I decided that I didn’t look cool at all. Nora was going so fast that it was all I could do to hold on. If someone had seen me, they probably would’ve thought, “poor kid, he looks so terrified,” and they would've been right. I felt like I was going to fall off at any second, and at those speeds that meant almost certain death. Nora wove through the trees, over logs, and up and down hills.
When she finally stopped, and lowered herself to the ground, I slid off her back and collapsed onto my hands and knees. After a few minutes to compose myself, I got my shaky self onto my feet.
“Thanks for the lift Nora,” I said, picking up my spears, “but I think I’ll just walk next time.”
She just grinned at me, then nodded at the large cliff that we stopped at.
It wasn’t the cliff that I had seen when I climbed the tree. No, that cliff was much bigger than this one and was also right next to the river we were heading towards. This cliff was only about thirty feet high, and about fifty... maybe sixty feet wide. Really, it looked like a gigantic rock sticking out of the ground.
We were in a small clearing. In front of us, there was the slightest of inclines up to the base of the rock where there was a cave entrance. To our right was another stream that was a little bigger than the one we left behind. Depending on what was in the cave, this could be the perfect place to set up camp for a while.
“Well, let’s go see what’s in that cave shall we?” I said, walking towards the rock.
Nothing was in the cave. It only went back about fifteen feet, and was big enough that both Nora and I would have just enough space to sleep in comfortably.
“This is a good spot, Nora.”
She barked.
I turned and looked out at the clearing that would be home for a while.
Home...
The word dragged the thoughts that I had been hiding in the shadows of my mind out into the light. That I was alone, that I was lost, and that I would most likely not see my family again.
I wonder how they’re doing. It’s just Mom and Charles now. Dad died and the frickin rainbow lightshow yoinked me away. Charles said he got a new job, and it looked like he hit it off with Diana so he should be ok... Mom though...
I swallowed a lump in my throat and tears started to well up.
No no, she’ll be okay. She’s a strong woman. She’ll move on and... forget about me...
That thought sent tears down my cheeks.
She’s better off without me anyways. All I ever did was rack up debt for her to pay off.
Hands clenched at my sides as the tears continued to flow.
I miss her, I miss Charles. I just want to go home.
A sob escaped my lips.
Black fur appeared in my peripheral as Nora sat beside me. I leaned into her side.
“I miss my family,” I told her, sobs wracking my chest, “Why is this happening? Why am I here?”
She didn’t respond and just let me cry into her fur.
When I eventually stopped crying, I pushed away from Nora’s side.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
She barked quietly and licked the side of my face. Her eyes filled with understanding.
“You said you were like me, right? Do you know why this is happening?”
She growled, shaking her head.
“Oh... Well, the sun is going to set soon, so let’s get a fire going. Then we can discuss what we’re going to be doing tomorrow. Is that alright with you?”
Bark.
Before gathering wood though, I went to the stream and washed my face free of tears and snot. Then spent a good half an hour gathering several armfuls of sticks for the fire. Stones for the ring were readily available near the cave entrance, so I got the ring made quickly.
I wasn’t going to be able to hand spin a fire so I found a stick that had a nice curve to it and untied my pajama pants. The string that was holding up my pants was going to help me out. I tied the pajama string to the curved stick to make a bow. I cut a notch in the side of another stick, which would be used to form the ember. Then I grabbed a straight stick to be the spindle and small flat rock to protect my hand as I hold the spindle against the notched stick.
I wrapped the spindle stick one time with the bowstring and set it against the side of the notch on the notched stick. I used the flat rock with my left hand to press down on top of the spindle and started to work the bow back and forth. I tried to move my chest and back as little as possible, but I knew I was going to bleed as I got the fire going.
The sky was already a dark orange color, when I finally got the fire going. I was soaked with sweat and blood as I sat back, breathing hard from the exertion. I felt hot and lightheaded, my chest and back screaming at me for what I just did. So, I sat for a minute and watched the sunset fade from the sky.
Once I had regained my breath, I stood up and untied the bow that I had made. Now that the fire was made I needed the string to hold my pants up. I didn't bother trying to thread it back into the waistband and just tied it tightly over the pants.
The bright moons lit the little clearing well enough to see by, and I made my way to the stream to get a drink of water and to wash off the sweat and blood. The water was refreshingly cold, and helped cool me down from the inside out. It was nice.
After cleaning myself, I gathered another armful of sticks for the fire. I had a pretty good size stack of firewood now. All stacked along the right side of the cave so it would be out of any potential rain. The fire was placed near the left wall, just inside the cave, where the roof was sloped up and out. Smoke wasn’t going to be an issue and neither was rain.
Nora was laying inside the cave, head on her paws, staring into the fire. I sat next to the fire, and slowly leaned back into the cave wall, hissing in pain at the pressure on my cuts.
When I got used to the new levels of pain. I looked at Nora, whose head was only about three feet away.
“Hey Nora,” I started saying but paused to find the words, “Thanks for being here with me.”
She looked at me and tilted her head slightly as if to say “huh? What for?”
“It's just that I would most likely be dead already if it weren’t for you and... It sucks being alone and I’m glad I could have someone to talk to.”
She huffed then leaned forward and licked my face.
“Thanks,” I chuckled, then winced as the pain spiked in my chest, “but what about you? Weren’t you with those other wolves that I saw?”
She barked then growled.
“Ok, just what does that mean? That you were with them but... what? Did they not accept you fully into their pack?”
She barked.
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“Huh... guess they didn’t like that you don’t have spikes.”
She rolled her eyes and barked.
I added more sticks to the fire and asked hesitantly, “W-was your world anything like this one?”
Nora stilled, firelight reflected in her large golden eyes. She huffed and shook her head as if to clear it, then barked and growled.
“Your world had humans on it right? Did it also have large creatures like that one we saw earlier today?”
Two barks.
"Did you have a pack there?"
Her eyes took on a distant look, looking at something that was only there in her mind. After a slight pause, she growled.
"Then were you raised by humans?"
Growl.
Ah... I had heard that there were solitary wolves. Wolves that had been kicked out or abandoned by their pack and no other pack accepted them. Was Nora one of them?
I kinda want to ask, but if she had been abandoned by her pack I wouldn't want to dig up memories that could be painful for her. I should probably change the subject. Besides, what's important right now is survival.
"I can be your pack, well I guess it's more of a duo than a pack... Point is we're partners now and I'll stick with you if you'll stick with me."
She grinned and barked.
"Good," I said, adding another stick, "now, let's talk about a plan of action here at Camp Rock. Don't give me that look, Camp Rock is a great name. Anyways, here's the plan. I already said before that I need clothes and tools, so we'll get started with that. Tomorrow morning, I would like it if you go hunting for more of those camo rabbits. Remember the one you got for me after the lion attack?"
I paused for her answer. She barked.
"Cool, can you get about 4 of them for me?"
Bark.
"While you hunt, I will stay here to make more cordage, some frames, and other things that may or may not be good for making leather... You wouldn't happen to know how to make leather would you?"
Growl.
"I thought so," I sighed, "all I know is that I need to stretch the skin in a frame and then there was something about brains and piss."
Nora tilted her head, a confused and disgusted look on her face.
"Hey, that's just what I heard! My dad was a big camping and bushcraft nut, and he did talk about leather-making once but I don't remember. That's why I'm going to be experimenting with these first few rabbit skins. One good thing is that that's a lot of meat I can also experiment with to get the best jerky that I can."
I grabbed a stick and used it to poke at the fire. Embers flew into the air, riding the smoke, as the sticks popped and crackled.
"That will most likely take the entire day to do all that, but if there’s time I’ll also make some stone tools.”
The conversation drifted to a stop as they sat next to the fire. All of the three moons were fully risen, shining dim light across the small clearing in front of the cave. The chirping and hoots of the nocturnal forest life was a pleasant white-noise. What wasn't pleasant was the distant roars that occurred far too often for my liking.
After staring out at the alien night sky for some time, I decided it was time to sleep.
"Alright Nora, I'm gonna get some shut-eye," I said, adding more sticks to the fire, "If you're ever up during the night and notice the fire going out, can you add more wood to the fire? If it's really low, add small sticks first then larger ones."
She barked, rolling her eyes as if I said something obvious.
"... Is it ok if I sleep up against you? For warmth?"
Nora didn't say anything and just rolled onto her side. She nodded towards her belly.
"Yes!" I whispered to myself, knowing that she would hear me, "I get to be the little spoon..."
<<<>>>
I woke up feeling hot, sweaty, and sticky. I was curled up on my side, back pressed against Nora's stomach. The dim light of dawn was peeking into the cave.
"Welp, time to get up," I said, un-curling my stiff self.
Nora stood up and gave herself a wake-up shake before stepping over me and trotting out of the cave. A few feet out she stopped and looked at me. She barked once and took off, disappearing between the trees and foliage of the forest.
"... Good morning to you too," I said, staring at the spot where I had last seen her.
I guess she wanted an early start. Well, that's fine by me. I should get started too, after I clean myself up a bit.
I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up into a kneeling position.
The fire was still going, which was a pleasant surprise. It was a tiny flame surrounded by glowing coals, but that was more than enough to get the fire built up again. I added some twigs and blew on the coals until they caught fire, then slowly added small sticks. Once the fire was a decent size and would last a while, I grabbed my spears and atlatl then went to freshen up. Never again will I be caught weapon-less.
I decided that I should walk a bit downstream to relieve myself (not in the stream, of course) and to wash myself. So I hobbled along, following the stream around the big rock and back into the forest about 15 feet. The part I stopped at was a nice deep section of the water, about mid-thigh.
I knelt down and gave my hands a quick scrub before giving myself a drink of water after letting the stream flow a bit. The stream was nice and cold, and certainly helped clear my gross morning mouth. After drinking a few handfuls of water, I waded into the stream. There was enough water for me to lay back and just float.
After a good soak, I untied my bandages and gave them a wash. I also carefully washed my cuts as well, before I tied everything back into place. They didn't bleed too badly this time, which was good, but the scabs kept tearing off with the bandages.
I should keep the bandages on for longer to let the cuts heal.
I sighed and made my way back upstream towards Camp Rock.
I sat next to the fire, looking out over the tiny clearing, and tossed more sticks on the fire. I only had 3 strips of jerky left but Nora should be back soon with her hunt, so I wasn't worried. I ate the last of the jerky and the berries as I planned out the day.
Step one, gather more firewood to keep the fire burning throughout the day. Step two, I'll gather vines and make as much cordage as I can. Step three, find long straight branches to use as a frame. Might as well gather firewood as I look. Step four, make the frames... Nora should be back by then. If she is, then I’ll get to skinning. Then I’ll smoke as much rabbit meat as I can.
I looked down at the wolf jerky I was chomping on. It was smoked, but it could probably be dried better.
I’ll let the rabbit meat dry a bit in the sun first, then I’ll smoke it for a long time. After I get the meat going, I’ll get the skins on the frames... I guess I’ll smear one skin with brains, one with urine, one with both, and one with none. I’ll go from there...
I swallowed the last of my food and tossed more sticks on the fire.
“Alright, time to get to work,” I grunted, standing up and brushing the dirt off my torn-up pants.
<<<>>>
Nora came back sooner than I thought. I was dropping my third armful of firewood when she came trotting back into Camp Rock. She dropped a camo rabbit at my feet and took off again.
The rabbit was massive... for a rabbit at least. If it was standing, it would probably come up to the middle of my thigh.
I dragged the corpse over to the northwest side, where the stream left the clearing, and left it there. I wasn't ready to start cooking or anything yet, so I went on to step two.
The work was tiring, and I had to stop several times as waves of feverish heat and lightheadedness threatened to knock me over, but I was able to gather enough vines. I sat myself down next to the pile of vines and started extracting the inner fibers with one of the wolf teeth. Once I had extracted fibers from all the vines, I started braiding them into a cord.
By the time I had finished braiding all of the fibers into rope, Nora had already dropped off another rabbit. I had been working for six hours by now and I was starving. I needed to get the rabbit cooking, so I went and found seven long-ish branches and brought them back. I broke off all the little side branches which left a bunch of pokey little stubs for me to use. I tied two branches together to form an upside down V-shape on one side of the fire then did it again for the other side. I laid a branch across the tops of the Vs and tied it in place. Then I laid the last two branches across the middle of the legs on the sides of the Vs and tied them in place. The newly made rack was as tall as I am, which was good because it wouldn't cook the meat and would let it dry in the smoke instead.
Now that I had something to hang meat on, I went over to the rabbit corpses. With a sharp wolf tooth in hand, I started skinning the first rabbit. I've never skinned anything before, but I did know that I was supposed to cut down the stomach and around the neck and each leg. The problem was that I didn't really know how deep I was supposed to cut... Oh well. Practice makes perfect.
Eventually I was able to get the skin off of the first rabbit and cut as much meat off as I could. The brain was placed on top of a nearby rock. I chucked the guts as far as I could into the forest and left the carcass where it lay for Nora to chew on later or something.
I grabbed one slab of meat and placed it on one of the campfire ring's stones to cook. Then I went back and cut up the rest of the meat into slices as thin as I could make them. I brought the slices over to the rack that I made and started stabbing a slice on each of the little pokey bits left by the broken off side-branches. All three of the horizontal branches were filled so I started placing meat onto the four legs.
I built up the fire a bit then went back to the other rabbit. I gutted and skinned the rabbit then hung the carcass by its hind legs from a low-hanging branch. I placed the second mushy brain next to the first one.
My breath was ragged and I was sweating buckets by the time I was done. I felt hot and dizzy. As I made my way over to the stream I placed the back of my bloody hand against my forehead. Hot. I was burning with a pretty hot fever.
I sighed.
Great. Getting sick was just what I needed right now. Well, I guess anyone would get sick after sleeping outdoors without any shelter three nights in a row. Not much I can do about this... Just lots of water and food and rest... Can't really rest right now, maybe after I hang the skins into some frames.
I knelt by the water and washed my hands, arms, and face off as best as I could. Then I shuffled upstream a bit and drank as much as I could. I went back to the campfire.
Once the slab of rabbit meat was done, I ate it. Then I stoked the fire and left to find branches for the frames. I spent a good hour finding about 12 long branches, enough for 3 frames. It took a few trips but I brought them all back to camp. I drank more water, then got to work tying together 3 square frames. I built the frames on the side of the clearing opposite the cave and leaned them up against some trees. I grabbed a steelthorn thorn from my bag in the cave, the ropes I had made, and the two skins and brought them all over to the frames.
Using the thorn, I punched holes every 2 inches or so along the edges of the skins. Then I tied one end of the rope to the frame and started the painstaking process of threading the rope through the hole in the skin, wrapping the rope around the frame, then threading the rope through the skin, and so on. I did my best to pull the skin tight. Once satisfied with the first one, I started doing the same thing with the other skin.
I stared at the work I had done. The two skins were stretched out in their frames, the fur side pointed towards the tree. There were bits of meat and fat on the side I was looking at.
... I should probably get those bits off of the skin.
I went and drank more water then grabbed a wolf tooth and carefully got to work. As I was working, I noticed that there was far more fat than I had thought and tried my best to scrape it all off.
By the time I finished cleaning off the two skins Nora had placed two more rabbits over by the skinning area. She was in the center of the clearing, chewing on the first rabbit carcass I had cut up.
I looked up at the sky. It looked to be around 4 or 5 in the afternoon... 4, maybe 3 hours of light left.
Has it been that long already?
I rubbed at my eyes, the exhaustion of today's work was catching up to me. I staggered as a wave of dizziness washed over me. I caught myself from falling, and shook my head.
Oh man... I should stop for tonight and let myself heal. I'll go wash up first.
My mouth felt like it was filled with cotton, and my vision seemed to shimmer and sway. I made my way over to the stream and drank.
I... I should probably... Clean my wounds one more time.
Slowly, I untied the cord around my chest and peeled off my bandages.
Green and yellow pus leaked from the cuts.
That's not good. I thought before I collapsed where I was.
The last thing I saw was Nora running towards me.