Day 3 (Wednesday, April 27, 2022) Adirondacks, Tupper Lake, New York, United States

“Good snake, good snake,” Ella said reassuringly.

The timber rattlesnake was huge, Ella had read that they could grow up to five feet, but this one was seven feet long or bigger.

It rattled again as it sat at the front of the cave. Ella had her rifle, but this small cave barely gave her enough room and the knife felt like a weapon of last resort.

“I didn’t know this was your home. I’ll go find somewhere else.”

Ella was wondering if it was a good idea to try and push it with her rifle. It seemed like a bad idea.

The snake raised itself up and licked the air, it hissed and drew back as if to strike. Ella tensed. She was tired and grumpy and she was seriously considering burning the snake to ash right there. The cavern began to glow as her eyes lit up, brighter and brighter.

The snake recognized a threat quickly and literally turned around and started to slither away. Ella kept her attention on it but she soon lost it to the grass outside.

She then put one of her spiderweb detection spells on the entrance. Stupid of her not to have done it before.

She ate the cold meat that was left from the rabbit along with some of the various herbs she had gathered.

Then she went out to hunt more food. She slithered up a tree and waited. And then promptly cursed at the splinter she ended up with.

The forest was still. An occasional breeze brushed by, she could hear the rustling leaves. The cool, wet morning air was chilly and caused her skin to have goosebumps where it was exposed.

She kept watch, an hour passing. Then another. Her attention wandered but she kept yanking it back to focus. She sat up in that tree for hours without a single sign of an animal. Then she realized that she was upwind of the animals, they could smell her.

“Fuck,” she muttered and slid down the tree. What did she know about hunting? She lived off of New York bodegas, cheap falafel, and delivery. What was she out here for? Zaidu had wanted her to learn to stalk prey and avoid being detected. That much was obvious. His method of teaching was hunger could be her teacher.

“Fuck,” she said again. And then her stomach made a rumbling sound and started cramping badly. She slid down the tree quickly and barely made it to a bush before doing her business. It was not pleasant and she found herself waddling with her pants down back to the creek to wash off. She was starving, but her stomach kept cramping, and she crawled back to her cave to try and recover.

That night she broke out in fevers and sweats, defervescing repeatedly in horrible bouts and then shaking uncontrollably to warm up. She had no choice and built up her fire and collecting water from the creek to try and stay hydrated.

In her bouts of lucidity, she went through her food supplies but she couldn’t figure out if it had been the rabbit or if she had made a mistake in her foraging.

The cramps came back hard and she stumbled out of the cave. The moon was out and shining down providing strong visibility and she saw the white stag directly standing outside.

“No time you overgrown deer.” She made it some bushes and pulled her pants down before soiling her only clothes.

Afterwards she lay on the ground and passed out in the moonlight, tossing and turning and sweating and mumbling random imprecations. Her eyelids glowed as her magic came and went.