There was one big boar standing a few meters in front of me. I wasn’t moving at all because I thought that it wouldn't attack me if I didn't move, like a t-rex in a movie. But for some reason, the boar started running toward me. Trees were far away from me but in that situation, I couldn’t be lazy. I ran toward a tree and climbed it. I probably set a life record in the 50 meter run. At least a personal record. The boar didn’t even bother to look at me. It just ran away. I was so relieved that it wasn’t after me but then why did it run? Was it running away from something much stronger? I heard a loud howling that gave me cold shivers. It was a pack of gray wolves. Five to be precise. They also ran past me but one of them stopped for a second by the tree where I was hiding at. When there was another howling the wolf ran to join the pack.

I was too scared to come down. So I waited for an hour or two. When I finally gathered my courage to get down, I heard howling close by and I climbed the tree even higher. It was getting late and finally, the moon was high in the sky. I was scared of the dark, of wolves, and of sleeping on the tree but my body surrendered after a while and I fell asleep on the tree…The next day I woke up barely hanging on the branch. Under me were two wolves trying to reach me with their scary teeth and sharp fangs.

Then the branch that I was hanging off cracked. When I was falling I screamed so loud that the wolves took a few steps back. Fall was hurtful enough but there were two wolves circling me, ready to eat me alive. I picked up the branch and started to wave it around to scare them off but the wolves didn’t run away. They weren’t scared of me at all. One of them jumped at me but I swung my branch and hit it. Meanwhile, the second wolf bit my leg. It really hurt but I had no time to cry about it. I clenched my teeth and pierced its stomach with a branch. It didn't go deep enough to scare it off. I started to twirl the stick so it would run away. Wolf was stubborn but he finally surrendered and ran away with a branch in his stomach. That meant that he ran away with my only weapon. Seeing this second wolf also ran away. I got lucky for now.

Adrenaline was out and I really felt how painful this bite was. I was bleeding from that. There was no choice but to sacrifice my pants since they were easier to tear than my shirt. After bandaging myself with my pants I went again to the berries because I was hungry… It was hard to walk with this wound but that's life for you. I went to the beach to see if there was someone to help me or if there were any ships on the horizon but there was nothing.

[ Eric ]

“Looks like I’ll stay here for a while.” I said it to myself.

Sitting on the beach was my best option. Gathering sticks for a fire and to use as a weapon was the easiest task for now. Food and shelter are different stories. I used my hoodie as a bag for berries but they wouldn’t be enough for me to survive. I hung a hoodie on the tree so wild animals wouldn’t get to eat my berries. I went to explore the island with the hope of finding something useful. With two long sticks and rock to defend myself, I was ready to go. Especially after the fight with the wolves, I got some courage to fight them at least to some extent. I don’t want to fight them again… They are scary…

On the island, I found two ponds, a place with a lot of different berries, many mushrooms, and something that surprised me the most. There was a shipwreck on the beach on the other side of the island. It wasn’t a military ship or yacht. It was a Viking ship. It was destroyed a little bit but it didn’t look old… Was it a tourist ship?

It smells really bad. Like there was something rotten in the ship. I didn’t find any sign of people on this island… maybe they are on the ship… dead. Even so… I need to survive. I jumped onto the ship. I was right there standing between dead bodies. Mostly bones were left of them but they had armor on them. Were they cosplayers or something?

NO…

One of them had a sword in his chest… A real and sharp sword. Where in the world am I?

With a slight hesitation, I took the sword, ax, and armor. He also had bearskin and it didn’t look like artificial skin. I decided to set up close to the ship but I had to go back for the food that I gathered. On my way back I confronted another wolf. It was alone. My heart was beating really fast but the wolf ran away. Maybe because I had some armor on me or was it a bearskin?

Sword and ax were super useful. I had something to defend myself and something to chop wood with. I could build a small shed. But bear skin definitely is the best! Something warm to sleep on a cold night. Simply amazing.

As for how I build my shed… I cut some smaller trees and rested the logs against the tree. It wasn’t anything special but at least I had a roof above my head… The next day I went again to the ship to see if there was anything else useful for me. There it was! A bucket!

What…

Don’t you know how useful it is? I can have water from a pond always close or even hold a fish in there. Besides that, there were a few clay jugs and if I remember correctly in old times they had some drinks in them… like alcohol!

Happy with my second journey to the ship I came back with two clay jugs. I immediately opened one of them. It smelled like wine! And a strong one at that. The scent was very intense. With two sips I already felt drunk… and I’ve got the whole jug left! Probably all jugs on the ship have some alcohol in them! I took a few more sips and… I fell asleep… I think?

When I woke up I was so hungry. Also, there was vomit in the helmet… I’ll clean that later… I got tired of eating berries all day. There was a rabbit on this island… maybe there are more of them?

I was hiding in the bush somewhere in the middle of the forest near the berries. After a while, the rabbit arrived. Once it was close to me I jumped on it and stroked my sword. I wasn’t even close to hitting the rabbit. When it started to run I threw my sword at it but I missed… How fast were people in the past, that they hunted rabbits like that every day! Or were they good at throwing?

Wait…

THEY HAD BOWS AND I DON'T! No…There was something else besides the bows. They also used traps… To think that they don’t teach kids something useful like that in school. I dug a small hole with my ax. Deep enough to not let the rabbit escape. I placed some sticks and covered them with leaves. I placed some barriers on it to attract rabbits. I fell asleep while waiting but some squeaks woke me up. There he was! In the hole! My dinner! I took the rabbit and set the trap again to have something tasty for the next day.

The storm appeared in the middle of the night. I was too scared that something would happen to my shed so I didn’t sleep at all. There was something on the water. On the horizon, I saw yellow dots… Were those lights? It was my chance to be spotted by people. Using my last few percent of battery I gave signals with the phone's flashlight. I hope they noticed me…

When I was on the beach I stopped because I saw someone near the water. He was lying there, unconscious. Once I was close to him I saw that he had chains on his legs and shattered gray clothing. Is he a prisoner? No… There was nothing like a number, code, or name on his clothes. By the look of it, he's probably from Asia.

I took him to my shed. He was breathing but he was unconscious. I lit a fire and tried to keep it small to not burn my shed. I didn't sleep much that night… In the morning I ate berries with rabbit’s legs. The only thing I drank so far was water and wine… It would be hard to do a coffee without coffee beans. But what do I need to make tea?

Well… I just went into the first and took all the herbs that I saw and started experimenting. I didn’t have any cups and it was hard to do one with wood so I made a bowl. I tried every herb and one of them tested closest to the tea that I know… but it was still far from perfection.