7 Chapter 7 - The Jungle

Oscar and I moved slowly through the towering trees. I constantly had my Ranger spell cast, as I couldn't afford to have anything sneak up on us. We were too weak to be able to handle anything like the Panther I had seen before. The only option we had if such a thing showed up was to quickly climb a tree and hope it doesn't notice us.

The trees were gigantic and beautiful, they came in every color and shade. Now and then a few would have flowers or fruits. The Red Tree Lizards we had killed earlier ate the flowers on the trees as for the fruits, I hadn't seen any animal eat them so it was better to not try my luck in case they were poisonous. The sky was as impressive as before with the gigantic planet in the sky, even the tall trees were unable to block out it's prescience.

As we moved forward, we could gradually feel the ground sloping up as if we were slowly climbing a hill. 'Good, maybe I'll be able to get a clearer view of our surroundings if we can get to a higher elevation point.' The trees although tall and sturdy became impossible to climb the higher I got as the branches were too numerous and thin, not enough to bear my weight. So there was no way to just climb one to the top and get a view of what's around us.

"Do you think we will find anyone like us around? Or do you reckon they're all dead and eaten up like that poor bloke you saw?" Oscar spoke indicating towards the Rolex on my arm.

"Perhaps. We can only hope there are still people around us. I don't want innocent people to die and we'll also have a higher rate of survival if we've got similarly strong people around us"

"What if we're the only ones left? And that Panther is hunting for us right now as well?"

I didn't reply to that and quietly kept trudging upwards. Oscar too didn't speak after that and silently accompanied me.

After an hour of trekking upwards there was a change, the trees were getting shorter and sparser. The reason was the terrain was increasingly becoming rockier, with less and less soil as we moved upwards. This was a great sign as it meant not only will we be higher but the trees would also no longer be an obstruction for us to get our bearing of the place we had landed in.

One thing I had overlooked was the watch. Although knowing the time had minimal advantages considering that I didn't know that that this world rotated at what speed, at most it would let me know how much time had passed accurately. The thing that I had overlooked was the compass in the watch. A lot of watches have a compass in them but the fact that we barely ever use them I n our day to day life and they serve more as a cool feature, made me ignore that detail.

I quickly took it out and worked out that the compass worked as it did in earth. But there was a slight change in the fact that the Sun actually moved in the opposite direction. I decided to just use the compass for directions and worked out that we were moving in the South-east direction.

Soon, the trees became sparse enough to be able give us a glimpse of what lay in front of us. Both of us quickly climbed onto a tree and looked out. I could hear Oscar gasp in wonder.

We were on a small hill and below us were trees. A lot of trees. All the different coloured trees made swirling patterns on the landscape and there was no end to them. I could only see foliage as far as my sight could travel. There were however a few things that stood out.

Directly north from the hill there was a small mound which had many cave like holes. From far away it loved like a bee hive. To the north east was a grove of trees which were different, the branches at the top of the trees spread out to form canopies that covered everything.

To the North-west was something that stood out, a smoke trail. Oscar pointed to it and said, " You think those are humans?"

"If they are then I think they'll be in trouble soon. They're too eye catching"

"You reckon we should go find out if they are like us and maybe warn them?", Oscar turned towards me and asked.

I looked up at the sky and my watch. It had been 6 hours since I got the watch. Although the clock said it was 12:30 pm, but the Sun indicated it was halfway between noon and dusk. The days seemed to be shorter than Earth.

"That place is almost a two hour walk from here, maybe more. There's only about three hours of day light left, if I do get there and group up with other humans we will have no time to prepare for a place to hide and sleep in at night. And I don't want to take my chances being in the open ,in this place, at night."

"But what if they're in trouble?"

"If they are humans then it may be too late to save them by the then and if they're still alive when we get there then we'll be in as much danger as them as it will get dark quickly. I'd want to save them same as you but there's nothing we can do here without compromising our own safety."

Oscar didn't respond and just quietly looked at the smoke trail.

I let out a sigh and jumped down from the tree, "Come, lets find a place to sleep tonight".