Boy, that was close... I nearly didn't make it back.
I was returning from a week-long trip to a distant tribe to trade furs for tools. On my way back, I spotted a Njerk scout slowly making his way towards my settlement. Not an unusual sight; I get them wandering in every few weeks, but I can usually take them out swiftly with a combination of Grandmaster stealth, and a Masterwork longbow I'd gotten from a foreign trader some months ago.
I was weighed down with trade goods, but I decided to deal with him before heading back. I zoomed in to his square; he was standing in a flat, open clearing, his back to me. I entered stealth and took a step, but he turned and noticed me immediately. At this point, I realised I'd left something rather important at home: my stack of arrows. I had one arrow in my inventory. I hesitated for a moment, started to move in close with a spear readied, but changed my mind after a couple of steps and pulled out my bow instead.
This wrecklessness he took to his advantage, and as I fumbled with my gear, he loosed an arrow true and deep into my stomach. It broke in me, and I started bleeding- badly. I fired my one arrow back and caught him in the leg. He stumbled and fell. This time, I wasted no time charging forwards to engage him in melee, but I was leaving a thick trail of blood and fielding a massive skill penalty from the combined bloodloss and injury. We traded a few blows and I had difficulty dropping him, but a lucky counterstrike knocked him unconscious, and I finished it by thrusting my spear clean through his eyesocket. He was dead. I was slipping away.
I quickly took his shoes and ripped them up into a bandage. My physician skill was terrible, but I had to stop the bleeding.
Now. By sheer luck, I'd picked a few sweet grass leaves in the village I'd traded with earlier, and used them to enhance the effect of the treatment. The result was messy, but servicable.
Now I just had to make it home, but that wouldn't be easy... I'd chosen the worst possible time to make this trip. The month ticked over into November, and Winter arrived with a sudden, bitter chill. As I trudged through the marshland, my warmth dropped from Cold, to Bitterly Cold, to Freezing. Having had no real idea when Winter would kick in, I'd left my warm clothes at home. I wondered if I'd even make it back before I started getting frostbite, and I didn't think my body could take much more injury...
But eventually, miraculously, the house came into view. I threw open the door, headed straight to the shed and got dressed up in my best fur gear. Then I threw some firewood on the fireplace and climbed into bed to rest and heal.
Home. The numbness gradually left my body, and I started to feel the depth of my wound for the first time...
It's going to be a long Winter.