Chapter 6

Another thing to note is that now I have so much more energy than before. I could go without sleeping for two entire days and not get even a little bit exhausted. I tried it before and I felt that maybe I could go for a couple more days without sleeping, but without something meaningful to do at night it got boring pretty quickly. Now I can eat three berries at once before feeling full, but I have to wait for three to four days to do it again.

Still, it feels so good to have that much energy. Thanks to that I stepped up my morning routine, doing increasingly demanding exercises every day. Even then, by the evening I'm already recovered and ready to go again. Those berries really did wonders to my body whatever they happen to be. I feel like I could lift an entire car by myself without breaking a sweat – definitely not, I would be crushed the moment I tried –.

The good thing is that now I am a little more confident in trying to deal with bigger animals than the ferret. That way I will have pelts much bigger than now, and maybe I could get a quilt. The temperature is dropping every day, it's not noticeable if you don't pay attention, but it's definitely going down gradually. I feel that I need to speed up everything if I want to stay alive. The only downside here is that I will need to venture even more deep into the prairie or the forest for me to find a big animal.

Another advancement is that now I can make better knives. It became increasingly easy to shape and sharpen them after a couple of practices. I even made some throwing knives to practice my marksmanship. Besides, I tried to work with wood, making easy shapes from time to time, and sometimes trying to carve different tools.

Back to the matter at hand, I need to hunt bigger animals. Entering the forest is a big no, I don't want to experience the feeling of helplessness once again. So, the only option viable for me is to go out and explore the prairie. That said, a spear would be better than just my fists or a small knife to kill whatever threatens me out there.

I spent the next two days preparing for my little expedition. Trying to make a spear by putting together a bone spearhead and a stick big enough was tricky. Especially getting the stick. A week ago I found a tree with a straight branch large enough to be the handle of a spear. The problem was that separating it from the tree took two entire days and three knives, and after getting it into the cave I had to carve it into something more manageable for me, which took 4 days or so. In the end, I made the spear with the help of some sap and a string. Let's hope that the string resists – which I doubt – because I made it with the bark of tender wood.

I also made a torch in case I return late from the hunt. If there is no moon in the sky tonight I won't be able to see even more than three steps in front of me. Now that I think about it, wouldn't it be dangerous to go around the pasture with some light source, attracting the attention of some animal? I don't have an option either way, both situations are dangerous.

And, with a little bit of food and a knife, that was all my preparation for the expedition. Quite a small one, yeah, but I can't make much given my situation and lack of knowledge. For now, I will just go to bed and first thing tomorrow start my adventure.

While traveling in the prairie I had to keep vigilant in case some ferret tried to attack me. That slowed me for quite some time, and looking back I could still see clearly the river, or the line that I think is the river. From now on it will be the territory of some huge animals.

Walking a little bit further, the scenery around started to change. Little hills started to take shape and some trees started little forests here and there. The plant life was still those native to the prairie but with an additional diversity thanks to the hills. It appeared a good place to set up a camp if only the river was not so far away.

Right now, the suns were at its zenith, so I searched for some shadow beneath the trees. Approaching the forest, I began to feel fearful of what could be lurking in the shadows. I know that it was my subconscious mind playing tricks on me to avoid a nasty situation where I could die because of something magical lurking in the forest, but it still made me pause for a couple of minutes. I was just there observing the shadows move with the trees before moving myself because of the unbearable heat.

Out of caution, I stayed on the outskirts and avoided getting too far into the forest.

While resting I decided to observe my surroundings. The forest was quite calm, nothing too out of the ordinary, with some birds tossing around the trees in search of food or maybe shelter. At a scarce 10 meters in front of me stood the entrance to the forest. Beyond that stood the prairie with its never-changing plains.

While waiting for the heat to recede I decided to do some exercise and train with my spear. Since the exercises were getting more and more demanding physically every day, I was already in need of some weights or some innovative, new, way to do exercise. And making use of the terrain I was attempting to train my agility and reflexes. On the other hand, training with the spear was much easier, I just thrust it in the air and tried to do wide swings while maintaining stability. It was not ideal, but just two or so weeks ago I didn't even think that I would need a spear to protect myself and hunt. 

Once I was done with the exercises I decided to look for animals to hunt. It was finally time to get deeper into the forest. Hopefully, they were not haunted or anything.

While I was walking I decided to make some markings in the trees, that way I could turn back and get home safely. Suddenly, there was some noise made by branches being broken. I immediately leaped behind a tree to take cover. After making sure that whatever made that noise was not coming after me I decided to look towards the source.

There, collapsed on the floor, was a deer. Or what appeared to be a deer. This one was at least two meters high if not more just by the amount of space it was occupying. Its antlers were proportionate to the body and a deep shade of green, they appeared to be made of jade more than anything.

This majestic animal was thrown into the middle of a clearing, but there was no sign of a predator nearby. The thought that maybe I could be in danger didn't cross my mind and I started to get close to the deer. It was in a bad state with visible wounds all over its body. Nothing life-threatening, but it needed attention. Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything for the poor animal. I mean, I came here with the thought of hunting something without getting hurt, or at least not seriously hurt like the deer. Besides, I don't know anything about medicine, even less so about plants and I don't want to go around trying the effects they could have.

As I was getting near the deer, its antlers were beginning to glow. With each step I took, the antlers began to emit even more light. By the time I was beside the deer it was already glowing like the sun.