Day 33

It took me all day to break down the cat, and I found I hadn't sharpened my Talon knife enough, and made the first few cuts terribly. My ax could only hack away at the limbs when I found a rather... poetic solution to the problem. When I removed one of its paws, I seemed to actuate its claw muscle or however that works, and its rather sharp claws all extended at once, about two inches long and razor-sharp. I quickly removed one and used it to try cutting the skin, like a hot knife through butter it glided through, easily separating the meat and skin. I took my time, using such a small blade to skin a giant animal takes all day, that and drying the rest of its organs and meat for later, I still did not get any kind of taste off of it. I finished the day with a large sheet of leather, and another pile of bones I had no idea how to use yet. I went to bed meditating and fell asleep soon after.

I got up with the sun shining through the small cut in my roof, right in my eye, and I slowly got out of my hut. Grabbing a new stack of jerky, and shoving it a robe pocket. I had a plan that got interrupted yesterday, and I was determined to see it through. I threw some dried logs on the fire, before starting up the mountain.

I reached the top and stood there looking out at the massive forest, the treetops were level with the plateau, and I scanned the horizon, looking for the clearing I explored. Unfortunately, I was unable to see it, but undeterred I moved on, following the edge of the plateau. I was walking along, whistling the tune of the double cat, that's what I was going to call it since it had twice as many legs. '1 2 1234 1 1' but that didn't feel right either, I had been trying different tunes for a bit, and none of them felt right. I walked a ways away until I could not see the campsite behind me, just the wisps of smoke, and I stopped. I examined the forest beyond me, hoping to see the telltale signs of a clearing, remembering that I had seen some before, the last time I walked up here.

It took some more walking, but eventually, I saw one, several miles away, and I carefully made my way down and started to walk through the forest, marking trees, and climbing them to make sure I was going the right way. I made it, eventually, and found a similar situation to my clearing, a stone sitting there, a hole in the ground, larger than the one by me, but just as ominous. I started in, spear at the ready, and Manaphage showing the way forward.

It took about the same amount of time to get down, and when I did, I found that the situation was about the same, a bunch of tree trunks supporting the whole cave system, and the ever-present expanse putting me on edge. I was nervous, but I had a plan, I had made sure to pay close attention to how many turns there were, and I started walking and marking the trees with my knife, heading towards the mountainside.

It took me a while, but my patience and persistence paid off, I was able to reach the stone wall of the mountain and started following it back the way I came, looking for traces of life, and marks from my expedition down the other hole. If my theory was right, I should be able to find the other entrance, what I would do with this information, I didn't know, I just wanted to find out. As I walked, I dragged the Manaphage along the wall, making a clear line in the wall, I was testing the ability of the Manaphage again. It had been a while since I had tried new things with the Manaphage, and it had... evolved a couple of times since the last battery of tests, and I had nothing better to do. I had found that with a little intent and magic, I was able to grind stone with my fingertips (mitten tip?) now. I also found that it was a great way to sharpen the Talon knife, finally, I was able to grind the rest of the blade to a razor's edge.

I continued testing the Manaphage, grabbing a rock that fit in the palm of my hand and tried heating it up as hot as possible, soon it started steaming and almost rattling, and I chucked it as hard as I could into the forest, and I heard it explode on contact with a rather large tree trunk. Excited I jogged over, and found that I had broken a sizable chunk of bark off. I grabbed another rock, as I walked and curious if it was the superheating or just the strength of the Manaphage, I whipped the rock at a tree trunk, and found that it didn't explode on contact, but had instead embedded itself an inch in the tree, past the bark, into the slightly harder wood. I was rather pleased with the results of my experiments and kept walking, and an hour later, found a mark in the cave wall, it was the same one I had placed here the other day, and looking around, I saw the start of the marked trees as well.

I was excited, I had discovered something that could be really useful, now all I had to do was figure out how to capitalize on it. I started making my way back, grabbing the chunks of barks I had left behind when I felt the beginnings of the tremors. Soon, I reached the pillar up, and started my climb, when I saw something interesting, in the distance, barely discernible between the trees, was a glow, and it seemed to be moving, I quickly weighed the obvious decision in my head, investigate or go home, and I found that I was ill-prepared to investigate this new phenomenon. I turned back and continued up the spire, figuring that I already planned to investigate in that way sooner or later, and guessed tomorrow was sooner.

I eventually made it up, and entered the familiar clearing, and started home, making it back close to nightfall. I was done exploring for the day, and the tasteless jerky was getting to me, and I sat down and started making dinner. Sitting back I remembered my phone, quickly checking it, finding that the bar had once again grown, sitting at 80 percent it seemed. I put it away, the rest of the screen having remained unchanged. Soon enough I ate my dinner, the sweet and spicy flavor a welcome relief from the bland jerky. I went to bed after dinner, and laid down, meditating, and went to sleep.