It's been nearly two weeks of local time that I've started counting days. Twenty or so days Earth time - I was impressed that someone like me was able to survive in the wilderness for such a long time, and not just survive but thrive. For one - I've really gained in weight. Which was understandable considering my diet of rat-bit meat, which - as I found out was impossible to dry without spoiling. That's one unpleasant memory.. my stomach still turns on the thought of eating cardboard-like meat that had a horrible rancid aftertaste and made me throw up for a few hours. But other than that - the meat was fine, I just had to eat it before it spoiled... considering the amount of rat-bits that were littering this place, I could go on forever and that's including overeating like crazy every few days. I would eat so much, I'd get dizzy from all the stuffing inside of me.

With this much calories and the plentiful physical labor, I gained some meat to my bones. It didn't look like a bodybuilders body, my arms were just thicker, and whole body looked a bit more solid if I would describe it. The palms of my hands were hard as shovels- I really could juggle burning coals without feeling a thing if I wanted to.

One important change in the schedule was the addition of a laundry day.. Even though I washed myself regularly, having only one set of ...clothes, was.. well.. inconvenient to say the least. The sack-pants smelled, and the smell wasn't that nice.. so a few days ago I had the idea to wash them, and used the ashes from the campfire as a makeshift washing powder. Ashes- that's how lye was made back in the day.. hell- it still is, I think. Ashes plus hot water and you have yourself a way to clean your clothes.

As my hands scrubbed the fabric on itself, I thought about making clothes of my own. Which was possible, but crazy difficult. For one - I vaguely knew how to do that, so it would take up all of my free time. This lack of knowledge meant that this idea had to be thrown out, as many others before it. I looked at the shorts which looked completely gray, even more - they were covered in a thick layer of wet ashes. At that moment I started to doubt this method of washing. However as I started- I had to finish, besides it wasn't like I wouldn't be able to wear them afterward. Rinsing the fabric from the oily ash-water took quite a bit of effort.

After ten minutes of splashing around in the stream, I was able to finally wash the last bits of ash off. The fabric looked a bit darker, but I hoped it would at least feel cleaner and not smell as much of sweat. I didn't like the idea of smelling like a homeless person..

After I hung the wet shorts on a bush, I stopped for a while, thinking about what to do while they dry. The idea of walking whole lot around the forest with my junk flailing around didn't sit well with me. Seems some part of me was still civilised.

I decided on practicing with spear throwing, so I had to pick up the training spears from the hut. The atatl was always with me, even without the spears - the piece of wood was a decent little club, and a triangular shape of the backside of it could certainly provide a nasty wound if I would need to use it. A thought struck me, with all this work, I failed to notice how everything in my surroundings seemed to fade away. I didn't take notice of smells, sounds or even feeling on my skin. I was preoccupied with doing a task then moving to a different one.

"Really wrong if I think about it.." - My own voice in my head sounded annoyed. Even if I acted in a quite efficient manner - all of these seemingly meaningless pieces of information were important. It was still the remains of the way I used to live... looking only a short distance ahead, dulling my senses.. It was wrong on many levels, which meant only one thing..

"I have to forcefully change this habit..." - I ducked and entered the narrow hole which was the entrance into my thatch hut. The dry grassy edges scraped on my skin, as if someone with thin long nails was scratching my back, it wasn't that unpleasant - just a bit discomforting.

Now that I was forcefully aware of my surroundings, the hut was a bit dim and smelled of smoke and moss. The later was thanks to the few pur-map leaves I would add to the small bundle of timber for the fire pit. At any time there was a small fire burning inside. I even built a ring around it out of clay, along with a tiny shelf like roof , a small furnace so to speak. It was only because of it that there was no sparks flying all around the hut. If that was the case, it would burn down in an instant I think, so I really put my best effort into making a secure fireplace inside. The smoke didn't cover the whole hut, only the higher part - and inevitably would get blown away through the vent.. well- the top opening with a cap- served as a vent, so I didn't choke myself with smoke.

I reached for the spears under the bed, which had a whole lot of bundles of cordage on it - I was busy with figuring out how to make knots.. one thing is seeing a video on it, completely different- trying to tie a knot yourself. At the moment- I was really far away from being perfect - I could make a hanging noose... well, that's it, no monkey-fist knot or anything cool..

I took the training spears and grabbed the small clay cup with the purple paste in it, I pushed my fingers into it and reached for my eyes. I smeared the oily purple paste around my eyelids, making me look just fabulous with purple eye-shadows. In all truth that was the best protection from the sun I had, it proved to work quite well. As my eyes were light in color and susceptible to bright light, I really struggled to aim during the afternoon sun, or even the morning, when the sun was low and shining straight into my eyes. Dark circles around my eyes seemed to absorb some light and lessen the strain on my vision. Not quite sunglasses - but the closest I could get.

Before exiting the hut, I took a pot that stood close to the fire and made a few large gulps. Yep, the leftover soup from yesterday. Well- I ate most of the meat already in the morning, so all that was left was a bit fatty brine. It wasn't great tasting cold, but it wasn't bitter or spoiled - so I was happy enough.

"I'll have to check on the traps after I get my clothes back.." - I placed the pot on the ground, near other pots that required cleaning as well, I'd kill for a dishwasher right now, or at least some dish-soap.. washing the fat from the pottery with sand was a long and tedious process.. and I had to boil some water just to make sure I was safe to use them later. Washing dishes with sand, boiling hot water and bare hands - I'd be whining, but my hands lost the ability to feel nearly any pain already, so it was fine. Just annoying, as everything else.

I left the dim hut, not looking at other smaller projects I had sketched on whitish paper-leaves using coal. The sudden change in lighting made me half-close my eyes. I lowered my hand looking around, the forest wasn't all that green. Only the plants near the stream seemed to have the lush green color to them, everything else was rather yellowish. There was nearly no wind, and it was still quite hot.

"Back home, I'd expect it to be raining after such a heatwave.. here however.. it's nearly a month.. and still no rain.. the stream is getting smaller, I doubt it would dry out completely.. but if worse comes to worst .. I'll have to drink from the pond.. God no! " - I made my way to the small "shooting range" I've made. It wasn't anything special, but to me it was like a playground. I had a few bundles of grass and paper-leaves tied to poles on different distances, however knowing that static targets are just that- static, I've made a bundle tied to a branch, which was swinging from side to side. I was still trying to figure a way to make it swing more randomly, the current movement was rather predictable.

I laid the spears on the ground, then sat down on the moss. The feeling of pine needles and dry moss touching my bum, was... new.. I shivered from the slight discomfort, but proceeded to stretch. As my fingers reached for my toes, I felt the tendons straighten up and stretch. This helped with the later muscle pains, plus warmed up muscles performed better, and helped avoiding a dislocation. I doubt that I could pop a dislocated shoulder back in myself, and I didn't want to try it. The stretching was short, but it's not like I was going for Olympic gold or anything, I was just practicing to not go crazy from the loneliness and isolation.

One extra step that seemed pointless and a waste of strength at first - was me tying a bundle of sticks around my forearm, and not just sticks, they had stones wrapped in paper-leaf wedged into them.. Overboard? Maybe.. but there was something cool to training with weights, even a rather dumb and boring character gets ultimately cool when he removes the super heavy weights and gets all serious.. Call it my inner weeb screaming, but I wanted this, even if it meant making my muscles scream in agony. And they screamed like a thousand hell-hounds for the first few days.

I pushed the bundle, letting it swing to the maximal amplitude and proceeded to the spot where I left the spears. The atatl was hanging on a rope attached to my wrist, just like a Wii remote, but far more deadly. I took one of the spears and aligned it into the opening of the atatl, then took a deep breath and made a wide step while stretching my arm to its full length. Rotating the whole body around one axis, forcing the momentum through my core with the synchronized movement of the hips, legs, chest, back and arm muscles. The result - a swing that actually made a wheezing sound. The spear soared through the air, rotating as it neared its target. With a thud sound- it pierced the closest bundle, shoving itself through it to half its length..

"Off center.. and a bit too slow." - I judged my performance and reached for the next spear. The same process repeated itself numerous times. I'd throw a spear, criticize the throw, go through all of the projectiles, collect them and start over. It went on for an hour - until I was kind of out of breath, covered in sweat and my arms felt numb. That was still better than previously - as I was barely able to go for fifteen minutes at first... that's what she said..

After training I went to the stream to wash off the sweat and drink up, as well as pick up the still slightly wet shorts. Which were dry enough, so I've put them on and went to the traps, I hoped for some fresh meat today, however I was surprised when I arrived at the first trap... and I really don't like surprises.

"Well fuck.. I really hoped that I'd luck out on that..." - My hands trembled slightly at the sight. I captured a rat-bit - but someone stole most of it.. Leaving only the tied head in the trap.. the body was bitten off by something. Seems like my traps might be considered as free cafeteria by some animals.. the thing is - I didn't see any animals close to my camp.. well - if you forget the toad-like creatures.. I really hoped it wasn't them. I clenched my atatl harder, to the point my knuckles became pale-white.

"Seems like I'll have to make some bigger traps.."- yep, that's the plan. Home-alone tactics, with a bit of a deadlier touch. Trap the fuck out of the surrounding area, and make sure to remember all the locations not to fall into them. A whole lot of making sharp sticks incoming. From the dozen traps I've got only three rat-bits, another two were in the same condition as the first one - surely something was hungry enough to get close to my camp, only a matter of time until I am on the menu.. and we can't have that, can we?

Almost all of the projects were put on hold as I returned to camp. I gutted and skinned the rat-bits as usual, and left them over the hot coals to cook. In the mean time, I got straight to the point and brought a lot of sticks into the hut. For the traps I was going to make I required a whole bunch of spikes.. and by a whole bunch I mean a ton, hundreds maybe. Pitfall traps of different scale, stakes tied to a young tree that would act as a spring and strike with deadly force.. in reality these were the only traps I could come up with, others were just too Rambo-style and complicated to my knowledge. Nevertheless, I sat on the bed, shoved some pur-map paste under the upper and lower lips, feeling the slight stinging sensation, and went to work. Somewhat burn the sticks and then scrape them into sharp stakes. Lets say it went on for quite a while, and I had a whole backpack of them ready to go. Remember the simple wooden frame of a backpack - well it was completely full of stakes, to the point that I was barely able to carry them.

I grabbed my digging-stick, an ax and a spear- looking like your average MMO character filled with items. Slowly I went on to the rat-traps, and close to them, I've set up a whole bunch of pitfall traps. It took a while, but after nearly ten hours of work, I was left with a perimeter resembling a minefield. Now I really hoped that I'd not forget where I've set one of these babies and accidentally step into one of them. That would spell disaster.. I decided to walk around tomorrow, making sure I get used to avoiding the deadly surprises I've left lying around. But now, I could go and eat dinner, sleep and get ready for the next day. I really hoped that the traps would provide at least a decent defense.

...

Ok, so it took two days for the first victim of my serious mode traps to arrive. I guess there wasn't all that much food, and the starving animal made it's way to the place where the rat-bits were just hanging, waiting to be eaten. In the middle of the night, I woke up to a echoing yelp. It wasn't the shriek itself that sent shivers down my spine, but the sound of similar yelps picking up in the distance. That thing that I thought was just a wandering single animal... was a whole pack.. Until the morning I sat in the hut, which was barely illuminated by the slight fire, clutching a spear to my chest. I went through half a pot of pur-map paste, so in the morning I was a bit jumpy - like I drank just a few dozens of cups of coffee too much..

I was approaching the spot where I heard the yelp from, holding a spear in my atatl, ready to throw and kill. Well- it was a bit late for that as it seems.

"Well.. that's new.." - I looked at the gray fur of an animal. It was the size of a dog, not a large breed at that. I'd compare it to a fox, but..it had scales on its bald head, as well as the feet, which looked like ones of a lizard. Seems like this ugly mofo went for the easy prey, and fell chest first into the pit of spikes, which pierced through its chest.. It must have been moving quite fast, as the stakes went right through its throat and chest in a few places and were sticking from the other side, covered in blood. It's only eye, which was located in the center of the head looked shocked and scared. I could imagine.. it didn't meet it's death fast.. It bled to death, suffocating on its own blood as the spikes pierced the throat and lungs.

"Others might have been curious" - the area close to the pit seemed like someone was walking in circles for quite some time.

"Probably the pack-mates" - I squat in front of the pit, trying not to miss anything, the least I could do - was notice the obvious. - "They didn't get close to the dying creature, they were cautious of it.. even after it died they didn't dare to fetch the body, or eat it.."

I stood up. To be sure, I had to check other traps. It seemed that they didn't get caught in any other traps along the way..

"Considering the amount of noise.. I'd guess there was quite a number of them.. but somehow they avoided all the traps up to that point.. as if following the tracks of their fallen mate.."

I went on to collect a few rat-bits which got caught in the rattraps, seems like the drama that happened during the night scared away any other critters.

"Now they will either be careful and not step close to these traps, or avoid them, but still steal my meat..." - seems like the lack of food is making a whole lot of animals move around, I'll inevitably have another encounter with something larger than a fish..

"It's probably the dry season at fault here.. less food means more fights for territory.." - I picked up the carcass of the strange new animal by its hind legs and dragged it towards my camp. It really had a long face with short and sharp teeth. A bite from that would leave a nasty mark.. and that's if I forget the lizard claws, which could definitely pierce the skin. I was going to proceed the same way as with the rat-bits. Gut, skin, cook and eat. I guess I should have noticed something earlier, I regret not being observant enough, as there were tracks near the trap, but nearly none leading from it...