I read through everything there was to know about cattail.
How to harvest and prepare it I soon seemed to have found a solution to my food problem but only partially as I also realized that I couldn’t only live off of cattail only, I needed protein and other vitamins as well for my body to be healthy, but knowing the fact that the book likely also had answers to those problems I didn’t feel too pressured about not being able to find those things.
Either way going back to the cattail, I found out that I could specific parts depending on the season, since it was the beginning of spring I could only eat 2 sections of it, which were respectively the shoots that grew at the base in the very middle and the roots which I could turn into flour by harvesting the starch within the roots and drying the starch which would turn it into flour.
Knowing this I didn’t want to waste anymore time and immediately went outside to harvest the cattail.
As soon as I went outside though the beavers who were down the river immediately observed me getting out, I was momentarily frozen by their stares but Immediately shook it off thinking that as long as I didn’t do anything to them first they likely wouldn’t mess with me either.
And as it turned out I was right. The beavers while being wary of me didn’t approach me at all as they went on doing their beaver business, some of them still surveyed my every move but over all I could trust that they wouldn’t do anything.
This reassurance let me easily harvest the cattails from the swamp, pulling them off the ground with the root was easy since the soil the cattails grew on was loose from the water.
One interesting fact I found out about the cattails while reading the book was that cattails actually absorbed any toxin within the swamp water to keep it clean, why they do so or how they do it was not very well explained in the book, but it was said that people used these cattails to fight against river pollution in some areas of the world which is why cattail is so wide spread, earlier in human history it was even used as a early emergency food source in case production of whole wheat couldn’t keep up but nowadays nobody uses cattail anymore other then using it to clean rivers and ponds.
Knowledge like this was mostly useless and could have been skipped, but I read it anyways since I found it interesting, plus the way the author explained everything was very easy to understand which is why I didn’t mind.
Thinking about it again it was likely good that I could even entertain myself like this out here in the woods with no other person in sight.
I wasn’t if I was really human or not after all, even though I was sure that I was biologically a human I also knew that I wasn’t born like any other normal human, all of the common knowledge that I had inside my head were merely facts to me or things that I was supposed to know, no one ever taught me anything at least not that I could recall, my personality was also just shaping up in the future if I met another person I wasn’t sure how I would react, but I’d like to think that I would be welcoming or at least nice.
-If any other human is alive out there that is…
I muttered, a dark thought suddenly entering my head as I harvested the last cattail I could carry, in total I had 25 cattails on me, the amount sounded a lot but in reality there was only very little I could extract from these cattails, the shoots I could eat raw but I was going to boil them just to be safe while the starch I would extract immediately to turn into flour.
Flour was going to be later used to make hard tack.
Hard tack was a survival food I found within the book, there were many cooking recipes within the book all aiming to keep you alive.
What hard tack was, was basically a very hard biscuit that could last up to a decade if stored correctly.
The food itself was described to taste not very good but passable with it’s sole purpose being to resist spoilage, having such food was very important to me since stocking up on food could save me a lot of trouble and time in the long run.
-Phew…there is so much to do, I hope I can finish this before the day ends…
I wiped the sweat of my face placing the cattails next to my door as I prepared to cut them and then get them inside, to make it even easier I was about to go back into my shack to retrieve a metal basin I had that I could use to store and clean the roots together with the shoots.
But just as I was about to open the door I could hear something to my right coming from the forest.
(Crack!)
My hand froze at that moment as I heard the sound of branches being broken under foot, quite heavily at that too which could not be mistaken by anything but forceful, soon enough the bushes next to the trees started to rustle as well as if something was inside there making noise, no scratch that there was definitely something inside !
At that moment I was tempted to just quickly open the door and close it shut and wait out anything that could possibly come out of this, but at the same time I also realized that doing so was a bit too excessive since I had no proof anything that came out was actually dangerous, for all I knew it could be just another wild creature and at most it may just give me the stink eye and walk off again, but then again I couldn’t help but also think about the other possibility.
The other possibility being that it was either an undead or a monster.
I gulped staring intently towards that bush.
-Either way, no going back now, I quickly have a look at it and decide after.
Making up my mind I slowly opened the door to my shack and half entered the building to peek out and be able to close it immediately if it was something dangerous to give me the initiative.
Doing so only slightly reassured me of my safety but didn’t completely make my nervousness go away, and as the rustling started to get louder and louder with the bush wiggling along, the tension only started to rise further, my back covered in goosebumps as my heart rate increased every second.
Finally, the bush started to part and it was at this moment that my eyes completely went wide as the thing that came out revealed itself to me even making a noise to indicate its entrace.
(Wrahhhh!)
The deep cold growl of the creature standing in front of me resounded lightly as it stood on its two legs in a slouched position, the stench that came from it I could even smell from here full off rotten waste that you would usually smell within a garbage heap and even though it smelled so bad I couldn’t be bothered to block my nose as the appearance of the creature shocked me too much to move at the moment.
I immediately recognized the creature for what it was and felt terrified by it.
It was a zombie a undead.
Wearing only tatters of its former clothes, it was fully covered in all sorts of stains and dirt most of which had gone bad turning into a disgusting, dark red or dark gray color.
Its mouth especially was covered in a dark red substance that had long since dried, and its teeth were beyond black together with the rest of its mouth that it kept open for some reason.
At one point in time I would have likely recognized the creature to be a intelligent human, but now it was merely a walking, growling, heap of rotting flesh without a soul, its red eyes especially drew me in, they weren’t looking at anything in particular and seemed more like decoration then anything else.
-Wha..what is this ? How did it get here and since when was it here ?
Confused and shaking I stared at the zombie as it slowly made its way towards my shack at a walking speed or even less then that.
It didn’t look like it had actually realized my existence yet, but I also couldn’t understand why it would walk towards me in the first place if it didn’t know I was here, in fact there was nothing I knew concretely about anything regarding this situation !
God ! I had only just come here ! The whole reason I even choose this location was because I didn’t want to have these monsters near me ! But now how do I deal with this !
I took in a deep breath for a second there.
-Calm down, things are not bad as they seem, there is only 1 here right now I have to figure out how to deal with him.
I already figured that leaving him be here was likely not a good idea considering the fact that he was going straight to my shack, I had no clue whether or not it would leave and at the same time I didn’t want it to disappear into who knows where and constantly make my anxious for its reappearance.
No, I couldn’t let it go.
I had to kill it no matter what.
I stepped out.
Feeling my resolve return back to my body and my calm return to my mind, I slowly stepped out of the shack and closed the door with a thud.
(Thud!)
(Grahhhh?)
The sound of the door closing immediately seemed to catch the attention of the zombie as it eerily turned its head towards me with its eye pointing at me, I was momentarily startled by the fact that it had now put its attention on me but at the same time I still had the impression that it wasn’t actually looking at me with its eyes.
This thought sparked a conjecture within my head that made me crouch down and pick up a rock, at first you would assume that I was going to use the rock against the zombie but actually I was using it as a test instead to understand the capabilities of the zombie more properly.
Which is why instead of aiming the rock at the zombie I threw it towards another tree making a loud thud sound as the rock clashed with the bark and bounced off.
(Gruhhh!)
-Yes ! It works !
Just as predicted the zombie turned around towards the source of the thud which came from the tree I threw a rock at.
From this I immediately understood how the zombie found its prey or rather how it found anything at all which was through the use of sound.
But just as it turned towards the tree about to walk towards it, it momentarily stopped in its tracks for some reason and then immediately turned back to me !
(Grahhhh!)
This time its growl was slightly deeper and more chilling, changing its direction, it no longer walked towards the tree from where the sound came from but instead made a bee line towards me as if it now knew for certain that I was here somehow.
Obviously I start to panic from this unexpected outcome, I still didn’t understand why or how it knew I was here, but either way now I didn’t have anymore time to think and had to act.
I knew, I had to kill it, the whole reason why I made my character into a fighter was to protect myself, but for some reason this fighting ability I was supposed to have wasn’t showing itself.
-Come on…come on !
I stood in place watching as the zombie got closer and closer growling at me with its mouth wide.
My fists were raised but nothing inside my head came to me to solve this situation, my body didn’t move and merely shook like leaves in the wind with sweat flowing down my cheek, I was scared, I was afraid, I didn’t want to do die ! I considered whether fighting was actually a dumb idea, I hadn’t even fought once in my life ever since I came to be and now I would face my first combat situation where I could potentially lose my life ?
No, it was simply too early for me to die !
Thinking like this, I no longer wanted to be in this situation, but unfortunately I took too long to think and panic, just as I wanted to get into the shack and close my door the zmobie was already close enough to grab me, the instant I realized this I wanted to get away as quickly as I could and it was then I felt my body move like nothing else before.
(Swish)
As if I was gliding on the ground I immediately found myself side-stepping the zombie who came charging at me through sheer instinct, dodging out of the way I now stood directly behind it somehow even though I had been standing in front of it before, the turn of events making me question what I just did but not giving me more time as the zombie realized that I had dodged quickly turning around to face me again.
(GRAWHH !)
It growled a feral roar, I almost froze again from the fear, but I kept myself strong gripping my hands tighter as I started to believe in my strength some more.
And my believe definitely didn’t betray me as things turned out.
The zombie came forward raising both of its arms to lock me in place through a grab, I saw through that move as if it was in slow motion and more importantly I reacted swiftly without any hesitation taking one step back before it could grab me.
This left the zombie wide open as it missed its grab, a opportunity presented itself and I didn’t miss a beat before executing a front kick to the knee.
The attack was executed extremely well to the point even I had impressed myself, the power behind the kick was also devastating since it had all of my weight behind it which resulted in the zombie immediately falling to the ground the moment I kicked its knee.
The direction it fell to was towards me, of course I dodged perfectly once again now standing next to it.
On the ground there was not much the zombie could do anymore, clearly its knee had been broken from my earlier attack, it couldn’t stand up anymore which is why it instead choose to crawl to me trying to bite me, but unfortunately that attempt was even slower then before which gave me ample time to finish it as I raised my foot aiming at the head for a final stomp.
I looked into its eyes one last time before whispering to it apologetically.
-Thanks for letting me practice, I hope you can rest in peace now.
And with those words my foot descended at high speed making a clear and disturbing cracking sound, a print of my foot forming on its head which was followed by the zombie finally becoming motionless.
-Hahhhh!
The moment the zombie died I immediately sat down onto the ground feeling as if all tension had left my body, the experience was truly beyond anything I had felt before ever since coming here, but it was definitely worth it since now I understood my capabilities far better then before.
-I know how to fight, its only because I was scared that I couldn’t move at the beginning, I am glad that I was able to figure it out quick enough, if not I would have likely become this guys meal or worse turned into one of them myself…
I sighed, standing up, feeling accomplished as I overcome my first hurdle ever since I came to this world, but the taste of accomplishment was brief before reality came back to me, looking at the corpse I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I knew I couldn’t just let it stay like this, who knew what kind of disease it carried, the only choice I had now was to either burn it or bury it and thinking about it I was more inclined on burning it then burying it since I feared that it may some day come out of the ground to haunt again.
I sure as hell didn’t want that which is why I was about to immediately start making a fire until I suddenly heard a scream.
(HIYAAAAAA)
The scream was so loud that even the birds on the trees suddenly flew off their spots in fear, even I momentarily stuck in place getting startled by that scream and from what I could tell it was very close by as well since it directly from the north on the other side of the highway where another forest lay.
-That scream…it definitely wasn’t that of a zombie, it sounded human in fact like a female ?
Puzzled I looked over towards the highway beyond onto the forest.
Even though it was only the first day it seemed like there was a lot to do.
A Place Of Legends 