Survivor 3295743

9

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The presence of light and fire in he hollow was probably a dissuading factor for whatever was down below because it stayed low on the tree trunk for a long time. Every now and then it would sounds of from its current spot with complaining wood from claws and then make similar noises higher up the trunk. It was testing the waters with 'stealthy' hops up the trunk.

From my own experiences in climbing and jumping in trees I could recognize the sounds of claws penetrating and breaking wood. Whatever was slowly making its way up the tree was anything but small and from the amount of weight breaking into the wood and I knew of only a few creatures capable of jumping up a tree in such a fashion. It certainly was not a three-tailed rat.

A few minutes later, the jumping stopped only a few yards below the branch outside the hollow and then a much quieter climbing began. Before long, a giant padded paw reached up over the side of the branch and clenched long scything claws slowly into the branch for purchase. If I had not been looking outside the entire time I might not have even noticed the paw.

A few seconds after the paw had secured the evident feline's weight there was a sudden crunching of wood as the feline swiftly hauled itself up onto the branch and started to enter the hollow. Before the sound even stopped the feline was already head and front legs deep into the hollow. My reaction was immediate, cat or not.

Just as I had planned on I leaped through the large fire and thrust forward with my rat-toothed spear, greeting the feline's front right shoulder with the full depth of the foot-plus long rodent teeth. The cat yowled and backpedaled in pain and furry, reminding me of the feline that died to the crabs. For a brief moment as I jerked back on my spear, I started to hesitate on the impulse of repeatedly stabbing this beast to death.

That hesitation almost cost me my well being as the cat suddenly lurched forward once the spear was out and swept its big meaty paw through the hollow. I stuck out a clawed hand by reflex and projected the out layers of my suit, creating an equally large clawed hand and tore into the feline's central pad. This nifty trick was originally picked up while playing with beesquitoes to find out how tough my Survival Suit really was.

Finding no advantage in the close quarters of the hollow from the branch outside, the feline started to turn and leap away. After having tasted fresh meat for the first time in this world, how could I simply let another meal slip away like this? As soon as it turned its attention away from me I leaped into action, thrusting my spear into its haunch as it tried to jump.

The feline roared its agony all the way to the ground where it landed so heavily I could feel the sudden THUD through the entire tree. I swiftly descended the tree by dragging my climbing claws down the trunk to slowly fall before dropping the last half of the way. The feline was still complaining and struggling with broken back legs on the ground, but after I landed on its chest with enough force to collapse its ribs they soon fell quiet.

Another spear thrust into the base of their skull and the feline was already losing warmth. Even though I felt perfectly fine I was breathing heavily from the rushed excitement of our skirmish and needed a second to calm my heart. When my hands stopped shaking from the adrenaline a while later, I set to work skinning the feline and smearing its brains on the hide.

Simply braking off the bones that the feline's spurs were attached to, I almost happily scuttled up the tree back to my hollow where I celebrated with an extra large piece of gecko tail roasting over the fire. Now that I had this ivory I could set to work on making proper cutting tools.

These pieces of ivory were almost a foot in length with several inches of less imporous bony stem that connected inside the feline's body. The bony stems made for natural handles, so it would be fairly simple to turn at least one into a knife. While I could puncture things with my suit and even chop into wood a bit with a thin portion of stiffened mesh, proper tools would make everything easier.

Back in the hollow I just sat on the opposite side of the fire and looked at the sickly wet and gory hide and ivory I had brought back. For a moment I actually felt like I was in a video game and these were materials I was collecting to make or buy some new equipment. However, there was nobody to buy anything from and dying here meant a true game over.

Knowing the feline would not be the only trespasser in the area tonight, I used bits of wood and my climbing claws to tack and stretch the feline's hide to the inside wall of the hollow. Luckily, the feline's body outside would hopefully be enough to keep predators and scavengers busy away from me. The gecko tail was more than enough for me tonight.

Unknown beasts were soon fighting outside under my tree, making unfamiliar animal sounds that I did not even bother looking outside to check on. As long as they were on the ground and left me alone they could do pretty much whatever they wanted. At first, anyway, but it just never stopped.

This was actually the first time I had stayed in the same area as one of my fights but I more or less knew it would become a continuous chain of predators. What I did not know was that animals would continually attack one another almost without pause for most of the night. It was not until early in the morning when the rising of the sun sent the nocturnal animals away that I could finally get some rest.

Even then, though, I had to move my fire over toward the entrance of the hollow to dissuade birds and other animals from approaching while I slept at the very back. The bed of gecko skin was actually pretty soft and comfortable despite the thick metal mesh suit I slept in. In fact, the suit itself was a fairly gentle and airy textile that did not weigh me down or get in the way at all.

When I awoke it was about six hours later with the sun two thirds of the way up the sky over the jungle. My fire had long since burned out but I was not too bothered by it because I still had some wood and plenty of time to gather more. What I was bothered by, though, were the tattered remains of a few animals under my tree when I stepped out of the hollow.

Not only was the feline body still present in the form of a few mangled pieces but there were also chunks of flesh and bone and other tissues from different animals scattered around. There were even a few daylight scavengers snuffling about the area and growling at one another. One of these scavengers reminded me of a pig with a hairless, short and squat four-legged body but its head was oddly long and narrow while a tail simply did not exist.

I was sorely tempted to climb down the tree and dispatch these scavengers, but they had their own lives to live and an important job to boot. If they did not clean up the mess from last night then more animals would simply come by tonight. With the mess cleaned up, I might manage to get some actual sleep for once!

So instead of scaring or killing the scavengers I simply shimmied around to the opposite side of the tree and started making my way out into the jungle to collect some supplies. Most of what I was after was just firewood but I did not hesitate to stop and pick some citrus or wild vegetables when I came across them.

Thanks to my suit, wood was pretty easy to carry by attaching to my body while the food had to be handled much more carefully.

After returning to my hollow to drop off my supplies I quickly set about following the river while looking for some good and large rocks. When I found a small slate boulder just a bit bigger than my head I started happily returning home to the hollow. With most of everything I needed for dinner at hand, I spent the next two hours collecting enough wood that I could just stay in the hollow for the rest of the day.