Naked and Afraid - Kunibert

[Geyser Eelborn]

Kunibert Ogdenasson of the Oak Tribe

Naked and Afraid

The Mountains, somewhere in Below

[Geyser Eelborn]

Kuni squinted in the distance as the helicopter receded from sight, then surveyed the area he had been dropped off into. He was in the mountains, possibly on the top of a mountain. No the top-most peak of the region, though--to the east, a peak rose high into the air. He was at the base of a cliff, surrounded by forest. Night would be coming soon, and what little he knew about mountains told him that tonight was going to be a cold night if he couldn't build a good shelter. Kuni shivered at the thought, then set off to explore the area. He glanced at the map occasionally, but really, it didn't seem to be particularly helpful. There were a few rivers marked on it, a lake, some peaks, and a few areas marked do not enter. Probably this was an observational area. The key on the map was helpful, but the map itself was not detailed--certainly not this region of the map. He would have to explore the area before night fell.

The woods on this mountainside were pines. Uch, pines--as a member of the Oak Tribe, the Dryad had a certain animosity towards pines. But he was grateful nonetheless to be in a forest. He had been afraid he might have been in grasslands or desert. True, this was more of a mountain with forest on it than a forest with a mountain in it, but it had some green, and he knew how to live in green. Or if he didn't, he at least had the confidence to survive in it.

That was a depressing thought. He was going to own this challenge, not wallow in misery! To prove it, he found a place to shelter and got about fixing it up. His first thought had been to find a cave, but he hadn't been able to find an adequate one without climbing higher, and anyway, he didn't much fancy the idea of living in a cave someone else might be living in. Especially without his clothes. Yes, he was feeling his nudity rather sharply right now. So no, no caves. Instead, he found a hollowed-out tree stump. It had space underground--nothing spacious, but enough to curl up into, and enough to build a small fire in. There was a sizable hole in the roof from where rot had taken the heartwood, but he patched it up as best he could with thin branches woven together and anchored to the ground with rocks. With this rural tarp covering his head, he felt confident that he could at least keep the rain out. He still had time to gather pine needles, branches from the ground, and pine cones. He built a fire, stashing some firewood in the back of his shelter for later. Hey, it wasn't as if he was hurting dead branches--and anyway, didn't fire give birth to new pine trees?

Day One: "Erblicken! Meine praechtig Schloss"

Official Description: "You're staying warm tonight! Good job! Still, it isn't as comfy as it could be."

Inventory: satchel bag, map

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 3

[Geyser Eelborn]

Now, about that map.

The map had a lot of markings on it between the "drop point" and the "pick-up point." It was clear that there was a path to show him how to get there. And with a few details added with charcoal from the fire, Kuni was confident, by the light of the new day, that the map might be more useful to him while he was here than he thought it might be. That required him to do a little exploring, check the place out, make notes. If he was to survive here for three weeks, then he wanted to know this place inside and out. So the plan was quite simple--he would explore the area, take notes on the map of its resources, gather some food. He was confident that nothing would get stolen from his shelter--there was nothing in it, as his belly was loudly complaining--so he set off from camp, his fire buried under ash until he got back, to explore the surrounding woods. As he had observed the day before, it was mostly pines, with a good mix of furs and spruces. They were all drought-tolerant plants, which gave Kunibert pause. He would have been happier if he could find something like cotton woods or birches, both trees that preferred wet feet. But instead, he had found trees that thrived in dry conditions and even relied on regular forest fires to survive. He was not only well out of his element arboreally, but he was potentially in an area with very little water. He was going to have to find some creeks and ponds, and find them fast. That was not going to be easy.

Along the way, he found stands and stands of berry bushes. He popped berries into his mouth, wincing at sour flavors, smiling at sweet ones. He didn't try all of the berries--just the ones that looked familiar to him. He may have been in Below instead of Above, but surely blackberries and raspberries weren't poisonous in Below? So he just stuck to the fruits that looked like clusters of smaller ones. Those should be safe. He was a bit more worried about protein, really--would he have to raid birds' nests? Or go hunting? Ugh. He'd never gone hunting in his entire life. Kuni was not naturally a killer--all threats to small children aside.

Kuni paused and looked below his feet. He was out of the woods now, on the western face of the mountain side. Below him was a steep slope of what appeared to be gravel or sand. And far, far below that was a glimmering blue river. Kuni grinned. Water! Running water, too, none of that stagnant, hiker's-fever standing water crap! All he had to do was climb down the slope, drink some water--he was massively thirsty right now--and climb back up again. Bit of a hike to get to water, but hey, this was a survival game, wasn't it?

Kuni wasted no time marking the map with the all-important water source, and instead started climbing down the slope. That turned out to be a mistake. A big mistake.

The gravel beneath his feet began to slip and slide and before long, he was caught in a rockslide. He yelped and screamed as larger rocks bounced down the slope and hit his unprotected body, pushing him downward in a great cascade of stone. By the time they reached the bottom, Kuni was covered in scratches, scrapes, and even a large but shallow cut that oozed ominously. More worrying than that was the throbbing pain in his ankle. It had gotten caught between two stones under the surface of the debris as he was pulled downward. If he was very lucky, it was only twisted and not outright broken.

So yes, in the end, Kuni was able to get a sip of water. But he spent almost the entire rest of the day trying to find a piece of driftwood on the gravel shore of the river to make a splint for his ankle. When he was done with that, he checked the map. He was surprised--and infuriated--to find that the slope that had just beaten him was on the map. It was marked "Do not enter, dangerous! Unstable scree." Well, gee, thanks, jerks. Thanks for the frigging warning!

He staunchly ignored the fact that he could have avoided this if he'd just checked the map and taken its warnings seriously. Thankfully, the map showed an alternate route back up the slope, one that bypassed the dangerous talus completely. He finally flopped into his shelter, exhausted, long after sunset, hungry, thirsty, and sore.

Day Two: "Untersucke die Grenzen"

Official Description: "The map said not to go there, but you went there anyway. Good job. You twisted your ankle in the process. You spent the day working on a splint."

Inventory: satchel bag, map

Injuries: twisted ankle

Shelter: Good

Points: 3

[Geyser Eelborn]

So yesterday had been a disaster. Today had to be better, right?

The first thing Kuni did was stir up the fire and warm his hands. While he had been sheltered from the wind last night, he had not truly been warm--he hadn't had the energy to start up the fire yesterday. Now he had a few licks of flames going. As he watched it curl into life and cautiously stuck his fingers out over it, he considered what to do. Well, obviously, exploration should be tempered by observation--and looking over the map. He'd added plenty more marks yesterday before the accident, so he should be fine on exploring for now. Today, he would much rather work on food and water. He would need something to carry water in, first of all, and it would be nice if he could boil water in something. He had no vessels to boil water in, he didn't have enough time to make clay pots--so he would have to do something a little weirder. He frowned. Wasn't there supposed to be a way to boil water in a leather sack? Hm. That would just leave him with the problem of finding some leather...

He pondered the question as he hobbled his way to a tree growing out of the cliff above him. He'd noticed it yesterday, but had so filled his stomach with berries that he hadn't had the appetite to pluck one of the purple fruits from the tree. He plucked one off, sat down on a rock, and ate it while contemplating his task.

No, a leather cauldron would not be ideal. Leather took forever to tan, and it would just rot in the meantime. He supposed he could use one skin a day, but he didn't have enough confidence in his hunting skills to assume that he would be able to catch an animal every day. Besides, most of the animals around here were rabbits or suchlike--he hadn't seen any deer yet. So there wouldn't be enough material to make a cauldron anyway. Could he boil water in a basket, then? He could make a basket--maybe out of bark or pine needles or something--and then he could drop hot stones in it. He was at the base of a mountain, he had plenty of rocks he could use. And it would just be a matter of plucking a hot rock out of the fire and dropping it in the water. He could use a stick for that, probably.

As he made plans to find materials for a basket, he stretched out his injured leg. Funny, it didn't hurt anymore--it had hurt like blazes this morning. And he could move it without stiffness. He frowned, swallowed the last bite of fruit, and pulled his leg in to examine it. His eyes went wide--the swelling was going down under his fingers! He stared at his leg, and at the cuts on his back and arms. They were...healing? He felt good...he felt happy... He looked up at the fruit tree. There weren't many fruits on the tree. He made a decision then and there. If this was a miracle tree, then he would ration out its fruit. He wouldn't pick any more today--he'd wait until he was injured, or otherwise desperate.

The decision made Kuni feel, if anything, better than the fruit had. It felt good to make a responsible decision like that. He wondered how long that feeling would last...

Day Three: "Ein eigenartig, purpurrot Frucht"

Official Description: "You found a strange fruit. It's purple, and pulsating, but it's delicious. Huh. You feel MUCH better, and any injuries you had are magically cured."

Inventory: satchel bag, map

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 6

[Geyser Eelborn]

Ugghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Nnnngghhh. Rrrrrr. Bleeeeh.

So last night, after a nice day making baskets and getting a crick in his neck, Kuni had decided to have some fruit for dinner. Note to self, make some traps or something, catch some animals. He never knew he could crave bacon this much. Or sausages. Mm, Grandma's sausages... But nope, he had fruit. His blackberry bushes from a few days ago were pretty picked clean, so he had had to resort to some similar-looking fruits nearby. These were...um...not...ripe, apparently. Either that, or they were poisonous. Oh, Mother With Strong Arms and Strong Head, please let them simply have been underripe. Ugh. He could barely raise his head, and yet parts of his anatomy were telling him very strongly that now might be a good time to leave the place he intended to sleep tonight.

At least last night's boiling experiments had gone well. He had filled up water from a small creek nearby--he wasn't yet willing to try a pond that was closer--and he had dropped some hot stones in it. The water had certainly frothed and bubbled, which probably meant that it had boiled. Either that, or the water was what was trying doggedly to kill him. Either that, or the water and the fruit were in cahoots. Oh, no.

Today, then, was quite unproductive. He spent all of it being sick. By nightfall he was feeling better--better enough to boil water with a few mint leaves tossed in. They were probably mint--the stems were the right shape, and the leaves were the right arrangement, and they stank of mint. So with his improvised tea at his side, Kuni spent the evening tending the fire and watching the stars scuttle by. At least when he wasn't outside of his shelter being...unwell.

Day Four: "Das Frucht beissen mein Magen!"

Official Description: "Okay, so eating unripe fruit is a terrible day. Have fun feeling sick the entire day."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; three pine needle baskets

Injuries: none; sick

Shelter: Good

Points: 6

[Geyser Eelborn]

Kuni woke up the morning of the fifth day to an ominous roll of thunder. He poked his head out of the shelter to look up at the sky. It was not looking good. The clouds were dark, and they were far, far overhead. Signs of a storm. Potentially a big storm. There was no time to waste. First, Kuni would have to do something about his shelter. It had an opening where he was keeping the fire. That would have to be blocked up. The fire would have to be moved inside, which meant he would need an opening in the roof--one with an attachment on it to keep the water out. He had no time to dilly-dally, then. He rushed off into the forest, gathering large limbs from the ground, as well as smaller ones. He plucked the tender greens from smaller plants, gathered up fruits and pine cones, and brought them all back to camp. There he wove the green stems around the branches to create a makeshift door that he could secure in place with rocks. Then he modified the roof to create a hole for smoke to leave through, with a tilted roof over that to keep the water from entering the hole. By that time, it was midmorning, and the storm actually looked like it was going to move off.

So he'd wasted a few hours scurrying around. Eh, at least he'd be ready for a real storm. He took the opportunity to eat some food--this time, he found some roots to eat, as well as some edible leaves--and then went back to work on the roof. If he could have another roof over the chimney cover, he could really make things secure... That took him to midday, and another jaunt through the forest for supplies and materials. And lifting up a log to look for more dock leaves revealed a fat, startled dove. It squeaked in dismay, shoving itself into the air. It fell to the ground with a soft thump. In spite of himself, Kuni winced. He had seen it--the bird had a broken wing. It could not fly.

He bit his lip. He loved animals. They were...well, they put up with him better, and they even made him feel a little guilty for being such a...well, for being a heel. So it broke his heart to see the bird flutter desperately away from him all the while his stomach said yum!

In the end, he had gently picked up the bird and snapped its neck. He couldn't bear to see it struggling, and if he didn't eat it, well, someone else would. He made his way back to the camp with a satchel full of pine needles and pine cones and ears filling his eyes. It seemed that the heavens themselves were mourning the bird. While this morning's storm had passed, it was now clear that it had a sibling, one larger and fiercer than the one before. Kuni moved his belongings inside, including the embers of his fire. The storm lashed the stump all afternoon and well into the night. Kuni was afraid his modifications would be blown away, but they all stood firm, reinforced with stones and hard work. He roasted the bird over the fire, collected rain water in weighted baskets, and wove new ones. By the time he went to sleep that night, he had woven three more baskets by the light of the fire. The next morning, the storm was gone.

Day Five: "Eine Sturm rollt ein"

Official Description: "Weather conditions were rough, causing your shelter to get most of the blow. If your roll was 3, 4, or 5, you didn't need to worry about your shelter and were able to find a wounded bird to eat for the night."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; six pine needle baskets, pigeon feathers

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 7

[Geyser Eelborn]

Yesterday's storm was gone, but it left in its wake three baskets full of rain water. Eager for refreshment, Kuni sipped from one of the baskets and got to work on the day. He would need more food and more fuel for the fire--he had depleted a lot of it yesterday. He would need to survey any damage that had happened in the night, and he should probably get even more water. It would be nice to have some backup.

Unfortunately, within hours of getting up, his plans all went to pot. He once again found himself spending the day curled up in a ball around a cramping stomach. This time, though, he was confident in the cause. The rainwater. Sure, it had been pure when it fell to the ground, but when it came in contact with his baskets? They had never been sterilized, or cleaned with soap. Of course they would be dirty and full of bacteria! He would just have to keep that lesson in mind next time. Ugh. There would be a next time, he told himself. There would be a next time...

A small part of his mind, a silly part, wondered if it was vengeance from the dove. He'd kept the feathers, stuffed in his satchel. He wasn't sure why--were they trophies? If so, then he needed to get rid of them. Nothing good ever came of trophies. It was bad luck to keep them, especially if they were memorials of times when someone was hurt...

By the time darkness fell, Kuni was feeling much better, but he had something new to add to the agenda: dig a proper latrine, and bury his old one. It had seen far too much use in the past few days.

Day Six: "Trinken nicht das Wasser!"

Official Description: "The water you found today wasn't properly boiled, causing you to get sick in the process. You spent the entire day curled up."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; six pine needle baskets, pigeon feathers

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 7

[Geyser Eelborn]

The night was mostly uneventful. He had woken up at some point to visit his makeshift latrine--hopefully that would be the last of the poisoned rainwater. He listened to the scuffling of night creatures and went back to bed, too sleepy to care about the animals. No one had attacked him yet, and that he took as a good sign. He awoke the next morning to birds being entirely too enthusiastic, and got to work boiling water. Meanwhile, he looped his satchel over his shoulder as always and walked to the cliff. There, he let the wind carry the dove's feathers away from him. Borne on the wind, perhaps they would set the little bird at peace. Kuni closed his eyes and murmured a prayer to the Mother With Strong Arms and Strong Head, his voice cracked with disuse. Then he returned to the campsite. Time to get started on a long and difficult day--he needed to dig a latrine. That meant he would need some sort of digging tool--probably a rock or something. Ugh. Well, he could use a stick or something to put the rock on...Either way, he would need to wrap some bark around his hands, maybe have more of that funny purple fruit. No. Not unless he was in dire need of it. He needed to save it for something important.

With his water properly sanitized this time, he set off to dig a new latrine and bury the old one. It was grueling work. He risked getting a drink from the creek when he was thirsty--he picked part of it that was fast-flowing to minimize the risk of more illness--and worked until late afternoon. Finally, he had it complete--it was close enough to camp to be accessible when he was sick, but it was far enough not to attract unwanted attention. As well, his old spot was buried in a thick layer of soil, branches, and rocks. That should help, at least a bit. He sat down on a rock nearby and reached into his satchel. He would mark the new location on the map.

The map.

The thing.

In his bag.

Oh, no.

It was gone! It was completely missing! With a growl, he rushed back to the camp. He tore it apart looking for the map--it was nowhere to be found. He rubbed his eyes. Think, think, think! When had he last seen it? Yesterday evening, when planning the latrines. It had been with him all day, he had never let it out of his sight, it and the satchel--

Except early this morning, when he got up from bed. Oh no. There had been animals scuffling in the night--what if one had...?

Oh, Great Mother, no.

He wanted to cry. How was he going to find it? What animal had done it? How could he figure it out? His constant comings-and-goings had scuffed out all marks around the campsite--he'd never be able to track it! The theft had been over twelve hours ago, there was no chance he could find it... Desperately, he looked around.

The only thing he could find was a tuft of matted fur stuck to the side of his shelter. He picked it up and felt it in his fingers. It was awfully fine, under the mat. Wild animals shouldn't have fur this fine. It actually felt a lot like cat hair, or perhaps the long, luxurious fur of a fennekit. This was a wilderness, though, not a city, and neither vespercats nor fennekits lived around here. Ugh. So this left him with a small, clever, fluffy animal. Clever, because it had stolen a map.

Obviously not to read. That would be...silly. Ridiculous. No, this animal wanted attention, and that was why it had stolen the map. Well, it was about to get a lot more attention than it wanted...

It was getting dark, so Kuni made a torch and set off into the woods looking for any more mats of fur. It was well past sunset when he finally found a bramble patch studded with fur--and buried deep within it, the map.

It appeared to be largely undamaged. Kuni looked it over, stuffed it back into his satchel, and stormed back to camp. Never again, he thought, as he marked the new latrine on the map. Never again would he be parted from his ticket home.

Day Seven: "Ein Dieb bei Nacht"

Official Description: "A familiar has stolen the map, which you need for the last day. You spent the evening trying to catch it, and are eventually successful at the end of the day."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; six pine needle baskets, pigeon feathers

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 7

[Geyser Eelborn]

Never again. Never again would he let himself come so close to being lost out here forever.

So today was dedicated to setting traps. Specifically, he wanted to trap whatever animal had left the matted fur around the camp. He wanted to catch it and kill it and eat it. He set several of the traps near the bramble patch as well as a few throughout the area, even up on the cliff above him. He added another one near the purple fruit tree. He didn't want anybody else eating from his tree. He needed its miracles, and he needed them for himself.

Mind, the traps had more uses than just catching thieving varmints. They also could trap food from him, as he discovered in the late afternoon when he checked on a trap to find a rabbit caught up in it. Oh, he didn't want to do this, but... He set aside the fur and the bones and everything else he didn't want to eat, and buried it with a prayer. He had a feeling he was going to come out of this experience a lot more devout than he had been coming in. With roast coney for dinner, boiled roots for a side dish, and his traps reset, Kuni was feeling more hopeful about his situation. Especially as he realized that he had survived the first week--now he just had fourteen days to go.

Fourteen. Actually, he didn't want to think about it. It had been an exciting week enough already--he quailed to think of two more just like this one. He sighed and shook his head. Okay, so he wouldn't think about that. He'd think about how...how he had tomorrow. Yes. Tomorrow he would check the traps, find water, find some more food...maybe make more baskets? He had started work on a much larger one, one bigger than his head. Hopefully he could finish it by the end of the game, in time to use it more than once or twice.

Day Eight: "Setze Fallen"

Official Description: "You spent the day laying out traps. Good thinking!"

Inventory: satchel bag, map; six pine needle baskets, a grudge

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 9

[Geyser Eelborn]

Yep, just another day in paradise, eh? Yep. Another day with cramping stomach, wondering how he had once again gotten himself sick. Mm. Nope. Nope, he did not understand why some people liked camping. Nope, nope, nope. This was not fun. It was not fun in any way, shape, or form. He wasn't even sure why he was doing this! He must have been insane to think this was a good idea!

Kuni spent most of the day at the latrine with his satchel on his shoulder--he didn't want to get sick in his shelter, and he wanted a bit of fresh air and sunlight. He was starting to be convinced that spending time cooped up in there was affecting his leaves. Indeed, he felt a bit better coming out into the sunlight. And he had something to do with his fingers, too--he took the big basket and worked on it in between bouts of feeling utterly dog-o sick.

So why was Kuni doing this? He wasn't even sure of that himself. In fact, he wasn't really sure of anything about himself. Some kids knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. Some people knew what they wanted to do. They knew when they were little kids, but Kuni? He never knew. He didn't want to be a doctor, or a scientist, or a teacher, or a firefighter, or any of those normal, little kid things. He was in his last year at the Academy, for crying out loud, about to enter college, and he still didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. He didn't even know what he felt was fun! He didn't have any hobbies, anything to set him apart from the pack. He wasn't smart or brave or, or...whatever. (Oh, right, sick. Ew.) He wasn't...special. He wasn't...anything interesting, and even then, he was...

Well, he was a bad Dryad. It was as plain and simple as that. Kuni didn't want to grow up and move away. He wanted to live with his family. He wanted to see his little sisters again, spend long evenings on the couch with Oma, sit in the kitchen and listen to Mutti complain about local politics as she stirred a pot of something wonderful on the stove. He didn't want to leave that. He wanted to stay forever, and if the price was not having the right to vote? Well, who cared about all of that, anyway? Politicians were all corrupt, and they were all the same, all of them dirty, stinking, cheating liars. So why should he want to leave if the only "reward" was getting to pick which one of them would profit from his misery next?

So maybe that was why Kuni had come out here, had agreed to this stupid challenge, one that had already almost killed him. Maybe he was out here to find himself, to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, to find something new and push his horizons. Maybe he'd find himself a hobby when he got back.

Maybe it would be weaving. Who knows. His basket was coming along quite nicely.

Day Nine: "Das Wasser gafaelt mir nicht"

Official Description: "The water you found today wasn't properly boiled, causing you to get sick in the process. You spent the entire day curled up."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; six pine needle baskets, a grudge

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 9

[Geyser Eelborn]

Yesterday had been a heavy day, in terms of general mood. He had been sick and horribly depressed. About the only good thing about yesterday was the progress he had made on the big basket. He needed a pick-me-up, so he did something he had promised himself he wouldn't do--he went to the purple fruit tree and ate one of its fruits. Almost instantly, he felt better.

Y'know, it was weird, but the first time he'd had one of these, he'd never noticed--the fruit pulsed gently, as if it was a living thing. That was weird. He wished he could draw. Or that he had the materials to draw--he'd love to know what this fruit was when he got back. Oh well. There was no point sitting around moping about what he didn't have. That had been yesterday--and today he was determined should be a good day. First, he checked the traps. There was a rabbit caught in one, which he caught and cooked. He collected and boiled water, made some repairs on his shelter, and finished the big basket. He even started a new one. The bramble patch was empty of any signs of that darn animal. He still had the matted fluff that he had found on his shelter, and he had taken to teasing it apart. He was convinced by now that it had come from either a large cat or a small fox. It was golden in color, striped darker. So the creature he was looking for was a brown one. He'd call that interesting, except that practically every animal in existence was brown. So it was hardly unusual to find a new one!

There wasn't a lot else to do that day, so he worked on his shelter some more. He dug it out deeper, filled in the gaps in the ceiling and in the hatch that served as a door. Using sticky tree sap, vines twisted into ropes, and a bit of carving with a sharp piece of stone he'd picked up for skinning, he even managed to create a crude hinge for the door. Hopefully, that would keep further vermin out of his den. Er, his shelter. Ha. Den. No. This was, um, not a den.

All in all, today was a good day--certainly much less depressing than yesterday. And to think, he was only halfway through this ordea--experience. Yes. Experience. He hoped tomorrow would be a good day.

Day Ten: "Ein shuldbewusst Genuss"

Official Description: "You found a strange fruit. It's purple, and pulsating, but it's delicious. Huh. You feel MUCH better, and any injuries you had are magically cured."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; seven pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a fluff of fur, a grudge

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 12

[Geyser Eelborn]

Good thing he had spent the day before reinforcing the shelter. By noon, another storm had blown in--he was lucky to get inside when he did. It seemed that there was some sort of ill favor that blew in with storms. Just as last time there had been a storm he had found an injured bird, so he did this time. He hated to do this, but once again, he had to kill it. He pulled its body from a trap on the rocky side of the mountain, and made his way back to camp. The sky was already turning yellow and the air was hot and heavy. It felt like he was swimming through syrup. He plucked the bird as quickly as he could, burying its remains outside, and ducked back inside to cook his meal. This storm was, if anything, fiercer than the one before. It rattled the roof, threatening to tear it off, and it howled through the forest outside. Once or twice he heard the cracking of branches in the distance. He froze, hoping against hope that the branches weren't nearby, and that they weren't falling on his shelter at that very moment. But he needn't have worried--apparently his campsite was in a fairly sheltered location.

There was less water this time than last time--the last storm had been a thunderstorm, and a real soaker. This one was mostly just wind, great gales blowing across the mountain as if trying to sweep Kuni off of the mountain. And could he blame it? He was a stranger. He was in Below--he belonged in Above. Dryads had tried to conquer Below. Perhaps the world itself remembered the footfalls of their Roots...

That was silly thinking. If there were two things that Kuni had learned about himself on this trip of "self-discovery," one of them was that he was terribly superstitious. He wondered if that would go away, but seriously, he was starting to think a lot more about luck than he had before. Luck, and ritual, and pleasing the gods. He wondered who the gods of Below were--besides the Nine, obviously. The Nine were true everywhere, but who were the other gods, the local ones, the gods of nature? Were there any gods like the Great Mother With Strong Arms and Strong Head, the deity of the Oak Tribe? There had to be. Someone would know. Who? A particularly strong gust battered the roof. Baphomets, he decided. He was deliberately trying to calm himself down now, and he wasn't sure if it would work. Baphomets, or if not them, then the Grimm. Last resort, ask Bakeneko and Nagas.

The other thing that Kuni had learned about himself was that he enjoyed building things. He was proud of his hut here, even if it lacked the amenities of home (hot water, for example, and indoor plumbing). It had been...actually really fun to build his shelter up from a hollow tree stump to a little shack, complete with fireplace. He'd done a pretty good job of it, too--it was staying together, he was dry, and he was even warm. Maybe this was what he would do for the rest of his life--build things, design things. Maybe that was his ultimate fate--to be an engineer. It was certainly something to consider.

Day Eleven: "Stuerme und Einkehr"

Official Description: "Weather conditions were rough, causing your shelter to get most of the blow. If your roll was 3, 4, or 5, you didn't need to worry about your shelter and were able to find a wounded bird to eat for the night."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; seven pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a fluff of fur, a grudge

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 13

[Geyser Eelborn]

The morning after the windstorm he mostly spent picking up branches that had fallen onto the ground throughout his camp. He needed to keep the path between his hut and his latrine clear. The last thing he wanted was to trip over something in the middle of the night. There were big branches fallen all over the place, and rocks on the cliff above him had been knocked down to the ground. Other than that, things were pretty calm. With the branches picked up and piled up, he checked the traps. Most of them were empty--one of them had caught a squirrel, but by the time he found it, the squirrel was already dead, its body cold. The idea of eating something that had been dead for a few hours turned his stomach, so he found a sapling, dug a hole at its roots, and buried the poor thing. The rest of his traps he picked up and took back to camp to repair. They had been damaged since he set them out, and that needed to be fixed. With a brunch of berries and roots to sustain him, he tried not to think about all of the foods he missed. Candy was a big one, but even more than that, he missed salt. He missed sauces and he missed eggs, and he really missed bread, which was the big shocker. He'd never realized how much bread he ate until he came here.

The traps were repaired by noon, and returned to their places by early afternoon. It was as he was resetting the traps by the bramblepatch that his day took a turn for the even busier. It was as he was kneeling on the ground to set up a snare that a blur of brown darted from the shadows under a tree, grabbed something in his bag, and whizzed off.

"Ack! Come back here!" Kuni shouted hoarsely, struggling to his feet. He could still see the thing, whatever it was, darting through the forest. He glanced briefly in his satchel--it had taken the map.

So. The thief was back.

He tore off into the woods after the little monster. This was a lot harder than it sounded--the forest was thick with undergrowth, much of it thorny, and all of it a living tripping hazard. The bark on his calves was of limited help to him as branches, burs, and bushes scraped his legs on his mad dash. To make things worse, the creature ahead of him--always just ahead of him!--was making straight for the mountain. It was as if it knew that it was better on rough terrain than the pursuing Dryad. Unfortunately, it hadn't counted on his wrath.

He began to gain on it once there were no longer any brush to trip him up. Up on the boulders on the mountain's north face, he could jump from one to the other. As the rocks were grey and his prey was brown, he could even now see what it was. It appeared to be a small, but excessively filthy, Fennekit. He could barely make out darker stripes, although what color it was when it was clean was a mystery to him. Was it brown? It could be blue for all he knew. What he did know was that it was matted and dirty and it was definitely the beast that had left the tufts of matted fur at his campsite, and it was definitely, definitely absconding with his map. Why was it going to all of this trouble? Why did it keep stealing the map from him? If it had been a bird, he could understand, maybe it wanted something to line its nest with, but seriously? This? A fox? What would a fox want with a map?!

The thief was always just barely out of reach. With a grunt, he lunged for it once again, only to have it slip from his fingertips. Almost. His fingers caught on its rapidly waving, muddy tail. It yelped with startlement, and the map fluttered from its open jaws.

Kuni pushed himself from the boulder he was standing on with one mighty leap. His calves strained with the effort--something in that leg went POP!--

He belly-flopped onto the hard, stony ground. The breath was driven from his lungs in a great WHOOSH. His belly and chest screamed with pain, his leg wailed in agony, but clenched tight in his fist was the map.

The Fennekit was yapping at him. Its voice was high-pitched, but horribly hoarse. It was like listening to a squeaky toy that had been run through a woodchipper. Kuni turned towards it and snarled with as much breath as he could muster. The Fennekit yipped, turned, and raced away, off to the east, away from the mad Dryad.

That showed the little beast. It wouldn't bother with Kuni ever again, he reckoned.

Wow, he hurt. But he had to get back to camp before nightfall, and he needed to get something to eat... with a pained whine, he pushed himself to his feet and hobbled home.

Day Twelve: "Ein Dieb bei Tag"

Official Description: "A familiar has stolen the map, which you need for the last day. You spent the evening trying to catch it, and are eventually successful at the end of the day."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; seven pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a fluff of fur, a really big grudge

Injuries: pulled muscle in his calf, bruises on the belly and chest, various cuts and scrapes on the legs and arms

Shelter: Good

Points: 13

[Geyser Eelborn]

He'd managed to make it back to camp alright. He boiled up water, made some tea, slathered his sore leg with hot water, wove a basket until the sun went down, then gone to bed. He woke up the next morning with what definitely felt like a big bruise on his stomach and chest. He also had, he was fairly sure, pulled a muscle in his leg. Briefly, he considered eating the purple fruit, but he decided against it. Special occasion, he told himself. Last time he'd eaten one when he was feeling sorry for himself, and some small part of him felt like he needed to atone for eating one for no good reason by not eating one when he should. Besides, he was, in a small way, proud of his injuries. They represented how far he had been willing to go to catch the map.

So instead, he got straight to work making and setting more traps. It was obvious that the Fennekit favored the brambles, and that it liked the mountain slope that it had led him on a chase through. He spent much of the day retracing his steps from the day before--where he couldn't remember it exactly, he looked for places of broken underbrush where a great, clumsy, lumbering animal--himself--had blundered through. Along the rocks on the mountain it was a bit more difficult, but he also had a little more fun setting up traps there--he found a few small caves where the Fennekit might hide, and hid the traps in some places he himself considered ingenious. And he wasn't the only one--on his way back, he found one of his traps had already caught a rabbit. He removed it from his trap, gave it a quick death, and stuffed it in his bag. He'd cook it on his way back. Meanwhile, he stopped on a broad, flat stone that overlooked the valley to the north to eat a lunch of berries and roots while admiring the view. It was gorgeous up here. He wondered if the Naked and Afraid society would tell him where he was when they picked him up--he'd love to have some photographs of this place. And maybe, in a few decades when he was finally done being tired of this place, he would come back here to visit it under more...civilized circumstances. I.e., when he could find a campsite with a flush toilet, a hot shower, and a tent. With blankets. And clothes.

He returned to camp in the evening to cook his rabbit. When he was done, he made his way up the mountain to another flat stone. There, he enjoyed his rabbit (with some water from a stream) while watching the sun set. Gods, but it was beautiful up here! Unfortunately, watching the sun set from the top of the [windy] mountain made it more difficult to climb down--there was no light, after all--but he made it home without injuring himself any further, and that was all he really needed to do.

Day Thirteen: "Staerke Fallen!"

Official Description: "You spent the day laying out traps. Good thinking!"

Inventory: satchel bag, map; seven pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a fluff of fur, a really big grudge

Injuries: pulled muscle in his calf, bruises on the belly and chest, various cuts and scrapes on the legs and arms

Shelter: Good

Points: 15

[Geyser Eelborn]

By the next morning, Kuni's leg had mostly healed. It was a little sore when he moved it, but it was mostly back to normal. His first task for the day was to check the traps. With so many traps now to count--there were at least...thirty now, he thought? It took a while. By the time he'd finished checking them (he'd caught two squirrels and a marmot), it was already midmorning. He cooked his meat and boiled water from the stream. His second large basket was finished, and he was already starting on another basket. A ninth one. Hey, there wasn't a lot to do, okay?

Well, okay, there was something to do--he could give his shelter another going-over. Last night had been a little chilly, and he suspected there was a c***k in either his door or his roof. It was a good thing he did, as his roof was starting to wear out. A gathering of twigs and branches would fix that up right away, and he could pack some thick, sticky mud from the riverbank around the edges of the roof to keep it even more insulated. It was as he was working on that that he realized he had now been here for fourteen days. Yes--this was his fourteenth day away from home. He only had a week left here. That gave him pause. He leaned against the tree stump and considered what he'd been up to for the last week. Um...storms...being sick, of course...chasing animals...setting up traps...it seemed to him that the days were chugging along quickly, and before he knew it, it would be time to leave. What did he need to do between now and then?

His first reaction, as he got back to work on the roof, was that there was nothing he needed to do between now and then, besides the usual works of survival. He needed to check the traps every day, he needed to boil water. Maybe he'd speed up his morning routine by filling baskets with water every night before bed, and putting the heating stones in the fire when he banked it. That way, he could get water first thing in the morning, without having to wait until after trap checking was done. He would have to do periodic repairs on his shelter, of course, but other than that, there was nothing he needed to do. It wasn't like he had chores or anything. He just...did things. He did them until he ran out of light.

It occurred to him, however, as he finished repairs and picked the meat out of a squirrel, that there might be some things he had to do. After all, he didn't want to leave traps all over the forest while he was gone? That would be...well...a lot of small animals would die that didn't need to die. So he supposed that before he left, he should take down all of the snares--probably the day before he left. That should give him enough time. He could take down his shelter--no--wait--he wouldn't have enough time to do that. Well, he'd remove the door at least. He'd have to put out the fire with some water. Any water would do, really, so long as it was out. And he supposed he should bury his latrine, though honestly, he didn't think that leaving a bunch of, ah, waste behind would be that bad for the environment. Animals did it all the time, didn't they?

But what about his baskets? He didn't want to leave them behind, not after he'd put so much effort (and swearing) into them. He considered his two largest ones. Both of them were roughly head-sized. Well...he supposed he could tie them together, and then tie them on his back? The smaller baskets would fit in them. He could even carry food in them! Yes, that seemed like a good idea.

That night, he made an attempt to make soup in one of his baskets. He used some greens (he'd confirmed that these were edible a few days ago), with some roots, and some of the leftover meat. The result could have done with a lot more salt, but it made a nice change of pace for once. He went to bed that evening, the fourteenth night of his adventure, well-fed and well-rested, ready to face whatever the last week brought.

Day Fourteen: "Es geht bergauf"

Official Description: "If you're injured, you were unable to move today and spent the entire day sleeping. If you were not injured, you were able to find food for the evening."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; eight pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a fluff of fur, a really big grudge

Injuries: bruises on the belly and chest

Shelter: Good

Points: 16