Naked and Afraid - Kunibert

[Geyser Eelborn]

Today was the beginning of his third week in the wild--day fifteen. Wake up, yawn, stretch, scoop up a hot stone from the fire using two sticks, and drop it in a basket of water. It was one of his small baskets--he wouldn't need much. Indeed, within seconds, the water inside the basket was boiling. He lifted it to his lips and sipped it. He was getting very used to drinking hot water instead of cold water. It turned out that water, whatever the temperature, was refreshing. And he was starting to even prefer hot water--hot water was clean water.

When his morning drink of water was finished, he left his campsite to, er, refresh himself and check traps. Once his traps were checked for the day, he decided to do something a little different, something to keep up the positive attitude from yesterday. Today, he was going to take a bath. He had considered the logistics of it this morning while checking traps. His first thought was to have a hot bath. That would be a little tricky--he would have to either bathe at his campsite, which he was not eager to do, or he would have to bring the fire to the riverbank, which might be more trouble than it was worth. He didn't want to bathe at the campsite--it was not only covered by dirt, but it was covered by dust. The dust would just get kicked up by his feet, and then settle on his wet body. He'd be as filthy as he had started out as, and that would quite ruin the point of a bath. His other option, of course, was to simply take a cold bath. It was warm during the day, surely the stream wouldn't be...he stuck a toe in--HAHA, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE. Nope. Hot bath it was! He searched around in the undergrowth until he could find a damp piece of bark. He carried it to the campsite, where he put several small embers from his campfire on it. He picked up all of his baskets and took them and the pieve of bark back to the river bank.

First, he needed to build up a fire. By this point, he had the hang of it, though he was a little worried about finding enough fuel in the next few days. He was using an awful lot of it, after all. He might have to go further afield to find fuel this next week. With a small but hot fire going, he slipped in a pair of smooth stones taken from the scree near his camp. Cracked stones could explode when they got hot, then were suddenly cooled by the water--smooth stones were safe. He didn't want a repeat of his first time trying this method. As ever, the stones did well, quickly heating the water in the baskets to acceptable temperatures. Next came the tricky part--standing in the stream, the water lapping at his ankles, he had to clean himself without getting his precious map wet. He was not going to take the satchel off--not if that wretched thief might be able to find it!

In the end, he used a piece of moss to transfer the warm water from the baskets to his skin. The warm water felt mercifully good on his body, enough almost to make up for the cold water in which he stood. Each swipe of the moss came away muddy. He was gratified to see how much dirt he was cleaning from his body. He paused occasionally to reheat the stones and heat some more water, so it took quite a while. He estimated it took at least two hours to clean himself, and that included the brief, terrifying, delightful moment when he took the satchel off, hung it on a branch over the fire (out of popping ember range), and poured what remained of his hot water over his head. Aaaaaaaaaaaah. Felt good to have the dust rinsed off the leaves again. He spent another hour or so (satchel replaced) sunning himself to dry off. With such work completed, he doused the new fire, gathered his baskets again, triple-checked that the map was with him and undamaged, and returned to camp, feeling like a new Dryad.

Day Fifteen: "Badentag"

Official Description: "Water is hard to come by in the wild, but you found it! Time to boil it for safety!"

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

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 18

[Geyser Eelborn]

The day after his bath was uneventful.

Haha, that was a lie. No. It was very eventful. Shockingly so, in fact...

The day began early. Quite early. Before dawn, in fact. It had rained the night before, with the water getting harsher and harsher as it reached daybreak. Kuni's newly repaired hut was holding out against the storm. Sleepily, he reached out in the middle of the night to set out a couple weighted, small baskets to collect rainwater. He'd boil the rainwater in the morning, but he had a feeling that this storm might not let up until at least midday the next day. So it was early, early morning, with the sound of water slamming into the roof and the side of his shelter. Kuni remained quite dry, and warm because of the fire glowing in the corner. The world smelled wet outside, but dusty inside. His large baskets were already full of water, sitting in the corner; his heating stones were in the fire, waiting for the new day. The wind was making the trees howl softly in the forest. Kuni wasn't even sure what time it was--maybe it was already dawn. Maybe dawn had passed hours ago. Maybe it was yet to come--it was hard to tell, it was dark as pitch outside. He shrugged, content to go back to sleep, but not quite able to. That didn't bother him as much as it should have--it was actually sort of soothing to listen to the sound of water and wind outside.

The wind was a little louder in one area, out to the west. Sleepily, he thought that might have been the scree pile, the forbidden area where he had twisted his ankle on Day Two. Maybe the wind whipped over the bare area more fiercely than it did over the trees. That was probably what made the sound. He smiled. He was glad he wasn't out there.

How long he lay there, half-awake, half-asleep, he didn't know. He did know that the persistent howling from the rockpile became more distinct the more he listened to it. He dismissed it, though. It wasn't important. Until he turned over to a better position. The change of position seemed to change the quality of the sound, or maybe it made it easier to hear. He wasn't sure. But it was only when he rolled over onto his other side that he realized that the howling from the scree was the sound of a Fennekit in distress.

The thief. Kuni sat bolt upright and listened. Yes--that wasn't wind--although some of the moaning sound from outside was definitely wind--no, that sound he was listening to in particular was the sound of a Fennekit, and it was coming from that forbidden zone. He hesitated. That 'kit had been a lot of trouble. He'd pulled something while chasing it, he had panicked a lot, he'd had to arrange whole days around that stupid animal. He'd been stuck chasing it while he could have been hunting or catching or otherwise doing something productive on multiple occasions now. Well, okay, twice. But still, it had been nothing but a pain in the a** to him since day...er, since Day Seven. It served it right if it was in distress.

Even as he thought these cruel words, several things came to mind. First, Kuni remembered that twisted ankle. It had been painful, and the mad fall down the hill that resulted in it had been just as bad, if not worse. He had been afraid he was going to die. He had experienced terror, real terror, not the stuff you got from horror movies or haunted houses, but terror, the stuff that came from almost dying--he'd experienced that for the first time in his life. And he never wanted to go through that again.

The second thing that came into Kuni's mind was the Fennekit. He hadn't acknowledge it at the time, but when he had been chasing it, he had noticed something odd--its legs were short, its ears were huge, its eyes were wide, and its paws were fairly enormous for a creature of its kind. It was, he realized only now, a puppy. A very young Fennekit--likely not much more than half-grown. It was just a tiny little creature, unable to defend itself. The third thing that came to mind was the injured bird from the day of the first storm, how terrible and heart-broken he had felt after its death; how sad it had been to kill it. He remembered his pets back home, two Pumpkas and a pair of Kiddens, how sweet they were...

Kuni was not a people person. He didn't like Daydreams much more than he liked Nightmares, and he liked Nightmares not at all. But he did like animals, and he liked them a lot. Especially the tiny ones. The tiny, cute, young ones.

Kuni left his satchel behind--he wouldn't need it, and it would just get damaged anyway. He left the hut, the door shut closely behind him, and set off, bent over from the wind and the rain, in the direction of the talus slope. He had to shade his eyes from the falling water. It was punishingly dark outside, and several times he tripped over rocks, brush, and branches. But eventually, he made it to the scree he had visited on his first day.

It was slightly lighter here--he estimated that it was just about dawn, and the scant light that filtered through heavy, grey clouds reflected off of the grey stone. When he had visited the slope on his second day, it had been completely covered in stone, in a vast, even layer. This time, however, there was a great scar of dirt stretching down the side of the cliff, with a big lump of rock at the bottom. His heart lurched. The cries of the Fennekit were coming from that pile down there.

The obvious thing to do was to slide down the dirt--well, mud--patch left behind by the rockslide. That was certainly a better decision than climbing down wet rocks. But unfortunately, the mud itself was sliding down as well. It wasn't safe. He had no idea how much mud there was on this hillside--he could get stuck in it and drowned when a great wave of mud washed over him. No, that would be a bad idea. In this case, he would just have to brave the wet, slippery, sharp stones that made up the rest of the slope. Kuni got down on his behind and began to slide over the rocks. He kept as low to the ground as possible, sticking a foot down before lowing the rest of himself down. He moved slowly over the slope, each slide taking him a little bit closer to the source of the howls.

Light suddenly threw the scene into high relief, and at last he could see the Fennekit. It was sprawled on the ground, its hind legs trapped between two rocks. It was limp, barely moving but to bark. It was almost the exact same color as mud. Kuni's heart roared in anger, or maybe it was just the thunder, and all caution was thrown away. He now jumped from rock to rock, hurrying down the slope. His foot slid between two rocks on his way down, throwing his body forward unexpectedly. He caught himself, numb both to his leg and to the scrapes on his hands from the landing against a rough-hewn boulder. With strength born of rage, desperation, and fear, he shoved rocks away, hurling them down the slope until the crushed legs of the Fennekit pup were revealed. He scooped it up into his arms and began once again the laborious climb up the slope. This time, he didn't bother to find the safe path--he wasn't thinking clearly enough for that. He wanted to get himself and the pup back to shelter. In his mind, it was as if his injuries and the Fennekit's would be healed as soon as he got back to his fire and his baskets.

He didn't remember the climb back up the hill much, or the walk back through the dark and rain-lashed forest. He did remember the Fennekit waking up at some point and licking his face. That was really the only important event on his way back to his shelter. Once he and the Fennekit were inside, both collapsed with exhaustion, sopping wet, and fell into a dreamless slumber.

Day Sixteen: "Der Dieb wird ertrappt!"

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; eight pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a Fennekit

Injuries: twisted ankle

Shelter: Good

Points: 18

[Geyser Eelborn]

The rest of the rainy day had been sent inside. The storm had gotten too fierce to venture outside. Worse, it had turned into a full-blown thunderstorm, and he didn't dare climb up the slope to the purple fruit tree under such conditions. He couldn't be struck by lightning, not now. So instead the day had been devoted to tending to his wounds and the wounds of his fluffy friend. He had enough materials to make a splint for his leg, but he wasn't sure quite what to do about the Fennekit's legs. They looked all but crushed--he refused to amputate them, but he didn't see what good splinting them would do. He did boil some water to clean them out with, though (and wasn't dropping a hot stone into cold water in an enclosed space just fun? Cleaned wounds for both of them (it was a minor miracle that a twisted ankle was all he had), and for the pup, a bath. And then a haircut, administered with the sharp stone Kuni carried with him in his satchel. Bathing a feral animal with warm water was tricky enough--the trim was even more difficult. He now understood why scissors had been such a good thing when they were invented. But it had to be done--the Fennekit was so badly matted that hunks of hair were coming out. Under that were ticks, and they had to be removed too. All told, cleaning up his new companion took most of the day. By the end of it, he had a partially-bald, gold-and-brown Fennekit pup sharing space with him.

He had to admit, the little bugger was very cute. He couldn't move his hind legs, but it didn't stop him from wagging his tail and pulling himself along by his front paws. Aaah, too cute. And while at first his yipping in an enclosed space had been too loud, Kuni soon grew used to it. He could see why these animals were domesticated by Nightmares--the yipping was probably helpful to warn them against intruders or predators way back in the primitive days. He had gone to sleep with the pup curled against his shoulder, licking his face and chin with a solid determination that said he could keep it up for days.

But all of that had been yesterday, on Day Sixteen. Today, Day Seventeen, was finally dry. It was muddy, of course, but it was also dry. First things first, Kuni scooped up his new friend in a basket and carried him up the mountain. The sun was shining down like a benediction, catching in the pup's fur and lighting it up like fire. "I am Kunibert," the Dryad said. "You are a total pain in ze a**, but you are also very cute, und very brave--und I am fond of animals zat are brave. So. I vill keep you. On several conditions--first of all, no more relieving yourself in our shelter. Zat is bad, und I vill have to put you out if you do zat again."

The Fennekit yipped and licked his face again. Kuni made a wry smile. "Of course, you understood none of zat. Second of all, my little mushroom, your name vill be Mushroom. Ze reason for zat is zat Daydreams--und Nightmares too, if it comes to zat--are in ze habit of naming zeir pets. You came to me sree times--vell, okay, tvice, but zere vos a sird time zat ve met, ven you asked me for help--so you are my pet now. Und I shall name you. Normally," he added, "I name my pets after types of mushrooms. But I can't remember any right now, so you are zerefore Mushroom, ze little dieb." He wondered how Mushroom would get along with his pets. Well, Mushroom wouldn't get along well with Amanita, his first Pumpka, but no one got along well with Amanita, so that was a moot point. The rest of his pets were friendly. He had no doubt that they would get along with Mushroom. As for his roommate's Spectrefoxes, well, if they bothered Mushroom, he'd just have to bother them back, wouldn't he?

"Now, today we are visiting ze Purple Fruit Tree. Ve couldn't go yesterday, too stormy, und you are not fond of sunder. So. Ve are going today, und zen ve are going to get started on ze day, okay?" Mushroom yipped in agreement. Kuni smiled and carried him up.

The storm had taken its toll on the tree. There was just one fruit left. Several others had fallen to the ground nearby and burst. Kuni sighed. He had been hoping that there would be more--it would be nice to have some for contingencies. But nature had snapped the miracles from his grasp. No more relying on them. He plucked Mushroom from his basket, set him on a warm stone nearby, and pulled the last fruit from the tree. It was a little smaller than the ones before, but it would have to do. He wondered if Fennekits were just as affected by the fruit as he was. He hoped so. He had planned to share some with Mushroom. It was really the pup's only chance of getting his hind legs fixed...

When he turned back to his companion, he saw that the pup was a step ahead of him--he had dived nose first into the fallen fruits and was snarfing them up from the ground. As Kuni chuckled and began eating his own fresh fruit, he watched Mushroom crawl around on the ground. His legs began to twitch, and by the time Kuni was finished with his breakfast, he was back on his hind legs and ready for action. Kuni insisted on carrying him back down in the basket anyway. He didn't want to lose Mushroom. Not now that he was Kuni's.

Day Seventeen: "Teile unter Bruedern"

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; eight pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a Fennekit named Mushroom

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 21

[Geyser Eelborn]

So now there was another mouth for Kuni to feed. That meant that he would have to find his friend more food to eat--specifically, meat. Kuni liked meat just fine, but he could survive for a few days on roots, leaves, and berries. Fennekits were more carnivorous than Daydreams, though. Mushroom's diet was much more reliant on protein. If Kuni was to keep his friend, he would have to find him more food.

Kuni had set up thirty traps in the last two weeks. Ten of them were gone from the other day's storm. His traps generally had a low success rate--he rarely caught more than two animals a day, and one was much more common. He would have to at the very least replace his lost traps if he was to keep the pair of them fed. With that in mind, he got straight to work after checking the traps (one small rabbit) and boiling water. Mushroom lay nearby, eating the rabbit quite happily. That was something else that would need to change. Mushroom got first dibs on meat from here on out. That was only four more days (including today), but it was an important decision. After the fourth day, Mushroom could have all of the kibble and fox treats a growing pup could want, but until then, he was on short rations, and Kuni's meat rations would be even shorter. He would just about kill for some bacon or meatloaf right now...

That wasn't helpful. He needed to concentrate on making the traps. He preferred snares. They would be easier to pick up on the last day, or rather, the second-to-last day. Pit traps were just too much trouble, he didn't think anything would walk into a trap after a Dryad had trampled the ground around it, spreading its scent. Unless animals didn't know the difference between Dryad scent and tree scent? Impulsively, he stuck out a hand to Mushroom. Mushroom gave a short growl until he saw whose fingers had been thrust into his face. Then he wagged his tail, sniffed Kuni's fingers, sneezed, wagged his tail even more furiously than before, and went back to breakfast. Kuni snorted. In Mushroom's book, Kuni was Master, and that was all that mattered.

With his ten new snares completed, Kuni got to his feet. He whistled. He didn't know why he did that. It was what people did in movies to attract a fox's attention, but he wasn't in the movies. Mushroom wasn't trained, he shouldn't know how to respond to that. And indeed, he was just as confused as Kuni was as to why the Dryad had done it. But it did catch his attention from his meal and furious washing of himself.

"I'm going to go set ze traps," Kuni said. Mushroom continued to stare at him. Suddenly he felt silly. What did Mushroom care what he was saying? He was a fox, for crying out loud, he didn't speak Common! He did speak body language, though. He got to his feet and followed Kuni when the Dryad set off into the forest. At first, Kuni was worried--what if the Fennekit ran off, never to be seen again? But it soon became apparent that Mushroom was just as afraid of losing Kuni as Kuni was of losing Mushroom. The pup kept as close to Kuni as possible, never straying more than ten feet to sniff a tree or mark a bush before running back to his Daydream. Kuni set the traps, then headed back to camp to collect more food for himself and finish weaving his ninth basket.

Day Eighteen: "Jage fuer zwei"

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

Inventory: satchel bag, map; eight pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a Fennekit named Mushroom

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 23

[Geyser Eelborn]

So remember yesterday? When he did his calculations and he figured out that he would have to eat more plants to make up for what he was losing in meat to Mushroom? Yeah. Well, he'd been in the area for...wow, two and a half weeks now, steadily picking all of the berry bushes and fruit trees dry. It was no wonder that he was almost out of fruit around here. There wasn't much left except the green ones. Maybe that stupid, superstitious part of him believed that you could grow an immunity to unripe fruit, like heroes in legends grew immunities to poisons.

Haha. This wasn't a legend. After eating too much green fruit the day before, Kuni felt sick to his stomach the whole day, and his belly cramped almost constantly. He was more grateful to Mushroom now than he had thought he would be. Not only did the Fennekit stay by his side, licking his face and neck and snapping to attention every time he groaned, but the needs of the fox required him to get off his butt and do some work. He had to--Mushroom was relying on him to check the traps and feed him. With Mushroom around, Kuni couldn't afford to spend a day lying in camp feeling sorry for himself.

There were a couple squirrels for the Fennekit to eat today. Kuni was too sick to touch them, so he let Mushroom have both. Was it just him, or was the skinny little pup getting visibly fat? Ugh. Well, good for him. He was too skinny still. If Kuni could play the piano--which he couldn't, that was really his sister Heidrun's area of expertise--he could have played a song on Mushroom's vertebrae, he was that thin. Not quite emaciated, but definitely starving. It occurred to Kuni on one of his frequent trips to the latrine that perhaps Mushroom had spent the last couple weeks stealing his map in a ploy to catch Kuni's attention, to convince Kuni to adopt him. Well, if that was the plan, it had somehow worked--even if it really shouldn't have!

Day Nineteen: "Nimmer essen gruene Frucht"

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

Inventory: satchel bag, map; eight pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a Fennekit named Mushroom

Injuries: food poisoning

Shelter: Good

Points: 23

[Geyser Eelborn]

Every time Kuni had gotten sick before, he had felt better by the next day. This time, however, on this his second-to-last day, he felt just as crummy today as he did before. Unfortunately, today was the day he had planned to get packing.

Ugh. Responsibilities...why...

It wasn't until midmorning that he finally got up and hobbled through the forest checking his traps. He kept putting the thought that this was his second-to-last day alone on the mountain out of his mind. He didn't want to think about that. He couldn't. If he did, his heart would start racing again, he'd feel even more nauseous, and he'd get too excited to do anything. He especially needed to keep it out of mind tonight--he would need a good night's sleep before tomorrow's journey to the pick-up point. He couldn't afford to fall asleep late due to a case of the butterflies.

Because he got such a late start on the day, the one critter they caught in their traps, a marmot on the mountain, was already dead by the time they caught up to it. Mushroom didn't seem to care. He didn't even wait for his Dryad to pull the body out of the trap before he set to it with gusto. Kuni looked away. He couldn't watch this. Mushroom was just too...wild with this sort of thing. Instead, he left his belongings behind with Mushroom while he collected the more far-flung traps. He was confident by now that the Fennekit would not stray far. He kept his belongings with Mushroom as a promise--I will be back, I won't be gone for long. That part turned out to be less than true, however. It was a fact that he was still feeling sick, so taking down the traps on the mountain side took longer than normal as he took breaks from his searches to rest his heaving organs for a moment. Around noon, his breakfast finished, Mushrooom went looking for him, yapping at him to return, leading him back to his satchel and baskets. In all, he took down half of his traps, concentrating on the ones that had underperformed, as well as the ones he had set up near the bramble patch. It seemed that nothing worth catching lived in there, and since its lone resident was now yapping at his heel, Kuni hardly found them necessary.

Such exertion had exhausted the Dryad. He spent the rest of the day relaxing, picking berries, willing his stomach to stop hurting, and putting together the basket harness he would need to carry with him the next day. He still had one unfinished basket, but he would take it with him. He'd take as much of it with him as possible, and Mushroom would go in one of the large baskets. There. That was settled. He went to bed early, finally starting to feel better. 'Bout time, he thought as he closed his eyes, hands idly running through what little fur Mushroom still had left.

Day Twenty: "Der letzte einsam Tag"

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

Inventory: satchel bag, map; eight and a half pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a Fennekit named Mushroom

Injuries: food poisoning

Shelter: Good

Points: 23

[Geyser Eelborn]

Kuni woke at dawn the next day. He boiled water in two of his smaller baskets and packed the rest in one of the large baskets. They were already tied together and ready to go. He was hungry at last, ravenously so after two days of fasting. He knew he would have food at the end of the day, so there was no point in saving. He scarfed down berries and roots and checked the traps. As if in celebration of this, his last day, he had caught two rabbits in his remaining traps. He took them, and the completed traps, back to camp. As the rabbits roasted on the spit, he ripped the traps apart and stowed them in his burrow. Over breakfast, he checked the map to make sure he knew where he was going. Finally, he dowsed the fire, buried the remains of the rabbits in the ground, plopped Mushroom in the unoccupied large basket, and hoisted it on his shoulders. He was ready to get where he was going.

The pick-up point was to the east of them, on the other side of the mountain, sort of to the south. There was a trail that led out there, one that he had never followed. He guessed he had sort of been saving it for the last day. Maybe he thought he would have been disqualified if he explored it too soon.

The day was fine and sunny. Before long, it was growing warm. Insects buzzed and birds sang, and Mushroom yipped and yapped at every squirrel that scurried past them. The path was rocky, full of stones, but it was clearly a trail, not some deer highway. The further he traveled along it, the more convinced he became that this was an established trail. At some point, it showed clear signs of Daydream--well, Nightmare, since this was Below--hands having manipulated it. There were square-cut stones, and boards laid into the dirt along slopes. He pondered the reason for them. He wasn't really an outdoorsy person. Who had built this path? And why? And what were those boards for? He pondered them over lunch (berries and fruits picked from along the trail), and eventually came to the conclusion that they must be for preventing water from washing out the trail in storms. That made sense.

After lunch, the trail got steeper. It went up, and down, and back up again, and soon the weight of the baskets was almost unbearable to him. He didn't dare set Mushroom down to relieve most of the weight--he wanted to keep an eye on him. However, the pup's yowls eventually got more insistent, until he was actually nipping at Kuni's ear. With a groan, he stopped and let the Fennekit out to relieve himself. Kuni looked away. He didn't need to watch this. He looked up into the trees, enjoying the sight of Below's dark blue sky through the green leaves. He frowned. Were trees always that weirdly shaped? He took a glance at Mushroom. The Fennekit was watching him eagerly, as if ready to go. He shrugged. No danger around here if the wilderness-hardened fox puppy wasn't upset. He looked back up the tree. There was definitely a box up there. He bit his lip. He had time--according to the map, at least. He could afford to take a detour. It took a couple of tries, but he was eventually able to catch the lowest branch of the tree with a jump, and from there it was simplicity itself to climb up the tree and open the box. Inside was a waterproof plastic can containing a box of matches and three roadflares. He grinned. This would be helpful! If he got hurt--not that he would get hurt, he didn't have a lot of time left to get hurt in--the roadflares would be visible from miles away. They could send a helicopter to pick him up.

He closed the box, then carefully climbed back down the tree, slipping the roadflares and matches into the large basket. He hesitated at that--he couldn't carry everything, including Mushroom, with his new additions. But then he remembered the day before, when Mushroom had been quite content to follow him along, sniffing trees, but staying close. Kuni smiled. He had no need to worry about his Fennekit losing him.

He set off down the trail again, his load slightly lightened, and a relentless cheer in his heart.

Well, it seemed relentless, anyway. Until he came across a gap in the trail. He paused. The gap wasn't on the map--it was entirely possible that it had occurred during one of the several storms in the past three weeks. Certainly it had the look of a trail washed out by storm--it was a gash in the cliffside itself, ten feet across and wider than the trail itself. Trees had been washed past and below, creating a dense, tangled mess in the gully below his feet. But hey, there was a dense, tangled mass, one he could walk across. Granted, it was five feet below the level of the trail, but hey, he had braved greater heights in the last few weeks.

Mushroom confirmed his confidence as the pup seemed to dance across the tangle to the other side. He yapped at Kuni to follow, impatient. Kuni grinned and complied, carefully climbing down to the level of the tree pile, and walking across.

He was halfway across the fall when a log moved unexpectedly under his feet. His leg slipped into a gap, and then another, and another log moved, and there was a horrible snap of wood breaking--

All the more horrible because it wasn't pine snapping, or spruce, or fur, or sequoia.

It was oak.

A buzzing filled Kuni's ears that drove out even the sound of Mushroom's now frantic barking. He looked down to what little he could see of his numb leg. Blood dotted the logs below. His leg was stuck. And it was bleeding. One of his leg branches had snapped off.

Oh. Oh, this was bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. So many blood vessels...he fumbled with his harness, pulling it off and around. He couldn't hear anything except his own ragged breathing as he pulled out the flares and the matches. Oh, bad, bad. Oh. Why couldn't he feel anything? No...

He lit the match and held it to the end of the flare. It took a few seconds to get it started, but when it did, it gave off a painfully bright red light. He set it down next to him and looked over to the now frantic Mushroom. He spoke words of comfort to the Fennekit--what exactly he said, he wasn't sure, he couldn't hear himself speaking. But within minutes, the wind was rustling his hair and leaves and the helicopter was there, lowering a stretcher. Someone was jumping off ofi it, rushing towards him and avoiding the hysterical puppy. They were pulling him out of the deadfall and walking him over to the stretcher where a bandage was pressed against his wound. It had snapped off at the base--oh--

He mumbled something, loud in his ears only because of his throat. He said something about Mushroom and not leaving him behind. The Nightmare pushed him back on the stretcher and plopped the struggling Mushroom on his lap. He and the Fennekit were lifted into the air...

At some point, the pain stepped in, and he was given a shot of something. He thought someone must have given something to Mushroom too, because while the pup was still trembling from head to tail, he was no longer barking. Or maybe it was just Kuni's fingers, which could find nothing better to do but pet his puppy over and over again. His baskets were by his feet, his satchel still on his shoulder. Someone was cleaning and bandaging his leg. He was heading home, and he felt sleepy. He also felt clothes--someone had slid him into a shirt and shorts. He smiled gently to himself and closed his eyes. He was in good hands now.

He was no longer Naked and Afraid.

Day Twenty-One: "Wieder zu Zivilisation"

Official Description: "You ran into an issue and needed to be evacuated due to it."

Inventory: satchel bag, map; eight and a half pine needle baskets, a sharp stone, a Fennekit named Mushroom

Injuries: none

Shelter: Good

Points: 24