Welcome to The Crucible

When I was sure I was prepared I began working.

I first finished gathering the materials, then started with the construction.

It didn't take me as much time as I thought to finish the frame and dig a trench around it; it was around midday when I finished, judging by the light.

Instead, it took me a lot more than I thought to gather palm leaves and use them to cover the hut, though I did manage by night.

What I didn’t manage was making the front and back wall, but at least the bulk of the work was done.

The hut was around four meters wide and five meters long and at the center it was around two meters high.

It probably wouldn’t take much for a beast to destroy it if it tried but I was betting on them not trying to … not that I had any other idea if this didn’t work.

It was getting really dark so I hurriedly covered the front and back with some poles and leaves to have some cover until I made the walls and then I tried to make a fire inside – I was ready to put it out if I saw the hut was catching fire but it seemed if it didn’t make it too big it wouldn’t be a problem.

I then worked on making a spear with one of the poles I had.

I cleaned and polished the shaft then burned the tip on the fire to harden and sharpen it; I didn’t make a stone tip since for now I will not use the spear for hunting, but only for – hopefully – scaring away predators, so using a fragile stone tip is a waste of time, effort and especially materials.

I also wanted to make something to protect myself from claws but until I managed to kill an animal and make some leather I didn’t know what to do – maybe a wooden shield but I didn’t know if I would be able to use it – and I first had to be able to notice animals before they ambushed me.

Following that train of thought, I realized that maybe the fence wasn't such a bad idea; it would make difficult for the animals to approach unnoticed and ambush me on my camp.

Clearing all the underbrush around me would also help.

I was tired after the work today, my feet and hands had blisters and I had to sleep but such thoughts kept appearing on my mind and kept me up – I was probably nervous about the next day, I concluded.

After some time I managed to fall asleep.

When I woke up it was already bright out, though not much it seemed – I had probably been awake for more than I thought the previous night.

When I was getting up I felt like everything hurt, but I forced myself to move.

I looked around inside the hut to see if there was something out of place but everything looked good – not that I had many things inside, but at least I didn’t have a tiger staring at me from a hole somewhere.

I peeked out from the leaves I used to cover the front entrance, listening from any sounds.

I differentiate front and back because I put one side (the back) facing one of the gigantic trees that were near the camp.

There was still the fog outside so it wasn’t too late.

Nothing seemed different from before but I didn’t know if the barrier was already lifted.

I decided to wait inside until the fog lifted and then move out to drink some water.

In the meantime, I tried to hollow out some of the wider pieces of wood to make something resembling a water bottle, so I sat near the opening I made to have some light.

I was in the middle of my work when at some point a blue window popped up in front of me.

“Fuck!” I said, jerking back.

“Stupid fucking boxes…” I thought, annoyed while focusing on it.

“Why the hell does it always sound so happy!? I’m not fucking having fun here! And what in the fucking hell does it mean ‘normal levels’?! Was it not enough before?!!!” I thought, while my blood was starting to boil.

I noticed I was panting so I forced myself to take some deep breaths.

“Fuuu… ok, I’m calm… calm…” I said, since I was obviously calm.

“The fuckers are probably doing it on purpose, I shouldn’t let them get to me.” I thought.

I closed the screen right away before it got to me again.

Looking around I noticed that the fog was gone, but I decided to finish my “bottle” before moving out and check the menu for new info after I cooled myself a bit more.

I concentrated on my task and I was able to forget the damn shitheads/world/gods or whatever was sending me those messages.

When I finished my water bottle I searched on The Crucible information first but nothing changed so I went to trials.

When I got to the last word I closed the screen and began to prepare to head out right away – if I stayed a second more to think on it I would have probably exploded.

I took my spear and went out making sure I covered the entrance – I didn’t want any surprises inside when I returned.

I tried to maintain an easy pace, not going too slow but neither too fast, looking around for threats with the corner of my eyes, I also used my sharpened stick to move away branches or leaves so if there was anything behind them I wouldn't have them suddenly in front of my face and also had my spear in between.

I was still getting used to moving like that; it was really hard to keep track of everything, and I also found it unbearably hard to move so slowly when I had a place to go and many things to do – fear can make you do anything I suppose.

I still noticed the difference in the noise, but it was probably because they didn’t transport all the animals and insects inside when the time was up.

I crouched down when I heard a movement in front of me, slightly on the right.

I tried to look in that direction to see what it was but I couldn’t spot anything; I didn’t know if there was anything there or if it had heard me but I was fairly sure it wasn’t something looking to ambush me – it wouldn’t have made any noise if it was.

I tried looking and sneaked in that direction to see what it was and in what direction it was moving.

I saw what I think was a tapir; it was maybe a bit taller than me and it was just eating some leaves moving his snout around.

I doubted it was one of the more aggressive species but I decided to be cautious anyway and moved slowly back and around.

After I reached the stream I drank some water and filled my canteen all the while I kept looking around.

At some point, I remembered the jaguar attack and hurriedly looked up.

I found nothing but I berated myself again – I really needed to be more careful.

Moving back I tried going around the tapir though I couldn’t hear any sound of leaves anymore.

At some point when I moved away some leaves, I saw it a few meters in front of me.

It must have heard the sound I made because it turned to me right after.

“Whiiiiiiii!!!” it shouted.

And then charged at me with surprising speed.

Fastus

The next chapter will have some action, finally.