Forest, Forest Gump
Looking around my camp thinking back to the last week. 'First I could only carve fifty or so Runes, but that doubled every day after I blacked out.' Feeling what was a small flicker of warmth last week now raging like a bonfire in the night. I looked over my bark sheet and my charred wooden writing tool splayed before me. Placing that to the side I look over a small wood cauldron filled with water, ash, and charcoal. Stirring the mud-like mixture, adding a few splashes of water before sealing the lid back onto it and taking it off the fire to cool down.
Reaching over to a rabbit skin bag with a few animal bones inside I start rummaging through the bird bones looking for a Tibiotarsus bone. It is perfect for making my own stone age tattoo needle, long hallow and with a few Runes tough enough to take a decent beating. Finding the right one I place it onto my carving platform. Looked over the said platform which is just a log I dragged back to camp. Splaying my tools around it I grab a rabbit bone small enough to carve onto the Tibiotarsus bone.
Bringing forth a trickle of the fire inside of me filling the bone I get to work carving 'Inject', 'tough', and 'Heal' into the small bone. After finishing I place all of the tools back into my skin bag hanging onto my waist. Double and triple checking the Runes are holding fine I breathe a sigh of relief that the bone does not break down like the rock last week. Through trial and error, I found that bone and hide are the two best platforms available to me as of right now.
Standing up and cracking my neck I decided to go and look at the surrounding area of my camp like I normally do. In the last week, the sun has not moved at all, which confuses me more than I would like to admit. How is the land I am on even support life let alone not turn into a molten surface like Mercury? The more I think about it the more confused I become. All I can do is shrug and hope for the best. Looking over the ground I don't find any different tracks beside the small game that I have been catching for the last week.
After I check that nothing has broken the snares surrounding the area of my base camp and check some paralyzing traps I have set up on smaller game trails. Going over my small bounty of two rabbits staring at me in terror with their cute little eyes. Bringing one to my checks and scratching it behind the ear feeling it relax. Slowly I turn away from the other laying helpless on the ground and with a quick tug I feel the neck of the rabbit snap. Placing it into a bag hanging from my back side not showing the other rabbit I just killed the other.
Killing animals to survive came naturally to me having grown up in the southern United States where if we did not kill anything we would go without dinner or food for the next day. Remembering having caught my first rabbit and letting it go because it was 'cute and innocent. Well, when I had to sit at the table watching my father and brother dine on their bounty of food while my stomach was twisting in knots. After that day I did not catch anything for the first week. Then my lizard brain kicked in and killing animals became like second nature to me.
Coming back to reality I walk over to my out-house which is just a hole in the ground with a hallowed out log over top of it. "God I miss toilet paper" muttering to myself
Looking over to my pile of leaves I grab one and reach over to my bag pulling out a small bone and start etching 'Firm', 'Clean', and 'Heal' over top of them I learned in my old world leaves either break and you finger your butthole, or the scratch your cheeks with the edges of the leaf. Not the best place to have an open wound not to mention getting shit on your fingers without a supply of soap. On top of that washing, your ass downstream leaves a lot to be desired.
Heading back to camp after finishing my business I look over my smoke cubby which I just a hallowed out portion of the cave with a bunch of green leaves stuffed over the top of a hand full of heat stones. After making sure there is plenty of leaves and twigs under the strung-up strips of rabbit and fish. After finding out the tunnel going into the cave has a slight incline I took advantage of it making sure the smoke is going inside not out into the trees. That would be a surefire way to say 'Here I am.
With no sound other than nature and having explored a few miles in any direction besides the cave and not finding any sign of any humankind; other than either tinny non-human footprints or 'Fuck you' kaiju-sized footprints I decided to stay here until I can make better equipment. After having found the kaiju footprints I needed a safe place so I spent a few days carving outside tunnels and making a living area with Rune lights and air purifiers and lining the walls with strengthened Runes. So with a decently sized bolt hole, I made the defense which is just a few hide bags I can toss on the ground around the entrance of my cave with an exaggerated amount of 'Shock', 'Paralyze', 'Heat', and 'Sticky' Runes carved onto all of them.
Cracking my neck and picking up the tree bark sketch of my legs and arms below the elbow; I go over what I want to be done. On the bottom of my feet, I will have 'Strength', 'Silent', 'Cool', 'Heat', and 'Heal'. Having cold or hot feet would be bad, but having damaged feet would more than likely kill me. I also plan to have 'Heal' carved a lot onto most of my body so if one or more parts of me are damaged I can fuel the heal Runes and can by contact or heal in that general area. Broken feet use my broken arms and legs feel the heal runes on my arms and legs move on from there.
On my hands, I plan besides 'Heal' to have several open spots for later down the line when I get a better feel for where or when I am. Bringing my supplies of charcoal ink and bird bones; I start pushing my Mana into the bone watching all the Runes start to shine I begin pricking shallow holes into my feet wincing a few times almost fucking up the rune. Gritting my teeth I continue to know this could mean life or death for me.
It takes a while before my feet are done I take a breath and wipe the sweat from my brow. After a few more moments of the feeling of pins and needles in my feet, I wiggle my legs trying to wake them up.
Walking around the area I jump and slap my feet onto the ground I don't feel anything. Most of all I don't hear anything. "Ok....ok....ok I can work with this maybe one on my neck to make my breathing silent or while I am hunting. It would the best in case I get jump scared I don't let out an involuntary yelp." muttering below my breath I start thinking over if it would be a good idea to cut myself open and carve them onto my bones. After quickly throwing that idea I think over what I know about runes. "Odin could whisper runes into existence, but he also hung himself from a tree and lost an eye so not for me... Could Fuinjutusu be a type of Runes? I mean they used the tips of their fingers from what I remember from Naruto...something to look into, but now is time for some sleep."
A/N: Any rune Ideas? Hope you enjoyed the chapter thanks for reading.