Possibilites

Slogging through the forest with my boulder sized bag that sat quite precariously on my shoulders, I searched for a clearing to set up camp. The light of the sun slowly approaching the horizon had everything bathed in a golden glow. The whisper of the wind and the chirp of the birds kept me company as I roamed the woods. It’s not often I encounter such pristine places to settle—these bloody humans don’t know how to care for Mother Earth properly. That is, if there were even any humans around… Shifting my bag, I glowered slightly at the thought of who’s “in charge.” I pushed the idea out of my mind and kept walking, hoping to find a resting spot soon. I didn’t feel like walking much further.

I ran my hand through my mussy silvery gray hair as I walked along, trying to clean up its appearance a bit. Rather than flattening, it poofed back up and returned to its spiky and somewhat unkempt state. Contrary to the color of my hair, my face didn’t display any signs of the vale of years. Rather, a middle-aged, almost adolescent, one took its place. Why I had chosen to look like this I’m not sure myself, but something about it seemed to describe me well and I had grown quite fond of it over the years. With the way I looked, you could say I was already a natural born liar. As I blew a stray hair out of my face, I pushed a low hanging branch out of the way to prevent me from walking into it. Sometimes it was cumbersome being 6’4”.

Not finding any naturally sufficient spot, I spied a decently sized tree rooted right in the middle of what could be a nice place to rest. It was relatively short compared to the rest of the trees, but still had a nice width. I removed the bag from my back and placed it against another tree, my acoustic guitar clanking against the ground. Taking out a small axe from my bag, I returned the to center tree and began whacking away at it. I felt a little bad for chopping down a tree for the mere purpose of providing more space and firewood I would probably barely even use, but there were countless others around me. A couple of unfortunate squirrels ran out from the leaves of the tree. I winced as I watched them scamper by, irritated by the fact I may have ruined the home of some of the native animals. Hopefully they would be able to find a new home soon enough, that is, if this tree was their home to begin with.

After swinging at the tree for several minutes, it finally began to crack under its own weight and meager support. Eventually, the whole thing came crashing down, landing on the grassy ground with a massive “thud” that I felt in my chest. The only thing that remained was a stump, which would be fun to get rid of. Rolling the fallen tree out of the way, I started smacking at the base of the stump, hoping to give myself some flat ground to use. It took me a good long while to get through it fully, but when I did and it was hanging on by only a few roots, I managed to tug it out by hand, landing on my back as the wooden mass rolled around in front of me. I chuckled faintly of my blunder before getting back up and placing the trunk at the bottom of the tree. The only thing that was left was a few roots sticking out of the ground in a divot in the dirt; perfect for a fire pit. Then chopping my way through the fallen tree for several minutes, I stacked the fresh wood away from the to-be pit to allow it some time to dry.

I returned to my bag, putting the axe back and taking out a small magnesium lighter, placing it in my pocket for later use. I take my bow strapped to the side of the bag and a single arrow; I only needed one anyway. I walked silently away from the site listening closely for any sounds that may come from potential dinner. I find a nice tall tree and bite down on my bow and arrow as I climb it. Perched in the tree, I grab the bow and arrow again and wait, drowning out other unimportant noise in an attempt to hone in on anything worth hunting.

I waited for a good half an hour before I heard an anomalous rustling in the grass. I cast my gaze in which I thought the sound was emitted and saw a deer walking about. I drew my bow and pointed it towards the animal, slowing my breathing and focusing. The deer heard a noise and looked in the direction it came from. I took this opportunity and let loose the arrow. It whispered through the air and quickly pierced the deer’s eye, embedding itself in its skull and killing it immediately, the limp body of the deer falling to ground with a small “piff” as it disturbed the grass around it.

I hopped down from the tree and dragged the fresh corpse to my makeshift campground. By now, the sun was about an hour before setting. I removed the arrow from the deer’s head, making a sickening sucking sound as I pulled it out. I would’ve felt nauseated, but this wasn’t so bad from what I’ve seen before. I pulled out a knife from my back pocket and began to skin the animal. Before moving further, I removed my shirt. I didn’t need any blood getting on it. My black angelic-like wings glistened in the afternoon night. They’ve been caked up against my back because of my bag, so it was nice to stretch them out a bit. My physique wasn’t something to gawk at; I was of a decent build with some defined muscles, but definitely nothing like some body builder. I didn’t need to be one either; my muscle fibers were more closely packed together and I had an increased ratio of red blood cells than normal humans, allowing for increased strength and stamina. The only issue with this is that it has the unfortunate side effect of making me a hell of a lot heavier than I should be.

After I had separated enough skin from the cadaver, I stretched it out the underneath the carcass and removed the undesirable organs; the intestines, stomach, liver, etcetera. I took the meat, deboned it and place it on another part of the skin lying on the ground. I wiped my hands of most of the deer’s blood on the grass and checked the wood. It wasn’t as dry as I would’ve hoped, but that’s what I get for making firewood out of a recently living tree. I gather up a few logs and place them in the pit in a sort of tepee formation. I wandered around the area, picking up various sticks and leaves that had drifted to the ground to use as tinder and extra fuel.

Bringing the bundle to the pit and put in a few sticks in here and there, then taking a handful of leaves and laying them in the base of the logs. I removed the magnesium lighter from my pocket and scrape the magnesium bar on the side with my knife. The shavings land on the pile of leaves and grass, pattering as they fall within it. I strike the lighting mechanism of lighter, allowing sparks to shower on bits of metal. After the first strike, the magnesium in the pile flashed white and ignited the surrounding material, making me flinch. I allowed the flames to soak in to the rest of the wood before placing a slab of venison on one of the upright logs and letting it cook.

By now the sun has dipped significantly and some stars have begun to appear. In the meantime, I gathered up the discarded organs and bones and dump them off away from the camp. I return to the site and sit by the fire, the wood cracking and the flames licking up at the night sky. I took the excess meat and wrap it up in the deerskin, hanging it in a high tree. I didn’t know what kind of wildlife lived around here, but I was going to presume bears were a threat and take the necessary precautions to prevent one from rummaging through my food supply. I retrieved my shirt and put it back on. The cool evening had begun to make some dew form, causing my shirt to gather some of it from the grass, making it feel cool and damp against my warm skin.

After a few minutes, I flipped the venison steak so it would cook thoroughly; I didn’t feel like vomiting all night from undercooked meat. More stars had begun to emerge from the deep dark velvet blue sky, like white hot sowing needles poking through the heavens. I looked up and tried to make out any constellations. I caught Orion and Ursa Major, maybe Boötes too, but I wasn’t sure at that time. The smell of the venison broke me away from the night sky, so I poked it to test if it was done.

It seemed to be well done, but I didn’t have anything to put it on. Sighing to myself, I simply snatched the venison from the flames, burning my hands slightly in the process. I quickly threw the steak into my good hand and shook around the burned hand in a futile attempt to cool it down. I cursed to myself as I stuck the burned portion of my hand into my mouth and sucked on it. Eventually, my natural healing process took over, the pain in the scorched flesh slowly ebbing away in a reasonable amount of time. I removed my hand from my mouth to confirm that it wasn’t too severe.

“Should be healed by tomorrow.” I thought to myself as I scrutinized my wound. Once I was satisfied it would be fine, I took a nice bite from the side of the steak, a small bit of succus ran down my chin which I wiped away with my sleeve. It hadn’t retained all of its juices, but the flavor was still great. I swallowed the meat and flicked off a few pieces of charcoal that had stuck to the steak, taking another bite. It was kind of gamey for my preferences, but I don’t know what else I expected from a deer. I finished the steak and laid down on the cool, moist grass, staring into the now star filled sky.

Wherever I was, it was sure free of pollution, I could see hundreds upon thousands of stars, allowing me to observe a large quantity of constellations from the Northern hemisphere from here. It was truly a breathtaking sight despite having seen similar things to this before. But the awe I have for such sights always linger inside me. I continued to gawk at the sky for a good long while until I decided to go ahead and pitch the tent to get some rest.

I pulled out a tent from my large bag and begin setting it up, pulling out rods and feeding them through slots in it. In a few minutes, I had a small but cozy tent to sleep in. I took a sleeping bag from the top of the bag and laid it out in the tent, completing my simple setup for the night. I laid down again and stared up at the sky, being childish and trying to make my own images of the stars.

I finally decide on sleeping. It had been a long day of hiking and my feet ached. I crawled into the tent and slipped into the bag, closing my eyes. I pondered of what I may be able to do the next day, eventually dozing off, thinking of how to prepare lunch for tomorrow.