Chương 49: Out of the Zone

Cora woke as normal to the sounds of the forest. She could hear the sound of some animal rooting around, hunting for a meal. She was high in trees like usual. She loved the quiet of the forest, no one speaking, no one making sounds, just the peace of it. She had grown up in a small town far from crowded places and liked the slower pace of life. People were noisy and busy, and she liked to take things slow. She had lived in the city before. It was not for her. Too many people, too many sounds.

She climbed out of her hammock, which was way up in a tree. It was one of the first things she ever made. And one of her few permanent possessions. She untied it and rolled it up and put it away. Climbing down, she startled a small boar that was rooting for food. She had a small meal that Dale made for her that she would warm by the fire, so she just shooed the boar away. No need to kill this one; it could go on its way. She killed when she had to but did not kill just for the fun of it.

She pulled out the stones from her storage and created a small fire ring and then pulled out the kindling and fire starter that Tom had made for her and quickly started the fire. Putting the clay pot next to the fire, she waited for it to warm. After warming her breakfast, she used some water to put out the fire. She buried the ashes and returned the fire ring and leftover wood to inventory.

She quickly looked around camp, cleaning up all her traces and then using a branch to brush away the traces she had left so that her trail would be clear. She thought about the marsh that she was told about last night. Sensing it right away, she turned toward it. She could tell from here it was a wide swath of area. She had never traveled this way before, so she took it slow. Watching for animal tracks and any sign of life. Her path through the forest was not very eventful.

She saw animals, but as she was not looking for them, she just passed them by. She finally got to the point that the forest thinned and the ground started to be moist. She stopped and started looking around for any signs of trails but found nothing here. She looked northwest; she could sense where Mark's camp was. It was her home in a way, but not where she slept; there were too many people. She had learned that others gave her things she could not get by herself.

She learned that she could give them things she had no need for in exchange. Mark was useful and creative. He could carve a life out of nothing. And make it his own. For Cora, she respected that but preferred to be out, tracking a beast or following the tracks in the forest. Even just exploring something new. She turned back towards the marsh and then a little to the right. Something was there; she could tell Mark had explored it. It was a POI but she had left before he said what it was.

That was not what she was after, so she looked more to the south. She would explore the western edge of the marshlands before going deeper inside. She passed a bunch of trails made by animals. She realized that they had come from the forest to the west to get water in the marshland. It was a regular path. Mark, if he saw this, would pull out a trap and set it up. But for her, that was not her style. She preferred the hunt. Stealth and tactics were how she tracked and then killed her prey.

This, of course, meant the bigger animals she could not kill. But she did not need the meat or other goods. The smaller prey was easier to get and made for a good meal when Dale was not cooking. Which she had to admit she now had more often than her own cooking. She then found other tracks. These were from people. Not her people; she could tell that. She had seen their tracks enough. They were headed to the place that Mark had mapped. Maybe another day she would go check that out.

She continued south, finally coming across the path Mark had followed. She could pick his tracks out of a crowd. He thought he was pretty stealthy, but to her, his path was as obvious as a herd of elephants had passed by. Continuing south, she hit the southern end of the marsh. It changed from marsh to a plain of grass. Well, maybe not grass; it looked maybe like wheat, but she was not sure. As she walked toward it, the awareness vanished. Oh, that was a weird feeling.

Like whatever Mark gave her last night switched off like a light switch being flipped. She looked back north but felt nothing. She looked south towards the grass; she felt nothing. This was normal, maybe even relaxing. Knowing where things were was, well, odd. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! She continued forward and, using her knife, cut out a huge swath of this grass.

She knew Dale would go bonkers for it; he was so excited she found something new. To her it just meant he would make her another meal or two. He always made sure she had at least a couple days' worth of food so she never went hungry. Kind of like what her mother used to do. After collecting enough, she headed northeast back towards the marshlands. She could see them but could not feel them yet.

She could tell when she passed back through, though it all popped back in place like when it started last night, just weird. This time she planned to visit the center of the marsh. She passed many pools of water. She saw birds and their nesting area. Her plan was to map out safe trails. Find risks that should be avoided. She knew Tom and Dale would come and she wanted to know what would be safe and not safe for them. She found many trails and committed them to memory.

But as she did so, she also realized that the sense Mark had given her was updating as she mapped. She could sense now the safe paths behind her where she had traveled. She spent hours crossing back and forth across the marshlands. Analyzing risks, like where the best place to trap fish would be. She found where the turtles lived and even where they had a nest. She found a particular deep pond that had something huge in it. As she approached, she felt danger and stepped back.

Whatever that was should not be messed with. She realized even that sense of danger could now be felt. This would be useful for the others. But to her, it was messing with her system, giving her tracking skills. When she had crisscrossed almost the whole marsh, a system message appeared. [Survey Progress Recorded] Marshlands Mapped Environmental Awareness Rewarded XP Awarded +42 XP She was pleased to get XP for completing the task Dale had given her. Then another system message appeared.

[Level Up] Cora — Level 6 +5 Stat Points Awarded [Skill Selection] Choose One Marshwalker (Level 1) Allows: • Move through marsh, mud, and shallow water with less effort. • Reduce the chance of losing footing in unstable terrain. Quiet Step (Level 1) Allows: • Reduce movement noise while outdoors. • Make it less likely to disturb wildlife or nearby creatures. Trail Sense (Level 1) Allows: • Better recognize frequently traveled paths. • Better identify disturbed terrain. • Recognize safer travel routes.

Cora set her stat points first and then reviewed the 3 skills. Marsh walker, she assumed, was offered because she was here in the marsh when she leveled up. It was a good skill but too specialized for her liking. The other two both would be great. She already had the skill of quiet movement. She guessed Quiet Step built upon the movement skill she already had. After the day she had today exploring, she realized that she really liked to explore and wanted to focus more on that going forward.

She already had forest awareness and spear mastery. She finally decided that trail sense would most expand her skills and let her blaze trails in this unknown land. [Skill Acquired] Trail Sense (Level 1) Allows: • Better recognize frequently traveled paths. • Better identify disturbed terrain. • Recognize safer travel routes. With that completed, she moved toward the eastern end of the marsh.

Just before the marsh ended, she passed a particularly large pond, and on its shore she found what had to be the ruins of a boat. Going over it, she found a trail. That is when her Trail Sense skill kicked in. She knew that the tracks were only 4 days old. That there were 3 people traveling together. The trail headed east. She followed the trail slowly until the marsh ended and she could see a rocky plain before her. As she continued forward, the sense stopped again. This was the end of Mark's zone.

She stopped hesitating. Forward to figure out where this went. Or back to camp. The sounds here were different from the forest and marsh. Less sound, no constant hum of animals. As she was contemplating, she saw smoke in the distance. It was farther west and just a little north of where she was on this trail. She had spent the most of the day scouting the marsh. It would be dark soon. She could see and travel in the dark, but night belonged to different creatures.

She finally made a choice and headed back towards a stand of trees she had passed a while back and set up her hammock and slept on the decision to go back to Mark's camp or forward to find who made the smoke.