Rise of The Fallen
Ch 3- Shelter

Kora-

Last night sucked.

After walking around, lost in the forest all day, I wasn’t able to replace anything useful to help me set up a makeshift camp. No water, no food, no shelter. In the end, I just climbed a massive tree with a few low-hanging branches to sleep in, hoping not to fall out of it during the night.

The good news? I didn’t fall and crack my head open, break my leg, or snap my neck. The bad news? I still had no resources to survive aside from a knife, and my entire body was sore as hell from sleeping in the tree. If you could even call it sleep.

It was like the entire planet seemed to come to life during the night. I’d heard different calls from animals all around me in the forest. Some were just loud, constant and/or annoying, while others were a bit terrifying. At one point, after I’d finally managed to drift off, I’d been startled awake by the sound of something heavy moving on the ground below me, my tree shaking as a large creature passed by underneath, releasing an ominous ticking sound, like a bomb just waiting to detonate. It had been too dark to see what kind of creature it was, and honestly, that was alright with me.

I knew there were dangerous things lurking in the forest, but hearing them roaming through the darkness, so close, made it all so much more real. Now shelter and supplies were my top priority. If I wanted to survive this cursed place, I needed to get set up properly.

Scanning the surrounding area before I climbed down from my tree, I didn’t notice anything immediately life threatening. Quickly, I jumped down, landing on my feet right as a clap of thunder echoed from the sky. It startled me so bad I nearly clawed my way back up the tree in panic. When thunder boomed overhead again, I visibly relaxed, relieved that it was only the weather and not a giant monster coming to swallow me whole.

Looking up to the sky, just past the treeline, it was easy to spot dark clouds looming overhead, threatening me with a cold shower. “Just great,” I muttered.

Slinging my rucksack over my shoulder, I started walking in search of something more than trees and bushes, body aching from the rough night’s sleep and all of the searching I’d done yesterday. It was going to be a long day.

As hours passed, my stomach rumbled angrily in displeasure at the lack of sustenance I’d given it. It wasn’t the only thing that was angry. At this point, I was completely fed up with the fact that I hadn’t found anything to help me survive. No food, no water. And so far, the only animals I’d seen were these irritating feathered lizards that were climbing all over the trees as I passed by, rustling branches hard enough to startle me. And to make it worse, they’d been chittering for hours on end!

I’d once thought nothing could be more aggravating than the noises from the busy streets of Krosa’s Red District, but the sounds that came from these dumb creatures were constant and repetitive, incessantly ringing in my ears. It was enough to make any sane person go absolutely mad, and I wasn’t even sure of my own sanity nowadays.

Fed up, I covered my ears, groaning at the annoying sound. “Will you all just shut up!” Grabbing a stick off the ground, I threw it at the small critters in the trees above.

To my utter surprise, I actually hit one. It screeched before tumbling out of the tree and onto the ground, letting out a pain-filled sound. Guilt slammed into me, realizing that I’d injured the damned thing. I hadn’t actually meant to hurt them! It squirmed on its back in the dirt, screeching and squirming to get back onto its feet. Anxiously, I stepped forward, hoping to help it, but all the other lizards in the trees surrounding me started screeching as they flapped their little wings furiously, making me rethink my decision.

“I didn’t mean to hurt it!” I exclaimed, backing away as swarms of them began climbing down the trees while others glided down to land all around me. Alone, these tiny little creatures wouldn’t be all that terrifying. But seeing a huge angry swarm of them surround me?

Yeah, fuck this. I’m out of here.

As I moved to make a clean escape, they started hissing, and before I knew it, three pounced on me. They latched onto my arms, biting at my bodysuit and pinching bits of my flesh underneath the thick material with their tiny little teeth.

“Ow! Get off of me!”

I smacked one crawling up my shoulder until it fell away, flinging another one off of my arm. Their mouths were small, but as I heard my bodysuit tearing, I realized their teeth were sharp enough to pierce the material. As the first set of teeth sank into my flesh, I shrieked in outrage, grabbing one that had climbed up my leg and throwing it away from me, only to have several more rush in to replace it.

There was no way they were going to just leave me alone!

I took off in a sprint, running downhill in a random direction, hoping to get away from the little demons. The ones climbing all over me tumbled to the ground, but my relief was short lived. The lizards chased after me, screeching before occasionally jumping at me and biting anywhere they could reach. The damned things were relentless in their assault, and some were even quick enough to cut me off ahead, trying to block my getaway.

Shit, shit, shit!

I grabbed a branch off the ground without breaking my stride, swinging it wildly to knock back any lizards that attempted to attack me from the front.

One leapt onto the back of my head, clawing at my hair. I shrieked as it became tangled in the thick ponytail. Throwing the stick at a group of little demons in front of me, I reached for the one lodged in my hair while I ran. It bit my hand repeatedly before I managed to snatch it up and fling it away, hissing at the bloody mess it had made of my fingers. Several more jumped onto my arm, biting me through one of the holes in my bodysuit, and drawing more blood. I brushed past a tree, knocking a few of them off as I ran.

Eventually, the swarm thinned out into nothing, leaving me alone and wounded in the woods. My sprint slowed to a jog until I found a lizard-free tree to lean against, struggling to catch my breath. Feeling the sting of multiple small cuts from being bitten probably over a hundred times, I looked down, wincing at the small holes and blood covering my bodysuit and hands.

Okay, rule number one; no messing with the tree lizards!

Sighing, I inspected a few more holes in my outfit as my breathing slowly returned to normal, wondering how the hell I was going to be able to fix this. I highly doubted there was a needle and thread at the bottom of my rucksack.

I stiffened as something dripped into my hair. Confused, I stood up straight as more drops fell onto my face, cooling my overheated skin. Wiping away the icy liquid with my fingers, I looked down at my bloody hand. Was that rain? Knowing my luck, it was actually the saliva of some invisible monster high in the tree, coming down to bite my head off. Another drop fell onto my face, and before long, those few drops turned into sprinkles. In less than a minute, those sprinkles became a complete downpour, leaving me absolutely drenched.

“Oh, come on!” I shouted at absolutely nothing, moving closer to the tree I’d been propped up against in a poor attempt to hide from the rain. I’d been running so fast that I hadn’t even noticed the trees had grown further apart, leaving me exposed to the rapidly changing weather above. I couldn’t stay here for much longer, not if I planned on optimizing my likelihood of survival. Looking around, I noticed the dirt path I’d been following butted up against a steep hill, and one wrong move might have sent me right over the side. I’d need to be careful I didn’t take a wrong turn and walk off the edge.

Groaning in frustration, I started the jog back uphill, hoping to replace a more dense portion of the forest to use as shelter from the rain, while also keeping a lookout for the lizards no doubt ready to kill me on sight. Rain was pouring down in heavy sheets all around me, turning the dirt path into mud and making it harder to see more than a foot in front of me.

I slowed my uphill jog as my feet began to sink into the mud, moving a bit more carefully to avoid an accident. Although, getting stuck in the mud was the least of my concerns as the temperature grew cold, matching the iciness of the rain. I could practically feel my body heat slipping away as the rain quickly chilled me to the bone. I hadn’t been worried about the cold last night when my bodysuit had been intact, but now that it was riddled with holes, it wasn’t keeping me insulated at all.

Suddenly, the ground gave way under my foot, the mud causing me to slide dramatically to the side, right to the edge of the gully. I shrieked as I lost my balance, arms flailing wildly as I tumbled over the edge. Before I knew it, I was sliding down the steep hill, the slick mud propelling me down at a fast pace. I clawed at the earth to stop my fall, but it was useless until I careened over another ledge and landed hard toward the bottom of the gully.

“Mother fu–” Sitting up, I groaned in both pain and frustration. Not only was I soaking wet and cold, but now I was covered in mud and debris and my entire body ached and throbbed, demanding I just submit to my fate and stay there forever.

Refusing to give in to my own demise, I struggled back up to my feet, hugging myself for warmth as I squinted through the rain to take in my surroundings. The hill was steeper than I’d originally thought, dropping off into some sort of long and narrow trench, with muddy walls taller than me.

Guess I’m not climbing back up there…

Shivering, I slowly began walking as every muscle seemed to scream in protest with each minute that passed until I didn’t know how much further I could go before my aching body gave out. Nearing the end of the trench, I found a spot on the wall only a few feet tall and climbed up, feet digging into the muddy wall for purchase as I barely managed to pull myself up and over. To my right, the forest seemed to stretch on forever, but to my left there was a rocky cliffside covered in vines, with a small overhang of moss and more vines only a few feet from me.

It wasn’t complete coverage but it was better than nothing, and before I knew it, I was under the ledge, looking out through the thick sheets of rain toward the forest, teeth chattering from the cold.

Fuck, I’m going to get hypothermia at this rate…

Sighing, I turned toward the cliff, eyes catching on some of the vines growing along the rock. I took a step closer, head tilted in confusion. It was almost as if they weren’t attached to the rock at all and just hanging over a crack in the cliff wall. I grasped the vines, expecting for them to have almost no slack as they were growing through cracks in the wall. Instead, they pulled away from the wall easily, exposing a narrow cave entrance, just shorter than me. I dropped the vines back into place as I leaned forward and stepped inside, giving my eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness as a faint light trickled past the vines.

Once I could partially see, my eyes widened.

Holy shit…

Inside was a small cave with furs scattered along the ground, clay pots sitting neatly beside it. A small pile of wood, with logs and sticks of various sizes, was stacked neatly along the cave wall near the entrance, next to some makeshift shelves and racks that were loaded with tools. A firepit was in the center of it all, with some kind of funnel above it to draw out smoke while the fire was going.

Arms wrapped around my waist to conserve heat, I took a step toward the fire. The center of the firepit was practically empty, no fresh embers or coal, meaning this place had been abandoned for a while. I eyed the woodpile hopefully before quickly moving toward it and snatching up as much as I could carry.

Maybe I could start a fire?

After throwing the sticks into the firepit, I moved to the shelves, pilfering around the supplies for something to create a spark. Grabbing a small, dusty jar, I opened it up to see some kind of jelly or slime inside. I sniffed it and winced before closing it and placing it back, my fingers covered in a small layer of dirt.

Hope whoever lives here doesn’t mind me going through their stuff…

Looking through the multiple tools, most of which were made of bone and were probably used for preparing meat to cook, I found a slate black rock that looked promising.

Dropping my soaked rucksack to the ground by the firepit, I searched through it until I found my knife. Taking a deep breath, I sent up a small prayer that this worked.

Clenching both tools in my hands, I swiped the blade over the rock. Sparks flew and I grinned like a Cheshire cat. Finally, things were looking up! Now I just needed kindling. Spotting my rucksack, an idea formed that had me reaching back into the bag and pulling out my soggy notebook.

Flipping through it, I gave a small fist pump when I found some pages that were dry. Tearing a few out, I used the knife and black rock to light the paper on fire. I did my best to keep the flame alive long enough to catch the sticks on fire, then the logs.

Once the fire was going strong, I sighed in relief, trying to warm myself up by huddling as close as possible to the flames. Eventually, I used a long stick to poke the fire, keeping it going. With the cave now properly illuminated, I could see there were three animal furs hung up near the back wall, and what looked like a tanning rack for making leather near the front of the cave, next to another set of clay pots and bowls.

Someone had made everything in here, using this place as shelter, but everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. Was this place just abandoned or had something happened to its occupant?

Whatever had happened, I was just thankful I’d found this cave before hypothermia from the rain set in. Although, now that the fire was warming me, I realized how soaked my bodysuit was. I groaned. If I stayed in my wet clothes, I’d probably catch a cold.

Climbing to my feet, I pulled the tanning rack over near the campfire before proceeding to strip out of my suit.

I hung the soaked clothing on the rack near the fire to dry as well as my shoes. My bra and underwear would be fine for the time being.

Grabbing one of the furs, I shook out any dust and laid it on the back on the floor as a place for me to sleep near the fire. The second one I would fold up for a pillow and then the third would be my blanket.

Once I had everything set up, I sat down by the fire, half-naked, and enjoyed its warmth while the storm continued outside with its never ending shower of rain. Looking all over my body, I cringed at all the bite marks across my skin. Little pricks…at least they weren’t venomous.

My stomach grumbled, reminding me of my lack of food and water. I sulked before glancing over at my bag, an idea coming to mind. I quickly retrieved my canteen and went to the cave entrance, stepping under the overhang.

Setting the container upright in the rain, I smiled. Now I’d at least get some water. Retreating inside, I looked around, thinking of what I could do next.

Going back to the fire, I pulled my poking stick out of the pit and blew out the flame. The tip was blackened like charcoal, with some smoke still coming off. I blew on it until it cooled down enough to the point it wouldn’t burn my fingers when I touched it. Snapping about four inches off the end, I threw the rest back into the fire and grabbed my notebook, which was now mostly dry.

Might as well do something in my spare time… If I created a dossier for the plants and animals of the forest, I’d have a better chance at surviving.

Thinking for a moment, I decided to start off with the dangerous stuff first: the tree lizards and that thorny vine I encountered. Using the stick’s charcoal tip as a pen, I did my best to draw them out onto the page.

After about ten minutes, I looked over what I had so far and cringed. The vine looked like a snake with spiky hair and the lizards looked like a five year old child drew it.

Sighing once more, I set the book and stick-pencil aside, staring at the fire. It didn’t take long for exhaustion to set in, and I laid down on the furs, dragging the other one over me. They weren’t the softest, but I was too tired to care.

At least I was safe and warm now.

Yawning, I curled up and closed my eyes, listening to the sound of the rain falling outside.