Day 49

There is nothing like coming back to the comforts of your own damp cave. My journey back was, for the most part, uneventful. Except for a guest that seemed to have followed be back home. The chimp that I had rescued was now hanging out outside of my camp. Silently observing me.

I tried to scare the chimp away a few times, but it always came back after leaving for some time. It did not seem aggressive nor dangerous, it just sat there and watched me. Some times it would follow me to the river and watch me fish, other times it would just disappear. I tried tracking it a couple of times but failed. I think it might have been looking for food of his own.

I started sleeping with a spear in my hand and a dagger by my side. There were always several Essence coated objects dotted around my camp, in case I had to use [Invert] to escape. I could never be too careful.

Day 55

Chimp came into my camp today. He placed a handful of berries near me and backed away. I studied him for a bit and then threw one of the smoked fishes at him. He caught the fish and smelled it. His face immediately scrunched up. I laughed and pulled out a fish of my own and started eating it by pealing aways bits of flesh. The ape watched for a bit and then started doing the same. It must have liked it, he ate most of it.

I tried the green looking berries that he brought me. They were incredibly tart and sweet at the same time. I waited a while just in case they were somehow poisonous. But then again, the apes and humans were not all that different. If the chimp considered the berries to be edible, then they probably were. They did not turn out to be poisonous, but I did have a…runny stool that night.

As easy as that, we established a connection. The chimp would bring me berries, fruits, and edible plants, and I would give him fish. He liked eating fish. But I think he liked the taste of smoke a little better. He hated fire, though. He would stay as far away from the camp as possible when I had the fire going. Because of that, I got into the habit of building it only when I needed it.

Day 60

I named him Bud. I did not really think about it too much. I just started to refer to him as a buddy, and that ended up being his name. Great monkey name, I tell you.

I tried teaching him how to fish. He was terrible at it. He had the agility and speed to catch fish barehanded, but none of the patience required. Most of the day, he would just follow me along while I went about my business.

I had food, water, and shelter, and now a companion.

Day 65

"This is how you strike with it," I said, thrusting the spear. Bud grabbed his staff and smacked the ground with it. "That is not how you do it, Bud," I said, repeating the thrusting motion again. He just struck the ground in a slightly different angle now.

I sighed. I did not know if it was wise to give him a weapon, let alone teaching him how to use one. He was a wild animal at the end of the day. But I could not help myself. I had this grand image of me climbing The Tower with a trusty sidekick by my side, wreaking havoc with his spear. It was just a fancy. I did not even know if I could take him with me. But then again, this was a world of magic. The possibilities were endless.

Day 70

It has been over two months now since I arrived in Bloodwood. My Skill and Ability seemed to have hit a wall. They would not level up no matter how much I used them. So I started focusing on a different kind of training. Training my body. All this time, I felt that I had enough exercise by just surviving every day. But none of it was focused. To fix that, I started a training regime of 100 push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and pull-ups every single day. I did change up the way I performed those exercises, though.

Instead of regular push-ups, I would do handstand push-ups. Later on, as I gained more strength, I would balance a rock at the top of my feet while doing the exercise. For sit-ups, I would do the inverted version of it while hanging from a tree. Squats and pull-ups were unchanged, with the exception of an added weight to make it more challenging. I did these workouts every day, regardless if I went fishing or not. I just hoped I would not lose all my hair by the end of it all.

Day 90

I had to go hunting again. There were two of us now. The smoked fish was not always enough to feed both of us, even with the foragables that Bud would gather. Besides, I was afraid of overfishing the creek. I did not know if it was even possible to do that by myself, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

My first expedition was fruitless. Bud followed me along, and he was not exactly stealthy. He could be when he needed to hide, but not when he was out and about. So I had to leave him behind. Which was easier said than done. I could not just tell him to stay in the camp. I had to be a little bit more creative.

Many a time, he had been with me when I went to gather firewood. So I gave him that task, which he understood and preformed. I was honestly surprised. Up to this point, I had never really asked him to do any chores. Mainly because I had just assumed he would not do them, or he would not understand what I was asking of him. But he did. I had to stop underestimating his intelligence.

After a few days of hunting, I was finally able to spear a horned rabbit. Killings, it was easier this time around, but butchering it was more challenging. The rabbit had a lot more moving parts compared to the fish. They never showed this part in the movies and shows. The survivors always catch their prey, and in the next scene, they are cooking it. How do I remove the skin? What about all the blood? I had to learn it all the hard way.

The first time I butchered a horned rabbit, I ruined its pelt, got the blood and guts everywhere, and wasted a lot of its meat. I was disgusted with myself. I felt like a child that just played around with a corpse and tossed it away when I was done with it.

The second time was better, but not much. I still ruined the pelt but kept most of the meat. I prepared myself better this time by digging a hole beforehand. Guts and blood went into the hole, making the rest of the bloody work much cleaner.

I realized I was way too squeamish for this kind of work. My hand would shake, and I would dry heave from the horrible smell. It is so funny how it is so easy to kill, but much harder to properly make use of that kill. Maybe if I was going to live in this forest for the rest of my life, I might have put more effort into bettering my skills. But as it stood, this was good enough. I ate most of the meat, the rest…well, the rest went to the forest.

The meat did not taste bad all in all. It was gamy, chewy, and different from fish. After months of consuming the same thing over and over, anything different would taste good. That was until I cut the meat into thin strips and smoked it along with fish. The smoke got rid of the gamines and added a lot more flavor to the meat. It was Bud's favorite. He would not eat the horned rabbit meat if I cooked it over the fire, but loved it smoked.

Day 100

My routine was to get up in the morning. Build a fire, eat some smoked fish or rabbit, and start working out. After my workout, I would usually either take a small nap or go hunting. Hunting was not always successful, and it required more time and effort. On the fishing days, I could afford a short rest, as the fishing was always guaranteed. Some days, I would do neither, and just lounge around in my camp, and play with Bud. He was getting better at handling his staff. Although it was always more of a game rather than training for him.

On my hundreds day in Bloodwood, I went hunting after my workout. Luck was not on my side that day, but I did not give up. I ventured further than I usually did to find my prey.

It was close to dusk when I finally came back to my camp with some fresh meat. I had gotten into the habit of dressing them outside my camp. I did not want any scavengers anywhere near where I lived. Which is why I always discarded my fish guts and bones into the creek as well.

The camp was quiet, and Bud was nowhere to be seen. Usually, I would come out of stealth when I got near the camp, and he would come to meet me. By itself, it was nothing to worry about. There would be days, where he would be out gathering berries or playing when I came back. But today was different. It was not just the camp, but the whole forest around my camp was eerily quiet.

There was only one time when I had experienced that. I immediately crouched down and activated [Stealth Ops]. Fear had taken hold of my muscles, and it was harder to tree-walk than usual. But the fear was not for me. I could sneak away from the saber-cats if I had to, but what about Bud. He would usually hang out on a tree when resting or sleeping. He should be safe, as long as he stuck to the trees.

There was nothing in the camp. I stayed out of it and slowly circled around it, keeping my eyes out for anything dangerous. I stuck to the trees, hoping to find Bud soon. He was nowhere to be seen. I kept searching in circles, slowly expanding the radius around my camp. With every passing minute, my fear grew.

Slowly the sounds of the forest came back, and I still had not found Bud. I dropped stealth and started jumping from tree to tree as fast as I could, and then I saw blood on the ground, which made my heart go cold.

I climbed down the tree, my spear at the ready. The blood looked fresh but already congealing. I tried to look around for some track or signs of trouble. That is when I noticed the bushes slightly tremble and instinctively knew what was about to happen. I immediately looked up at the branch above me and spit out the pebble in my mouth as hard as I could. On the ground, a saber-cat was charging me with an unbelievable speed. [Invert], and I found myself right below the branch that I had aimed for. I caught it with my hands and swung myself upright before the tiger leaped up, trying to swipe at my legs. It was not deterred, however, and started climbing the tree with its powerful claws. My branch was not that far off the ground, and it did not take a lot of time for the tiger to climb up. I ran up and tried to poke it with my spear, hoping to throw it off the tree. It did not wait for me to poke it, and leaped at my branch, swiping at my feet again as it fell. I tried to jump up to dodge it, but it was too late, and I felt a hot searing pain on my ankles. I lost my footing and almost fell off the tree, catching the branch with my hands at the last second.

The tiger recovered from the fall and was about to climb up the tree again when I heard a loud screech. Bud jumped down from another tree and started to charge the tiger with his staff in hand. Another saber-cat leaped out of the bushes bowling Bud over from the side.

A struggle ensued on the ground as the tiger was on top of Bud, trying to bite into him. Bud had one arm hugging the tiger's neck and the other holding its saber fang from tearing into him and trying to keep his jaws at bay.

I looked down and saw my tiger look over in their direction. I ran up closer to the trunk of the tree, screaming at the top of my lungs, trying to catch its attention. It worked, and the cat started to climb the tree again, now with a running start. It was a perfect opportunity for me. The tiger still had its mouth open in a roar when I stabbed it with my spear. Behind that stab was all my month of training, my weight, anger, and my fear. The spear pierced right into its open maw and straight through it. I leaned on the spear with all my weight, stabbing it almost all the way to the hilt. We both fell from the tree as it all happened. At the last second, I used the spear to vault over the corpse and landed on my feet.

Bud was still struggling with the other tiger. It had now bitten into his shoulder. Bud was doing his best, pummeling the tiger's head with his fists, all the while trying to bite into its face. I charged the tiger, with the dagger in hand, and jumped on top of him. I started stabbing indiscriminately as soon as landing on top of it. The tiger shook his head, and I heard a crunch as Bud sailed over the air and hit a tree with a thump.

I was thrown off as well, hitting the ground hard. I looked up as the saber-cat leaped on to me. I held up a hand at the last second, sacrificing it to keep its jaws busy. I felt claws tearing at my chest, and felt pain shoot up my arm as it broke. Pure adrenaline kept me fighting at that moment. That and the anger.

With my free hand, I grabbed the dagger that was still stabbed into the tiger's side. One, two, three repeated stabs into the head, all the while screaming and, hoping to find some hidden strength. The tiger finally went still on the fifth stab. My left hand was mangled, and my chest was shredded, but I did not feel pain. I felt panic and fear for the life of my companion.

I threw the tiger off of me and crawled over to Bud. He was still alive but barely breathing. He had a deep wound in his neck that bled freely, and a mangled shoulder. Tears fell from my eyes as I tried to put pressure on the wound on his neck. He kept grabbing at my hand and mewling. It was all useless. I did not know how to save him. When the light started to fade from his eyes, I gathered him in a hug and wept. Helplessness, anger, and sadness all warred within me, shaking me to my fucking core.

I lost consciousness there still crying, still holding the lifeless body of my first friend in The Tower.