I woke up in a strange world...

Entry 1 Day 1

I woke up in a strange world, sunlight piercing into my eyes. When the haze faded and my surroundings came into focus, I realized I was in a jungle. It was early in the day, just after dawn, but the sun was creeping up the dome of the sky and a strange sort of foreboding was in my heart. I was still wearing my clothes from the day before, but how did I get here? I strained my mind to search for a reason, but not even the wisp of a dream lay within the fog clouding my mind. I knew there was a world with cars and buildings and people, but where was all that? Here the sky is blue, a few clouds drift along, but aside from that there is only the sound of distant wildlife, the wind whispering through the leaves of the trees. Where was I?

Beside me the trunk of a great tree rose from the undergrowth and stretched into the sky. A thick lattice of vines wove up to the canopy, so I decided to climb it and take a look.

Atop the canopy of the jungle I could make out only two directions : East, where the sun rose, and west, where it drew closer every moment. By the time I got to the top of the trees it was already noon. Days do not favor sloth in this place. To the west two massive trees towered over the rest of the jungle, which huddled closely to the two elders. To the east a lake connected the jungle to a marshy low land. Alongside the swamp, the land dries up into an arid desert. I strained my eyes a bit against the sand and realized that what I took for a small outcropping of rocks was actually a village. I didn't have time to go to the village today, however. I had to fashion a shelter. Night comes quickly.

I scrambled down out of the canopy, slipping a few times and damaging myself only a little. Some bruises and cuts, but nothing major. On my way down I found an apple and a few mushrooms. 'I will need food to survive', I figured, so I pocketed them and continued downward. Only just in time I realized that I was on a high hill in the midst of the jungle and I caught myself before tumbling to my death serveral times in my descent to the ground. I found a small depression where I could lay low for the night and embedded in what raw stone was bared to me, I could see lumps of coal. I decided to begin gathering the materials I would need to establish a shelter. I would have to hurry, though. The sun was busily tumbling toward the horizon.

I started gathering wood from the nearby trees and undergrowth to fashion some basic tools : a wooden pickax and a workbench. Once I had enough wood, I went to the narrow place at the bottom of the hill, where the rock face was, and set up my workbench beside the coal deposit. The coal vein was rich and I bore a good distance into the rock face. Before I finished, however, I realized that dusk was upon me, and I scrambled to gather up my workbench and retreat for the night into the hole I carved in the hill. I used some dirt to shore up a low wall 6 meters across the entrance and built a 1 meter high wall atop that. I left a space tall enough for me too look out of, but walled off the rock-face above the hole to ensure nothing could climb in during the night.

I then fashioned a few torches from sticks I found earlier and the coal I already mined by wrapping layers of leaves and moss about the the coal to fasten it down. This method worked remarkably well and the torches burned brightly, warding off the night. I set my work bench down at the back of my little hole and lay down to rest. I would continue mining the coal vein in the morning.