Chapter 31- The great forest.
As I resume my trek, it quickly becomes clear that I am starting to get really close to the origin point of the great woodlands of Eteria; As I keep going, the Mana in the air starts fluctuating wildly and I start seeing, or rather sensing, large "steams", or currents if you'd rather, of concentrated Mana that flows in specific directions.
Towards what, and for what purpose, I have no idea; But something about it is giving me the creeps.
"From what I have learned since coming here, Mana shouldn't be doing that… It's like air: it spreads out, not builds currents where they concentrate and flow in specific directions…" I mutter quietly as I keep an extra wary eye on my surroundings as I proceed slowly onward toward the highest concentration of Mana.
After another hour of walking, I realize that the Mana streams are ferrying Mana from one place to another and that they are exchanging two types of Mana; One type feels… Heavy; slow, sluggish and… spent, for a lack of better word. The other type feels light; Fast, malleable and invigorating.
"... What's up with this? Why are there two types of Mana here? And why are they so different?" I mutter to myself as I inspect the Mana streams and their exchange for a good hour or so as I continue my slow walk.
By now the sun has begun it's decent, and while I still have quite a few hours of daylight left, my previous ruffle with the ape-turtle monster thing has left me in a quite, uhm, ruffled state; So I decide to make camp early and start preparing what I will need to get through the night: Firewood, preferably something fresh to eat so I don't have to nibble the rock-hard rations and, if possible, an easily defended campsite.
"Those damn ration bars only get harder by the damn day, I swear!" I mutter to myself as I go about searching for a decent campsite.
An hour later I come upon a small natural cave, actually, it's more of a hollowed out boulder rather than a cave as it is barely big enough for me to be able to lay down under the hollowed out portion to keep myself from getting wet in the case of rain.
'I really hope it doesn't rain…' I think to myself and sweep my gaze up towards the canopy above.
I am totally unable to see even a tiny part of the sky however, so I instead shrug and start setting up my new campfire a safe distance away from my rest spot.
Once I have the campfire done and burning steadily, I walk around the area and start scavenging for food; specifically for meat, fruits or nuts.
Surprisingly, I actually manage to find some strange bright red fruits that remind me of a small mellon.
Breaking it open, the fruit meat on the inside is bright yellow and gives off a sweet aroma.
"I wonder if this is even safe to eat…" I ponder aloud as I take a small bit of the fruit meat and rub it slowly between my fingertips.
There is no immediate pain, itchiness or anything else unusual, so it seems like the fruit isn't, at least not outright, dangerous.
'Question is, is it poisonus? And if it is, then to what degree? What kind of poison is it?' I ponder as I observer the fruit meat as I continue rubbing it between my fingertips.
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After a few moments, I decide that I should try a patch test, just to be safe, and smear the fruit paste on a certain part of my left arm which I commit to memory.
With that done I remind myself to check later to see if I get a rash or something similar and after commiting the area to memory, I resume my search for food.
Another hour passes as I continue circling my campsite in search of animals that I can hunt for meat: And finally, I find what I am seeking; A creature that reminds me of a bunny, but with a strange twisting horn on its head, almost like a goat horn, only this bunny creatures horn is straight, and quite long, considering the animals size.
The animal in question is quite a bit bigger than the bunnies that I am familiar with, and it seems a whole lot more aggressive then the image of the animal I have known about for most of my life: This creature is like a mutated, angry and aggressive relative of the kind of bunnies I have known mod to of my life; Not at all the soft and fluffy creature I have come to know and love.
'I wonder what it tastes like?' I ponder as I get ready to use Blink to teleport behind the creature and slash it with my sword; I have learned my lesson, and will start using my sword as my main method of attack, with magic falling back as support and reserve method when the sword just won't cut it.
Once I ready myself, I will the spell to activate and suddenly I am now standing behind the bunny creature, already halfways through drawing my blade with the intention to sever its head clean from its body.
Twitching, the creature suddenly whips around towards me and points it long slender horn straight towards me.
A split second later, it is bounding towards me at impressive speed with its sharp pointed horn poised to impale me upon the long and rather slender ivory horn.
"Tch!" I exclaim in surprise and redubble my efforts to draw my blade in a bid to slash the creature in two, before it can impale me unto it's long and twisted slender ivory horn that now looks more menacing than ever before.
Luckily, my surprise attack and partly started sword draw gave me enough of an head start to be able to finish my slash before the creature manages to slam into me; As my sword bisects the creature in two, I try my best to lean out of the way of the still hurling horn and the attached head. Unfortunately, I was unable to completely doge the horn, and it takes a painful furrow out of the side of my right side, just a few millimeters, but the long rift quickly starts burning something viciously as blood starts seeping from the rather shallow but long wound along my side as the bisected animal falls down to the ground dead with a deep, wet thump.
"Bloody freakin' hell! That hurts like a mothafokka!" I exclaim through clenched teeth as I back away a few steps before I carefully sit down and hurriedly start gathering Mana to stem the blood flow, and eventually start healing the wound right and proper.
After stemming the blood flow, which took a few minutes, I laboriously stand up while being careful not to open the wound in my side again, and turn to inspect the bisected animal in front of me. It still has quite a bit of blood flowing out of its bisected parts, which color the deep brown earth of the ground a deep crimson color and the smell of blood is thick in the air and stings my nose as I breathe in.
Sweeping my gaze around the area, I belatedly realize that I should move before predators and scavengers come flocking to the scent of fresh blood.
"I need to get away from here; The faster, the better." I mutter as I grab the two bisected parts of the animal and start preparing to Blink a couple of times to get back to my campsite which should be located somewhere between 2 to 300 meters away.
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Once back at the campsite, I use my sword to skin the animal and take out its innards before I impale the remains on two sticks and set them to roast over the open flame, turning them around every so often will I meditate and focus my efforts on gathering Mana to heal my newest addition of wounds, before I turn my attention towards my abused and beat up body.
Hours pass me by as I continue my meditation, only stoping to attent to the roasting meat before I return to my meditation once again.
Darkness falls, yet I still continue my meditation well into the night as I the longer I meditate, the better I am feeling.
Honestly, I am currently feeling incredibly good; Actually, I think it may actually be the best I've ever felt in life: My body feels light and warm, my breathing is extremely easy and smoother than ever and my mind feels crisp and clear like a clear and calm body of water.
Eventually, a strange tiredness comes over me, and I am forced to stop my meditation. The tiredness isn't one of the mind, neither is it one of the body, but rather something… else.
"The spirit? The soul?" I muse aloud as I look up and try to make out anything of the sky above through the thick canopy of the woodlands to no avail. "... I dunno. I'll just have to add it as yet another thing that I need to ask people who knows more about this crazy world." I muble as I move over to my sleeping spot and lay down to sleep.
End of chapter 31