Dead month has arrived and our hunting trip went badly wrong, my father now lies dead and I am alone. I spent my first week hiking to the end of the world, the far north-east. Made no shelters and did no hunting nor gathering, I just kept pressing on.
Things were surprisingly busy at the end of the world, on my first day there I bumped into another lost hunter. I agreed to help him return to a village, even though I had no more idea than he where one might be. We made a shelter on the coast, and my hunger prevented sleep.
Next day we went out onto the frozen marshes and almost straight away found an elk. I lobbed an axe at it but missed, and it ran off then fell through the ice. The hunter was on it straight away, and in three blows of his axe the elk was dead. We skinned and butchered it, and carried it home to our shelter. Food at last!
Some days passed, I spent them mostly tanning the hide and collecting saplings for withes, to dry the meat. We ate well, but my friend was restless and soon he left me alone to search for civilisation.
Once all the meat was dried and I had made some clothes from the fur, I went out hunting again. On the third day I found myself close to a bear. I was frightened but I had my spear, axe and knife, and I knew his fur meant surviving the winter cold. I threw my axe, and missed. Then the bear charged.
I tried to keep him at a distance, poking and stabbing with the spear and doing some damage. Then disaster struck, I slipped as I dodged and his jaws closed on my head. Out went the lights.
I came too as I hit the ground, rolling away from the bear as blood sprayed from my neck, drawing my breath hoarse through a crushed windpipe. I am here to tell this tale because the bear, also wounded, stood off. I tore off my shirt, clutching it to my throat to halt the bleeding, but each time the bear came in again and I needed both hands for my spear. I got him in the hip and crippled him, then a blow to the head and he was down. He tried to crawl away but I was on him with my knife, stabbing over and over until I was sure that the job was done. With vision fading, I managed to stop the bleeding from my neck and lay shattered against the still warm bear.
Recovering from my wound will take a month maybe, but I have the bear fur and the meat is drying. The bear and the elk should see me through the winter, along with what I can fish and any birds I can trap. It's good to be alive!