Giggling on the inside, you take up residence with the porcupine. The first day in its den is long and doesn’t yield much sleep, but the two of you find a lot to talk about. After that, things are quiet between you, but more kindly than you ever would have expected. You even spend a certain amount of time together during the nights, although you have to go your own ways to find food. Your roommate eats mainly cambium, the most nutritious part of tree bark, while you’re still struggling with the art of mouse-hunting.

When day breaks, you snuggle up together as cozily as you can in the little space. Your companion’s quills aren’t as prickly as they seem when they’re folded up, and the porcupine confesses that while it may not trust you completely, it expects to wake up with enough warning to initiate a dialogue should you try to break through its needly defensive layer. You’re not sure whether you can take this remark at face value.

The porcupine knows a few things about the woods—such as general rodent behavior—that help you in your quest to stay fed. You’re able to supplement your mainly carnivorous diet with the occasional tasty plant your roommate recommends. Once winter rolls around, you’re more or less ready for it. And it’s a good thing you are—the reduction in prey is even more pronounced in the woods than on the river. In the months that follow, you occasionally get so hungry that you compromise your principles and earn some food—fish and crabs—in the old-fashioned way from the river, while avoiding the new mink who’s taken up residence there as well as you can. No question—making it through this winter is going to be tough.

CHALLENGE!

Target: 0

⚡⚡: +

1. Direction x Bird
2. Celestial x Object
3. Direction x Object
4. Celestial x Bird

Victory: Section 107.

Defeat: Section 98.

Return