Gar pulled the rope up now slightly thankful for the overhang as it meant Bodger wasn’t dragged up the rocks as he pulled, instead hanging a little off it. Once he had Bodger up it only took a few moments before he had untied the stick, it was showing signs of cracking round Bodger’s teeth marks, and retied the rope to the handle on the back of Bodger’s harness. Then with no fear or argument Bodger simply walked off the edge and dropped. Once the rope was lowered it was much easier to get it into the hole as Bodger was able to scrabble along the rocks and guide itself in.
Bodger grabbed the handle for the first bundle which was a change of plans instead of being for his armour and weapons it was the bundle with his water bottles and the first sack with food. Once Bodger had them it again walked out of the hole and dropped a little before Gar was able to start hauling it up. Once he had Bodger and the bundle up Gar stopped for a break, he had realised with how weak he was feeling he was in no state to run or fight or even keep hauling so food and especially water was more important than his weapons and armour.
He took a bit of time to eat and drink to regain his strength, he finished two whole water bottles and enjoyed himself eating the sweet and tart thorn berries which where what happened to be the food in the bundle with the water. After about half hour of that to get some strength back he lowered Bodger again. This time Bodger did bring up his armour and spear and Gar spared the time to put it all on before going again, feeling much better about things after being fed watered and having his armour on. So on it went dropping Bodger down and hauling bundles of his gear up, he had arranged it so that things where brought up in priority order first his metal tools, then the food, then the pieces of the cart.
“Hauling levelled up hauling level 7”
Once he had all the pieces of the cart up he took a break to put it all together and load it up, before he brought up the last of his stuff. The materials and the pieces he had collected from creatures in his time there. The final thing that was brought up was B2 held by the handle on the back of its harness swinging underneath Bodge. Gar was relieved when he had everything up he was safe from the norkers and ogre slugs and death dogs and zombies.
He removed the badger’s harnesses and bundled up the rope before making sure everything was put away in either the cart or his backpack. He would have like to have got moving to find somewhere safer to rest but he didn’t think he would find that easily and he was oh so tired. It was probably better to rest where he was, where he had not been attacked in the last few hours than it was go wandering through an unknown woods at night when he was not at his best especially when weighed down with all his gear. Using that logic to persuade himself Gar set Bodger and B2 to guard and then laid down behind his cart to try and get some sleep. No sooner than when he placed his head on the ground Gar was asleep.
Gar awoke and felt his body’s protests after the abuse he had put it through the previous day added to it was that sleeping in his full armour was not ideal. Not that Gar would have taken it off even if he had realised the result. He got up and did a few stretches to try and loosen his body, get it moving again. Then for the first time in the light of the morning he took in his surroundings. It was a forest with large trees spaced far apart with lots of grass underneath. The trees where not the colossal giants from down in the hole he had been trapped in, they were by no means small just more what could be expected of a mature forest from earth. The trees where of various types all spread out with plenty of room between them. It was a stark difference to where he had been he could hear wind blowing through the trees feel its gentle caresses on his face. He also heard bird song for the first time since coming to this world he hadn’t noticed its absence when in the hole yet as soon as he heard it he realised it had been missing in fact he couldn’t remember seeing a single bird so far.
It was time to move he could look at the forest more as he walked. He slung one of his full water bottles over his shoulder and took a handful of berries to eat. It wasn’t exactly balanced but he would eat the berries first as they would go off first the nuts and pods would last longer. He set off pulling the cart behind him a badger to either side. As for the direction he’d had plenty of time to decide that, he figured all people needed water so he would follow the river. Downstream would have been preferred then if he still didn’t find anyone on its length he could follow the coast round. Seeing as the river he knew off flowed down underground following it downstream was not an option so upstream it was. He would follow the edge of the hole round until he got to the river and then follow it up stream.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Gar walked bringing the cart with him he didn’t particularly have to think about where he was going because as long as he kept the drop off to his left he couldn’t go wrong so instead his attention was on looking around. He was looking at everything he had Observe on, he had also had mana sight on briefly until he was overwhelmed by the amount of mana in the forest it was so much he couldn’t focus so he had to turn it off. He was looking at everything as he walked, the ground, the trees even up in the sky. He was looking for danger he had learnt to always be on guard. He wasn’t just looking for danger he was looking for anything recognisably edible as while he had food he had brought with him anything to boost his stores so it would last longer and now that he was out of that hole Gar was hoping he could find some more variety for his diet it would be nice to try some different foods.
Gar was also on the lookout for any signs of people he doubted there would be people as soon as he got out the hole but he wasn’t going to miss the signs when he did pass them because he wasn’t looking. Gar took his time as he meandered between the trees the cart moved smoothly as long as the terrain didn’t get to rough so he was following the path of least resistance between the trees. With no set destination in mind and no idea where he was his journey would take a while so he wasn’t going to rush to only achieve wearing himself out. Which was why he was willing to stop any time he saw something that caught his interest.
The first time he stopped was when he saw a large colourful bird sitting in a tree. The second was a tree with almost blue leaves. Gar spent a few minutes each time just admiring what he found before continuing on. He stopped for lunch early as he’d had a hard day the day before and he wasn’t going to push himself. He spent over an hour just sat under a tree enjoying the pleasant sensation of the sunlight on him through the canopy above. He wasn’t far off from the river he could hear the waterfall from where he sat.
Before setting off again he had an idea. He re-fitted the badgers into their harnesses it then wasn’t too difficult a task to tie the badgers to the handles of his cart such that they could pull it. What took longer was that he had also ensured the knot holding them had a quick release, he put the loose end of rope in each badgers mouth and they just had to give a quick pull of the rope to be released in case of a fight or an emergency. A few test runs and a slight adjustment to the handles later and the badgers where able to pull the cart with relative ease and because they were undead puppets they did not get tired or need to eat and drink which meant they travelled much faster in the afternoon without picking up the pace.
Gar did find he would have to help and push the cart on occasion if the ground was rough. Even with that it was much easier for Gar only carrying his backpack. He reached the river not too much later. Gar enjoyed looking at the waterfall from above as opposed to bellow it really cemented in his mind that he was out. He only spent a few minutes there admiring the falls and refilling his water bottles. Then he was off again and it was time to start looking for a place to spend the night. He followed the river upstream for a bit to get away from the noise of the falls, and then he turned into the woods away from the river to look for a place to camp. The same reason he was following the river was the same reason he didn’t want to camp next to it because just as people needed water so did everything he wasn’t going to present a sleeping target in a location animals would be drawn to.
What he was looking for or hoping to find in terms of a camp Gar didn’t really know he hoped he would be able to tell when he found it. What he ended up settling on was a large sprawling tree a couple hundred meters from the river. It had taken a while walking up stream while in the woods for him to settle on that tree. It was large with thick wide branches up high and not to many lower branches to make climbing easy, the leaves where broad and green but he could see no fruits, flowers or buds that might attract any animals to it, there were also none in the trees around it either so Gar figured there would be no reason for animals to regularly go there.
He parked his cart up against the trunk, then thought better of it and parked it against a nearby tree. He pulled some berries nuts and pods out of the sacks and set them on a carapace piece he would use as a plate. Before he could stop and eat though he needed to take care of the rest of his food. Using his knife he quickly carved several large wooden pegs. With a knot in the end of a rope to give it weight he threw the rope over a branch in a tree, it took several attempts until he got it on target. With the rope over the tree he tied one of his sacks of food to the rope then hoisted it up until it was hanging just under the branch and well out of reach, he then made a loop in the other end of the rope and pegged it down to hold the bag in place. It was then a simple matter to do that twice more in two other trees with his two other sacks of food.
