We traveled for three days along the weird beach and marshy land. There weren't any big game that Nora could hunt, not even any dinosaurs, but there were a ton of birds. Large flocks of all kinds of birds seemed to make their home on this strange coastline. I spent a lot of time spearing down enough birds for Nora to eat. There were barely enough bushes to start a fire, so I just cooked a bird for myself and let the fire burn out afterwards.

And despite the fact that we have already walked for three days, there was still no end in sight. There was just the ocean to the left, a marsh-ish land to the right, and a stretch of sandy beach ahead and behind us.

There was nothing to do but to keep on walking and enjoy the sea breeze.

On the night of the third day, we made our "camp" on the beach. There wasn't really anything to set up though, just a small hole in the sand for a fire, set my pack down... and that was it. With that done, I went around with my axe and started chopping up the sparse bushes for firewood. I would have just picked fallen sticks off of the ground but there weren't any around. Once I got a small pile of wood, I hunted us some dinner and cooked my bird while Nora just chomped on her's raw.

"So, what's the final verdict?" I asked, taking a bite.

Nora grimaced and barked twice.

"Don't like the bird, huh? Here, try a bite of mine," I said, ripping some meat off the bone and tossing it to Nora. She snapped it out of the air. "Is it better cooked?"

She barked three times.

"A little better, huh? Well, I like it. I'd give it a six out of ten. Of course, it would be better if I had some proper seasoning... oh well, what can you do?"

Nora just shrugged and chomped down on her last bird.

Finishing my dinner, I sighed and tossed the bones into the ashes of the burnt out campfire. I idly licked the grease off of my fingers and looked out over the ocean... and blinked.

Where's the ocean?

There was nothing but sand, rocks, and seaweeds extending hundreds of feet to where the shoreline had receded, where it was still receding. I shot to my feet.

“Nora!” I yelled, pointing at the ocean. “Doesn’t that mean there’s a tsunami coming!? It does, doesn’t it?”

Nora barked and quickly leaped to her feet.

“We need to get out of here, but where do we go? It’s completely flat in every direction!” I shouted as I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulders. Nora didn’t say anything and just crouched low, motioning with her head for me to get on. I grabbed my spears and climbed on top of her. I laid my spears across my lap and leaned forward, digging my hands into her fur. She took off directly inland.

The cliff that we had climbed down and onto this beach from was three days back the way we came and was already out of sight and we had no idea what was ahead except for more of the same beach, so fleeing directly inland was the best choice. It seemed to be flat, but there was a small slope upwards, so if we ran far enough inland then we’d be safe. But how far inland can tsunamis go? A mile? Two? I had no idea, I could only hold on tight as Nora ran as fast as she could away from the ocean.

I looked over my shoulder back towards the receding water. A chill crept down my spine as I saw the wave rise above the horizon. It looked small from this far away, but I knew that it was anything but.

“I see it! I see the wave!”

Nora barked and kept running as fast as she could. The wind howled in my ears with how fast she was going. Her paws dug into the wet earth, spraying dirt.

Ahead of us, a sparse tree line was coming into view. That was good. Maybe we could find a tree big enough for us to climb. Would the tsunami even reach as far as that tree line? Probably, that was a big wave after all.

I looked behind us again. The wave was already more than halfway to the beach, towering into the sky.

"If we make it to that tree line before the wave reaches us, just keep running! We need to make it to the farthest tree that we can before grabbing on!" I yelled.

Already, the sound of rushing wind and crashing water was filling the air. The tree line looked about three or four miles away. We might not even make it to the first line of trees. Nora already ran a couple miles with how fast she was going, so I had some hope that we would make it.

A few minutes later, the tsunami hit the beach. Water crashed down and rushed inland. It looked like the ocean itself was rising up to swallow everything in its way.

Nora didn't even look as she continued to sprint for the trees, which we reached moments later. Ora didn't stop and just kept going, running as far into the trees as she could.

"I'll tell you when the tsunami is close! When I yell, grab onto the nearest tree!"

I kept my head low as I watched the wave flowing towards us. Rushing forwards at terrible speed. In moments the wave was halfway to us, then it crashed into the first trees. A couple trees were knocked down, but most stayed upright, which was good news.

When the water almost reached us, I shouted, "Now!"

Nora immediately jumped up into one of the trees. She landed on a couple branches and bit down on another branch. I dug myself deeper into Nora's fur and held on tightly. An instant later the tree rocked as the water hit.

The wave plowed into us. We didn't make it high enough up the tree to avoid it. My feet and legs were torn away from Nora, the water trying to pull me free, but I was able to hold on with my hands clutching her fur. I tried to bring my legs back under me to hug Nora, but the current was too strong, I could only hold my breath and hold on tight.

Something smacked me in the side. The suddenness of it made me exhale in pain, losing some of my precious air before I stopped myself. Just as I had collected myself, something else smashed into my right arm. Before I knew what was happening, I was carried away by the water.

I tumbled wildly. Legs smacked into things. Arms held around my head for protection, but still got battered. I didn't know which way was up or which way was down.

I slammed belly-first into something, driving the last of my breath from my lungs, but I stopped tumbling. I felt the water flow around me, trying to carry me with it again. I hugged the thing as tight as I could. A tree. The bark was rough under my hands, but that was good. It let me get a better grip.

My lungs were burning at the lack of air and I was starting to get light-headed. I had to do something. Slowly, I started to inch my way up the tree, hoping to find the surface.

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Was I even climbing upwards? I didn't know for sure, but I kept climbing anyway. I bumped into branches and had to move around them frequently, so that was a good sign. I made sure that I held on tightly to any of the branches so I wouldn't be swept away again.

My head suddenly broke through the surface. I gasped for air. Greedily sucking in all the air I could get, choking and coughing all the while. Once I finally got a hold of myself, I looked around.

The sun was still in the sky where I had last seen it, about to set, and I was in the middle of a sparse forest. No sight of Nora.

"Nora!" I yelled as loud as I could, "Nora, where are you!?"

Nothing. Just the sound of flowing water. It's not like any of us could swim in this flood anyways, might as well save my energy and look for her after the tsunami recedes.

I climbed up higher in the tree and got fully out of the water. My legs and arms were screaming at me because of my efforts, but I climbed higher anyways. I had to get out. I settled down on one of the thicker branches and leaned back against the trunk...

Back against the trunk? Oh no... my backpack is gone. And now that I think about it, my spears are gone too.

The only thing that wasn't gone was my knife, which was belted on. All my tools, all my food, and all my seeds that I had saved... all gone.

I sighed and leaned my head back against the trunk. No use in complaining. What happened, happened. I will just have to start again. At least this time I'll start with a good knife and a leather outfit instead of pajamas and a sharp rock.

Now with a moment of calm, I took stock of my injuries. My leather sleeves were torn, but it was better the sleeves than my arm. I only had some scratches on my arm, but there was a lot of bruising. My legs were also cut up and bruised. I sighed again.

Boy am I glad I decided to make a long-sleeved shirt and pants instead of shorts and a T-shirt... Protected me from most of the damage.

It wasn't until the sun had set , two hours later, that the water finally receded. During those two hours, I was using my knife to chop off some smaller branches of the tree. All the wood and debris on the ground would be soaked through, so I gathered a bit of dry wood to start a fire. My everything burned with the effort and even reopened some of the cuts that had scabbed over.

... Oh man, I just realized that my bow-drill fire starter was in my bag... I sighed and started making an ember notch on one of the dry sticks and used a different dry stick to spin in the notch. It's been a while since I had to do this by hand... but after two years of making fires I had no trouble starting this one despite the burning arms.

Once the fire was going, I gathered a small pile of wood from the debris all around and stacked it close to the fire to dry out faster. I settled in with my back to a tree and the fire in front of me.

In the morning I set off in the direction of the sun, which should be the direction of the coast and, more importantly, Nora. And who knows? Maybe I could find some of my lost items on the way. As I walked, I kept my eyes open for some new sticks to use as spears or handles for tools. My limbs had stiffened through the night and I was incredibly sore, so it was slow going.

"Nora!" I shouted as I walked.

There wasn't any response, just some birds chirping.

"Man, how far did I get carried away?"

After two hours I had managed to make a "spear", which was just a stick that I sharpened the tip of, and a new atlatl thrower. I even hunted myself a bird for breakfast, and stopped for a bit to cook and eat it. But after two hours I reached the edge of the forest, back to that flat marshy land.

"Nora!" I shouted again, but I still didn't hear or see anything Nora-related.

I sighed and looked over the expanse of flat land before me. The sea was out of sight behind the horizon.

Are tsunamis why this land is all flattened like this? Does it happen frequently enough that the land just stays like this? If that is the case then we shouldn't follow the coast any more.

But the first thing I needed to do before thinking about traveling again, was to find Nora... or wait for Nora to find me. She is a wolf after all, she should be able to sniff me out. She's also super smart, so maybe if I build a large bonfire, she'll see the smoke and find me. The forest was sparse enough to look into the sky easily between the trees.

With that idea in mind, I set to work gathering wood for a bonfire. It was fairly easy to do considering that a lot of the trees on the edge of the forest were smashed to the ground by the wave.

I gathered as much firewood as I could into a large pile. The wood was still pretty damp so I climbed another tree and cut off some of the dry branches. I started a fire with the dry branches and slowly built the fire up by adding larger and larger pieces. From little twigs all the way up to actual branches until I had a fire that was taller than me.

To make the bonfire extra smokey, I threw on a large armful of leaves that I plucked from a tree and picked up from the ground. All those leaves almost smothered the section of fire I threw them on, which sent a lot of smoke into the air.

With a nice plume of smoke rising into the sky, all that was left to do was wait and to make sure that the bonfire stayed a bonfire. I gathered more logs and fallen branches and I would occasionally throw one in. Hopefully Nora will notice the smoke soon and we can leave.

I was pushed farther inland by the wave so I should have passed her on the way back... What if Nora was also swept away and she is even further inland than I was? Or what if Nora was dragged out to sea when the water receded? No, I can't believe that. She'll see the smoke or smell my scent and she'll find me here. All I have to do is wait.

I threw another branch onto the fire then decided to work on re-equipping myself with spears. I had one already, but I wanted more for ammunition. And after looking around I was only able to find one other straight stick to use. All the other sticks I could find were all bent in weird shapes or broken.

As the sun was getting low on the horizon, I was cooking up a bird I speared for dinner when I heard a faint sound in the distance. I got to my feet as quickly as I could and stared in the direction I thought I heard the noise, readying my spear to throw.

"-oo!" The noise came again, louder this time.

"Awrooo!" A howl sounded in the distance, sounding like it was getting closer. I could recognize that howl anywhere.

"Nora!" I shouted as she came into view, dirt spraying into the air as it was kicked up by her paws. I dropped my spear off to the side and held my arms wide open for her. She skidded to a halt right in front of me and I reached up to hug her around the neck.

After hugging for a good while I pulled back.

"I have some bad news, Nora," I said pointing at my basic spears. "That tsunami washed away all our stuff. My tools, my spears, my backpack... everything but my knife."

She just shrugged and licked my face with a whimper. She looked as battered as I felt, with small patches of dried blood in her fur.

"Yeah, I got beat up pretty good, huh?" I chuckled, "But I'm just glad we're both alive. And as for the tools... well, we made everything once, we can make them again. But for now, let's get out of here. I think all this land is flattened because tsunamis happen frequently. I don't know how often it happens, but I don't want to find out."

Nora looked around at the flat marshy land that still had little streams of water flowing down to the ocean, and nodded with a bark.

"You think so too? Then let's get going after this bonfire burns down... we just survived a tsunami, we don't want to have to survive a forest fire as well."

After an hour the fire finally burned down to the ground, leaving only ashes, bits of charcoal, and some halves of logs that didn't burn all the way through. With that finally done with, there wasn't any reason to stay, so we picked ourselves up and left. This time we didn't follow the coastline, instead we followed the forest's edge to keep an eye on the marshy flatland with the mind that once we got out of that tsunami territory we could follow the coastline again.

It took another week of walking to finally leave that marshy land behind and the forest's edge actually curved back towards the coast... so that was convenient. The coastline was all tall cliffs for a long time, only dropping down to sea-level after another month of traveling. By the end of that week, all of our wounds were healed.

The good news was that it was forest the entire time, so we were able to stop for three days at one point to make myself clothes that weren’t torn, another bag, and another fur blanket. But so far I haven’t seen any more metal ores to make more tools out of. I asked Nora to bark if she smelled any nearby, but so far she hasn’t noticed any.

By following the coastline, we came across another river. This river led almost directly West.

“What do you think? Should we follow this river? To be honest, I don’t really want to follow the coast anymore. I don’t want to risk another tsunami.”

Nora barked, so we set off upriver.

“Hopefully, we’ll find people along this river...”