Day #16

Today I didn't really know what to do. There was no food anywhere near me, so I could only continue walking, and hope the rain didn't cover too much space. I have grown used to walking for hours, so that didn't bother me as much as it did in the beginning.

However, there was one problem.

The little deer had decided that I was some kind of saviour to it, and was following me around. It often blocked my path, determined to constantly shower me with it's eternal love and gratitude.

It's incredibly annoying, and due to this, progress slowed down to a crawl.

I will try to starve it to death for now.

Day #17

Walk, walk, walk.

There is nobody to speak to. I tried to communicate with the deer, but as expected, it just stared dumbly into my face. Stupid animal. I felt I could understand Mr. Bear, even if I only knew him for about five seconds, but this one was too dumb for that.

I am also getting hungry. Somehow, the water isn't contaminated, so I could still drink from all of the small rivers crossing through the forest.

Day #18

By now, I am really hungry. The deer shows no signs of being tired, and I have yet to see it drink anything. Usually it just stares at me when I'm sleeping. It's a bit creepy, to be honest.

I didn't wake up the usual way, instead, the deer licked my face until I woke up. There's nothing left to dry it with, so I had to walk around with a wet face all morning.

Day #19

Today I finally realised a use for the deer. I could ride it.

If it doesn't get tired easily and neither eat nor drink often it will be the perfect riding animal.  

This way, it also wont be able to be annoying, and I can show who is the boss. 

It was a lot of trouble to get on him. I tried lots of things to make him understand me, and after a couple of hours he finally let me get on. It was uncomfortable as hell, and after the day was over, my butt felt like it was splitting in two. However, he was really fast, so I have to get used to it.

Day #20

My stomach was screaming at me the whole day today. I was really hungry. And soon, my sore body was put through the challenge of riding the deer without throwing up, passing out or getting hit in the face with the remaining branches. It didn't help that my behind hurt even more than yesterday.

Wish I had some food.

Day 21#

I found it. True happiness.

A bush with berries on it. When I saw it I threw myself of the deer, hitting my head on a branch. 

But I had completely forgotten my hunger or pain at this point.

It was the only thing in my sight, like a miracle sent from god.

When I bit it, it tasted so bad I immediately threw it up again. It was the kind of taste that would induce a lifelong trauma, and it was on a completely different level of terrible when compared to previous awful meals.

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There is just no way to keep it in your mouth for more than a millisecond. I simply laid there for an hour, silently weeping. When the deer came and tried to console me with a gentle nudge I slowly rose up and gave my best smile, which was comparable to a twisted horror mask, but the deer seemed to be relieved anyways. 

In an amazing gesture of generosity and kindheartedness, I picked one of the berries, and instead of eating it myself, who was starving to death, I reached out and gave it to my ever-loyal companion. 

After smelling it for a second, it seemed to do it's equivalent of shrugging it's shoulder, and then ate it.

The deer fell on it's side and never moved again. Mission completed.

Day 22#

The deer obviously represented bad luck. Maybe it was karma from my previous life that brought it to me. However, that chapter of my life is now over. And true to my theory, just five minutes away from the corpse the forest returned to normal, with lots of fruit and berries. I ate until I almost threw up, and then I ate some more.

Now I can finally get out of this place. Let's hope I wont be eaten.

Day 23#

Everything returned to normal today. Well, normal relative to this place. No more hurting behinds or starving nights. Just back to walking all day long, all alone. However, my clothes are dirty. Very dirty. I probably smell a lot too. However, that is good, because it masks my scent from other animals. 

I hope. 

Day 24#

Surprisingly enough, I feel a bit lonely. I'm happy the deer is gone, but I wish Mr. Bear was here. 

This night, I had an awful dream. The acid rain came pouring down again, and I was hiding under a big tree. Then, the deer corpse came, melting away in the acid, and when it finally reached me it was but a blackened skeleton, giving off shrieking sounds that were really scary.

Then I woke up, and I was sweating buckets. Maybe I should be worried about my mental health.

Day 25#

It's terrible. The dream came back again, however this time, the skeleton tried to lick me, only to realise it didn't have a tongue. It screamed it's despair towards the heavens, and then I woke up again. I am getting worried about this.

Later in the day, I found another eagle nest. It was basically like a crater in the ground stuffed with the hair of dead animals and twigs. Lots of twigs. Deep inside you could see some small, round fur-balls that were probably it's kids.

Since they were sleeping, I didn't want to disturb them, and quietly sneaked past them, continuing my journey.