Time moves quickly when you have things to do all day long. Constructing the shelter that I thought of when I had gone into the grove of trees, was turning out to be more time consuming than I had thought. On its own the structure was not that complicated, yet I was injured, alone, and doing my best to feed myself and Kaelyn who was still unconscious. At least through all this I had developed a routine for all the work that I did every day. 

Each morning after I added wood to the fire and started two cups of tea, I worked on the shelter. Using a cut flexible branch of trunk, I weaved it into the stricture in a circle pattern. The structure itself was a hut that was made of bent poles tides of at the top, and thin poles weaved in between. Sure it was not a cabin, but with only myself and so much to get done each day, I did not have time or the energy to build a cabin. There would be enough room to fit both of us, a fire, and some spare room for storage, but just enough.

After three or so hours of this, by which I had to guess, I stopped and checked my traps. Besides the initial fish traps, I over the last two days had set some small deadfall traps for rabbits and a few gorge hooks in the stream for fish. Between the gorge hooks and the fish baskets I had caught three fish over the last two days. They were not large but each provided a day worth of food.

While checking my gorges after having pulled up both fish baskets empty, an otter popped its head out of the water. In a blur of movement I drew and fired my pistol, hitting the otter in the head. Moving quickly despite my crutch, I slid into the stream, grimacing as my leg hit numerous rocks. Doing my best to ignore the pain I grabbed the otter before it was carried downstream by the small current.

Not wanting to stay in the stream any longer than I had to, I made my way to the bank. Spotting my crutch which I had dropped in my haste to get into the water, I tossed the otter besides it. Using both hands I climbed up the bank to the crutch and otter. Tired but knowing I was going to become cold quickly, I lurched as fast as I could back to camp.

With my only spare set of clothes soaked from a rainstorm this morning, and having Kaelyn using both blankets, I needed to stoke the fire and dry out quickly. Hanging the otter up by its back legs in preparation for skinning, I grabbed a few pieces of fire wood. Careful as not to create a fire I could not maintain or burn wood too quickly, I gradually warmed myself up over the course of an hour. During this time I tried to decide what I was going to use the otter hide for. Both Kaelyn and I had gloves that were suitable until the snow came, and I did not want to use the otter hide on a pair of gloves any way. River Otter and its larger cousin the Beaver were commonly used to make hats. Making a hat out of the hide seemed like a good use of it and when I had the time I would do just that.

Before I could start that process I needed to check on Kaelyn. Dry enough to move away from the fire I slowly, as my leg had stiffened up after the clash with the rocks, made my way over to her. Leaning heavily on the crutch as my leg showed signs that it was unable to support my weight, I clumsily pulled back the blanket and the top of her dress. Keeping my eyes focused on the task at hand, I quickly examined the stitched up wounds. I could barely tell that they had been stitched up as large scabs had developed over the wounds. Bright red in color from the cold air and still being fairly fresh, the scabs were a sign that the wounds were indeed healing. No black or discolored was visible and her veins were normal colored, indicating no infection of blood poisoning. 

Once my examination was complete I averted my eyes as I pulled the dress back into place before covering Kaelyn with the blanket once more. Whatever emotions I had for Kaelyn, now was not the time, especially with her condition.

Content that despite her unconsciousness, Kaelyn was healing, I carried on with my day. Seeing how it was around lunch time, I decided to change up my diet of fish and instead cook some of the otter. Before I could cook it though, I needed to remove the guts and other parts that were only good as bait. My leg was going to complicate this task as it had not improved and I struggled just to walk the twenty or so feet to where I had hung the animal up.

Breathing deeply to calm my aching leg, I brought my knife tip up to the base of the creatures belly. Careful as not to cut an organ, I pushed the tip of my knife through the layer of hair and skin. Shifting my body a little so I could better use my other hand, I placed in on the spine of the knife. Slowly I used this hand to guide the knife down in a straight line along the belly of the otter. Quick so that the organs would not spoil the meat, I removed the intestines and other nasty organs as they fell out of the carcass. These I would need to either move a safe distance from camp so that they would not attract predators, or process them for use as something in the future. Dried out and taken care of properly they would work well as thread for fishing line or for sewing clothing. Unfortunately I did not have the time to clean them out and then dry them out while keeping them from becoming to fragile for work.

Even without preparing the organs, the hide and the meat were enough to keep me busy for the rest of the day. Careful as not to damage the hide, I worked my way around the hide cutting the sinew and tendons attaching the hide to the meat. Removing the hide became a bloody process and my knife started to slip as my hands were covered in blood. Even though I had done this many times before, the process was no easier as I worked the skin off the body. Wet squelching noises followed the skin as I slid it over the head. Disgusting as the task seemed, I now had a hide that with some work would make a great hat, and food for a few days.

Food was the priority before I began the process of removing the fat and other stuff from the hide so that I could make it into a proper hide. Hanging the hide on a tree limb so that it was off the ground, I looked at the carcass of the River Otter. Experience told me that there was maybe five or so pounds of meat on the creature. This was about five days of food for me, less if Kaelyn woke up. Despite the fact that winter was coming soon, I needed to preserve the meat that I was not going to eat today. Between smoking the meat or drying it, I figured drying would be faster.

Preparing food took time, and while I waited for the small stew prepared to cook, I went to work on the rest of the otter. Strip by strip I cut the otter into thin slices that would dry and harden into jerky. Every few strips I stopped and hung them over branches so that they could begin to dry with help from the sun shining overhead. Once the meat was done drying this afternoon it would need to be put somewhere up in the trees where no predators would go after it. 

Perhaps an hour after I had started cutting, my stew was ready to eat. Rather than make extra dishes that I would have to clean myself, I ate out of the pot. Stew was an easy to make meal and for this I have mixed some of the otter meat along with some roots and tubers that I had dug up over the last two days. Kaelyn would have enjoyed this over some of the stuff I had made her eat...

Reminding myself that she was not dead yet, I finished my meal without another thought. There was still a portion of the otter to slice up so that it could dry, and then I had the skin to process. Cleaning and further preparing the hide would take today and probably tomorrow. Lengthy as the process was, deep down I knew that there was a good chance that we would be spending the winter here. Winter was harsh here and without fur winter clothes, we would die with the first snowfall.

After making short work of the remainder of the carcass and hanging the meat up to dry, I set to work on the hide. Without my tools I usually used this process was harder but I had enough experience that I was able to cut off the chunks off without slicing into the thin layer of hide. Soon I was staring at a reddish white underside of the pelt. This meant that the hide was ready to be washed and then stretched before it dried and shrunk.

Simply washing the hide took more time and effort than I thought it would. My leg and side ached for the short walk to the stream, reminding me that my injuries were going to limit me for a few more weeks. Even when I sat down and leaned forward to reach the water, my side exploded into a fit of painful waves. Ignoring the pain as best I could, I washed the hide, using both hands to move it through the cold clear water.

While I washed the skin, a bird tittered at me from the top of a tree. No doubt it was laughing at me for putting myself in pain just to wash the otter skin. I did not blame the bird, as to some people what I was doing would seem odd. Yet odd as my actions were the work needed to be done, and the bird could laugh all it wanted at me. 

Laugh it did and after nearly falling into the stream with its newest burst of song I turned around and glared up in its direction. Yellow in color, it was easy to pick out against the smoke filled sky.Pausing to think for a moment, I recognized the problem with what I had just saw. 

Laying the skin on the ground, I dashed over to the nearest tree, ignoring the pain that my leg sent through my body. Using a low limb, I pulled myself up into the tree. Through the leaves I could see some of the dark smoke but I was not high enough to see where it was coming from. 

Needing to know if Kaelyn and I were in danger, I climbed higher. Each branch brought me closer to being near the top of the tree. This both helped me and worried me, and the branches became thinner and the tree top moved as I tried to climb higher. Finally I had to stop my climb as my body screamed at me in protest and the tree top moved dangerously. 

A scan on the horizon revealed the smokes source. Columbia was burning, or at least part of it was. Fires in the distance  indicated that ships were also on fire, though who they were I could not tell. Carried on the wind was the smell of smoke and gunpowder, and the boom of cannons and other weapons that brought destruction.

Worried that my body was going to give out on me, I hastily climbed down the tree. In my haste I scratched myself numerous times, but I only stopped when my feet had touched solid ground. As if confirming my suspicions. my legs gave out and I roughly landed against the trunk of the tree.

Raggedly breathing as the pain and my sudden fall caught me off guard, I allowed my body to relax against the tree. I knew when to accept that my body was tired and that I needed to rest.