Chapter 2

Finding shelter was an easy task, the amount of caves and holes etched into the walls all around the zone surrounding the mountain were uncountable. It was just a matter of which cave was better located and had the least sources of danger. I just walked for a couple of minutes following a little stream and searching for nearby cliffs with caves in them. After an hour or so – maybe less – I finally found the perfect spot. The stream was far enough from the cave that it would not become a problem if someday the rivers flooded the zone. And it was near enough so that it's convenient to travel to it every day if needed.

On the other hand, gathering food and maybe even essential resources – like wood, flint, stone, and some other things – would be much harder. Getting some fire to light the darkness and give me enough heat to pass the night; making knives, daggers, or some other pointy tool to protect myself and gather meat efficiently, every one of them would be essential in my struggle in the wilderness, but even if I need them I don't even have the slightest clue as to where I should search or start. And not to mention the food search would be an arduous one, even while searching for the cave I haven't seen a single animal near there. That I didn't see them doesn't mean that I haven't heard the little critters roaming around the bushes or across the trees, but by the time I located where the sounds were coming, the animals were long gone.

The cave itself had a wide space and there were no hidden corners to make cover for some ferocious beats. I did search for some blind spots to hide myself in case of danger and found at least two, not that they were perfectly covered, but they could be useful in life-and-death situations. Besides, the ground was dry and there were no evident signs of animals using the place as a disposal site. I would be able to build a campfire near the entrance and a bed right beside a wall with enough distance to the campfire. All of this assuming that I can somehow learn to craft all of that.

The first thing I tried to do while I still had sunlight was to get something to sleep on, maybe some dried leaves would be good for a makeshift bed, better than the hard rock floor anyway. It ended up being much more tiring than I would have liked. I mean, how can it be hard to put together a bundle of leaves in the shape of a bed and for it to stay in place? Damn that thing, at the end of everything it was already getting pretty dark outside and I didn't even have a fireplace set in place. Here's hoping that this place doesn't get freezing cold in the middle of the night or I would have problems. With the remaining light of the suns I tried to gather as much dry wood as I could, which wasn't much by the way, and some more dry leaves to try the campfire affair tomorrow.

The night air was pretty chill, nothing that would become dangerous, and if anything, refreshing after the scorching suns. The bed was pretty bad though as hard as a rock and the leaves were pocking me everywhere, I think I spent much of the night awake trying to ignore all those leaves. The morning suns and its heat were a welcome change after one hell of a night, even then I shouldn't be complaining, at least I got a safe spot to sleep on.

Now I really need some food, anything safe enough to consume would do. Maybe I could catch some animal in the early hours trying to get some food after some rest. Or not, maybe I could catch something if it's small enough and not too fast for me. Let's see what I can get out there.

I started strolling across the forest, getting used to the dense foliage and the sounds of nature. It was all too peaceful. The leaves rustling about with the wind. Sometimes a branch would snap or some bush would move, indicating that some little animal was making its way toward the forest. While listening to those sounds I started to follow them, maybe out of naivety or hope that some little animal wouldn't be a threat to me and I could get some easy food. I just started to get even deeper into the forest while tracking my so-called prey. 

At some point I guess I got lost, the forest started to get darker and darker, while the sounds coming from the bush got louder. Everything around me was spinning, not as serious as when I first got thrown here, but enough to make me uncomfortable and giddy. Then, there was a white light moving around me – I couldn't make the form it had – and after some time I was back again in the outskirts of the forest.

My spine started tingling and my limbs were shaking like crazy. I was drenched in sweat and trembling like a leaf on a windy day, not knowing what in the world happened to me, just giving my thanks to whatever thing that saved me from that forest. Maybe they truly saved me out of the goodness in their hearts, or maybe I was just an interesting spectacle to them and decided to keep me alive. I don't know, but I'm grateful. And terrified of that forest; It would be better to never set foot in there again.

I dragged my sorry self back to the cave, not entirely the cave as I still needed to eat, but with the things that happened just some minutes ago, I needed to lie down somewhere safe. Now that I have time to think maybe this entire place is haunted like that forest, and that is why a gigant projection or something is surrounding it. The whole gigant forest was really weird too but I just thought that maybe I would find some wild animals that wanted to eat me and not a ghost that tried to eat my soul.

I'm really tired. That thing in the forest scared the soul out of my body and now, after relaxing, my body refuses to move. 

"Great, just great, now how am I supposed to find some food while I don't even have the strength to move even a tiny muscle."

My eyes grew unfocused, darting around the space surrounding me, and my consciousness started to turn foggy. Soon enough I was just resting there, not seeing anything in particular and my eyelids getting heavy with each passing second. Then I passed out, maybe out of shock or maybe because of hunger.

When I woke up it was already past noon, the two suns hanging in the celestial abode and setting little by little. On the bright side of things, I still have quite a few hours of light; on the other hand, I'm as famished as I was this morning if not more. That little – not so little – nap did wonders to my psyche but I can't live with just air. How great would that be?

Maybe in this place, I could get to do just that, I mean, there are some seriously powerful ghosts located just beside my house. So, maybe living with just air doesn't seem like a crazy idea anymore. That said, I still need to get food right now. Let's just look somewhere nearby and not try to look inside dark and cold forests.

And finally, one little animal was eating some fruits out of a tree. The first one I've seen since yesterday; what in the world are these animals doing for them to be this rare to spot eating something? It has the shape of a squirrel, just a little bit more large. And it happens to be eating something like a berry, the green ones at least because it appears to be trying to avoid the red ones even if they are more numerous and big.