While waiting for his leg to heal, Sam tried to go to Origin. He knew that warlords couldn't get hurt there so he was just curious to know what would happen if he was injured before going into Origin. Would all of his wounds heal or stay the same way there were?
It took him several tries before he was successful. The entire time, Sam had been closing his eyes and thinking only about Origin and nothing else. He had been interrupted by outside noises and forced to start over again. When Sam felt the tree under him change to a smooth, flat surface, he knew he succeeded.
Sam opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the room with the larger stone. This was the place where they entered their world. Sam looked down at his leg to see if there was any change. The pain completely stopped, even when Sam stood up and put all his weight on his right leg, he didn't even feel the slightest pain. But that was as far as it went. Sam could see his injuries still there, it didn't get healed.
'I wonder what would happen if I chopped my entire leg off. Will it get healed completely, or will it go back to the way it was before I chopped it off.' Sam wondered to himself. He wanted to try it but was a little hesitant. If it didn't work, he would have to put himself through all of that pain for nothing.
Sam waited to see if anything would change with his leg for a few more seconds and when nothing happened, he put his hand on the stone and he disappeared from Origin.
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A few days later.
Sam got down from his spot on the tree. His injure had mostly healed now and he could walk without leaning on Xander. Today was the day Xander and Sam started walking again.
Both of them were sick of eating berries over and over again. Xander thought that he might turn into a berry if he ate anymore. Their water situation wasn't good either. The berries had lots of water in them, but Sam and Xander could never eat enough to satisfy their thirst.
Sam and Xander started walking and left the tree, which had been their home for almost a week. They headed forward, always staying near the mountain. Sam and Xander continued walking well into the day, only stopping to take a few breaks here and there to catch their breath.
After they had been walking for almost six hours when Sam noticed something. In the distance, he could hear a loud roaring sound. Soon enough, Xander noticed it as well.
"It's a river." Said Xander as he realized what he was hearing was.
"Yep. We finally found a river" said Sam thankful that he didn't have to walk without a direction anymore. From here on out, they could follow it down and hopefully hit civilization.
Sam and Xander proceed carefully. They were both excited to see the river, but they both remembered that this forest held strong predators. Where would they most likely be? Near the river, where all animals have to come to get water.
Sam and Xander walked forward slowly, trying not to make any sounds. They did not want to alert anything that could be near the water. When they finally saw the river, they relaxed. They could not see anything that could kill them and that was enough.
In front of them was a wide river, around thirty feet in width. In the middle of the river, the ground was not visible so the depth was not visible. There was a lack of trees on the river bank, which was filled with small stones. The water was neither fast nor slow. In the river, fish could be seen swimming about, once in a while, there were larger fish around four feet in length.
Sam and Xander approached the river and kneeled down.
"We can drink this water right," asked Xander, wondering if the river could somehow be poisonous.
"Running water is usually safe. It's just the still water we have to worry about." Said Sam. "Just be careful with the fish though. Some of them don't seem to be too harmless."
Sam could see fish that had teeth outside their mouths, sometimes swallowing small fish that got too close. He figured that they could make a fine dish later.
They both cupped their hands and put them in the river. They drank lots of water. Their throats had been dry for almost an entire week and they had been dehydrated. They were not going to give up an opportunity to get lots of water.
After drinking, Xander looked around. They were in a clearing, so there weren't any trees in the vicinity.
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After taking another short break, they followed the river down. It was much easier to walk this time around because they didn't have to walk around any trees or any bushes. After an hour of walking, Sam decided to stop for the day. It was going to be dark in around two hours and they needed to figure out where they were going to sleep and what they were going to eat.
"We can go climb a tree to sleep but what should we eat?" He said, thinking out loud. "Fish? Maybe, but we have to catch one then cook it, so we would need a fire."
"I like the sound of fish," said Xander. His stomach grumbled when he thought about a nice warm fish. He began to salivate with just thinking about it. It had been too long since he had actual food that tasted good.
"Okay, fine. You are in charge of catching a fish and I'll start a fire." Said Sam.
"How am I going to catch a fish without fishing?" Asked Xander. After thinking for a few seconds he came up with an answer himself. "I can catch it with my bare hands, like Bear Grylls."
Satisfied with his own answer, Xander got in the river, looking for fish to catch.
Sam was thinking more along the lines of making a spear to catch fish but it didn't really matter to him how the fish was caught. He went back to thinking about his own task. He could get plenty of wood from the trees so the only thing he had to worry about was lighting it on fire.
'How about I pick up a few stones and bang them together until I get a spark? No, that's a lot of work. I would need to randomly stumble across a rock that can actually get a spark and here, where there are literally hundreds of stones, it's not gonna happen.' He thought. 'I guess the only other method is the stick spinning on log method.'
Sam got up and headed towards where the trees were. He searched the ground for things he could use as kindling. He picked up a few small sticks and dried leaves, satisfied he went back to the rocks and set them there.
After a few minutes of looking and going back and forth, Sam was finally ready. He picked up a stick with a sharp end and pointed it down to a large log. He set the kindling on top to light on fire when there was a spark. Sam started to spin the stick around and waited.
It was a long and tiring process. Sam almost wished that he went with the rock way instead. After spinning the stick, for what felt to Sam like hours, there was smoke and then a spark. The kindling caught on fire and Sam put the other sticks onto it to keep it going.
Satisfied with this fire, Sam looked over to where Xander was catching fish. Sam was shocked at what he was seeing. He saw a small pile of large fish to the side of the river. He didn't even think that they could eat all of that even if they ate only fish for a week. He was amazed at Xander's skill.
'If this warlord thing doesn't work out, we could start a business fishing.' He thought to himself. 'Xander could fish and I could cook. We would be millionaires in no time at all.'
Sam cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted to Xander. The river was quite loud so Sam had to be very loud if he wanted Xander to hear him.
"THAT'S ENOUGH FISH FOR TODAY, XANDER. BRING THEM OVER THERE." Sam shouted.
Xander heard Sam and stopped fishing. In the beginning, he couldn't really catch any fish. He was aiming for them directly and but by the time his hands got to them, the fish were gone. So he experimented around and after a few more failed attempts, he finally got his first fist. After that, he just kept going. He forgot that he was fishing to get food and fished in order to just get better at it. He fell into an almost trans like state with fishing being his only thought. It had been interrupted only when he heard Sam.
'That was weird,' Xander thought to himself. He looked over at the pile of fish and was surprised himself. He didn't think he had caught so many fish and he didn't even think that he had been fishing for so long. He picked up all the ones he could carry and headed over to the fire.
Xander set all of the fishes that he brought to the side and gave one for Sam to cook. One was enough for both of them to be full. Sam took a relatively clean stick and shoved it through the mouth of the fish. He held it over the fire, turning it over once in a while.
A few minutes later, the fish was completely cooked. Both Sam and Xander could not wait to have their first real meal in a week and began to feel very hungry. When it was finally finished, Sam set it on a rock and cut it in half with a sharp rock. He took one half and gave the other to Xander.
"Be careful not to accidentally eat the bones." Said Sam.
After a few minutes, the cooked fish was nowhere to be seen. Sam and Xander completely ate every other than the head, bones, and intestines of the fish.
"What do we do about the other fish?" Asked Xander. They couldn't hold onto them, but they would go back in a few days and they always just catch more fish.
"I have a good idea. We can use them to lure something out of the forest." Sam said. "We can put them near the fire so we can see exactly what comes out."
Sam and Xander both had been worried about even the smallest noise while they were waiting in the tree. They had been worried that something worse than the black animal would walk out and attack them in the middle of the night. This would be a good way to clear up all of their doubts. If they just left the fish out, animals would be able to smell them from far away and when they came out, Sam and Xander would be able to see exactly what they were.
"You get the rest of the fish here, and I will get more logs to keep the fire going through the night," said Sam.
After a few minutes, all the fish were close to the fire and Sam had enough wood next to him to keep the fire going for a long time. He would need to add logs periodically but he wasn't too worried. In the worst-case scenario, Sam could just throw logs onto the fire from a tree.
Xander picked a tree that was close to the fire and started to climb. When he reached the fifth branch he stopped. He was not going to take any chances. Sam followed him up and stopped at the fourth branch. At this height, both of them had a clear view of the fire, the fishes, and the river.
They didn’t have to wait long, as soon as the sunset and the darkness of the night came out, they could see something moving towards the fish.