Chương 2: Chapter 2: Finally! Salt!
The next day, the boy awoke with the first rays of morning sun and quickly exited his hut to look around. Seeing nothing unusual, he took one of the coconuts he had stored in the hut and peeled it, then used the sharp stone to make a hole and drank about half of it. He firmly placed the coconut back in the sand inside the hut to prevent it from tipping over and spilling.
After storing the coconut for later, the boy continued what he had been doing the previous day, striking stones together while setting aside a small pile of rocks of various sizes.
"Who would have thought that what the old man taught me would actually come in handy?"
The old man the boy referred to was an elderly person who, along with his wife, had taken in the blue-eyed man from his memories when he was a small child. The old man was a retired veteran who lived in the countryside and was passionate about hunting and survival, something he attributed to his long military career. It was common for him to take the boy on outings in the woods, where he learned various survival skills.
After gathering several of the stones he needed, the boy began sharpening them in different ways, some in the air and others using a stone as support. Although he ruined a few stones, he eventually succeeded, ending up with sharp stones of different shapes, edges, and sizes.
With the stones ready, the boy began making grooves in logs of various shapes and sizes, where he placed the newly sharpened stones, securing them firmly in place with cords he braided from what remained of the vine from the previous day. He ended up with a few axes, spears, and a couple of short stone knives.
After gathering all his new tools, the boy returned to his hut and stored them, burying the sharp edges in the sand to avoid any accidents. In his precarious situation, where the lack of antibiotics and similar treatments could mean a fatal infection, avoiding injury was crucial.
With his first task of the day done, the boy drank the remaining coconut water he had stored and ate the meat. Then, he set out with a spear in hand, keeping a small axe and the two knives in his pants, and headed towards the forest.
Once in the forest, the boy moved cautiously and carefully, always alert for predators. He marked the trees along the way to avoid losing his path. Eventually, he arrived at a small stream of crystal-clear water.
"What good luck, there's a stream quite close to my camp. Now I don't have to worry about water."
The boy smiled at his words but didn't dare drink from the stream despite its clarity, as he knew it could harbor harmful bacteria. Instead, he returned to camp, gathering a few green bamboo stalks along the way with the help of the small axe he had brought.
Once back at camp, the boy began cutting and splitting the bamboo into thin strips, quickly weaving them to create a basket, ensuring the joints were as tight as possible.
After finishing the basket, the boy tested it by placing some stones inside and lifting them, making sure it could bear the weight.
"Wow, it looks terrible, hahaha. How long has it been since I made one of these? Maybe 30 years... Anyway, at least it works. My grandma's teachings are always the most useful, hehe."
After completing the basket, the boy tied a couple of cords to the sides, creating handles so he could carry it on his back. Setting the basket aside, he quickly began cutting a few more bamboo stalks at their joints and used his stone tools to create a couple of canteens. He also tied cords to the canteens to hang them on his body.
After drinking the water from another coconut, the boy strapped on the basket and the canteens, and returned to the stream in the forest, following the marks he had left on the trees with his spear. Back at the stream, he filled his canteens with water and proceeded to collect clay from the banks, which he kneaded with stream water into a large ball. Then he placed the clay in his basket and returned to his camp.
While heading back to his camp, the boy noticed what appeared to be a rabbit in the distance, bringing a smile to his face. He quickly set his things down in a relatively safe spot and picked up two stones, holding one in each hand.
After tossing and catching the stone in his right hand a couple of times, the boy took some aim and threw the rock forcefully at the rabbit, hitting it on the head on his first attempt. Without wasting any time, he quickly dropped the second stone, grabbed his spear, and ran towards the rabbit in the distance.
"Still got my good aim, hehe."
The boy quickly picked up the rabbit from the ground and twisted its neck, making sure it was dead, then gathered his things from where he had left them, placing the rabbit in his basket along with the clay. After returning to his camp, he unloaded everything and took the rabbit, a couple of woven cords, and some sticks to a secluded spot where he carefully skinned the rabbit.
Once he had completely skinned the rabbit, the boy found a good place to bury the intestines and started a new fire where he smoked the meat. He stretched the rabbit's skin with the sticks and left it to dry in the sun, though he didn't have high hopes for it.
While the meat smoked, the boy took one of the canteens, some ash from the previous day's fire, and the basket of clay, and walked to a flat rock. There, he moistened the clay with the canteen water and, after mixing it with the ash, began kneading the clay as if it were playdough.
With the clay, the boy quickly made several long strips and a flat circular base, around which he coiled the strips to form a pot. Once the basic shape of the pot was ready, he smoothed it with some water, ensuring it was perfectly smooth and had no holes.
The boy repeated the process several times, managing to create several pots of various sizes along with their respective lids, which he made with more clay. Then he left them to dry in the sun on a rock. Feeling a bit hungry, the boy peeled a coconut, drank its water, and ate some rabbit meat, which was ready, though it tasted quite plain without salt.
In the following days, the boy continued living in the same manner. He would wake up in the mornings with the first rays of sun, peel a coconut, drink its water and eat the meat, and then go into the forest armed with an axe, a spear, and his knives, where he hunted some rabbits or small, black-feathered birds that resembled chickens but were much smaller, which he found on the outskirts of the forest. However, to his disappointment, he eventually had to throw away the skin of the first rabbit because it had rotted.
A bit tired of eating the same thing, the boy also made an improvised harpoon from bamboo, which allowed him to catch some fish in the sea. This not only added variety to his daily menu but also to his monotonous routine.
Several days later, the clay pots he had left to dry were ready for firing, so he gathered a good amount of firewood from the forest and made a fire large enough to cook more than one pot at a time.
Of all the pots the boy created, only four survived the firing process. It seemed they weren't dry enough and ended up breaking, but he still had what he needed. He quickly filled one of the pots with seawater and set it to boil over a fire, while he filled two other pots with stream water, which he also set to boil.
About 15 minutes later, the boy removed the pots with stream water from the fires and, for the first time in days, was able to drink water that wasn't from a coconut, making it seem like the most delicious water he had tasted in a long time.
On the other hand, the boy left the pot with the boiling seawater until it had completely evaporated, leaving a sandy, whitish residue at the bottom. He carefully scraped this with a stick and stored it in one of the canteens he had made from dry bamboo.
"Finally! Salt! Hahaha, now there's just one more thing to do!"
After exclaiming in excitement, the boy quickly stored everything in his shelter and almost ran into the forest, where he hunted a rabbit and a small bird. He then hurried back, where he proceeded to skin the rabbit and pluck the bird. Afterward, he applied some salt to the meat and grilled it using a flat rock as an improvised griddle.
"This is delicious!"
With a happy expression, the boy exclaimed in delight, then continued to devour the meat voraciously, absolutely thrilled with his small achievement.
"Phew, what a great meal, this is the life..." The boy commented with one hand on his stomach and a satisfied smile on his face, but he quickly stood up and continued, "but now, back to work."
Having finished eating, the boy set the leftover meat to smoke. Meanwhile, he began scraping the rabbit skin carefully until it was very clean, making sure to remove all the fat and meat. He then carefully salted it, ensuring the entire inner part of the skin was covered with a thick and consistent layer of salt.
After this, the boy used a frame he had made from bamboo strips to stretch the skin and set it to dry in the shade under an overhang of rock, covering it with more rocks to prevent any animals from approaching, while ensuring that air could still flow in and out.
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