A Taste of Survival
On their second day on the deserted island, Monia stared at the charred fish resting on a leaf Chester had plucked to use as a plate. "H-how do I eat this?"
"You just eat it. It's hot, though." Chester poked at the grilled fish on his seashell plate with his stone knife, flaking the meat apart to let it cool before taking a bite.
"Is it really okay to use that knife like that? It seems unsanitary."
"It'll get dirty soon enough. Things will stick to it the more I use it. When that happens, I'll just throw it away and make a new one."
"I see." Monia used a small twig to mimic Chester. She carefully flaked the fish apart and blew on it to cool it down.
Chester watched her as he ate another piece of the steaming fish.
Ah, this is great. Nothing beats hot food. I wanted to roast that snake too, but the others got away this morning, except for that first one.
Chester worked a stray bone out of his mouth with his tongue and spat it out.
I might have been carrying too much gear to hunt properly, but it's still a shock that I didn't catch a single thing.
After failing so many hunts yesterday and today, Chester was painfully realizing just how rusty his skills had become.
There's nothing for it but to keep trying day by day and get my edge back.
As Chester tore into another steaming chunk of white meat without hesitation, Monia unconsciously swallowed her saliva.
"T-to think I have to eat with my hands..."
"What about it?"
Monia looked at her dirty hands with a grimace, then took a fresh look at her overall filthy state.
Eating with one's bare hands... That's something only savages would do.
When Monia continued to hesitate, Chester reached out to snatch her portion of the fish back.
"Eek! I-I'm eating it!" Startled, Monia hurriedly grabbed her share of the fish and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Ugh?! H-hot! H-hoo-ha!" Hit by the explosive heat of the freshly roasted fish, she writhed and shuddered all over.
"Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha-hooo!"
"Ah, is it hot?" Chester managed to decipher her noises, and Monia nodded frantically.
Seeing this, Chester popped a piece of fish into his own mouth and blew the hot air out. "Huuuu, huuuu." As the heat escaped his mouth, a plume of steam rose like a dragon's breath.
Monia quickly copied him. "Huuu... Huuu...!" She blew out the hot air trapped in her mouth, carefully chewing the fish.
The rich, savory flavor of the plump fish—which had grown fat in nutrient-rich waters—spread across her palate.
Any trace of her tearful struggle from a moment ago vanished. Her face softened into a bright, beaming smile as she savored the taste. "H-haaah...!"
"Is it good?"
"Huu, yes! It's on a completely different level from the garbage I've been eating since we got here!"
"Garbage?" To Chester, a diet of sugar berries, coconut water, and clean rainwater collected in bamboo was practically a feast.
Having lived in the wild with his father, Chester had eaten things so disgusting he wouldn't dare mention them to another living soul.
This is a bit concerning. Monia's pickiness was a serious issue. If she struggled even with perfectly fine food like sugar berries and coconut water, he worried about what would happen later. And this wasn't an idle worry.
There are actually people who starve to death because they can't stomach the only food available.
He would have to fix her delicate stomach soon, even if it meant using some rather extreme measures.
Though she had initially found the idea of eating with her hands awkward and repulsive, Monia was now eating with gusto, completely unbothered by the black soot from the charred fish skin smudging her hands and mouth.
Two fish were all Monia had eaten the entire day, but she was thoroughly satisfied, feeling as though she had just enjoyed a grand feast.
"Haaah. I'm full."
"Is that so?" After finishing his meal, Chester drank some coconut water and ate a few sugar berries for dessert while checking the time.
It was still somewhat bright, but based on yesterday's experience, darkness would fall in the blink of an eye. The sun would soon be swallowed by the towering mountain in the distance, plunging everything into night.
It's a shame, but I'll have to give up on harvesting bamboo today. Instead, Chester decided to use the stones and wood he had gathered to fashion a tool for the job.
"I promised to teach you how to braid rope, right?"
"Yes."
Chester brought over the strips of bark and sat down beside Monia.
"Ah." Startled by his sudden proximity, Monia instinctively leaned back, but Chester pulled her closer and waved a strip of bark in front of her eyes.
"Now, watch closely." Chester gathered a suitable amount of bark fibers, smoothed them out, and folded them in half. Monia picked up her own fibers and followed suit.
"Hold it in the middle like this, and twist one side first."
"Okay."
"Once it's twisted, hold both sides and twist them together. Don't think of it as anything complicated; just think of it as flipping the front and back." When Monia copied him perfectly, Chester nodded.
"Now, just repeat this..." It was a simple task once demonstrated up close. With Chester's guidance, Monia managed to make a rope, though it was a bit crude.
Unlike Chester's rope, which was tightly wound and perfectly formed, hers was loose and riddled with gaps.
"...I don't like it! I'm doing it again!"
"We need to conserve materials, so reuse that one."
"Huh? How?"
Chester sliced the knotted end with his stone knife, unraveling the rope back into loose fibers. Monia took them and began practicing her braiding once more.
Chuckling at the sight, Chester sat a little distance away and began his own work. He brought over two large stones, placed one on his knee, and began striking it with the other in a glancing motion.
"Eek!" Startled by the sharp, harsh clatter of the stones, Monia looked over to see what he was doing. "What are you making?"
"An axe."
"What? Out of stone?"
"I made a knife out of stone, didn't I?" Chester showed her his stone knife. Monia had seen him use it to clean and eat the fish, but seeing it up close like this made it feel remarkably novel.
"May I take a closer look?"
"Sure. Go ahead. Be careful, though. It's sharp."
Taking the stone knife, Monia examined it from various angles, trying to figure out how it was made. "It really is just a chipped stone..." Unlike the blades forged by blacksmiths, it felt wild and threatening.
Perhaps it was because of the blood of some unknown creature staining the blade, but Monia felt a sudden chill of fear and carefully set the knife down.
"Sharper than you thought, right?"
"Yes. It certainly looks that way."
"I had a bit of a rough time making it." Chester showed her his finger, which was wrapped tightly in non-toxic grass.
"What is that?"
"I cut myself while knapping the stone."
"I-is it really okay to just wrap it in grass? Is that grass some kind of medicinal herb?"
"Of course not. It's just applying pressure to stop the bleeding. It's much more effective than a half-baked treatment." The only medicinal herb Chester had found on this island so far was a weed that could be brewed into tea for an upset stomach.
"Why make an axe when you already have a knife?"
"Right now, we're just gathering fallen branches from the storm, but having an axe opens up a lot of possibilities." With an axe, he could chop down sturdy trees that had survived the typhoon to build a larger, stronger shelter. He could also chop proper firewood to stockpile, instead of relying on mere twigs.
"And with an axe, I can cut bamboo."
"Bamboo?"
"Yeah. I'm going to make water canteens out of it."
"Canteens?! Did you find water?!"
"I brought back fish, didn't I?"
"I thought you caught them in the sea..."
"I caught them in a river."
"I want to see the river."
"Once your leg is healed."
"Ugh." Monia looked down at her ankle in disappointment, then turned her attention back to Chester's axe-making.
As if lost in thought again, Chester continued his work with a contemplative expression.
I wish he'd focus on what he's doing! It was so nerve-wracking she could barely watch.
But despite Monia's anxiety, the axe took shape rapidly, as it didn't require the delicate, all-over knapping of a stone knife.
Making a stone axe head was slightly different from making a knife. Instead of chipping it to a razor-sharp edge, the stone was worked into a generally flat shape.
He struck the flat face to break off large flakes, shaped it by grinding it against a whetstone, and finally, carefully chipped the edge to create a sharp blade.
Once the axe head was finished, Chester brought over a thick branch to use as a handle.
Monia assumed he would simply lash the stone to the branch, but Chester used his stone knife to shave the top of the branch flat.
After flattening it, he began carving out the center of the shaved top. He carved, compared it to the axe head, carved some more, and compared it again.
After repeating this a few times, he used two twigs as tongs to retrieve a glowing red ember from the campfire. He placed the ember into the carved groove of the handle.
"Huuu, huuu..." Chester blew gently on the red ember to stoke the heat, using it to char the wood. The ember slowly burned its way deeper and deeper into the handle.
When the ember lost its heat, he removed it and scraped away the charred wood with his stone knife to clean out the groove. Then he brought over a fresh ember, burned it again, cleaned it, and scraped.
By repeating the same process on the opposite side, a clean hole was quickly bored through the axe handle.
Chester wedged the stone axe head into the hole and swung it at a nearby tree.
Even though he hadn't lashed the head and handle together with rope yet, striking the tree forced the axe head deeper into the tapered hole, securing it firmly through the impact.
Having wedged the blade securely into the hole through his test swings, Chester nodded in satisfaction and gave the notched tree a firm kick.
With a loud crash, the tree, its trunk splintered and shredded, came toppling down.
"Yeah, this works." Checking the condition of the axe, Chester sat back down by the campfire. He took some rope and wound it tightly above and below where the axe head was wedged.
"Why are you wrapping it with rope?"
"This keeps the wood from splitting further. It increases the durability."
Having wrapped the rope securely, Chester looked at the finished axe with satisfaction.
He had made an axe and a knife. This meant they could now gather basic materials and process them. Their survival on the deserted island was beginning in earnest.
Some distance away from the island drifting lonely in the sea, ominous clouds were beginning to gather in the sky.