After Edward yet again completed his daily routine of making food, eating it, and training, He decided to once again, get stuff done.

First, he found a suitable stone in the water. Suitable in this case meant flat surface, and proper grit. Sharpening knives starts with grinding away unnecessary material from the edge, and ends with polishing it. The knife was already quite dull, so it took time.

That being said, Linden went through those particular motions more times than anyone in their right mind would bother to count, so He quickly got the hang of this even despite having much smaller hands.

As for polishing, the leather belt finally found some use. Ed would appreciate having some kind of polishing compound, but It wasn’t necessary. Honing a blade on simple leather is possible, it just takes more time, and requires patience. Hundred and fifty strokes on each side would do for now.

To his pleasant surprise, it turned razor sharp. Not that Edward needed any shaving.

‘I’ll have to touch up this edge a lot more often. Dull cutting tools are irritating and dangerous’ He thought to himself.

‘Now onto learning’ Thinking that, Ed took out the piece of paper he got when he woke up in the cave.

Now, the first time He learned to read in Latin alphabet, He did so by nagging every adult around him to tell him what each letter meant, and what it was spelt like. Afterwards, he took a book about dinosaurs to pre-school, and tried to decipher it by reading each word aloud, letter by letter, to his buddy, a fellow dinosaur fan. The other kid would then tell young Edward what each word sounded like. By comparing his own constructs to what He had already known about dinosaurs (and like with every pre-school kid, that meant a lot), Ed learned to read in quite a short amount of time.

To be honest, If he learned any slower, Ed might’ve just gotten bored and given up, but He didn’t, and it was paying off now. He might be lacking his friend, but Edward Linden no longer lacked patience, and He had already learned reading before, even if in different language.

~ 2 weeks later………………………………….Edward Linden’s direct pov

Well, I am constantly getting stuff done, but my to-do list isn’t shrinking. The pants, for example, are already done. They came out too short, only reaching midway down my calf, and kinda loose, but it doesn’t bother me that much.

I’m keeping them from falling off my ass using the leather belt. It was so long, I had to wrap it twice around my hips, but that’s perfect for carrying my knife.

Speaking of which, I tested my knife for rusting, since I wanted to swim with it, and to my surprise – it doesn’t. I would’ve sworn this thing is carbon steel. The lack of rust could be chalked up to great method of coating, which looked like nitride, but that didn’t explain the spotless edge. Same thing with leather sheath and wooden grip.

Something like that would be pretty expensive back on earth. But hey, I’m not going to complain about stuff that works perfectly.

Speaking of things that go well.

I also learned most letters and numbers, they aren’t very complicated. Decyphering and formulating sentences will be next.

. But my to-do list isn’t shrinking. Why? Because I resolved myself to learn something I failed to grasp back on Earth. Slinging stones. I would first need to make a primitive slingshot, and then devote myself to practice.

This is not like most other things, where I had already done it in some form. This is something I tried to learn and gave up. Mostly from the lack of time, but still.

Oh, I also continuously try to catch fish by hand while swimming underwater. It’s not easy, I’ve managed to succeed only once, (on the first try, mostly by accident). I’m over two hundred tries now, but I still manage to only graze them. Who would’ve thought, fish are good at swimming.

………..Another two weeks (maybe, it’s not like Ed would bother counting)……………

Linden once again returned to his trusted pond after a trip upstream. This time, near the leftmost stream, He noticed signs of wildlife in the form of shit.

And it wasn’t a small one. It also wasn’t in the form of pellets characteristic to herbivores. Nope. That looked like a big stool of an even bigger predator. Hopefully big enough to not fit in passages leading to Ed’s pond, but the presence of something dangerous was enough to redirect his thoughts from exploration, to improving his chances of survival once He left the pond area, and the mountains.

And Ed needed to leave in search of environment helpful in gathering supplies and overcoming frost, in case winter was a thing in this world. (and He had no reason to believe it wasn’t)

To prepare himself for long journey, Ed gathered some pine touchwood to prepare tinder, since the original contents of his tinderbox had depleted severely. He made a slingshot using cord, and started training stone slinging after every meal. He also made wooden tools to contain and groom his hair, which fluffily kept getting out of control.

Right now, his routine looked like this:

Wake up, eat leftovers from the previous day, go swimming, catch fish,(recently with bare hands) Get the fire going, cook fish and available greens, train his flexibility and strength with full body workouts, eat his meal, take care of small chores, and study reading.

(One could think that two meals a day is too little and daily full body workouts too much, but strangely Edward’s body was more than fine.

In fact, his growth was rapid to the point of breaching what Ed thought humanely possible. If He saw someone make that kind of progress in a gym on Earth, He wouldn’t need to ask whether that person took PEDs, because the answer would be obvious. He didn’t get particularly buff, He was a kid after all, but his newfound strength left him wondering how it could fit in a kid’s body.)

Speaking of reading, Linden managed to decipher the rest of the letter. The recipe for glowworm cocaine contained within, described floral ingredients in great detail, broadening Ed’s knowledge of plants unique to this new world, including one edible root which was quickly found and incorporated into Ed’s diet.

The letter also mentioned that the mixture repelled ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and other bloodsuckers, which, Edward suspected was the reason for their absence in his general vicinity. He did, after all sleep right next to the smelly thing.

But that also meant that more of the mixture would be necessary going forwards. Fortunately, Ed managed to find the ingredients, and had no trouble mixing them in correct order and at the right temperature.

There was also a small note the reader.

Pretty ominous. Good thing Linden wasn’t a southerner.

……………………………..

……………………………….

She didn’t have a name. Why would She? For herself, She was just that. Herself. For other creatures of river and lakes, She was simply danger, One To Avoid. And She was just fine with that. She needed herself, and herself alone. And the waters, obviously. And fish.

She was swimming upstream, her powerful webbed paws and tail pushing water like it was there only to offer her a comfortable journey. The creek was powerful, but the Otter was more so. In recent years, even fully grown bears chose to leave the waters alone when She demanded so. As hungry for salmon and trout as they were in autumn, they couldn’t match her in her own domain.

She was heading for one of her favorite places in the region, a certain small lake, or a large pond where strong fish gathered. Strong was tasty, that she knew. And she once again swam towards the source of tasty fish and pure water.

It was right at the border of incredibly dangerous stone labyrinth, and therefore both not a place where something weak would bother her, nor a place where the strongest predators of the labyrinth would hunt her.

She wasn’t stupid enough to challenge The Wandering Rocks in their full glory. Not of fear of the regular beasts, no. It’s just that getting lost was incredibly easy in that wretched place, and once cornered in unknown territory, She would be at a disadvantage. Getting eaten was not in her plans, eating was.

She picked up the pace. She was glad the creek had a part with a rapid flow just ahead, the lake wouldn’t be so calm if it had been easy to access. Not that She couldn’t just chase out or kill anything too bothersome.

After two more hours of swimming, She reached an entrance of the lake area, and immediately noticed something wasn’t quite right. Her nose picked up the scent of a man.

She wasn’t worried. She had met them before, far away. Humans were annoying, but she could take fish they caught in their nets any time she didn’t feel like hunting herself, so they had their uses.

It’s why She’d normally pay no mind to those clumsy land creatures in their little boats. But not here! Here was a place of hunting, of pure water, and strong fish. Not a place for the cunning weaklings.

The Otter was enraged. And She swam towards the pond.