I carefully peaked into the tower and listened intently but didn’t hear or see anything unusual. Shrugging, I started up the stairs with the ladder. Upon reaching the top, I placed it beneath the roof hatch and climbed up. The hatch was stuck and wouldn’t budge, however. Cursing, I banged on it repeatedly before it finally popped open. I poked my head through the opening and witnessed several large birds flying off, squawking in protest.

I climbed the rest of the way through and stepped gingerly on the roof, careful to stay well away from the hole. A thick metal rod was sticking up above the rest of the tower which is what must have caught the lightning. Stone crenelations that came up past my waist circled the roof. Other than a few bird nests there didn’t appear to be anything else on the roof.

I carefully went to the edge, testing the floor in front of me as I went, and looked out over the city. It was quite the view. It didn’t take long to find my current residence. There were several other large estates surrounding it but mine had the most intact roof. It looked like the street next to my mansion ran toward a main street that led toward the center of the city. There was a wall separating the rich part of town from the rest of the city that I would have to make my way past. It looked mostly intact so I would either have to climb it or use one of the gates.

From the center of the city a few large streets headed to the docks, but I did notice a few smaller streets that went directly from the rich area to the water. I tried sketching a rough outline of the streets on the parchment but it wasn’t turning out very well. Then a sudden thought struck me, and I chastised myself for being an idiot while grabbing my cell phone and taking a couple pictures. The smaller streets looked promising since I wanted the most direct route I could find. The battle with the Jungle Ape gave me some confidence but I couldn’t get cocky. I wanted to explore the center of the city as well but that could wait.

Next, I surveyed the water but again didn’t see any ship activity. There appeared to be a few shipwrecks with pieces sticking out of the water near the docks but that was it. There were no large intact ships at the docks, but I couldn’t tell from this distance if there were smaller boats that I could potentially use. I then looked over the jungle but there wasn’t much to see besides a green expanse that seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t make out the road that led to the capital and the other side of the city was too far away to make out the road to East Port. I looked up and the nearby planet was still situated in the sky. I felt like if I brought a lawn chair up here, I could stare at it forever.

I wanted to do something about the lightning rod, but it was too close to the hole in the roof and it looked securely attached to the stones of the tower so without tools I didn’t think I could remove it. I didn’t want anybody else to be randomly stuck in this world, so I wanted to take care of it as soon as possible. Before leaving, I noticed a few large eggs in the bird nests so grabbed them. They were about twice the size of chicken eggs and might make a nice lunch if I could manage to get the stove going again. I didn’t know how they survived the storm or lightning strikes but the nests were on the opposite side of the roof as the hole and lightning rod. I could see the angry birds circling above the tower but luckily they didn’t seem to want to fight me for disturbing their nests.

Just as I was about to climb down, Shadow managed to pull herself up through the opening and started sniffing around the nests. She then jumped on top of the crenelations and made a lap around the roof. “Quite the view isn’t it but how are you going to get down?” I asked her playfully. She just meowed and jumped on my shoulder, sinking her claws in for stability. “Ouch, ok, ok I get it.” I winced while carefully climbing down the ladder with the eggs and cat. She jumped off at the bottom and scampered away. “Cats.” I muttered while following her out of the tower and back home.

Getting a fire lit took about the same amount of time even though I had done it once already. It was a real pain but at least it was doable. The eggs were very tasty, especially after what my diet had been lately. I made an egg sandwich using some of the bread and of course gave Shadow her share. The bread was about gone but I was afraid it would start getting moldy in the heat and humidity anyway. I refilled my water bottles from the pots of water I had boiled and while I had the stove going decided to boil a couple more.

While letting the water boil, I thought about trying to jury rig some weapons or a shield maybe but ultimately decided I wouldn’t want to trust anything I made in the heat of battle. Instead, I decided to check the surrounding mansions for more supplies. They were in worse shape than mine, but I managed to find a few things including an intact pouch with a strap that I could sling over my shoulder, more candles, some pieces of clothing, and better yet a few jars of some sort of preserved food. At least I hoped it was still preserved.

I didn’t encounter any more apes but did get the scare of a lifetime when a spider the size of a dog came down from the ceiling in front of me. I screamed my head off and didn’t stop running until I was back, safely inside my house. It wasn’t my finest moment, but I really didn’t do well with bugs of any kind. It didn’t help that Shadow shook her head and seemed to look down on me in embarrassment from the top of the stairs. I just hung my head in shame, but it wasn’t the first time that Shadow had seemed overly intelligent. It got me thinking that the summoning had increased her stats as well although I couldn’t prove it.

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With another day behind me I barred the doors and had supper which consisted of more bread and some of the preserved vegetables that kind of tasted like pickles but looked nothing like pickles. I then studied the magic book some more by candlelight and tried the techniques with no success. Tomorrow I would tackle the lightning rod and try to make my way to the docks without dying.

I woke with the usual weight on my chest. I had taken to sleeping in my boxers and had thrown off the blanket due to the heat, but Shadow still preferred to sleep on top of me. I gently moved her to the side and got up. Shadow stirred briefly but was soon back to sleep. I got dressed and ate a breakfast of not apples. I had seen trees with the fruit at other estates as well so wouldn’t be running out of them anytime soon.

My first task of the day was to return to the tower with a few planks of wood and the pry bar. The tower was still the same as I had left it and upon climbing up, I placed the planks over the hole in the roof. I cautiously approached the lightning rod over the planks and they held my weight just fine. The birds weren’t happy with my reappearance, but I ignored them. I made it to the metal rod and tried ripping it off the wall with my new strength. I strained, but the lightning rod seemed to be made of stronger material than I had seen yet and didn’t budge. Next, I tried using the pry bar, but it was no use either. I swore in frustration but couldn’t see any way to remove it so had to give up for now.

Back at the mansion I took a short break before getting ready. I slung my pouch over my shoulder, strapped on my sword, and grabbed my metal walking stick. My pouch contained both bottles of water, a couple not apples, and the monster field guide. I also had my knife and cell phone in my pockets. I was as ready as I would ever be so headed out into the street. It seemed Shadow was up for exploring as well and followed me out the door. She had slept in and missed breakfast, but I was sure she would catch something on the way.

We only made it a couple blocks before another Jungle Ape jumped down from a tree and roared at us. Shadow just sat down and looked at me calmly, seeming to say you got this. I sighed and dropped the walking stick while unsheathing the sword and started walking toward the ape. It charged me and I once again stepped to the side and sliced it as it passed, cutting off two arms this time. The ape stumbled in pain, and I followed up by cutting its head off. I even managed to not get much blood on me this time so was improving. I shook the blood off the sword and wiped it on a clean part of the ape’s fur before putting it back in its sheath.

Leaving the body in the street, we continued on our way. Shadow sniffed the dead ape on the way past but didn’t take a bite thankfully. We soon reached one of the smaller side streets that would lead to the docks. I had to keep more of an eye out as the trees lining the narrow street were overgrown and could easily hide monsters. All of a sudden, Shadow dashed into the bushes and I could hear rustling before she came back out with a bird in her mouth. At least this one only had one head.

I let her eat her breakfast before moving down the street. I stopped again when Shadow started hissing and noticed a large dark green snake hanging down from a tree branch. It blended into the leaves so I might not have noticed it until it was too late if it wasn’t for Shadow. “Nice one, you really saved me there.” I said, reaching down and petting her. She purred in appreciating and we carefully avoided the snake by going to the opposite side of the street. I thought about looking it up in the field guide but was pretty sure it would just be named Jungle Snake or something equally unoriginal.

I could see the wall in the distance but before then, yet another Jungle Ape jumped down in front of us. The same tactics worked again and we quickly reached the gate leading to the next section of the city while leaving another corpse behind. The stone wall was at least 12 feet high and cracked in places but still intact. The heavily reinforced wooden gate was shut with a heavy wood bar across it, preventing anyone from getting into the wealthy district. Unbarring the gate was easy and it swung open on rusty hinges, making an entirely too loud creaking noise. I grimaced and waited in silence to see if anything noticed. When nothing immediately attacked, I proceeded through the gate.

I saw my first skeletons on the other side. They were spread out around the gate, like they had been desperate to get inside. I hadn’t seen a single body around the mansions which I thought was a little strange. My best guess was that the rich had somehow evacuated the city first from whatever disaster occurred. I couldn’t tell how they had died as the bones were scattered around, most likely by animals. The skulls looked human which tracked with some of the paintings I had seen inside the derelict mansions.

Although now that I looked closer a few did look a little strange and had ear holes toward the tops of the skull instead of the sides and there was some evidence of tails. “Beast people maybe?” I muttered. Shaking my head, I made my way through the bones while trying not to step on any of the remains. On the bright side, it didn’t look like I would need to worry about zombies or undead wandering around. I picked the first street heading south and we kept walking toward the ocean.