Day 28

I got up pretty late, feeling freezing cold, and a little concerned. Poking my head out of the blanket flap, I immediately went face-first into a pile of snow. Shocked by the sudden cold, I pulled my head back cursing. O shoved the Manaphage into the snow pile and started to melt the snow, before absorbing the water that drained down. It took ten minutes but I was finally able to get out of the hut and stand up, seeing my fire pit was still covered by the other wing, but that hadn't done it much good, as the snow had built up a good 2 feet around the whole campsite.

I started to clean up the campsite, slowly rolling the snow into a ball, and eventually cleared it up enough to be able to walk around normally. I now had 3 large snowballs, each 5 feet around, making a sort of wall around the site, and the sun was already high above, heading over the treetops. I sighed, figuring the whole day was shot, and walked over to my woodpile, hoping to be able to get my fire going and cook a real breakfast, a couple of pounds of snake meat from the first snake almost gone already.

I got the fire going, after some finagling and sat down to eat my late lunch, tired and cold. I didn't feel like exploring the forest today and decided to work on the leather I had tanned and subsequently forgot about. I grabbed the three test strips and found the leather hadn't really been affected, in fact, it seemed like it was fine. I tested it and found that it was still feeling sturdy, and didn't have any kind of rotting smell. Surprised, I tried pulling it apart and found that it was very tear-resistant.

I didn't want to, but I started up the mountain, if the rest of the leather was fine, I could start trying to make some sort of leather clothes, which would hopefully be sturdier and warmer than what I had now. I slipped and tripped up the mountain, face planting in the thick snow once or twice, but eventually, I reached the top, and found the leather right by the edge, right where I had buried it. I slid back down without any problem and got to work.

I started by warming the leather up near the fire, it was like a solid brick, and I needed it to be pliable. It took a while, the leather staying cold for a long time, giving me hope that it was really insulating, and further giving me ideas. I could use the scraps to make a pillow, or maybe use them to cushion my floor more. The sun was already starting to set when I was able to finally start working on the leather. First I cut a bunch of slim strips, in hopes of using them as strings. Next, I cut out several panels of leather in a roughly one foot by three-foot dimensions, I had seen a kind of long coat that was basically just a bunch of these sown together in a certain way to make it easy on production and it was easy to modify. My knife was getting pretty dull at this point, it was getting harder and harder to cut the leather, but I got 12 panels made, using up most of the flatter parts of the leather. I then grabbed one of the larger snakes bones, hoping to use it as a needle, and surprisingly, it punctured the leather with little resistance, I had sharpened it to a point, but hadn't been expecting it to be able to pierce it with such ease, seeing as I had to practically saw at it with my knife halfway through.

Before I started sewing I got up, my legs numb, I had been sitting for hours, and the sun had almost gone down completely. I walked over to the bone pile, and grabbed a sharp-looking talon, about a foot long, and brought it back to my campsite. I grabbed my ax and chipping hammer and started to carve it down, slowly chipping away the sides and grinding away the sides.

It was night by the time I stopped, the talon knife sitting in my lap, half-completed, and already the point was wickedly sharp. I was getting pretty tired, and brought the leather panels into my hut, putting into plan my idea of a softer bed. I grabbed a chunk of meat and buried it in the carapace shells, I had forgotten I had cooked a piece under there before, and it had frozen solid. I put the third shell right next to my doorway to remind myself to check. I laid the panels out under me, stacking them two thick, and six across, giving me a three-foot-wide, six-foot-long bed, softer than dirt. I laid back, meditating, before falling asleep in the tiny hut, satisfaction that I had still done something productive helping keep me warm.