Chapter 4: How to make a Tent?
When Daisy took a moment to glance at the sky, she realized that the two suns were slowly setting, each in opposite direction to each other.
"Wow!"
She was stunned by this strange phenomenon and it took a while to come back to reality. It was a moment later that she realized night was approaching.
Her first night in a new world.
With the basic knowledge that she'd be unable to see her surroundings in the darkness and the possibility of getting attack by wild beasts, Daisy quickly grabbed some dry leaves and twigs from the nearby bushes and the fallen wood branches.
She gathered them in a place, surrounded them with large stones, she then got down on her knees and attempted to make a fire by rubbing two stones against each other in a brisk motion.
After dozens of attempts when her arms began to feel sore, she managed to create a spark of fire.
"YES! Once more!" When the fire sparks contacted the dry leaves, smoke began to appear. Daisy hurriedly bent down and blew on them, managing to create a small fire.
"Nice!" She rejoiced in the success, feeling like she accomplished a truly meaningful task.
"Now that I have fire, I need a tent. But...."
Daisy anxiously grabbed her hair, "I don't know how to make a tent!"
As a modern woman who lived in an apartment with modern equipment, creating a fire alone was a big feat.
A tent? She didn't learn it!
She only had a vague memory of watching a survival show on national Tv, where the protagonist creates a simple tent out of sticks and leaves. With that scattered memory in mind, she decided to create a prototype to see if it will work.
She grabbed few twigs, inserted them in a wet ground and put their top closer to make a pyramid like structure.
"This might work." Her eyes sparkled with brilliance.
She quickly chose a flat surface nearby the fire to build her tent. She then collected few tall, straight and dry tree branches as vertical poles. It was tiring, yet she couldn't stop. She placed them in a circle, with the taller ones towards the back and the shorter ones in front to create a gradual slope.
She then secured the branches on the wet ground and tied the top together with sturdy stem of shrubs and bundles of reeds. She had learnt to substitute them as ropes.
After that, she gather a variety of large green leaves, strung them with long hemp and wrapped them around the tent.
She completed her tent just before the suns sets down and darkness enveloped the entire land. She threw few dry woods into the fire, making sure that it wouldn't die out in the middle of the night.
After a fruity roasted meal, she entered her tent to sleep. The rough surface was covered by large leaves, just enough for her to have a comfortable rest for tonight. She silently laid in her tent and cast her eyes toward the night sky.
A red moon could be seen from behind the clouds, and the shining stars filled in the gaps of the skies like a twinkling carpet. They sparkled brightly against the blackness of space, creating a sense of beauty and harmony.
Daisy let out a sigh and closed her eyes, relaxing her tense muscles and letting her mind wander off.
She felt like crying her heart out, but realizing that she was an orphan and a single woman with no relatives back on Earth, she couldn't squeeze out a single tear.
With the accumulated exhaustion hitting her, she fell asleep.
The unknown creature in the forest silently guarded the sleeping woman. It let out it's pheromone, causing the neighboring animals that wanted to attack their new guest to flee in panic.
Even the larger animals dare not step into its territory.
The dark night on the land was long and calm. The animals slowly returned to their nest to have a good rest.
Morning,
The suns rose from the huge mountains, it gently brightened the dark land. Soon, the land was filled with the melodious songs of birds and roars of various animals.
Daisy groggily opened her eyes before turning around and closing them again.
By the time she awoke naturally, the suns had slightly parted from each other. She sat up and dazedly looked around, slightly hoping that she was back in her apartment.
But she was bound to be disappointed.
"It's ok, Di. You can do it!" She cheered up.
She stretched her hands and jumped, trying to relax her stiff muscles and aching joints.
She sat by the river, scrubbing her face with fresh water and brushing her teeth with the ashes left from the fireplace.
She have to find a solution for toothpaste and soap.
She dazedly thought while cleaning herself. She was worried that she would become savage like her forefathers whom she had only seen in tv and museums, it was something she didn't want to experience.
After a cold bath and washing her long hair with difficulty, she changed into a new leafy dress she weaved. This time, the leaves were much more colorful and bright. After a fruity meal, she took out the fish trap that she had set up the previous day. As expected, the trap was filled with fishes and crabs.
Daisy was over the moon, her face flushing red in happiness. She felt proud that her efforts were rewarded with such a plentiful amount of seafood.
Since she was not used to eating crabs, she released them and a few strange looking fishes varieties she didn't know of. She would have nowhere to cry if she got food poison by eating something that she was not sure of.
In order to have a delicious meal, she took her basket and entered the woods, searching for ingredients to cook the fishes. As she searched along the familiar path, she spotted some familiar herbs and spices, like pepper, ginger, chilies and garlic.
She noticed that most of the plants from Earth also existed on this land, but there were slightly different in sizes, shapes and color.
She also found a fruit that was extremely sour in nature, like lemons but with a stronger taste. She had accidentally considered it as an apple by its color and took a bite. The burst of sourness in her mouth almost made her faint.
She silently added it to her collection and took them back to her makeshift camp.