Vhalar 28th, 709
The sun slowly started to dip away as a thick sheet of darkness descended to smother the world. Its grip was cold and stiffing as there was no light to be seen, a thick layer of clouds smothering whatever celestial bodies in the sky might have cast light for the poor and weary travelers who wandered about below, seeking out some kind of shelter or hope. With the dark came a fierce chill which made the open air a bit harder to bear.
For the half-breed, as she watched the last traces of sunlight, this was a rather distressing thing. A small shiver ran through her body as the air began to seep into her clothes and she hesitated for a moment. She had been hoping that she'd be able to make it back to the small home she shared with Icarus before it actually started to get dark, though that hope was something that she already knew had a very little possibility of coming true. Given how far the pair had originally trekked when trying to get out this far it would take her at least another trial of dedicated work before she got home. And that was assuming that everything went smoothly and she didn't get lost or hurt. The icy air was fierce and while it would keep her awake if she tried to keep going, causing her to become slow and far more prone to silly or stupid mistakes. It would only get colder and colder, not to mention darker, the more that the night progressed.
There was the option to just keep traveling, but traveling at night was a lot more dangerous so she wanted to try and avoid it if at all possible. The less injury she risked the better off she'd ultimately be. But even more so than that, it was easier to get lost in the dark. If even a single moon as out that would be an entirely different story, but there wasn't a single one around, and she couldn't see any of the stars either. So it was better not to take the risk. Getting lost could sometimes mean the difference between life and death in an actual survival situation, and while she knew that Icarus was hopefully still watching over her shoulder to make sure she didn't do anything terribly stupid if she did she'd be sleeping outside.
Of course, one of his orders was to either get home or successfully survive for 3 trials so she could still pass even if she got lost. But she didn't want to take the risk when sleeping outside was her reward for failure. She still wasn't sure if that had been a joke or not... The thought of sleeping outside during Zi'da brought an uncomfortable shiver to her body. She'd just have to survive out here for the night.
Looking around her eyes landed on a bush a little way farther in the distance. Its branches were absolutely laden with dark blue berries. From what she could tell they looked like blueberries. Popping one into her mouth the flavor didn't necessarily sit right with the half-breed, however. Quickly spitting out the berry and brushing off her tongue. Looking around at the ground a little harder she tried to find something she recognized. "Arrowroot!" She said with a small cry of joy as she moved to pluck the unlucky root from the earth.
After putting in a little bit of effort she was able to dislodge the root. It was on the larger side and the wild arrowroot looked as though it would hopefully get her through the night. With food then taken care of and just a little bit of daylight ghosting across the sky, it came down to the idea of setting up a camp. Which was honestly going to be the hard part. Out of everything setting up a proper camp tended to take the most effort next to foraging just because what went into setting up a true camp.
A little more walking in the direction she needed to go finally got her into a clearing which would be perfect for making a small camp as the ground was earthy and looked fairly good for making a fire. After gathering up a couple of good looking dry branches she tossed them into the center of the clearing and placed her bag on the ground.
"First order of business needs to be fire," she said as she rummaged around. "Perfect," she cooed as she pulled out a small piece of flint that was attached to a steel rod by a string. Moving towards her stick she looked at them for a moment. Just putting them into a pile wasn't going to do her much good. She, with as much speed as she possibly could manage without messing up, constructed a proper fire pit in a lean-to fashion. the largest log like stick was placed on the ground. Up against the log she placed some tinder. Just simple things like dead foliage and perhaps some pine needles. On top of that, she began to lay small tinder sticks. Once she was satisfied she started to progressively lay larger and larger sticks. Once the campfire was constructed to a point she was satisfied with she pulled out the flint, striking it against the steel. She made sure to aim the sparks towards the tinder at the bottom of the lean-to. Slowly but surely the fire caught and began to grow until it started to devour the sticks she had laid against it.
The warmth was welcome and the fire just started to roar into light and life as darkness descended over. The second order of business was to construct a proper shelter which was without a doubt a bit easier said than done at this point. Luckily this was where her tarp came in. There were two small pieces of rope at each corner of the tarp, so she tied tow ends to two nearby trees so that it created almost a hammock-like thing. Instead of trying the other ends with their partners she just let it fall against the ground, effectively creating something of a lean-to. A tarp lean-to.
The problem was she was still liable to, you know, die of hypothermia just lying on the ground. Even with the fire roaring just a couple paces away, the icy earth had a way of sapping both the heat and the life from the unwary. Looking around she found some ferns that she absolutely knew weren't poisonous to touch. Carefully she tore branches and created a bed under her new tarp lean-to.
Hopefully, it wouldn't rain since she didn't need the added difficulty in the situation, but as things stood this was good enough to keep her alive through the night. Though she wasn't exactly comfortable it was ultimately survivable.
Using one of the sharper sticks she ripped off the top of the arrowroot, placed it on the skewer, and allowed it to roast until it was tender enough to eat comfortably. Not the most appetizing food, especially for someone who was a direct relative to a very strict carnivore, but it worked. It was high in starches meaning it would help last her longer than the berries she'd found earlier.
Unfortunately that one berry that she did eat part of had the intent to come back and haunt her, a sharp pain suddenly racing through her.
She curses whatever blueberry look alike the thing had been as she let out a small, upset growl of hatred and discomfort. The night, which was actually starting to look like it might be okay, suddenly dropped into entirely too uncomfortable and she wanted to go home immediately. Part of her thought about crying out in pain to try and get the attention of Icarus, but his threat still looked over her menacingly.
She was absolutely certain that the berry, in as small an amount as she'd eaten anyways, wasn't poisonous. Only a couple drops had managed to actually get into her system while the majority of the berry had been spat out immediately when she recognized it as anything but a blueberry or one of its nonlethal look-alikes such as huckleberries or juneberries. She didn't think it was a nightshade of any kind, and she was fairly certain it wasn't poke berry either. So that left her grasping at straws as to what it could be.
No matter what she'd just have to grit her teeth and endure it until sunrise when she could get back on the move or hopefully the pain would subside. She'd dealt with worse. By the Immortals had she ever dealt with worse living with The Master. But that didn't make the situation any more pleasant let alone easier to deal with as the half-breed let out a tiny whimper, hoping the night would pass just a little faster.
