Chapter 4

Although Ethan was not the most capable teenager, he knew how to hunt, as they did it for leisure with the other wealthier residents of Moriah.

With his clothes still in disarray, he walked towards the lake and dipped a toe in to check the temperature. Noticing that the water was cool, he walked straight into the water and fully submerged himself, and ruffled his hair a bit while he was under.

When he got back up, obviously the clothes were still torn but it lightened somewhat the blood on his clothes and in his hair and appeared like a large dark brown stain.

He suddenly went still and just stood there with his arms stretched out. The seconds ticked away and turned into minutes when he suddenly lunged towards the water.

"Fuck!"

Ethan had been aiming for one of the fish swimming back and forth, but he'd missed it. Determined to eat something, Ethan kept trying again and again and was finally able to catch something on his third try.

After pulling out the small grey fish it kept struggling, but Ethan just ignored it and walked out of the water.

After a bit of time, the fish had died from the lack of water and Ethan just looked at it for a bit and suddenly slapped the fish against a rock and groaned

'How am I even supposed to cook this thing?'

As much as Ethan knew the basics, he had learned no survival techniques. If he had, one of the first things he would have learned was how to start a fire.

As Ethan never cooked at home and whatever labor he needed to be done was sorted out by the servants, this had never been an issue in the past. Groping his forehead a bit more yielded some results, Ethan remembered that he had once seen the guards light up a campfire using stones.

"Grrrrrrrrrrr."

With his stomach urging him on, Ethan grabbed some nearby stones and knelt down to try to create a spark to test out his idea. Unfortunately, no matter how many times he smacked them against each other, nothing happened.

Ethan didn't give up though

He kept bashing the two stones together and the sound could be heard through the cavern, with the echoes ringing out soon after.

"Clunk…"

"Clunk…"

"Clunk…"

For fifteen minutes straight, he kept at it till this fatigue got the better of him. One stone slid off the other and went on to open a gash on his left palm.

"Arg Motherf-!"

With that, he leaped up and tried his best to ignore the pain. Seeing that he was already worse than when he started, Ethan decided to just leave and see if he could figure something out outside.

He tore off one of his sleeves and wrapped it around his arm as best as he could.

He was also feeling parched, but he was wary of drinking the lake water as he had once tried doing so when he was with his father and brother.

He did, however, remember his father mentioning that the water dripping from the stalagmites was drinkable. Knowing this, he stood under one of the green rocks and filled himself with water before turning to leave.

He paused for a bit before deciding to grab the fish he dropped and walked out of the cavern. The path was rocky and uneven, but as the path was lit up, he made his way out.

He reached the waterfall and walked straight out through the wall of water and stepped out into the sun. It hit him for a second and it took him a second to adjust to his new surroundings, but he knew he couldn't stand around lest he is found.

Ethan hadn't been on the route to the Tori nation before, but he knew that from Hamlan there was a road that headed in that direction for most of the distance.

He decided to try to cut through the forest from where he was as best as he could remember and join that route without heading towards Hamlan. He hopped over some rocks in the stream from the waterfall and finally set foot on land.

Ethan started his trek, paying careful attention to his surroundings as he also worried about running into predators on the way. This could be in the form of both animals and humans.

Though carnivores usually didn't wander towards human settlements and paths too often due to usually getting attacked on sight, people still had to be careful when traveling alone.

There were also slave traders, bandits, and the occasional psychopath wandering around, which meant Ethan had to stay on his toes.

The trip to the border would have taken 3 days on horseback, but on foot, that same distance would take at least 10 days. Even though Ethan knew this, it did not deter him.

With his fish in hand, Ethan kept moving through the forest, doing his best not to lose his bearing.

As he made his way through, he would occasionally hear the odd grunt of an animal here and there or spot some random animals like buck which would get spooked as soon as they spotted him. Fortunately, nothing dangerous had come up.

After about 2 hours of walking, it was already starting to get dark, and Ethan was getting more and more worried about getting lost when he spotted what he was looking for.

Without too much trouble, Ethan had spotted the path he had been searching for. Feeling tired and still hungry, having not eaten, he decided to rest near the path. Ethan looked around and spotted a dry and empty cave just next to the path. Not wanting to risk eating random berries, he decided to try starting a fire again.

He placed his companion down and this time as there was vegetation just outside; he grabbed some dry grass as well as some twigs and laid them on the ground in an orderly manner.

After doing so he started his little ritual and surprisingly, this time it actually worked after a few attempts. Sparks started flying from the stones after Ethan had figured out the suitable technique after a few failures.

Bolstered by this bit of success, he kept on banging the stones till the sparks were able to light a bit of grass on fire, which extended to form a little fire for him.

Seeing this, Ethan quickly dashed outside to grab some more wood, laughing maniacally.

"Hahaha, Fire! Fire! Fire!"

For a brief moment, he forgot about his exhaustion and his current circumstances and bathed in the glory of finally achieving his long-awaited goal.

After finally getting the fire burning properly, Ethan went on to sacrifice his comrade. He drove a stick through the fish and slowly roasted it on the fire. After a bit of time, he finally had something to eat. Even though he didn't eat a lot he was happy.

As it was now dark outside, he put some rocks around the fire. He lay down next to it and before long, he had fallen asleep.