Edward Linden’s monologue

.

‘Well, now that I know where I’m standing, I got to make some plans for far future…

Okay, I may have hurried with that one. I know almost nothing , I’m more wobbling than standing, and I still have no idea where I am. The only future included in my plans will be the near one.’

‘So… what should I do? It would be cool to find some people, but there are several problems with that.’

‘1st, I don’t even know if “people” as I understand this word exist here.‘

‘2nd, is that I have no idea where they are.

3rd even if I knew, I don’t know whether I can get there on foot before I exhaust my supplies.’

‘4th, Locals might be hostile. Going by my original world’s history, slavery is more likely to be legal than not. After all, even on Earth, bans on human trafficking was a fairly recent thing. And even banning didn’t put an end to it, people are still bought and sold in some places.

Even if that wasn’t the case here, there are a lot of bad things that can happen to a kid without a guardian. It’s been a while since I’ve been worried about a hypothetical pedophile dragging me into his basement, but here we are.’

Yup, I will conduct no grand search for civilization here. If it founds me, then so be it. For now however, I better get to something productive, like finding a source of water, or searching for food. I mean, yes, I still have my supplies, but they will not be here forever.

The amount of food I have on me normally would last me circa 3 days, and I would drink the water in 1-2 days, but I’m smaller than usual, so I have approximately 3 to 4 days to find a source of water, and a week to find food.

I won’t starve to death if it takes me two weeks, but the thing about hunting and gathering food, is that success is more likely to be bestowed upon people who’s steps are firm and steady, instead of shaky and weakened by hunger. Besides, I’m a kid, I have to eat to grow.’

‘Oh, right, I have to boil the water, and cook the food. So I should look around for timber. I wood be happy if I found some.’

..………………………………...…………………………………………

And so, after adjusting the straps of his backpack, Linden began His journey between rocks. He was never fond of the idea of getting lost, so He’d started building little towers of stones on every turn. Well, technically He was majorly lost to begin with, but the cave He’d crawled out of was a good enough shelter, so He didn’t want to lose his way back.

One would think that walking in a labyrinth of stone would be creepy, especially during night of the full moon, but no, both the moon, and the fireflies were enough for Edward to somewhat see stuff around him.

This degree of darkness would be enough to scare any child, but He wasn’t exactly a child, and this place was way brighter than the cave He had slept in, so He figured if there were any wraiths lurking in the darkness, they would’ve already got him.

But the only thing lurking in shadows seemed to be moths, so Linden pressed forward.

By the break of dawn, Ed heard light shimmer, and smelled water. That’s right. Smelled water. Yes, it’s technically not a scent, just a sensation of heightened moisture, but it feels like smell, so that’s what it is. It didn’t take long for the extremely rejuvenated man to find a stream, as little and pathetically small as it was.

“Well, that doesn’t help. The stream is way to tiny to contain any fish, and I still don’t have my timber, so boiling this water is impossible now. I refuse to drink raw water, no matter how clear it looks like. I don’t wanna get diarrhea, and drinking raw water from an unknown source is exactly how you get diarrhea.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

………….

So instead of drinking the liquid stomach ache, Edward did the next best thing and started following the water downstream. After a while, the passages between rocks started to get narrower, so He needed to step into the stream. For better or worse, He didn’t have shoes nor pants, just a so-long-that-it-looked-lie-a-dress shirt, So He couldn’t get wet. The water was cold, but nothing Linden couldn’t manage.

…………………Edward L. confusing monologue again

By noon, I’ve come by an exceptionally narrow passage. So narrow in fact, that it earned itself a nickname- urethra. It’s not long, maybe 20 steps, but it’s still a major obstacle.

So that’s it for the grand journey, huh?

Doesn’t look like I can fit into that one. Or does it? A child can squeeze through any hole it can get its head into, I know that for a fact, I could fit into some ridiculously small stuff last time I was a brat (I even squeezed under a gateway a neighbors’ dashound had trouble going under).

Let’s try sideways. Ah. The backpack. I can either climb… or dismantle the backpack, and take it across in pieces. Climbing is out of the question. Why? Because I was never particularly great at rock climbing, and I would need to climb down. And I’d probably fall off. With, or without the backpack.

Dismantling the backpack it is then. It’s kind of pain in the backside, but it’s not like I have anything better to do.

Fortunately, not too far back, there were several places where water didn’t reach, so I don’t need to let my backpack soak. Especially my bedroll would be better off dry, after all, I’m supposed to sleep in this thing.

The bedroll is also the most trouble to carry across, the damn thing is as thick, as elephants’ di… err… thicker than me. I could unroll it, but I would have to drag it in the water, which is a big no no.

…………………………………

Crossing that thing was trouble. It was bruise inducing. It was time consuming. But it was worth it. The sight was breathtaking. Or maybe all the carrying, walking and squeezing was what took Edward’s breath away, He wasn’t sure.

When He finally got to properly look around, He was incredibly happy with what He saw. A big pond was in a place free of the omnipresent rock formation, with only some stray boulders. Several small streams, like the one Ed followed, were flowing into the pond, which in turn flowed into a bigger stream, and flowed further downhill.

As for vegetation, grass, unhealthy amounts of moss, some ferns, what both looked and stung like stinging nettle and a lot of plants Ed wasn’t familiar with were growing under a few unimpressive pine trees, some of which were in far from perfect condition.

Ed quickly diagnosed the problem with dead pine trees. Their bark was trashed. Something must’ve spared the grass, and ate just the bark. Or the grass growth rate is insane in this world. Herbivorous onslaught was too much for the poor trees, but perfect for Linden. The air was chock full of the glorious scent of sap.

Now He needed to find food. The pine needles were a bit too old for eating, but they would serve well as a makeshift tea. Nettles would be a great addition to an already existing meal.

Now, the most obvious thing to eat would be whatever animal ate that tree bark. But Ed didn’t know how often it came to that area, (nor whether it’ll come again) and just how dangerous it was exactly. A kid with a knife can have troubles fighting, for example, a pissed off boar.

Second option would be to take off and travel further, but the flow of the large stream would be too much for a kids’ body, besides, The place seemed perfect. Ed even found a hole in a rock that couldn’t exactly be called a cave, but it would be enough against the rain.

And so He went to check the pond for the third culinary option, fish.

Edward Linden’s direct pov

The pond was quite clear, So I immediately saw something swimming in it. Unsure whether ‘something’ is really the aquatic goodness perfect for filling my stomach, I was waiting for one of them to swim up to the surface, but I watched my eyes for nothing. Everything changed when I reminded myself of the brilliant idea of bait.

I took some of that dried food I had in my backpack, inspection of which gave me no clear result, ate a light meal, and thrown leftovers to fishes.

And a good move it was. The area didn’t immediately swarm with fish, but enough showed up for me to decide I need a way to get them from the pond into my pot.

A young pine tree came with help. I took my knife, and cut the thing, stripped the bark and small branches. It became a straight pole. I then split one end into four, sharpened them, stuck pieces of wood between the pokin’ bits, tied them together, so that the pole didn’t split further, aaand done.

I now have a working (I hope) spear for fishing.

Why not a fishing rod, someone might ask. Because I am terrible with those. The only thing that I’ve ever managed to catch with a rod, is disappointment.

I would try spearfishing right now, but it’s already night. The bedroll it is.

I can’t believe how much I love this thing. Comfortable sleep wherever you are is something I adore. I shouldn’t need fire tonight, it’s warm, no signs of predator, and even mosquitoes are low in number, their larvae were probably eaten by fish.

Good thing too, I’m way too tired to be dealing with mosquitoes, may they all end up as bird food.

Good night, tomorrow, spearfishing.