Chapter 5: Chapter 5

After getting dressed, I started to explore around the stream. I could complain about the dress later, once I had a source of food and somewhere to sleep.

As I walked around, I gained an appreciation for what girls go through to look pretty. The block  heel on the bottom of the boots was throwing off my stride, and I had to swing my but more than I was used to. I could only imagine what the stilettos would have been like.

While I mourned my lack of simple shoes, I considered my options. For food, I might be able to put some rocks on either side of the river and use that to speed up the river and push fish into some sort of net. I saw something like it on YouTube a while ago, and even if it wouldn’t work, it was currently the best thing I had.

As for somewhere to sleep, I could probably try to build a tent or something, but since I don’t really know what I'm doing, it could collapse and seriously injure me. For now, my best option is probably just climbing up a large rock where animals like bears and wolves wouldn’t be able to reach me. It would get cold, but I could drag up some sticks before settling down for the night, and I might be able to start a fire.

With this in mind, I set about gathering firewood. I immediately went for bigger logs that I was able to carry as a guy, but when I tried to lift them, I could barely wiggle them around. There was no chance of me carrying them while climbing up the side of a boulder. Defeated, I resolved to use smaller sticks instead. Yet another problem with my new body.

Once I had as many sticks as I could carry, I started looking for a boulder. I needed something that I could climb up, but also something that would keep bears away. I wasn’t exactly a rock climber, so my choices were pretty limited. Eventually I found something that might work. It was probably around ten feet tall, with a relatively flat spot on top. The back half was shaped like a quarter circle, and the front was more of a cliff. Getting up would be tricky, but once on top, I would be safe from any wild animals around.

Deciding that this was the one, I threw my collection of sticks up, and went out to get more. I gathered sticks over the course of the next two hours, and threw them up onto the rock. It was long, monotonous work, but I would be glad that I took the time to do this in a few hours when night rolled around. 

With my sticks gathered, I decided it was time to climb up the rock for the first time. I walked around the rock a few times, looking for a way up. There were a few places on the front that I could put my hands and feet on, but it would be tricky. I walked up to the rock, and reached for the first handhold, only to realize something I probably should have noticed at the start.

I was short.

Really short. There was no way I would be able to climb up the rock here. The handholds were close enough that I could have reached them when I was still a guy, but as a girl, I didn’t have a chance. Yet another thing I would now have to deal with.

Defeated, I looked for another way up. While I couldn’t climb up the front due to my new height, The back of the rock had a few smaller handholds. I had dismissed them the first time around because I thought my hands wouldn’t fit on them, but my hands were smaller now. Indeed, when I tried to climb up here, it was surprisingly easy. The block heel messed me up a little bit, but once I accounted for that, I was able to make my way right up to the top. I settled down on top of the rock, and got to work.

While it was still light, I piled the sticks in one corner. I also built up a tp for the fire, before realizing I still had no way of lighting it. I tried to run through everything I knew, but I was stumped. Short of rubbing sticks together, it seemed I was out of options.

Before long, the sun was sinking below the horizon, and I was forced to settle down to sleep. It seemed that, at least for today, I was going to have to suffer through the cold.

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