Part 2: HungerJune 4th, early morning. I perform a hunting incantation, that the sages on my travels have thought me. It is supposed to help you track down wildlife, but I never believed in it. But first - fishing - I need enough food to survive the hunting trip. Several hours of fishing provided me two perches... which I gobbled up straight away because I was hungry from the fishing. Oh the irony! I'm back at start. I will fish more.
Again, several hours without success, I have also eaten my last piece of rye bread, so I have no food left. Beggining to feel the hunger, as the water spirits decide to finally reward me with a bream, a roach and a perch. Yet this is barely enough to satisfy my hunger. After eating all three fishes, I am again left without any food... well, at least I satisfied my desire for food now.
Out of despair I decide to pull out one of my fishing nets, but find no fish in it. Since the river has proven to be bad for fishing with my rod, I travel to the nearby lake to try my luck there. Fortunately after a short fishing session I end up with 6 fishes, which is the biggest catch so far.
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loginBy now I was really starting to feel the lack of food in the past two days. All exhausted and nearly starving I set up a fire to roast the fishes I just caught. I fall asleep while the pikes were still roasting, spoiling them. They're still edible though, and being big fishes, this should keep me fed through the day.
I return to camp to check the other net, only to find out that the fishes caught in the second net have already became rotten! The Water Spirits grant me no luck with net fishing. I will have to be more careful which day I have placed the nets, as to not wait too long with picking the net back up.
I also seem to have gotten a minor nausea from eating those spoiled pikes... But my condition and food supply should be good enough to go on a short hunting trip.
While I was trying to climb a tree to scout for surrounding wildlife, I felt my stomach was turning around inside. I barfed. The nausea has gotten worse.
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loginAfter climbing a few trees, scouting the area, and even bruising my knee from falling down from one, I notice a squirrel to the north-east. It's not the biggest animal, but it'll have to do for now. I climb down and pursue it. As I reach the ground, I go in the direction I saw the squirrel, however after looking for a while I fail to find it.
At this point I feel very tired. I decide to go back to my camp. I check one of the fishing nets and find two fishes in it. Not the catch I was hoping for, but should be sufficient as a supply for my next hunting trip tomorrow. And the nausea seems to have faded away.
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loginJune 10th. I have been going out on hunting trips for the past few days, but no luck. I catch barely enough fish to survive the day and I have no back up food. Things are starting to look down as I see my body become skinnier and skinnier. I am hungry every day.
I keep pulling my fishing nets out of the river empty. I'm going to try relocating them a bit, see if they do better elsewhere. The Water Spirits better grant me some good catch, because I am beginning to starve.
After a few unsuccessful fishing trips I decide to go look for other prey. Half a days search and I finally stumble upon a rabbit.
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loginI quickly go into hiding to not make him escape. I start approaching the rabbit and he doesn't seem to notice me just yet. I draw my bow and nock an arrow... shoot... the arrow flies right into spruce. The rabbit is immediately alerted and makes his swift escape and I am left with nothing. I pick up the arrow that missed and look for rabbit tracks, but find none.
As the days pass, my starvation continues. My stomach does not let me get a good rest and I can feel this lowering my hunting and fishing performance. One June 13th, I return to my camp.
As I pull my fishing net up I pray to Water Spirits. I have been without food for 3 days straight at least, if my mind is still right.
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loginOnly one of my nets caught fishes, but it was the best catch so far. My eyes water with joy. I am going to greatly enjoy eating this... as I would enjoy eating just about anything right now. The fishes I caught should keep me fed for a while.
Actively fishing has proven unfruitful, so I decide to keep scouting the surrounding area for wildlife. I notice a big animal in the distance... an Elk! It would be incredible to capture such a big animal. I start following the Elk and by sheer luck I managed to get it trapped on a smal peninsula.
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loginI ready my bow and shoot. The first 4 arrows miss, but the last one scratches the beasts' thorax and makes it fall down.
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loginIt seems to be unconscious. I do not risk anything and make a run to the fallen animal. The Elk rises and starts running just as I come close to it. I quickly draw another arrow that scratches it's shoulder. The Elk is running away and I run after it.
In the wild chase I lose sight of the Elk a few times, but it's leaving obvious tracks from the panic run. Again, luck smiles upon me as I catch the Elk again on a small peninsula. Only one way out for the beast - and that's through my dead body.
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loginI swiftly grab my spear and aim for Elk's legs. I land a solid hit and the beast stumbles to the ground. I keep hitting it with the blunt edge of my spear as to not ruin the skin. I think I hit it at least 30 times on the head until I decided to end it's misery, and pierce its skull with my spear.
I finally take a deep breath to recover from the battle as the Elk lays dead at my feet. I grab the knife and skin it... the leather is going to come in handy later. I cut up the carcass which gives me around 200 lbs of elk cuts. This is more than I can carry, so I decide to leave some behind.
This much meat is going to keep me fed for a long time. But I know it's not going to last... it's going to get ruined if I don't preserve it somehow. The only possible way of preserving the meat at the moment is using a sauna in one of the Driik villages to smoke the meat, so I make my way towards the populated Driik area to find a village with a sauna.
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login16th June, I find a sauna building in one of the Driik villages at Hirvikolkka. I'm going to need cords to bind the smoked meat together, so I take off my trousers and rip them up a bit to get a few cords. I prepare 95 elk cuts in the sauna for smoking. The villagers there tell me the process is going to take 16 days. I have no choice but to trust them with my meat and hope they don't steal it.
I have no idea how long the rest of the cuts are going to last before they get ruined. Hopefully they will keep me fed for at least a few days. As of now, things are finally starting to look bright and the era of hunger is over... for now.
