Day 40

I got up late, clouds hung overhead blocking any sunlight, they hung above my new and improved home, slowly rolling past. I was worried, they were an ever-present worry for the time being, but I would not be discouraged, and set to work finishing my rooftop, if only so I could have a completely covered area larger than my hut. I set to carving up the next tree, my practice from the last few having improved my time, turning it from a five-hour-long task to something I could pretty much finish before breakfast was done.

I quickly ate my breakfast, giving Lupe a hearty portion as well. I got back to work building up my roof, and almost got done before it started snowing again, the clouds above had opened up and didn't have any signs of closing. I quickly placed the last quarter before rushing back inside, sticking all the boards together from below as well. I was done, much more quickly than I had thought, thinking that it would take me a couple more days to do everything, but it seemed like magic was really useful when it came to the building. I sat at my table, stretched out, thinking I had forgotten something when I started coughing. The two fire pits were going, cooking my lunch, and my meat-bone-broth paste thing, and I hadn't added a chimney-like I had for my hut roof.

I ran to the door and threw it open, a cloud of smoke billowing out, and got hit in the face by a sharp gust of wind, and what felt like BB's. I stuck my hand out, and caught a handful of small pellets of sleet, growing in size. Lupe strolled out past me, looked around, and came right back inside, unaffected by the smoke inside. I turned back and entered, the smoke mostly cleared out, and got to work cutting open a couple of holes, both in the roof and the walls, I remembered what it was, every snow fort should always have a couple of air holes.

I made a couple of small ones on the walls facing to the left and right of the mountain and made a large vent in the roof, which made a 90-degree turn to allow smoke out, and no snow in. I sat back at my table, and stretched back out on it, relaxing, and felt pretty comfortable, I had a house now, one that I had made. I had furniture, food, and a pet glowing puppy, which was the most adorable thing ever. Now I just needed a chair I could lean back in.

I relaxed there for a good hour or two, before I got tired of not doing anything, and stood up suddenly, Lupe, who had taken a break from running around for a bit, bolted up. I walked over, and picked him up, petting his head all the while. I walked into my bedroom, and grabbed the harness I had made, and started putting it on him, strapping it around his legs and found that it fit well. I set him on the ground and he turned his head, trying to get a look at it, and essentially started chasing his tail. I started laughing, and pulled out my phone, wanting to take a pic. I opened it and saw that two things had changed. One, there was a new icon, it looked like the head of an animal. Two, the background scribbles were now legible.

Well, that was new, 'past before future, knowledge before the change, man before god' that's not an ominous saying or whatever to have on my phone that was once in an alien script. But the new icon interested me, it looked like a dog head, or at least an outline of one.

I noticed the bar was still where it had been, the line unmoving. I put the phone away, shaking my head, and sat down, Lupe having accepted that he couldn't see what was on his back, and went back to lying down. The wind was picking up, and I was feeling tired, and decided to do the same as Lupe and took a nap.