I awoke again, disoriented and tired, with the notion that I had been somewhere in between the time I fell unconscious and the time I woke up. No matter how hard I strained I could not summon any memory beyond the simple inkling that I had a memory, so I decided not to bother. Today was the day I would head further north. I pulled myself out of the bush, brushed the bits of wood and leaves off of myself. After checking that my axe and spear were still in good condition, I holstered them in the rolls of cordage around my chest and headed out.

The crab meat that I had eaten kept me full as I hiked northward past the river. I briefly considered looking around for more crabs since they could make for a portable food source, but decided that distance was the best thing to strive for. The surrounding scenery blurred past as I walked onward, with only the average slope of the ground serving as my directional indicator since the trees overhead were too dense to allow me to see the sun properly. Judging by the incline and the approximate distance I had covered by midday, my elevation had risen by at least two, perhaps two and a half meters.

The soil beneath my feet was getting harder as I went, indicating to me that the terrain of the island might not be as consistently forested as I thought. What was once soft soil with grass was turning into compacted dirt with rocks, though the trees remained constant. I nearly walked straight into a crack in the ground that was hidden by the grass over it clinging together hard enough to create a natural pitfall trap. I should take note that there are hazards here that weren't in the rainforest, I thought as I tapped the ground nearby with my feet to find stable footing, then walked onward with renewed vigilance.

By the afternoon I was quite hungry, and my body was telling me that I was low on energy. The terrain had grown more rocky and jagged, with frequent outcroppings of igneous rock creating flat vertical faces with heights ranging from fifty centimeters to several meters. Once again using my cordage, I created the familiar net bag and began picking up different rocks that looked to be either in useful shapes or made of useful materials. Adding a few kilograms to my weight would impact my travel range, but the potential gains in new tools outweighed that minor negative.

My mouth grew dry as my ears picked up the sound of flowing water. Right, I thought, this body sweats automatically. It's probably low on water. I followed the sound to find another creek, just as pure and unpolluted as the last, that was three to four times as wide in the middle as the one I had previously seen. I scooped water into my mouth and surveyed its contents, noting multiple fleeting movements that could only be from fish of some kind. Too small for a net with this kind of cordage, I thought with a grimace, I might be able to spear one though. Looking at my stone spear I quickly determined that it was too big for the job and found another stick. A few chops with my axe later and I had a good wooden skewer.

How are they this fast? I wondered with a twinge of irritation as the fish once again flittered away from my best attempts to spear them. The sun was now just above setting and I had been attempting to spear fish for at least an hour. It seemed almost as though the fish had some kind of extra sensory information that allowed them to perfectly dodge my strikes. I was quite experienced at spearfishing larger varieties, fish made up the bulk of warbreed protein sources for river tribes, but I had never had such difficulty before. Now! I thought as I thrust my spear forwards again, this time trying to anticipate the fish's fleeing direction. The spear caught flesh and I couldn't help but smile.

I frowned when I examined the still-wriggling fish. The animal clung to life with a ferocity that was admirable despite being impaled with a stick whose diameter exceeded that of its own skull. The fish's eyes were compound, or some other sort of wide-array version of a visual receptor. What appeared to be two protruding growths sprouted from the sides of the fish's head where I otherwise would have expected its eyes to be, and those growths were covered in something similar to hexagonal scales that were each under half a millimeter in diameter. It can see in every direction at once, I thought to myself, It can even track objects above water.

At last the fish ran out of breath and I split it open, finding precious little meat but plenty of bone. My spear had almost completely destroyed the fish's heart, which begged the question as to how it managed to stay alive for so long after the injury. Maybe the water is a periodic low-oxygen environment? I thought as I rubbed my hand along my jawbone. The gesture wasn't for anyone in particular, instead it was something I did out of habit. Noticing movement across the river my eyes snapped up and locked onto another one of the deer creatures, which looked back at me with the same determination I had seen in the other one. That's a lot better than a fish, I thought while slowly dropping my wooden spear and drawing my stone one.

The deer trotted out into the creek as I watched, always keeping one eye on me. Curious as to what it could be doing, I stayed my hand. It looks like a herbivore, but herbivores will eat meat if they can find it, I thought, maybe it's here for the fish as well. The deer eventually took its eyes off of me for a short time and leaned down to drink from the creek. To my disappointment it didn't go after the fish, but instead began chewing on some of the plants that were growing beneath the water. I should see if those agree with me, I thought, remaining as still as I could with every part of my body but my right arm, which was slowly raising my spear into a throwing position.

The fish also nipped at the legs of the deer, probably eating parasites or bits of material that were caught in its fur. The deer appeared unfazed by the fish but sometimes shooed them away with a shaking of its leg for some reason. My spear raised further into a ready position, and my arm began winding back. The deer looked at me with one eye again, then turned back to the plant it was eating. Just a dumb animal, I thought with a dark grin. My arm came forward as fast as I could push it, and my hand expertly directed the motion into the spear, adding a slight spin for stabilization. In less than a quarter of a second the spear had left my fingertips and sunk between the ribs of the deer.

It took another half-second before the deer reacted. Screaming out, it bucked and kicked, then pranced out of the water and began galloping away into the woods across the creek. I rushed across, using my arms to help move quickly in the water, and immediately found the trail of blood on the other side. The sun was setting, but I definitely had enough light to track something so badly injured. I hit it right in the heart and lungs, I thought, it won't last more than a minute on adrenaline.

Fifteen minutes later I was still following the trail of blood through the forest. It wasn't exactly a lot of blood, just drips and drops in a consistent pattern, but I was growing worried. Are its organs not in the right places? I wondered. I had seen enough to know that at least some of the life on this island was genetically manipulated, but changing organ positions enough to affect the outcome of a spear throw like the one I had made was difficult to do. Not to mention largely pointless, I thought as I kept trailing the injured cervid, the rib cage is there for a reason.

Another fifteen minutes later I found the deer. It was collapsed on the ground, spear stuck straight through its chest from left to right, breathing heavily. Every breath it took expelled flecks blood not only from its mouth, but also from the wounds on its sides. I approached, axe drawn, and the deer tried to get to its feet to face me, stumbling and falling back to the ground due to a lack of energy. As I approached it its eyes, alert as ever, watched me with palpable anger. For a moment I considered trying to study it and figure out how it had survived for so long with such a terrible wound, but I thought better of it. I brought my axe down on the deer's neck, spilling blood across the dirt beneath it and spattering myself as well. The deer exhaled one final time and went still, dying at last.

Pulling out my spear I looked at the wound and still had no idea how the deer had not died as expected. The wound channel was six centimeters wide at the exit, jagged, and through the entire chest. I pulled it open and sure enough I had punctured the lungs, though it looked as though I had only nicked the heart. It almost looks like it healed around the spear, I thought as I compared the difference in entry and exit wounds. From the entry wound I would never have expected a weapon with a tip like the spear had, but the exit was wide and flat. Maybe it just entered in a weird way, I thought, or the skin was stretched on the entry side but loosened as the spear entered?

I managed to drag the deer back to the creek by the time the last vestiges of sunlight had faded from the horizon. I removed the head and left it where the deer died, but snapped its horns off and put them in my rock bag. The head removal was for two reasons: There wasn't much meat on the head and having the neck open allowed much of the blood to drain out as I carried the corpse, making washing it and butchering it much easier. I set the body down by the water and got to work on a fire, resolving to stay awake at least until I was done the basic setup for what I was building.

After skinning the deer with my axe, a process which took much longer than it did with a proper knife, I disposed of the guts in the creek and began butchering meat from the limbs and torso. My eyes started to grow weary and blurry as I removed what felt like endless slabs of meat from the body. After losing focus and nearly chopping one of my own fingers, I decided to stand up and do the other steps in the process first. I walked out towards the trees, hacked off some limbs, and set up a large stand overtop of the fire with my cordage. I've never smoked anything before, I realized, I'm not sure if this is how it's done.

I put the meat overtop of the wooden bars I had set up above the fire, then threw in as much dry wood as I could find to ensure that it would keep going long after I fell asleep. I wasn't happy about having to sleep out in the open with no disguise, but my body was not allowing me much of a choice. Settling for less, I chopped a few more branches off of the local trees and set up a sort of pseudo-bush to rest inside. Had I been less exhausted and hungry I might have considered that the deer's corpse and my fire might attract more attention than my shelter could dispel, but instead I collapsed into a hazy sleep the instant my body was hidden amongst the branches.