Day 119: Feathers

Day 119:

The cave is full of feathers and drying ducken skins. My shoulder’s healing and I’m not limping as much, but I’m really worried that the gash on my calf is going to get infected. I’m cleaning it every few hours.

This wasn’t how I intended to get around to making a feather bed, but truth be told I’m lousy at prioritizing the things that will make me more comfortable when I could be working on the things that will get me out of here altogether.

On the other hand it’s nice to be doing tiny detailed work like sewing skins together for a while instead of big wide movements. One has to keep the fine motor skills exercised as much as the gross ones or real problems can happen.

line sketch of the inside of the author's cave. to the left of the door, a large pile of feathers that reaches halfway to the windows. To the right of the door a pile of red flower heads for dying leather that reaches to a quarter of the window's height. Above the windows and the door a row of chicken skins drying on pegs - roughly 13 in view.
Smells like boiled chicken brains in here.

Day 118: Wrong wrong wrong

Day 118:

I do not wish to discuss how wrong I was about the zombies and the skeletons and the spiders. Suffice it to say that I lived, and I’ll be spending the next few days recovering from my injuries in my cave.

line sketch of a left leg from the knee to the foot. A  wide red gash runs from just below the knee on the shin to the ankle.
Ow. Dammit.

Day 117: Back to digging

Day 117:

The eastern entrance that I uncovered is part of a ravine. Not a deep one, not like some of the ones I found near the house. This one’s just deep enough that it’s level with the part of the cavern I was in.

So far, it seems like maybe I’ve outrun the monsters, too. I’ve come across one skeleton, and to be honest I can’t tell if it came from above or below. Is it possible that I was just dropped in a particularly dangerous area and the rest of the planet is safe?

It’s probably too much to hope. I’m not leaving my sword home.

line sketch. On the left, an underground chamber attaches to another underground chamber, which then drills right out of the side of a cliff. The cliff doesn't appear to have a bottom. Across from the cliff is another cliff, making this a ravine.
Feels like something out of a cartoon.

Day 116: Peace

Day 116:

Decided to take a day off for a change. I’m sore and tired and achy, all to be expected since I’ve been digging like crazy.

I think I’m maybe a third of the way to the big mountain. It’s hard to tell. The mountain slides in and out of the mist  both day and night, and totally depends on the weather if I can see it.

Sometimes I think I see snow on top.

Today I did little things, like carve wooden pegs to use on frames to hold leather skins, and roast some fresh meat, and just not rush.

It was a good day.

line sketch of a pegboard - a flat board with wooden dowels sticking out of it at regular intervals, meant to be hung on the wall to hang skins from.
A few dozen of these and I can get to tanning ducken hides.
Never thought I’d say that.

Day 115: Feathers and fluff

Day 115:

Dug this morning for a while, but ran out of some pretty critical supplies (my shovel broke) and had to go back to my home to make another one.

When I was done that, I started drawing up plans for a feather bed. The duckens’ feathers are pretty soft when they’re young, but they’re only young for about three days. The adults’ feathers are great for arrow fletching but many of them are thick and stuff and not the kinds of things you want to roll over into the small of your back in the middle of the night.

I’m thinking a bag in a bag. The inner bag being almost the full size of the bed and stuffed with adult feathers. The outer bag will have to be just slightly larger, but then filled with the soft downy feathers.

Or I could make this even easier and put the soft downy feathers on a big pillow-like cover on the bag full of adult feathers. That would be even faster.

As for the bags themselves, leather continues to be really the only bag-making materials I have. I’ve gotten better at my attempts at tanning hides. It took me a little while to realize that boiling the brains was the secret to getting them to tan the hides.  But I hate to kill an entire cow just for a bed and some steaks, so if I have to kill small ducken anyway, I think I’ll probably use them to make the leather to make the bed.

This is going to be one heck of a patchwork mattress.

line sketch 1: a bag of feathers inside a bag of down, each bag being made of leather.
when the fluff shifts this is going to be annoying
line sketch 2: a thick mattress filled with adult feathers topped with a thinner mattress made of downy feathers. A pillow-top, if you will. Both bags are made of leather once again.
much easier to actually do