King of the Wilderness

Lin Yu’an immediately stood up, intending to fetch the Thunderbird, and walked to the door, listening intently.

Apart from the howling wind, he heard a sound as if something heavy were sliding across the roof.

This sound startled him! He instantly realized the potential danger, fearing that something might be wrong with the chimney.

”No, I have to go out and have a look immediately.”

”This snow is wet snow, with a very high density and extremely heavy. If it accumulates on the roof, especially on the windward side of the chimney, it might exert immense pressure on the structure.”

”The sliding noise just now was likely a large piece of accumulated snow falling from above and hitting the chimney.”

”If the dry stone structure of the chimney becomes loose or collapses due to impact or heavy pressure, not only will there be a big hole in my shelter.”

”More importantly, I will lose my only source of warmth, which in this blizzard is equal to a death sentence!”

He must go out immediately to inspect and eliminate this deadly hazard.

He began making thorough preparations for this brief but extremely dangerous outing, putting on his thickest coat to wrap himself tightly.

With tools in hand, he forcefully opened the latch and then used all his strength to push open the door, which was firmly pressed by wind and snow, creating a gap barely wide enough for a person to pass through.

The wind and snowflakes rushed in instantly, hitting him head-on, and the cold, damp air nearly took his breath away!

He immediately crouched down, crawling out of the shelter hand and foot, then quickly pulled the door back again to prevent snow from entering the shelter.

In an instant, it felt like he was thrown into a rapidly spinning washing machine drum filled with wind and ice crystals!

The wind roared deafeningly, and the swirling snow made his visibility less than three meters.

He arduously crawled to the wall, not climbing onto the roof immediately, but first picking up a stick that had always been placed by the door.

Then, he began to climb up the roof.

The slope of the roof was covered with slippery snow, and the gale blew him around unsteadily.

With each upward step, he found a stable foothold.

When he finally climbed up the roof and reached the chimney, he was already completely exposed to the core power of the blizzard.

What he saw confirmed his worst fears: large amounts of wet snow were constantly piling up on the windward side of the chimney, forming an almost half-meter high snowdrift!

He could only cling to the roof like a gecko, using the stick to frantically loosen the rooftop snow and then scooping the snow down with his hands repeatedly!

”Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Large chunks of wet snow were knocked down by him, rolling off the roof.

Like a sailor repairing a sail in a hurricane, he engaged in a direct confrontation with nature.

After more than ten minutes, when the rooftop snow was mostly cleared, ensuring the structure was no longer under heavy pressure, he let out a long sigh of relief.

Then, identifying the direction, he arduously climbed down from the roof.

After digging out the Thunderbird buried in the snow, he prepared to return to the shelter.

But the snow at the door was quite a bit too, already blocking half the door, so he spent more than ten minutes clearing the snow blocking the entrance.

When he returned to the shelter, closed the door, and latched the bolt, isolating the roaring world outside, his clothes were already covered in water droplets.

However, the Archaeopteryx fabric indeed did its job, not allowing a drop of water inside.

He placed the Thunderbird, frozen like a stone, on the stone plank next to the fireplace, letting the warm fire slowly thaw it out.

While he waited, he first placed a pot over the fire, melting some crushed ice.

Then, from a bag of food in the corner, he took out a few stored bulrush roots and a pinch of salt-rich dried seaweed, tossing them into the pot.

After more than half an hour, when the Thunderbird was nearly thawed, he skillfully used the Hunting Knife to decompose the entire bird into several large pieces.

He then put all the pieces of meat, along with the bones, into the pot, now emitting a faint plant aroma.

He added a few more logs to the fire and then quietly waited.

Over an hour later, Lin Yu’an sat by the fireplace, with his newly made wooden bowl, filled with this pot of stewed Thunderbird soup.

Outside, the cold storm raged; inside, the warm fires burned.

After he finished his dinner, he carefully wiped the wooden bowl clean and listened again to the unabated howling wind outside.

He knew this storm might last a long time.

Taking out another piece of wood and a small knife, he began to contemplate his next creation, perhaps a spoon. ℯℯ𝑙.

In the long isolation, this time-consuming activity was his best weapon against loneliness!

The twentieth day.

Late at night, Lin Yu’an was jolted awake by an intense resonant sound.

He instantly opened his eyes from the sleeping bag, listening intently as the ”bomb cyclone” that had been raging for a whole day elevated its intensity to a new level!

He could feel the heavy wooden door rhythmically pounding, as if an invisible giant beast was outside, crashing into the small wooden door repeatedly with its body.

Lin Yu’an immediately got up, carefully inspecting every inch of the shelter’s structure by the faint fireplace embers.

The walls were firm as rock, the roof was steady as Mount Tai, and the airflow in the flue remained smooth.

After confirming the fortress was secure, he let out a slight sigh of relief and crawled back into the sleeping bag, though he could no longer sleep peacefully.