Crash

10: What happened?

Lyra-

Time flies when your out here. After my first large kill, I had some deer jerky in stock. 

At this rate, I'd feast during the winter. I wondered if I had the grit to bring an elk down and take it home.

It'd been a week since I'd successfully killed the deer. I let the mule deer get over their little shock that a hunter was here, and ate rabbit or fish for a bit, saving the deer meat. 

I roasted the deer heart on a spit, which was amazing. Dad used to say, "If you got the balls, you eat the liver raw like a real man."

I did that too, well, I only took a bite, just to prove it to him as if he were here. 

I poked at the fire and munched on some duck meat. Why was I here? I had no idea.I didn't even have a plan. Right now, all I wanted to do was survive.

I sighed and stood up. Walking out of my cave, I checked on the deer skin that was stretched on it's stick frame.

I hung it where I had skinned the deer. It faced the sun and I was trying to make it soft. I wanted the fur to stay because I knew it would be really warm. I took my knife and started scraping at the dying skin on the underside of the pelt. Again. Little tiny skin chunks pealed off under my blade. I picked up a rock that was like sandpaper and scraped it against the hide.

Slowly, the skin was starting to get really soft like I wanted it. I smiled at my work that I'd been obsessed with for the last few days. It was nearly ready.

I was going to maybe make it a cape or something I could wrap around myself when it got cold. Don't judge me, I'm bored. 

It was the same with rabbit skins. Except, they were a whole lot easier considering they were smaller. I actually sliced a skin in half and sewed it onto one of my light brown jackets' sleeves, like cuffs made of fur.

Projects kept me busy. They put my mind at ease. I sat outside and enjoyed the birds singing. The leave of the trees were beginning to really turn yellow and red.

Good thing I had tons of fire wood stocked up now, and yet I still continued to collect it. Three days a week were devoted to stocking as much wood as possible into my cave.

For caves, mine was small but it was big enough that I had rows of fire wood lining the back and corners. The rest were stacked against the outside wall, bark on top to help keep it dry. Rabbit pelts hung on the sharp Rocky walls, out of my way and out of Baine's reach. He liked to chew on them.

I made his blanket bigger too, just to match his still growing size.

My ears pricked at a noise that made my heart start pounding. Was that what I thought it was?

I jumped up and looked at the sky. Yes, I could see a white dot... It was getting closer. 

Excitement buzzed in my veins. I cheered as it started flying my way.

It was a plane! It was coming for me! I rushed to my signal fire and almost started it, but stopped abruptly when I noticed something about the plane. Something was off. 

It was getting really, really low. I knew there wasn't enough room to land here, not even in the lake. My heart nearly stopped and I gasped when fire blew out the side. 

Black smoke was trailing the plane now, like a beacon. It's terrible buzzing got louder as I crouched next to my unstarted fire cautiously, in shock. 

Something was very wrong. I stood, alarmed that it was getting really low and really close.

I waved my arms frantically so they would see me. The plane flew over my valley, roaring as it struggled to stay airborne. I could see the black smoke billowing out of the engine front as it barely cleared the rocky ridge.