Ze Shou reached the clearing going to the stream near the basin of the waterfall to at least quenching his thirst. He had trouble sating his thirst recently as he can only at least get by with the motion of drinking fluid. To him, at the time, he could at least trick his brain that he's drinking water. This will, at least in some hope, solve his thirst problem for the time being. Now having solved his body issue temporarily, he moved to collect to his carving rock and stepped to the shade under the tree.
Settling down, giving his surroundings a good look over for any changes or stalking predators, he took his carving stone and cut the vine from the two grouds and set it aside. Next, he started a carving motion at a forty-five-degree angle, slowly cutting into the stem. White fluid dribbled out as he cut more in-depth into the stem. Carefully avoiding the liquid, he continued to saw through the gourd till he was able to pull the stem top off.
Thinking its better to drain the fluid inside, he moved back over to the river, grabbing two fist-sized rocks and placing them parallel into the river water that had some current. The water level only rose to his dirt-covered feet. Next, he put the gourd stem downstream while the two fist-sized rocks pinched the base. White fluid flowed from the open top and now contaminated the riverway. He then hobbled back to his working spot then continued to process the other gourd.
While keeping the same mannerism as before, he placed the other gourd in the lake, letting the gourd drain. Ze Shou moved towards the tree line to make more baskets to collect food for storage after that, collected the gourds from the river. He then looked for dark stones that would collect and retain heat to let the gours dry at a rapid pace. Ze Shou found a rather thin slab about the half the size of his palm in the river.
While walking around the area, he let the stone dry in the sun before placing the gourd on top with the base facing the black stone. Watching the gourd making sure it doesn't cook for a while before switching it out with the other gourd. He checked the dried gourd for any residue fluid that retained in the gourd before moving it to the shade before moving back to watch the other gourd dry.
After a while, he picked up the dried gourd and moved back to the shade and prepared to hollow to out, checking the inside of the gourd. Inside he found a sponge type of white foam and white rows of teeth. Sticking his finger into the inside of the gourd, he felt the walls where the teeth were held in place where hard and could be scraped off. Ze Shou then pressed on the teeth the bards on teeth and felt a slight burn as it left a small cut on his finger after he lightly touched on it.
The teeth did move slightly, so it was removable, after being cut by the teeth Ze Shou took some moss paste and put it on the cut in case the tooth carried a venom sac as he started to figure anything in the forest that could move had venom or had acid-like mucous membranes. After not seeing any reaction, he was assured he could use the gourd for water-storing purposes and started to look for a smaller sharp rock as his current carving rock was too big to fit in the gourd. His plan didn't include to make the hole bigger and lessen the water carrying capacity, so he started to search the cobra wreaking area, and after a few hours of digging and turning over stones, Ze Sho found a 'J' shaped rock that was precisely what he was looking for.
Ze Shou moved to his working area and first started to dig out the foam-like substance. The odd thing was when dug out and exposed to air; it began to exfoliate like the pappus of a dandelion and float away. After being caught by sight for a minute, Ze Shou continued his processing after clearing the foam he then started to dig his candy cane-shaped rock at the base of the gourd.
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Digging where you expect the gums to hold teeth would be but not digging too deep to dig out of the gourd. But not even using to much strength, he broke through the other side, leaving a '~' hole now wasting one gourd he began the same process on the other gourd and the result. The same, he concluded that maybe the gourds wetting and drying process ruined the skin, causing them to be flimsy and brittle in some areas, although he was careful with the other gourd with his carving.
He still cut through it, now destroyed the only gourds he had, he now had to travel back into the forest to get new gourds. He made sure he camouflage was reset and began to make his way slowly to where the carnivorous plants resided. After traveling what seemed like a few kilometers from the waterfall, he found the gourd plants that were playing idly still. This time he crawled slowly on his belly to where a few fresh dead gourd plants where. Collecting a row of gourds that was attached to a vine and when he reached out towards a fifth. The fifth one released a last screech before dying, alerting all the idle gourds in the surroundings.
Ze Shou startled got up to run. His leg caught on a dead vine; he used his carving knife to hack the vine midway through before dodging a hungry gourd plant. Before continuing to chop at the vine, finally free, he got up to hobble run, avoiding hungry gourd plants and stray vine whips. Leaving their attack range before slowing his pace and moving back to his hideout area once again, he threw his gourds to the ground laying down panting.
His thirst came back stronger than ever, and hunger levels were on the rise; his pain threshold was slowly starting to collapse. The loneliness feelings and morbidness settling in with the intense amount of stress, Ze Shou was currently under. The loneliness was even more significant, but somewhere deep down, there was a small ember of madness raging for him to continue for him to keep pushing forward that it was only getting more exciting.
Ze Shou's erratic breathing slowly calmed he propped himself up before looking towards the sun. Seeing that he still has plenty of daylight left to process the gourds, he heads to the shade and begins to work. This time he doesn't let them sit on water for too long and drys them on the rock partially before air drying the effect this time is much more noticeable. After processing the four gourds, he makes small holes near the top big enough for the vine; the gourds were connected too to slip through. Making them long enough to tie into a belt now secured a water storage a somewhat food storage, he moves towards the cave to check on his supplies.
Once in the cave, he goes to where he moved his baskets only to finds ribbons of shredded leaves. Four ruby-like hyenas were eating the berries and leaves of the remnant baskets. Ze Shou turns to run only to hear pairs feet running at a breakneck pace. Ze Shou only feels searing hot pain come from his shoulder as the first hyena-like being bites into him the other beings yelp in a laughing manner. Ze Shou drops one crutch to reach for his carving rock while using the other to steady himself from the momentum from the hyena, suddenly pouncing on him with its massive weight.
Ze Shou tries to throw himself against the wall while stabbing repeatably into the hyena that's bitting into him. While dark red liquid flows onto his carving rock, almost making him lose his grip, his head feels light, and his vision starts to tunnel from the blood loss. Still, his eyes never leave the other three ruby hyenas that yelp in laughter as the trio bounce back in forth at him. While their mouths foam with a black substance, their eyes show the same redness as their skin as they dart frantically over Ze Shou's body.
Ze Shou felt the grip on his back loosen the hyena on his back must be dead by some lucky strike. Feeling crazy feeling bloom through his body, he grabs his bloody knife tightly before ditching the supporting crutch. He jumps eye wide open, bloodshot with the biggest grin on his face at the nearest hyena laughing madly while getting bitten on all sides he stabs repeatable into the hyenas until there's no more sound echoing into the cave.