Mortalized

Camping (8)

     My hands worked slowly as the pain in the one wouldn't relent, but that wouldn't stop me from my craft. Carefully, I weaved vines and branches between one another, constantly checking the strength between them. I then stopped a moment to hop over to the nearby creek, soaking the vines in water so that they would remain bendable a little longer. Then I left to grab more vines and twigs. Then back to weaving, and then back to the creek. By the time I was done, I had made a rather crude looking woven scarf or something, it was small for a blanket, but just right to be wrapped around my ankle and lower leg. I did so following the very tedious task of trying to position my swollen, broken ankle correcrly, and trying to wrap the thing around, grabbing both sides, all with only one fully functioning arm. The pain was immense, but easy to handle, and after adding in a few new sticks to it, my leg from the bare foot to the torn up pants was completely covered in damp vines. The coolness of which actually seemed to help a lot.

     I hadn't learned too much about how to take care of wounds in the past, but I had watched the humans enough to at least know how to take care of a sprained ankle, but only a little bit. I was still curious about all the steps I might have missed.

Splash-op!

     My head spun quickly to the large dog pouncing in the water to my side. His nose nearly in the blue as he watched intently for any fish. I figured I may as well join him a little, scooting over to the edge of the creek to finally clean off my wounds. Once I reached the creek, I plopped my bound ankle right in, it feeling instant relief from the burning feeling it had as it was surrounded by nice cool water. I decided to let it stay as I cleaned off the mud and blood off my other leg. Next were my arms; I wasn't able to raise my right arm too well, so I could only rub off my left fore-arm a little bit. Those bandages over my back had irritated them beyond belief, and it felt like sandpaper to take off, when I finally did get to my back. It was strange, looking down at my newly cleaned arms, still seeing little cuts and scars from my recent injuries. Those were usually all gone by the next day. Well.. at least my back had mostly stopped bleeding.

Shloop!

     The dog startled me again with another splash in the water, again turning up unsuccessful. Internally I groaned at myself, for I should never be so jumpy.

Rwoof!

    My head cranked upward from the pebbles I sat on, eyes meeting with those of the large dog as he looked directly at me. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but of course wasn't able to.

     "What is it, mutt?!" I asked, prompting him to tilt his head a little, as if I should understand him better than even a human. I tilted my head in response. That seemed to help him understand me, and the dog began looking back down at the water, then back up to me. I too followed his eyes, still not sure what he wanted. Maybe he didn't want anything at all. How could I know?!

Rrroof!

     He repeated, again looking between me and the water. It took a moment, but then I thought about what he had been after: the fish. Perhaps, that meant he wanted me to grab him a fish?

     "Ohh, mutt, I.." Then it dawned upon me. I wouldn't need to physically stand up and pounce at fish like what the dog was doing. Just like I created my cast, I could also create a net that would help out much more!

     Idea in mind, I stood from my comfy spot to grab more vines and small twigs. I walked around with the soft grass brushing between my toes, feeling both weird and welcomed, as I searched for the materials I needed. The vines here weren't the ones you would find in the jungle. Those were much stronger, much thicker. There were some thick vines in the forest so full of yellow and green light, but they were so course I couldn't use them for anything regarding my brace; but as the main ropes along the exterior of my net, they would work just nicely. The other vines here were a green, thin, barkless things -- more like stems. They would work better as the actual net bit. And, since the net would be both bigger and not need to be so tightly knit, I could make it a lot quicker, and have the thing finished by mid day.