot to start a camp and smoke my catch.