Flashback Part I: Surviving the Unforgiving [Solo]

[Spoons]

45th of Spring 508AV
In the Unforgiving just beyond Pyconia

The sky was glowing orange and red as Syna’s rays graced the darken sky, the small survivalist found himself having remained awake during the pre-dawn bells. He was having trouble sleeping during Leth’s nightly reign, must’ve been the calls from the nightly creatures within. His small campfire before him was beckoning to be fed, but the pycon knew if he fed it he would be sitting here a bell later waiting to extinguish it. And that just would not do, he had things he needed to do, plans he had been calculating in his mind.

The clay man had been out in the wild for four days and the foolish young man decided he was going to drink his water in those first three days, the last drop had vanished down his throat some hours ago. The parched dry rasps in his throat as he breathed and coughed were enough to send chills of desperation down his clay body. He needed to figure out a way to gather water overnight so he could refill his skins in the morning. Something he could roll up and take with him. Spoons knew the piece of equipment he was thinking about was called, but he couldn’t afford to purchase one, let alone carry it with all the other pieces of his kit as well. So today Spoons decided to go out and fashion one of his own, a makeshift water trap, made of nature’s very own supply kit.

The embers before him were ashing over, their hot centers still burning bright, grasping handfuls of the moist dirt by his feet he tossed them onto the coals, listening to the heat hiss and crackle underneath the slowly mounding mass of earth on top of it. It didn’t take long, but Spoons knew he wasn’t finished with the resulting mound. Even if the fire he gave birth to during the night had reduced to ash and embers and he covered it the survivalist in him knew he couldn’t leave it like that, it wasn’t enough. There was always loose twigs and decaying bits of leaves and moss within each handful. Small pockets of fuel for the dying flames.

I am unfortunately out of water. He frowned. A stupid move on his behalf has crept up and smacked him in the face once again. Spoons sighed and stood, having prepared for this instance the young pycon had not relieved himself all night. After all, moisture was moisture and the need to extinguish his campfire was a must for not only his survival but the animals and plants around him.

Untying the fastening cord of his pants the pycon dropped his pants and paused, the coldness of the morning air sending shivers once more through his body. They passed quickly enough and Spoons did what nature had intended him to do.

The task was completed quickly, no need to draw out the obvious. Satisfied and relieved Spoons had quickly refastened his pants and turned to his makeshift campsite.

[Spoons]

It was a simple affair, his current campsite. Hung between roots of a large tree that had decided to grant themselves an above-ground twist was a tarp designed to keep Spoons’ tent and kit from being visible from above, it served as minor protection against most predators that would direct their gazes in on rather shiny items. His tent was assembled in a near pathetic form as it sagged gracefully into the center of it’s top peak and was the most prominently pointed at it’s front and back. The canvas that made up the simple home was kept down by four small bits of twigs and four pebbles.

It was a simple task now to just take it down, inside were three poles, two were pushed into the soft ground and held into place by a small rock pressed against the inner curve, the two pushed into the ground ended in a Y-fork at the top, and sitting in those groves was a single pole. It was this central horizontal pole that had a hefty bend to it’s shaft, giving the tent it’s beautiful and graceful sag. There were three straps that hung from the tent on one of the inner walls, two relatively shorter ones and a slightly longer one. A few inches above the straps sewn were a pair of rings sewn into the tent canvas that lined up more or less to the slightly longer middle one.

Spoons pushed the four pebbles from the corners of his home, their weight removed the tent billowed a little, staying in place by the four twigs he anchored it down with. The pycon started on the side opposite the rings, he yanked one twig out and held on to it. His movements were slow and cautious. Pausing as the flap rippled in the breeze of the early morning, it wasn’t loud enough to alert the wildlife Spoons felt and pulled out the second twig on that side, the breeze did the rest of the work for him. The natural breeze took hold of the freed side and flipped it over the top bar and onto the ground on the other side. The straps now dancing freely.

“Crap.” He muttered, he undid the wrong side and now he was going to have to deal with it. Tossing twigs aside Spoons grabbed the horizontal switch he used as the rafter of his home and removed it from its nesting spot, setting it aside with the utmost care. Yanking the forked sticks out of the ground the pycon allowed the anchoring pebbles to just fall over the holes, he would deal with those later. Now came the fun part...

Spoons grabbed hold of the stretched out tent canvas and folded it back over flat, using the two rocks he left as anchors to keep it from flapping around. The survivalist placed one of the stones in the middle of the canvas short end, the one with the ground-mount holes in it and before doing the same on the other side.

Once the last stone was in place the six-inch pycon pulled the two remained twigs out, allowing his tents corners to flap freely before pausing. This was tedious and long work indeed. Grabbing a hold of one side he pulled it over slowly towards the middle, until he saw the first small strap reveal itself. Standing on the folded side to stop it from unfolding he pushed a bit of the two rocks holding the side down so that they now held the folded edge in place.

He then proceeded to repeat the process on the other side. His tent was effectively half the width it was to begin with, having fold the two side to meet in the middle. A sigh of relief escaped his lips, the process of tearing down his tent was half complete. Taking the three sticks he used to make the tent stand up Spoons placed them on the far end away from the straps. Grabbing hold of all three sticks and the canvas the survivalist pycon pulled them all taunt before rolling them up, tightly winding the canvas around the trio of sticks.

This was the longest process of taking down his campsite. Spoons had to slowly roll the whole thing up, taking care that the two outer edges remained flush the whole length, else he would have to unroll it and redo it. It took the pycon three chimes to get the configuration right, once he did though he found himself kneeling on the rolled up sticks and tent to keep it from unrolling as he grabbed the center strap and fed it through both rings.

A quick pull towards him and the roll was effectively tightly rolled but he knew he needed to make sure the strap stayed and that’s way his tent had a pair of rings overlapping themselves. Folding the strap end over the top ring Spoons pushed the end into the lower ring, so it touched and slid across itself. This end Spoons grabbed once more and pulled it upwards towards him, this motion tightened his tent roll even more, but best of all it prevented it from coming undone.

“Finally!” he exclaimed, a bit louder than he expected. Stillness ensued as Spoons waited for any response from his outcry. Nothing, whew. A quick glance at his former campfire calmed the adventurer’s nerves a bit, seeing it wasn’t flaring. Sitting on the ground, now exposed, was a bedroll, his blanket was rolled and tucked safely away within his pack.

The bedroll was far easier to roll than his tent, it took nearly no time at all and once that was rolled he placed it beside his home. Next came his tarp, it was tied to the two roots and taking it down was fairly simple. A few bits of foliage was what tied them in place and he just yanked on them, releasing the tarp from their grasps.

The tarp fluttered to the ground and Spoons made quick work of folding it up tightly and storing that away in his body pack, which rested against his rucksack and backpack.

Camp was basically torn down, he just had to verify his whole kit was intact and he could start assembling it upon his body before he went off with what he had planned for today.

Never hurts to be careful. He mused.

[Spoons]

Opening first his ruck sack Spoons made a mental note of what was kept in there. Repellent, netting, flint and steel... The list went on mentally for several ticks before the pycon nodded and proceeded to cinch it shut and set it aside. The body pack was the first thing he needed to put on and therefore was the second thing he wanted to ensure had everything in it.

Inside it were small light items he needed at any moment: a compass, a jar of sticky resin used to grip ahold of things, and lint currently. He didn’t really need much quick and easy and therefore this specific pack was quite light and easy to deal with. Pulling it on was a bit of a hassle but the harness system was loosened from the night prior making it a fair bit simpler to put on. Tugging it into place the pycon tightened the securing straps so it pulled tightly against his body and stayed snug in place. He didn’t want it to slide off his body and so he made sure he was tighter than others would.

Next came his actual pack, this held his blanket folded tightly and pushed to the bottom, his mizas were tossed in it haphazardly, something he would eventually move to a more secure location once he could afford to as of right now the mountain-man pycon had no urge to leave it in Pyconia. The rest of his larger gear was stored in his pack as well: his cloak and his four water skins hung from loops on the straps that he made sure were tightly secured before he placed bedroll on the top flap and the tent over top of that, the small straps of the tent were pulled through two pairs of rings, similar to the setup found on his tent’s center strap setup. Pulling these two straps tightly Spoons was able to ensure that both tent and bedding were secured to his pack and he wouldn’t lose them.

Standing Spoons grabbed the ruck sack and lifted it to his waist. Tugging at the securing straps so that it too was snug against his body the adventuring pycon wasn’t planning on losing anything he owned, especially not his source of fire starting. With ruck sack and body pack in place the pycon only had one item left to strap to his body and tighten down. His back pack. Lifting the heavy pack off the ground Spoons grunted as he shouldered it. The weight of his mizas, bedroll, and tent shifted heavily on his shoulders as Spoons took the time to tight the arm straps down and tie the few bits of strapping at front to keep it from sliding about.

Securing the last strap tightly Spoons took one more look at his campfire, it’s life was completely extinguished and he was glad. There was no worry that he was going to cause an uncontrolled fire burning in his wake. Picking up his wooden tablespoon, it was a normal sized item, nicked and burred in places from the previous owner’s use. Spoons had found it useful for digging various holes he needed for fire pits or wind barriers for his tent and tarp.

The last thing he need to grab was probably his most intimate item, his mothers py-pole. The flexible staff was well-worn in place, smoothed and grooved by much use prior to his taking ownership of it. This he refused to leave behind. The spoon, cumbersome as it was, Spoons remembered he couldn’t carry it and his pole safely together. A sigh of annoyance in remembering that the adventuring pycon untied the front straps of his pack and let it fall from his arms. Placing hands at the edging of his tent roll and bedroll while kneeling beside the hefty pack Spoons opened a space that he could hold open one-handed, using his free hand he took the tablespoon’s flat handle and wiggled it into place between the two rolls until the beveled bowl of it’s head rested snugly against the two rolls. A quick retightening of the straps holding the rolls to his pack to satisfy his required reassurance he was prepared to survive and Spoons was ready to once more shoulder his back pack.

The second time around for refastening the straps down was done just as meticulous as the first time he did it. And finally, after much retightenings and reassurings Spoons looked about his campsite, it looked barely untouched by mortal hands in his eyes. Hopefully it would be enough for the creatures that inhabited this area.

With trusty heirloom in hand the survivalist pycon turned from the site and started his daily trip into the great unknown.

[Spoons]

Three Bells Later...

The small boulder proved fruitless in the stopping of the micro-adventurer. The first thing to the top of it’s crest was the pycon’s weaponry. Next came the pycon’s hands and their clawing movements yanked the rest of his body up and over the obstacle. Packs and body hefted on the top was exhausting after the mini-trek the pycon made. Lastly the adventurer’s legs were swung up and the whole being, pack and all, laid prone on the boulder’s surface, breathing heavily.

Sitting up Spoons took the time to rest, not wanting to tire himself out too fast. Finally catching his breathe he looked at the sky. Syna was slowly working her way across the heavens a her graceful way, dancing her rays across the harsh world as she goes along. Going need to water soon. He grimaced and stood, steadying himself before he hopped to the other side of the boulder, hiding a bit in the shade the boulder produced before continuing on. The day was running away from him quite fast and the small pycon was parched, he had no water and what moisture his body naturally retained was quickly depleting.

Finding a suitable place to setup camp came several bells later, Syna was on her descent and Leth was working his heavenly body to the forefront. The heavens were darkening and the smaller bodies of light flickered into visible existence. Soon enough Spoons would be spending a second night outside of civilization. It was time to work on what he had planned to do today.

Spoons located a small opening amongst the trees of the Unforgiving where the lively underbrush produced large wide leaves with deep valleys running down the center of them. The leaves were springy and their stalks were bendable, this proved useful and Spoons was sure he could suvive tonight without use of his tarp for concealment.

Dropping his pack and sack to the ground the adventuring pycon loosened and removed the final pack from his body, all three storage devices sat in a pile on the ground. Undoing the closing straps of his body pack the pycon pulled out his tarp he had shoved in there earlier in the day. Looking at the four holds at each corner the pycon settled down to pondering how he was going to handle this ongoing situation.

A day without water had left the pycon with a gummy dehydrated feeling, but he hope in the morning he could fix this issue some. Examining the leaves of the foliage Spoons reached over head and pulled one down, holding the leaf firmly in one hand he gently eased one the holes of the tarp around the tip of the leaf. The weight of the tarp alone kept the leaf bowed and Spoons was pleased by that, the valley in the leaf was more pronounced. This was a pleasing outcome for the dehydrated pycon and he made quick work of sliding leaf tips into tarp holes. Soon he had four leaves pulled into the holes, their valleyed centers deepened and the hopeful pycon allowed himself a bit of relaxation. It wasn’t a windy day and therefore hoped the night would be very much the same.

He hoped that the tarp would be able to catch the dewdrops for use in the morning. It was a high bit of hope and Spoons knew it, but he needed water and this was the best way currently to do it. He didn’t trust the streams and water sources he saw around, having no way to purify it for consumption.

Once the tarp was in place for dew collection Spoons unfastened his tent roll from his pack, allowing his bedroll to roll off and onto the ground. The spoon just slide to the side, the bowl shape on the one end outweighed the rest of the wooden object. Unrolling and unfolding his home’s canvas Spoons grabbed one of the Y-forked sticks and planted it’s straight end into the ground, placing the bowed center stick in the crook of the Y Spoons shifted the canvas towards the planted Y stick and lifted the rafter stick up to measure the distance for his other support stick.

Positioning done he planted the second support beam into place and nestled the bowed rafter into position and tossed his home’s wall over the center. Finding a few twigs from the trees nearby Spoons made quick work of pinning down the one side of his home to the ground before moving to the other side and pulling it taunt, making the whole tent stiffen slightly before pinning that side down with twigs as well.

Once completed Spoons smiled at himself, a job well done, and tossed the remaining bit of his gear inside, pausing with the body pack long enough to extract the flint and steel from within.

Grasping the firestarter Spoons went in search of fire material, mosses from rocks worked well for starter he heard, the dead bits of dried bark Spoons gathered for kindling and the dead bits of twigs he found would work great for fire burning fuel!

Okay... Time to start the warming process... But first. Spoons set all his fire materials on the ground just outside of his tent and fumbled within for his spoon. Finding it the adventurer smiled. Turning and walking several paces away from tarp and tent Spoons plunged the beveled end of the spoon into the ground, pulling up the topsoil with ease, turning as he lifted it upward before dumping it behind him. The dirt he displaced from the ground he used as a mound barrier between fire pit and ‘home’.

A whole bell had passed before Spoons was satisfied with his pit and had the moss centered in it. Placing bits of the dead bark around it Spoons held the flint and steel near it and struck. Nothing. Putting a look of determination on his face he struck again, a spark jumped at the moss, a puff of smoke and then nothing.

“Damn.” Spoons grumbled and struck again, this time the spark that jumped landed and the moss started to smolder With gentle puffs of breathe on it the survivalist coaxed the baby into warm and light bearing existence. Soon it was strong enough to feed the bits of kindling. Several chime later and it was strong enough to feed the bits of twig. Spoon settled back and relaxed, his eyes watching the warm flames dance and the night come to life.

[Spoons]

With fire going strong and his make shift water trap setup for the next morning Spoons allowed his thoughts to drift for a bit. His eyes stared off into Leth’s domain. Life was good out here. It was exciting and new, it was peaceful and tranquil. It was adventurous, daring, and stupid. The best part of it all about this is it was his for the taking.

Spoons yawned, the day was taxing and he was still rather thirsty, one more day like this and he knew he wouldn’t make it. His water trap better work, else he’d be kicking himself and heading back home to obtain what he forgot to purchase before taking on his head strung adventure. Maybe I can make something that would work well to make water safe to drink?

He thought for a while, thinking long and hard, this water trap method of his may not be usable everywhere he went. Right now he was lucky cause there was something he could hung the tarp from and use as a drip pan to collect the precious liquid.

But what about in places were water wasn’t as easily found? What if the liquid was trapped in it’s frozen form? Those were more important things to worry about. Right now though Spoons could see he had other important things to worry about. Sleep was quickly finding itself at the top of the adventuring pycon’s list of things to do immediately, tomorrow’s list started with the obvious breaking of camp, but first he hoped to have water to drink and store in his skins.

The fire had found itself lacking fuel to keep alive mostly and thusly Spoons left it to rest, smoldering under its slow forming ash blanket. Overnight the survivalist knew it wouldn’t cause much issues, but in the morn when he broke camp it was going to become a primary concern he had to squash. Standing from his spot beside the pit Spoons made his way to his canvas shelter, using the meager light casted from his bed of coals the pycon unrolled his bedroll and slid himself inside it’s confines.

Dashed instantly by the chilled interior the pycon shifted left and right to gain comfort before finally getting into a state of comfort that he could drift into a light sleep. And lightly sleep he did...

---

46th of Spring 508AV
Two Bells Prior to the Syna’s Reign

Spoons found himself up earlier than he would’ve liked. Syna still had not risen in the heavens to take her rightful time to reign, even though Leth was well on his way out. The very first thing the mini-adventurer did was coax his fire pit full of embers and ash to life, it sparked and sputtered for a bit before the small bits of unburnt fuels caught and small flares erupted and danced. Feeding the newly thriving fire some small pieces of twig the pycon warmed his less than flexible body until it was pliable.

The effects of the heat on his body didn’t take long and soon Spoons was moving like he normally did, nimble. Standing from his place by the fire Spoons made his way to the tarp setup he had constructed just prior to sleep the night before. In the final rays of Leth and in the first rays of Syna the amazing sight of a reflective pool of water made the pycon want to jump and celebrate. He had water!

Rushing back to his tent the pycon fished through his gear to locate his four skins, their innards long sense empty was going to be smashingly heavy soon enough! Manhandling all four of the empty skins wasn’t hard, filling them way prove a bit harder than expected, but he will find a way to manage.

Stopping at the edge the pycon placed all four water skins on the ground taking hold of the edge he pulled it until it creased, the water started to slowly run down the valley he had created, it wasn’t a very steep valley and Spoons acted as quickly as he could Lifting one skin, he thumbed the drinking tip off so that he could fill the skin from the tarp. It was a messy affair, the water was running too heavily from the valley he had created and the skin’s opening was just too small to handle the flow. Spoons was getting wetter with each second he took to fill the skins.

It took a bell to fill the skins, the front of all his clothing were entirely soaked and the pycon was a bit annoyed at his lack of forethought. There was still a fair amount of water left in the tarp and Spoons sighed a bit of relief, placing mouth to edge the pycon valleyed the tarp once more and drank what he could, satisfying his need for liquid nourishment before turning his attention to first the fire that needed to be quenched and then killed.

The fire was small, extinguishing it’s life was easy enough and the pycon went to it. Using his trust tablespoon again the adventurer started to dismantle his fire barrier he built quickly the night before and using that dirt to fill in and kill the fire pit that he removed it from originally. With a series of hisses and cracklings the fire pit was once again filled in, every few scoops the pycon flipped and stirred the burning coals into the dirt, trying his hardest to kill off the hot cores within each ember. Soon he was ready for the final step of fire murdering...

...The liquid. His tarp was too far away to handle this any other way but Spoons had time to think about what he needed to do. Walking over to the tarp he tucked his head down, causing his upper body to have a flat plane between his shoulders, one hand was reconfigured for a bit as a spout of sorts, the other was funneled out and flattened. The oddest part of all this was the fact that if one looked at him from the side they would be able to look right through his arms and shoulders right to the other side of him.

Placing funnel shaped hand to the tarp he nudged the tarp to start funneling water through is body, the other hand he angled towards the fire pit. Soon the water was rushing through the pycon’s body and splashing on his dirt mounded pit. It took nearly a whole chime for the remaining water in the tarp to drain through is body and into the pit. It was seriously saturated, water was seeping up out of the ground now. Once the job of funneling water was complete Spoons reconfigured himself into his standardized shape of an adventurer.

His water coated inside pushed back together, the water oozed out of the sealing outer sides and Spoons relaxed a bit more. With his fire pit successfully handled the adventurer took down tarp, shook it out for drying purposes and left it where it was for a bit, unfolded, to allow Syna’s rays to dry it out. Instead Spoons went and decided to take down and get his tent and remained supplies packed away.

The next several chimes were busy for the pycon and he was content with the busy work. After the rolls were attached to pack and the skins were attached to the pack and the ruck sack was ready did Spoons take and fold up his tarp and store it away in his body pack.

Once everything was put away in their proper storage locations and the rolls were rolled did Spoons finally go about assembling the stuff around his body and on it. That finished the remaining bit of the bell since he woke.

With Syna gracing the heavens Spoons was ready to head out. To Pyconia or onward? He knew he had a few more days worth of time he could survive out here and there laid the conundrum. Onward for now. Taking hold of his py-pole the clay-adventurer was off , heading the direction of Syna’s path.

[Poison]

Skills: Observation 4, Wilderness Survival 4

Lores: Ration your Water!; Disassembling a Tent; Taking Down a Campsite; How to Properly extinguish a Fire; Finding a Suitable Place for your Camp; Catching Water with a Tarp; Starting a Fire

Notes: I couldn't find any skills besides Observation and Wilderness survival. If I missed anything, please let me know!.
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