I wake to the sound of music. I know this to be impossible. Yet I cannot quite deny that it is there. I lay in my cave, naked, sweating, dehydrated, starving. Every part of my body feels a cage for some thin, sickly process neglected and adulterated by my surroundings. Yet I lay here within the blissful embrace of a symphony.
There is God here. I cannot describe the notion of divinity in this place. I can recall no dogma or school or sutra or gospel. I can only hear the wind. I hear divinity within my surroundings. I feel the embrace of its purpose. I am here with purpose. I am deposited, not abandoned, without instruction but with purpose. I am denied the privilege of certainty. Perhaps for this reason I am denied the above epistles. I have inherited nothing from where I was before, what I was before. What was is no longer necessary. What is to be, I must construct with my own two hands.
I rise to a muggy morning in a prehistoric mountainside. I must find another word for it. “Prehistoric” is appallingly inaccurate. The irony is farcical, and I haven’t the time for farce. I will settle on “savage” for now.
My cave is a muggy landmark in a hazy landscape. I have the whole of the day to travel where I will, and a night to sleep under the stars. I will need water soon, and food very soon after. The land leeches my strength like a parasite. I will have to consider my actions carefully.
I could travel south down the decline, drink from the swamp and continue to explore. I now have an axe that I may use to kill one of those beasts with greater ease. Maybe there are even fish. I have to be cautious. There are many predators down there. The more time I spend looking for food, the less time I spend exploring, looking for materials, and creating those things that I will need in order to survive.
Survival. A strange concept. My leg healed in less than a day. Can I truly die? Or was my assessment of my leg a false memory, a product of delirium? Which is more likely, after all?
I must be cautious. I must think clearly. What do I need?
- Food
- Water
- Shelter
The list is so simple it almost makes me want to laugh. It’s not that simple, and making it simple is my problem. I take a breath, close my eyes, steady my weary brain, and begin again.
Food
I require meat, either fresh or sliced and dried. I could possibly use plants, but I have seen no nuts or fruiting trees. I suspect that, if I am where my intuition and thin grasp of prehistory suggest, that there is no food of that kind, nor will there be for a long time. My diet will be of fish, insect, amphibian, and possibly roots. There is also the prospect of algae, lichen, and moss, perhaps. In some water, there may even be mollusc. In any event, that is what we are likely to find, in totality.
Water
Water without boiling and treatment is dangerous to drink, but there is infinitely greater danger in not drinking at all. Chief among my issues here is the absence of a vessel. I have not arrived beside a convenient stream. My home is a swamp. I will need to draw water, store it, and eventually boil away its impurities.
Shelter
I look up at the sky. An ugly thought occurs to me. It has not significantly rained since I arrived. That cannot be anything but blind luck. I am in a swamp. In a place like this, where the sky is hazy from its saturation with moisture, a clear night is a rare offering. The rains will come, and drench anything that I gather.
My cave is small and shallow. It will hold back a windless rain, but only that. We must be realisitic about its prospects.
I suppose that I could turn these pending rains into a steady supply of water, but that will require vessels. Those vessels may be useful, but they will also be cumbersome to move.
Fire
Fire is my final consideration here. Fire will dry fish and meat to jerky, preserving it to days. Fire will, with sufficient preparation, dry out nearby wood, making it more suitable for future fires. Fire will boil water, harden clay, warm me, and provide some comfort.
A path emerges in my mind, a first ranging in this savage land. It begins.