Unkown Lands Episode 1: Stranger in a strange land

by Grungi

[Everyone and their grandmother do this, so I thought “why not me ?”. Don’t hold your breath for regular updates though, you know who I am… But I’ll do my best…]

What would you do if you woke up at the bottom of a dune behind which the sun the sun would be slowly rising ? That’s the question I’ve been considering since I opened my eyes on this sandy landscape. I don’t know why or how I got here, or where I was before. I don’t have anything on me, only this question : what to do now ?

At least the weather is nice…

As I turn around, I see only sand. And cacti.

Shit. A desert.

Not that I don’t like deserts, theoretically, but being stranded in an unknown land, my first reflex is to seek some shelter. And I don’t see myself builind a big sandcastle to sleep in. And before you laugh at me, go and try it yourself. You’ll see that it’s not that easy.

Oh but wait, in an unwillingly suspense-preserving move, I’ve started examining my surroundings in the “wrong” direction. I can see a tree in the distance ! At the very least, it’ll provide some shade during the day. At best, I’ll find a way to chop it into bits to get some wood. But then again, how I would be going about harvesting wood without any tool, I don’t really know.

 Why, hello there! You seem like a nice tree!

So here I am, climbing a decidedly blocky hill by jumping my way to the top, making one meter high leaps like I’m some kind of olympic athlete. I still don’t know why I’m here, but it sure didn’t make me a weakling. Arriving at the tree, I’m so happy that I gently punch the wood repeatedly, like I would the shoulder of a friend. Haha, dude, what are you doing by yourse…

*Pop*

I’m hitting air now. I’m pretty sure there was some wood there before. Which was what I was punching. Apparently now it’s laying on the ground, just there, and I’m able to pick up this solid meter cubed of wood like it’s a feather.

So let me get this straight : I can break down trees by punching them, then I can pick up massive amounts of the material easily. Cool ! Weird as it is, at least building a shelter should be doable.

Speaking of which, where am I going to build said shelter ? Let me just… Oh, over there !

That natural arch in the distance looks just perfect !

I quickly make my way over there, and see that I’m not mistaken. That place does look just perfect. And as I look up, I see something that looks darker than the rest of the stones around it. Could it be… ?

Look, there ! Seems like I’ve struck gold ! I mean coal !

So yes,  it’s coal ! That will most certainly prove useful. But how am I suppose to extract the thing. I go punch some trees to help me thing about it, and the solution appears before my eyes : I need a pickaxe. So I try to assemble one out of all this wood I’ve been accumulating, but it feels like I would need a third hand to be able to do it. So I start by building some kind of workbench, which then makes the task of building my rudimentary wooden pickaxe almost trivial. I do have to break some of my wood into sticks, but that doesn’t take long.

So armed with my glorious pickaxe, I climb up to some of the coal deposits I saw earlier, and begin mining them. I think I should be questioning the logic of mining though stone with a wooden tool, but who cares ? After all, that’s not the most illogical thing that happened to me since this morning.

Speaking of the day, it’s well in the afternoon now, and this shelter isn’t going to build itself. Seeing the kind of surroundings I’m in, I see only one solution : a platform under the natural arch. The weather seems warm enough, and … screw this, I don’t have to justify myself : I think it’ll look awesome. So there.

I almost have a home !

I quickly run out of wood, so  I wander around to find some more trees. I was complaining that I woke up in a desert, why am I turning this land into one ? Anyway, I can see that my surroundings are pretty welcoming, with very deliciousfriendly-looking sheep prancing around flower-filled fields…

I was half-expecting a rainbow or a unicorn.
But look how late it is ! Quickly, I use my newly-acquired wood to extend my platform a bit, and to block its entrances. Wouldn’t want those sheep to become too friendly during the night. With that out of the way, I can finally sit down and enjoy the sight of the sun setting over that strange new world. It’s been a very long day.

From here, the landscape looks like it’s calling me to go and explore !

Oh my, what a day… Also, now that the sun isn’t there anymore, I can see that I can’t, in fact. See, that is. It’s really dark in there, I should have thought about that before… But wait, I’ve got some coal right ? What if I put some on a stick and OH GOD.

It lit up spontaneously. That was scary. Well anyway, I got myself some makeshift torches that I can plant in the rocks next to my platform to light it up a bit. Nice. But it’s also a bit chilly, you know… I guess I’d better carve myself a small room to hole up in, away from this chilly wind.

The entrance to my nice little cozy (emphasis on the little there) room.

Because as far as I can tell, I don’t really need to fear robbers coming to steal my torches and pickaxe. I’m alone, right ?

Right ?