Exploring the forest

      11. Exploring the forest

I wake up feeling pain in my arm, but I still feel comfortable, I sit up and see that I fell asleep on top of the bed.  My right arm is wrapped on the red blankets and it feels sticky.

I peel off the blanket from arm and see that the wound looks gross, but it is not bleeding anymore. I put the blood-soaked blanket on the ground and get up from the bed.

I step on something slimy and sticky and I look down to see the thing on the ground. I grab my dagger from it and blue blood spurts out of it, I take thing and carry it to my room.

I cut it open with my dagger and blood flows out with entrails, it smells bad, so I just scoop everything out from the cut. I cut the head off and split the rest of it in half I take the parts and go to the bathroom to light a fire.

I take two pieces of wood and rub them together for a while and soon it sets on fire. Alessa told me to only use the wood from a certain type of tree as the others would take immensely more work to set on fire.

I pierce the meat pieces with my sword and roast the thing on the fire and soon it starts to sizzle, the smell isn’t that great, but it is better than the smell of the entrails or the smell of the lopedeers meat.

I wait until the meats color turns darker until I take the meat from the sword and start eating it. I bite into it and the meat is so much softer than the lopedeer meat, the taste is greasy and light, and the juices fill my mouth instantly.

I eat all the meat so quickly and after I feel so full that I can’t even more. I lay on the cold ground even though my cage is close to me. I feel something go down my right arm and I quickly touch it with my left arm.

It feels wet and when I look at my left arm I can see it is red with my blood. I guess the wound started bleeding again, I hold my wound with my left arm and lay on the ground.

When the wound stops bleeding again I stand up and take my sword, I want more meat, so I will go out hunting right away. I still can’t stop thinking the deliciousness of the meat even though I just ate the meat.

I look out and see that it is already getting dark, but I am sure I can get something before it becomes too dark. I walk out of the cave and go down to the river. I cannot see any lopedeers so I keep walking near the river hoping to see some lopedeers or get attacked by the river things.

I keep walking, but nothing happens, I even try turning my back to the river, so the things could do a surprise attack, but no things fly out. I wonder where they are.

I take off my clothes and jump in the river with only my dagger, the water is ice cold and it hurts to keep my eyes open under water, but I force myself to keep my eyes open and stay under water.

It is hard to see under water but after a while it becomes clearer and I can see that there is nothing down there. I swim up disappointed and get up from the water, I lay on the warm grass until I get dry and then I put on my clothes.

As far as I can see there are nothing near the river or in the river, I didn’t want to go into the forest, but I guess I have no choice.

I walk into the forest and it gets noticeably darker almost instantly. My movement and vision are obstructed by the trees and plants. I feel like going to the forest is dangerous but the lingering feeling of eating delicious meat makes me move forward.

I make sure to walk into one direction, so I won’t get lost and I also tried to remember certain plants or trees, but they are all too similar, so I gave up.

I walk straight ahead carefully as I look behind every tree, so I won’t get ambushed by anything. After so many trees I can see a space where there are no trees and I advance there.

There is a wide area that is filled with only grass and there is a huge rock in the middle of it, why are there no trees in this place? And why is there a big rock there?

I want to see it closer, so I walk to it and notice that it is darker and smoother than a normal rock, there are some markings on the rock too. I look at the marking and see that they go around the rock.

I walk around it as I look at the markings, I stop moving completely. I can see something in front of me with the corner of my eye and I slowly move my eyes to the thing.

Next to the rock there is a beras sleeping soundly and it looks so big from this distance, I feel my whole body tensing up and I try to be as quiet as I can. I step back slowly but the sound I make feels loud and I tense up even more.

My breathing is starting to feel loud, so I try to not breath that much, but I end up breathing even louder. I turn around quickly and start running away, I do not even look back to see if it is following me.

I run as fast as I can through the trees and plants, I get cuts on my face, arms and legs but I pay no mind to them as I run. I run until I my legs feel like they cannot move anymore. I drop my sword and collapse on the ground face first.

I turn around while breathing heavily so I can see better, why did I get so scared? Wasn’t I supposed to get stronger than everything? Have I not been in enough situations that might get me killed?

Why was I still so scared that I couldn’t think rationally? Beras is a slow creature and it was sleeping. I could have just backed away and nothing would have happened. Was I scared just because there was a chance that it woke up and charged at me before I could react?

Then I couldn’t have escaped it without a fight and I knew that there is such a huge power difference between us that I had no chance to survive.

Just because there is a chance that there is no chance made me panic? This is pathetic, I am pathetic. I need to fight properly no matter what the situation, even if there is no chance to win.

I grit my teeth and stand up, I can’t live with myself if I run away from this. I turn back where I ran from and start walking to the beras. I soon reach the area with the rock and I can see the sleeping beras.

I can feel myself get tense just from seeing the beras. I hate this feeling, I HATE IT. I grit my teeth and grip my sword as hard as I can. I walk up to the beras while gritting and gripping so hard that I can’t even feel the weight of the sword.

I am standing so close to the beras that I can feel its warm breath; this creature isn’t even reacting to my presence and keeps sleeping. This overconfident beast is what made me scared?

I take the sword with my left hand and I clench my fist as hard as I can and punch the beras in the face with all my might.

Chapter ten. Chapter twelve.