Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 18 - Chapter SS2

Into Shelter

Haruhiro was alone that day.

He didn’t mind being by himself. If anything, he found himself hoping for this kind of solitude a lot lately, because it meant he didn’t have to take responsibility. When he was alone, he only had to worry about himself. He could freely decide what he wanted to do. No matter what came of it, the only one to suffer the consequences would be him. Being like this was easy, and he liked it.

Obviously, that didn’t apply in all cases. If Haruhiro messed up and died in a ditch somewhere, that would affect others somehow. But he didn’t need to stay aware of those “others” at all times. Even if he did think about them occasionally. And even if, ultimately, he would have no choice but to face them.

“It’s gotten cold,” he mumbled to himself.

Raising the hood of his cloak a little with his fingers, he looked up to the sky. He was at a pretty high altitude. It had been drizzling on and off since last night. Not now, though. Still, it looked like it was ready to start pouring any moment. Heavy clouds covered almost the entire sky, leaving no breaks worth mentioning.

Haruhiro pulled out his dwarven pocket watch.

“Almost four o’clock, huh?”

He still had water. If he was sparing with his rations, he could eat three meals a day. The only other thing he needed to conserve out here in the wild was body heat. He was feeling chilly already, and exhausted. Soon it would be night, but he didn’t think that he was going to die of exposure. He’d been through worse than this. But it was best not to get overconfident.

He had time before sunset. Haruhiro walked around the mountain, collecting little branches he could use as kindling.

Eventually, he found the stump of a tree that had died and fallen over. He touched it and found it was pretty sturdy and free of rot. It would probably work as a decent foundation.

“I guess here will do...”

Haruhiro laid out all his kindling, then began looking for materials he could use. What he needed was as long and sturdy of a stick as he could find. Once he had that, he’d need a lot more sticks, although those could be shorter. The more branches with leaves he could find, the better.

The key was to have a long stick to use as a ridgepole. If he didn’t have one, Haruhiro would need to come up with a different idea than the one he was thinking of now.

Fortunately, there was a suitable stick lying around, and he was able to round up a decent number of short sticks without having to spend too much time on it. This was halfway up the mountain, so there were bushes all over the place. He could cut as many leafy branches off them as he liked.

While hunting for materials, he kept an eye out for droppings, fur, claw marks, and other traces that might have been left by animals, as well as any remains. If he came across the especially strong-smelling feces of a carnivore, there was a strong possibility it was still nearby. Obviously, there was always the risk that a dangerous beast that wasn’t nearby now might come along later, but all he could do about that was remain alert. Anyway, after scouting around, everything seemed to be fine. That didn’t mean he could drop his guard, but if he was attacked while building the shelter, he was going to have to chalk it up to bad luck. He was confident enough in his safety measures to let himself feel that way.

With most everything he would need ready, Haruhiro stood one end of the ridgepole against his foundation, which had an indentation perfect for making sure the stick wouldn’t slip out easily.

After that, he leaned the other sticks against the ridgepole from either side, forming upside-down V shapes with them. If the ridgepole was like the backbone, the shorter sticks were the ribs. Like how a ship has a keel and ribs too.

With enough of the short sticks in place, he placed the rest so that they crossed the ribs diagonally to provide support. That would reinforce the skeleton of the roof. When he ran out of short sticks, he started laying the leafy branches over the top of the ribs, and followed them up with more and more of the dry fallen leaves he’d gathered.

By the time he couldn’t see through to the other side of the roof anymore, it had gotten pretty dark out.

Haruhiro crawled into his finished shelter. There was no room to crouch in it, let alone stand. It was cramped, but that just made it warmer.

Haruhiro lay on his back in the shelter, taking a deep breath.

“Being alone isn't so bad...is it?”