I wake up in the familiar darkness of my cave. I shiver as my body is cold from the night before. My wounds still hurt but not as bad as the day before. I'll need to get some water and food to start my day. I need to walk back and harvest at least one of the weird looking river cane. But first check on the pelt. In check on the pelt that I left in the sun, putting my hand on the non fur side. Feeling how hard it is. It's not fully hard yet so I leave it in the sunlight.
I leave the cave and grab my spear. Then make my way to the river for some water and food. I grabbed 2 flakes to take with me to the river that I found. I make my way to the river, the forest being silent and calm this early. It feels a little weird with the forest being this quiet.
I see the ferns from last night that were trampled in my rush to the cave. Giving me a clear path back to the river.
Nothing eventful happens on my way to the river. I look across the fast moving river and over the trees. To see if there is any smoke from yesterday. There isn't any smoke. Either the creatures or humans haven't made one yet. Or they have moved on. I hope the latter as I don't want to have to deal with any bipedal creatures or humans.
I head over to the dull grey rivercane. Or that is what I am calling it. I find one that is fairly straight and go to harvest one. I put my spear next to me as I work on cutting the cane down. I use one of my flakes and start sawing back and forth close to the bottom. After cutting for a few seconds and getting about half way. My flake feels like it is not cutting anymore. I take the flake out to feel the edge and if it is still sharp. The edge is super smooth. I can't use this one anymore to cut anything.
I use my next flake to cut the rest of the way through the cane, it also going dull. Thankfully the 2 flakes cut all the way through the cane. Once it falls towards me it makes a slight thumping sound after hitting the ground. The leaves also make tinking sounds on the way down, hitting other leaves.
The river cane is roughly 15 feet with many branches coming off the main shaft. I go to pick up the cane and bring it back to base to see if I can make it into a throwing spear. Surprisingly it is fairly heavy but not so much that I can't carry it back.
I heave it onto my shoulder to carry it back. I leave both of the dull flakes by the bundles of river cane growing. I grab my spear with my other hand and start my trek back to my base. It's hard to try and not hit everything with the long river cane. I constantly hit trees with the back of the cane. It's not getting stuck thankfully, but making me pause to move around trees and such.
I made it back to base after a long while. I drop the cane next to the creek and take some time to think about what I will I make the cane into. I can get about 2 spears out of the cane. Or 1 throwing spear using atlatl. But if I make an atlatl spear it will leave more waste than I want. Maybe I can cut it in half first and make a spear. Then use the upper half later to see what properties this river cane has?
I grab a flake and start to cut off all the branches. They are about a half pinky thickness and are fairly easy to cut off. I say fairly because after cutting off all the branches another flake is dull! Jeez what is this cane made out of? Maybe a type of metal? That would be really cool!
I grab another flake and sawing at a node 7 feet back from the cut end. Once that one goes dull I use a thick stick I found nearby to hit the flake. Trying to use it as a chisel. And it works! I managed to cut the cane in half roughly. I use the dull flake as a chisel again but this time at the end that I just cut. Breaking the cane in half till the next node which is about 6 inches down. Then I hit one side with the flake trying to break off one of the half's. It worked! Now I am left with a 6 inch half of a cane.
I should sharpen the cane spear and then fire harden the tip. Maybe even sharpen the other 6 inch piece so I can make a knife with it. I think that is a good idea. I move to a large rock by the creek and start to sharpen the 7 foot spear. I sharpened the tip into a point, after sharpening the spear tip left some grooves in the rock. How hard is this cane??
After sharpening the spear I sharpen the little 6 inch piece. I leave about an inch at the bottom where it is not sharp so I have something to grab. It took a while to sharpen both the spear and the little 6 inch piece.
I leave the 2 tools by the creek as I head to the top of the steep hill. I need the birch hearth and pine sticks again to make a fire. I bring the fire starter tools back to where the spear and knife are. I need to gather some birch bark as it is easy to light, along with some pine needles. I got to grab some sticks too.
I wandered around grabbing the necessary items to make a fire. I grab the dull flake and make a small dent in the hearth bored by the edge. Then make a line on the edge of the board to collect the embers.
I use the pine sticks again to make the embers and start a fire. I take a few minutes to try and make some embers. This time I broke through the bottom of the hearth bored. So I had to make a new dent and start over. The next time I managed to make embers but also it made me out of breath. I need to make another tool for fire making so it's not as taxing.
After putting in the pine needs and the dry birch bark, I blow on the embers trying to ignite them. Thankfully I do, and I slowly add in more sticks. Getting larger and larger, till it is going pretty good.
I take my new spear and hold it over the flame trying to harden the tip. I watch the tip to make sure that I don't burn it. But the interesting thing about the cane spear is that it got a different shade. A shade of color that wasn't black from soot or being burned. Almost like it is made out of metal.
Wait!! Maybe it has metal properties? Like it is heavier than a river cane on earth, a different color, and being much harder than a normal river cane. Hmm if it is like metal I could try different things to see if it does work. Like tempering? I don't know the process but I do know it is heating up the metal and letting it cool. I'll probably try it on the little knife and go from there. I think that is the best way to do it.
I toss the cane knife into the fire, well around the outside so it can heat up. I constantly add sticks to the fire to keep it going. I see that I am running out of sticks and need bigger ones to keep the fire going. I grab the last flake that I have, that is sharp and go to find a tree to cut down.
Before I cut down the tree I check on the pelt to make sure it is dry but not too dry. Once I get to the pelt it is dry and can be taken down to be stored in the cave. I don't want the raw pelt to get wet and rehydrate. That means I would have to do the process all over again.
It can wait a while before I take it down, the fire is more important. I found a young large oak tree and cut it down. I break off the branches and throw them into the fire. I then start cutting up the tree into smaller parts so it is easier to burn. After cutting them up I leave them to the side for later fire burning.
I look at the cane knife and see that it is darkened probably from the heat and soot. I'm going to leave it there longer till the fire dies down. This is all new to me so I have to experiment on everything for this process. I just hope that I don't mess up too bad with it. Even if I do it is a learning process.
With the fire going steadily I go back to the pelt and take it down from the drying rack. I roll it up with the cordage still attached. Then I walked back to the cave and put it inside. Hoping that it won't get ruined and that once I make a pot big enough for it, I can tan it. Should I make more flakes? I mean I only have one more left and if they run out it will be harder to gather items I do need.
I go looking in the creek for more obsidian to make some flakes from. I only found one obsidian rock that I then turned into flakes. While I do this I watch the fire to make sure it doesn't die down too much. If it does I add the logs that I cut down from earlier.
I watch the fire as I think to myself what else I need to do to make my life easier. Well I need to make more cordage, it's always good to have extra. Gather more sticks for fire making. Make a fire bow so that I can make fires easier. Gather pine sap to make into pine tar. Never know when I would need it as glue. Discover more of the properties of the cane. Can I heat up the whole cane to make it into like shafts for tools? Or maybe for throwing spears or arrows. Also level up my skills.
Well shit I guess I have a lot more to do than I thought I did. That's not even including making a base above the cave, making a bed, making more clay pots and hunting. Ugh so much to do! Guess I'll need to plan my days out to make the best of my time. I mean I enjoy making stuff primitively but it does get tiring easily. I think a couple of months out here in the forest getting healthier before I try and find civilization again. But that's for much later.
I didn't realize how much time had passed with my thoughts running wild in my head. Maybe I was just super comfortable with the sun and fire on me. The fire is now in embers and only a couple of hours before it turns night. I'm also hungry and should grab some berries to eat. I can't wait to eat meat. I miss eating it on Earth but I don't think I have ever had meat here on Primoria. It was only bread and vegetable soup. If either of those could be called that.
I get up to grab some cyan, pink and gold berries. I know the last 2 can't be eaten but maybe they can once roasted? I grab 3 sticks for the berries, each stabbing in them and putting them over the embers. I constantly rotate the berries so that they are cooked evenly. After a few minutes and I think they are done I stab the sticks in the ground and let them cool.
I then see if [Identify] can tell me if the last 2 are edible now.
*Ding* [New Items Identified - Roasted Cretumbi, Roasted Gildish, Roasted Yisan]
[Roasted Cretumbi - A cyan berry that has been roasted from a fire, edible]
[Roasted Gildish - A gold berry that has been roasted by a fire, Edible]
[Roasted Yisan - A pink berry that has been roasted by a fire, Inedible]
Oh! I have a few more foods I can eat now! After letting the berries cool off and throwing the Yisan berry back in the woods. The juices from the berry made my hand a little numb so I wash my hand in the creek. I then eat the Cretumbi berry. I know that normally it is sour and I hope that it is not sour anymore.
I take a bite, the sides of the roasted berry make a crunch sound. I then get a rush of sweetness from the berry, almost like it is a lemon. I eat the whole berry super fast! It was juicy and sweet. I need to roast berries all the time now. Makes eating them so much easier. I then look at the Gildish berry wondering how it will taste. [Identify] did say that it is edible so I don't think it will kill me.
I take a bite, another crunch happens and I get an earthy taste in my mouth. The texture is a little chewy but is edible. I keep eating the Gildish berry struggling to swallow. It's not the easiest to eat but it is something. Once the food hits my stomach a warmth comes from it. Making my body feel more energized. Maybe it's just from not eating food in a while.
After eating all my berries I feel full. I take a look at my cuts and see how they are doing. Some places cracked open on the scabs and bled a little. No infections which is good. The sun is going down. I should head to my cave and wait till sleep takes me.
I climb the hill to where the cave is, using the railing to help me. Even though climbing this hill is getting much easier. I sit on the edge of the cave entrance, with my legs in the hole. I stare at the sky watching it slowly get darker. I look to see if there is a moon. I see it slowly peak over the horizon. It is not something that I was expecting. It is fluorescent green in color, casting a green glow over the forest, as the forest comes alive.
I climb into the cave and lay down to get some sleep, another day down another new one beginning.