".... Yes," she agrees, a little warily.

"Who knows what other wonderful things I will find out." He starts limping towards the nearest source of wood to inspect it.

Eutelia looks at him with even more suspicion, and sinks a little further into the water, so only her eyes are visible above the waves.

The wood itself looks like it'd do okay for sailing; it's a bit small and thin for it, so it'll be a pain to get enough wood to actually make some kind of raft, and whatever he makes won't be very sturdy or good for maneuvering without something very clever.

He's clever. He'll figure something out.

"You didn't answer me earlier. I don't suppose you have an axe around?"

"I don't know what an axe is. So probably not."

"Sharp thing to cut wood with? I'll make my own, then."

"... I have claws, do those count?"

...she has claws.

The loincloth he's wearing tied around his hips is not tight enough to prevent evidence of his interest from becoming apparent. "They don't, not for this. I'll make one and show you what it looks like." He makes no movement to hide said evidence.

Eutelia shrinks in the water again.

".... Okay," she says, and then decides that, actually, she would like to flee. There's a splash and a flash of what looks like a red-orange fin, and then she's gone.

...she is still a very confusing person.

But fun.

Anyway. A sharp-looking rock can be a first step to turning a particularly thick branch into something like a handle, and he's sure he can find another big enough rock to shape into a blade. He gets to work.

Rocks are available for this purpose! It's a pity that he wasn't marooned on this island with a knife or something, it'd make this whole thing so much easier, but his former comrades were not very thoughtful in the way they left him for dead.

After a couple false starts, including some rocks that are on one side or the other of 'too sturdy' or 'too fragile,' one scraggly looking bush that dies a noble death to attach a makeshift axe head to his handle. Success! He has an axe. It's not a very sturdy axe, but it will almost certainly fell trees much better than hitting them with his fists.

Yup. And if this one breaks then he can just make a new one, eventually he'll run into good enough materials.

Zotikos can start felling trees, although it will soon be getting dark. He's not tired, though; probably due to all that napping.

Trees are felled! He manages to fell a fair number before darkness begins to properly fall. Would he like to keep felling trees until the very last light leaves the sky, into nightfall itself, or stop and do something else?

He's going to keep doing this until either he is too exhausted, too in pain, or too impaired by darkness to do it.

Then lots of trees will be felled! But eventually, yes, the darkness makes it rather hard to fell trees safely. How would he like to deal with this problem?

Probably by returning to the beach and seeing if he got a food offering again.

He did! There are several fish available for him, next to some sort of flat slate rock that looks like it has... something carved on it, but it's impossible to tell just what in the darkness.

And sitting on one of the rocks near the beach is a slight, feminine figure, just visible against the comparably lighter, but still meagerly moonlit sky. She has something in her hands, and is doing something with it, but it'd be much easier to tell in any actual light.

".... Hello," she says. It's hard to tell, but it seems like she's looking at him.

"Hi again! Thank you very much for the food." He drops the lumber on a pile next to his designated sleeping area then gets started on a fire. "How has your evening been?"

“Fine. I made you a map of the island’s coastline, and marked the spring I’ve been getting water from. And now I’m trying to make a basket. How do you make fire?”

"Ooh, a map, thanks!" So that's what the flat slate of rock is. "For fire you want something to start it, so something that will produce a spark, as well as a pile of easily flammable things and a pile of more durably flammable things. Some kinds of rocks and stones can be hit together to produce the spark, and then dry leaves and twigs are good for catching fire really fast but they also go out fast, while the thicker sturdier wood on top here," he gestures, "needs more work to catch fire but when it does will keep it up for a while. It is customary to surround fire pits with rocks," another gesture, "although that is less of a problem here since sand itself is not flammable so there is no danger of the fire spreading."

“I see. Thank you. And surrounding the fire with rocks is to prevent it from catching something else and burning out of control? ... it seems like a lot of trouble to go through.”

"Well I have ever eaten raw meat but it was under strenuous circumstances and I would not want to make a habit of it."

“... why? I’ve only ever eaten my food raw.”

"Probably a half-god thing. ...although I think Herakles also ate cooked meat, so maybe a Poseidon thing?"