Limits
Chapter 5: Train, Then Train Some More

While traveling I came across what seemed to be abandoned camping site. Probably used by the hunters in the past. I decided to search it and the area around, maybe I would be able to find some useful things. At least useful to me.

Unfortunately there was nothing to be found and so I could only continue on with my travels. In the afternoon I took a break for some dinner and decided to create a bag from the leather I got earlier.

Creating the bag was not really that difficult as I already had a large piece of leather, so I only needed to make holes around the outer edges of the leather to weave the vines through. After I did the holes I started to weave fine vines through them. With the last knot the bag had the ability to open and close like a pouch used for money.

I was satisfied with my work. It was not as shabby as the shelter from last night and it could hold couple of things, like berries…. Stone… I didn't have many possessions on me but hell it will be useful to me in the future for sure!

Before I left I decided to practice my throwing skills with wooden spears. I didn't have many of them, around five. Yet, using those spears to hunt a rabbit or something similar would bring me more meat instead of the berries.

I wasn't very skilled with throwing stuff. I couldn't be, I never had any training with weapons. So I picked a non moving target, a tree and hurled my spears at it. After fifteen minutes of trying, I obviously missed most of them but some actually hit the tree. When I say hit I mean hit and then bounce off, of course I couldn't pierce a tree with a wooden spear! I'd say out of about sixty throws I managed to hit the tree eight times.

Yea eight out of sixty is maybe a bit better than 10% accuracy but so what! It was my first time doing this type of stuff so you can suck it! I got tired and so rested for a bit. It hit me that if I don't practice this often and give it my all, I didn't think hunting a rabbit would be possible any time soon.

I decided then to stay in that area and practice for the rest of the day, besides where was I rushing? I had no clear objective in my travels. No, my objective was to travel. I threw, collected then threw again and then collected, occasionally I had to make new spears as some broke. Of course they did, they were made out of wood.

This continued till late in the afternoon. I must say I did some progress. Out of five spears thrown, two would be on target. Sure it was just a tree and it wouldn't move but hell at least I made progress! I found some berries… again, for my dinner and built another shelter.

I was getting better at building my shelter as it was a bit less shabby than the previous one. With all of that done today I went to sleep, hoping this time no such wild encounters will take place during the night.

Someone must have heard my pleas and the night was uneventful. I didn't linger too long and proceeded onto my journey. After an hour of walking I again spotted a wild rabbit. This time I wanted to try my new skills against the rabbit. I was wondering if I will be able to aim properly but also if this weapon will be able to do something to the rabbit.

I hid behind some bushes and observed with my spear prepared. The rabbit or rather my prey was eating some berries not to far away while its back was facing me. I decided this is my chance and threw the spear with as much strength as I could.

Swoosh!

Aaaand... nothing. Of course, what did you expect! I missed the rabbit and because of that it started to run. I tried another throw but unsuccessful again, this time by a larger margin. Sure tree is much easier to target, it doesn't move. I wasn't discouraged by this, instead I decided to train more.

This time I used a tree with smaller width. This increased difficulty again took me to about 10% accuracy. I didn't give up and trained like this for couple of hours, with breaks of course and managed to get about 20% accuracy on that tree. I was getting better at it but it was time to move on.

Late in the afternoon I arrived at a place with loads of rocks and boulders laying around. I didn't know why this particular area had that but because it had some large boulders, building my shelter would be easier. So the location of my next camp was decided.

I didn't have any meat, while berries were a source of food but not really the best food you could eat. I steeled myself for more training with the throwing spears. This time I choose a tree with similar width as to the one earlier and started hurling again. The rinse and repeat process continued for quite some time and because berries were widely available but also because I had my shelter constructed already I extended the training till it got dark.

I was too tired in the later parts of my throwing training and so my accuracy was not very good but I still managed to do 20% at my worst. While when I was at my best I did a whooping 40% accuracy on a tree!

I was very pleased with this kind of progress so I at my late dinner and hit the bed or rather my nest straight away.