Harsh Realisation

"Well... that's twenty minutes of my time wasted." 

Kyriaki stood in front of the river. She scanned the surface hoping to find her missing logs that had disappeared just then. "Washed away by the currents, huh," she sighed. "Welp, there's nothing I can do about that." 

After finishing the tripod, she had been soaking six large logs in the river for twenty minutes to achieve the desired dampness. Then she carried two of them from the river to her base. 

However, when she returned, the other four logs were nowhere to be seen. At first, she had thought someone had stolen them—as per her instincts but quickly dismissed that thought due to obvious reasons. After that, she concluded that the river currents had overpowered the area's bedrock and washed away the remaining logs. 

"Should I go and do it again? But I don't feel like doing that. I'm feeling pretty sore and tired anyway..." 

Kyriaki scratched her chin, a sign showing that she was deep in thought—with a little amount of bias towards the relaxing side. She was hungry, but the logs were required to make her food. She had already eaten the berries she had collected earlier today so currently, she had nothing to eat. 

Her stomach grumbled, which reminded her of her situation, giving her the motivation to continue working. Despite that, she decided to take a break for now and have a drink of water. The bowl that Janus gave her was already filled with safe-to-drink water and it was at a desirable temperature. 

Sitting down, Kyriaki removed the rocks from the bowl and placed them near the fire. From previous attempts, she knew that wet rocks had a chance of explosion when making contact with fire for a long period, so until all the water dries up, she had to place it beside the fire. 

"The fire is growing smaller," she observed. While still sitting down, she reached out her arms for the nearby pile of firewood and grabbed a bundle of sticks before throwing them into the fire for fuel. "That should do it. The logs should provide enough fuel for a long time, so I shouldn't add any more sticks to the fire." 

Feeling the weariness settle into her bones, Kyriaki decided to lie down on her grass bed for a bit. She stretched her legs out in front of her, bathing in the warmth of the fire. The soothing crackle of burning wood provided a backdrop to her moment of relaxation, her well-deserved break (her opinion). 

Her short sword lay within arm's reach, prepared for any kind of situation that might occur, but after observing her surroundings, she closed her eyes and drifted off into a light slumber. 

Though she was able to get some Z's, her light slumber was interrupted only by the occasional call of nocturnal creatures and the gentle murmur of the nearby river. The air was crisp and clean, with the scent of the earth and the burning of wood. 

Kyriaki sat up from her sleeping position with a few straws of grass stuck in her hair. Since her hair was neck-length, curving towards her neck at the bangs, it meant that it was easy for foreign objects to get stuck, but hard for those said foreign objects to get loose and fall off naturally. 

My head is itchy for some reason... am I not taking care of my hair properly? I'm sure I've washed it thoroughly yesterday night. 

She hastily scratched her head to remove the itchiness, but instead found the reason why her head so so itchy in the first place—the dried grass of her bed. 

"Well... that's to be expected. I should wash my hair to remove the grass and other objects stuck in my hair." 

Still rustling her hair to remove the grass, Kyriaki headed towards the shallowest part of the river, the place where she had been baited by a block of wood. 

This particular part of the river is quite shallow due to the presence of an unusual amount of bedrock in the riverbed. Since the current is not strong enough to distribute it evenly, the bedrock keeps accumulating over time. If this issue continues to worsen in the future, there's a possibility that the river downstream may cease to exist.

It was concerning, to say the least, but the buildup required to dam the river would be much larger and that would take possibly decades or more. 

Despite the buildup, Kyriaki was determined not to let it continue. She had claimed this section of the river as her bathing spot since it was shallow with a depth of only fifty centimetres at the bank, and the maximum depth was also quite shallow, only one and a half meters, thanks to the bedrock on the riverbed.

Therefore, the buildup has more uses compared to if it was gone. Anyway, Kyriaki bent down onto her knees and lowered her head. She then submerged her entire head in the river and started to randomly scratch her hair. 

Immediately, stuck grass and dirt were washed away by the river's current and headed towards the direction of the waterfall. Kyriaki removed her head from under the water and gasped for air. 

She took a quick breath of air and looked around for predators before plunging her head back under the water and repeating what she had done just a moment prior. Eventually, she decided that enough was enough and stopped. Standing back up, with numbness in her light leg, she made her way back to her base in a drunken fashion. 

"I'm hungry... my leg is also being a pain in the ass right now... why is it numb? It wasn't even that long!" she complained. 

After kneeling on the riverbed for a decent amount of time, her leg went numb and after returning to her base, her right leg now had that tingling, and uncomfortable pain if you try to move it merely. 

"It should be gone soon, but ack! It's so annoying!" 

Three minutes later, her leg had recovered (back to normal) and excitedly, she got back to work. The spoiling deer leg was resting on top of another grass bed to avoid making contact with the ground, but it looked quite dirty. 

Kyriaki paid it no mind though, but she was aware of the strong stench that came from the leg. It faintly smelled like eggs, but it mainly smelled like urine, probably thanks to the excess ammonia. 

"N-now... that's strong..." she mumbled while holding her nose. "Is it even okay to eat that anymore? Even after smoking it..." 

Kyriaki did not the deer leg to go to waste, but it had been nearly two days since she had secured it from the Erecti group. "I think... I should just give up on this piece," she sighed. "Seems I would need to go hunting instead. What a shitty day. But at least I have some useful equipment already prepared."