Waking up in the morning to the cooing and chirping of birds, the first thing he notices is the extreme itching over his face and hands, the parts exposed to open air.

[How the hell did I forget about the annoying mosquitoes?! I guess I’ll have to still wear my helmet and gloves to sleep while I’m still here.]

Cursing and trying to swat the few mosquitoes still moving about, he moves his attention to the peacefully sleeping wolf. Its wounds seem to have moved away from festering, looking much more healed. With the nanites in the system, normally, external wounds should be healed by the next morning and the internal tissue damage and muscle regrowth should take about a couple more days. The sun is just rising and it isn’t yet very bright. There is nothing to do without much light anyway. So, he decides to get some more rest. He begrudgingly, puts back on his gloves and covers his face with his hands as he leans back to the stone he’s using for support, going back to rest.

After a couple hours pass by, it’s pretty bright out now and the wolf seems to be happily moving around the surroundings of its lair, probably dealing with its nature call and morning routine to mark the territory. Upon noticing its master is awake, it comes over enthusiastically and starts jumping around and barking playfully.

‘Woof…woof’

“Good boy! You look very energetic today. I’m happy to see that your wounds are better too.”

It answers his masters show of affection by the mandatory furious tail wagging and licks.

“Alright! Enough. Let’s go get some water first. I haven’t been having enough the past few days. That one drink from yesterday wasn’t enough for me.”

Saying so out loud, even if the wolf wouldn’t understand his words completely, he gets up, puts on the now dry clothes under the silvery under suit. He decides to store the now taken off Powered-Exoskeleton inside the burrow safely. While doing so, those weird coloured gemstones catches his eye again. They are dirty and rough but even so, one of them, a purple stone in particular looked very exotic. He decides to take a few of them with him to the spring to wash them.

After washing himself and quenching his thirst, he and the wolf hung out at the lake for a few minutes before the wolf seemed impatient to leave, drooling over every prey it laid its eyes on, even if it didn’t attack any at the pond itself.

Sure enough, by the time he reached the lair, the wolf had gone off to hunt. By now, he was always careful to keep a weapon or 2 on hand. In case another creature attacks when his pet isn’t around. He didn’t waste time to gather twigs and dry-ish grass and some tree sap when possible. By the time he has done that much, he sees the Wolf carrying a very big specimen of a deer, slightly limping. One of its rear legs seems hurt. It appears it has taken a liking to roasted meat as it’s very clear it bought the whole meal with him this time, instead of just a small offering for my sake.

But looking at the limping leg, he could only shake his head. Why couldn’t the stupid thing just hunt a couple smaller prey?

[The stupidity strikes again I suppose. Even it can’t finish this whole thing in one meal. What was the point of risking an injury unnecessarily?]

He secretly prayed that the nanites will ‘fix’ the stupidity he unwittingly inflicted on the beast. Looking at the size of the game, he knew he would have a lot more work than normal this time. He decided he needs a much larger pit to bury the entrails and the skin. So, he begins by finding a wider tree sapling and made one end flat and sharp, a simple digging bar. The wood is relatively hard and the soil soft. So, he decides it will do the job.

Once he starts to dig, the wolf notices what he is doing and helps him finish the hole quickly. Happy to have extra help, he pulls the game near the hole and starts preparing the meat. He removes the head with the antlers and guts and removes all innards but doesn’t remove the skin yet. Instead he cuts off half of the meat, enough for the both for now and only skins these parts. He’s not sure how long fresh meat keeps from spoiling, but he is sure it’s going to be okay for at least a couple hours. He throws all the waste and skin into the pit but pauses a moment to check the hardness of the antlers. He concludes that they are at least useful for digging small holes and they don’t deteriorate unlike wood. He takes the 2 antlers as the meat is set to roast and buries the rest of it but not completely filling the pit yet.

He also, covers up the open areas of the left-over game and stores it deep in the lair with the help of some twine he had made in the free time.

[Yeah, I may not need to but it’s better that I prepare for a longer journey to reach civilization. I’ll need plenty of rope if I’m going to be doing that. I also need to decide if I should take one of the arms of the suit with me to be able to wield or even hold a blade. So far, they’re plenty helpful if a bit annoying to hold or carry without the protection of the suit. Well, I have the next 2 days to prepare for that I suppose. Maybe I should try and construct a small smoking chamber besides the lair. There is no guarantee that food will be as abundant as it is here all the way to my destination. I should plan for some preserved food.]

Once the wolf is apparently full, he forces it to eat a bit more to be sure the food doesn’t go to waste. Once all is done, there is over a fourth of the game left over. He makes a mental list of things he would need to do the next 2 days in preparation for when he is healthy and will need to set out. The first on the list being collecting some fresh fruit to see how long it can stay from spoiling in different packaging. He suits up just for the sake of protection now that the wolf is sound asleep at the entrance to its lair after the overeating. It has been an hour from when the wolf had bought the hunt. He quickly moves out to the fruit area and collects 4 freshly fallen fruits. On the way to and from that place, he takes detours to find and collect all the sap he can get and any big and sturdy leaves. He also keeps an eye out for any good source of plant fibres he could use to make twine out of. He was lucky enough to find some but not enough. He also finds a smaller sapling of the fruit bearing tree and chops it for its wood. All this work while carrying the chopped wood takes him another hour before he makes it back to the lair.

Once back, he quickly digs a small chamber with a narrow entrance that he can barely fit into, crawling. He makes a big enough vent at a shallower portion of the hill, fills the inside with some easy to burn bark he collected and some green pungent leaves. Finally, he cuts up the left-over meat into thin slices, ready to be smoked. He hasn’t done this before. So, he knows it’s not going to be perfect but only hopes for an edible result. Once the fire is started, with the meat set inside, he moves his focus to the plant fibres. He knows it’s going to be a long and tedious work.

[Man, maybe I should just give up some of the clothes to save myself from this tedium? I really wish I had packed an extra set of clothes somewhere.]

He also sets the fruits in the little sun lit area he could find, which required periodic adjusting. One lying out in the open shade besides him. A couple completely packed up with leaves and twine. And so, he sits down for the tedious tasks.

*After 6 hours*

By now the sun has already set and the wolf woke up a good while ago. It created a few troubles with the fruit experiment but frustrated, he fed all the extra fruit he had to the wolf till it stopped bothering him.

[It’s on you, you dumb lug! Not my fault. Besides, the nanites will keep you healthy. You might only suffer a bad stomach in the first hour or so of the morning. Maybe you will take this and the food lesson from the morning to your heart.]

[At least I’m finally done with the rope making. I should stretch a bit before I go to sleep. But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be enough. I wish I had longer rope. I guess I could make it from the soft tree bark like in that YT video I saw. But it’s only going to add more boring, long tasks.]

Grumbling a bit, he decides he will start it first thing in the morning. He also must make a simple container for the water from the resin and the leaves. He has never done such a thing before, not even being sure if that’s going to work.

[Is this resin completely waterproof even? It was definitely somewhat water resistant from how the crude leaf bowl held up to water. Hopefully, it’s good enough to last till I make it out of the forests.]

Upon such thoughts, he went to sleep in the same way as the previous day. He didn’t forget to put on gloves and the helmet though.

*Early next morning*

‘Yawn’

[That truly was a good sleep without those mosquitoes pestering me. I wonder how the wolf is holding up after yesterday’s food.]

As he shifts his attention to the wolf, he notices the wolf shifting, rolling and in general moving about uncomfortably. He couldn’t help but feel a bit Schadenfreude at the wolf’s misery. But he knows it’s going to be fine in an hour or 2.

“Now do you understand stupid? Next time, don’t hunt too much for no reason and listen to me when I say something isn’t food and most importantly, don’t bother me when I’m experimenting. But I know you’re a good boy! You’ll be okay. Just rest a bit.”

‘Hnnn…nnn’

It makes an acknowledging sound and calms down to go back to rest, as its master strokes its fur and pets it till it goes to sleep.

[Right! Now I need to get to the tree bark twine task. If I play it right, maybe I can just make super long ropes with all these tall and straight trees around?]

Once finding a suitable tree, he suits up just in case he slips and falls. After making some handholds, he gets to work with the bark. It takes a few wasted attempts to get the right thickness, straightness, and good length. Once he’s had enough material, he quickly eats a few fruits and tastes some meat that he finished smoking yesterday.

[Well, that tastes like crap. I guess a lack of salt is very detrimental to most tastes. Also, I’m sure I committed a hundred sins towards the art of smoking meet. I will know if this is edible by the end of the day or tomorrow morning at the latest. May the nanites protect my stomach!]

Once he starts the work on making longer ropes, he failed multiple times before getting the hang of it and had to obtain some more fibre to top off the waste. It’s already well past noon by this point. He quickly gets to work on the water container.

He uses generous amounts of melted tree resin and some tough leaves for the shape of a deep bowl with a somewhat narrow mouth. To seal the mouth, he decides to use some wood that he shapes into a circular shape with a small handle on one side to hold. He manages to make a small, conical hole with the help of a blade and a suitable piece of wood that acts as a reasonable cork to the hole.

He makes small groves on the sides of the flat wood cover and ties the premade container to the wood joining them at its mouth/opening. Using some of the stronger, finer twine he makes, he ties them as tight as he can without breaking anything. He quickly seals everything with a full layer of Resin. Once done, he also covers the outside of the container with the remaining resin, just like the inside to be safe.

Now done with all the chores, he sorts all his items and things that he will carry with him or bury in the lair tomorrow before setting out. While setting aside the coloured stones from the other day, he notices that the violet stone has a spark of red at the centre. More visible when looking at it against the fire. He finds it strangely beautiful and decides to keep it. Once everything is sorted out, he quickly verifies the locations of 4 relatively flat slabs of rock that he plans to use to ‘seal’ his things that he is leaving behind. Including the suit, except for the right arm, some supports for his torso and the helmet to prevent mosquitoes and for having a small emergency beacon in it when he gets into open areas. But that will need more time and help from the wolf in the morning.

With all the preparations that he can make finally complete, he starts a campfire, probably for the last time here, where he made home at his hunter’s den. Sitting besides the now healthy Black Wolf, he couldn’t help but recall all that had happened in the last 10 days in his life. Even if there were a lot of ups and downs, dangerous events both to himself, his friends and not to mention his entire planet.

[But all is well that ends well. The invasion was successfully repelled even if there are going to be a lot of side effects from it, I’m sure most of my people survived that week. Even if I had been stuck here for the last few days, I’m very glad to have found a new companion. Especially one so ferocious!]

‘Chuckle’

He couldn’t help letting out a chuckle of satisfaction as he fell asleep with a hand on the wolf and a satisfied smile on his face, ready to finally set out to meet his family and friends tomorrow.

-To be Continued