Wild Desperation

Chapter 8

I quickly dropped off my load full of twigs into the cave before setting down my bag inside, taking only the sled, my bow and arrows in case of trouble, and the hatchet I had among my things. I had helped chop wood for past winters but I was on my own now so all the work was falling to me, I had to find the right sized tree, chop it down, then chop it into logs small enough to cart back to camp. 

Arrow trotted easily enough at my side, he would sometimes hop a bit with his bandaged foot but other than that he didn't seem very bothered by anything as I searched for the size of tree I needed. I found one not too far away that had lots of smaller branches branching off the trunk and a decent diameter to the trunk itself, it wasn't the tallest tree in the woods but it was of a decent height so I sat my bow and sled down and started to cut. 

The trick was to cut on the side you wanted it to fall, make a big enough notch at the base and the tree should come down easily enough. Once I had made it halfway through the trunk with my hatchet I could hear the trees groaning increasing so I quickly moved to the opposite side, making sure Arrow was out of the way and started to add my own body weight into it. The tree finally gave out and with a loud groan it finally crashed to the ground, I took a quick moment to celebrate my little victory as I wiped the sweat from my face and quickly got on to the next task. 

I worked on chopping off the branches and chopping them down to size before loading them on the sled, when I got it so full that I couldn't fit a twig more I started to head back. I quickly realized that the sled was just a bit too heavy to make it back on my own so I made a makeshift harness out of a rope vine and slipped it around Arrow before attaching the other end to the sled. I didn't want to put too much weight on him so I pulled with everything I had and he pulled right alongside me, whining somewhat eagerly whenever I stopped for a breath, at least he was enjoying himself.

 When I finally got back to camp and unloaded the firewood inside the cave, I made sure to unharness Arrow so as not to put added strain on his foot. For the rest of that day I went back and forth to that tree, chopping it up and loading the sled with as much as I could pull on my own. I was sore and tired from the strenuous work but I now had a good supply of dry logs to use during the worst parts of the winter storms. I decided to get a few more branches for tonight's fire since I planned to sleep in the cave for the first time, I also went to check some snares I had set out earlier in the day.

 Out of the twelve snares I had set I only caught three rabbits and one bird, in the spring I would have had half if not all of them full. I plucked the feathers from the bird and saved them for making arrows, skinned the rabbits, being careful not to damage their winter furs since I had hopes for a pair of new and warmer gloves. I then quickly cleaned them all, throwing away what I couldn't eat, only to watch Arrow scarf it down seconds later. When they were all cleaned I gave them a quick rinse in the stream before cleaning my knife and hands along with them.

 I decided to cook all four up fresh since it was cold enough that the meat wouldn't spoil for another day or two even if we couldn't eat it all, however I was fairly sure that Arrow could eat all four on his own. I made sure my turtle shell I'd found was full of water and that I had a decent supple of dirt nearby before I started the fire in the cave, I didn't want to take a chance of my log supply burning if my campfire got out of hand. 

The smell of the meat cooking was amazing and Arrow seemed to agree as he licked his chops eagerly focused on the meat cooking. I smiled as I reached out to scratched between his ears and he crooned happily at the contact, for such a scary looking dog he was really sweet to me. I had noticed however the small mats that dotted his coat, the way his nails were just a tad too long, and how when he tried to lick my chin in his happiness just how bad his breath smelled.