There's not many creatures around. Not many that I can see anyway. There’s the occasional bird, and a single squirrel, but not much else. Then again, it’s still daytime, so maybe they only come out at night? I’m not really sure how many animals I should expect in a forest like this. Now that I am under the cover of the trees, it is a bit harder to guess the time. The canopy is pretty thick, making it feel like dusk down here. There is still plenty of light falling through some gaps though, so I should have enough time to get myself to…

I pause, as I realize that I have no idea where I am going, or what I am going to do. I am naked, I have no food, no drink, and no idea where to find any form of civilization. The realization is like a bucket of cold water poured down my head, and my good cheer from the idyllic environment evaporates.

I spin on my heels, trying to figure out where I’ve come from, but everything but the direction is lost, and I have no idea where I am compared to where I arrived. The forest looks the same everywhere, and I could have been walking in circles for all I know.

I go too caught up in the idea of reincarnations, teleportation, what have you. As I reflect on my situation, I imagine that I was trying to distract myself? Everything feels better than considering just how fucked I am, even if it might not be the most sensible idea.

What am I going to do? If I don’t find a safe place before the sun goes down, who knows that kind of animals I will encounter. There are no bears or wolves in the forests anywhere near my home, but I can practically guarantee that is not the case here. Nothing and nobody appears to live here, so nobody would have exterminated them. Is there even something that could be considered a safe place? Even if I can climb a tree or something to keep myself safe from animals, I’m going to have to find water or I'm not going to last the week.

I could hope for rain, but the few glimpses of the sky and the current climate do not give me any confidence that a shower is anywhere near at hand. While it won’t be pleasant, I believe I can survive for quite a while without food. Surviving without water is not an option. I wonder if there will be any dew on the plants in the morning that I could gather? I honestly have no idea.

I glance up at what is visible of the sky from beneath the tree canopy. Maybe I could try to make fire so someone can see the smoke and come rescue me? But a fire of a size that would get people to notice me in this dense forest would have a good chance of setting the forest ablaze. I also don't exactly know how to make a fire. I've gone camping, sure, but I've never needed to light a fire without a lighter. No fire for now. Maybe I will reconsider if nothing else works

I figure I might as well start walking again. so I do. I'm going to need to make sure that I'm not walking around in circles somehow. I can make marks on trees, but those would be very hard to see unless I closely inspect every tree, which kind of defeats the point. I look around as I walk, hoping for sudden inspiration given by mother nature. Not much is forthcoming, the forest is essentially untouched. I'm struck by an idea. I grab a somewhat straight branch lying around on the ground and jam it straight up in the ground. It doesn’t feel very solid, so I hammer it in with a different and slightly flatter piece of wood. If I come past this spot again I’ll know without careful inspection.

It makes me feel marginally better to have taken some action, to have something I can do to improve my situation, even a little bit. Even if it turns out to be pointless, and I never hit the same location I could consider that a win, so I keep hammering branches into the ground every so often. There certainly is an abundance of loose sticks and branches on the ground. Eventually I can see a trail of branches stretching quite a while back into the forest.

Maybe I can make a shelter out of these branches too? I don’t particularly want to sleep where all the animals can reach, but I’m not confident about staying in a tree while asleep either.

Handing that problem to future me, I keep my eyes out for anything, but mostly for some source of water. The animals may or may not not be a problem, but I am definitely going to die of thirst if I don’t find something to drink. Given how ancient this forest looks, at least I won’t have to be worried about any water being polluted.

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image [https://pub-43e7e0f137a34d1ca1ce3be7325ba046.r2.dev/Group.png]

After walking for nearly four hours, I don’t find any water though, and neither do I find a tree that is either climbable or has a decent place to put myself to sleep. They're all just too damn big. It’s like this forest is designed to frustrate me. Who let all these trees grow unchecked for several hundred years?

I tried to climb some of the trees at first, but quickly learned that doing that without clothes on is a great way to get scrapes in all kinds of annoying places. That led to me trying to think of a way to get myself some clothing, or leaves, or... anything really. But even if I could make some form of clothing out of anything in the forest, I have no idea where to start.

I figured I'd wait until I found a tree that was promising enough to just try climbing it regardless, but I never do. They're all at least twenty meters high, and the lowest branches are all several meters up. There are plenty of pines with branches all over the place, but they're all too flimsy for me to trust climbing—or sleeping on, for that matter.

At some point I feel the need to go pee, and for some reason still feel a need to find a relatively secluded spot before relieving myself, even though I've encountered literally nothing and nobody all day long. I could literally stop in place, pee, then walk on, but society has left its imprints, and a single day in an abandoned forest is insufficient to break this habit.

The world consists of an endless expanse of slightly rolling land covered with trees. Most of them are deciduous, though I notice a few pines here and there. I distract myself by gathering acorn shells, which this place seems to be brimming with. I can't carry all that many, but the shitty ones get replaced by the nicer ones as I find them. There's enough of them that I end up with a nice collection of perfectly formed shells.

When I realize it is getting darker, without having made any apparent progress on any of my goals, I recall my earlier idea to make shelter out of branches, and start gathering them instead. At least one of the survival lessons I've heard or read about at some point in my life stuck around. Since I haven’t really found any great place, I just start building right next to the largest tree close by. I figure if I place it next to the tree that's one side that's somewhat more obscured.

Even though I more or less remember how to go about it, it takes me a lot longer than I expect. The bloody branches just do not want to stay upright, and I rebuild the shelter several times before I slap myself in the head and use the same strategy I used for my other sticks, and just hammer them into the ground. By the time I finish the frame, it is pretty dark. I think I am supposed to cover the frame with moss, since it is full of holes now, but even if there is quite a lot of moss around here I can’t see how I’ll ever finish before I can't see my hands in front of my eyes any more. It’ll get more dangerous to walk when I can’t see where I’m going too. I could easily step in something that’d mess up my feet, or twist my ankle. I don't believe it actually is that late, maybe somewhere in the early evening, but even a minimal decrease in sunlight seems to have a disproportionately large effect on the world below the canopy.

I do make an attempt, but after half an hour I'm forced to concede. My eyes are straining to make out anything in the gloom. Since I sort of know where the moss and my shelter are, I try to keep covering it mostly by feel but very quickly even that becomes impossible. It's freaky for me how perfectly dark it has become under the trees. I look up, but see no moon, or much of anything shining through the canopy.

I try to suppress my shivers as I crawl into my shelter. And I realize I’ve forgotten the most important thing. To make a frame to lie on, and cover that with moss. I can't help but wonder how fast sleeping directly on the ground will suck the warmth out of me while I sleep. At least the shelter is already sort of built on top of all the moss surrounding the tree, so it's not entirely a lost cause.

Since I am dead tired by this point, I figure it is fine, and let my head fall on the surprisingly soft moss. I grab a few nearby chunks and stack them to make an improvised cushion, then lie down to rest. As I lie down, I'm pleasantly surprised. I'd expected sleeping naked on the forest floor to be more uncomfortable, but the moss is actually quite soft. It's not entirely comparable to my mattress back home, but it's a far cry from lying down on concrete. Thanks moss!

The temperature does not seem to have significantly decreased from the pleasant 25 degrees Celsius that it's been the whole day. I'd normally like to sleep in a colder room, but given the fact I have no pajama or blanket, this is actually perfect. The only thing I detest is that I've exerted myself quite a bit today, and I have nothing to fill my stomach with. My throat already feels dry after not drinking for half a day, and it'll only get worse.

Animal sounds are everywhere around me now. I guess they do come out at night.