Greetings beautiful peeps!

Here is another chapter! (no? really??? never would have known) So I may have lost it? Who knows at this point....

One of my professors announced that the midterm would be canceled and replaced with a mini project. My cat didn't like my happy dance (probably cuz it included him). Buuuut I still feel so rejected! I feed him, brush him, tolerate his screaming (and moaning- my cat is special) at night, clean his poops AND his hairballs! AND he still treats me this way. Where is my recognition? ToT

Ok, all that to say that there shouldn't be any technical terms used this chapter?? Per usual, let me know if there's something confusing. :)

enjoy~~~

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Feeling bored, Iris decided it was time to accept her situation and begin assessing her surroundings. Namely, assessing her surroundings being looking out the window and wondering if it was safe for her to climb out and hopefully start a fire to eat some warm food.

Unbuckling her belt, she knelt on her seat, popped the window open and peered out of the window. She kept her movements slow, feeling for any rocking of the plane that may indicate that it was not safe to be leaning out so far. The plane didn't even tilt.

What she saw shocked her. Somehow, the plane seemed to have found itself perched on top of an unusually thick tree. The tree's large branches sprawled out from underneath the plane both supporting it and locking it in place.

Looking down through the branches, she gaged the distance to be of about 6 meters (approx. 20ft). She would be able to use some of her rope to climb down by tying one extremity to the plane or a strong branch and then tying knots at an interval of every 40 or so centimeters (about 16in) before letting the free end fall down to the ground. This way, it'd allow her to climb back up as well.

Making her way to the back of the plane, she got started on her task at hand. At this time, she was rather happy that the emergency kit came equipped with 12 meters of ¼ inch diameter nylon rope. She would have at least 2 meters and a half of surplus that could eventually be useful.

After a lot of cursing accompanied by knot tying, Iris was finally done and truly sick of being stuck in the cramped space. She grabbed the 6-inch pocketknife, shoved it into one of the pockets of her cargo pants and zipped it closed. Eager to escape for some much-needed fresh air and a washroom break, she got to finding an ideal location for tying the rope. This happened to be a large branch. It was close to the door she was currently hanging out of - likely at an unsafe angle.

Awkwardly, she made her way out of the plane and onto the rope. Once her eyes were level with the underbelly, she was now able to better observe the tree below the plane. The tree's trunk didn't seem to thin down and seemed to have instead branched out horizontally. This meant that the plane was essentially perched directly on the it's abnormally large trunk. All in all, the plane was perched stably and would be a suitable shelter from weather and wild animals.

Deciding to not think further on the mater, Iris inelegantly made her way down the rope. It dug into her palms painfully and she was not looking forward to her trip back up.

Once on the ground, she grimaced as she blew on her hands wanting to get rid of the sensation of rope burn.

The first thing on her to do list was a well-deserved washroom break. Making her way over to a nearby tree, she leaned he back up against its trunk. Feeling the bark digging into her back, pulled down her cargo pants and nickers at once, she popped her squat. Relieving herself as quickly as possible, she tried not to think about how she had no toilet paper at her disposal. It was at times like these that she seriously wished that she shared the additional tubing that men were adorned with.

Once done and fully covered, she decided it was time to survey her surroundings a bit. She'd be able to collect some firewood as well as get a better feel for where she was. It'd serve as a good distraction from the unpleasant moistness against her crotch.

Removing the pocketknife from her pants, she began marking trees she passed. This way she'd be able to find her way back to her starting location.

Iris picked up some fine twigs and dry leaves to use as kindling as well some dryer branches that she hoped would burn decently well.

Once content with her findings, Iris weaved her way through the forest following the marks she had left. Soon, she found herself back at her starting location.

She deposited her findings and sorted them. Dry leaves and twigs separate from larger branches that she could use once the fire was stable.

Next, she wanted to prepare a fire pit. The last thing she wanted was to start a forest fire and be burnt to a toast. Searching within the vicinity, she collected rocks to use to surround the flame as well as ensure that it wasn't in direct contact with the ground.

Before she got to placing the rocks, she cleared all surrounding forest debris so that none would catch fire. Then, with the larger rocks, she made a ring. She didn't have enough to make a large circle, but she could collect more rocks later and expand. Then, she dug the center before putting the smaller rocks in. She ensued that the center of the fire pit was slightly lower than the surrounding ground. This would provide a bit of additional protection from wind for the budding flame.

Ready to start building up her fire, she grabbed the dry leaves and twigs. She built a log cabin style setup before sliding the dry leaves into the center of the structure. Finally, happy with the layout, Iris was ready to start the fire.

She reached into one of her pockets looking for matches only to realise that she had forgotten to grab them before climbing down.

"Are you FUCKING kidding me right now?!?" she exclaimed, reaching her hands up to grab her hair in frustration.

Quickly she realized that she had just gotten a bunch of dirt into her hair with no way of washing it out any time soon. She whipped her hands away from her head, "Damn it!"

Looking up at the rope leading into to the plane she grumbled and dramatically dragged her feet over.

"Watch out rope! I'm gonna be your queen! Just you wait and see. I'm gonna climb you like nobody else. Just you see." She waved her index around while pointing at the rope. She convinced herself that she was just giving herself a pep talk. Totally not procrastinating having to clime the damn thing.

Deciding to get on with it, she reached up and grabbed a knot and began the feat of scaling up to the stranded plane.

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Thank you for reading!

Oct. 2, 2021