The Other Earth - Derek Schumacher (good novels to read .TXT) 📗

struck the fire to the life, he began to set out the stones on the slab table. He had gathered around twenty stones, some big, some small, but there should be enough to suffice an axe head at most, and a decent enough handle. Thank goodness his shirt had pockets, along with his slacks. Otherwise it would have been a long haul carrying these small stones.

Pulling out his knife, he looked over the set up. Water, check. Fire, check. Stones, check. What more could he possibly need? Well, probably tons of safety equipment, but Neil's one of those guys who lives on the edge. Also because he hasn't any in the first place, so he couldn't even if he wanted to.

Now, all there was left to do, was begin to attempt the melting of these rocks. Neil found a few more stone slabs, and layed them near the fire, almost like racks to set the stones upon. Then, he set a good few stones across the slabs, and organized them in a shape of his hopefully soon to be axe head. Thing was, this fire wasn't close to large enough. So there would need to be a few more things added.

Luckily, Neil was full of suprises. During his gathering of the metal rocks, he found a few lumps of black rocks. He checked, and believe it or not, it was indeed hardened carbon, or coal. This could most certainly be helpful in the creation of a large and piping hot fire, perfect for the use of melting metal, and forging tools. It's just like the old days! Wait, did you need a license for this?

Probably, but who cares. Nothing like rebelling against the nonexistant society by doing some illegal blacksmithing. Which also happens to sound insanely lame. But hey, Neil thinks it's pretty neat, so good for him.

Tossing in the coals, and adding more bits and pieces of twigs and tinder, the fire began to rise and roar. Perfect! Now, to actually make this thing. He had no idea how long it would take to melt these stones, but he figured more than a few minutes. So, in a very professional fashion, Neil decided to pass the time by resting his eyes for a bit.

Axe

Good Afternoon, Today is September 20, 2118.

 

After powering through an hour long nap, Neil awoke to the sound of bubbling. He glanced over to his little forge station, and noticed his metal had begun to melt!

Quickly, he reached for the knife, and begin to move the melting metal around on the slab, putting it back into the intended shape. It was still melting yet, so it had a bit to go before it was completly liquid. After that, he would let it solidify, and then cool it off by, he guessed tossing it into the water. He wasn't planning on touching the super heated metal, so he'd just pick up the slab of stone and slide the molten axe head and into the water. Genious plan, he knew it.

Waiting for a half an hour or so, eventually he noticed that metal had finally finished melting. Picking up the slab, he set it near the river, to first turn solid. While this went on, he kept the fire going, but down slightly. He didn't want to burn up all the coals too quickly, as he still had the handle to finish.

Sitting down once again, Neil picked up his knife. Some of the liquid metal had got on the blade, and had created what seemed like strange growths on the sides. He shrugged, and then looked towards the axe head. Suddently, he had an idea. A dumb idea, but an idea none the less. He wanted to engrave the axe, with something to show his survival.

Strolling over to the cooling axe head, he bent down, and took out the knife. Pressing the blade to the metal, he wrote "Neil". A reminder of himself, of his goal, of his life. Whoever found this after him, would hopefully understand just how helpful it was to the man. He smiled to himself, and stepped back from the metal, sitting back down on the stump, letting the blade of the knife cool off. In the meantime, Neil took a small snack break, chomping on a few grapples, since he had run out of his lovely, and newly created, leaches.

But wait, that's a perfect thing to do in the downtime! Neil grabbed a thin stick laying beside him, and stuck a few grapples on it, laying the stick across the opening in the stone slab. Nothing like roasting a few fruits to bring out new flavor. The question was, if there was a way to make grapples taste different by cooking them, what if he were to let them freeze?

Now that would be an experiment that he'd have to remember. Sure, winter was far off yet, but still. Being is only food source as of right now, might as well spice up life a little.

He wasn't sure how long he should let the metal cool, so every ten or so minutes, Neil would move over and poke it with his knife. Eventually one of these times it would become solid enough to push into the water. He didn't want to set it in while it was still forming, because who knows what kind of mess that would make. Probably a whole bunch of steam, and stuff.

In the down time, Neil thought of different things he should work towards in the future. Sure, the bridge idea was a good one, and definitly something important, as the southern area past the river might just have something of use, something of value for him. But, there must be other things he needs to accomplish as well.

Of course, one of them is the mountain lake. He needs to see if there really is one, to fufill his desires. Most people wouldn't care much for a hole filled with water and a big hill, but man does Neil love those kinds of things. Maybe that's why he was usually all alone. Maybe, maybe not, guess he won't find out anytime soon.

Another idea would be to explore the other regions farther than he has already. Thing is, only one of them is techinically decent to go through, and that's the eastern area. The others are in rough shape, one flooded, and the other possibly riddled with more shades. It would be some time before anything would be done with those areas. Of course, he could build a bridge across the wetlands of the west. But the shades would be a different story, as he would need either stronger weapons, or a way to steath past them. All things in due time, Neil supposed.

 After a good hour of waiting, the axe head was finally solid, and ready to be cooled off by the water. As he did this, Neil prepared the rest of the axe, the handle needed to be forged yet. He made a similar effort, laying out the metal chunks on the slab, and heated the fire back up to full power. He would retrieve the axe head in a bit.

The man waited a good few minutes before reaching into the water and feeling for the axe head. It was cooled off enough to be held, and Neil picked it up, and extracted it from the depths of the river edge. Pulling it out, he examined it. It wasn't perfect, or really that amazing, but it looked like an axe head, sort of. And that was good enough for him.

Decided to enjoy this small victory, and give the handle time to melt down, Neil pulled off another nap. Another chance to think over what he would be doing in the future. Thing was, he wasn't sure what else there really was. In all honesty, the highlight of this thing would probably be the trip to the mountain.

Oh, how he looked forward to that day, that day to go to the mountain. To see the lake, to see the everything. It would be something no one had done before, he was sure of it. He would be the first one to ever see that mountain lake on this entire planet. How crazy would that be? Neil sure thought it was pretty amazing, and impressive.

Once again, he woke up from his victory nap, and heard the similar bubbling noise, the handle had begun to melt down. He looked down at the axe head, and picked it up, setting near the molten handle. He let it settle to full liquid, and then moved the slab to the same spot near the river once again. After this, he combined the two together, as the handle slowly turns to solid, he would merge them. Slowly, the handle and head became one.

After a good while, the handle was cooled, and solid enough to be tossed into the water. Neil did so, and then looked up at the sky. It was somewhere past noon. It must have taken at least three hours to reach the place, and a good two or so hours to forge the tool. But it was time very well spent.

Neil waited, and then after a while, he snagged the tool from the depths of the river, and looked it over. It was a thing of beauty, a pure metal axe, or more of a hatchet, but none the less, a chopping tool. Something that would aid greatly in the building and completion of that bridge idea he thought up. Finally, now he could find out just what was on the other side of the river!

Packing up his few things, and sliding his brand new, still slightly wet axe into his belt. It seemed every day he turned more and more into either a caveman or a nordic woodsman. Whatever sounded cooler worked for him, even though he wasn't sure either or them were technically cool. He guessed it were better to be a nord than a caveman.

Munching on some of the leaches he made earlier, he began his walk back home. This three hour or so walk would give Neil plenty of time to plan out just what exactly he was going to do with his bridge.

First of all, the thing was going to need to be sturdy. Which would mean these boards he would cut up would need to be fairly stable. If only there was a way to tie them together, and make sure they wouldn't move. Unless he could use the foilage around the undergrowths of caves near the eastern area to create ropes.

Guess there would be only way to find out, and that would be to try it out. But, this was only one of the few steps in this bridge. Even though the combination of wood was solved, sort of, he still doesn't know exactly how long the bridge needs to be. So, Neil figures he should make it incredibly long, just in case it doesn't work. And, to make sure it doesn't float downstream, he'll weigh it down using as many stones he can find.

Sure, this might cause some parts of the bridge to sink, but it would be better to do this than to let the bridge float away. Getting