I want to do something, but is there anything I can do?
I’ve given a good look around, but all I see are trees, and without an axe or saw or any such construction tool, there doesn’t seem to be anything of use.
Among the fallen branches that look light enough for me to carry, none seem like they would support a human’s weight.
I simulate within my head.
I spread dead branches over the well’s surface.
…………
……That’d make it more like a pit trap.
Kei: Hah… it’s no good to hide something that’s dangerous. You have to make it so people can see…
That’s where my light bulb flashes.
Even if you can’t save them completely from falling in, if you just help make sure they don’t fall……
Yeah, yeah, that sounds like it’ll work.
And so I forage for a handy branch, at least over a meter in length, but around my height, if possible.
Kei: ……Well, I guess this will do?
Standing straight, it’s around my shoulders, so we’ve cleared the minimum with some to spare. One branch of moderate strength discovered.
*busu!* *guri guri*
Thus I plant it vertically near the hole.
I walk about ten paces from the standing stick and turn around.
Kei: Hmm… I wonder……
It’s better than nothing, but it’s a little plain, and doesn’t stand out.
So, taking it a step further, I ponder at adding a flappy flag-like object to it.
The only presentable candidates on my person are ribbons and a handkerchief—— also, something like a sock could work.
Going for the number one most liable to stand out, I unravel a pink ribbon from my hair and fasten it about the end of the stick.
Kei: Yep, now that’s a little better.
If only it was a gaudier pink-pink of pinks, I wouldn’t complain, but my taste in colors can provide no better.
Judging the situation to be improved, I turn my thoughts happily to the next task.
Actually, when I was searching for branches, I was also checking for thick vines of a good enough length.
Never underestimate a tree vine. They’re still using arrowroot rope bridges in Shikoku, and it’ll support at least one person’s weight. (TN: Shikoku – the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. Also, arrowroot is likewise known as kudzu, a well-known invasive plant specie in the southeast US, and also happens to be the kanji for Tsudzura’s name.)
Kei: *Yop!*……Mng!…… Yoisho!……
As tenaciously as I can muster, I work at unraveling the tightly wound vines from a standing tree.
Thus I reap the target five meters, plus the distance between the tree and the well.
……Now that was pretty tough.
Kei: There, there, complete! Now even if someone falls, they’ll be okay, right?
With one end wound about a near tree, the other end hangs down to near the well bottom.
Basically, I played tug of war at it with my full strength and it still held, so it’ll probably come through for its actual purpose.
I don’t quite have the guts to go so far as to drop down and see if I could climb back out…
If it turned out I didn’t have enough stamina to escape, and met my end here, there’s no way I could look Mom in the face.
For now, I take satisfaction in the fruits of my labor.
But even though I’m satisfied, my stomach still demands the compensation for my travails.
“If you aren’t gonna gimme food for the time you sat around, then at least hand it over for the time you worked!” This time, its demands are harsher than ever.
This persistence… must be the delayed reaction from all those times I pushed that need away until now. Could it be it’s decided to sit me down until I give it something?
Unfortunately, it’s not like I have candy in my pocket. There’ll be trouble if you just keep making my stomach bugs growl “Hand it over! Hand it over!”
Anyway, if we just go back to the mansion, the manjuu I was going to hand out to my neighbors should be there. Never mind real food, let’s just eat that and get through this——!
And just as I try turning to head to my room, I remember the most important crisis of all.
Thanks to my using my head for something else, it was wiped perfectly clean from my worries, but…
Kei: ……Where… was this place?
I’m still lost in the woods.