When I woke with the sunlight streaming into my shelter, my stomach growled in protest even as my mind insisted I needed more sleep, and my bladder wouldn't let me sleep anymore either. Grudgingly, I crawled out into the new day. I drank deeply from my water skin before refilling it. Once my water skin was full, I then went to relieve myself. Checking my fish trap in the stream, I found some nice fat trout-like fish for my breakfast.

  With my needs met, safety was my next concern. My freakish strength should help me secure a section of the jungle and stream for myself. I spent the early part of the day hauling boulders to and fro, building a sturdy wall, and packing mud between the stones to stabilize them a bit. I braided rope from the palm fronds and tied together an impressive gate to wedge into the remaining opening of my fortress wall.

  The trees were too close for my comfort, I could imagine those reptiles climbing them to throw stones or spears at me. I picked up a decent-sized rock and hurled it at the base of the closest tree. The rock, as I had suspected, plowed through the base of the tree, causing it to fall. The rock itself had turned to sand due to the impact, but rocks were plentiful.

  Having cleared enough trees from the immediate surroundings, I decided to make a pier of sorts. I used some of the sturdier trees to make uprights and pounded them deep into the seafloor, then tied the smaller trunks in sections to the uprights as I went further into the sea. I broke to gather mussels to cook and eat, then returned to my pier project.

  Somewhere in my mind, I had the capacity to wonder at just how fast my constructions were coming along. I knew somehow that this work should have taken months already, and that with a team of workers, not just one person. How could I be this strong?!

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  It didn't take long for my pier to attract the more curious fish, the larger ones who like to ambush their prey from a sheltered location. These, I took full advantage of spearing a few for my dinner. Fed once more, I set to stockpiling firewood enough for several days of constant burning. After which, I felt that my weaponry needed improvements.

  I looked at the dead lizardman on the tree in the distance. Scavenger birds had been hard at work, but I still felt it was a problem leaving it there. Picking up another rock, I hurled it at the base of the offending tree, causing it to fall. I then went to inspect the corpse. Something I hadn't noticed the night before was that the Lizardman had a sword strapped to its waist. Clearly, this wasn't an animal as I had thought at first. I took the scabbard off the Lizardman, putting the belt on my own waist.

  I drew the blade free and examined it. Made of bronze, it glimmered in the dying light of the sun. Stomping onto the tree, just below the point where the Lizardman was stuck, I snapped off the top of the tree. Picking it up, I then hurled the whole thing out to sea, where it splashed almost as far as I could realistically see it. With luck, the more predatory fish would cleanse the log of its occupant.

  Next, I built a screen to put in front of my shelter, not only to protect my eyes from the morning light, but also to keep the firelight from spreading as far at night. I looked around at the devastation I had wrought. It was too obvious with the stumps everywhere, the pier itself wouldn't be noticed from anywhere beyond the new treeline, but the stumps were obvious. This wouldn't do.

  I began to wiggle one stump, and to my surprise, the stump actually moved. Roots began breaking free from the soil, or the stump, and before long, the first stump had been pulled from the ground. I threw it out to sea for the saltwater to scour clean and make it look like any other root torn from the land and sent out to sea.

  It took what remained of the day to remove all traces of the trees I had felled, and my muscles ached as I crawled into my shelter, hopefully safe behind my stone wall, which, hopefully, looked like a natural rock pile. I then picked up several dried palm fronds and tossed them into the air so they would fall loosely over the upturned earth where the stumps had been. Satisfied with my work, I entered the wall, wedged in the gate, stoked my fire, and curled up for sleep.