Touchstone 1 - Stray

stars, which, while Southern Cross-less haven’t exactly stood up and looked wrong. Not freaky alien civilisations. No, my watch told me. Each day the sun’s set a quarter hour or so later. So this is a world which is really like Earth, but not it at all. Not even an alternate Earth, unless it’s one which has a slightly longer day for some odd reason.
    I’ll have to think up a name.
    A whole new world. Other planets, habitable planets, actually exist. There could be anything, anything at all out there. I’m trying to be excited about it, to appreciate what an amazing experience this is. But my feet hurt, and I’m hungry.
    As well as discovering a planet, this has been a big day for Survivor Cass. I reached the river at last, at about mid-morning. Since my water bottle was empty, it was great to get to it, and I jumped straight in before the idea of piranhas occurred to me. I seriously needed the bath, though. The river bottom is all small rocks and grit, and the water’s very clear at the shallow parts. It’s wide, but I’ve already found a spot where I could wade across. The water is very sweet, no hint of salt, and so long as I follow the river I won’t have any more thirsty days (or get so manky!).
    I finished my hat while I was drying off. A frame of twigs woven together with grass, and not exactly comfortable, but it does shade my face. Every so often I pull some more long grass to weave into it, and tighten everything up. I’ve been plaiting skinny grass stalks together to get something resembling twine, and then I’ll reinforce it all again. My hat might look like the makings of a campfire, but it’s the first thing I’ve made since woodwork in grade eight, and better than nothing.
    During the day I’ve kept my eye out for:

    - Anything edible.
    - Rocks that look like flint. Not that I know what flint looks like. Most of the rock here is grey, with some yellow. No really red earth like you’d get in Aus.
    - Clay. This involves squeezing any mud I find. Extremely silly.
    - Friendly alien civilisations. I could really do with one of these.

    It’s also been a big day for animals. Plenty of deer, and what I think was an elk, but very big. And grey terrier-sized dogs that run around in groups of three or four. They followed me for a while, and I was a bit worried, but not really because I could send one flying with a good kick, or climb a tree if they came after me. Mid-afternoon I saw paw prints of something larger and spent ages looking for a good place to spend the night. There just doesn’t seem to be anywhere safe. Maybe I can weave a hammock? The best I can do is not sleep anywhere close to the river. If all the animals go down there to drink, I don’t want to be the after-drink snack.
    So new animals today:

    - Mondo Elk.
    - Grey Terriers.
    - Mr Paws.

    I’m not even going to start listing the birds, because there’s so many. It was a great day for fruit, too. Red pears, berries everywhere, and what I hope are edible nuts. I haven’t eaten anything but the pears yet because I’m going to have to be systematic about experimental eating so I know exactly what fatally poisons me. Throat still sore, but my nose isn’t blocked. It’s sleeping out in the dew which is doing it.
    Wednesday, November 21
    Handicrafts and cats
    Walking along the river is easier than the hills. There’s still plenty of ups and downs and rough patches, since someone forgot to install a boardwalk, but overall not too bad.
    The big event of the day was the cat. Mr Paws indeed. It was on the other side of the river, which might be the only reason I get to sit around writing this. It wasn’t as big as a lion, was more like a leopard, except not spotty. With a golden body and darker brown ears, face and legs, it reminded me of a miscoloured Siamese cat. It watched me across the river, then flowed up the nearest tree and was gone – probably to look for a bridge. I dubbed it Ming Cat and I’m going to have nightmares about it tonight. On a less I’m-going-to-die front, there were also otters in the river. Or something like otters. I haven’t seen them clearly enough to know whether they’re different enough from otters to need their own name.
    All the berries I’ve found continue to be sour, but the nuts were great. Fiddly to get out of their shells, which are like a harder walnut. They taste more like cashews, and would be perfect if I could figure out how to roast and salt them. I’m calling them washews.