Day 65

I walked for quite a while before feeling like a toddler on a road trip, why the hell wasn't I there yet!? I had been walking for 2 hours or so before I thought that, and I couldn't comprehend why I wasn't there yet, usually, time flies as I ran through the trees, merrily dodging trunks and jumping the occasional roots, as Lupe ran beside me. Now as I'm walking, its taking forever, and I'm not even at the tree I placed the terrible pit trap in. I was looking around for any landmarks besides my hacks and handprints in the trunks when I saw the clearing and rock spire. I was happy to see something familiar, but very saddened by the fact I was only a quarter to a third of the way there, it was going to be evening when I got to the drop from the top layer to the first layer down.

I took a short break, and sat down with Lupe, throwing his meat high in the air to jump and grab, at one point I got him to do a little run up a tree to grab a piece I had tossed as high as I could, and he succeeds wonderfully and landed with the grace of a sack of agile potatoes. He rolled to a stop in front of me, as I rolled around laughing, I knew he was fine since the emoticon above his head was a constant smile. I grabbed another piece of jerky and fed it to him, and got to my feet, grabbing the sled and once again starting my trek to my new home.

I made it, eventually, to the part of the forest where the floor started to thin out, and instead of trying to continue on into the dark thin parts where I could break a leg, I decided to stop for the night and set up camp. I started a small fire, lined it with dirt, and cleared the debris around it, the fallen tree detritus more annoying than anything else. I quickly started my meager fire and started building a quick lean-to next to it, before laying down with Lupe acting as my pillow. I did not meditate and deliberately went straight to sleep instead.

I woke up before dawn, the feeling of being in the open and watched more effective than coffee, and my eyes opened wide, the left eye seemed to have a mind of its own, and started moving sporadically like it was searching for something. The blurriness of it was gradually disappearing, slowly gaining clarity and soon I could get a better picture of my surroundings, in a contrasting color version of my surroundings. It was strange, like seeing a very clear negative, with things becoming clear. My brain was having a painful time parsing the two images together, the normal color I could see and the negative beyond it.

What I didn't have a hard time seeing was the giant creature looming between the trees, like it was on thin stilts, with three legs, and a body sitting high above the trees. It was looking down at me with curiosity, and maybe a little hunger. I grabbed a stick, still burning, and waved it at the creature. Obviously menacingly, since it almost looked like it rolled its eyes and continued walking. Passing over me and my campsite, striding into the night, the only sound sounding like wind brushing past. I sat back, terrified, I had no plan there. That thing was monstrous and could have killed me without much trouble I felt.

I sat back, my breathing starting to turn ragged, and I slowly started to panic more. What the fuck, I didn't run into this thing before, is it from one of the lower levels, does it not like the snow, probably not. Now that I think about it, the legs were spindly, probably sturdy, but not insulated. I was calming myself down, telling myself all this, and trying to convince myself that I would be fine. It was nocturnal, so I probably wouldn't run into it anywhere if I just kept my adventuring to the day time, and just crawled into my little hovel at night, going to sleep in hopeful protection. I almost wanted to go back, and just live in my hut, but I was bound and determined to find humans, or something, anything I could talk to and trade with, hopefully.

I tried going back to bed, noticing that Lupe hadn't gotten up until I started swinging the stick around, more tired than anything, and promptly went back to bed when I sat down. I curled up beside him and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

I awoke again with the sun this time and woke Lupe up with some warmed jerky, the healthiest way to start a morning. I started to drag the sled forward, not wanting to waste any more daylight, after of course putting out my fire properly, using some half-melted snow to make sure the flames where fully doused.

We walked for a while, before reaching the edge, the ground not quite crumbling beneath my feet. I had already figured out how I was going to get the sled down, and pulled it back aways, and cut down a big tree, crashing it between the two layers, acting as a semi feasible ramp. I then got to work drying it till it was completely out of the water, before splitting it in twain, running up and down its middle, dragging a hastily carved saw, and imbuing it with a vibrational force. It worked wonders, and cleanly split it, crashing the two sides next to each other, each about six feet across, and fairly flat. Then all I had to do was drag the sled up to the top, and carefully bring it down.

It was tricky, having to stop the sled from sliding off the sides, but I managed, and brought it down, the branches I hadn't accounted for, but the sled was only a couple feet off the ground, and I carefully pulled it off, and as gently as possible, I set it on the ground. Lupe was happily running around, celebrating my success. I pat him on the head and started on, the light was already directly overhead, and I wanted to get to my cabin by nightfall.