After I calmed down myself and the pack, I started working. There was time to see what exactly the deer can do later and in fact, I should try to do a whole test of the pack sometime. But regardless, that was not a priority for now. What was a priority was cleaning the deer's body to save it for later.

It took me a few minutes to finish up and I was very hungry by the time I was done, so I set up a fire and cooked up the deer meat which I ate quickly. The deer meat was actually better than the wolf meat by a lot, but maybe I am just getting a little tired of eating just wolf meat since I have been here.

So I set up a campfire with help from Alpha, I set up the makeshift spit to cook up my new meat while I waited and then I proceeded to watch it cook and sizzle as.

During my meal and in between bites of chewy deer meat, I wondered what to do. “I have some food that can last for a while, lots of water and I have some shelter in the trees.” I said, saying my new found situation with some relief. “What do I still need?” I wonder to myself and coming to an answer in seconds. “I need to find people.” I said at last, “There has to be some sort of civilization here, there just has to.”

I then spent some time thinking of things I needed to do before I can go to explore this wilderness, listing them in my head. “Something better to carry supplies in would be nice. Maybe I can rig up some sort of pouches for the deer to carry.” I started quickly, thinking of how to solve the problem. “You know what? I have quite a lot of fur from the wolves and deer, and I don't think I need very much to sleep comfortably. I also have the rope.” I muttered out loud while thinking hard.

But first, I think I should take a look around. ‘Those trees above the cliff are much higher up than anything else I have seen around here.’ I thought, looking up at the waterfall from my position beside the pool of water. ‘The only problem is getting up there.’

After a good minute of checking for ways up to the top of the waterfall, I sighed as I realized that I was going to have to either climb, or try to go into the forest to find someplace I could get up easier. Eventually I chose climbing. Looking closer at the wall of stone, there was actually quite a bit of potential hand a foot holds. The only problem is that the cliff face is about the size of a three story building. Not to mention the fact that it is probably going to be perpetually wet from the waterfall. And the fact that I don't have any climbing gear besides my own body.

But, I have done bouldering before… How hard can it be?

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The answer was HARD. I had just started climbing when I realized just how much harder it would be then I thought, but it was too late to turn back. The only way forward is up.

It took me what felt like half an hour of grabbing at the wall and holding on for dear life, well for the wish to not fall into the deep pool of water below, I finally reached the top of the slab of stone and I could lie back on the ground and clutch my bloody hands and sore arms. Alpha healed a couple of scrapes from the climb, but the muscle pain couldn't be healed quite as easily apparently.

Once I felt ok enough to stand again, I started to look around and I paused to drink in the scene around me. From below the waterfall, it looked like there might be a larger stream of water feeding into the pool but instead there was a full river that wove around the waterfall with the waterfall being a small branch along its winding route. All along the banks of the river, there was life. Bright colors of plants captured the light, the water rushing around, making splashes and letting me see through the river.

But what most caught my attention was the animals and fish that were visible in the open. I saw what looked like salmon swimming to their heart's content through the clear water, I saw what looked like some sort of large bull that was drinking from the waters edge only to slink away into the forest a moment later once it seemed to spot me. The sight of so many animals shocked me a little.

The most animals I had seen at any one time was the wolf pack and even then it was a few days before I had even seen another animal. It was like the forest sort of… broke around the river. The environment felt completely different, more friendly and teeming with life and light. It was odd, but a nice break from the dark forest I had woken up in.

I still kept a close eye on my surroundings though. Who knows what could be just out of sight in this world. Hell, there could be a dragon sleeping very quietly just beyond the trees and I would have no idea.

I did take a moment to admire the change in scenery, but I needed to see about climbing even higher to get a good look around. I started examining the trees around me and I debated which tree would be best, but eventually settled on the second highest tree that looked like it had good branch positioning for climbing.

So, I walked up to the tree and I started climbing up quickly, always reaching out to the next branch and never looking down. Eventually, I reached a nice thick branch and I swung myself onto it to sit and take a look around. It was an amazing view.

Up in the tree, I looked down to my pool and it seemed so small from here, but then I turned my eyes up and looked around the world below me. Everywhere I could see, there were trees. The forest stretched for miles and miles, only small patches of grassland visible through the sea of trees. I could even see huge mountains in the distance, encircling the forest and there was another impressive sight that gave me a surprise as I looked out at it. There was a mountain, closer than those in the distance and on that mountain, I can see huge stone structures along its body.

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Buildings and fires stretched across the mountain city that I could see from my high position in the tree.

“YES!” I yelled in excitement, reaching my hands into the air in celebration. There were people! “Wow…” I said, calmer this time, looking out at the mountain city with awe.

Now I have a direction. A goal. A mission.

I look out again, trying to gauge distance as accurately, but it is really hard. “That looks like maybe a couple of weeks of walking?” I muttered, putting a number on the distance in disappointment. But whatever, it's not like I am on some kind of time limit. I would walk for a month if it means that I can finally find people in this world.

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Days have passed, close to a week really. The time has been spent well, with the first two days used preparing my stuff for travel, and even making a rough camping backpack with the deer hide and the rough string I had along with a bone needle I shaped. It was rough and definitely cumbersome, but it got the job done when I packed up all the meat and furs I had collected.

Alpha was a bit annoyed that I was adding more weight to my already hefty body weight however, so I just tied it up around one of the more bulky wolves and let him carry my supplies once I was sure he didn't mind or it would slow him down much.

Also, I figured out something else on the first day of travel. Apparently deer can't go very fast in a forest, even when we were sticking to the smaller stream that ran from the pool. Well, nothing as fast as the wolves can anyway. I didn't hold it against her, but I still had to keep her in my soul space regardless so the rest of the pack doesn't have to slow down for her to keep up. We still had a long journey ahead of us, so slowing down early would not let us make good time.

Breaks were pretty infrequent and mostly just for me to have a break from riding or eat something, but they never took long. Except for a few outliers that were… Well so far it has only happened three times.

The events I am talking about are of course fights with the native wild animals. The first one I encountered was… not pretty. Apparently the spot we stopped and took a lunch break in was occupied by a weirdly sneaky fox that got the jump on me while I ate and took a good chunk out of my arm before I summoned the pack in panic and the fox ran away before I was fully healed by Alpha. Needless to say, I was much more careful during my breaks after that.

The second event went differently from the first, which was a relief. It didn't happen during a break for starters, the wolves and I were just running through the woods when a roar from the right let us know there was something else coming to us. We got ready just in time, with me dismounting and getting in front of the wolves a second before a huge beast emerged through the trees. Covered with black fur and scars, the black bear was almost the size of a truck and it was as angry as I had ever seen before. Now that fight was a slog, with us trading blows and several wolves having to be pulled out of the fight to be healed by Alpha before diving right back in. It was a tough fight, but eventually we got through its extremely hard skin and the pack gained another member.

The third animal was actually relatively normal, if somewhat out of place. It was a gorilla. It was actually really strong, strong enough to send a tree to the ground on the unlucky newest summon, the bear. But the fight went quickly and the gorilla was also killed and became a summon.

These fights happened actually surprisingly regularly, with the first two happening on the same day and the last happening just yesterday. It could just be the pack's speed while traveling, but the forest seems to be more populated then I gave it credit, just the animals were very territorial and spread out.

So, the first four days of my adventure went quickly. And now, on the fifth day things seemed to be going well, with nothing coming to pick a fight all day.

I looked around the small clearing with some misgivings as I set up a campfire in the center of it to cook up some bear meat I kept from the bear's body after I had killed and cleaned it.

It took a while to cook, but while it did I couldn't help but look around the clearing with mild paranoia. The first two days of my traveling, I had run into at least one beast that wanted to have a piece of me, but… there was nothing today. Nothing at all, and it was starting to get on my nerves. ‘Is it possible I am developing PTSD?’ I wondered to myself, only to push it aside, ‘I can think about all that later, when the chance of monsters attacking me while I eat are lower.’

“HISSS!” I heard behind me and I cursed, dropping the meat to the ground and looking to where the sound came from in shock. There is a bigass lizard just on the ground, crawling to me at the speed of a snail. I would have laughed at the sight of the lizard just crawling to me like it owns the place, but by big, I mean it's the size of a larger dog. And magic is a thing so who knows what this weirdass lizard could do?

I watch it carefully, reaching out for my spear. Then in a flash, the lizard hisses and it convulses before… something looking like a black liquid, shoots from its open mouth between its fangs.

I try to throw myself out of the way, but its speed is incredible, like a water gun shooting water. It hits me and I slam into the ground too late and summon the pack from my soul space in seconds. They leap out, the wolves howling, the bear growling, the gorilla yelling and beating its chest while the deer just paws the ground before they all charge in a second. I hear a rather indigent and pitiful hiss, and I can hear it die instantly. As far as I can tell, there isn't much that can survive a full attack from the pack.

But, I can tell something was wrong. My chest feels numb…

I push myself to my feet and stumble almost instantly into a tree, my head pounding and the numbness starting to spread. I look down to my chest. It is covered with the black liquid, but what is more concerning is that it melted right through my shirt and my skin was turning red.

The numbness reached my brain and I fell over, only vaguely aware of a glowing form coming closer to my form, blue light starting to spread from it during what felt like an eternity.