The Rain.. there was so much of it, so suddenly. The sky turned black and there was only rain and darkness around. My hut seemed to handle such an amount of water quite well, inside it was rather dry. However I had to quickly make a temporary door to cover the opening, as water was getting in, and it got quite cold really fast. Some sticks and paper-leaves, along with a bit of cordage, and I had been able to completely isolate myself from the sudden water pour. The bleeding has completely stopped and numb-berries made me completely..well..numb to pain, so slight moving around didn't hurt me. Pain wasn't the issue, but the metallic taste in my mouth, along with sudden fever - was a problem. I lost quite a bit of blood and even though I washed the wounds to some degree, the wounds inflicted by an animal, be it bite or clawing, could get infected in a blink of an eye. The fever was worrisome, I hope it wasn't a sign of an infection... Images of animals bitten by larger lizards came to mind, especially komodo monitors.. even if the victim escaped, infection would kill it eventually.. even though I came out of the short fight untouched, didn't mean I was out of the danger zone.. I carefully dropped my body on the still damp bed, I wasn't able to lay down properly. I was starting to tremble, it was chilly, but the fever was definitely setting in.. fucking animals..

I grunted and pushed myself up after just a few minutes of lying in bed. Holding to my side, I stumbled to the pot that still had some water in it. I could barely pull it up to my mouth.. lukewarm water spilled on my chest and legs, but I greedily continued to drink...

"Fuuuck.." - I growled, brushing my mouth with the backside of my arm. I doubted that I had enough strength to get to the stream, but my eyes were locked on the entrance to the hut.. I had enough in me to put the pots out right next to the door - to collect the rainwater, just so I didn't have to walk around during the rain to get a sip of water - and I hoped that I could man up and crawl through my own hut to get them later. The rain was soothing, my eyes got quite watery, while all of the muscles decided to give out at the same time.. My feet were still on the ground, as I was half-lying on the paper-leaf mattress... I hated this..and I nodded off even despite the amount of pur-map I've ingested. Seems like fatigue hits harder than the coffee substitute eh?

...

I woke up and the rain was still there, so I thought that not a lot of time passed, however the coals of my small fireplace were barely noticeable in the dark.. which proved me wrong.

"Once again.. losing a shit-ton of time.. FUCK.." - I nearly screamed as I pushed myself up, the feeling of my skin being stretched while being pierced my the springlike roots or whatever was quite sharp. The fever seemed to calm down, but I was sweating, which meant I wasn't all fine and dandy.

"I can think.. and move.. sorta" - A bundle of different sized sticks went into the fireplace, it had enough strength in it to set the wood ablaze shortly.. I shuffled towards the entrance to get a drink, it still showered without any sign of stopping. Being bored of doing nothing, I began to make some cordage out of fibers I had laying around - I still believed that the rain would stop after a few hours.

...

The rain was still there, and I'm literally out of fibers to make into cord... I've even practiced making knots for a few hours, not only that, but I've finished eating the remains of the tree dwelling lizard thing.. The bones were simply lying around near the fire pit, I was still to weak to walk out.

"... that's how you get ants" - I mumbled to myself, the edges of my lips rising ever so slightly.

...

After some time of staying in a horizontal position, staring at the thatch dome, I couldn't take it anymore. Staying in bed was unusual already, doing nothing and resting seemed crazy.. I had to do something..

...

Seems like I'm cooking two types of paper-leaf stems.. boiled and roasted. The fact that I was able to fall asleep, then get hungry, means that it was raining for a whole day already, and it didn't seem to stop. At first I went on to cook, but midway I thought that it was really possible that the rain will go on... for a long time. Which could prove to be quite problematic. Eying the pile of wood, I hoped it would stop sooner than later..

...

Had to take off my shorts and go outside naked... nature calls. Lost most of the paper-leaf bandages due to them soaking up the water.. though the nets of the plant remained, holding my wounds closed like some sort of an exoskeleton. It's still dark, and I'm losing track of time to be honest, it is possible that it'll rain for a few years now.. so I have to somehow hunt in the dark? Fatigue was barely noticeable, no sign of fever.. the pain was coming and going as I took the numb-berries..

"I'm healing quite fast.."

...

I'm not going out in the darkness to check on traps... no way. I'm chewing on the leftover bones of the tree-dweller, disgusting I know, and unnecessary to be honest. After the food started getting depleted, I tried to get to the paper-leaf bush.. Ever tried walking around your house in pitch darkness.. getting a bit anxious with each step? .. the same feeling, but I had reasons justifying the anxiety. I brought a whole weeks worth of stems with me, but would it be enough?

...

It's raining for what seems like eternity. Quite hard to keep track of time when you don't see the sky, or even a sign that the night has fallen, or the morning has come.. A period void of time.. I could tell approximately how much time passed due to the bundles of wood...

"Four days.." - my face showed no emotion, blankly I stared into the orange light of my fire-pit.. My wounds healed already, which could be considered crazy fast, I didn't mind. The springs in my skin started to dissolve and hurt, plus I ran out of numb-berries.. a slight fever wasn't a good sign.

"I'm either addicted.. or that's just infection setting in at last" - Yes, the giant wound from the bite was the only thing that didn't heal completely yet.

I've made two more pots and a cup of decent quality while waiting. I am running out of wood slowly as well, when the fire goes out, I'll be stuck here in complete darkness. I didn't hope for anything anymore though.

...

I woke up to the sound of... nothing.

"No fucking way.." - Slow as a sloth, I tried to open my eyes, which didn't cooperate and tried to shut themselves and make me go to sleep right away. There was no drumming of rain anymore! Unbelievable, it was pouring non stop for nearly a week.. My stockpile of fuel ran out a few days before, I was drying some sticks I'd gathered in the darkness, but they were damp, barely provided any heat or light.. mostly smoke.

I pushed the door away, revealing a bright new world... which was dark.. literally it was both. The sun was shining through the canopy, and it was bright enough to hurt my eyes that got so used to the darkness. On the other hand - everything was rather dark. All the trees were covered in a thin layer of dark moss, the grass, leaves - everything was filled with the same dark color. The ground had dark green patches of grass sprouting everywhere, even more moss filled the area. The short pur-map bushes as well numb-berries were bigger than I ever saw them be, and that was me just stepping a bit outside of the bushes I lived in.. Growing spree like no other. I mean.. even my hut was covered in a layer of moss, which seemed crazy.

But there's more.. As I looked up, I saw the trees light up in vibrant colors. It was something completely different, not moss or flowers, but mushrooms of different sizes sprouting from the bark at the top parts of the tree-trunk. The fact that I could see them from all the way down here, proved that they were immensely huge, bigger than anything I've ever seen in my life.. that's what she said... dammit... Name any color - it was up there, and I was just standing there, speechless, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"It's suddenly almost like I'm... in a fantasy world.." - I snorted on the stupid thought.. Sure it was.. for a long time already..

With a spear in hand I walked around for a bit, getting acquainted with the slightly different landscape. It was like someone painted over the old world. I brushed my palm against the soft green moss on a trunk of a nearby tree, it all seemed different.

"I guess water washed away all my markings on the trees...or moss covered them.." - I realized after calming down from the new sight.

My wounds had healed up properly, even though I was left with quite a bit of large bumpy white gashes all over my body. Scars covered me from the neckline, down to the heels of my feet. Figures.. my right forearm looked funny with two bite marks on it... one from a plant, one from a lizard.. Am I collecting them or what?

The part of my mouth that was sliced open, now felt a bit numb - the scar covered quite a bit of skin. Well at least water didn't spill when I drank any more..

"And I don't get myself covered in drool every few minutes.." - With a slight sigh, I've made my way back to the bushes hiding my small hut. Despite all this amazing stuff going on, I had chores to do and a schedule to keep track of. Besides, with all that sitting indoors, I've gotten a bit soft and mushy.

"Out of food, out of wood, time to get going.." - I stumbled back into my hut to get the backpack, as well as a few spears and a couple of short spikes, just in case. I was going back into the territory of the tree-dwellers, so I wasn't going to take any second chances. Before my schedule could return to normal, I had to secure myself some food once again, and with such sudden changes, I didn't know just how much food I'd be able to get.

"Check the traps, catch some fish and keep at it.." - dark moss sank beneath my steps and returned to it's original condition as if it was memory foam. It slowed me down a little, but not like I couldn't get used to it.. I was getting better at that.

...

Good news was that the traps were still intact, bad news - half of them were covered in moss, and some had decomposed corpses in them, all of which were rat-bits. Seems like the tree-dwellers didn't go after the rat-bits any more, and they avoided all of my traps as well. I was still alert, the memories of the recent fight were still fresh, the same went for the pain from the wounds.

" It's strange that they went after me.. I never saw them before that day.." - once again I was thinking about the whole situation, I did a lot of that during the rain. Starting the thoughts from the very beginning every damn time. I blamed the heat, it probably made food scarce to the point that mostly docile creatures attacked. It didn't mean I was going to leave my spear or the newly made atatl anywhere, I'd kill anything coming at me.. try to at least.

I finished checking the rat-bits traps, as well as moving the cadavers a bit further away from the rat-bit traps. The pit traps seemed fine and working, the moss covered only the top layer, making it less obvious to animals, or whatever might be walking over them.

Something that I've added to my schedule - was making more traps, as something was telling me.. when the forest blooms, more animals might appear. Which means that far bigger predators might start lurking through the land.

....