As the sun rises he leaves the tree.

After drinking he goes on a search for food.

Anything will do. Plants, insects, small reptiles, birds and in the best case mammals.

This forest is strange. Normally the wild hills are filled with animals. And this one has barely any of them. One of the reasons is obvious. The only vegetations are the trees. Because of that the small animals have no food. And if there are no small animals then there are also no big animals. But this kind of vegetation is really rare in the wild hills. Normally the forests are filled with animals. And half of them are dangerous.

Why are there no ground plants?

By now he starts turning over the few logs and stones lying around. Bugs are at least some kind of food. There aren’t many rocks and logs around.

After the sun already moved past the highest point it starts to rain a bit. But the water doesn’t reach the ground. Everything is caught by the leaves.

Some time passes and the ground is still as dry as before. Lie Mo has a handful of bugs, spiders and snails. But they have to be fried.

Lie Mo goes back to his water hole. The fireplace is set up quickly and after a while there is a small fire burning. He took the wood from the branches of a newly fallen tree.

This place in not a place to survive. There is water and there are few dangers. But no food means no survival. And the landscape is spooky. He never was in such a desolate forest.

After his miserable meal he searches for bugs again. In the afternoon the loot is better. He even found a small reptile. Still way too small of a meal but anything is better than nothing.

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This time he sleeps on the ground.

The night is slightly better. But full of nightmares.

On the next morning he drinks as much as he can and fills everything that holds water and he is off.

One day of walking.

Another day of walking.

And finally there is a change of scenery.

He was never so happy to se a blade of grass.

A bit further and the vegetations starts to turn normal. The distance between vegetation and no vegetation is surprisingly small. And here he starts to find traces of animals.

Now he needs to find a water source, food and a place to rest.

Ever drop of water is drunken and he didn’t have food for days. Sleep wouldn’t be a problem if not for the nightmares. He never saw an animal bigger than the reptile he caught and the occasional bird. Because of that he could just lie on the floor on a bed made out of dead leaves.

Finally there is a water source. It’s a small stream. Actually it’s the same stream he is following since way up the valley. But this time it isn’t dried up.

After filling up all the water reserves again he goes on the hunt. The first thing he catches is a frog. A bit later he finds a turtle.

With this His first meal should be settled.

Water, food, a fire for cocking and a save but spooky place to sleep.

Now it’s time to think about the future.

“I don’t know if someone of the caravan survived or where they even are. So no going back there.”

…

“I have no clue in which direction I should go to find civilization. Small villages won’t give me entry. And the next bigger one is several weeks along the road. I probably won’t survive that on my own.”

…

“And somehow I have a bad feeling of this desolate forest. I better spend as little time in there as possible. But it is a save space until I have set up something more permanent.”

…

“The best approach is to set up camp here and get to know what dangers are out here. And when I mastered this region, I will go to the next one, until I find a suitable civilization again.”

“Let’s start with a hut. A fortified hut. And I also need to find out what the biggest dangers are of this region. So far everything seems harmless. But I don’t believe it is. Nature is never harmless. And I need to find out why the desolate forest is desolate. I didn’t find anything that looked dangerous or repelling. There is just a strange lack of food and vegetation. Nature doesn’t produce monocultures. But here is one.”