Anastasia's Diary

[Botch]

Day 1:

I woke up naked in a field today. All I can remember is my name, Anastasia. I can't remember my family or how I came to be here, but I can still remember what those things are and the language with which to express them. In a vain attempt to make sense of what is happening I found some birch bark and a stick with some charcoal on the end after I managed to make a fire. There was a stack of clothing next to me when I awoke, along with some bread and what appears to be a fishing rod. At least I was left some shoes... I can't even remember my last name.

I managed to make a lean-to out of some boughs and branches and as best of a bed as I could out of spruce boughs. All around is a coniferous forest, and the effort taken to gather wood for a fire and a bed have left me so hungry, I ate most of the bread I had found near me. I found a large rock which chipped easily and I fashioned a plough out of some sticks and bark I found. It took me a fair while, but I needed to make a foundation if I were to create some sort of permanent residence in this wilderness, I thought I heard a bear wandering around and need some shelter. Luckily it was just becoming morning when I awoke for the first time so I had a fair bit of daylight left after levelling the land and laying the bits of stone I could find. I lit a few fires around my campsite to scare off what animals were out there and began to write this. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to find some more food, and possibly fresh water. I hear a river off to my east so I'll try to make a bucket out of bark tomorrow and fetch some.


Day 4:

I was busy for the past few days, but I found the river and fetched some water. The frequency with which I needed to get water those first few days was troubling. Eventually I created a dousing rod in the hopes that there was a fresh water aquifer or connecting underground part of the river a little closer to where I built my campsite, and I thankfully found it! Just north of the foundation I had laid for a log cabin was a place not too deep to dig and obtain fresh water, so I made that my top priority. Piling stones from the same large rock nearby I had obtained the foundation for my campsite, and a plank on top to lower a bucket from, all I needed was a rope. The vines I had found around my campsite needed to be woven tightly, but eventually I had a workable well. With fresh water available, I had sated my hunger, but the bread I had finished eating at the end of day two. I still don't have a stable source of food, but luckily I had found some rats earlier... I never thought I would stoop so low, but next to my lean-to and house in progress, the rat meat roasting over the fire was probably the most delicious meal I had ever eaten. I fear I may start experimenting with eating the mushrooms I find around here, but I do not know which are poisonous. There are no signs my memory is coming back, but I try not to think about that right now. My new house is going well, with a lot of timber I had cut with a saw I fashioned out of the bones of what I think was a rabbit skeleton on the third day. A little more work and my log cabin will be ready, a welcome change to sleeping out of doors. Food is still a priority, but hopefully this fishing rod(?) will work well enough down by the river for me to catch some fish. A quick account of the progress I have made impresses even me, a plough, a house with a solid foundation, a nice firepit, a well, and resources all around. Once I get some food I plan on building a fence to keep whatever I hear at night out of my campsi... I guess this is my home now. I want to keep whatever it is out of my home.


Day 9:

Great news! I met other people! While fishing yesterday I met them, and they said they were cooperating to create a village to the further north and east of where my campsite is. What they have accomplished is amazing! It seems that there are more than a few people living there. I need to write down their names so I don't forget: Endnote, Karl, Baekman, Ihmic, and Kail. Kail has his own little cottage closer to where I live, the south of the main camp. I can understand his desire for a little privacy, I mean I am doing it myself. They invited me to join their village, and I accepted on similar conditions to Kail, where we will help each other with mutual benefit but I don't want to discard the progress I have made on my little home. It is finished now, with a garden I have started and I have fashioned a kiln out of the masses of clay to the south of my house. I hope to find some straw and start making bricks instead of constantly using lumber. I have also started to cut the trees own between the camps I have found now. The fence is done, and it is beginning to look civilized around my place. Creating storage for raw materials around my house is another idea I had, which seems to be working out rather nicely. Stacking wood and clay in bins I crafted is working well. I lack any source of food other than the fish, which doesn't worry me too greatly but now that the basics of life are fine I can afford to worry about quality. There are still so many chores to do now, but at least knowing that there are other people around eases my mine. The fact that they all appear to be single men is one of my reasons for choosing to remain separate. Although Kail appeals to me on a mental level, I just can't shake how physically appealing Ihmic looks, with his burly shoulders and strong, rough hands... Look at me, twittering like I was a little schoolgirl again. My memory is not as poor as I had thought it seems, as I can distinctly remember going to school when I was a child. I don't want to rely on them, but it would be nice to be taken care of.


Day 11:

My growing proficiency with stone tools is slightly alarming, as if I have ceased to want to return to whatever civilized life I had beforehand. The men from the village, which they call Dolgepol after the river Dolge next to it, have helped me greatly with food and resources for which I am grateful, but I have a sneaking suspicion that most of them are only nice to me because I am female. I learned that Baekman and Endnote are brothers, and by the way that they both avoid or rather act apathetic to me leads me to believe that they are more than just brothers, and gives me many a happy daydream while I do chores. They took me gathering and fishing to the north of their village, passing by the house of whom they affectionately called The Hermit for the longest time. His little area was much more advanced in technology than Dolgepol, but rather smallish. They had never met him before, but on this trip he was there to greet them with a sardonic "Having fun pillaging?" After which I told him I was new to the area and introduced myself, and I learned his name was Lethan. He offered provisions to help out people from Dolgepol, and seemed bemused at my enthusiasm of meeting new people. I have a theory that there are quite a few more people in this world than I originally assumed. Were they all brought here with no memory?


Day 12:

I had another visitor today, someone I don't recognise. He wasn't from Dolgepol, and he wasn't Lethan so I was wary at first. He seems to be simple in the head, because he began to plough my fields in completely erratic patterns and drop wood at my feet like a dog with a newspaper. He asked if I could feed him, and thankfully Endnote was with me, with some fish that he had caught and offered them to the visitor. I told him my name was Anastasia but he might be deaf because all he asked was whether I was going to hurt him or not. Perhaps he was the retarded younger brother of some far off person, because he had very advanced equipment for someone recently dropped. I had questioned people I met about their circumstances, and they all woke up naked like me. The men of Dolgepol told me that there were five that had died before I met them, and that the day before I met them Footnote, one of their better rangers, died in a boar attack. This did not appear to be him, and he must be slightly competent to create the tools he was carrying, so I approached the situation with apprehension. He began building fires all around the border of the area I had carved out for myself, which was useful but slightly creepy. All the while, the simple man (I have named him Tony, because he doesn't seem to have a name), continuously asked if I was going to hurt him. I decided to leave him be, it didn't seem like he was going to do any harm and I gathered clay for the kiln. He followed me like a lost little dog, and helped me dig clay so that it wasn't as exhausting for me to do it alone. I took it back to begin making a cauldron in which to begin possibly boiling the tree sap or even some sort of stew with the clay. I needed more than i could carry though, so I went back for a second trip. While taking a rest, Tony began to pile wood around me, as if some sort of a mentally disabled tribute. I found it sweet at first, but he began to pile it around me, trying to trap me it seems. He asked if I was stuck and before I could answer he picked some logs up and threw them past me. I decided I had enough clay and headed back with Tony following. I was beginning to realise how helpless I actually was, as a single woman in the wilderness. He seemed not to understand his position though as when we went back to camp, he began to set up a lean-to and declared himself my roommate. He kept asking whether I was using my clay to make bricks to build a jail around him, but I assured him I wasn't. I am going to sleep in my house now, hoping that he disappears by tomorrow, and takes his mental illness with him.


Day 13:

I woke up this morning surrounded by logs of wood, and found my dousing rod stolen! My new roommate had taken it I suppose, but at least he did not molest me in my sleep. He left my home in disarray and a bad memory in my head. This morning I began to stake my claim to this land by marking the boundaries, and dismantling his little camp that he built in the middle of my garden. I traveled to Dolgepol to ask for some advice on what to do in the situation, and they assured me that they would assist me in protecting my land henceforth. The rest of the day has been uneventful so far, but there are still many hours of daylight left.

[holypeanuts]

"but at least he did not molest me in my sleep."

[Lahrmid]

I completely enjoyed every second of reading this

[blazsword]

More please!

[novaalpha]

This is literature gold.

[Fluffy]

Good story. MOAR

"but at least he did not molest me in my sleep."

lol this is the first line I read

[Botch]

Day 20:

A week has passed since I last wrote… Tony disappeared sometime between days fourteen and fifteen, and his short lived presence will not go unforgotten. His little ‘gifts’ and constant whining were beginning to make me cross, so when I was sure he had gone, I set about destroying his little encampment in my garden with some vehemence. My kiln was a great advancement, and with my new brick making technology I was sure I could make improvements. Dolgepol has quite a larger farm than my own, and needed an oven to bake goods in, so I assisted in bringing the clay to their settlement. During this time, Baekman had seen fit to surround the village with numerous fences with only one gate, which the majority of this week had been the creation of a road between my home and the village. I am now the proud owner of a fence myself, and some furniture in my home including cutlery and a table and chair. I found it necessary to create a second bed for when the men needed to sleep at my house due to the darkness being unsuitable to travel the road in. Unwisely, on the sixteenth day of my … new life? Imprisonment? I decided to try the journey at night, more out of loneliness than anything else… Now Ihmic had went off on an exploring expedition, and wasn’t scheduled to return until the morning. With the great leader gone, the somewhat reclusive Kail has taken over organizing hunts and trapping. They caught a fox in some sort of fence trap early yesterday, and let no part of it go to waste. Unfortunately, they had a rather tough time of it as it seems that magic pervades the wilderness here. The deer here have a strange ability to heal wounds that other animals near them receive. I had asked the men about these magical occurrences and they explained and even showed me how to harness ‘hearth’ magic which allows me to return to a set point, earlier in the day. Halfway to the village on our makeshift road I spotted a boar. I had heard many warnings about them, but foolishly decided to try and sneak past. The boar did not want this to happen so he charged me and I thought I was going to die. After knocking me to the ground, with a gash in my side, the boar left as quickly as it had attacked. I was dazed, but I laid on the ground a while anyways, not hearing or seeing the boar. When I was sure it was gone, I got up and began to run to my house, but the boar was waiting and sent me sprawling once again, bleeding from an even more grievous wound this time. I feared for my life, but somehow remembered the spell that they had taught me and prayed it worked. I passed out from the pain, but when I awoke I was in bed in one of the houses in Dolgepol. I had gotten a terrible fever from my wounds and Kail had to use leeches to cure me. I pray I never become hurt again, the cure for the fever was worse than the fever itself. The spell had worked, they said! I was found at the set point just outside of Dolgepol and brought inside. When I had the strength to move again, four days had passed and this morning (the twentieth day here) there was still no sign of Ihmic. They believe that he transferred his luck to me so that I may live and they say he is gone from this world. I could only work through the pain from losing who I knew to be a dear, dear friend in the making, and possibly a future together. And so I worked, and worked and here I am, sitting at my little table with the cutlery and plates, wondering again why I was brought here, whether it was for someone’s amusement or just some great big mistake, or whether I deserved this for something I had done in the past. This stack of birch bark is becoming quite large, so I will stop for now, and remember the (hopefully not) dead in silence and memory alone.

Day 21:

Today was memorable, because I met another girl! I was beginning to think I was the only one left, and that led to dangerous thoughts on polygamy. Araxia is nice, but I think she is a little young, and too dependant on luxury to survive on her own, but I hope to think of her like a little sister. I essentially paused all construction on my home to help her out, and found the experience very rewarding. She was not the only new face however, as a man in bearskins walked past my home and asked where he was. I could only tell him that we were West of Dolgepol on the river Dolge, south of Narnia and Lethan’s farm. I told him my name, and asked his but he ignored me and told me that he knew Lethan and that he used to live around here before travelling, months ago. He was surprised to hear that the friendly hermit was still alive, and briskly set off on our unfinished road. Meeting new people is exciting, but from what I gather there aren’t too many of these nice and caring people in the world, but rather a feeling that everyone is out for themselves. Things keep disappearing from the stores in Dolgepol, so it cannot be wild animals but humans stealing. I also made my first boat today, I found a skeleton of one in the middle of the plains while I was searching for berries and plants, and decided to finish it and test it in the water. It is so much faster in a boat than it is to walk! I am surprised that more people don’t have them, moving back and forth between shores and areas. I found a large grove of birch trees to replenish my dwindling stock, too. This evening I helped Araxia build her home just to the south west of Kail’s area, but I don’t think he will mind. He is such a sweetheart underneath the gruff exterior. I advised her to just flash some skin while dealing with the men and she’ll do fine. But the truth is, there isn’t much we can do against their firm, rippling muscles. I’ve been practicing fighting in the forest against tree branches, and sneaking up on rabbits. Baekman and I are almost finished linking the road between our settlements, and even though it took most of the night to collect enough materials to build Araxia’s new house, there are already plans underway to branch off a section of road to her area. Keeping busy seems the only way to stay sane these days. I keep having this feeling that the food here is altering me, and changing who I am. That isn’t crazy, is it?

[burgingham]

Very interesting read. Please keep it coming and let this be a diary that doesn't die after a week or so for a change.

[Punctilious]

Enjoying this.

[Naerymdan]

Awesome!

MOAR!!!