Hello again. Yesterday was a rather dark day for me.

But, I feel much better today, I've said it before I'll say it again. Sleep makes mountains into molehills and impassable walls into interesting puzzles.

Well, except I haven't said it before I guess. Just kind of thought of it right this very moment. But its a good thought, I think, and I'm sure I'll say it again sometime. 

By no means do I intend to forget my thoughts of yesterday, nor my actions of the day before. It is a valuable lesson indeed, that your actions can have dire consequences. Whether thats a forest fire or horrible diarrhea. It all depends on your actions.

And diet.

So today I lazed about, taking my time. For a variety of reasons really. For one, my guts are thoroughly empty, and very delicate. So I dedicated a lot of time today to finding sources of food, and stockpililing what I could of it. So I can gorge myself when I'm finally feeling fully put together again. 

Hopefully that'll be tomorrow morning.

For another, I haven't really had much of a chance to relax yet in my life. To just kinda, sit still, smell the flowers. That kinda thing. I've been on the go for as long as I can remember. It's nice to just relax. 

I woke with the rising sun, and spent the first bit of my day just watching as the sky once again went through its brilliant transformation of colors.

Truly beautiful.

Then I, very gently, picked myself up off the ground and had a look about the place.

I was on a small spit of land between rivers. Comprised of a few dozen slender trees and a large variety of grasses and bushes. I made sure to steer clear of those blasted red berries, and the area I had soiled with my, uh, stuff.

I then set about exploring the river and the lands around it.

Bizarre things flitted about in the deep cold waters of the streams. Flashes of silver and movement all I could make out of them. I set about catching one of these mysterious thingamabobs. Diving happily into the crisp clean water after them. 

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

For a while I was unsuccessful, until I discerned their hiding spots. They ducked under overhanging banks and rocks. Lurking in the shadows, before making another speedy sprint towards another hiding spot. So I hovered over one such rock, my hand sitting absolutely still under it. Waiting for an unsuspecting mystery creature to fall into my trap.

It took a while. My hands became heavily wrinkled and I began shivering intensely before one finally fell for it.

I scooped the surprisingly slippery and slimy mass of struggling muscle into my arms. It writhed madly, thrashing and snapping in a desperate bid to re-enter its prefered domain. But I was resolute in my desire to examine these things closer. And so I threw it ashore, and waded after it.

Bulging eyes and gaping mouth attached to a sleek silver scaled body. Stubby flat and see through appendages grew from its sides, back, bottom, and top. Twin gashes fluttered angrily in the air on either side of its body, just behind its head. The thing thrashed, and seemed to be trying to scream, though it made little noise.

Fascinating things. 

It flailed about for quite a while before finally becoming very still. Closer examination howe it to be very much dead. I still have no idea what killed it, but in the spirit of understanding, I went back into the river for more. To see if these reactions were unique or not.

After I warmed myself back up of course. Nothing warms me up quite like covering my whole body in fire. I was careful o do this away from and trees this time. Another firetree party is something I am keen to avoid.

Catching the odd things darting about in the river occupied my time for a while. I haven't named them yet. There are so many that could work! Darters, silver-quicks, land-dead-water-alive, so on and so forth. It would have been easier if there was just the one kind, but they came in all sizes and colors.

Do I have to come up with a name for every single last one of them? That sounds like such a waste of time.

Watching and seeing what the animals around me are willing to eat was also time consuming. Note: none ate the shiny red berries. I did see a fat-fur open up a rotted log with a swipe of some very respectable claws, and gobble up a bunch of wee little things writhing inside. I'll try that in the morning, the fat-fur seemed to find them delectable.

Later, that very same fat-fur sniffed out the small pile of steadily worse smelling river things. Watching the fluffy beastie devour them finally shifted their existence from mysterious river thing, to food source. I'll have to try a fresh one for breakfast tomorrow along with the wriggly things. The smell from the old ones was starting to get pretty bad before they became fat-fur food.

I do wish I was feeling hungry, my guts are still rebelling at the very idea of eating though. I've been collecting supplies of berries after seeing a swarm of small feathered things denude a few bushes. Hopefully that will help tide me over in the morning before I go looking for river things or wriggly things.

I have so many things to name!

All in all, today was a day of rest and learning. Which was quite enjoyable. I could go on, but my hand is getting stiff from writing, so I guess I'll stop here for today.

Tomorrow is going to be a day of travel and new experiences. I'm very excited, and I hope to cover lots of ground.

Good night.