Fishing, Hunting and Freezing

As the morning drew on the bright sunshine was replaced with cloud that rolled in from the plains to the west.  The cloud cover brought in some warmer air, but slowly it became much darker.  I couldn't move quickly through the woodland at first, the undergrowth was heavy in places and I needed to conserve my energy as I'd still not eaten.

After a few hours of steady progress, I reached a clearing in the woods.  It was quite dark now, though, and as soon as I stepped out into it, a light rain began to fall.  I need to be dry, though, so I headed back into the cover of the trees and started cutting down some of the large-leafed lower branches and lashed them together.  The leaves are beginning to turn brown but they've not fallen yet.  I took some strong branches spent some time building a frame.  Once that was together, I had the shelter up in short order as the rain strengthened.  I hunkered under it, cold and hungry.

As the afternoon wore on the rains slowed to a fine drizzle.  Although I was damp once again, I placed the clothes that were frozen this morning under the shelter.  They're not as wet as I thought (despite the rain); that shelter has really helped.

I needed food, so I stripped naked and went down to the river in the drizzle, taking a couple of these Gurgam arrows with me.  I intended to catch some fish, so I waded out into the water.  It was still cold.  I could see a few fish in the water, but all were quite small.  I'm not the most graceful, especially in the water, and the only big fish I saw during the hour I spent up to my waist in water I couldn't get near to.  I gave up in the end - the cold water was really getting to me, my toes were turning blue.

As I returned to my camp, the rain had ceased, and the sun was breaking out.  That was most welcome.  I dried out quite easily, and I put my shorts and vest out in the sun in the clearing.  They had dried fully within an hour too.

In the meantime I scouted around the clearing. I was originally looking for berries or other fruit.  But I found something even better.  Mushrooms.  It was quite a large patch of them too, nestled just under the eaves of the woodland.  Unlike the dark grey under-land ones we have at home, these were white.  We've had similar in the delve before, but they're something of a speciality.  I ate them raw, but I didn't care.  They were delicious.

Eating and sitting in the sun lifted my spirits.  I was warm and dry, and I felt I should try and catch some smaller wild animals, squirrels or rodents.  I put my clothes back on and gathered some old fallen wood from the clearing, and hung it from some of the trees in the afternoon sum - I wanted it as dry as possible.  If I caught anything I wanted to cook it this time.

Then I set off, armed with the sword and this bow.  I chased several squirrels, but they move very quickly - and they climb trees much better than I do.  I saw little else that I could catch (most rodents are so small), but of course, squirrels eat nuts.  And nuts do not run away.

I felt quite fortunate - there were many of these.  Almonds and hazelnuts, and I also found some fruit - there were a couple of apple trees and a bush with small black berries.  Apples I can recognise, but these berries I did not.  It was clearly the end of their season - some were withered and dry, but many were not.  I picked one and tried it; it was sweet and bitter at the same time, but very pleasant.  I can only assume that if they taste nice, then I'm the target audience for eating these berries and spreading the seeds over a wide area.  I ate several, then turned to the apples.  These were much like the berries, at the end of their season, many were shrivelled and rotting on the floor, but some still clung to the trees.  I picked all I could find with no insect holes in them.  I've enough nuts, berries and apples for a meal tonight now.

Most importantly I have a bit of energy back.  I stripped some bark from a tree and cut it into thin strips.  I've now got enough for a small snare.  I'll set that tonight before I sleep - I can use dead rat as bait; I might be able to catch a rabbit or perhaps something bigger.