After waking up from a weirdly dreamless sleep, I went back to the fire to see once again the flames just barely keeping out the leeches, which I noticed as a lot of black worm like things on the edges where the cave ended. I was adding more firewood before I heard a bunch of high pitched shrieks. I turned to see the sun rising and the leeches rushing away from the fire and burrowing into the ground outside, which just barely became bright enough for me to witness this event.

I grabbed my frying pan which had been my main storage for everything for a while, which is now quite damaged and decided to try and make a simple bag. I was going to try a trick I watched one of the hunters do. I quickly went outside while it was still early dawn and the animals were tired and went hunting. I was leaving my pan behind due to how much noise it would create, bringing only my knife.

I quickly ducked down into the undergrowth and, while waiting for who knows how long sitting near a small pond I found a while earlier, I noticed a small boar taking a drink. I sneaked behind it and for lack of a better way jumped on it and started stabbing at its head. At first it tried to shake me off but it quickly lost motivation and tipped over. I partly lost my balance but managed to get away from the boar before it crushed my foot or leg under it. I then carefully cut it open, trying not to be phased by how disgusting it was. I then gutted it, saved the cattle gut, the string like piece around the gut which I will later use, and skinned it carefully. Being handy with a knife as a child it wasn’t terribly hard, but I messed up twice and once accidentally poked a hole in it where it doesn’t need one. It isn’t a big deal as long as I can patch it up which there is plenty of extra cattle gut and hide for, but it was still a pain.

I quickly took the remaining meat, but left some at the site hoping any predators will eat it first, and went back to my cave. The fire was dead again so I quickly collected some firewood and managed to get it started again rather fast compared to last time, with about an eighth of sunlight left. Before I hunkered down I remembered what I saw yesterday and thought I might try it. I rushed out and collected as many of those stalks as I possibly could and went back inside the cave.

…

After stoking the fire and refining the hide a small amount, I cut the excess pieces off and formed a bag of sorts with a small flap to act like a cover. I made two holes in both the base and the flap and made some tight loops to allow me to use the cattle gut to tie it together. I then cut some holes in the back and tied a few straps to it to allow to use it as a backpack, and tried to keep it near the fireplace for a while to allow it to harden a bit and let the cattle gut dry. I then moved on to my next task, which was trying to make paper.

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I went to my pan and took all my things out of it, the stone that started this whole mess, a quarter of a healing potion, some meat that is already rotten, a bronze coin and two silver coins, the Gob’lak meat which was bundled in some leaves and well smoked, Franks ‘best selling’ book “Guide to the Wild”, the short sword and two bottles of holy water. I try to organize the potions and the food by wrapping it in a bit of hide, and I make an extremely crude sheathe out of the rest for the sword. I keep the coins grouped together and move on to what I wanted to do.

I took the pan, went into full sprint and ran to the nearest river. All the nearby animals heard me and quickly retreated and I filled my pan with water. The Gob’Lak meat was usually very watery so I managed to last a while with the previous days meal, but I couldn’t live of that alone. I went back into my hideout and put the pan on the fire held up by some sticks.

Quite a bit of the water fell out while coming back but there was more than enough for me to drink.

I let it boil and by the time it boiled it was well into the night. I let it cool down and noticed the Mana Leeches crawling back. I added more fuel to the fire and decided to try that thing I saw in my dream after I drank my fill. I cut all the stalks I found into thin strips, and threw them into the pan and let them soak. Then I decided to go to sleep so I didn’t get too drowsy in the morning.

…

The night was rather uneventful and repetitive. I woke up twice to stoke the flames and went back to sleep and in the morning the bugs retreated and I went to check on the stalks, which have become a lot more manipulable. I then used the water from the pan and extinguish the flames and turned the pan over while laying the strips first parallel then perpendicular to each other.

I used the bottom of my knife and pounded them for a while until they started to stick together. I then brought it to the stream and filled the pan with water with the paper like material in it, being careful to not let it get out. I then went to the cave and let it sit. Then after that I went to hunt for some more leather and the day went on, then the night came. I quickly gathered some more sticks to add to my barely alive fire before dusk and went back and repeated the day again, except without touching the paper and letting it sit.

This went on for another day, and on the third day of letting it set I checked the pan and got a great surprise.