22 Travelling Again

The morning starts with Kuoka on a dry hill. His wounds have mostly recovered; and he finally got time to rest.

Rain usually occurs 3 times a day in this valley, but by some extreme luck, it didn't rain for an entire day. Because of this, Kuoka managed to regain his previous supplies: food, water, herbs, and makeshift bags using leaves and mud.

He would first take the mud from under a tree, where the light didn't touch, so the ground didn't dry as fast. Secondly, he'd find the largest leaves he could, and put them around the sides of a small hole he dug.

Then he'd proceed to slowly paste the mud into the hole, first on the bottom, then at the sides. He'd wait for it to dry, before repeating it 3 times. After around 4 hours, he created 2 small pouches.

Unfortunately, his previous pouches, and bag. Were lost in the ravine, crushed under boulders. He didn't have his canteen or much space.

"I won't be able to bring water, only a few scraps of food... and a couple of herbs."

'Will it be enough to reach the border?'

"Obviously not, what are you even thinking. This won't even last till the end of the forest, and who knows when it'll start raining again. My clothes are tattered, so I'm also cold, to add onto that, I'm still in need of a reliable water source."

"I can probably get more clothes at the border, a new canteen, and at least some real pouches. It would be best if I could find all of them though."

'That sounds pretty bad...'

"You think? This isn't even that bad if you compare it to what happened in the week that I spent in here already, I just want to get out already..." he sighed.

He hung the makeshift pouches onto the side of his waist, using a delicate rope made out of mud, sticks and leaves as well; kind of like the handle of a fruit basket.

"Hey." He reached for the sword, "do you think this'll sell for much?"

'What did you just say?'

"I asked if this would sell for mu-"

'Don't sell it you idiot! You need a weapon if you want to join the rebels don't you?! They're not going to accept someone that's got nothing to offer them!'

"Can't they just give me a weapon?"

'Swords, armor, shields. All that is expensive you know! If you thought that they'd just give any random person a weapon then you're wrong!'

"Why don't I just show them that I'm useful then? Aren't I supposed to have strength and speed that's superior to every other person?"

'You do! But even if you sold this sword, it's definitely sharper than your thought process! Didn't you see what this sword can do?'

"You have a point... but what'll I do? I have no money, all the money I had were in the bag."

'You don't need money to join the rebels!'

"Didn't you just say I needed to be useful?!" Kuoka waved his fist in the air. He sighed again and crossed his arms. "It's pointless to argue like this. Fine! I'll keep the sword because it's the best weapon I've ever seen. I'll just go to the rebels and say 'Let me join, or I'll make me join!' Then they'll definitely let me in! I'll show them my bravado!"

'T-that... won't work.'

"Hey, there's nothing else I can think of alright, this valley's already got my head in a constant panic."

"We've been talking for too long, it's time to get going. It could start raining at any second; and I'm not going around the side."

The sides of the valley were tall. Tall enough that they were cold, you could already feel cold air, the moment you climbed slightly past the height of the trees at the bottom of the valley. "It's freezing cold up there, if I went up there with my current clothing, I would no doubt; die."

He carefully stepped towards the forest.

As he walked deeper into the forest, he felt a sudden rumbling from behind. 'The wolves!' Kuoka kept his composure, "it's not raining, the wolves shouldn't be active. There's nothing to be afraid of."

His whole body shivered when a drop of water landed on his nose, and the sky became dark. "Eh?" He cranked his head upwards, it was only a droplet of water that fell from atop a tree. And the sky became dark because he stepped into the shadow of the tree. "S-see? T-there's nothing to be a-afraid of..."

To his relief, after what felt like hours of walking, he reached the other side of the valley. "I'm already here? The forest looked a lot bigger from a high view."

"Ugh, there's still a hill?" At the end of the forest, there was a steep hill he had to climb. He clenched his fists tightly whenever he grabbed onto a stone, or a patch of grass on the hill, in order to climb it.

He grunted when grass cut his palm, "Ow... why is this so steep!"

After managing to climb to the top of the hill, he patted dirt off his legs and looked at the magnificent view.

A massive ocean, a ray of light waving across the water from the bottom of the sun. Glistening water, a wide open sky; with birds of all kinds flying around. A vast desert, sand being carried around by the wind. He stared it in awe, as a violent wind blasted past his face.

There it was, the ruins of a city in shambles. The place where the previous nation of Tira's border resided. The view over the city, and the surrounding area was great. But inside the city, nothing was what it seemed from the outside.