Chapter 3

I gathered as much berries as I could. The green ones looked unapetizing and chewy, but I'm not going to try the red ones if some little critter didn't, at least, the idea of this whole ordeal was to find food that could be consumed by any living being. Even then, I would try little by little the food to avoid poisoning myself. 

I popped a little green berry in my mouth and was surprised to discover that it was surprisingly tasty and full of juices. Delicious was not enough to describe the flavor that was spreading in my mouth. The papillae in my mouth were dancing with joy and my brain disconnected for a short while. I tried to retain the flavor for as much as I could, but in the end it dispersed.

To regain that wonderful sensation I tried to put another berry in my mouth, but then stopped myself abruptly. Maybe that sensation was not the result of the perfect combination of flavors but the result of some poison or toxin that fried my nerves. Such a wonderful experience happened to be deadly enough to send me to heaven. That idea soured completely my mood and at the same time filled me with wonder. What happened to this world for it to produce such deadly fruits in a small bush. I should have expected it from the moment I discovered an enormous mountain behind the projection of an enormous forest. 

I awaited for my fated death in the summit of a little hill while watching the setting suns. At least I got to die with a pleasant memory etched in my brain. I got comfortable in the grass and after some time I fell asleep. 

When I woke up I was feeling refreshed and energized. Maybe this is what it feels like in the afterlife, or maybe it's the effect of knowing that you don't have worries anymore. Either way it was absolutely relaxing albeit a bit chilly. The soft grass was tickling me and that forced me to open my eyes and stand up.

I was in the same spot that I fell sleep on – in what seems like hours ago – and the mountain piercing the sky on the horizon stood like a sore thumb. I'm still in this place!? Then that means I didn't die and that little fruit was trully delicious and not poisonous. That tought left me with a wide grin in my face.

I would be able to eat more of those little, delicious berries and, of course, I'm still alive. That is like getting two wonderful thing with just the price of one. Thinking right now, I full of energy and ready to charge at whatever life were to throuw at me. Then, is this some king of drug!? But I don't fell anything abnormal, if anything, I just have a lot of energy and nothing more. Okay, maybe it is a drug, lets just hope that I don't become adicted or that this thing have some side efects as I still have to rely on this berry to keep me fed. It would be better to find some different source of food, just to be safe. 

While gathering my thoughs about the reality before me, I began to walk towards the cave hoping to get more sleep. I know that I spent mos of the day sleeping, but I still need all the energy I could get tomorrow; to make up for today. As soon as I got to the cave I beelined towards the little bed and hoped on it.

The sleep was a restless one, turning arround and fumbling before falling asleep, only to find myself awake once more moments later, like I was full of energy to not need sleep anymore and considering that I slept almost all day and maybe consumed some drug, it was true. This continued for almost the entire night until I could finally go to sleep for good.

I woke up felling stiff and a little tired. I really need to change the bed or make some adjustments to it, because if not I would pretty much end up tired as hell in just a couple of days. Or maybe I would get used to it and nothing would happen, bun even then I want a fluffy bed to sleep on and not some hard rock floor. While complaining about my housing situation I decided to get ready for the day, some exercise should do me some good and concidering that I needed to rely on myself from now on to get some food and shelter while having to work hard, then even more so.

After some light workout I decided to finally build a campfire or maybe prepare the zone and make sure that I would not be asphyxiated to death by the smoke. Going arround in search for rocks and wood to make a litthe campfire was exhausting – fun but tiring – and by no means an easy task. Most of the wood here was too humid to work as fuel and the river just had some pebbles which wasn't enough to make the outer perimeter of the campfire. I had to expand the search area by quite a bit, even making my way to the outskirts of the forest that tried to kill me. With a little bit of effort I managed to put together in place everything and by tonight I may be able to have some light and heat acompanying me before going to sleep.

By the time I was done with everyting it was already noon and the heat emanating from the two suns hanging in the sky was scorching. I decided to try the campfire and see if I could produce fire. To not empty my reserves of wood I tried to burn a little stack of dried leaves and some straw. It worked well, maybe I have gotten quite some scraps in the hands and it was way past noon alread, but I learned how to make fire by friction. That at least would allow me to roast some little animal. 

As the heat was subsiding and a little, refreshing, breeze began forming I decided that it was time to go out and search for some prey, or more fruits – hopefully some normal fruits this time – if that is what I can find. My little goal lead me in the opposite direction of the haunted forest, and knowing that downstream didn't have any wildlife, the most obvious option was to cross the river. 

I found myself a location where the river was shallow enough for me to cross. Getting out of my shoes an socks, and verifying that the current was slow enough was the easy part. Crossing to the other side was difficult because of the pain in my feet. It was the first time I was doing it barefooted and painful enough that I ended up massaging my foot for quite some time afterwards. 

The good thing is that I'm finally on the other side of the river and maybe here there would be animals to hunt and zero weird things that would want to eat me.