On my way to the tower, I was passing by a pond in the jungle and noticed a plant I hadn't seen before. They seemed to be reeds and I realized this plant would be useful for making paper. While I was harvesting them, however, a small pile of white powder poured out of the hollow shaft of the plant. I licked it and realized that I had found a source of sugar. I took several sprouts and carried them with the adult plant back to my tower.
When I got back to my tower I set to work immediately on finishing the roof and sealing it off from the outside. I also had enough stone to start working on the floors. I took several lengths of web, from spiders I had either found dead or killed myself, and tied them together, then weighted them with a pick. I climbed up to the top of my ladder and lowered the pickax down to the floor. When the pick hit the bottom I sliced the excess web and pulled my line back up. I stowed the remaining length of web and start to coil the web. I judged my forearm to be about a foot long, which is roughly one-third of a meter. Altogether I wrapped the web from the palm of my hand to my elbow twenty one and a half times. From this I judged my walls to be 22 meters from the bottom of my ladder to the top.
I decided to divide the tower into five floors, each four meters from the floor to the ceiling with the top floor being about 7 meters high. For now I would have a safe abode. When finished there was still a few hours of sunlight, so I went outside with my reeds and planted a number of them next to the river. I was concerned that the soil might be too sandy there, so I placed some of the sprouts in a firm soil just a little further down and returned to my tower.
In what was my hole, now surrounded by stone walls on the outside, I set to work. I crafted several pickaxes from left over stone and made another workbench. After this I took the shorter length of web and some wood and altogether was able to craft a bow. Shaping the bow was a task, but once I had it assembled the bow string was fairly easy. Using some bones that I found in the jungle, I strengthened the wood of the bow by fusing it to the wood much the same way the villagers taught me to shaped stone, dirt and other materials into block shapes. My work was a bit sloppy, but when I strung the bow and drew the string it took considerable strength. Upon releasing the twang of the webstring brought a profound satisfaction. Upon my journey into the dark, I would be ready for anything that would come, and I would not be satisfied until I found the shining hard-stones of which the elder spoke.
I rummaged through my backpack, sorting out what I had, when something struck me. At the bottom of the bag there was something metal and strong. I pulled it out and looked in awe at the pickax the villagers gave me. It was beautiful. Crafted of what I took to be iron, its polished surface reflected my very face. Light giggled as it gleamed along the head of the tool. The ends of the pick were honed to a fine point that drew blood when I thumbed it gently. Something in me knew that I would need this pick in my next journey into the whirlpool cave. I set finished sorting my things and slept for the night. Tomorrow the treasures of the deep would be revealed to me!
No comments:
Post a Comment