TF Chapter 61 The Forest

***Danny***

Luck isn't something that can be segregated into good or bad categories. Its just luck. But if I was so inclined at placing it into a category, then by all means its good. The term bad luck is something that people came up with... It shouldn't exist. If many things are going badly for you, then you are under a curse, right? Anyway, these were just my humble thoughts as I raced through the dark gloomy forest of horrors.

Florescent vegetation here and there, plus the occasional light that managed escape the barrier that was the thick canopies, brought about a certain beauty to the place that made it otherworldly... Well, I was literally on another planet, so the term was very apt.

A plant tried to strike out at me, thinking that it had camouflaged its life signs well enough to escape me. Utter ignorance! Well, it couldn't be blamed after all, it lacked intelligence. Even if it had been sentient, there is no way it would have managed to hide those sparkling dots of light from my special eyes.

Since young, my ability had allowed me to see motes of light from every living thing, whether plant or animal... Even microorganisms! My father had made me test it once, using a microscope. In the grand scheme of things though, the motes of light from non-human lifeforms were always small, something that I had extensively tried to disprove only to become dissapointed every single time.

But, the moment I had stepped foot upon this planet, the theory I had tried very hard to overturn had been effortlessly subverted by the living things on this planet. Some trees here even had motes of light far surpassing even those of humans in size...too bad they were useless to me.

With a well timed movement of my arm, a stone was given the privilege of being chosen from among the many I was carrying around in my makeshift leaf bag and hurled towards where most of the spots of light were congregating, causing a splash of liquid and naturally, the death of the carnivorous plant.

I didn't even stop to admire my work, simply speeding along towards the trail of smoke I had seen from the clearing caused by my crash landing. My gut instinct had already told me that whoever was in that direction was going to be facing immense peril. I had to hurry. I didn't know whether it would be Nathaniel or Bora, but I had already decided that I would save them.

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Bora wasn't important to me, but for Nathaniel's sake, I would save the annoying woman. She had been chosen mainly to make senior Nat, less suspicious. We had worked together, fought together and even faced death together, but I was a guy who looked at benefits, not comraderie. Why? Simple! All those with luck any less than that of Nathaniel had zero chances of surpassing what he was going to achieve at his peak!

Sounds, muffled enough to almost escape my attention entered my ears, coming from the front where I was headed towards. There were splashing sounds, squelching sounds and many other sounds of a nature similar to two liquids clashing. I wasn't surprised though, since I had even found out that the tree bark here was too...what is the word... Squishy...?

Anyway, the moment I heard those sounds, I knew it right away that I was about to reach my destination, so I slowed down, splattering some mud into the surroundings due to my abrupt deceleration. If it wasn't for the fabric covering the soles of my feet, I would have most definitely worked out a way to swing among the tree branches. Who in their right mind would love to splash around in this gross filthy mud? Good thing it wasn't the type to trap and drag you under, like a sinkhole.

I restrained most of my life signs, the ones that would mostly give me away, like my breathing, my body heat, though, keeping my spirit firmly shrouding my body. On this planet, this was the most important form of defense a person had to keep up at all times!

Bora, that woman with those womanly martial arts would have been the best person for this creeping upon others type of thing instead of me. Cursing inwardly at the thought of the stealthy approach, I started to circle around anything that had enough motes of light for me to deem it a threat. Not the trees though, as they were harmless. This want based upon those videos we had perused prior to descending onto this planet. I was simply following my instincts which had never failed me for even a moment.

Darkness was all round the place, with the few sparse beams of light only managing to illuminate a tiny potion of the place.

Through the trees, I caught a few sparks here and there because of the flitting nature of the culprits, who never stayed within one place long enough for me to get any more concrete information, though the latest burst allowed me to catch glimpse of a face, a familiar one at that, that of senior Nat.

The beating of my heart sped up at his current predicament, bringing me on the verge of erupting into rage, but I restrained myself. Throwing myself at the creature right now wouldn't be me saving him, more like me dooming the both of us.

I rummaged through the leaf bag, something I had created while still at the edge of the forest. It was a wonder why these plants even needed leaves if they didn't depend on the light from that solar star.