Forest Walk, Autumn, Sunday Morning

Your browser lacks required capabilities. Please upgrade it or switch to another to continue.

Loading…

,,,

/* Display text. */ <div class="center"> Forest Walk, Autumn, Sunday Morning </div> <div class="prose"> It's an hour past dawn on Sunday morning. The sun is still faint behind the fog that settles around town at this time of the year. You've been under the weather yourself all weekend, sniffling and sneezing. You went to bed as soon as the temperature dropped last night, and slept straight through to sunrise. Now, equipped with a flask of coffee, you are going for a [[walk in the cold.|F_2]] </div>

/* StoryInit: initialise relevant variables when the story begins. */ <<set $CoffeeQnty to 5>> <<set $CoffeeText to [ "You have no more coffee.", "You drink the last of your coffee.", "You sip you coffee. There's only a little bit left now.", "You sip your coffee. It's just the right temperature!", "You sip your coffee. It has cooled to a more bearable temperature.", "You take a tentative sip from your flask. The coffee is almost too hot to drink." ]>> <<set $HavePie to 0>> <<set $PieType to either("pepper steak", "mushroom", "curry", "chicken and leek")>> <<set $PieQnty to 3>> <<set $PieText to [ "You have no more pie.", "You finish the last of your pie and crumple the foil into your pocket.", "You eat more of your pie. There's only a little bit left now.", "You remove the pie from its paper and have a couple bites. It's good!" ]>>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> You have layered appropriately, thermal long-johns underneath with track pants and a long shirt on top, a fleecy hoodie, a woolen cap and scarf, and the red mittens that your mum knit for you last year.<br> You pass out of your house and down the street. There is no one else out so early in the morning. The leaves of the sweetgums are just beginning to turn orange. At the end of the street you come to the post office building. On the other side of the street there is an all-hours petrol station where you can get some <<linkappend "food for later.">> <<set $HavePie to 1>> You duck across and buy a $PieType pie.<</linkappend>> A narrow lane runs behind the post office and connects to the [[forest path.|F_3]] </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> The fog is even heavier in the forest. You can see the path only for a short distance ahead in between rows of ashes and apples, cedars and cypress, oaks and pines, which themselves disappear into the fog in every direction. The forest is expansive and easy to get lost in. You stick to the path. At this time in the morning, the forest is cold and still. <span id="food"></span> </div> <div class="center"> [[Continue|F_4]] — <<linkappend "Sip Coffee">> <<append "#food">> $CoffeeText[$CoffeeQnty]<</append>> <<set $CoffeeQnty-->> <</linkappend>> <<if $HavePie is 1>> — <<linkappend "Eat Pie">> <<append "#food">> $PieText[$PieQnty]<</append>> <<set $PieQnty-->> <</linkappend>> <</if>> </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> You're aiming for the pond on the western side of the forest, where it connects with the mountain reserve, but that's a way off yet. You've just come to the wire fence that separates the outer forest from the older and wilder deep forest. To pass it, you have to cross over a wooden stile. There is a light by the fence which normally shuts off after sunrise. On this foggy morning it is still lit. <span id="food"></span> </div> <div class="center"> [[Continue|F_5]] — <<linkappend "Sip Coffee">> <<append "#food">> $CoffeeText[$CoffeeQnty]<</append>> <<set $CoffeeQnty-->> <</linkappend>> <<if $HavePie is 1>> — <<linkappend "Eat Pie">> <<append "#food">> $PieText[$PieQnty]<</append>> <<set $PieQnty-->> <</linkappend>> <</if>> </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> In the deep forest, the orderly rows of trees give way to a more chaotic arrangement, interspersed with native eucalypts and wattles. The undergrowth in some places is impassable. The road too has become a narrow lane with eroded and muddy shoulders. This far in however, there is more life. You can hear cockatoos, magpies, parrots and pigeons among the canopy, along with some other birds you don't recognise.<br> You know that further ahead, in the center of the forest, the road loops around a circle of trees. There's an exit off this loop that leads to the pond, marked by a pile of [[mossy granite boulders.|F_6]] <span id="food"></span> </div> <div class="center"> <<linkappend "Sip Coffee">> <<append "#food">> $CoffeeText[$CoffeeQnty]<</append>> <<set $CoffeeQnty-->> <</linkappend>> <<if $HavePie is 1>> — <<linkappend "Eat Pie">> <<append "#food">> $PieText[$PieQnty]<</append>> <<set $PieQnty-->> <</linkappend>> <</if>> </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> You take the west exit behind the mossy boulders. The road turns into a dirt trail that winds upward between the shrubs and trees. After a short distance, you come out by the eastern side of the [[pond.|F_7]] <span id="food"></span> </div> <div class="center"> <<linkappend "Sip Coffee">> <<append "#food">> $CoffeeText[$CoffeeQnty]<</append>> <<set $CoffeeQnty-->> <<if $CoffeeQnty lt 1>><<set $CoffeeQnty to 0>><</if>> <</linkappend>> <<if $HavePie is 1>> — <<linkappend "Eat Pie">> <<append "#food">> $PieText[$PieQnty]<</append>> <<set $PieQnty-->> <<if $PieQnty lt 1>><<set $PieQnty to 0>><</if>> <</linkappend>> <</if>> </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> Fog hangs over the surface of the pond and hides the opposite bank from sight. You can hear a flock of noisy corellas in the trees around the pond, and frogs croaking in the long grasses at its periphery. A large dead tree has fallen into the water. A family of wood ducks is paddling around it. Apart from you though, there is no one else by the pond. Set back under some casuarinas is a wooden bench where you can [[sit down.|F_8]] <span id="food"></span> </div> <div class="center"> <<linkappend "Sip Coffee">> <<append "#food">> $CoffeeText[$CoffeeQnty]<</append>> <<set $CoffeeQnty-->> <<if $CoffeeQnty lt 1>><<set $CoffeeQnty to 0>><</if>> <</linkappend>> <<if $HavePie is 1>> — <<linkappend "Eat Pie">> <<append "#food">> $PieText[$PieQnty]<</append>> <<set $PieQnty-->> <<if $PieQnty lt 1>><<set $PieQnty to 0>><</if>> <</linkappend>> <</if>> </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> You sit by the pond, wrapped in your hoodie, cap, and scarf, and look out into the fog. A group of corellas passes across the water and lands in the tree by your bench. You can hear them chewing the seeds and squabbling, and see their white feathers among the leaves. Meanwhile, the ducks have drifted out from the cover of the dead tree and disappeared into the fog. The frogs are croaking and plonking unabated.<br> Now that you are sitting still, you begin to feel chilly and hungry. <<if $CoffeeQnty lt 1>> You wish you'd saved a bit of coffee for now.<</if>> <<if $HavePie is 0>> You wish you'd brought something to eat.<</if>> <<if $PieQnty lt 1>> You wish you'd saved some pie for now.<</if>> <span id="food"></span> </div> <div class="center"> <<timed 5s t8n>>[[Continue|END]] —<</timed>> <<linkappend "Sip Coffee">> <<append "#food">> $CoffeeText[$CoffeeQnty] <<if $CoffeeQnty gt 0>> You feel yourself suffused with warmth. <</if>> <</append>> <<set $CoffeeQnty-->> <<if $CoffeeQnty lt 1>><<set $CoffeeQnty to 0>><</if>> <</linkappend>> <<if $HavePie is 1>> — <<linkappend "Eat Pie">> <<append "#food">> $PieText[$PieQnty] You feel pleasantly sated. <</append>> <<set $PieQnty-->> <<if $PieQnty lt 1>><<set $PieQnty to 0>><</if>> <</linkappend>> <</if>> </div>

/* Display text. */ <div class="prose"> The fog begins to thin slightly, and some blue sky becomes visible above it. Your walk in the forest has refreshed you, but now it is time to return home and start the day. </div> /* Written on 2019 March 18 */