Cleo touched his stomach, satisfied with what he had eaten. Even though he had been on the island only for a day, he missed warm food already. Thus, eating the hot sweet potatoes hit the spot. As he smiled with satisfaction, he noticed the monkey—done with its food—stared at him cautiously, still. However, it didn't bare its fang on him. An improvement—maybe the monkey realized that he didn’t mean any harm?

In any case, it would be good if the monkey finally stopped seeing him as a threat. With him done eating, it was time to find a source of drinkable water. He didn’t want to wait and exhausted his supply of water before searching for one. He needed to think in advance and prepare for the worst. After all, preparation was an important factor for survival. At least, that was what he would answer if someone asked him for advice on survival—he had no idea if it was right or wrong, though.

Standing, the monkey’s body jerked, surprised by his sudden action.

"Oh, sorry, did I startle you? I need to go into the forest again and find running water. Do you perhaps know where I can find one?"

He sighed, realizing he had tried to have a conversation with a monkey.

"Hu ha?" The monkey reacted.

Hearing the monkey, he smiled. It seemed the monkey lowered its guard toward him. It appeared that the saying—stomach was the way to a man's heart—was also applicable to a monkey.

"Do you know where I can find drinkable water?" He slowly said, in an attempt to communicate with the monkey.

Although he knew the monkey wouldn’t understand him, he would lose nothing if he tried.

"Hu hu ha?" The monkey tilted its head.

"What am I doing?" He sighed again. "Of course, it can’t understand me; it’s a monkey."

Shaking his head, he decided to stop wasting his time trying to do something useless. He sauntered to his shelter, wanting to take his tools before going to the forest. What he experienced yesterday taught him that he must always have his tools when going out in the wild, solidifying his words: preparation was king!

However, the monkey became cautious again and tried to back off, but its effort wasn’t enough as its strength was still in a recovery state. Noticing the monkey’s reaction, he decreased his walking pace to appear less threatening to the monkey’s eyes.

He wasn’t mad at the monkey’s reaction; it was understandable, as danger lurked at every corner of the wild.

It seemed his effort worked, as the monkey calmed down after seeing his slowed pace. Then a thought came to his mind: Why did he need to walk on eggshells to a monkey? Exasperated with himself, he let the thought go, as having a companion might become helpful to him in the future—only if the monkey chose to stay after recuperating.

After taking the folding knife and the small scissors, he realized that he had many things to bring with him, as he also needed to take the empty plastic bottle in case he found drinkable water so that he could fill it. Therefore, he must bring the bag with him.

However, the problem was the sweet potatoes. He could leave them in the camp, but he was afraid the monkey might eat them all while he was gone. Judging a monkey may be a bit low, but he wanted to make sure he had food when he came back. It would be devastating when he found a water supply only to find himself low on the food supply.

He might not find food in the forest again, and maybe finding the sweet potatoes was only a stroke of luck. Thus, bringing the sweet potatoes with him was the best idea—it was better to be sure than sorry. Yeah, he could probably eat the bananas yesterday, but they were still unripe, so he would only consider them a last resort. Eating something like that was perhaps bad for his health, and his health was the only foundation he had on the island.

When he was done putting all the things he needed inside the bag, he carried it on his back and prepared himself for his departure.

"I’ll go first, rest, and wait here. I’ll see you soon." He said goodbye to the monkey and departed into the forest.

Inside the forest, where he found the sweet potatoes, he was considering where to go next. He had already gone to the north, where the banana trees were located, so he wanted to choose differently. However, not knowing what he could see on both sides made the choices useless. It didn’t matter what he chose; that was why he went with his gut and chose east.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He didn’t have any special reason behind the decision—it just felt right to go east. Walking on the moss-covered grounds, he scaled some rocks and jumped on the grass. The way in the east was rocky and moist, and a lot of moss covered the tree roots and rocks. There was also a new sound—the croaking of frogs was clear due to the quietness of the forest. He found this to be a good thing; perhaps there was a water source nearby.

"Wait… Isn’t snake love to eat frogs?"

Cleo halted his action, realizing the possibility of encountering a snake! This made him more aware of his surroundings, and it made him jumpy. Every sound the forest produced made his heart skip a beat. He scanned his surroundings for a while, examining every nook and cranny of the forest, making sure there wasn’t something long hiding near him.

He didn’t know why he was so scared of snakes; he had this problem since he was a kid, but he never knew how it started. Others might say that it was normal to fear snakes. But he wasn’t scared of them; he was terrified! Just the sight of one was enough to freeze his whole body and make him dizzy until he lost consciousness. No one could convince him that what he experienced was normal.

He lingered for five more minutes before he realized he was wasting time and would never find running water at his pace. Shaking his head, he tried to remove the snakes from his mind and proceeded to his mission. Although he managed to continue, his walking speed decreased as his concern was still there.

As time went on, his stiffened body gradually relaxed without him knowing. He got distracted by all kinds of plants, mushrooms, and insects he passed by. There were a lot of things he was familiar with but didn’t know their names; more he had seen for the first time. Fascinated, he stopped and observed them—he couldn’t believe he was paying close attention to plants. He never had any tendency to be interested in them when he was on the mainland, though.

Was it because he was so busy working that he never paid attention to them? Now that he thought about it, he'd never had a hobby before. He was always curious about a lot of things—maybe the reason why he got easily distracted—but he never gave himself a chance to find what he truly liked. Could this be a sign for him to take up a hobby?

"Yeah, why not? It isn’t like I have better things to do anyway… Wait! I suppose to be looking for drinkable water!"

Sighing, he walked again, but at his normal speed. He completely forgot his trepidation earlier and enjoyed observing every plant he came across. On his journey, his ear picked up a sound that made his heart rate spike. It was the sound of running water; he was sure of it. Although faint, only running water could make that sound.

In his excitement, he ran toward the sound, ignoring his previous action. As he got closer, the sound became clearer and clearer, solidifying his assessment—a river. He increased his speed even further, to the point where he almost tripped on the protruding tree root. Luckily, he regained his balance before his face hit the ground.

This woke him up, reminding him that his safety was the most important thing. He turned his sprint into a jogging pace, not wanting to injure himself. Without medicine or a hospital, a small wound could become fatal in the wild, so he must become extra careful.

The thing responsible for the sound was farther away than he thought it was. It had been 10 minutes since he heard it, and he still couldn’t see a hint of any water. If he added the time he left at the sweet potatoes’ location, it would be about 30 minutes already. Well, he could probably reduce it to 20 minutes, as he got distracted often. But still, it was quite far.

He never stopped jogging, though.

After a few more minutes, his sight finally laid eyes on the source. Just a few meters away from him, there was a stream river!

"Finally!"

When he got out of the sea of trees, he didn’t stop and went directly to the river to wash his face. The water was shallow, and he could see small pebbles through the clear water. He dipped his two feet inside as he was sweaty due to the high temperature inside the forest. The water was cold and very relaxing.

However, it was not enough. His whole body was sticky and dirty; thus, he decided to clean himself. Like usual, he looked left and right before he undressed, and then left all his items near the river before he jumped into the water.

He was wrong; food wasn’t the only happiness he could find on the island. A moment like this was also rewarding; perhaps he could even discover more in time.

He enjoyed his bath time and played with the water for a while; it was so good to the point he didn’t want to get out anymore. However, he knew he couldn’t stay for long as he also needed to look for food. It was good enough that he found drinkable water, and he could always go back to the river.

After staying a little longer, he walked out of the river and put on his clothes again. Refreshed, he could now do anything again! Now he must do what he came here for. Opening his bag, he took out the plastic bottle to fill it with river water. As he submerged the bottle in the water, fish swam near him. Seeing the fish made him want to eat meat. He salivated at the thought of grilling a fish; he could only imagine it, as he had no clue how to catch one.

When he was done filling the plastic bottle, he closed it and deposited it back into the bag. He was ready to leave when the rustling of grass halted his action. There was something behind the trees. Was it a snake? That was the first thought he had.

The situation was like a déjà vu from yesterday; the only difference was that he didn’t have any place to hide. When he heard the sound again, he took out the folding knife inside the bag. After all, he didn’t know if what happened yesterday would repeat, and having a weapon in his hand made him feel safer.

The sound became closer and closer, like what he heard when the monkey appeared. Was it another monkey? He would find out soon because the sound was only behind the tree in front of him. Readying himself, he clutched the knife with both hands in front of him, prepared to use it if it was necessary.

However, when the thing came out of the tree line, his fear was replaced by confusion and questions.

"What is that thing?"