Day 44

I was whittling for a while, throwing sticks to Lupe to bring back every now and then, He slowly got his energy back, soon enough running around, tail wagging. He probably was taking naps when I wasn't looking, as I carved up spears, and tried my hand at making stone tools, like knives and proper spearheads. It was easier than I thought, as I was able to make a hole through the head, and affix a wood rod in it, welding it to the shaft of wood, making a solidly built spear. I got up to test it, and walked outside, taking Lupe with me, so I could let him run around on my now lengthened leash, about 100 feet.

Lupe was running around the hut, enjoying his lengthened freedom in the moonlight. I hefted the spear, aiming at a tree about 30 feet away, and let it fly, chucking it with my right hand, burying it at the base of the tree in the snow. Alright, decent enough, I walked over and grabbed it, walked back, and sighted it in with the Manaphage, willing it to fly further, and aimed at a tree 60 feet away, and launched it. It flew far, completely missing the tree, probably because I was throwing with my left... hand? I might as well call the Manaphage my left hand, I've been using it as such for a while.

I was distracted, thinking about the Manaphage when in the distance I heard an explosion. I saw a plume of snow about 500 feet away, and I grabbed Lupe's leash with about 30 feet of slack and headed over to the landing point. We reached it soon enough, finding a sizable crater, about five feet across, with the spear still vibrating in the center. “huh, still intact too” I grabbed the shaft, pulling at it, and it disintegrated in my hand. “well... shit,” the rest of the spear shattered, all the way to the point.

Since I was out here already, I decided on checking the tree I had half-melted, I walked over and found that it had further rotted from the inside out. I kicked at it, the tree breaking apart under my foot, crumbling into soft rotten chunks. Lupe sniffed at the tree, before immediately turning away like he smelled something unpleasant. I shrugged to him and started walking away, not wanting to bother with the log, and I was really wishing I had the poison and acid, it would be useful as a last resort kind of weapon, even if I didn't know how to store it properly.

We started walking back, the moon sinking below the horizon, the sky above the mountain starting to brighten up. “that was the easy part, Lupe, you ready for the hard part?”

“bur?”

“staying up all day!”

“bark...”

“Good boy.” I reached down and scratched his head, leading him back home, more spears to make, more things to learn about the Manaphage. We got inside as the sun came up, a hot and ready meal waiting for us. We quickly ate our breakfast(?) and started into the forest, my current plan was to find the hole down, or at least make some progress in that direction, and maybe when I got back, finish up with the walls of my cabin.

We quickly got to the clearing with the rock and hole, taking a short break to examine the area, finding tracks in the light snow leading out. From my limited knowledge, they seemed like pig feet, and my best guess was that it was the same one I saw being chased by the snake. I did not feel like going after any more meat, and the thought of making another pit trap caused shivers to run up my left arm. I found the sticks I had used to point the way towards the smoke and started walking forward, Lupe following along beside me, trotting and sniffing his surroundings, thoroughly pleased with himself.

I walked for what felt like three hours, entering a trance-like a state, slowly getting more and more tired, the sun peeking through the foliage above me, letting me know that time was, in fact, going much slower than it felt, the sun not even close to its zenith. I took a break and sat down, chewing some jerky, I don't know which animal it came from at this point, the flavor had been subdued by how tired I was, and I was just going through the motion.

I thought I had blinked, but when I opened my eyes, the sun was already starting to sink below in the sky, “fuck, really, I should not have stopped,” I got to my feet, brushing off some fallen snow, and grabbed at Lupe's leash, waking him up from his nap, “sorry bud, just a couple more hours.” I said as I picked him up and rubbed his head. His tired eyes staring at me like I was a monster for waking him up. “I'll carry you then, rascal.” and opened up my messenger bag all the way, barely fitting him inside, letting him rest his head looking out, his eyes half-open.

I started walking forward, before thinking about what I was doing and placed my pack on the ground, Lupe falling asleep in the bag, and climbed a tree. I quickly reached the top, and looked around, seeing a circle of trees missing in the distance. Excited, I clambered down quickly, and picked up my pack, careful not to wake Lupe, and started forward, my goal close now, and I was invigorated to mark the path to it, so I wouldn't have to carefully find my way again.

I eventually got there, finding the burned husk of a tree, and the circle of trees I had exited a day or so ago. I carved a big ol' X on it, and turned around, my path home clear as day, and started walking back, careful to follow my traces, but going at a much faster pace now. As I walked home, the sun was now almost level with the treetops, casting long shadows, and I hurried my footsteps, things flickering in my vision, leaving me to tell myself that they were just figments, I just needed to sleep a while, in my warm wood cabin.

With that ever so comforting thought, I started jogging, holding Lupe in my arms so as not to disturb him as much. I soon reached the rock and hole and felt relieved, I was in my territory now, my neck of the woods. I chuckled to myself when I thought it, man im funny when I'm tired, all I need now is an audience. Soon enough, I made it home, the fire was out, the cabin was a bit cold. I placed Lupe in his nook, and started my fire back up, warming the room slowly, as I got a scoop of meat-bone-broth paste and plopped it in Lupe's bowl close to the fire, before warming up my own bowl of it, shoveling it down with a couple of mouthfuls of clean snow, I found I was acclimating to the taste more and more.

Lupe seemed to smell the food, and got out of his nook, and walked over to his bowl clumsily, clearly tired, and started eating, chomping on the snow every now and then. I poked my head outside and found that it was officially night. I closed the door, and cleared all my windows out, making sure to get rid of any build-up. Then I scrubbed my face clean, and washed myself down, wanting to feel clean before I went to bed. Soon enough Lupe finished up and crawled back into my room, and I followed after, clean and wearing clean clothing, at least, feeling clean, and laid back, meditating, soon followed by me passing into sleep, Lupe ever faithfully resting his head under my left hand.