That night we didn’t slept, we continued marching on without stopping until the sun rose. After overeating and taking some meat for the journey I wanted to put as much distance between ourselves and my victims least their comrades came searching for them and found us instead. We continued like this for two days, still not seeing a sight of the forest ending, taking small breaks in between to catch our breaths and stave off fatigue. We finally came upon a mountain and as I begun to scale it in order to get a better vantage point I heard the sound of running water. Have I finally found it? A great place to set up base.

  I started gathering dead logs and fallen branches while sending out Sorbet to go for a run and maybe hunt something if he was lucky since our meat had run out. I should also probably look into some edible vegetation, after all a decade of nothing but raw meat was hard, regardless if I had gotten used to it. I needed some variety, proper nutrition, a warm home cooked meal. Well that was for future me to figure out, right now I needed to construct a dwelling so me and Sorbet could be safe from the elements. We were very lucky so far that no spring rains had befallen us and we walked only under clear skies but our luck was going to eventually run out.

  Games sure did made this part look easy but without any tools and no way to create them putting together a simple a tent like structure, ready to fall against the weakest of gusts was the best I could do. If I could use something for rope, I would be able to both bind tools and my house together. Then an idea struck me, what If I used my knife to strip the trees of their bark? Maybe I could tie the long strips together to hold my structure together, I remember seeing this in one of those survival shows my father used to watch.

  Grabbing a nice rock since I didn’t wanted to ruin my knife so soon after obtaining it, I worked on it, trying to test out my idea, as the outer bark flew into my face and splinters got into my fingers. It was grueling work and at some point I stopped feeling my hands from all the pain and exertion but I did it, I obtained the inner bark that I wanted. Cutting it into thin lines with the tip of my spear I managed to bind together my building and it held together nicely. Now all that remained was to see for how long it held together.

  Thinking about it the knifes that I had pilfered were held together by some form of rope, if only I could analyze it then maybe I could figure out how to make it for myself but at the same time I didn’t wanted to waste a perfectly good knife for nothing, it was best to wait until one of them went out naturally and the perform the inspection. Back on the tent, the work wasn’t done yet, I still had to work on the insulation, gathering moss from the forest I laid it on top of the tightly bound logs, creating a natural, albeit decaying layer of insulation.

  The sun had already begun to set by the time I finished my work, looking at the finishing product, one that took the better half of a day to construct, I reassured myself that this was only temporary and I would do better work in the future. As I was holding back tears at the marvel of engineering before my eyes Sorbet drew my attention by bumping into me. I hadn’t noticed him returning, that was how absorbed I was by our new house, that was scary, what if it wasn’t Sorbet but some manner of ferocious beast that got the drop of me next time? I needed to do better.

  I turned towards Sorbet, seeing that in his mouth he was carrying a bloodied and dead rabbit. I suppose he was quite a competent hunter when I wasn’t around to impede his efforts. He dropped the rabbit at my feet, remind of a cat that would bring half dead birds or mice at the feet of their owners. I started petting him all over his large body, him yielding to my pats as he fell to the ground, allowing me access to every inch of his body. I knew from his body language when he presented me the rabbit that he wanted to be praised and patted like the good boy he was.

  After I was done I took some of the spare wood I gathered and some of the moss and begun the arduous process of starting a fire, using some spare tree bark, a straight and lean piece of wood and Sorbet’s help as he held the stick straight with his paw I managed to produce some embers and light up a small fire, after a few failures that is. Still I was very thankful to my father and all the survival shows he watched with us children, I doubt I would have come up with this method all on my own.

  After letting the blood drain, I butchered the rabbit, throwing the innards, minus the intestines, Sorbet’s way who at first refused the offering. This is how I found out that this was the second rabbit he had caught and was meant entirely for me since he already ate the first. My jaw hit the floor, he was a really good hunter without me around! Still I said to him that I can’t eat those parts and that he needs to eat more since he was bigger than me so he quickly inhaled the parts. Carefully separating the hide from the muscle I skewered the four rabbit legs and put them on top of the open fire to cook while leaving the rest of the rabbit at my Sorbet’s capable paws.

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  Rabbits have low body fat, which makes them a perfect meal for losing weight but at the same time that low fat makes the meat itself bland. This leaves the heavy lifting in terms of flavor to the other ingredients and condiments used when preparing a meal with rabbit meat. Meaning that when eaten alone, cooked over an open fire, it tastes like nothing in particular, maybe I shouldn’t have drained the blood after all, at least in that case it would have a taste even if it would be bad. Maybe I shouldn’t really play the culinary creature when I don’t even have salt in my disposal and instead eat everything raw as I had been doing for so long.

  Still a full belly was a full belly so I didn’t had anything to complain. Crawling into the wooden shelter I laid down under its roof, Sorbet soon followed laying on top of me like a big warm weighted blanket. Tomorrow was going to be a brand new day. I woke up with the first rays of the sun, waking up Sorbet in the process, our shelter had held up during the night, which was more that I could ask for. Grabbing my spear I decided to join Sorbet in hunting today alongside with scouting my new neighborhood.

  I left one of the satchels behind along with two of the three knifes, after all this was a place I was planning on returning to. Along the way to the stream I carved little marks on the threes, waypoints so I could find my way back home. Our first stop was the river since I wanted to check for fish and animal trails. I suppose that this was too close to the source of the river for fish to frequent, the river wasn’t wide enough and too rough for any of them to want to make it up here so that was a strike.

  On the animal side I was more fortunate, I found several trails, frequented by various animals both small and medium. Now I had two paths before me, the path of the active hunter were I went out all day, waited around for prey to arrive and strike them down with Sorbet or the path of the trapper were I set up various traps and checked them daily for the nights meal. I preferred the path of the trapper since it opened up my day to do to anything else that needed to be done but until I managed to actually make the traps I needed to be an active hunter.

  Me and Sorbet hid behind a tree, waiting on today’s meal to arrive while my brain run trying to figure out how to make a good enough rope. A rope was braided, any rope I ever saw in fact was braided, it’s its thing, so does that mean that I need to take the inner bark of the trees and braid it together? I should try it after the day hunt is over. We waited for what felt hours before something appeared, it was a cute little thing, it wasn’t a rabbit but it matched the size, it instead looked like an oversized mouse, I believe I’ve seen our hunters carry such creatures back from their hunts but I doubt I’ve ever eaten any.

  Well it was high time I tried them as I readied my spear. Sorbet swiped me with his paw signaling me to stop, this was his hunt. I guess he wanted to secure his meal before I went ahead and ruined it for the both of us. Still it was a good chance to observe how my boy hunted. He approached the large rat with silent steps from its blind spot, by the time the rat noticed it was already to late as Sorbet leaped into the air landing right on top of it his sharp teeth plunging into their victim.

  That was my boy. He quickly devoured the rat thing leaving the cleaning up to me. Scrubbing out blood without a rug was a more arduous task that I expected and I didn’t knew if I cleaned everything since I was desensitized to the smell of blood due to all the butchering I had done. Still I must have done a good enough job given a bird came down to drink water from the river and it was a large one the size of a small chicken. Well it was a smaller target than the rabbit but I had adequate illumination this time so how wrong could it go?

  I readied my stance, winding up my throw. Letting out a deep breath I launched my bone spear onto the target. It missed, alerting the bird which flew away. I could feel Sorbet’s cold gaze as I went to retrieve it, he had already eaten, I didn’t knew why he was looking at me that way. Well at least my boy had eaten that was more that I could have asked for in my current situation. I waited around some more and a herd of rabbits appeared. Sorbet was ready to make a move, clearly for my sake but I stopped him, this was now my hunt.

  I approached the herd, keeping my posture low and my steps silent, mixing into the foliage, I could be mixing better if I wasn’t cyan but whatever. I got as close as possible to those rabbits and prepared my throw, from this distance and with their numbers there was no way for me to miss. I released the spear, cutting through the air as it landed into the body of one of the rabbits, impaling it to the ground. I begun jumping up and down, excited at my first successful hunt, I didn’t care that the rest of the rabbits got away, getting just one was enough for me. Even Sorbet, the ever displeased critic had to give this one to me.

  I had done it, survival didn’t seemed so grim anymore.