I have no problems skipping a night or two of sleep. Gaming brings forth such a habit, especially if you play any sort of mass multilayer games. Grinding for hours and hours, doing the same menial task without much thought, or no thought at all, sometimes enough for someone to think you are a bot and submit a ticket to an admin. Being mistaken for a brainless and thoughtless program, not really something to be proud of. Nevertheless, removing bark from a long stick can be put into the same category of tasks, especially if the only tools you use are your own teeth, nails and tiny pieces of glass.

"In-game it would take only a few minutes to get at least some sort of tool or weapon.. well.. depends on the game.. but mostly players are not left defenseless.." - My fingers moved along the pole, scratching the bark off with, tightly gripping the barely sharp triangular piece of glass. I would scratch, make sure the fire had enough wood to keep on burning and scratch some more. Literal grinding was as soothing as in-game, it just took a whole lot longer to get any sort of result.

"Shall I try to get some fish to eat in the morning?" - My thoughts inevitably switched to food, which is normal, considering that my stomach was quite empty - except for water that I drank before setting up the fire.

"I have a lot of things that I can make with just what I already have.. but everything takes time, so I won't be able to actually work on everything at the same time.." - my eyes moved along the shaft of the pole that I have debarked. Just that took about half an hour, so making anything complex would consume even more time, especially without tools.

"It is dry and warm, so no need to create shelter for the time being.. Bushes will do just fine, plus I have the Purple-Maple bug spray.. if any of the pro survivalists would listen to me they would cringe so hard and yell at the top of their lungs." - I knew that having no shelter was retarded, but what could I make? Even a simple cover would require something harder than a few branches that I could find, ans undoubtedly longer than that pole I had.. It barely reached my chest. Tools would make a difference, but it's not like I could just grab a piece of wood, chew it out and make a goddamn chainsaw. Even the most primitive tools were made out of a resource that I didn't have available. Yes, there were those huge boulders that were sticking out of the moss, but how the hell am I supposed to break a part of that?

I rubbed the temples of my head, trying to ease the starting headache a bit. Too much to do with far too little at hand.

"OK, lets think about it for a little bit. I have the glass pieces, one of the five is already chipped..so four temporary cutting tools.. have to use them smarter.." - I judged myself..working on that stick wasn't something I did with any sort of reasoning behind, I just did so to occupy myself. - " I can make a simple four pronged spear even with this.. would suffice for fishing and all..."

Seriously, I doubted that I would catch even one fish. It's not something that simple, without any previous practice a total amateur as myself would fail for hours at a time. Well, the days were a lot longer, that I knew. As for nights, well It became darker, not pitch black yet, so more like late evening at home. Still a long time until morning and I had no intention of sleeping any time soon.

"I can't move away from here.. With nothing to carry water with, I could last for a few days max.. so I am stuck here for the time being, not like I had any idea where to go. The human could have ran from the direction of some sort of settlement or a road of some sort... not going that way tho, that would be suicide.." - Yes, I remembered the man again, but letting myself let everything out was enough to let me keep my cool for a while. Ignoring everything that has to do with emotions proved to be quite an effective mechanism in this situation. I had previous experiences, not something I was going to think about at this time of course, not the time or the place. Mostly not the place.

"I will be able to make some cordage from the fibers of young trees and bushes.. again, will take some practice, and probably a ton of wasted resources. Well, there are the vines, they will work just fine I think.. not as hard as even the crudest of ropes, but I could tie some shit up.." - the fire reflected in my eyes as I was looking at a small coil of vine amongst the wood that I collected. Hoarding everything that looked useful in the slightest was great to begin with. As I said, I wasn't an expert on survival, but at least I am not retardedly stupid, common sense and logic were my tools, well - my logic seemed adequate to me, same with the common sense.

"Even without the tools, I can probably weave a basket. From long grass or from thin branches of bushes..not that hard to do, so yea.. even I can make something.. fish trap, sure I'd have to put something to lure the fish in.. " - My feet rustled the earth, moving the small hard lumps that I've dug out when setting up the fire pit. It was clay, looked like it at least.

" ...maybe I will be able to make something out of it. I doubt it though, even if a simple campfire can provide enough heat to fire clay, it is not likely that I will be able to make anything out of it. Not like I have feet for hands, but.. fuck it.. will try to make something.. I have seen a guy build a fucking hut from clay and mud.. Trying won't kill me..probably." - As I sort of pumped myself up, I grabbed a thick short stick and the chipped triangular piece of glass, which I used to debark the long pole before.

Time for some spear-making one'o'one. Step one - get a long enough stick, which I somewhat did..whatever. Step two - split it twice at the top, making a cross. Easy enough to be able to do it even with a piece of glass and a stick for a hammer. I tapped the glass lightly, slightly nudging it into the piece of wood, slowly splitting the top once, then I repeated the process. Easy enough huh? Not the end of it, I grabbed a few small sticks and some vines for cordage to proceed. Common logic and faint memories were the only guidelines for the process, I wasn't expecting to make a legendary spear of awesomeness.

I nudged the small short sticks into the top of the "spear", that way the ends split apart and looked like four pointy fingers. Yep - that was the idea of the spear ends. Four is better than one - covers more space, meaning that it will be easier to catch a fish with it.

I took the vines and tied them around the stick, not to let the wood split any further. As per what knot I used - I have no idea actually.

I pressed the vine to the stick about palms length from the place where it was split. I pulled the vine across the pole, then back to the place where it started. I made a really elongated "U" shape this way, with the tip of the spear being pointed downwards. Then I started wrapping the vine around the shaft and itself, trying to pull it firmly, but not excessively tight. When I reached the noose that was at the split part of the spear, I pulled the vine through it, then tightened the knot by pulling on both ends. The knot tightened itself, and I bit the excess vines, leaving just a bit to re-tighten the knot. You know, just in case.

Then I realized that my amazing knot had one flaw. It didn't cover the sticks nudged into the spear-head, so they could fall off quite easily. The tension in the wood seemed to hold them in place of course, but they probably could fall right off. I say probably a lot do I? Well indeed I do that, I am not sure of whatever I am doing. Remember - I am just a guy, who was in a hospital not more than a day ago.. well somewhat along ten to thirteen hours ago, or a bit more. Hard to tell. Even though I have approximate knowledge on things, I had no actual Idea of what I was doing.

If a homeless person from Earth would see me, he would share his clothes with me.. I had a sack for pants for fucks sake. Better than no pants, but still.

Well, with the spear done - I didn't have anything to do any more. I wasn't planning to use the glass pieces for the time being, unless I absolutely had to. Using one of those to just peel the bark off the stick was already a waste? Why? Well.. I could have used my teeth to bite it off, but I thought of that too late, as in just now.

The night has finally shrouded everything in darkness, the small light from the fire was like a little island in the endless black sea. What's more, now that it finally became this dark, I understood that in reality, there were animals in this place. I could hear faint rustling in the grass, something small was moving around. Small was good - small wasn't as scary as medium-size. Occasional splashes from the direction of the water notified me that the fish that inhabited the pond-lake, was a lot more active during the night.

It's a good thing that I had a fire. Not because of the light or the warmth in the chilly night it provided, mostly because I could stare at the dancing flames. It was mesmerizing enough for me to completely shut off any thoughts. At least a few hours passed as I stared at the slowly fading fire, until finally realizing that it was dying out. Trying to set it up in the complete darkness would be rather challenging. That sounds ridiculous, forgetting yourself while looking at the fire. My mind and my body however, were tired - so I'll blame that, not like it would change the fact that my dumb ass just barely escaped losing the fire.

"People learn on mistakes.... But I have to think ahead. A simple mistake could cost me my life.." - I'm not really the life loving type, but I was through too much shit so far to allow myself to just die for some ridiculously stupid reason, or giving up. Hours have passed and I was thinking on what to do during the day. Going on without at least some schedule or plan didn't seem like a good idea, but I wasn't the best at something like planning ahead. I never had a diary or even an event planner thingy of any sort.

I sat on the log in front of a dim fire, drawing on the ground using a thin stick. I didn't draw anything in particular, just some random shapes. It helped me think, like when you doodle while talking to someone on the phone, some people do that. The night was boring, but I didn't mind, boring was welcome right now.

"Should I scout the area tomorrow as well?" - I asked the darkness, whispering lightly. Seems like the darkness didn't want to answer the crazy guy, don't blame it. I wouldn't answer a person like that as well.

The night passed, and with it - my hopes of getting back to my old life. The now and here was my life, I had to think about not dying, not hoping for miracle to happen and everything becoming better. Life didn't work that way, never has. I looked up, through the opening I could tell that the sky was turning lighter. Soon it would be enough to see, well - according to my estimation - in four to five hours it will become a bit lighter.

The time was indeed different from home. Not only the day was long, but the night as well. I was sure, I counted.. for at least four hours I counted seconds. Fourteen thousand three hundred and ninety four to be exact, got tired of counting and stopped. From the time that it became completely dark to this moment, quite a bit more than eight hours have passed. My inner clock will have trouble adjusting to this place, the natives probably are used to the cycle, but I would eventually get tired if I kept working during the day and sleeping during the night. Not like I was planning to, or was able to sleep any time soon. I had to be exhausted to sleep without the nightmares... but if I would be in a deep sleep, I couldn't keep an eye and an ear on anything that could come at me. Sleeping with one eye open wasn't a skill I had, but I had to learn being aware of my surroundings even when I sleep.

I could see the sky becoming lighter, light enough to see the ground if the fire wasn't here. I threw a whole bunch of sticks in the fire, couldn't afford for it to die out. Spending two to three hours trying to re-light it would be a total pain in the butt.

"Good morning to me.." - I stood up while grabbing one of the pieces of cloth that I had by my side. The new day has started, and I had to start working on crafting the new me. I wish I had a better start, but then again everything could have been far worse, it always can be. My hands moved the bushes aside as I made my way out of the hiding. The pond was still there, twenty or so meters away from the spot I've spent the nigh in. Not too far and certainly not too close. I had to clear my head and start improving the conditions I was in. I didn't have that much time before the literal deadline.

Still a lot I don't know about this place, but eventually I will figure everything out.