Something unseen before walked out behind the tree. It looked like a bear but had the same height as the monkey—a baby bear perhaps? However, it didn’t have fur; instead, a smooth green skin covered its body, and it stood on its hind legs like a human! But that wasn’t the weirdest part!

The top of its head had a small plant growing on it!

This was the first time he had seen an animal like this—he didn’t even know if the weird thing was an animal.

"Is it an undiscovered species of bear?"

The weird animal stood there and stared at him without doing anything. The situation felt surreal, but weirdly enough, Cleo wasn’t scared. In fact, he found the thing cute, as it looked like a stuffed toy he often bought for his daughter. If he brought it back with him and showed it to his daughter, he was sure she would love it.

A few minutes had passed, and their situation hadn’t changed a bit. Both of them still stare into one another's eyes, assessing each other's intentions. The atmosphere around them started to become awkward. He didn’t know how to react to the situation—was he supposed to turn around and leave it behind? That wasn’t gonna work, as the way home was on the other side of the bear. Or maybe he could walk closer and pet it? That would be dumb, though. How would he know that thing wouldn’t eat his face?

Amid his contemplation, a cute voice called out to him.

"Hello there, Mortal."

Surprised, he cautiously scanned his surroundings. Was there another human who survived the crash beside him?

"I’m over here."

He followed where the voice came from, and the only thing he saw was the bear raising its paw. He moved his head to the side, trying to discern if there was someone behind the tree where the bear came from. However, before he could even complete his motion, the bear waved its paws.

"I’m the one who is speaking."

Cleo couldn’t help but stare at the bear. Something was wrong with his ear; the sound he heard appeared to be coming from the weird creature. But that would be crazy, though—was it another episode of delusion? That would explain the bear in front of him. His head was probably playing a game with him again.

Shaking his head, he tried to forcefully wake himself from his delusion, but it didn’t work as the bear was still in front of him. It didn’t matter, though, as he could always ignore it. He walked in the direction of where he came from while ignoring the strange bear waving at him. When he passed the bear, it looked at him with confused eyes.

"Can’t you hear me?" The bear said, following him as he went.

He didn’t know if he should answer or not, as he was worried his condition might become worse if he interacted with it. Nevertheless, he started to feel pity for it, as it seemed a bit desperate for his attention. It stood in front of him, blocking his way, but he ignored it and walked around the bear.

"Please talk to me. I know you can see me, so it will be common sense for you to hear me! Unless you’re deaf, but it doesn’t seem you are deaf because you reacted to my voice earlier!"

Ignoring the little bear was getting hard, as the desperation in its words was evident, and its cute little voice reminded him of his child. Not wanting to hear the bear any longer, he strode as fast as possible, leaving it behind. Could he even leave an imaginary thing behind?

As he strode, he glanced behind him, wanting to know if the bear was gone. However, what he saw made him fasten his pace. The bear was running towards him.

"Wait! Please don’t leave me behind!" The bear screamed, begging him to stop.

But instead of stopping, he dashed, as he knew he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore if he kept listening to it. He wanted to halt his action and hug it, but he knew it was only his imagination. Gradually, the voice of the bear became faint as he ran away from it; it appeared his brain was finally done with its episode.

He slowed down when the voice disappeared. Catching his breath, he decided to stop for a bit.

"That was tough. I don’t know what I prefer: experiencing tremendous headaches or tremendous heartache."

Upon regaining his stamina, he continued his journey back to his camp. What he experienced would be etched in his mind for a while, but he would try to distract himself—he didn’t want to fall into madness after all. Of course, he didn’t forget to scrutinize the environment as he strolled, looking for possible food sources. However, his luck seemed to run out. He didn’t manage to find any fruit or vegetable he could eat—maybe there was, but he just couldn’t recognize it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

When he reached the sweet potato farm—he called it the sweet potato farm for a landmark purpose—he sat down, wanting to rest for a bit, even though his camp was only 10 minutes away from the place. His whole body was sticky and dirty again, and the urge to take a bath grew inside him. But he shoved the idea aside, as he didn’t have any energy to go back to the river.

Speaking of energy, he started to get hungry. The monkey was probably hungry too.

"Wait… I forgot to extinguish the fire!"

He swiftly stood and sprinted back to his shelter. His heart thumped; he hoped the fire didn’t spread while he was away!

While running, he noticed black smoke rising from where his camp was. His heart sank upon seeing this. The possibility of fire spreading became high. He increased his pace even further, worried about his shelter and all the items he left behind. And of course, the injured monkey, as it didn’t have the ability to move yet. He would be very guilty if something bad happened to the monkey.

When he reached the campsite, his eyes widened at what he saw. The monkey… The monkey was sleeping in the middle of the fire! His shelter was burning; he needed to hurry before it completely devoured it.

Thankfully, the pieces of baggage were closed, and the fire just started, so it was still untouched. He wanted to use water to kill the fire, but he didn’t have anything to hold it. Therefore, he decided to use clothes and hit the fire with them. Opening one of the baggage, he took out a woman's clothes and used them as a tool to extinguish the fire.

As he smacked the burning banana leaves, he coughed as some of the black smoke managed to enter his lungs. Nonetheless, he didn’t stop and continued hitting the fire. After around five minutes, he finally managed to extinguish it, but his shelter didn’t get away unscratched. Almost entirely of the banana leaf covers were burned and turned to ashes. However, instead of getting mad, he was relieved, as the damage was minimal. If he came back a little later, he wouldn’t have a shelter to go back to.

Slumping on the surprisingly undamaged grass. He looked at the sleeping monkey, unbothered by what happened. Its sense of danger was almost nonexistent—very unlikely for a wild animal. It was probably too tired to wake up.

Sighing, he learned another lesson today—don’t leave a fire near flammable materials. When he thought about it, it was common knowledge, but he was so occupied with finding water that he ignored such basic things. At least now he would be able to avoid the same mistake in the future. So, he still gained something from the disaster.

Now the question was, should he rebuild his shelter or eat first? He swallowed his saliva, wetting his dry throat due to him running all day and killing the fire. Taking out the bottled water from his bag, he opened it, intending to drink it. However, before he could, a thought came to his mind. Was it safe to drink the water from the river?

The question stopped him from drinking. He didn’t know if the water was safe or unsafe, but he wouldn’t gamble his safety to find out. Closing the bottled water again, he set it aside and took another water bottle from the baggage.

After drinking, he deposited it back.

Another problem arose, and solving it was a priority. He must find something to boil the river water with so he could drink it without worrying about his safety. But the problem was, he didn’t see any item he could use for boiling water inside the baggage and he was unsure what he could find in the wild that could help him.

He ought to stay away from his shelter for a while, as the smell of burning things was irritating his nostrils. Thus, he dropped his bag, leaving it behind, and walked away. As he strolled around on the beach, he scanned the area, looking for something that could solve his problem. There was nothing much on the beach but dry palm leaves, wood, stones, and coconut.

He was always interested in the coconuts scattered around the beach. However, he kept ignoring them as he didn’t want to waste time opening one—of course, now that he had free time, he had no qualms about trying to crack one to see how difficult it was.

Walking near one of the green coconuts. He crouched and picked it up to observe the surface to see if there was any place he could open it—although there were a lot of coconuts back home, he had never tried opening one as he always bought them ready-to-eat.

The coconut's outer shell had a perfect defense; he couldn’t see any flaws he could use to open it. Thinking of his pocket knife, he considered using it but changed his mind quickly, as the shell was too tough—it was his only proper tool, and it would be a shame if it got damaged.

As he denied the idea, he looked around, looking for another method he could use to crack it open. Seeing a large boulder, his intrusive thought told him to smack it against the massive stone. At first, he found it stupid, but it was too tempting not to try.

He smacked the coconut against the boulder multiple times before stopping, panting with the intense activity. It was a failure, but oddly enough, his heart loosened a bit—was it because he was frustrated? Well, it didn’t surprise him, as the number of things that frustrated him on the island was numerous. Maybe letting his intrusive thoughts win from time to time wasn’t a bad idea.

Looking at the coconut, it was intact with small damage to its surface—perhaps a stronger impact could produce a result. Backing away from the massive stone, he aimed the coconut at the boulder, intending to throw it against it with all his strength. When he was ready, he raised his left leg, stomped it hard on the sand, and threw the coconut with his right hand in the motion of his whole body—like a baseball pitcher.

The coconut produced a loud bang when it hit the boulder. However, instead of dropping to the ground, it bounced back and hit him right in the face. He fell to the sand as he yelped in pain. Dizzy, he tried to sit up, enduring the pain in his head. Upon sitting, something wet came out of his nose—blood.

"Yeah, maybe don’t let my intrusive thoughts win too much."