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  Felix had three snares. Once he neared the waterfruit tree, he found narrow paths to place them. It was a good, high traffic area for wildlife. Unfortunately, Felix knew this because nearly all the fruit was gone, and husks littered the jungle floor.

  Felix grabbed the sole remaining fruit he could reach. He ate it as he examined the tree. He would have to climb it to get anything more, and even then he wouldn’t get much. On the other hand, he didn’t know where any other trees were after his flight, and the following aimless wandering.

  With a sigh, Felix started to climb. He made a note to make himself some sort of climbing gear. Maybe a hook and rope? Or some sort of clawed gloves and shoes? The hook and rope seemed easy enough to make. He still had the scrap metal from the pod, but how would he attach it or get it into the right shape? Felix let his mind mull the problem as he climbed.

  By the time he grabbed all the fruit he was going to be able to get, he was a dozen waterfruit richer and had even grabbed a handful of vines, plus he had a tentative plan of action for his hook. It would rely on his nonexistent woodworking skills, which was a problem, but he had nothing but time.

  He made sure he could still locate all his snares. When he assured himself of that, he went back to his soon-to-be house.

  He climbed up on the platform and started to make tallies of costs and make priorities. While he wanted walls up as soon as possible, replacing the research desk should be done first. No sense wasting time there.

  He had half-heartedly tried to use the shattered shell of a desk upon arrival, but the remains of the desk would no longer accept items. Words no longer floated above it no matter how long he stared at it, either.

  Acceptable loss, he told himself. The time he had saved in farrying resources was more than what it’d take to replace the desk. Beyond that, though, all other furniture could wait until he had walls to sleep in at night.

  All in all, walls and desk would cost a pretty penny. The wood would be just short of 400 for walls, roofing, door and desk. And he was going to clear out the vines in the area. It would be about a third as much in rope. That would be nearly three hundred vines.

  That last was a problem. With an axe, some time and a few trees would be about enough to supply the wood. The fallen one would have vines too- many even and easy to get to, but several hundred vines were going to have him ranging far, and climbing every tree to the very top. Even if his climbing gear worked exactly as he hoped, that wasn’t going to work.

  Before he wasted any supplies, he decided that he would build the desk with rope, but everything else with the basic vines. He recalled there was a speed bonus that came from the ropes on the desk, and while he was sure there was similar benefits for structures, it was just unfeasible. For now.

  Felix ate another another of his precious fruit. They did wonders at slaking thirst, but they did not do much to appease hunger. His meager lunch finished, he set off to the fallen tree. He would start with gathering some of the “higher” vines he was unable to before.

  Even with that boon, clearing the tree of vines only net two dozen. Felix almost got slimed again as well. It seemed there were still a few slimes that haven’t found their way back into the trees yet. Felix took out his axe and steeled himself for the hard work to come.

  The axe rose and fell, and every few swings, Felix felt heavier, and the quickbar slot with the logs ticked up one higher. Sweat ran down his face. He had so much weight he could barely move. He dropped a few to lighten the load and slowly made his way back to his new base. He was moving at a crawl and it felt like it took half of forever.

  When he reached the base of the ladder, he tossed about half his load up rather than trying to climb with it all. That was just a recipe for disaster.

  At the top, Felix made himself the desk, and threw the rest of his supplies into the walls. A few logs now stood, but it was still a sea of green blueprints. Felix ignored it, and trudged back to the fallen tree.

  Felix continued to chop at the tree. It slowly whittled away under his blows. Felix was had almost filled himself to capacity once again. He found himself chopping at a hole in the tree.

  There was a flash of blue from inside the tree, and Felix jumped back. A blue lizard, about the size of Felix’s forearm slithered out of the hole. It let out a series of clicks at Felix and launched itself into the air. Once airborne, it spread its limbs, revealing a thin membrane connecting them.

  As it glided away, Felix tried to regain his poise. He started swinging his axe again and assured himself, his heart was beating fast from effort. A few more logs and he was full again.

  Felix began the long, overloaded slog towards his base. Something heavy landed on his head, followed by sharp pain. Something shoved his head and the weight was gone again.

  Felix looked up, and the lizard was in the air overhead, circling around for another dive.

  Felix ran. Or tried to run. As much as he was carrying, his best wasn’t much faster, and he certainly couldn’t keep it up.

  Another dive. A cut on his forehead and it was gone again. Felix could feel the blood drip down his face.

  Felix waited for another attack as he continued. None came.

  By the time Felix reached his base, he was mad. He was livid.

  He was mad at the lizard. He was mad at the landshark, at Koale for leaving him alone, at this whole world. But mostly at himself. He was a coward again, and why? A few scratches?

  Felix unloaded as quickly as he could. He wiped the sweat and blood from his brow and pulled out his spear. He was done running.

  He cautiously approached the fallen tree. The lizard circled the sky, still calling its clicking cry. Felix grabbed a rock, and took aim.

  He threw at the lizard. He missed, but that wasn’t the point. The lizard saw him, and readied for a dive.

  Felix waited. The lizard turned lazily in the air, lining up with him. The creature pulled it’s limbs back and dropped. Felix watched and held still.

  At the last moment, he thrust with the spear. He missed. The lizard was going faster than he thought. It racked its little claws into Felix’s scalp and leapt off again. Felix turned to track it. He readied himself for another attempt.

  Another dive. Another miss, and new gouges on Felix’s shoulders. He would get it eventually, but he was getting tired of playing pin cushion.

  He steadied himself. The blue lizard clicked and oriented for another run. It folded its limbs and dived.

  This time, instead of attacking, Felix threw himself to the side. Blue streaked past him and he swung wildly behind him.

  The haft of his spear connected, and the lizard dropped to the ground. Before it could regain its wits, Felix landed a piercing blow.

  Felix grinned. He had done it. He had successfully defended himself. From a tiny lizard. It wasn’t the most impressive accomplishment, to be sure. Plus he now had something heartier than fruit for dinner.

  He ran his knife over the corpse, letting the system work its butchery magic. He put everything into his inventory and pulled out his axe. He still had more to gather.

  After he had hauled the next load back to base and unloaded, Felix rest on the ground by his tree. Building a fire in a tree on a wooden platform seemed like a poor life choice. As such, he would have his cooking station down below.

  Felix already had the sticks he needed, but he grabbed up some stones and cut a few vines off the nearby trees. He soon had a system-built fire pit and rotisserie.

  The firepit was interesting. When he focused on it, a small blue box appeared, labeled “fuel”. Felix added some lumber and a fire roared to life, no further work needed.

  Shortly, meat was roasting away on the spit. The fire crackled, and Felix had a moment to think. His current pace was acceptable, but hauling was still taking too long. If he could move more back to base at a time, that would speed up the process immensely.

  He thought about how he had used the research desk and an idea hit. Felix hadn’t rebuilt a shield for himsel
f after his was destroyed in the fight at the pod. He did so now.

  He lay the shield flat on the ground and piled several logs on it to test. Using one of the longer vines, he secured the logs to the shield as best he could. He took another vine and ran it through the hand holds. Holding either end over his shoulder, he pulled.

  It worked well enough. The jungle floor was still not ideal for pulling a sled, but it would let him haul back another dozen logs. He wished Liz were big enough to help haul. He laughed at himself. While he was wishing, he may as well wish for a dinosaur to help. A big triceratops to help him haul wood.

  Felix removed his test load of wood and headed back to the tree once more. He had about half the wood he needed. He would be able to finish that before nightfall. The next morning, the real task of finding enough vines would begin.

  The work passed quickly, and without any more surprises. The evening saw Felix lounging on his platform, playing with Liz. He was covered in sweat and dirt. After a week or so, he had lost track of the days, on planet he could more than use a shower or three. A few logs formed the start of a wall, held together by the few vines he had gathered thus far. The rest of the lumber lay in neat piles, insubstantial next to the green outline they would eventually fill.

  He gave Liz a small piece of his hard won dinner. He couldn’t spare much. Liz was beginning to look plump, so Felix wasn’t worried. She was clearly better than him at finding dinner. At least one of them was well fed. Koale would probably be eyeing her for dinner by now.

  Felix fell asleep quickly after he ate. He had had a long day. There was another long day up in front of him. If he were honest with himself, he had long days lined up for the foreseeable future.

  He awoke to the feel of something fuzzy in his hand. Felix looked over to see one of the rodents he had seen the first time he and Koale had gone for water. It looked much like an earth squirrel. It was about a hand high with dark brown fur. It had stripes of a lighter brown. The alien squirrel stood in his hand, looking at him. It felt lighter than it should have been. No noticeable weight at all, in fact.

  He pulled his knife out of his inventory with an exaggerated caution. He moved his knife hand so he had a clear shot at the squirrel. Breakfast was just a swing away.

  The squirrel noticed his movement and sprung. Felix swang but was already too late. The rodent bolted away, chittering. Felix shook his now squirrel-less fist at the escaping creature. Or tried to.

  He couldn’t move his hand. He could manually bend each finger with his other hand but could not feel anything.

  With growing alarm, Felix rushed to the medkit. He had lost the previous kit with Koale, but he still had the one they had salvaged from the pod on that last trek.

  Felix put the autodoc on his hand. It whirred in a way the other had not. After a long moment, it beeped and displayed an error message. Felix tried again. Same result.

  Felix looked at the machine dumbly. Then he laughed. Of course it didn’t work. He was stranded on an alien planet, alone, without food or water. He had a small measure of medical supplies, though, of course the only source of medical knowledge on how to use them was malfunctioning. He laughed until tears streamed down his face.

  During his fit of madness, a tingling sensation returned to his hand. By the time he had control of himself once more, he had also regained control of his hand.

  His meal escaped, Felix decided to check the snares. There wouldn’t be any new fruit ripened in the last day, but he could use the meat should he have caught any.

  It was slow going, as he stopped to cut down all vines in his path. He watched his hand carefully as he worked. It seemed to have been just a temporary effect, but a bit of caution never hurt. He flexed it as he walked.

  He had gathered a sizeable amount by the time he reached the tree. That was the good news. The snares were empty. He grabbed one of the snares, but left the other two where they were. He knew where at least one animal lived.

  When he returned to his tree, he set up the snare outside of the mushroom filled burrow. Before turning away, he contemplated the mushrooms. Felix’s stomach growled as he thought. He decided to leave them be. Without a fully functioning medkit, he was less willing to chance new vegetation unless he absolutely had to. He wasn’t at that point just yet.

  Felix climbed onto the platform and tossed the gathered vines onto the blueprints. Logs flew into place, and in a moment, Felix was the proud owner of a semicircle of wall with a door. He still had a ways to go, but it was certainly progress.

  Back on the ground, Felix picked a direction and walked, harvesting yet more vines as he went. He didn’t much feel like climbing, so he would see how much he could get along floor level until it was becoming too burdensome.

  By the time late afternoon rolled around, Felix had walls all the way around, and most of a roof. He had reached the point where he would have to climb, but he did not need much. By the time he slept, he would be sleeping indoors. On the ground still, but small steps.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  When Felix awoke the next day, his stomach ached. He wanted to build his furniture, but there were more pressing concerns. With any luck, the snare right below caught that numb squirrel and he would be set. He’d even be happy if one of the other two caught anything.

  No joy. All of them were empty. As with everything in the wilderness, he didn’t know if that was normal, or if he picked bad spots or something else entirely. When he had time, and vines, he would make more. Even if he was using them poorly, enough and he might just luck out anyway.

  In the meantime, Felix was going to have to go hunting. He needed to find something large enough to keep him running for a few days. Felix thought about how difficult it had been to take out the little glider the other day. He tried not to worry about his chances against something larger.

  He left everything besides his spear, knife and medkit. He hesitated over leaving the tools. If he were run off his camp again, he’d be back to square one yet again. He didn’t think he stood much of a chance rebuilding again with or without the tools, and that was the deciding factor.

  He set off, looking for trouble. It did not take long for him to realize, he had no idea how to find said trouble or what to do once he found it. He settled for moving as quiet as he could, and making mental notes so he could get back to his base once the hunt was complete.

  Trees, trees and more trees. For someone more experienced, likely there was lots of information to be had. There were likely creatures all about him. As it was, as the day drew towards the othernoon, Felix found nothing of note save a lone waterfruit tree that wasn’t too badly picked over.

  Felix stopped and picked fruit. He ate his fill, and picked more, loading them into his inventory. It wasn’t enough on its own, but it was considerably better than nothing. Feeling much better with the hole in his stomach temporarily filled, Felix resumed once more.

  He hadn’t gone far when something caught his eye through the foliage. He stopped and looked. It was leaves but laid in a straight edge. It was a roof. Felix crouched and worked his way to it.

  A small hut rose to greet him. It very similar to his- system made. There were a few stark differences, however. Aside from being on the ground, it was much smaller than his. It also looked old, neglected. The vines holding it together were rotting and strained.

  “Hello?”

  No answer. He hadn’t expected one. He approached the door. He called out again. “Hello?”

  He tried the door, but it was stuck fast. Felix circled the building looking for any points where the wall might be damaged, but no luck. Back to the front, Felix looked at the door.

  It wasn’t his, and clearly hadn’t been used in a while. On the other hand, there may well be something valuable inside. And the house was clear proof that someone besides himself and Koale were on the island, and his curiosity was overwhelming.

  He shrugged. There was no way he was not going inside. No sense wasting more time. He lowered his shoulder
and charged.

  He slammed into the door with a solid wham, and bounced off. He stumbled back, but didn’t fall. The door hadn’t moved far, but it had moved. He gathered himself and charged again.

  Four rushes later, the door bust in on itself. The hut shuddered as the vine securing the door in place gave. The door crashed to the ground inside. Felix’s momentum carried him down right on top of it.

  The roof groaned. Beams broke free of their bindings and slid down the wall. The roof slumped over towards the wall where the door used to be. The snapping pop of the vines accompanied the complains of the wood. A beam broke completely free and fell in a shower of the leave shingles.

  It missed Felix, but only just. One of the small cross braces glanced his leg. Pain flared, but Felix didn’t move. He stayed hunked atop the door as the ruins settled into their new positions. When the last of the leaves had drifted to a stop, Felix risked a look back at his leg.

  It could have been worse. Though it hurt, nothing was obviously mangled. A small beam lay on his ankle. He leaned to his side and pulled the debris up far enough to move his leg.

  He turned and sat up. He slowly rotated his ankle. The pain made Felix grunt, but he did manage a full range of movement. Next test- he stood, resting his weight on his good foot. He put small amount of weight on his injured foot. With a wince he shifted back.

  That was fine. He could manage. He found a piece of debris to lean on. Upright, and more or less under his own power, Felix took the time to look around.

  Behind, where the door had been, was gone. Former roofing had blocked the way out. The rest of the room was also filled with detritus, but some of the original room contents survived.

  It must have been a cramped space to live in. A bed filled much of the room. It was rickety and falling apart, but admittedly better than anything Felix had slept on in a while. Opposite the bed was a research desk made of wood and vines, and a crate of the same.

  Hopeful, Felix examined the desk. It looked like it had once used leaves to track their progress, but either had taken the bulk of their work with them, or else the notes flew off in the chaos. Regardless, only a single item remained- “bioluminescent goo”.