I lost it when I read the message. I threw the book at the ground and stood up. Then my mouth started to run.

“What in the living Hell is going on here! Of course I can read, if I am reading your stupid message!”

I kicked the dumb book into the tree that I had been sitting under and didn’t let off my yelling.

“Not only can I read! But I am a HUMAN. No matter what you dress me up in I am still human you can’t go using a pop up to tell me that I can’t read. It’s the most stupid messed up thing I can think of!”

I kicked at a close by bush only to learn that it was covered in thorns as I yanked my leg back. Which made me more pissed off seeing little red lines across my leg where the leggings around my calves didn’t cover. I yanked the thorns free from my leg, only to have the stalk slap me in my face.

“Stupid bush!” I lashed out with my voice.

I took a few breaths. Reading was the one thing that I loved. It took me away from that dumb call center and let me find something that worked. Life in a book made sense. At least there if you did the right things then life worked right. I was still worked up, and started to pace.

“How does a dumb heads up display tell me, in writing, that I can’t read? That would be like yelling at me that I can’t learn music because I’m deaf!”

After a few moments, I regained my temper, which seemed like it was a bit out of control, and replaced everything in the pack, including the dumb book. I picked up my pack and placed it on my shoulders.

With the idea that I had escaped from someone and that there was a wolf that was strangely attached to items, I got moving again. I figured that I’d head in the same direction that I had been going for no reason other than the wolf. Where I was wouldn’t work for me, I was on the run, at least I thought I was, and I also had to provide for myself.

I had water and a way to start a fire, but I had no food or shelter, and the water I had wouldn’t last long. I’d no knife, compass, tent, or medical supplies. The thing I had going for me was that it was spring and so I didn’t have trees blocking my view.

“First things first. Find water. After that figure other things out,” I muttered as I started to hike.

I looked up, and the large sun was now about straight-up, which meant that I was about half done with the day. I kept trudging along as I was moving up the valley. It would have been nice if I had footgear, but at least my feet were toughened up now.

When I got to the top of the slope, I looked back down at where I came from and saw that the valley was at least five miles across of just trees. On the other side, the ground smoothed out aways, so I couldn’t see very far from this point. I thought it might not even be the actual edge of the valley, just a false edge that went longer than I could see.

I welcomed the break from the climb. I was still worried about everything and jumping at most sounds. I kept moving where I thought west was. I was able to cover a lot of ground now that I wasn’t climbing. I was still looking for someplace where I could find water or trees with fruit. I’d seen some berries, but I thought that you’re more likely to find berries that are out to kill you than tree fruit. I passed on all the berries without taking any. As the day was winding down, I came across the best thing, a small brook!

“About time!” I muttered as I ran to the brook.

When I got there I dropped down to my knees, and started to drink. I knew from what I could see that there shouldn’t be much of an issue of getting sick from the water since it was a fast-running stream. After drinking my fill face in the water, I started to wash my hands and face. From the hike, I was too dirty to be happy.

I then filled my waterskin from the deepest spot in the water. I wanted to make sure I kept as much water as I could with me if I had to run again. It was only because I had a full waterskin that I’d been able to cover as much ground as I did.

After taking care of my water needs, I looked around to see if there was someplace where I could make a camp for myself. I knew that it was getting dark soon and that I’d need to either make a spot to sleep or make a fire.

I scanned around the area muttering, “Fire or cover? Fire or cover?

Then I stopped looking around. The problem with a fire was that I’d give away my position with the light and the smell. I was still worried that the wolf that had chased me would come after me again.

“Cover it is,” I said.

Near the brook was more undergrowth than there had been in the rest of the forest as there was a natural break in the trees. I saw that next to one of the trees were some large rocks and even larger bushes. I remembered when, as a kid playing in big bushes and knew that I could find a place to wedge myself between the rocks and bush.

When I got up to the rocks, or perhaps I should have called them boulders, I saw just what I’d hoped to find. The bush’s branches had grown around the boulder and had created a dead area where the top of the bush had leaves, and so did the front and back, but the branches in the middle had died off due to the lack of light.

“Got to cut my way in, but not too much or the wolf might get me.”

I looked by the brook for a passable hand-sized rock. I was looking for one that had a natural wedge shape. It took me a while to find what I was looking for. People used to knap rocks to put a better edge on them; the last time I tried that, I ended up smashing my hand with the rock I was using to break. Granted, I was a kid when I did that, but I didn’t want a repeat here because I lacked a first aid kit.

I climbed into the bush with my stone hand axe and started to remove the branches from the inside. Since this was a large bush and the branches had been helpful to the bush until a few years ago, they were all rather large at the base, about 2 to 4 inches thick. I started by using my hands to break the thin parts so that I could move in and have room to work on the bigger sections of the bush. I hoped to use the cut branches to help close off how I came in so that larger creatures wouldn’t get in that night as I rested.

I didn’t expect anything, but I also somehow knew that there were packs of rat-type things that hunted in these woods. This was one of those “I knews” that had been popping up all day making little to no sense. Rats that ran in packs and hunted, and the feeling or memory I had was saying they were about the size of dogs too. That made no sense to me, but I still needed to see if I could hide because what did make sense was people were looking for me.

It took me about an hour, which used the rest of my easy light, to get my bush cave cut out and the branches moved to make a loose wall stack blocking the way in. I then took the time to lay out my sleeping fur and then rolled up my bag for a pillow, and laid down for the night.

I got another pop-up from the book. This time I didn’t scream, but I was still startled.

By your actions today

You have increased your level in Survivalist! (level 2)

New knowledge has been granted to you!

Natural Shelter skill unlocked (level 0)

Running skill unlocked (level 0

Hiking skill unlocked (level 0)

Climbing skill unlocked (level 0)

Primitive tools unlocked (level 0)

With that message, I had this feeling of understanding that the branches that I moved for my wall wouldn’t hold out any predators that could fit past the other branches since I didn’t anchor them. It was odd not like I read how to do this but rather I had dealt with this in the past. Which I hadn’t.

I started to use my hand axe to dig into the ground behind the branches to turn some of them into spikes as the knowledge suggested. I kept working on it for a good two hours till all the twilight was gone. I stopped, knowing that now was the time to be quiet as I didn’t want to alert anything that came out at night where I was.

I started to worry and think through where I was and what I was doing here. Then, finally, it dawned on me that while the bush was a fantastic place to play and hide as a kid, it wasn’t the same thing as shelter from the rain as some of the water would still come down on top of me.

It also wouldn’t keep out the small animals that might find me. By staying close to the brook, I increased my chances of being found because everything needed water, so the local predators would come by. I settled in for the night as ready as possible and hoped my sleep would be undisturbed. I hoped that the wolf was happy with my belongings and wasn’t following me any longer.

That night I slept fitfully. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another, cold, needing to pee, something howling, wind blowing, a fight between animals, and odd dreams. Add to it sleeping on the ground, and it was a total recipe for one of the worst night’s sleep I ever had.

There was nothing I could do about any of the things that woke me up, which I hated. I was already wrapped up in my fur, so it wasn’t like I could change being cold, the animals were, well, animals, and so there was nothing there I could do. They sounded like they were either mating or fighting or both just a few feet from me. I heard something on the other side of the bush die which just caused me to regret stopping all the more.

The dreams were honestly the most disturbing. They felt both real and fake at the same time. Not something that I liked at all. The feeling that they were night terrors was a possibility, but they also felt like memories, but I knew they couldn’t be since I didn’t remember them at all.

I had several memory-like dreams that felt all tied together. I couldn’t figure out how they would be when I woke up because they seemed too distinct, but that was sometimes the nature of dreams. While some of them started to fade, not all of the dreams did when I woke up.

I had one that seemed like it was a real memory that turned into a dream and tried to fade. It was of a study with a man in it dressed oddly. I wished that I could’ve heard what he said, but whenever I tried to focus on the specifics of the dream, they faded away. I had the impression that where I currently was wasn’t where I should be. I also had mixed feelings about the man that I was talking with, both that I thought that he was kind but also rude. It was weird, to say the least.

The brain was an odd thing that would work in its own way to make sense of things. I figured that I just needed to give it more time, and the dream would either make sense and I could understand it, or it would fully fade away. Either way, the brain would be dealing with the mess, and it wasn’t like I could make it change one way or the other.

The other dream that I could remember when I woke up was odd as well, but that was because of its crystal clear images and that I could remember all of it. It was as if I was living another life inside the dream or that I’d lived another life.

I was a young boy of about eight; there was a man squatting beside me. I knew that he was my father, even without being able to see his face. All I saw were his hands as I watched what he was doing. Right in front of us were three small piles; on the left were brown pine needles, in the middle were small twigs, each smaller than the inside of a ballpoint pen, then to the right were twigs about the size of a pencil. In his rough hand was a horn which he opened and showed me. Inside was a live coal.

The man’s gravelly low voice spoke at an even pace, “Son, in the horn is a coal we must carry with us at all times. It is our way. Each man carries a horn and a coal when he sets out on any trip more than half a morning. The coal is from the main fire of the camp. The campfire is from a coal of our fathers. We have kept our fire burning from the time we were given fire from chaos. Each tribe has a fire which is from that first fire. Your coal links you to all who have tended the fire before. So we carry the fire next to us to remind us of who we are and where we came from. Make sure your coal is always lit, make sure you keep it. It is the most important part of becoming a man. Tend the fire of our fathers and pass it down.”

He spent the next half hour or so showing me how to start a fire with the coal. He explained the steps from the pine straw through to the large twigs and how to then move up to branches to set a fire.

After we set one, we let it burn for about an hour, not speaking, just watching. He reached into the fire with his left hand and grabbed a bright orange coal. Then he held his hand open in front of my face with the glowing coal just sitting there.

“See how bright the coal is. You want to grab one from the edge of the fire. If you get one like this that is glowing all over it will not last. It must be bright on one side and dark on the other. No bigger than this one.”

He dumped the bright coal back in the fire and pulled out another one. He showed me how to pack the horn for a slow burn, and then like all of the men before me, I picked up the coal with my hand and placed it in the horn. I was crying as it burned my hand. He had me stopper the horn, and then he showed me his left hand.

“We all carry the marks of the coal. It becomes who we are. We carry the fire and it tends us. We offer our bodies to the fire. When your hand heals it will be stronger. In a few months the fire will warm your hand when you move it but after this one, it will not burn. It is your coal hand when you grab fire from our fires. It is the blessing of order in our lives.”

I went to ask something of my father when I woke up.

I wish I’d known what I would ask, and I wish I’d not woken up the way I did. While my bush would keep out many animals, it wouldn’t keep everything out.

Though the things that could get in should have been small, I thought they wouldn’t have been enough to hurt or scare me. However, one type of creature could get into my protective bush very easily, and it had. It likely wasn’t here looking to turn me into food, but it was here looking for warmth.

It was as the snake slithered under my sleeping fur that I woke up. I had no idea if I was dealing with a garter snake or a rattler. I was mostly sure that where I was, North America in the southeast nearabout North Carolina, as I’d seen maple trees and pine trees mixed.

It could also be a copperhead or cottonmouth, so I was very unhappy with this. There were few things that scared me more than snakes. In fact, I’m not sure there was anything that gave me more fear of being in the woods than snakes. My fear had come true, and now I had something moving in my bed, making its way up to my face.

I slowly moved my right hand up so that I could grab whatever snake this was that slithered on me. I was in a cold sweat as it moved up. I tried hard not to move at all. This could be it. I managed to escape from whatever took my memories, only to die from a snake bite to the face.

As it broke through the top of my cloak, I saw in the dim moonlight a diamond-shaped head. It rose up to look at me with its tongue moving in and out. Unfortunately, I had two bad options before me as the snake was tasting the air.

I could try to fight it by grabbing it as fast as I could and hoping for the best, or I could try to let it move off. Unfortunately, neither of the two choices seemed good to me right now.

I felt like if I let it go, then it might not move and bite me if I did. I also felt like if it did move off, it might come back again and not wake me up until it was too late. If I tried to grab it, then I could get bit in the face, which wouldn’t be good.

I chose, as I did in most things, to bet on myself. I was loath to let something around me happen to me that I didn’t try to control or plan for. This issue of a snake in my bed was wholly due to my lack of planning and forethought. Letting it just move on would borrow trouble from later, and I wouldn’t know how long I’d have till it came due.

I felt my heart rate jump and I fought to keep my breathing calm. I needed to get out of this mess and so I did the only thing I could think of to try to live another day. I moved both of my hands simultaneously, one to cover my face and the other to grab the snake. As I moved my hands I also turned my head to the left in hopes of not getting bit in my eyes.

My left hand covered my eyes, my right hand grabbed the snake, and the snake bit me on top of my head. I was in pain from the bite, happy that it was to my head and not my face, so the fangs couldn’t go in very far.

“Arrggg” I yelled.

I yanked my right arm away from my body as the snake wrapped around my wrist. I’d managed to grab close enough to the neck that all it could do was hiss now. I couldn’t stand up where I was because of being in the bush, but I could roll to the side and try to bash the snake into the ground.

I didn’t care anymore about being quiet since I was in pain and fighting. I was yelling and saying who knows what as I started the process of hitting the snake into the ground. I quickly realized that I was getting nowhere fast with the snake. It held up too well to getting bashed on the ground.

My head, at this point, was throbbing, and blood was dripping down my face and into my eyes. The snake, for its part, kept trying to bite and was also squeezing for all it was worth. My wrist felt like it wanted to pop off my arm with all the pressure the snake was putting on it.

In the top right of my vision, a red bar had shown up, and it was missing about a tenth. Next to that bar was a small neon green drip and a number 10 in the middle of it.

I didn’t fully understand what I was looking at but felt like it had to be part of the HUD that was implanted into me, and it was telling me that I’d been poisoned. Which I kind of knew since I was bit by a venomous snake.

I rolled to my left and fished my hand axe out from under my pack. I then rocked back to my right to try to pin the snake to the ground. I felt at this point that my wrist was about to break. It wasn’t a good feeling, nor was the sight of the red bar moving down.

I started to try to hit the snake’s head with my axe, but it still had enough range of motion that it was dodging my attacks. I also was using my off hand while lying down.

When I saw that braining it wasn’t going to work, I dropped my axe and grabbed closer to the head with my left hand, and started to slide it up the body to the neck. It wasn’t able to bite me because of my hand placement, and then I began to squeeze just behind the neck. While snakes have strong muscles, I was hoping that I could pop the head off.

“Just die would you,” I said through gritted teeth.

My red bar was down to the halfway mark when a green bar showed up and started to move down slowly as well. It was when the green was down halfway and the red at a quarter that the snake’s head popped off the body. The neon green dripping number by my health bar was down to 2. When the number disappeared entirely, I got another pop-up.

END OF COMBAT

You have survived to the end of combat with a foe able to cause you harm

6 poison damage taken!

First kill bonus plus 1 to strength and 1 weapon skill of choice

Through your actions in combat

NEW KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN GRANTED TO YOU!

Snake handling (Level 0)

“What the hell,” I gasped out.

Then I dropped the snake from my arm and pushed my hands to my head. I had a lump on the right side of my skull through my hair where I was bitten. My head was sore, and so was my arm, where the snake was wrapped around. It was the second time in recent history that I had passed out.

When I woke up, the sun was out, and I felt better but still weak. In the top right of my vision was still the red bar, and it was mostly empty. I’d say that only about a tenth of the bar was full. The green bar was completely missing from my vision now. I had no idea what it meant but seeing how the red one showed up when I got bit, I figured it had to be a visual of my health. Since I was envenomed, it would make sense that I wasn’t fully healthy.

I managed to crawl my way out of my bush, pulling my gear and even the snake body with me. I thought about pulling the head with me, but I didn’t know how the venom would react to other things and if I could even put it on my spear. When I got out, the first thing I did was lean up against a tree and tried to catch my breath. The green bar which had been gone was back again and showing at half a bar. It seemed to go down as I pushed myself to do things.

I looked around from the tree and noticed that there were lots of footprints around, not those of people but from animals. They were all near the water, and I even saw blood nearby where it looked like there had to have been a fight since there were tufts of fur.

It made me feel like I shouldn’t stay here another night. I needed to find someplace that I was safe in my sleep so that I wouldn’t get attacked then. I also needed to heal up, and so I was overall worried about everything.

My headache was very real and much worse than the one I’d yesterday when I started. I made my way to the water and spent time washing my wound. It oddly didn’t feel as bad as I thought it would, but there was still lots of dried blood.

Once I did that, I looked around to see if I could find anything to eat. I could make a fire and try to cook the snake, which was why I brought it out with me. I’d never cooked a snake before, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to do.

I ended up finding wild onions that I pulled up and washed. Then I made a fire. While I knew that it would attract some attention with the smoke, it would be less than it would have been at night from the light. So I went back into my bush shelter to make the fire. While it would have to be a small one because of the bush, I was hoping the leaves on the evergreen bush would help to defuse the smoke so that it wouldn’t be as apparent to the people I got away from that I was here.

I skinned the snake, which was relatively easy since its head was missing. I flipped the snake belly up and wedged my fingers under the skin. Then I started to pull apart. This snake had an odd meeting of the scales and had two sets that almost made a zipper down the belly. The skin just pulled away like a sausage wrapper. I used my hand axe to chop/smash it into smaller sections before I grabbed a stick and started to cook it like they were marshmallows. As I ate, I noticed that the red bar started to move up some. It didn’t appear to be dependent on how much I ate. Instead, it was a steady pace that started once I no longer felt hungry.

It took another hour before I felt like I could move around without being tired. Whatever was done to my body in the past several months has made it so that it would bounce back much faster than it used to. There is no doubt in my mind that, the me of a year ago, being bitten by a snake in the head would have ended me and not just slowed me down for a few hours.

I stood up and dusted my hands and sighed. “Time to go.”