Chapter 9 - Thoughts let Free

As morning rose, the winds had picked up, and the snow was going down faster, flurring about making everything outside the cave a white cloud. If you went into this cloud, snow would assault your face, and you wouldn't be able to see a foot in front of you.

I guess it was decided. I was going to be staying in this cave after all. At least until the storm blew over or settled down more.

Theoretically, I could go out into the storm, with my scarf wrapped around my face like last time I walked through a snow storm, but if I could stay in one spot and not be attacked by the harsh winds of this winter forest of death, it was going to increase my chance of survival and getting home.

Not being able to see makes getting lost in the forest a whole lot easier. Even with my compass, the probability of me getting lost during a storm increases drastically. It's better to wait it out than to try and traverse it.

I only traversed it last time because I didn't have adequate cover, and if I stayed put, I probably would've freezed to death. Moving keeps the body warm, meaning less chance of being frozen solid.

Even before, it was difficult to push through the blistering winds and make a steady way.

The wind pushes against you with force strong enough that if you don't have steady footing, you could easily be pushed back or topple over.

Thankfully, I was strong enough and knew to keep my body at a forward momentum to keep me going forward instead of backward.

Looking out the cave entrance now, I knew the winds were stronger than last time, and the air would feel a lot colder. If I went out there now, snow and ice would bite any part of me that isn't covered, and I might actually get frostbite.

Currently, I was still surprised that I hadn't gotten frostbite yet. I'm in an enchanted forest with no foreseeable way out in negative degree weather with inadequate protection for my hands and head.

Something should have died by now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that I haven't had a limb die on me, but it is still weird considering the circumstances.

How I know that I don't have frostbite anywhere is that I still have feelings. If I can't feel when I touch a part of me, the nerves would probably be dead, so considering I can feel wherever I touch is a good sign.

I put more sticks onto my fire because I was actually smart enough to collect enough.

One for me, which still leaves me in negative for wise decision making.

I roasted another piece of deer meat and ate it as I watched the increasing winds loudly thrashing about outside the cave. The noise was muffled, being in the far back of the cave, but it was still audiable.

The cave was big enough that the angered winds were unable to reach me. They blew snow in for about four feet before it diminished into not reaching. Considering I was ten feet away from the entrance, I was safe. Or at least I hoped so.

Hoping the storm didn't take too long to pass, I settled down in the cave, keeping myself entertained by carving into some of the sticks.

As a hunter, you learn how to make weapons out of the materials given, but I took it a little bit farther and whittled away unique designs into the wood using my knife. I lacked the proper tools to whittle properly, but with a knife, you can do a lot.

I have a hunting knife, but I also have a smaller knife that I use more for easier skinning of animals, so you are able to manuever around with it a lot better. This is the knife I am using now as I whittle away on one of the sticks I will eventually use for the fire.

Remembering my travels so far in this enchanted forest, my fingers moved on their own and I whittled out the face of the bear from my first few days in the forest and I whittled out the face of the deer.

Maybe I should keep this stick instead. I could make it into a makeshift journal, enscribing my journey through the forest.

I could have probably used a stick to keep track of how many days I was in the forest, but considering I don't know how many days have past in full since I entered, I decided against it. It would just be a waste of a stick.

Manuevering my knife, I whittled away a form of a coat. Considering it was a coat, it didn't look as cool as the bear or deer, but this was my journal stick and I had to put that I got a weird coat from no where that was, I'm pretty sure, keeping me alive.

I had taken off my coat, using it as a layer between me and the cold floor. The fire was making the cave warm enough that I didn't entirely need the coat on. The floor around my fire was also heating up, but the coat was thick, so it would provide a nice temporary makeshift bed for me.

So there I sat, on the mysterious coat, whittling away on sticks. The wind outside howling in madness. I chuckled a little, thinking that maybe the wind was also trapped in the forest, unable to escape its dimensional trap.

It was a ridiculous thought, but I was slowly going crazy and also I needed something to distract myself while waiting out this storm.

Coming up with random ideas that either do or don't make sense seems like a surefire way to pass the time and possibly come up with a way to escape this forest and get back home.

Deciding that I was going to do that, I continued to whittle while I let my thoughts, that I had kept constricted within, out. I went back to thinking of the lack of animals. The lack of any living presence besides the trees that towered above me as I walked through in a direction I could only assume was the right direction.

Maybe in enchanted forests, the magnetic pole is not the same as the magnetic pole outside the forest, so in all reality, I could be going in the completely wrong direction. Or this is not the case, and I'm going in the right direction.

I'm hoping the latter part is true.

I hummed an old tune that my mother used to sing for me when I was younger as I thought these thoughts, contemplating my existence, the existance of this forest, and the lack of existance of everything within.

Letting my hum resonate throughout the cave, it was making the howling wind outside seem far and distant. I let my soul focus stay on my chaotic thoughts and of the gentle humming.

Was the bear still alive?

Will I ever see the bear again?

If I did see the bear, would it try to eat me? Would I be able to keep it away using the meat I carried or scare it off?

How long had the deer been trapped in the forest before finding its ultimate demise?

These are questions I asked myself as I whittled away humming, letting the warmth of the fire soak into me.

I gazed absentmindingly into the fire, watching the embers float up and disappear.

The smoke filled the cave, giving it a tantalizing smoke smell that made my stomach hunger.

Even if my stomach felt hunger, I was still rationing, and I already ate my breakfast, so I wouldn't eat until close to when I would start prepping for a restless sleep.

If I wasn't able to make it out of the forest, how long before I, too, found my ultimate demise?

How long until my sanity had long since passed and I became a crazed animal, willing to eat the bark off the trees that surrounded me?

Hold up.

Why didn't I think of this sooner? I could eat the bark off the trees. Sure, it won't taste the best and probably give me indigestion, but bark can be food. I could snack on the woody taste of bark as I traveled, and my stomach wouldn't always hunger for food.

Don't ask me what the nutritional value of Bark is because I have no clue. We don't eat bark back home, and no one has ever thought of eating bark…. That I know of.

For the first time since I came into this blasted prison, I felt like a genius.

Thinking about bark also made me think that I could eat the pine needles of the trees that surrounded me endlessly. Again, it might give me indigestion, but it would be worth it if it helps me survive. I can't just eat meat.

I do have some dried bitter berries that I packed with me, but those were hardly nutritional and filling.

With these new thoughts and discoveries, my hope of surviving and getting back home had increased. All I had to do was wait out the storm.