Day 24

I entered the void quickly, and walked forward, feeling the tile underneath my feet, and felt that the tiles were warm, but the wind blowing gently was still refreshingly cold. As I walked forward the wall immediately started to grow in front of me, unchanged in its beauty. The grand doorway opened before, the sounds of nature far louder than before, and pushing through into the void. I walked on entering the brightly lit forest, noticing for once the sun shining overhead, casting a small shadow in front of me. I walked along the forest path, the moss soft beneath my feet, and slowly the sounds of the waterfall reached me, roaring loudly, and I sped up, hoping to see it soon.

I reached the waterfall soon and saw it was relatively unchanged, it had grown to 60 feet tall, and was now 25 feet across. The small lake seemed a little larger, but not by much, and the island seemed relatively unchanged. As I walked over to the bridge, I noticed that there was a path leading up, beyond the bridge and lead to what seemed to be the top of the waterfall. Curious I followed the new path, and after ten minutes of following a winding path, I reached the top of the waterfall, overlooking the forest.

It was interesting, to say the least, to see the forest from this view, it too stretched far beyond the horizon, much like the forest in real life. I looked around the area just before the waterfall and noticed that there were the broken remains of a structure in the water, large chunks of concrete and rebar almost poking through the water, and in the middle of the waterfall, there was a fairly flat piece just below the surface. I was skeptical, was I inviting myself to go and sit on the concrete, what exactly dictated how this world changed, was it the life force I absorbed? I almost gave myself a headache thinking about it, and decided to go with the flow and sit on the concrete sitting in the middle of the waterfall. It took some work, as the water was trying to drag me away, over the edge. Eventually, I got to the slab, and sat atop it, feeling the pull of the water lessen, but not disappear.

I sat there, surveying the landscape, noticing things I hadn't seen before, the path I walked was barely visible, the trees leaving a slight gap in their branches. There where thin spots in the trees, areas I might have to explore later. I closed my eyes after scanning the forest for a while and proceeded to fall asleep.

I woke up with the sun in my eyes, blinded, I rolled over, face-first into a pile of snow. Letting out a yelp of surprise, I shot upright, to find that my campsite had been blanketed in about 6 inches of snow. The cold wind stung my face, waking me up the rest of the way. I quickly dug out the carapace I had been using as a shovel, and promptly put it and the Manaphage to work, absorbing and clearing the snow. I got the fire pit cleared first and quickly lit it, creating a large fire, and threw some meat over the top of it, then got back to work. It took me about an hour, and eventually, I got it all cleared up, re-establishing my perimeter, and even expanding my spear fence line. I got back, sat down, and ate my 'steak', my stomach slowly warming up, and getting rid of the chill.

Adamant that this would not happen again, I finished eating and grabbed my ax, I was going to finish building the little hut, either today, or tomorrow, or at the very least, make a proper roof so I don't get snowed on again. I started chopping and notching more and more wood, entering a trance of cutting and throwing the logs, until I ran out of the easily movable ones. The sun was starting to set, and I wanted to at least fully build the short walls.

I started to stack them up and using the notches, interlocked them, creating a passable wall, and slowly I got three walls built up. The sun was now below the treeline, and I rushed to grab the wing I had dried out, and dragged it over my shack/hut/structure, and used my old blanket as a makeshift door. I put some meat into a carapace shell, and dug out under the fire, and started the slow cooking process.

After the labor-intensive day, I sat back, and started roasting dinner, more meat, and worked on skinning the snake. It went much faster than the bird-beast, and soon enough, I had a snake hide, and a bunch of snake jerky set aside, having pulled out all the little bones and organs, and removed what I think was the poison or acid sack. Once done with all that, I carefully washed my wands, and quickly chewed my roast beast. I soon started meditating before going to bed.