Chapter 2

Chapter 2

What to do next? Find a new place to stay?

Cloudy's mind was a mess. It was already quite dark, her body covered in bloodstains, with a large basin of minced meat left unattended.

The strange man had long disappeared... There were urgent matters to attend to. Although Cloudy was anxious, she couldn't sleep covered in bloodstains, as it would surely attract many strange insects or small carnivorous animals. She also needed to figure out what to do with the pile of minced meat emitting a strong smell of blood.

Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, Cloudy crawled up a little higher on the green slope. Here, there were plenty of low broad-leaved plants, and the plant Cloudy was looking for was quite distinct - slightly taller, squeezed among a bunch of green and yellow bushes.

Its leaves were a liver-purple color, somewhat resembling banana leaves, but with a more intricate, spider-web-like pattern on the surface. They emitted a peculiar smell, not exactly foul but not pleasant either.

Based on Cloudy's observation, this smell could repel some insects... That's why the cave was filled with these broad-leaved plants, and Cloudy would replace them every few days. She collected five or six of these leaves and then delved into the bushes to search for creeping vines.

During this time, she rolled around in the muddy ground, which was even softer and wetter in the bushes. Cloudy didn't mind getting dirty since she didn't have time to bathe by the river. She used the damp soil to scrape off the dried bloodstains as much as possible.

After picking the leaves and vines, and cleaning off most of the bloodstains, Cloudy hurried back to the cave entrance.

Her movements were quicker than before. Sitting on the ground, she flattened one liver-purple leaf, then folded another leaf on top of it repeatedly until it couldn't fold anymore. Cloudy then raised a stone she had prepared and started hammering the folded leaf. As she kept hitting the leaf, a unique smell started emanating, and some sticky transparent liquid seeped out from the veins.

Once the leaf turned into a paste, she evenly spread it on the flattened leaf, covering it with another leaf on top, like making a sandwich cookie.

Leaf - paste leaf - leaf

This was... Cloudy looked at her "masterpiece" with satisfaction. This was the insect-repellent cover she had created on a whim for the first time!

She placed the leaf cover aside. The minced meat in the shells needed further processing. Cloudy carried the shells to a spot further away from the cave, dug a shallow hole, and poured out the accumulated blood inside the shells into the hole. After emptying the blood, Cloudy squeezed out the remaining blood from the minced meat by hand, trying to clean it as thoroughly as possible.

With this step completed, she could now proceed with the overnight process... Given that it was all new to her, Cloudy couldn't guarantee perfection. She planned to divide the minced meat into three portions, fearing the smell if she kept all the meat in the cave.
Too concentrated, attracting something at night.

The first portion, with the most content, is wrapped thickly in leaves and placed inside a cave. The second portion, the smallest, is placed inside a bug shell, covered with leaves, then wrapped with several layers outside, and finally buried with stones. The third portion is also wrapped thickly in leaves, but suspended with vines on the tree below the higher slope.

Once the portions are divided according to the plan, the daylight has dimmed, the distant sun has sunk into the rainforest, and the sky is as bright as fire. Cloudy, draped in the dazzling orange glow of the setting sun, manages to hang the third portion on the tree.

She places her hands on her forehead and bows towards the tree, saying, "I feel you are the most likely to be eaten. If you are eaten, please protect me from disasters. Thank you."

Back in the cave, after sorting a bit the bone fragments and stone arrows collected for tool-making, the sky is almost completely dark. She carries the items into the cave and decides to block the entrance with stones tonight, just in case.

The mixture of meat and leaves slightly irritates her nose, so Cloudy doesn't fall asleep quickly as usual. She starts thinking about the wild man.

Why did he help her bring back the meat? How did he know where she lived? What was he mumbling about?

Will he come back tomorrow? Cloudy hopes not... The wild man, over two meters tall, with eerie eyes and a strong alien appearance, makes Cloudy fearful.

Should she move to a different place? But more important than moving is to learn how to make fire... If she succeeds in making fire tomorrow, she can have roasted meat. But will the meat spoil by then?

Thinking about this, Cloudy instinctively reaches for the leaf package beside her, like a mother caressing her child. "I really want to eat roasted meat..." Her stomach growls in the dark cave. Hearing her loud stomach, Cloudy stops thinking about moving and the wild man.

The most urgent thing is to make fire and tools! With these thoughts, Cloudy finally starts feeling drowsy.

...

The meat in the cave is fine, the one hanging on the tree is fine, but the leaf package buried at the cave entrance has been chewed through by insects, with several holes, and the meat inside has been nibbled to a jelly-like consistency. As expected, Cloudy happily brings the one from the tree back home.

She first eats some roots stored in the cave, then starts to make fire with wood. With the meat nearby, even though she's a bit hungry, her actions are very vigorous. Cloudy hums a tune while drilling for fire, as if she's about to enjoy a feast of roasted meat.

Two hours later.

"Why the hell won't it light up!" Cloudy smashes the wooden stick in her hand and collapses on the grass, crying. The fire drill and board have been dried for many days, the tinder is also very dry after being exposed for so long... Why...

Cloudy sobs on the grass, coughing. She's exhausted, her palms are bloody and bruised from using the wooden stick repeatedly, her arms are sore and swollen.
Why does she have to go through all these unfortunate things? She has already died once. Why does she have to suffer in a place like this? She kept pounding the ground with her hands, making strange sobbing sounds, almost wishing to die again. Hanging herself? Or jumping off a cliff...

Crying and wandering in her thoughts, Cloudy gradually calmed down after quite a while. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at her makeshift fire pit and then at the bug shell filled with raw meat. Exhausted to the extreme, Cloudy suddenly had a realization... why be so fixated on roasting meat over fire? Slowly, she crawled to the bug shell, lifted the leaf cover, and picked a relatively small piece of meat with a furrowed brow.

The smell of blood mixed with the unique scent of the leaves as Cloudy stared at the bloody meat for a while before forcefully stuffing it into her mouth and swallowing it whole. However, immediately after swallowing, she started retching.

Could she die from parasites? Or some kind of bacteria? But she was so hungry and tired that she would starve if she didn't eat... Cloudy covered her mouth to stop herself from throwing up the meat, the scene was too pitiful. She lay on the ground for a long time before picking up the second piece of meat and putting it in her mouth.

It wasn't optimistic; making it this far was probably her limit. By the time she ate the fourth piece of meat, Cloudy felt her tongue numb, with no taste left, and she couldn't even smell the blood anymore.

Thrown out of the village by the local tribesmen, making her way through the rainforest to the Green Hill Cave and surviving on her own for a month was already quite an achievement. Without proper storage, this pile of raw meat could only last for two days at most.

Surviving one more day was still a victory, but should she leave sooner rather than later... Cloudy sighed. She didn't want to be so pessimistic; having a second chance at life was definitely something to be happy about. But why did it have to happen in this situation...

By the time she reached the sixth piece of meat, Cloudy suddenly felt less tired, and the negative thoughts in her mind decreased. Her stomach was bloated, and she felt a bit of strength returning to her hands.

"Well, even if it's poop, getting full gives you strength," Cloudy patted her belly, muttering to herself, "I hope I don't get diarrhea later."

After calming down from her emotional breakdown and smashing the fire pit, Cloudy took out the fruit shell used for water storage in the cave.

There were four things she needed to do today: fetch water from near the rainforest, clean the dirt off her body, dig up roots and tubers for storage on the hillside, and make a spear from bone fragments.

None of these tasks were particularly difficult for Cloudy. By around two or three in the afternoon, Cloudy had finished digging up the roots and was heading back home. Today's root harvest wasn't much, but Cloudy unexpectedly found some strange small fruits near the hillside, about half a fist size, with uneven surfaces. The thick, hard, reddish-brown skin concealed a red, pulpy interior, sweet and moist with a hint of alcohol... These fruits only grew where there was high grass, so Cloudy hadn't noticed them before. Today, she was lucky to find some, probably thanks to some birds.
福 saw birds hopping around carrying fruit near the tall grass, she dove into the tall grass to search around.

While Cloudy picked and ate, she felt a bit dizzy towards the end. But the sweet, overwhelming taste made her so happy that she decided to come back early tomorrow morning to continue exploring this side of the tall grass, maybe collect more food. If it weren't for the physical exertion of fetching water earlier today, she would have had to wander around in the tall grass.

As Cloudy bounced back home with her new discoveries, that guy appeared. The tall man had somehow sat at the entrance of her cave and was messing with her things. Seeing Cloudy return, he seemed quite pleased, chattering away.

"..." Cloudy, holding fruit and water, stopped a hundred meters away from the man and didn't move forward.

"Yaguru!" The man repeated the strange language, stood up, and walked towards Cloudy. "Yaguru!"

It was quite scary to see the two-meter-tall man approaching so quickly. Cloudy felt very distressed; she had finally calmed down her mood today...

"Blo." The man stood in front of Cloudy, eyes widening suddenly, pointing at the fruit in Cloudy's arms. "Blo Baro."

After saying that, his huge hand, like a piece of cloth, grabbed several fruits from Cloudy's arms and threw them away.

"What are you doing?!" Cloudy was shocked and wanted to pick them up. But the man stopped her, saying, "Baro! Blo Baro!"

Although feeling dizzy, Cloudy suddenly understood something after a short moment of anger. Yesterday, the man had no reaction when she collected meat, but today, seeing the fruits in her hands, he suddenly wanted her to throw them away...

Locals not letting you eat something - what could be the problem? Of course, it could be poisonous.

Cloudy stared at the sweet fruits in her arms, pale-faced. "But I already ate..." Not just a little, but a lot. Despite the language barrier, Cloudy hastily pointed at the fruits, then repeatedly pointed at her own mouth. "I ate a lot of these just now, what should I do?"

The man watched Cloudy gesturing for a while, as if trying to understand what she was indicating. Clearly, Cloudy's performance was successful; the man grabbed the water bowl from Cloudy, made her drink it all, then clenched his fist and pressed it against Cloudy's stomach, pressing repeatedly.

It was painful, but Cloudy knew what he was doing - trying to induce vomiting. She immediately started using her fingers to stimulate her throat. Within seconds, Cloudy was bent over nearby, vomiting.

The man ran off with the water bowl, and shortly after, he ran back like the wind, refilled the water bowl, and also brought some green grass stems. He tossed the grass stems into the water, helped Cloudy up from her vomiting position, and had her drink the water along with the grass.

Was it unlucky or lucky? While Cloudy gulped down the water in confusion, realizing the fruit was poisonous, she suddenly became very afraid of death.
With the help of the man, she finished drinking the water and eating the grass. Unable to hold back any longer, tears streamed down her face as she cried out, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die! If only I hadn't eaten so recklessly!"

"But I'm really hungry..." Cloudy tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and wailed loudly, crying in an ugly and disheveled manner.

The man was taken aback by Cloudy's sudden outburst of emotions, but he didn't leave. Instead, he sat cross-legged beside her, watching her intently and muttering a few words from time to time.

"I... don't... want..."

Cloudy's crying was interrupted as she looked at the man in shock. The man, with a curious expression, was imitating her speech, "Don't... scream... die." Although his tone was strange, Cloudy finally heard someone speaking the same language as her.

It felt like being in a foreign land and suddenly catching a whiff of the familiar smell of home-cooked food.

"I'm... hungry..." the man continued to mimic her. Realizing that imitating Cloudy's speech made her stop crying, the man put more effort into it, saying, "I don't want to die, I'm hungry."