Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 228: Ch226. What adapts, survives

Chapter 228: Ch226. What adapts, survives

The night was long, though not as quiet as they would have liked.

Strange sounds echoed through the trees. Low hoots, dry rustling, like the tearing of paper, and something deeper, like the hum of power lines underwater.

None of it made sense. Tir’Serene breathed around them in constant motion, and every moment of silence felt like a trap being laid.

Sarissa took first watch. She sat by the dying fire with a sharpened stick in hand, her eyes fixed on the darkness beyond the glow, her thoughts wandering more than she liked.

She thought about the stars, how few of them there were here, and about the night sky back on Earth.

It felt so far away now, like a memory from another life.

Miles slept lightly, curled near Dee and using a bundle of moss and cloth as a makeshift pillow. Even in rest, his hand twitched, as if reaching for something no longer there.

His scythe, his power, his control.

When she nudged him awake sometime later, he blinked blearily and sat up with a grunt.

"Anything?" He murmured.

"Nothing close. Lots of noise, though." She stood and stretched, her joints popping.

He gave a noncommittal grunt and took her place by the fire, stirring the coals back to life with a stick.

Sarissa lay down and closed her eyes, but sleep didn’t come easily.

***

Morning came with a soft shift in the color of the mist that swirled around Miles sometime during the night. Pale violet turned to dusty gold, and the air grew colder.

Miles rubbed his face and stood slowly. Dee was already awake, curled atop one of the high roots, nibbling a thin piece of dried meat from the night before. When it saw him stir, it perked up and padded over.

"You hungry again?" He asked with a smile.

"Dee!" The salamander chirped softly.

He tore off a small strip of the cooked creature meat and held it out. Dee took it gently, its needle-like teeth clicking faintly as it chewed. Its eyes locked onto Miles’ the entire time, unblinking and eerily intelligent.

"Tell me that was a dream." Sarissa stirred behind him and sat up with a groan.

"If it was, we’re sharing the same one." He retorted, letting out a soft sigh. "Come on, we should move. Try again before we lose the light."

She nodded, rising slowly. Her muscles ached, her shoulders were stiff from the rough sleep, and the cold air didn’t help to ease it.

Before they set out, Miles looked around the clearing.

"We need to carry more this time. If we’re lucky, we’ll find more than we can eat in one sitting."

"Not unless you plan on dragging it back by its leg again." Sarissa muttered.

"No. We make something." He gestured to the roots. "Leaves, moss, that weird bark we peeled off yesterday. If it can hold together, it can hold supplies."

They gathered the materials quickly. Large fan-like leaves that were waxy and surprisingly tough, pliable vines, and long strips of bark that bent without cracking. Miles took the lead, sitting cross-legged and experimenting with bindings while Sarissa foraged nearby for more.

It wasn’t elegant. It wasn’t even pretty, but after an hour of trial and error, they had something resembling satchels. Bark shells lined with leaves and moss, held together with vine loops. Makeshift rucksacks, functional, if fragile.

"Not bad." Sarissa said, adjusting the strap over her shoulder. "I give it twenty minutes before it falls apart."

"Fifteen if we have to run." He chuckled, and then they moved out.

***

They took a new route this time, heading east toward where they’d seen a break in the tree line the previous day. It was rough going, the terrain rose unevenly, with jagged rocks hidden beneath layers of moss that threatened to twist ankles or snap bones.

Every step was careful, every sound made them pause.

Midway through the slope, Sarissa found something that made them stop. A pile of half-dried excrement, still pungent.

"This is fresh, and big. From the looks of it... Looks carnivore."

"Look at the fibers, fur and feathers in the mix. It hunts..." Miles crouched beside it.

"Think we can handle it?" She scanned the trees.

"Depends on how dumb it is, or how hungry."

They moved slower now. Miles let Dee ride on his shoulder, one hand resting against its flank to steady it. The salamander chirped softly now and then, its ears twitching.

Then, Dee froze, growling.

"Something’s near." Miles whispered.

They crouched, sliding down behind a fallen log. The clearing ahead was bathed in filtered light, and something was moving among the trees.

A quadruped this time. Big, catlike, but too wide.

Its back bristled with bony ridges, and its tail swept low, cutting lines through the undergrowth.

It sniffed at the air, then lowered its head to a half-eaten carcass on the ground. A smaller version of the frog-eyed creature from the day before.

"Scavenger." Miles exhaled slowly.

"You flank. I distract." Sarissa nodded.

"Wait. Let’s try something new."

He pulled one of the makeshift satchels off his back and quietly slipped a few raw scraps of yesterday’s meat into a palm-sized pouch.

Dee watched with interest as Miles tossed the pouch wide, arcing it into the underbrush near the beast.

It landed with a rustle, and the creature paused, sniffing. Then, it turned, lumbering toward the sound.

When it bent to investigate, Sarissa moved.

She struck low, using a sharpened stake to jab into its hind leg. The creature shrieked and whipped around, but Miles was already there, stabbing at its side.

It bucked and screamed, one massive paw lashing out and catching Miles across the chest.

He flew back into a tree with a grunt, seeing stars as he felt the impact.

Sarissa dodged, rolled, and came up swinging again. Her stake splintered, but the point pierced flesh, and the creature faltered.

Miles coughed, stumbling to his feet, blood dripping from his lip, and grabbed a rock, heavy and jagged.

With a swift movement, he slammed it into the creature’s skull as Sarissa held it down.

One, two, three strikes.

The fourth one cracked something, and the fifth stilled it.

They collapsed beside the corpse, breathing hard.

"Okay." Miles huffed. "Bigger... Meaner... Not impossible."

"We’re going to need better weapons." Sarissa nodded, wiping sweat and blood from her face.

***

They bled the creature as best they could. Its blood was thick, almost gelatinous, and deep purple. The meat was tough and sinewy, more like game than the oily meat from before.

"It smells like sour milk." Sarissa grimaced.

"Smoke it, longer this time. We’ll see."

They packed as much as they could into their leaf-and-bark satchels. Some of the ridged bones were narrow and dense, potentially useful as tools or reinforcement.

Miles tied them to the outside of his pack with vine, and they moved again.

It took them the rest of the day to return to the clearing.

The fire pit was cold when they arrived, but intact. The sky above was slowly fading to dusk.

They built the fire again, this time layering green wood over dry, creating a thick, smoky burn. Miles skewered strips of the meat on sharpened twigs, keeping them high over the flame.

While they waited, he worked the bone slivers into crude spikes, binding them to longer sticks for reinforcement.

"If we can get a point that doesn’t snap on impact, we’re already ahead of yesterday."

"You think this will get easier?" Sarissa asked quietly.

"No. But we will get better, and that’s enough."

Dee curled beside them, watching the meat with gleaming eyes. Miles tore off a smaller piece, one of the cooked scraps, and held it out.

Dee took it, then nestled into his lap.

"You’re turning into a real parent." Sarissa raised an eyebrow.

"Something like that." Miles’ lips curled upwards ever so slightly.

The sky deepened, and there were no stars again. Just that endless veil of color.

When they finally ate, the meat was stringy and sharp on the tongue, but not inedible. They chewed in silence, occasionally sharing glances, quietly grateful for having survived one more day.

They drank again from the stream after checking for movement. Then they returned to the fire and sat close to its warmth.

Sarissa took first watch again, but Miles didn’t sleep immediately. He lay back, eyes fixed on the canopy. His hand rested on Dee, and his thoughts drifted.

Not to the System, not to gods or powers or Stories, but to something simpler.

What adapts, survives. And they were still alive.

As the night deepened, the forest came alive again.

But this time, they weren’t just surviving...

They were preparing.