*snap*

I was awoken by the sound of a stick breaking and quickly jumped up before squaring up with whatever was near me. My vision had yet to focus and my mind was still groggy as I tried my best to defend from what I thought was an attack.

"Rallo! Calm down, it's just me. Luca told me wake you as the sun is about to coming up."

As my eyes focused I saw a familiar face about two feet away from me. It was Zoe, my cousin who I had switched places with about an hour ago. I looked to the sky towards the east and the sun's light was indeed starting to peak over the edge of the sky. I nodded my head at her before apologizing to her. She just waved her hand and gestured for me to come join the rest of the group.

As I approached my group of cousins I noticed that they had decided to start a small fire to heat up so of the meat we had in our bags. I assumed it was Luca's idea as Kai was still washing his face over by the creek about ten feet to the south of us. After greeting my cousins I went to drink and wash my face in the creek before returning to the group alongside Kai.

After that we all sat around the small fire surrounded by fist sized rocks and ate a few pieces of the meat that they had warmed up. We chatted for a bit before gathering six sturdy sticks and a few sharp rocks which Luca then used to create six spear with stone tips. He used fibers from what seemed to be milkweed or this world equivalent to it that he found near the creek to tie them together. I also told him to make long ropes that we would tie around the spears so that we could wear them over our shoulders. The girls, Zoe, Ash, and Bell had gotten a little training on how to use the spear from our family as we all did when we were younger so we didn't have to teach how to use the weapons. I did show the group a simple pike formation that we practice a few times before I thought of another thing that would be useful.

I told Luca to get twelve more small and three medium-length ropes, while I gathered twelve medium-length sticks and three more sturdy sticks. I then found the sharpest rock I find nearby and used it to poke two holes through the top of the three bags. I then used the materials gathered by Luca and myself to craft probably the most uncomfortable looking backpacks that I have ever seen. But they would allow us to use both our hands while traveling.

After showing Luca and Kai how to wear the backpack we decided to head out as we had spent enough time here already. We put the fire out using the rocks we had surrounded it with and I clear the debris left over by the fire as best as I could. We then set out towards the ever rising sun.

We travelled quicker then we did last night as I was more sure in the direction we were headed. After walking for about four hours I noticed that there were fewer trees in the area surrounding us but the trees we did see were bigger and more spaced out than before. The only animals of note that we have seen so far were brown rats, which were about size of a rabbit, a few deer, or this world equivalent of them, that were a bit bigger then their counterparts back on Earth, and few other familiar yet slightly bigger forest creatures like different birds, frogs, and too many insects to name.

Our conversations were bland as the events of yesterday still clouded over all of our minds. Even I felt grief even though I had only been in this world for three days now. The sixteen years of memories I had with them couldn't just be erased after all, and even though their Rallo was long gone by now, his memories were now mine, his emotions were now my emotions. I was Rallo back on Earth, and I am now Rallo again.

If their were some sort of god was watching this scene, they would probably see that my soul had only now fully embedded itself within the body of the world's version of myself.

I felt my grief lighten as a wave of calm washed over me. However, with this feeling of calm came an idea that forced the corner of my lips up into a smile. It was simple at first glance, but as I gave it more thought my smile only continued to deepen.

'I will make the world my village.'

This sounded impossible, especially given that village I just escaped could barely support its own population, however, if you factor in the all the knowledge I somehow possess. The idea starts to more feasible if I play my cards correctly. I wanted to think about the idea a bit more thoroughly, but I realized that now was not the time to daydream. I would have plenty of time to do so in the future once we make it out of this green hell.

We continued walking for about another hour before we decided to take a break. The girls were the ones who suggested we stop and I thought I was because they were tired already. I was wrong however as they just needed to use the bathroom. They went behind a decent-sized boulder about ten feet away from and handled their business while we guys did the same as it would mean that we wouldn't have to stop again so soon.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

After everybody finished up, we kept walking while have dry conversation with each other such as a sigh here and a few flaky condolences there, until Kai had evidently had enough and decided ask aloud what everyone besides probably myself was thinking.

"What happened back there? How did tribesmen get into the village without anybody seeing them?" Kai asked.

I shook my head at his question, but before I could answer Luca spoke first.

"What tribesmen? My father saw the face of the bastard who killed him, and called him 'Levi'. I remember a man from our village being named that."

Kai had look of shock on his before trying to recall the person Luca was talking about. However, Zoe beat him to it.

"Luca is right. One of the woodworkers that his father worked with a lot was named that. But that does not explain the attack."

Kai nodded his head at this, but still furrowed his brow as he couldn't fathom why their own people would want to kill them. I wanted to step in but Luca spoke up once again only this time it was directed at me.

"This likely happened because he was set to become the chief of our village." He said as he pointed at me.

His statement shocked Kai and the girls who were still trying to put two and two together. It didn't shock me as he and I were the only two teens who had attended the last part of my test that were present at least, and we both saw the argument and subsequential slapped that took place.

I nodded my head at Luca and began speaking before anyone could beat me to it.

"He is right. When the elders were deciding if I should lead the village it caused an agruement, which then turned physical. My mom actually slapped the head warrior Dak before grandmother broke up the fight. After that whole situation passed, grandmother made the decision to have a vote by a show of hands. There were six in favor of me and three who didn't. Those three who didn't favor me were Dak, an elder from the warehouse, and an elder from that family who does the numbers for the village."

Luca backed up my statements with a nod and deep sigh. While the others in the group digested the information with furrowed brows. Zoe, once again, was a bit faster then the rest and spoke up after a few seconds of thinking. She looked at me before speaking.

"Rallo, are you saying that those three who disagreed were behind the attack? Surely a small fight would not cause such a reaction, No?"

Everybody nodded at her words as they made sense. I nodded my head as well and continued.

"You are right , Zoe, the fight wasn't the cause. Let me ask you all a question. If you had control over and access to the warriors of our village for over ten years, would you give up that control to someone who could be considered your child in age?"

I looked at each of them while I waited for them to answer. Kai and Luca said that they probably wouldn't but they couldn't give a reason why. This made me chuckle to myself as they seemed to have not have a word for pride in their mental dictionaries. The two twins just shrugged but didn't give a vocal answer. Of all us these two were likely the most impacted by the events. Besides nodding and shaking their heads whenever we ask them anything, they have been pretty much silent the entire time.

Zoe said she would hand over control though, with her reason being that she could still help the village by teaching the new person what she knew. I was surprised by her answer as it seemed to be the most thought out, and I made a mental note of her intelligence and nodded at her words before continuing.

"Since I won the vote and was to be made chief, the various heads and elders of the village would lose control over their respective fields once they announced it at the ceremony. But like Luca and Kai, the head warrior and those two elders didn't want to hand over their control. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure Dak was the one behind the attack. He is the only person who could get warriors from the village to attack us."

All the teens reacted to the revelation in various different ways.

Kai reacted with disbelief at first, but as he thought over my words in his head, he couldn't find a fault with my reasoning so he reluctantly accepted my statement as the truth. Luca and Zoe on the other hand seem to agree with my reasoning wholeheartedly as they nodded along with my words with a look that screamed 'That's It!!'. The twins Ash and Bell seemed to be more angry than anything though.They even spoke in full sentences for the first time on our journey saying that we should go back and kill him for his actions.

We had to spend a few minutes trying to calm them down before we could continue walking.

I thought to myself that if it was Dak who set up the attack though, then I had to give praise where its due. His hit us when our guard was down in a nearly perfect ambush. I'm sure he would make a good field general one day but there is no way I can forgive nor forget what he has done.

After Kai broke the ice on the group, our conversations became much more lively to the point where I had remind everybody that we still in the forest and that be too loud will only bring us trouble. They all lowered their voices but continued to conversate which I felt was good enough.

The sun was in the sky by now but had not reached its peak yet, slightly warming the cool breeze that we felt every once in a while. The temperature was pleasant as well was the weather, making our journey seem less like an escape and more like a camping trip.We had continued walking for maybe six more hours while only stopping twice, once to eat another round of warmed meat, and the other time was another bathroom break.

The sun had pasted its peak and was starting to set, but we still had maybe two hours of sunlight left.

We had paused our steps and was searching for a creek nearby that we could drink from when we heard a new sound that clearly didn't come from any animals or beast for that matter.

*crack*