"Thanks creepy spirit bear," I said at the mouth of the cave, "For helping me remember my father's words."

I turned away from the cave and walked over to Nora. I reached up to pet her face. "Come on, Nora," I said, before turning and started following the stream downstream. It was flowing in the direction of the river, so I decided to just stick with it so I won’t have to worry about water as we travel.

I wasn’t riding Nora because I wanted to make sure that I kept in shape... it totally wasn’t because I was scared... yeah.

The river would take a couple of days to reach by foot, but I wasn’t in any real hurry to reach it. My priority was, first and foremost, to survive. Which meant that I was focusing on finding food and shelter and taking care of myself. I moved relatively slowly, picking my way through the forest. I kept my eye out for any new fruits and any veggies that I might recognize. Nora kept me company and seemed happy to just walk with me. For food, I had my jerky and berries, but I did try to hunt something fresh for dinner. I was only sometimes successful, but I was getting better!

I didn’t have any problems at night either. I had my fur blanket, a hot fire, and big-spoon-Nora to keep me warm. We usually found a tree with a large canopy and made ourselves comfortable underneath it. I never got cold. The nights seemed like they were warming up anyway, so maybe it was Spring moving into Summer. I didn’t know.

After four days, we finally reached the river. It looked like it flowed south, so that’s the direction we went. Nora said that there weren’t any people north after all, so it only made sense to go south.

The massive cliff, which the river flowed at the base of, casted large shadows in the afternoon and evening. I mean, I did like the extra shade as we hiked along the river, but it did make things get dark a lot faster in the evenings. The smoked jerky, what was left of it, had started smelling a bit rancid when I had reached the river, so Nora and I were hunting for all our meals. I tried hunting my own food, but if I couldn’t get anything within two hours, Nora would just drop something she had hunted at my feet. I was getting better though!... I swear...

After traveling for about a week, the large cliff we had been traveling beside had tapered off to be level with the ground we were on. So that’s neat. Another thing that was neat was that I finally found veggies! It looked like a carrot, except it was a purple-ish color. I just saw the top of the carrot thing sticking out of the ground and started digging around it. I looked around and found about fifteen more of them, so the first thing I did was try to memorize the leaf so I could recognize the plant again in the future, and then I washed all the carrots in the river and stuck them in my pack. I munched on one as we walked, and later that night, I made a basic soup with rabbit meat and carrots. Eating meat and berries was good and all, but after so long with no veggies, the carrots were absolutely delicious.

I did start finding all kinds of plants. I found what looked like chives, so I picked a bunch of them to season the meat with. I also found a patch of a plant that smelled like mint, so I picked a bunch of leaves to make peppermint tea with during meals. It was tasty. I also found a lot of other plants that I thought were edible, but Nora growled when I went to pick some of them and the other ones tasted like garbage. I was learning though, so that was good. I never had to resort to eating insects or grubs, there was always something to eat around. The forest was teeming with life, and Nora always kept me fed if I couldn’t find anything.

After another twenty days, I was finally able to consistently hit my target. Meaning that Nora didn’t have to hunt for me anymore, I was able to do it myself. Most of the time, I just hunted rabbits. Not just the camo rabbits, there was also a dark grey rabbit that was a little bigger. I also managed to hunt squirrel-like animals and even a long snake. The snake’s head was bigger than my hand and was over ten feet long! I just saw it wrapped around a tree, climbing up to a bird’s nest, so I pinned its head to the tree with a spear. There was no way I was letting that thing live... I don’t like snakes. Speaking of birds, I climbed up that tree and claimed those eggs for my lunch. I think the parent birds were scared off by the snake because I wasn’t attacked by anything. I didn’t eat the snake, I just left it at the base of the tree where it fell when I took my spear back. Snakes creep me out. It could be some scavenger’s food for all I cared.

It was shortly after killing the snake and eating the birds’ eggs, that Nora and I finally left the forest and entered a plain of rolling hills. We still followed the river, of course, as it wound its way through the hills of grass. Wood was scarce in the grasslands, so before I left the forest I grabbed a branch of wood to use to make embers from and a branch to use as a bow. For the bow string, I used my old pajama pants waist string. I kept those two pieces of wood stuffed in my bag. For the fire, I burned grass cuttings, branches from small bushes, and what looked like dried cow dung. It smelled a little but it burned pretty good. Occasionally there would be some trees growing along the river bank, but they were fairly far apart so they weren’t something we could reliably use as fuel.

As for food, there was still plenty of it... Well, I couldn’t find any fruits or veggies, but there were plenty of things to hunt. There were normal-for-Earth sized rabbits, some groundhog looking animals, some antelope, and lots of birds. There were larger animals as well. In the distance we could see a large herd roaming about. Nora left my side for a bit and came back dragging a shaggy-looking buffalo. It was a bit shorter than she was but was twice as thick with muscle.

“Woah, that thing is massive,” I said, poking at it with a spear. “You need help eating it?”

Nora nodded and then pawed at the mane of hair around its neck and growled.

“... Want me to skin it first?”

She barked.

“Alrighty, just give me a moment.”

I had to have Nora hold the legs out of the way while I worked on skinning the large buffalo. I wasn’t concerned about keeping the skin intact to make a leather out of it, my concern was meat, so I just worked as fast as I could to get all the fur off. About forty minutes later I had the skin off and to the side. I cut a large chunk off of a hind leg for myself and left Nora to her meal. After getting a small fire going, burning a bundle of grass and small sticks, I roasted the meat for my lunch.

After so long traveling and eating with Nora, I was already used to the sounds of ripping flesh as she ate and I ate next to her with no problem.

“So, Nora, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you like the buffalo?” I asked, taking a bite of my own portion. It tasted pretty much like beef, just slightly sweeter. “It’s not as gamey as I thought it would be. Definitely better than the rabbits... although it is a ton more work. Seven out of ten for me.”

Nora looked up, licking her chops, pondered for a bit, then barked five times.

“Really? Only a five?” I took another bite. “You really think that elk and snake meat are better? Okay, the elk was pretty good and deserves the six, but there is absolutely no way that the snake is an eight out of ten while this piece of goodness right here is a five.”

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Nora chuffed and raised an eyebrow at me.

“Nuh-uh, ain’t gonna do it. There’s no way I’m eating anything without legs. Not doin’ it,” I said, chomping down for another bite. “Gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

Nora just shook her head and went back to eating.

The tall grass rustled to the right. Both Nora and I snapped to our feet, looking in that direction. I brought my spear up, pointing it toward the sound. Then Nora yelped in pain. I turned to look only to see something flying toward me. I whipped the spear around and batted the thing to the side.

The small raptor scrambled to its clawed feet. It didn’t look anything like the ones in Jurassic Park. It only stood about two and a half feet tall. They were feathered, with tiny little wings for arms that ended in large talons. It had a long feathered tail that swayed back and forth in anticipation. It opened its mouth, revealing long pointed teeth, and chittered at me in rage before leaping at me again.

I side-stepped and thrust my spear into its side. Nora was snarling to the side but I couldn’t turn to help because another raptor burst out of the grass from the right. It was the first one we heard and it was running right at me. I kicked the now dying raptor off my spear point and planted the butt of the spear against the ground and pointed the head at the oncoming raptor. As I suspected, it jumped at me. I aimed the spear and just let the raptor fall right onto the point. I dumped the second raptor next to the first and turned towards Nora.

Six more raptors were fighting Nora, while several lay dying or dead at her feet. Three were clinging onto her back, biting and clawing. One was being shaken in Nora’s teeth, while the other two were circling her. I quickly grabbed my atlatl, nocked a spear, and launched it at one of the raptors on Nora’s back. It fell off, dead. I nocked another spear and launched it. Another raptor fell off Nora’s back. Just as quickly, I launched a third spear and knocked the last raptor off. Using my fourth and last spear, I charged the raptors circling Nora but it was unnecessary. Nora threw the one in her mouth at one of the raptors, hitting it in the face, and lunged at the other. Nora ripped that raptor’s head off and turned to the last raptor as it was getting to its feet, and quickly tore out its throat. She stood there panting, blood dripping from her mouth.

I looked around at the surrounding grasses. No movement besides the wind. I looked around at the raptors. Most were already dead, but some were gurgling their last breaths. The ones I had speared off of Nora’s back weren’t moving... Off of Nora’s back? I gasped and turned back to Nora. She was still standing there panting, and even trembling a little.

“Nora, are you okay?!” I cried, dropping my spear and running to her side. “Lie down, let me check your wounds!”

Nora smiled and licked my face. Clearly she was trying to say that she was ok, but I could see the pain in her eyes.

She didn’t lie down, so I went around her legs and stomach checking for any cuts. There were a few nicks but nothing serious.

“Lie down! Let me see!” I commanded.

She whined a bit but relented.

Her back was a mess of blood. I had to see how bad it really was, so I ran to grab my pot. It was a good thing I didn’t use it for lunch. I filled the small pot with river water and ran back to Nora. Using the water I washed the blood away and used my other hand to push her fur aside. The cuts were numerous but none looked too deep.

I let out a sigh of relief and hugged Nora’s neck.

“Looks like your thick fur prevented them from digging too deep,” I said, letting her go. I went and grabbed the two spare leathers I had rolled up and tied to the bottom of my bag. I spread the leathers out across her back and wrapped all the cordage I had made around Nora and tied the leathers down tightly as a makeshift bandage.

“That’ll have to do.”

Nora whined and shifted uncomfortably.

“We can’t have you bleeding out,” I said, hugging her neck again. “Just put up with it for a little bit, ok?”

Nora sighed and used her chin to hug me back.

After a while, we let each other go.

"So, my lunch was ruined," I said, "Want to see how raptor meat tastes?"

Turned out to be a whopping two out of ten. Would not recommend.

We didn't do much more traveling after that raptor attack. We just followed the river a ways until we came across a small grove of trees. I made Nora lie down and rest in the shade. I leaned against her side and tried to make myself a straw/grass hat, but I failed miserably. Like, I got that it had to be braided somehow but how in the world was it done? I sighed and tossed the braids of grass to the sighed.

For dinner I made Nora wait beneath the trees while I went hunting.

I stalked through the grass with my atlatl ready to throw a spear at a moment's notice. I held my other three spears underneath my left arm. My feet made no sound as I crept along a game trail. The trail was most likely made by rabbits but they weren't the only animals that used this path. I saw some hoof prints as well.

Following the path, I came across a small pond. It was barely ten feet across. An antelope was drinking from the pond on the other side.

Well, that's lucky. I thought as I aimed and launched the spear. The atlatl provided enough power to bury the spear deep into the antelope's chest. It squealed, took a couple steps, then fell over dead.

It was bigger than I was, so it was a pain to drag it back to Nora, but I managed somehow. I didn't take it all the way to the small grove, I stopped about a hundred feet away. Whatever remains when Nora was finished would attract predators, and I didn't want them showing up at our campsite.

I left Nora to eat and went to hunt something for myself. I came back about thirty minutes later with a large bird that I saw running through the grass instead of just flying for some reason. I quickly got a small fire going and had dinner with Nora as the sun was setting. The bird was amazing. Ten out of ten.

Nora and I trudged back to the trees to settle in for the night where I built another fire, using embers from the first to light it. There was plenty of wood here so I went around to gather a supply to keep the fire going throughout the night. That's when I saw them.

Apples!

Dotted among the other trees in the center of the small grove, were apple trees. I rushed back to the camp and dumped the fire wood I gathered, before grabbing my now almost empty bag. I ran back to the apple trees and climbed the first one I saw. I picked as much as I could find and then went to the next tree. There were about ten to fifteen good apples per tree, but I was only able to stuff about thirty-five into my bag. I tried to make sure that there were no marks on the apples that would indicate bugs or worms, and threw the suspicious ones to the side. I picked a couple more to carry by hand and returned to camp with a bulging bag.

"Nora!" I called as I came into sight. "I found apples!"

I set my bag down and offered one to Nora. "Want one?"

She barked, so I tossed one towards her. She snapped it out of the air with a crunch. I also crunched down on my own. It was cool, refreshing, and sweet.

This was the first time we found anything to eat besides meat since we entered the grasslands and what I had in my bag didn't last more than a couple days. So, the apples were the first fruits we’ve had in about a week now. It was exactly what we needed right now.

I mean, I don’t know exactly how people get scurvy, but I know it has something to do with not eating fruits and veggies properly... and I don’t want scurvy.

After a satisfying dinner, Nora and I got comfy together and just chatted until we fell asleep. In the morning, I stoked the embers from last night’s fire to get it going again and then left to hunt breakfast. I wasn’t able to find anything big for Nora, so I hunted three more rabbits for her and one for myself. I made Nora rest the whole day and we stayed by the apple grove. I hunted our meals for the day and when I wasn’t hunting, I was practicing making a hat out of grass. The sun in the grasslands was bright and there wasn’t really any shade as we traveled, so a hat would be great. I just couldn’t really figure it out.

The next day, Nora refused to rest and hunted for her own meals. She was also adamant that we get on with our travels, handing me my bag and pulling me in the direction we were heading. I undid the makeshift bandage I had made to check on her wounds. Only... there were no wounds. She just had faint scars.

So, with no more reason to object, I refilled my bag with more apples to replace what we had eaten, and then we resumed our travel along the river.