The boy awoke for the second time in his life fifteen years later. He laid with his legs splayed in from on him, his back supported by a small tree that had started to grow many years before. His eyes slowly opened, unsteady like a baby deer standing for the first time. When he finally managed to open them fully for the first time, his mouth slowly opened in awe of what surrounded him. You have to understand that for many, what he laid in the middle of was just a simply grotto, albeit perhaps a little big. But to the boy, who had only seen the destruction of his village, the natural beauty of the vast expanse of nature that surrounded him moved him. Just like how a baby becomes attached to it's parents after seeing them for the first time, the boy became attached to nature. This was widely to his benefit, because although he did not yet know it, the boy would be living alone in the wild for quite some time.

True to his promise, Okwano had decimated the village and it's surroundings. All roads leading to and from the village were very much gone, replaced by natural dirt and trees to fit the area. Nobody would be venturing near the village, especially due to the woods that surrounded them. So, the boy would have to make do on his own until he stumbled upon another village, but that could very well be many years into the future. Who knew how far the closest town was? Certainly not the boy.

However, the boy knew none of that, and so he was unbothered. He continued to look around. In front of him was grass many feet tall that stretched for about two miles in each direction. Beyond the empty field was a vast expanse of trees that continued well past how far he could see. The grass was a vivid green, deep and full like a shining emerald, swaying in the wind like the hair on his head. The trees reached far above the field, grasping for the sky as if trying to catch the clouds. The trunks were dark and brown, and the leaves were red and orange and yellow, the color of the fires that the boy saw take his village. Yet, he wasn't bothered by them. He felt comforted in the grass and with the sight of the trees. When he looked up, his eyes burned at the sight of the sun, but it was nothing compared to how they burned in the presence of a god. He blinked hard, and continued to look at the deep blue sky and the few clouds that took residence in it. He felt at peace here, and he wanted to stay here, to drink the sight that surrounded him and live in it's peacefulness for eternity. But he also wanted to stand. To explore. To see what else he could find in this magical world that he had awoken to.

The boy tried to stand on shaky legs. They would not rise at first, and he fell flat onto his face. He tried to push himself up, but the atrophied muscles could not life his weight on them. He strained, gritting his teeth and pushing with all of his might. A bead of sweat dropped onto the grass below him. Then two, then four, until suddenly the ground was wet and his whole bodies glistened with a wet sheen of perspiration. He thought of giving up, but a fire awoke in him that powered him onto his feet. A yearning to see more, to know what was outside of the grotto he sat it. A fire that burned bright, bringing him standing onto his feet, and the boy stood.

He laughed in his triumph, a small, bubbly, giggling laughter that you would hear from a baby. A laugh that echoed throughout the grotto. It was a contagious sort of laugh, the kind that if you were to hear you couldn't help but laugh with him. The kind of laugh you could only hear from the pure, unadulterated happiness of a child. If there were birds in the sky or bugs in the grass they would be laughing with him. But there were no birds in the sky or bugs in the grass. The boy didn't even know what those things were, but to any other onlooker it would appear odd. This was the power of Okwano, still driving out life even fifteen years later. The roots of the trees and the grass had held them steady, but nearly all other life was sensible enough to stay away. That was the power of a god.

But the boy knew none of that, and so he persevered. He powered forward on new legs that had found their balance. He walked with the confidence of a king, marching through the grass that reached his waist. The ground was soft on his feet, and the grass tickled his smooth, olive colored skin. Now that he was standing, he could see more of the landscape. Behind him, the trees appeared to rise slowly upward as they took root higher in the base of a hill. When the boy faced forward again, the breeze gently washed through his hair, bringing a smile to his face. That was the direction he would go.

He walked onward, towards the edge of the grotto and the start of the forest. The sun was halfway through the sky now and the boy hadn't yet reached the forest. He took a few more steps in the slow pace he had before. Then he put one foot in front of the other faster. Then faster, then faster still. Soon his feet couldn't keep up with one another, and he raced forward. The wind blew on his face as he ran through the remainder of the field. He couldn't help himself, and so he laughed again. His arms pumped with his legs as he ran through the field. The wind pushed his hair behind him, his legs continuing to grow in speed until he was now racing through the field. His sprint continued for a full minute, and did not end due to fatigue. In fact, he felt as though he could do that all day. But when he reached the edge of the forest, the boys foot caught on a root and he fell. He tumbled to the ground, scraping his arms and bruising his legs.

It was there that the boy experience a universal but horrible feeling. Pain burned his arms and throbbed in his legs. He laid splayed out on his back, his hands out to his side like a star. The feelings were unknown, and unwelcome to him. He didn't like this feeling. He wanted to go back to being happy and running again, but he didn't know how. He tried to stand up, but when he pushed on his arms they hurt, and so he fell. He tried once more, and this time made it to his feet. But now, when he tried to take a step, his knees felt weak and sore. He tried to take another, to run like he just had, but his knees hurt too much. He looked at the root he had tripped over. The fall had hurt him, but did it hurt the root? He punched a tree. His fist exploded in pain. Did the tree feel the same way? He would apologize if he knew how, but he didn't, and so he didn't.

He gave up on walking, sitting back down and resting with his back to a tree, like he had earlier today. Earlier today... how far the boy had come in such a short time. He had already experienced more joy than most would in there entire lives. He felt triumph, and sense of earnest happiness, and yet he also experienced crushing defeat. He laughed, he smiled, and he cried. He laid with his back to the tree, looking up at the leaves that hung above his head, blocking out the now fading sun as night crept. He yawned, and then he smiled despite the pain that ate at his limbs. Yes, today had been a good day. And with those thoughts, the boy slept for the second time in his life, this time dreaming of running through beautiful fields.

The boy awoke the next day with a sense of reinvigoration. The pain had faded and he was once again ready to explore. The only sound around him was that of the wind blowing through the leaves. Was the wind there all night? What happened to everything around him when he was asleep? When he closed his eyes, everything was gone, but he could still hear the wind in the trees. There was so much to know about the world that he woke up in, and he had to learn more. The boy felt a yearning for knowledge, for understanding. It was that thirst that brought him to his feet, but it was his literally thirst that drove him to move. The boy did not yet know what thirst and hunger were, but he was quite surely feeling them at this time. His body managed to sustain itself for fifteen years and a single day, and that was a miracle, but now the boy was wracked with thirst and hunger. However, he didn't know what to do. He hadn't learned what eating or drinking was, much less how to find food or water.

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He walked for hours and hours, trudging through the forest at a grim pace. He no longer wanted to run. He wanted to sit and rest, but his instinct pushed him forward. Forward, through the never-ending forest. The forest that he didn't understand. Was this what the world was? Fields and forests, thirst and hunger? No, that couldn't be right. The world was standing up after a struggle, laughing at your victories, and running through fields. It was with those thoughts in mind that the boy kept walking.

He listened to the leaves the whole time. Why didn't he make a noise when the wind blew on him? What was wind? What were leaves? He didn't know, but he kept listening. Listening and listening, until a new sound appeared. A faint trickle out in the distance. Many would know it is the sound of running water, but not the boy. Yet he walked towards it, eager to discover a new sound and all of the questions that came along with it. He walked forward for another hour before he found that cause. A river, around twenty feet wide and deeper than the boy stood churned in front of him. The water was foamy and white, and the boy was attracted to it. He walked closer and closer, until his toes now rested in the cool, wet dirt on the riverbank. He took another step towards the water, and now his ankles were covered by the running water. This, too, felt good, and so he took another step. He was up to his knees now. Another step, and he was up to his chest. One more step, and his head dunked under. He let out a yelp underwater, but it was no good. Water rushed into his nose and mouth, slowly filling him as he sunk to the bottom. He flailed his arms, pushing back towards where he could stand just a moment before, but it was no good, and he was swept away by the current.

He continued to flail, his arms splashing at the top of the water. He was underwater for a minute, then two, then three before his head broke the surface. The river shallowed out, and he could stand again. He was now covered in scrapes and scratches from the rocks on the riverbed, and his head ached. The boy crawled out of the water, and he felt pain once again. However, he also felt better. He wasn't thirsty anymore. The boy wondered at this. It must have been the water. His mouth was no longer try, and it must have been because of the river.

While the boy pondered that, any other person would have been pondering how he didn't drown. A kid, underwater for three minutes in a rushing river, walking out with nothing more than scrapes was miraculous. It would be logical to thing that perhaps it was because his body was so deprived of water that it simply absorbed it instead of drowning, or perhaps the boy had a remarkable lung capacity. However, it was was actually due to something much more illogical. It was because the boy was awake that he had survived, and that's all there is to it.

The boy was still hungry, and he thought about how to fix it. If putting water in his mouth fixed his thirst, maybe putting something else in his mouth could fix his hunger. He scooped up a handful of wet dirt and shoved it into his mouth, chewing on it for a moment before spitting it out. Dirt was not the solution to his problem. He looked around at what else was surrounded him. In the trees, he saw something new. A bird, pecking at the great tree. What was that? Why was it punching the tree? Did it not get hurt, like he had? He looked back down at the water, and saw many new creatures. A group of small bait fish, swimming around in unison. They moved together. Why were there so many of them, but only one of him and the bird. He felt lonely for a moment. He looked around. Another bird had joined the previous one. There were thousands of trees surrounding him. Was he alone in this world, left to discover everything by himself. He felt many new emotions in this moment. Sadness, loneliness, anxiety. And yet he also felt that same determination he felt earlier. He was alone for a reason, and so he would continue on alone.

Looking back at the water, he noticed that the school of fish was smaller than earlier. Why could that be? He kept staring at the river as it trickled on, and he soon saw why. A larger fish was in the water, and it opened it's mouth and caught two smaller fish in the school. That was the answer. He need to eat a fish, and then he wouldn't be hungry. He thrust his hand into the river, grabbing desperately as the fish, but they easily swam away. Why didn't that work? He tried again, but again they slipped through his fingers. He looked at the bigger fish, and how it caught them. He saw it at the bottom, waiting patiently for the fish to come by. Then, suddenly, it surged forward and caught them. That's that he needed to do.

And so he became like the fish, his hand patiently on the top of the water, until a small fry came too close. He surged his hand forward, snapping it shut. When he pulled it out, the fish sat there, flopping around in his hand. He popped the fry into his mouth expecting to feel full and satiated, but he did not. The boy thought back to the bigger fish, and how it needed many smaller fish to eat. He started to put his hand in the water to catch more fish, but then he had an idea. What if, instead of many small fish, he caught the big fish on the bottom?

He wanted to try, so he scooted over to the right where the big fish was. He dunked his hand in the water, slowly moving it towards the bottom. Did the fish see it? It wasn't reacting like the smaller fish, who darted away in an instant. Slowly, slowly, he lowered in further and further, until suddenly he shot his hand forward, digging his fingers into the side of the fish. It flopped and struggled, but it could not escape his grasp. He pulled it up as it continued to twist and turn, trying to get away. He smiled again, feeling that sense of triumph that he had earlier., but this time, there was something else that came with it. A feeling of needles, pricking his left forearm. It started to bleed, and he didn't know why. It didn't hurt, and blood was not new to him after all of his cuts, but he was curious. Why was he bleeding now? It couldn't have been because of catching fish, as he had done that earlier. What was it?

Whatever the cause, he look a happy bite out of the fish. It didn't taste good, but it certainly wasn't as bad as the dirt. He swallowed, and he felt is stomach start to calm. This was the solution he was looking for. The boy greedily devoured the fish before laying back, satisfied. The sun was gone, and this time the canopy of the trees was open enough for him to see the stars. Even those bright objects beyond his reach came in sets of many. He resolved himself. He wasn't alone in this world, and he would find others to live with. THat was his goal.

The boy was right. He was not alone in the world, but not every living being wanted his benefit. Just like he sat, stalking the fish, a dark shadow lurked behind the trees, stalking the boy. The animal was hungry, but it was smarter than most wild beasts. It would wait for morning, when the boy had just woken up, and it would strike.

The boy had experienced pain before, but never danger. That was about to change.