Chapter 3
In the end, I couldn’t reach the campsite that day and only arrived in the afternoon on the following day.
I only consumed what was left of the white bread and a fragment of salty dried meat. Apart from that, I deceived my empty stomach with the blackberries that were everywhere.
According to my calculations, I had enough food for three days if I economised. Considering that I had to travel to the neighbouring town, I had to come up with some kind of fighting method within two days.
As nobody used the campsite during daytime, there was nobody else there except me.
I approached cautiously and touched the ashes of the campfire with my hand. The ashes were fresh, but had hardly any heat remaining. It had probably been used by a traveller who passed by this morning. There was no sign of water on the ashes, so perhaps the fire had not been used this morning.
That traveller didn’t find me because I had used an animal trail in the woods along the road. Could the animal trail I used have been the one wolves used to attack people? But I didn’t see any new fur or dung on the ground, so I guess wolves don’t really come out here.
It would have been helpful if there had been some embers left as I wasn’t equipped to light a fire, but I wasn’t greedy.
I picked up a handful of ashes and smeared them on my head.
Although I have cut off my long hair, my pinkish blonde hair was still very conspicuous. It would be somewhat comforting later if my hair stood out a little less.
After stashing my luggage in the shadow of a nearby tree, I started to look for a water source with only my knife and canteen.
Thinking there must be one, I searched for it and found a stream running across the well-trodden path of the main road. Though that’s slightly inaccurate. The stream ran under the road, gushing out into the forest on the lower side.
Looking upwards, I saw another stream slightly further down the path, flowing into a crevice, or perhaps a hollow in a rock, and then gushing out again under the path.