Not The First

Day 23.

I realized almost right away that drinking raw blood, ICF, and corpse urine was a bad idea. Long term, anyway; I needed to get rid of the impurities.

Creating a still was not easy. I was almost out of water bottles; I'd only teleported with a potion flask a few times, and the ones I'd found already were broken.

Far easier was building a fire. Even without magic, it was simple. Creating a spark between two flint-rocks, lighting sticks; I kept it fed with certain... other waste products. Technically all my own, if previous clones are counted as being you. I could never allow it to go out. Worst came to worst, I could burn bones.

My first attempt at distilling water didn't quite work out; I almost swamped the fire.

The second try wasn't much better.

But the third time seemed to be the charm. I checked every seal, every container. Slowly, I added the liquid.

It took a long time. Don't ask me to explain, but that old saying about a watched pot never boiling works with stills, too. Every drop that came out seemed to take an hour. Though I suppose, the mixture had a higher boiling point than regular water... It probably didn't help that it was boiling multiple times to make it more pure.

Finally, though, there was enough. I took the bottle off the end and corked the tube.

It was almost clear.

I took the liquid into my mouth and swished it around, feeling every drop seep into my parched flesh. Finally, I swallowed. I sighed.

Only enough for one mouthful.

I reset the still. Maybe in four hours, I could have another sip...