Chapter Twenty-two
It would have been nice if oblivion had taken me fully into its grasp, but my nerves had me waking with every little sound. Every time I heard Gaian shifting throughout the night, I would pop back up and reach for my knife. So to say I was well rested when planetrise happened would be laughable. Groaning out loud, I got out of my sleeping bag and walked barefoot over to my pack as carefully as I could and pulled out one of my two last sets of clean clothes. Getting dressed quickly, I also got one of the few remaining clean squares of cloth I had tucked away. Normally reserved for cleaning equipment, this morning I was hoping that I could use it to quench my thirst before my evaporator got to work later on in the heat of the day.
Stopping at my tent, I took a second to return my knife, ax, and spray to my belt before picking up the fire-warped spear. Heading off a short distance away from camp to grass that was untouched by either of the fights, I started running the cloth over the dew laden fields until it was soaking wet, then ringing it out for a mouthful of water. Collecting dew wasn't my favorite way to gather water but at this altitude, it was going to be my best bet until I could find a source of running water.
Continuing on for a good thirty minutes, I tried to keep going until my stomach was full. I didn’t have any other options for water other than the ice in my cooler which would only net me a couple of cups worth. I was really hoping that the light the planet was reflecting would get the same greenhouse effect as the sun back home.
Moseying back to the camp just a short hundred yards away I started my morning stretching routine to work out the kinks from sleeping on the ground. After about fifteen minutes of loosening up, I got to work and started knocking out several of the chores on my checklist. Stirring up and rekindling the fire, redoing the grate, and getting the rest of the uncooked fish onto the fire was just the beginning.
Then I moved on to making another firewood run (this one I hoped would be much more comfortable fully clothed). Looking at my clothes from the previous day I desperately wanted to bury them forever, but that was the old me who was way too used to just being able to pull up an app and have replacements over the next day. With no more one day orders to rely on, I was going to have to figure something out.
Both the shirt and pants were still slightly damp, so I took them over to the dirt I had excavated and rubbed the clothes into the drier dust as best I could. My plan was to leave them lying out during the day to dry and when I made my firewood run tonight at planetfall, I would bring them with me and beat them to get the dirt off. Hopefully, this would remove most of the gore with it with the dust. I had no hope of getting rid of the bloodstains, but if I could get rid of the smell and ick, packing them away until I could find water would be a lot more palatable. If that didn't work, I would just keep them to use as butchering clothes.
Checking on the fish I had cooked the night before I was happy to find that the dried kelp covering them had absorbed most of the dew, leaving the fish dry underneath. Picking the meat off the bones I, shredded it into the baskets I had woven the night before making sure to dry them first with my dew cloth. Taking the halibut I had held back from the coals, I walked over to the massive beast that was lying on his side, still in pretty bad shape despite my attempt at surgery, watching me work.
Rubbing his ears, I set the fish down in front of him, but he just nosed at it. Clearly, my attempt at helping the day before hadn't done as much to help him as I had wanted. Reaching down his belly I kept my eyes on his giant muzzle. Feeling as gently as I could, I placed my hand on the burn tissue that had bubbled up. It felt really warm, glancing quickly down at it I saw red lines spiking out from it before disappearing under his fur. Because I had never picked up a vet degree with my many hobbies, I had no idea how bears handled infections. Sighing I rubbed his ears in thanks for putting up with my slight ability at ministrations. Sitting down next to him I pondered out loud our choices.
“Well big guy, I need to head back over the hill and try and get any remaining fish that might be still alive in the pools and work on drying them. After that, I need to go through the goblins and see if they have any cores like the troll had. If they were using them as a source of wealth or status, then there is a good chance maybe they will be worth taking them with us.” I looked over at him, “Any chance I can count on you to do the excavating while I handle the fishing?”
With the slight growl emitting out of him which I took for a no, I replied back. “Fair enough. You killed most of them, so it's only fair that I dig out the money while you continue to recover.”
Walking back over to my two sleds I shouldered the ropes and called back out to him. “Okay, food first and then money, you guard the camp and I'll get to work.” Using the spear as a walking stick, I headed back to where we had first arrived on this moon. With nothing of interest until I made it to the crest overlooking the remains of my landing spot. Looking out over the sand and rocks, I saw the first signs of native life since the goblins. I refuse to count trolls as native until I see one in the wild, not just popping out of a portal egg. Gagging a little in the back of my throat as the taste of Troll goop tried to make its way back into my mind.
Looking out onto the remains of the once mighty Pacific, I could see about thirty to forty buzzards and eagles feasting on the dead fish that I hadn't managed to harvest yesterday. Unconcerned because I was sticking to the tidal pools today, I decided to ignore them. Part of me wanted to try and kill one to see what differences I could learn from its corpse, but without a gun, I didn’t want to risk kicking off a fight and having them all come after me. Also without a gun, I was unlikely to kill one before it flew off and the potential rewards just weren't worth the risk or time sink.
Sticking to harvesting tidal pools and kelp, I used a bucket to empty out the remaining pools, before killing what gathered in the remaining small amount of water. Unfortunately, I had gathered most of the fish up yesterday, So I was only able to collect about half of a sled’s worth of weight. It seemed like most of the crabs were hiding from the birds in the rocks, and from the smell, the rotting mussels definitely were going to be passed on now. Looking at the empty sled, I once again considered the birds on the ground.
Shaking my head, I forced myself to pick up the ropes instead and head back to camp. I hated dragging an empty sled, too much of my head thought if I was going to go back I might as well gather everything I could. But even with having to feed Gaian on my own, I still had plenty of food for the near future. Also, these birds weren't going to die from suffocation in a day or two. So, without my own life truly being at risk yet, I wasn't going to just go on a killing spree for no reason. Unlike the Goblins and Troll, they had left me alone, so I was going to do the same.
The trip back to camp was as uneventful as the trip out, walking down the ridge everything looked peaceful. Evidently, the goblins were either an isolated group or their tribe just hadn't realized they had gone missing yet. With my tank still down for the count, all I could do was hope that my luck continued. Making my way back down to camp I checked the sky, only to find that the day was about halfway through already.
Heading over to the fire, I took off all of the fish that had finished dehydrating and set them aside to cool. Next, I replaced the coals with fresh ones from the main fire and restocked the wood to bring the blaze back up. After putting all of the fish I had gathered onto the grill, I went over to sit down next to Gaian. He still had most of the fish I had brought over this morning in front of him. Looking at his eyes they didn’t seem as clear as they had this morning, I started to worry he might be feverish and not recognize me, so I backed away slowly.
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Walking over to my evaporation catcher, I looked in, it had maybe two cups of water in it, barely covering the bottom of the bucket. While the day hadn't really started getting warm yet, I had hoped for more. Leaving the water alone for now for now, I sat down next to it to go over all of my options, however unpalatable they might be. Calling out the hamster from his nap, I gave him strict instructions to focus on the problem of the immediate future and leave off spinning out any wilder theories for now.
First and most obvious, just pack up everything, take the fish when they are done, and leave the bear behind. I had saved his life from the fireball and he had saved me from the troll. He might recover on his own or he might die, either way, our karma was even, and from a technical viewpoint, I didn't owe him anything else.
Second, I could keep everything here as a base camp and scout around the foothills looking for water sources before packing everything up and moving on, this would give Gaian a chance to recover on his own, and if I found any water I could bring it back to him.
Third, and more unpalatable in my mind. Kill him, spend the next couple of days turning him into a massive amount of jerky, while scouting for water and figuring out which direction I wanted to head when I had gotten all I could from his corpse.
Fourth, try to treat his infection with the small amount of supplies I have with me. I could try putting the rubbing alcohol onto some cloth and make a small compress out of it. That would hopefully be enough to try and kill the infection off while feeding him the last bit of ice, in a hail mary to help with the fever.
Fifth, called for trying to use the Troll's core, pulling it out of the body had stopped its former host’s regeneration, which told me it had to be the source of its powers. So either I could feed it to Gaian and risk him becoming a monster, or I could try to use it on myself and put the risk all on me, hoping I could figure out a way to heal the bear afterward. Risking myself also had the added complication, that even if I managed to not become a monster, I had no guarantee that I could figure out a way to channel the regeneration power over to him and he might be doomed anyway.
Three, I crossed off immediately in my mind, we had fought together and eaten together, and that just wasn't something I would do unless all other options were exhausted. Likewise one was off the board as well, for most of the same reasons. Abandoning him was such a small step away from killing him. I really disliked the analytical side that came with having such an overactive imagination.
I knew in my heart it was going to be some combination of two and four. Yeah, he was bad now, but bears got into fights all of the time in the wild and recovered. Sure they didn't fight trolls back on earth and have their slime and blood shoved into their stomach. But they had to have better recovery powers than humanity's weak over pampered bodies. I doubted the ice would do anything, but we could finish off the beers together and I had no other use for it other than drinking water for myself.
While it wouldn't be pleasant I could survive off of morning dew and whatever I could reclaim from evaporation. So if it had the slightest chance of helping, it was better I give it to him. The rubbing alcohol was going to be the sticking point between the two plans, that was something I had no easy way to recover and while it had the best potential to help, I wasn't sure if I had enough to do any good. And if it wasn't going to work, then I was sure I was going to need it for myself later. Decisions, decisions.
I knew in my heart that a huge part of me wanting to help the bear through this was just my own way of fighting off the helplessness I was feeling. No matter how much I knew it wasn’t true that I hadn’t abandoned my children, in this kind of thing, intellect loses to emotion every time. And my emotions were telling me I was the worst dad in the world for not being with them right now. So if I needed to help the bear to fight the self-loathing I was feeling then we’ll just call it a win-win.
I also considered option five. I don't know if there was some lingering bit of that yellow Qi still flowing around in me, trying to influence me into stepping into a trap. Or if it was just that inner voice that had always believed in something greater than Earth. Worse for me, I now had proof that it was possible for creatures to command the impossible.
When I was back on Terra it was just a daydream, now I had seen two impossibilities become real, and there was a huge part of me that wanted to do anything to try and claim some of that for myself. I had lost my children, and while I would never have traded them for anything. I hadn't given them away, they had been taken from me. I needed to make something good come from this! I couldn't lose them for no reason, if they were going to be gone I would have the magic I had dreamed of since early childhood as compensation!
Finding myself on my feet and halfway to my pack I froze in my tracks. I don't know if this was grief, the Troll core calling to me, or some lingering bit of that foreign Qi inside of me but this isn't me. First of all, all hope isn't gone, there is still the minute chance they were taken, dragged to this moon as well. You have the slightest hope you can find them.
Secondly, if you want to continue trying for magic powers now that you find yourself removed from the power that dragged you here. You can't let all of that anger and resentment from being taken from your family color your search for it. That wasn't how you made the gains you had started to in that hell ball and going down that path is very likely to turn you into someone you don't want to be. It is the path of every comic book villain. You have lectured your children enough on the importance of not letting the bad times determine how they acted out. Now you have to live up to the expectations you put on them. No double standards.
Carefully approaching my pack, I made sure to stay in control of my faculties, in case it had been the troll core trying to snare me into taking it back up. Getting the cooler out I walked over to the bucket I had given over to Gaian for his use, dumping the remaining ice water out into it, I opened a bottle and poured it in as well. Setting it into my small trash heap, I opened mine and headed over to the fire to check on the fish. Taking one off that was sizzling nicely, I decided on having a juicy bit for lunch, while letting the rest of them continue cooking to remove the rest of their moisture.
Popping open the last Terran beer on this moon, I held the bottle up to the planet and let the glow shine through the brown glass. After taking a bite of the fish, I followed it up with a swig of my IPA, using the bitterness to add the slightest bit of flavor to the blandness of the unseasoned filet. Continuing that way until I finished them both off. I put my last bottle down on the ground with its five brothers to dry. While it would no doubt be a pain to clean once I found water, the glass was likely to prove too valuable later to leave behind.
With no point in delaying any longer, I decided that I was going to combine all of my remaining plans. Using the alcohol in my med kit to try and draw out the infection, I would give Gaian three days to recover while I scouted for water and finalized my plans for how I was going to live my life in this new world. I would try to meditate and harness energy on my own at first, to see if I could awaken any powers on my own. But if at the end of those three days, Gaian wasn't better, only then would I try and take on the troll core again.
Planning to leave the meditation for tonight, when I didn't have the light to do anything else. I again carefully approached my pack, still wary of the core reaching out for me until I could prove otherwise it was safe. Removing my water filter and water bladder; I also took out the med kit, snagging the bottle of rubbing alcohol, some of the cotton pads, and the tape from inside.
Putting the filter bag and bladder in my remaining gathering bucket, I wished I had brought my smaller daypack with me. But when I had left home, I had already thought the foldable kayak was overkill. For once I had listened to the sane part of my brain that said clipping a second empty pack on would be a pain and pointless. Cursing in my mind at how I had let inconvenience overcome my inner pack rat, I left the bucket alone next to the spear and brought the healing supplies over to use on the bear who had managed to rouse enough to drink the watered down beer.
Looking into his eyes and seeing that he recognized me, I felt better about trying to put the alcohol onto the infection. He hadn't taken a swipe at me when I stuck a burning spear into his side so hopefully, he would continue to realize I was trying to help and let me live. Murmuring softly to him, I gently began applying the wetted cotton bandages and started taping them down, and although he let out a small whine, he managed to stay still and keep his claws to himself.
With the small bottle half full, I decided to save it for a bandage change tonight, rather than dump it over the top of the makeshift compress and possibly waste the last of the high proof liquid. Returning my supplies to my pack, I picked up my new spear in my right hand and took up the water gathering supplies in my left. I decided to leave my evaporator for tonight before bed, and head off further into the world to see what I could find.