I woke up laying on a rocky beach to my head pounding with pain. I opened my eyes, my sight still blurry, and looked around. I’m not sure how I survived that, the current must have brought me up the shore, or down, I wasn’t sure which. I was certain there had been cliffs where I had crashed the boat against the rocks. I wondered how I was going to get back to the island with the ship gone, probably sunk, and my supplies nowhere to be found. I knew that to get to the mainland I had to follow the rising sun, could I do the same to get home again, follow the setting sun. I wasn’t sure how far I had drifted, maybe someone knew about the island. There had been mainlanders there before I knew, from what Visra had told me.

The problem of getting back would have to wait for now, all I knew was that my head hurt and I needed to get some supplies. Something might have washed up further up the beach I thought as I looked up and down the shore. I decided to see if I could find some supplies, maybe even my backpack if I was lucky, so I started to slither up the beach along the shore. If I didn’t manage to find anything I would just have to enter the forest and see what I could scavenge. Luckily it was just past morning and the day looked to be sunny and warm, I wondered how long I had been laying here unconscious, it had been past morning when I had been thrown from the ship, as it was now so I might have been here for only moments.

It had been storming then, and I didn’t think the weather could change that quickly, even if this were unfamiliar territory the rules of nature shouldn’t change that much. The fact that my stomach was growling in hunger also told me that at least a day must have passed, maybe more. I was just glad to have been left alone for all that time I would be even happier if I could find some of my supplies. I didn’t like the idea of being in this unfamiliar land completely empty-handed.

I was a bit worried about going in the wrong direction. Perhaps my things had ended up behind me after all. I had no way of knowing, so I just pushed forward. I wasn’t completely helpless, but with my spear or with my bow hunting would be much easier. I could use my natural weapons, my tail, and fangs, with the help of my senses tracking would be easy. I could lay in ambush near a watering hole, or I might find some fish to dive after, but I would need a spear for that, and without something sharp to at least sharpen a stick. Finding my pack would solve many of these problems, but that looked more hopeless by the minute.

After some more searching, I decided to give up. I didn’t want to waste the whole day looking for something that may or may not be here. I needed to find something to eat and some shelter I didn’t want to get caught in the open in one of those storms again. Before I went into the forest, I grabbed a clamshell of the beach, if I found a flat stone I could use it to sharpen the shell and use it as a knife. Something like flint would be better, but I wasn’t guaranteed to find that, and the shells were all over the beach.

Entering the woods, I found it to be very different from the one on my home island. Every surface of the forest floor was covered in a thick green mat of moss. The trees were smaller than the ones at home, and most of them had little sharp needles instead of leaves. As my tongue flickered out to taste the air I could smell all manner of new scents, some familiar some not. I could smell water, and not sea water, but fresh water, at least I wouldn’t die of thirst. Various animal scents hit my tongue, and I could sense the fading heat on the ground from where they had been stepping. I could track them after I had found someplace to use as a base. Finding shelter would always come before hunting.

Ideally, I wanted to find a cave or something, but that too looked more and more hopeless as time went on. I decided to build my shelter instead, a cave would be nice, but I was wasting daylight looking for one, and something else might even live there already. I didn’t feel like wrestling with something potentially dangerous without any weapons.

I managed to find a flat stone and sat down to sharpen the shell I had brought. It took some time but was worth it in the end as it had become razor sharp to my satisfaction. I used it to cut down small trees that were barely more than sticks. I looked for poles with forks at the top, as I had no rope or twine to tie them together with, the forks would make it easier to build with them. When I had enough, I moved to a good area and drove six poles into the ground, three on each side. The four poles in the corners were about half the size of the two sticks I had placed in the middle. I used the forks at the top to lay three stick horizontal to the ground. I put more sticks on top, between the lower poles and the tall ones in the middle, making a slanted roof on both sides. I broke off branches from the trees with the needles still attached and placed them on the roof, they would at least keep the rain off, and I could start a fire to keep me warm.

I wasn’t sure how long I would be in this forest, but I could use this newly created shelter to explore further into the woods. It was now midday, and the sun was high in the sky, I tasted the air again and looked for the scent of fresh water. I found it quickly and followed it to its source. I found a sizable pool of clear water relatively close. I could have built my new home closer to this source of water. The problem with that was that all sorts of animals probably used this as their water source, both prey and predator, I didn’t want to tangle with something unfamiliar while I was unprepared.

I used my hands to scoop up some water. It was cold and fresh as it went down my throat. I confirmed my suspicion about this being a popular drinking spot for animals as my tongue flickered out a moment later and I could smell the creatures who had stopped here to drink. This would be a perfect spot for an ambush if I weren’t so uncertain about the predators that also needed to drink. As my stomach growled at me, I decided to risk it.

I scooped up some mud from the side of the water and covered myself in the stuff, mostly to mask my scent but also to blend in. I laid down by the pool and hid myself in sticks and leaves. Hopefully, I would look like a small hill of dirt. Now it was time to wait, it was very dull, and I had time to think as I lay there trying not to move, keeping my breaths shallow. I wondered if Rulan had had better luck than me, I could be confident that she hadn’t been smashed against a rock while at sea at least. That storm had been terrible, and I hoped that it had blown itself out before reaching the island.

I thought of my traveling companion and wondered, not for the first time, why it had followed me. Had it just been curious or had it actually kept the storm at bay until I had reached land. If that was the case, why hadn’t it stayed a little longer? The rain had started just as the creature had left, maybe the bad weather had scared it away, and I just imagined things, it was strange how I had survived the crash though. I should have drowned, my corpse rotting at the bottom of the sea by now. I shivered at the thought of how close I had been to dying but was brought out of my thoughts by a branch snapping to my left.

I was lying on my back, so I couldn’t get a good look at what had made the sound, keeping my head still and not moving, making my best impression of lifeless dirt. Whatever it was seemed to hesitate slightly before coming closer to the water. It stepped right over me and stood there, it was some sort of deer, but instead of having two horns on its head it had a single, sharp looking one at the top of its snout. As it bent down to get a drink of water I sprung into action, the deer thing was startled and tried to run away, but I had already wrapped myself around it, tail and all. With my considerable weight, I brought the creature to the ground. Every time it breathed out I tightened my hold on it with my coils, its breaths became more shallow until it was unable to take in air at all. The struggle stopped, and I gave one last mighty squeeze and heard the snap of its spine breaking. I had not needed to inject it with my venom as it had posed no threat to me once I had trapped it.

I brought the corpse back to my shelter and skinned it using my shell knife. It was a bit of a struggle as the shell kept losing its edge and I had to resharpen it three times before I was done. I hung the skin up to dry under the roof, harvested all the meat and buried the guts some distance away so I wouldn’t attract predators, that might happen anyway I would have to stay vigilant until I had smoked and dried the meat. I did just that as I got back, hanging the meat in little strips along the roof, I lit a fire under them so the heat and smoke could preserve them.

Now that I had some time I thought that I could make some sort of weapon while I waited for the meat to dry. I found a good sized stick and tested its weight a bit. It was acceptable for what I had in mind, bringing it back I used my little knife to strip it of bark. I sharpened the end of it to a fine point and let the tip rest for a while in the glowing coals of the fire to harden it. I brought it out and leaned it against the edge of the roof to let it dry in the evening sun. It would have to do until I could find something sharp to attach to it.

I didn’t want some animal to come and eat all my meat while I was sleeping so I wrapped the smoked meat in leaves that I had found and buried them under where I would be sleeping. I covered the place with needles from the trees and laid the now dry deerskin over them. I ate some of the strips of meat that I had saved as the sun went down over the horizon. I brought the spear in with me before I laid down on the pelt and let myself drift off to sleep, with a full belly and a roof over my head I slept soundly. Tomorrow I would be exploring more of the forest, trying to find a mainlander that I could ask to teach me their ways, or kidnap but I had no boat, and I was unsure of how to get back to the island so I would probably not do that… probably.