To start off the day's work, I checked on the rabbit meat that I had hanging on the DIY rack. The meat had been left hanging there for however long it had been I had slept for. The long sticks I had lashed together had little pokey bits where twigs and side-branches had grown that I used to stick the meat on. Quite ingenious if I say so myself. The rack was placed over the campfire and would have held the meat slices in the smoke of the campfire, but the ring of rocks held nothing but ash and a half-consumed log that had gone out.

I held my hand out over the log... Nothing. I poked it quickly. Since I was not immediately set on fire, I poked it again... Then pressed my full hand against it. It was slightly warm to the touch, meaning that the fire had gone out maybe an hour or two ago.

I looked back into the cave to the sleeping giant wolf.

Did she keep the fire going while I was sleeping? That means that the meat has been smoking until now…

I grabbed a slice of meat off the rack. It was a dark red color and was very stiff. It looked like jerky. I took a bite, or tried to at least. I had to gnaw at it and work it between my teeth before I got a bite off. It was hard and chewy. It was perfect! Well, it wasn’t great, but it was recognizably jerky with a smokey taste. This jerky will last a long time for sure!

When Nora wakes up I'll have to ask her how long I've been unconscious so I can make more like this.

I slowly ate the rest of the jerky slice, sucking on each bite so I could chew it easier. While eating, I checked on the rest of the jerky. Most slices were the same deep red as the slice I was eating, but the ones closest to the fire were burnt black. Nora had probably built the fire up too much. Other than those couple of burnt pieces everything went surprisingly well. The jerky was fine.

I was starving, so I ate another slice. Once finished, I grabbed a third slice to gnaw at and went over to check on the skins I had tied up to frames. The frames were leaning on trees straight across from the cave, on the eastern side of the small clearing. The cave was on the west, water stream on the north, leather frames on the east, and nothing but forest on the south side of the clearing.

I was crossing the clearing when a loud snort came from the cave. I turned around, jerky hanging from my mouth, to see Nora groggily blinking her eyes to wake up.

Suddenly she froze, then frantically looked around, not finding whatever it was she scrambled to her feet still looking around. Her head jerked up and her eyes scanned the clearing before locking onto mine...

Uh oh... The jerky dropped from my mouth and my stomach dropped as Nora took off. Right. Towards. Me...

She skidded to a stop right in front of me, licking my face all over. She loomed over me, each lick pressing me further down to the ground. My knees buckled from the force of her licks and I fell flat on my back. Her tongue was bigger than my face, so I was quickly covered in slobber.

"No... Nor," I tried to say something but between trying to regain my breath and her face licks, I struggled. "Nora!... Nora, stop!"

She didn't.

After trying to get her to stop, and failing, I just gave up and lay there with my eyes closed... She'll tire herself out of licking my face eventually.

She stopped a few minutes later. I wiped the slobber off my eyelids so I could open them and looked up at her. Her eyes were wide with worry as she looked me up and down. She licked my chest a few times as if worried about the scars.

"Thanks for the bath, Nora," I said, reaching a hand up to pat her cheek. "I'm all right. Look, my cuts have all been healed!"

She whined and went back to licking my face.

Eventually, she let me get back to my feet.

"Nora, how long have I been out? Can you bark once for each day?"

She nodded, then barked twice.

I blinked. "Only two days?"

She barked in affirmation.

"As in... Wait, if I'm remembering correctly then I fell unconscious in the evening. So I was out for all that evening, that night, then the whole next day, that night... And another day and night? As in three nights and two days... And this is the morning of the third day?"

She barked.

“But.” I scratched my head. “Then how am I already healed up?”

She growled and poked her wet nose against my chest.

Was the dream bear real? Was he... like... a spirit bear or something? Is my cave haunted? That dream bear... what was it that he said? Something about help and fun? I don’t know about that; I’m not getting good vibes here... but I’m healed...

I shook my head.

Bad vibes mean bad vibes, so thanks for the healing mr. bear, but please leave me alone!

I didn’t remember that dream anyways. However, I did remember dreaming about playing a game while Dad talked about leather-making! That dream was pretty helpful.

“Oh well, I shouldn’t complain about being better! Also, thanks for taking care of me all this time, Nora.

She barked and whined as she gave my face another lick. I gave her head a pat then bent down to pick up my fallen jerky. I brushed the dirt off and stuck an end of it in my mouth. I wasn't going to waste any food...

"And thanks for keeping the fire going for me!" I mumbled around the jerky.

This time I used both hands to scratch behind her ears and her neck.

"Ok, Nora. I gotta check on the rabbit skins."

I walked over to the frames and Nora stayed right next to me. The skins had hardened over the last few days and looked completely dried out. When I knocked a knuckle against it, it sounded almost like knocking on wood.

I think this is good... Dream-dad said that after stretching the skins on the frames and getting the meat and fat off, then the skin had to dry. But he said only for about eight hours, so are these skins still good? I don’t know. I should just do the next steps anyway to see. I’ll get more skins going... I’ll need more in any case.

The next step was to scrape the skin thin to “let the brain soak in better,” as Dad said. So I went back to the cave to get a wolf tooth, and used it to scrape. In my dream, Dad said to shine a flashlight from behind it, and to scrape away at the darker spots until the skin glowed orange... But I didn’t have a flashlight. And I kept the fur which would’ve blocked the light anyways. Maybe I’ll do some leathers without the fur... being covered in all fur wouldn’t be good in the summer...

What season is it?... If winter was anytime soon then I'm going to be in trouble. The nights are only a little chilly and the day is pleasantly warm, so it might be either late Spring or early Fall. I'll keep an eye out for any leaves changing color.

Once I was reasonably sure that I had done enough scraping, I started on the second skin. Then with the second skin done I untied the skins and got them down from the square frames. The next step, according to Dream-dad, was to wash the skins free of dirt and any oils that may have remained. So I carried the skins north to the stream and did the best that I could without any soap.

The leather was as stiff as cardboard, but after the scrub I gave it it softened up. And softening the leather was the point of the next step, which was to let the skins soak for a long while. I folded the skins and stacked them at the bottom of the stream. A good sized rock kept them from floating off.

"Well, Nora," I said, flicking the water off my hands. "Those skins are done for now, but I'll be needing more leather soon. Can you go hunting again?"

Nora hadn't left my side at all, just silently watched as I worked. She scowled down at me and growled. She plopped herself down, bringing her face level with mine, and gave the whole right side of my face a lick.

Then I understood. She hadn't left my side today, and didn't want to leave me to hunt, because I had scared her. I had promised her that I would stay with her and that she wouldn't be alone... Then I collapsed and went unconscious for a few days. She was scared that she'd lose me, and now I was asking her to leave me here alone and weak...

I stepped close and hugged her.

"It's ok, Nora. I'm alright now. All healed up." I couldn't quite reach the back of her neck, but I did my best to brush my fingers through her fur soothingly. "I'm sorry that I worried you. But if I'm going to survive, then I need to make new clothes and some tools. If I go with you to hunt then I'll only be slowing you down, and it'll be that much longer before I have everything that I need..."

She whined and used her muzzle to hug me tighter.

"Please, Nora. I need you to do this for me. I promise that once I have clothes and tools I'll come hunting with you! And you can teach me how to stalk prey!"

With a sigh, she released me and stood up.

"Thank you. I just need three more to hang on those frames I made... They don't have to be the camo rabbits, just something about the same size... Honestly, if you find something bigger I could just cut a square out that fits the frame. So, just hunt what you can find."

She walked over to the cave and grabbed one of my spears. She dropped it at my feet, gave me one more lick, then took off. I got the message. She wanted me to keep on guard for anything and to be careful.

Good Idea. I picked up the spear.

The next step for leather, after wringing the water out, was to boil the brains down into a mush. There was one big problem with that. I didn't have a pot... I had nothing to boil anything in. I had heard of using a segment of bamboo. But there was no bamboo in sight... Which meant no pot.

What can I use? Can't use wood... I have no metal. Is there enough clay around the stream to make a pot?

I moved a bit upstream of the leathers and knelt next to the water. I grabbed a stick that wasn't my spear and used it to dig at the ground. There was some clay, but not much, and it was mostly mixed up with the dirt.

I might have to go up and downstream digging around to find enough clay... Or dig deeper.

I dug deeper. There was a bit more clay. If I did a lot of digging then I would get enough to make a pot. I didn't know if it was worth the trouble or if I should just find something else.

I sighed and sat back onto my heels. I didn't even know how to make a clay pot. All I knew was that it needed to be baked in a kiln or oven. But for how long? At what temperature? How would I even make an oven? As these questions swirled around in my mind I couldn’t help but sigh again.

What is the best course of action?... Clay pot or something else? Clay pot... or something else?... Clay p- You know what? I shouldn’t be wasting time thinking about this. Busy hands at all times. I need a pot and I can’t think of anything else, so it’ll have to be clay.

Having decided on what to do, I got to digging. I gathered what clay I could in a pile next to the stream, then moved to a new spot and got to digging there. After digging about five holes, I had a decent pile of clay.

See? If I stop questioning myself and just go for it, I can get things done. Good job, me! Now... I made a clay bowl before in arts class... shouldn’t be too hard.

I looked around for a good sized rock to sculpt on and found a relatively flat rock to use. I cleaned its surface with handfuls of water, then got to work picking at the clay. I tried to get as little dirt as I could. Once I had a decent pile on the rock, I started mashing the clay bits into one solid ball and used a bit of water to soften the clay to be more pliable. I didn’t need a big pot, just something big enough for a brain... though brains do come in different sizes.

And I did tell Nora that she could hunt something bigger... Agh! Whatever, I’ll just chop the brain in half if it’s too big!

My hands paused over the wonky shaped bowl.

Wow. I would never have guessed I would ever think about brains this way...

Eventually, I had a clay bowl big enough to fit one big rabbit brain. Which was a little bigger than a cereal bowl.

Now to cook it. I probably don’t even have to build an oven. The point is to get it really hot and to heat it up evenly all around, right? So if I build a ring of fire around the bowl... should work.

Gently, I scooped the bowl up in both hands and carried it over to my ring of stones for the campfire. I set the bowl down next to the ring, moved the smoking frame off to the side, and got to work building a fire. If the clay had to be cooked from all sides, then I could just place it straight on the ash. I had to place it on coals, and it might not hurt to scoop some coals into the bowl as well. Once the fire was going, I waited a bit for the fire to “set in” then used a stick to clear a space in the center for the bowl. I placed several small sticks along the bottom over the coals to make a floor for the bowl, then placed the bowl on top. With that done, I built up the fire around the bowl.

That’s probably all I can do for now. Though, I’ll need to come back to build up the fire again.

I reached over to the rack of jerky and plucked a couple off to munch on as I thought.

Ok. If this works, I’ll have a pot to boil the brains. The next step for leather would be to stretch it out then smoke it. I’ll need to really smother it with smoke, which will apparently make it waterproof... I’ll need to make a teepee of sorts to trap the smoke... Hey, maybe I could use that to smoke the jerky better, or at least quicker. Sounds good. I’ll need to make it pretty big to fit the leathers in... and to get the branches long enough to build a teepee that big, I’ll probably need an axe to chop things with. Well, that’s settled then. I’ll make a stone axe next, then the teepee smoker.

I shoved the rest of the jerky in my mouth and set off back to the stream. There were plenty of stones around to look through for the perfectly shaped stone. An axe-head shaped stone would be convenient, but any stone that already had somewhat of an edge would do. I could always grind an edge onto it with another rock. Well, I’d have to grind an edge onto the rock no matter its shape... but the less work I had to do the better.

I walked up and down the stream, going a ways into the forest upstream and downstream, looking around and in the water for good rocks. After a good ten minutes of searching I found a nice flat rock in a triangle-ish shape. I chose a side to be the blade and started working it against a bigger rock to grind an edge onto it. I dipped it in the stream a few times to wash the dust off.

Nora came back an hour into the grind with a deer draped over her back and two more camo rabbits in her large mouth. She dropped them off where I had skinned the last couple rabbits, then plopped down next to me to watch me work. Stone takes a long time to grind down, but I was making progress. As I was grinding the edge, I didn’t forget about the clay pot and would go over to stoke the flames higher. I even used a few sticks as tongs to put burning coals into the would-be pot.

Another hour passed and I got sick of grinding the stone, so I stopped to skin the rabbits and deer. Once I was done skinning and gutting, I hung the two rabbits high up on a branch and let Nora have the deer. I threw the guts as far into the forest as I could, and placed the brains on the rock next to the two dried brains that were still there somehow. I got the rabbit skins onto two of the frames, and for the deer hide I wrapped the skin around the last frame and tied the opposite sides of the hide together, cutting off the excess. I got to work scraping the bits of fat and meat off of the skins with one of my wolf teeth. By the time I was done, the sun was hidden behind the large stone with the cave in it.

I spent the rest of the day grinding away on the axe-head. When the sun was setting, I set the stone down and stood up with a groan.

“Well, Nora, this stone is taking a long time to sharpen, but it’s getting there.”

She looked up from where she was lounging and barked.

“It’ll probably be done tomorrow before lunch though,” I said, taking one of the rabbits down from where I had hung it. I cut a leg off then hung the rest of the rabbit back up. I was going to eat a hot meal tonight!

I brought the leg over to the campfire and set it down on the rocky ground. The fire had burned low and would need to be built up again. I grabbed some sticks and...

“The pot!”

I rushed back to the campfire and cleared away the center with a stick. I had forgotten about the pot when I had started the scraping process on the skins, so the fire had burned down to embers. Amidst the blackened coals was a clay pot. The sides had been scorched black, but it looked intact.

I flicked the sides. It sounded like ceramic... Did it work? Only one way to find out I guess.

I took the pot down to the stream, washed the soot off, and filled it with water. There wasn’t any leakage, so I brought it back to the campfire. I built the fire up again and set the pot down on one of the rocks of the fire’s ring. While I waited for the water to boil, I started cutting up the rabbit leg. I split the meat in half, dicing up one half while roasting the other half on sticks.

The pot worked! The water was boiling nicely, so I placed the larger legs bones into the water and the diced meat chunks. It was a really basic stew, but it was hot and the broth was good to sip at.

If I can find some good plants to season with, this stew would actually taste good.

The pot worked, which meant I could start braining the skins; the axe-head was almost done, which meant that I could build the teepee smoker tomorrow; and more skins were being dried on the frames. By tomorrow night I would have everything set up to start pumping out the leather. Everything was coming together nicely. As long as I kept some skins in each stage of the leather making process I would be kitted out with everything I needed to start my search for civilization in a week.