Kegan rummaged through the belongings of his cabin, carefully selecting which things he would bring along with him. Some high quality javelins, his favorite spear, two wolf pelts and a deer pelt for clothing needs, some bone tools he used often, and two deer bladders for carrying water. However, he needed a few more things before he left.

Kegan had learned from the villagers how to make pemmican, using some dried deer meat, berries, and deer fat. The process of drying the meat and berries, rendering the fat, and mixing it all together took about two days. It reminded him of all the hunters he’d spent time with in the village.

Making pemmican was like a rite of passage for them. Women often cooked the meals around the village, but pemmican was the exception. A young hunter’s first kill would go to his family, his second kill would go to the village, but his third kill belonged to him. And the third kill was always turned into pemmican. While the new hunter was busy making pemmican, all of the old hunters would stand around and watch while talking about their own hunting stories. Kegan smiled thinking of Tanzeeb’s hunting stories, that man had a way of telling stories that always made everyone laugh.

With the pemmican and all of his other gear ready, Kegan moved everything out of the valley, and carried it to the top of the thirty foot cliff where he had attempted to stop the goblin brood mother. Then he went back into the valley to take care of his final task.

He crept silently through the woods, activating his camouflage perk, and relying on his scentless perk to hide him even more. Up ahead of him was the wolf den. Most of the pack was out hunting, but the pups had been left behind to play with one of the adult wolves.

Kegan was trying to pick out the right wolf pup. They were playing with each other, chasing and tackling one another, or trying to tackle the grown wolf.

One of them seemed more curious than the others. It would sniff at and lick the different plants and sticks lying around. Kegan almost laughed when he saw the pup lick up an insect that clearly didn’t taste good, and try to shake its head as if to dislodge the taste.

With his mind made up Kegan sprinted out from his cover and grabbed the puppy. The adult wolf couldn’t react quickly enough and Kegan had taken off running before she could do anything. A howl went up, and the wolves started converging on Kegan. They were smart and clearly trying to surround him and set up a trap, but Kegan wasn’t a deer. He had a destination in mind and he just ran through the loop they were trying to close around him.

When the wolves realized their strategy wasn’t going to work they just tried to chase him down. Anytime they got close Kegan would use the spear he had to whack them in their snouts or legs. They would whine from the pain and drop back.

It didn’t take Kegan long to reach the cliff. Twenty feet away from the cliff Kegan whirled around, his spear was a blur in his hands and he was leaping in and out among the wolves, whacking them all over with the shaft of his spear.

This gave him enough space to make a running head start at the cliff. He threw his spear down to free up a hand and leapt for the nearest ledge. The wolves were right on his heels, but Kegan was too fast. He grabbed the ledge, put the wolf pup on top of it, and then quickly pulled himself up next to the pup. The wolves were growling and howling at him from below they tried to jump up and bite him, but he was easily out of their reach. Kegan caught his breath and then carefully made his way up the rest of the cliff with the wolf cub in hand.

In the last life Kegan had gotten accustomed to the company of others. Even though there weren’t going to be any humans in this world, Kegan had decided that didn’t mean he had to spend his life alone.

Six months later.

Kegan was putting the finishing touches on a cabin. He knew he would need a place to stay for the winter. The weather wasn’t quite cold yet, but he didn’t want to be caught in an early snow storm trying to make a cabin. Jot, his wolf pup, was no longer just a little pup. Jot was almost fully grown, and would accompany Kegan on hunts. Right now Jot was chewing on some of the bones of the last deer Kegan had killed.

After Kegan had left the valley he’d wandered around a little aimlessly at first, until deciding to follow the mountain range to see where it led. He’d also been looking for copper ore deposits in the mountains. He wanted to see if he could make the metal weapons that the villagers had used. After finding the tell tale blue rocks again Kegan had found a nearby water source and then setup a site for his cabin.

He’d been busy building the house for the last two months and hadn’t had time to actually try and smelt the ore. This was his first free day. Jot followed him for a little ways, before they came across some deer and Jot got excited and ran off after the deer. Kegan just chuckled, that wolf was full of youthful energy.

At the site with the blue rocks Kegan collected the loose rocks laying around. Kegan hadn’t learned too much about making metals in his last life, so he knew there would have to be some trial and error. He collected as many rocks as he thought he could hold in his deerskin. He knew the next part involved making a really hot fire and somehow making the rocks so hot that they would flow like water.

Three months later.

Snow fell around Kegan. He was squeezing a leather sack that was pumping air into a fire. It was his latest attempt to get a fire as hot as he needed it. He’d gone through a lot of experiments in the last three months, and collected a lot of ore as well. He’d learned that bringing air to the fire made it hotter, he’d remember something called a bellows from his brief tour of the blacksmith’s workshop. Kegan had also learned that wood did not burn hot enough. He remembered bits and pieces of conversations in the village about “charcoal” burnt dried wood that somehow burned hotter than regular wood.

It had taken him a month of experimentation to get a process down for how to make charcoal. He still wasn’t sure why it worked, but building a fire pit, burying it most of the way in mud, and then burning it for a little while before completely covering it in mud was the method that had finally worked out for him.

Kegan had been working the bellows and shoveling coal into the pit for the past hour. The coals he was using as fuel were starting to run low. It was now or never.

He dunked an oak shaft into a pot of water, and then used the oak shaft to pry the molten chunk of copper out of the pit. With another oak stick to quickly guide the molten chunk he set it down on a large flat rock. Taking another heavy rock he began to pound the chunk of molten copper into something flat enough to work as a blade.

It was staying hot and malleable much longer than it had before, but Kegan still felt like he was running out of time. He began bringing the rock down harder and faster, but he hadn’t noticed what effect he was having on the rock and the molten hunk of copper. With a loud clang the molten copper he had been working with had hardened enough to completely split in half ruining his latest attempt at a blade.

“Aghhh!” Kegan threw the rock aside in anger and frustration. How the hell had they done this? He remembered them pounding the metal into shape and reheating it constantly. But they had so many more tools than what he had to work with. Specifically, they had metal tools to shape the molten metal. How was it supposed to work when he had no metal to start with?

He looked at the discarded pile of half smelted copper pieces. Once he had discovered higher heats he was actually able to completely melt the copper and turn it into something like a liquid, but that was equally as useless to him. He couldn’t shape a liquid.

He turned to look over at Jot who was sitting a comfortable distance from the fire. His winter coat had come in, and he seemed comfortable in the cold weather. Jot noticed Kegan looking at him and began wagging his tail. “What am I gonna do Jot?”

Jot seemed to misinterpret his question and sat up and barked at Kegan. Without waiting for a response, Jot bounded away towards the forest. After twenty feet Jot slowed down and hesitated. He turned around to see if Kegan had followed him. Seeing Kegan just sitting there staring at his old spot, Jot whined before laying back down in the cool snow.

Kegan was transfixed looking at a paw print in the snow. A moment ago he felt like he had just found a solution to his problems with the metal. But the idea was hovering out of reach. The snow was falling in thick chunks and starting to obscure the pawprint by filling it in.

‘That's it!’ he thought, ‘I can’t control the copper when it flows like water, but I can make a container for the water, like a paw print and pour the copper in there. When it cools it will already be in the right shape!’

Kegan threw his head back and did a wolf howl “Awoo awoo awoooooooooo”. Jot stood back up, then happily joined him and took up the howl. Kegan laughed and ran up to Jot, howling and then wrestling with him in the snow. In his heart, Kegan rejoiced, but in his mind he was contemplating all the possibilities.