Chapter 5 Mast distress signal
On the third day of coming to the island, the blue sky and white clouds were sunny, and last night I added an extra piece of clothing, which made Stern sleep a little more comfortably after drinking, and it was not until three poles in the sun that he climbed down from the tree, standing on the seashore from time to time there was a warm breeze blowing in his face, it was really a good weather. The sea is blue now, much better than Hawaii, and the beach is magical, with strong winds and huge waves two days ago, and now it does show a lovely picture of calm and sparkling waves. In the corner of the shoal lay a deck with a mast attached, which was part of the big ship washed ashore, and Stern separated the deck from the hull and dragged the mast to the shore first, and because the deck was too heavy, he divided the deck into several parts and dragged it to the shore to dry. When he had done this, he went to the goods that had been piled up yesterday, untied all the ropes, picked out the damp clothes and quilts, spread them out on the rocks, and spread the canvas flat on the sand. With that done, Stern sat down to eat some dried cassava and a few sips of rum before he set off to find a perch where he could sleep at night.
After resting for a while, he took out the compass from the spatial ring and began to explore the direction, the beach where Stern was located was on the southwest side of the island, directly in front of the hillside, and over the hillside was the forest, and the forest area was relatively large. He was going to start exploring on the left and right sides of the hillside, leaving the beach and walking west along the back of the hillside, where there were layers of bushes as he passed, and for there was no Lustern who had to take out his axe and chop down the bushes one after the other, moving very slowly. Fortunately, after some time Stern came out of the bush and came to a place with a good view, which was located on the edge of the forest, about the southwest of the island, and in front of him there was a natural stream, which flowed down from a ravine in the high mountains not far away, and into a waterhole at the foot of the mountain, and the waterhole had an outlet that formed a stream to the center of the island, forming a wet depression around the waterhole. Fresh water was available, but the sound of running water was too loud, and it was too noisy to settle down on the side, so he could find a habitat nearby, which was exactly what he wanted.
There is a clearing on the edge of the waterhole, and in addition to the clearing and the waterhole, it is surrounded by a dense forest that extends to the mountains. Stern climbed up the ravine and went around to the west side of the mountain to find a large rock, which was like a solid roof, covered in a large clearing, and cut a path with an axe to the clearing under the rock, which was about 5 meters long, 3 meters wide and 2 meters high, and was an excellent habitat. It is located halfway up the hillside of the outer forest on the west side of the island, and there is a large rock and some trees in front of it, so you can rest on the ground at night. Looking up at the beach and sea to the west, southwest, and northwest of the island in the other half of the clearing, the perspective is extremely wide, and from here to the west and southwest should be the Bauhinia Empire, but the territory is too far to see. A Bauhinia Empire's ships heading to the Sauron Empire might be able to see it here, and if they happen to pass by this small island, he will have a chance to be rescued. There is still hope, what if it comes true!
Stern looked at the place where he would live with satisfaction, spacious, bright, with a wide view, and protected from wind and rain, as long as some more fences were placed in the open, and safety could be guaranteed. The distance from the rock to the waterhole was about 150 meters from top to bottom, and he had to clear a path that stretched to the edge of the waterhole, and it was still early in the morning, so he did it and flew quickly with his axe, and it was not until it was dark that the path was cleared, and Stern was exhausted, so far he had cleared the way from the rock to the waterhole, and from the waterhole through the bushes to the back of the hillside he saw when he came ashore, and to-morrow he could move everything under the rocks. Picked up a bunch of tree branches that he had cut down before and put them under the rocks where the wind could not blow, lit them with flint, and then took out a coat from the space ring and spread it next to the fire, and the whole person sat on his clothes to rest and roast the fire.
Chewing on the hard dried cassava, Stern ate four or five meals in a row and found that the dried cassava was getting less and less for five days, which greatly surprised him, and he had to hurry to find some food on the island that could continue to provide him with the food he needed. The golden flames filled the whole cavern, and roasted the whole cavern very warmly, and this night Stern's heart was much more steady than the previous two days, and he had carefully examined it during the day, and found no sign of the beast stopping here, so he took out another coat and put it on his body, and lay down by the fire and fell asleep peacefully.
On the fourth day of his arrival on the island, the weather was still fine, and Stern emptied the contents of the space ring, except for the axe and dagger, and followed the path he had carved out, descended to the foot of the mountain, climbed the hillside through the bushes to the beach where he had been ashore, and walked to the place where he had sunbathed on the deck yesterday. He used an axe to remove the clean and flat planks on the deck, and cut each of these planks into small pieces less than 1 meter long, and spent two hours cutting about 50 pieces in total, and stacked all the cut planks neatly and put them into the space ring. Then he came to the place where he had put a bunch of tools, took a shovel and walked to the top of the hillside, and when he reached the top of the hillside, he directly began to dig a pit, and two hours later there was a small pit on the top of the hill with a radius of 60 centimeters and a depth of one meter and a half. After doing these things, he went to the edge of the spread canvas and tore off a piece of canvas 2 meters long and 1.5 meters wide with a dagger, and pierced five or six small holes side by side on the edge, took the canvas to the side of the mast, passed the small holes in the canvas with hemp rope, and tied it to the top of the mast in a circle.
Stern carried the mast to the top of the hillside, inserted the bottom of the mast into the small pit that had been opened, buried the earth back in the pit, and brought a few large stones from other places to fix them on the side of the mast. Looking up, I saw that the canvas was fluttering like a red flag in the sea breeze, and if a ship passed by, someone might see it and come to the island, and not give up any chance of leaving the island, Stern thought to himself, and he took out his dagger and wrote on the mast, 'My name is Andy Stern, I was stranded on the island by a storm, and now I live on the side of the outermost mountain to the west, and anyone who sees these words come to me and take me out of this island, and I will give you 500 gold in return'. 500 gold coins is a lot of money, and if someone comes to the island, they should not refuse. Stern shouldn't be able to come here when he brought things to the cave, so he set up a mast on top of the hill as a distress signal.