The fingertips touched something hard, full, and made her ecstatic!

It’s pine nuts! Plump, with the scent of oily red pine nuts! Plus some she couldn’t name, with hard shells, like hazelnuts and acorns! A hole-full! This is what the poor squirrel painstakingly accumulated throughout the entire autumn to survive the winter!

A complex surge of mixed ecstasy and slight guilt for the squirrel welled up in her heart.

But the guilt lasted less than a second, replaced by the harsh survival law.

"Sorry, little guy. In this land, the wealth of one species is the lifeline of another."

Vonia began to madly pull out these most generous gifts of nature. She didn’t care about the mixed dirt, debris, and squirrel droppings inside.

She fumbled around in the hole, going as deep as possible, not letting any nut escape.

Eventually, she almost emptied the whole tree hole, her clothes’ pockets bulging and weighing heavily. She estimated there were at least two pounds of nuts inside!

Vonia carefully slid down from her homemade ladder. When her feet touched the firm snow again, she didn’t collapse in exhaustion as she had expected.

A burning hot surge, a mix of adrenaline and immense sense of accomplishment, was supporting her body.

She quickly walked back to the place she rested before, and re-slung the recurved bow she had temporarily placed on the snow.

After doing all this, she strapped the bow to her back, pocketed the heavy bag of nuts, and began to return to the shelter as fast as possible.

She didn’t eat anything on the road. Now, time was her biggest enemy.

The sun was rapidly descending westward, the shadows in the forest stretched longer and longer, and the temperature was dropping at a visibly noticeable rate.

More importantly, the freshly deceased squirrel at her waist was emanating a bloody scent, which to the hungry forest was like a beacon in the night, potentially attracting all kinds of "unwanted visitors".

She must return to her warm shelter with her "loot" safely before nightfall.

When she finally burst into the shelter, panting heavily, she then put down the bow and the "treasures" from her pockets, and her whole being relaxed completely.

"Alright, folks, let’s see this harvest."

She spoke to the camera, a tone containing an irrepressible excitement, her fingers quickly sorting through the pile of nuts.

"First, these." She picked up a pile of the largest ones, with deep reddish-brown shells.

"These are red pine nuts, the best stuff. Their fat content is extremely high, pure blocks of energy. They can be eaten directly, or crushed to extract the oil."

Then she sorted out a pile of nuts that were rounder in shape, slightly lighter in color. "These are hazelnuts, also high in calories but not as oily as pine nuts, can be used as daily energy supplements."

Finally, what left were smaller acorns and some multicolored nuts she didn’t recognize.

"These are snacks, they might not taste good, but they are calories anyway. In critical moments, these snacks are way better than tree bark."

After all this, she picked out a few of the plumpest-looking red pine nuts from the pile, placed them on a flat rock, and "whack" with the axe, crushed them open, revealing the snowy white, full kernels inside.

She sent the first kernel into her mouth. The taste, mixed with pine aroma and rich fat, bloomed on her taste buds. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

She took down the small squirrel from her waist and placed it beside the nuts.

"Meat, nuts, proteins, and fats."

She concluded: "Seems like I can hold out for a few more days, folks, in the most desperate moments, never give up on thinking, maybe you’ll find a different bright path."

——————

(Just six days until the prize draw! If you don’t like the prize, you can ’redeem for cash’ at that time)

(Everyone with monthly tickets, please vote more~~)