Chapter 6: Mirror pt.2

I mean, it’s not all that useful compared to chopping wood, but it might help ease the tedium.

“I think it’s cool. Have you sorted out an instrument Jamie? Unless I’m wrong, I don’t really take you as a singer.” I look at that now reddened boy

So shy, it’s adorable. I mentally grin.

“..ummm….well..not exactly. I know some primitive people have made bone flutes, but I didn’t want to take material away from you,” he says without making eye contact.

“Oh Jamie, there’s a bunch of bones over there. How about we grab something from the older pile and try to make you something? In fact, I think there's a shin bone with your name on it.” I stand up, and grab the shin bone I think will work, along with the grinding stone and one of the sharp talons.

I should try making a chisel or something for things like this. I look around for Jamie, to see Trevor pushing him up and shooing him over to me.

“Okay, take a look at this, I’m thinking we can try to hollow it out with the claw, then pierce some holes in it? What do you think?” I ask him

“..I think that’ll work, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be though. I don’t really have any experience with all this.” He gestures around the area.

“That’s okay, I’ll help you out. So first things first, why don’t you get Mike chop off the ends with his axe,” I order the guy. I watch as he makes his way over and shuffles a bit, before tapping on Big Mike's shoulder.

After a bit of back and forth, Mike lets out a boisterous laugh, smacks his hand on Jamie’s back and nearly sends the smaller man tumbling over. After successfully cleaving the bone. Jamie comes back, we start working on his flute. By the end of the day we have maybe half the bone dug out. Working with someone else has certainly made it easier to dig into the bone. But I don’t really get that sense of right and wrong I do when crafting the more survival focused tools.

“Hey Elizabeth, can you take a watch tonight? I haven’t gotten a full night's rest since we made the teepee, and I’d like to check out any of the skills I might have.” Trevor says as I head towards the teepee.

Have I been skipping watch this whole time? My face heats up when I realize I missed the whole thing.

“Sure, I can do that!” I quickly say, an attempt to divert attention from my embarrassment.

“I’ll go sit out now, go ahead and go to sleep!” I add in.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” He says with a tired smile as he makes his way into the shelter.

I sit at my usual spot by the fire while night creeps in.

Wow it got dark fast. I think as my vision narrows to basically the immediate area around the fire.

Also, it’s super creepy being out here alone. I get up and grab my spear. You know, just in case.

As the night presses on I finally see the moon, a deep blue glow suffuses the area as it passes quickly overhead. Within an hour the moon is gone and I’m back into the dark.

That explains why I’ve never seen it. The moon itself was incredibly blue, in addition to the sheer size. If there were buildings on it, I swear I would be able to see them from this distance.

Other than some distance shifting in the woods, and the sound of bugs chirping, the night passes smoothly, and I’m eventually swapped with Watcher.

——-

Although I only got like four hours of sleep, it was a deep dreamless night. It feels like I slept for twelve hours. I am the last awake though, and as I step out Trevor greets me with a wave and some reheated meat. He’s been basically smoking the meat each day, and it’s almost a jerky at this point.

Since Chris and David were already gone, we agreed to meet up at lunch to discuss our skills.

After I finish eating, and taking care of my other bodily needs, I set Jamie up with the claw and bone. Then grabbing my basket-pack I set off to harvest more reeds. I make it back with almost four bushels worth this time!

The backpack was such a good idea. I smile smugly to myself.

After laying out the material, I look at it all.

I’m going to have to do something about this, I’m taking up around a fifth of the clearing with just the reeds and my bone piles alone.

Checking on Jamie I find that he’s really in the zone. So I grab some of the dried reeds and some branches and set about making something to hold the reeds.

I start with a branch as the base and another almost perpendicular, but leaning back from one side of the base to the other. It takes some finangling to get the reeds tight against the two branches, but I have one post done. It’s kind of like if someone cut off one side of a soccer goal. After I set up the second one. I start tying some reads in sections on one of the angled branches, then braid each section across and finally tie it off on the other branch. Once that’s done, I do the same from top to bottom, braiding through each of the previously braided sections until I get a good netting. There’s still some large block holes, but it’s good enough to set the reeds on.

By the time Chris and David return, I’ve made three of the things. I can probably get two or so more from the available dried reeds. So I’m feeling pretty productive as I sit down next to the warm flame.

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After we all eat our fill of the dried meat. Trevor gets everyone’s attention.

“Okay, so I have the Path of Camping. Which seems oriented around managing the camp. I had two skills listed. One being, Camp Management, and the other was Camp Building. At this point, there isn’t a whole lot to manage, so I went ahead and got camp building. Which I’m hopeful will help with making a better camp and tools for it.”

“Cody, what have you got?” He asks after giving everyone a moment to digest that information.

The Watcher holds up some hide, then mimes running his blade through it.

“Is that leatherworker?” John asks, earning a shake of the head no.

“Skinning?” Trevor asks as Cody mimes pulling the hide away from his skin.

This gets us a solid nod, before Cody pulls up his bracer and double taps it.

“So you have the path of skinning or something similar, and clothes making?” John asks.

Cody gives a so-so shake of his hand followed by a thumbs up. Then he tightens the forearm guard back on and looks expectantly at John.

“I’m an Orator, I only had one skill available, which was chronology. So I just grabbed it. I’m not really sure how my path is supposed to work, but I’m hoping if I keep at least a spoken record of events I’ll be able to level it.”

That’s an interesting path. Not one I would have chosen, but I guess it’s something. I think to myself as John finishes explaining his path.

Big Mike stands up, flexes all his muscles across his naked body, and I do mean all of them. Then with a huge grin he says.

“I have the Path of the Strongman, and my skill is Honed Muscles.” Without providing any further of an explanation he pulls Jamie up, then sits back down

“Umm…my path is musician, and thanks to Elizabeth I got the skill, Instrument Crafting… Which helped make this.” He holds up the bone flute.

“It’s not perfect, but it makes noise.” He blows into the flute and plays a soft tune.

“It’s not really in tune, though.” He says with a frown before sitting back down.

David leans back.

“My path is explorer, my skill is Internal compass. Hopefully we will be able to go further without losing our way. I had a couple other skills available, like the active skill: Find Landmark, but I thought the compass would be better.”

Clearing his throat, Chris leans his body forward.

“So guys, my class is bloodletter, and my skill is Euthanize. I haven’t really explained, but I have some very limited medical experience from back home, and with Oscar’s internal bleeding I believed the best I could do was prevent needless suffering. I think my path and skill reflects that. I’m not sure how much use I'll get out of it, but I think it’ll be needed in the worst case scenarios.” He meets everyone’s gaze who will provide it. After he’s done speaking, he grabs some jerky, stands up, and walks towards the edge of the clearing.

Welp, that explains a bit, but that doesn’t change him being an asshole.

“After working with Jamie on his instrument, I’ve found that my crafting skill is limited to only things that fit in the survival category, I'm not sure all that actually fits into it, but it’s not a catch all skill.” I add to the discussion, since everyone knows my path and skill.

As the conversation closes, Watcher approaches me. Waving his hand he directs me towards a patch of dirt. Then starts drawing something out. One rounded end, the other a spike, slim at the spike, and thick on top.

“I can probably make that for you.” I tell him, getting the typical nod in response. He waves goodbye and heads back to the scaled leather he’s set aside.

I go over to the oldest bones, and like a focus one gets my attention. The sense of acceptance passes through my mind. I pull it out before pausing.

Why are the bones ready now? I ask myself before looking for a piece for a spear. The wrongness radiates from the bones.

So the bones are ready for whatever I’m making, while they’re not ready for a spear tip?

Shrugging, I bring the bone piece to the drawing. It's roughly the right size, but it’s quite thick.

There is no way I’m grinding this whole thing down to size. I hop back to my feet.

Guess I’ll try to make a chisel first.

I find another acceptable bone shard, this one was part of the caved-in skull, luckily it’s pretty flat and narrow from where it chipped off. I take it to the grindstone and get started.

This is going to be a long day.

It takes several hours of work, but I eventually get a functional chisel made, taking a rock with me, I head over to the drawing and start working from point to end, on the item for Cody.

The chisel was an awesome idea! I praise myself, as I pull layers of bone away with each smack of the rock on the chisel. After I get the point to a fine shape, and make sure the whole thing is even, I begin grinding it with the stone. This smoothes out the point and shaft decently well. It still has a few divots here and there, but I’m pleasantly surprised by how well it came together.

As the end of the day rolls around, I feel pretty accomplished. I didn’t finish with the reeds, but I managed to make a new tool, and help both Cody and Jamie out. I pass it over to Cody as we head towards the fire, and he pulls me into a side hug. After getting some food, he comes back over with a patch of hide in hand, then uses the tool to pierce the hide. He flashes a grin at me before stepping away, and I feel so much pride in my work. I may have no idea what it’s called, but he’s happy, and so am I.

I’ve never felt this good about anything I’ve done in the past, not even that time I hiked twenty something miles in a day.

I imagine the cabin in my mind's eye, focusing on the L shaped room, and the objects therein. I feel a tugging sensation in my chest, and then I’m there, as if I’m waking up on the bed. Looking at the mirror, there’s no pulsing light, it’s just the mirror. I approach it anyway.

Tapping a few times, I pull up my status to see everything the same. My level is still 1, the skill is the same as well. I check the Path book while I’m at it, and find the tool I made for Cody drawn under Survival Crafting, along with the basket and other tools. I set the book down and make my way to the unlit fire, I grab a few pieces of charcoal and set them aside. Looking around, I find a piece of what I think is flint on the mantle, along with a small edged piece of steel. I drag the steel along the flint a few times and manage to spark the fire. I hop back over to the night stand, and flip the hourglass. Then finally sitting In the chair next to the bookshelf and fire, I grab the brown notebook from the first time I came to this place.

Double checking that the pages are still empty, they are, I press the charcoal against the parchment. To my immense satisfaction the charcoal easily leaves a line along the page.

My path is that of a survivor, as such, I must learn what the term means.

Aspects of survival

Known: Tool crafting, spear Hunting, Field dressing

Possible? Gathering, First aid, traps, archery hunting, tracking, fishing.

Some solid ideas Lizzy. Now what tools do I need?

To make: traps, bow, fishing rod, functional clothing?

Traps: bear traps, rope traps

Okay, so I’m not an expert in trapping.

Bow: chisel a good length of wood, attach sinew as string.

Long bows and flat bows should be doable with my Survival Crafting, but I’m not sure about recurves.

I should probably try making a knife while I’m at it.

If a needle is part of Survival Crafting, then some sort of clothing should be as well? Right?

As I go to jot down my thoughts something weird happens. A sudden lightning strike with a snap of thunder fills the cabin. The fire goes out, and the walls start shaking like I’m in an earthquake. As I fall to the ground, I hear the hourglass shatter.