“It has been 5 weeks since I left Mehlzarr, and the rain shows no sign of stopping. Day after day and night after night”.

She wrote in a book, resembling a journal of some kind. She got up from the chair and grabbed the lantern from the desk, heading towards the window. The wind still howled outside, rattling the windows. The cabin she had found in the Forrest, although shoddy, was doing a basic job of sheltering her. She sat back on the chair and started to write again.

“The amount of food I have in my possession will not last long I fear. If the rain lets up tomorrow, I will have to hunt. Mother, what would have you done?”

She looked at her bow and the arrow quiver mother had given her. They were in an urgent need of maintenance, and she was running out of arrows. The arrows were usually reusable, however sometimes her targets managed to evade her. She was no expert hunter, mother had only taught her the basics.

Her targets were the small animals she found in the wilderness.

Animals had not been effected by the plague, no one knew why, perhaps the infection only affected a human host.

A good source of food, however, they were extremely rare to come by in urban areas. One had to travel by the solitary path of forests. Unless you were a hunter, you wouldn’t last in this environment. As such, most remaining survivors didn’t not rely on animals as a source of food.

She considered herself lucky. Due to her family background, she had experience in hunting. She preferred to travel using the wild paths, hunting and gaining experience as she went.

She gave the insides of the cabin a second glace. Her raincoat was hanging off a door nail, water drops occasionally falling off it. There was a dusty bed to her side and a table and chair she was currently sitting on. She opened the drawers, as expected, it was empty.

It seemed this served as some eccentric family’s vacation house before the fall.

She rubbed her forehead with her fingers for a while, and then extinguished the flame of the lantern.

-----------------------------

To her misfortune, the rain hadn’t let up as much as she had hoped. However, it was now reduced to a bearable degree. A hunt was possible, tedious but possible.

She wore her green raincoat, tied her boots, grabbed her bow and quiver and she was on her way.

It had been a year since mother passed away, after that she had been on her own.

Her illness was terminal, it couldn’t be cured with remedies and home treatment. After knowing of her certain death, mother had started to write a journal for her. For when she was gone, her daughter could survive. Mother had known this would happen one day, but not that it would happen so soon. She couldn’t teach her hunting properly in the time she had left, so she opted to write her a journal full of advices.

Mother really loved her, and she really loved mother.

She was carrying a dirk, a small dagger like weapon. She was using it to clear her path which was obstructed by wild bushes and branches. Her eyes were roaming about carefully mapping the area, and finding out the best shelter a small animal would take during this rain. She kneeled near a big withering tree and checked its hollow trunk for anything. The water was seeping inside from the small cracks in the tree trunk.

This was a vain search. She sat with her back resting against the tree trunk.

She was tired of living like this, giving it her all just to live for another day full of dull gray and blurry green colors. One of the advice mother had deemed as important was that she should travel by the solitary paths, so she could perfect her hunting and survival skills. She had thought that mother’s advice was a bit too reckless, but it did force her to rely on her hunting skills, so perhaps she was right in hindsight.

She took out the book she always carried, mother always had something helpful in her notes.

“Animals can be found according to what they feed on”.

She looked around her, eyeing for any particular plant that stood out.

But there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary inside this forest. Only some leafy greens scattered about. She decided to check the journal for information about the leafy greens. She turned the pages skimming their contents.

“Rabbits feed mostly on leafy greens. Once you find foliage, it won’t be long before you spot one. Remember to stay quiet when sneaking up on rabbits while bow hunting. Rabbits feed early in the morning and late in the evening, and leave small pellet droppings where they feed. Once you find their feeding location, it’s only a matter of time before you have an opportunity to harvest one”.

She closed the book, and out of curiosity looked inside the tree trunk.

There were certainly no rabbit there, but there were small rabbit droppings inside.

She quietly picked up her bow and stood up, careful not to make excessive noise, if what mother wrote was true, there was one close by. She walked slow and steady, her hand slowly reaching her quiver and she took out an arrow.

She caught something furry and brown, hiding under a thicket of leaves. Unfortunately, it had spotted her too.

She readied her bow carefully, as not to startle the animal.

The rabbit had her eyes on her, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.

She aimed the arrow at it and drew.

The rabbit made a sudden movement, and hopped around a bit to the left.

She, however, maintained her composure. Hunting required patience and animals were known to make sudden small movements.

A mild gust of wind blew and shook the leaf thicket a bit.

Distracted, the rabbit looked away for a moment.

Taking the opportunity, she let go of the arrow, and in a blink of an eye, the arrow had pierced the rabbit’s neck.