Necessities

"Should I still go in..?"

I definitely needed food to survive and I didn't know what time it was.

But I couldn't ignore the eerie feeling that crept into me.

It was too strange for me to ignore.

Gulp— 

I swallowed my fountains worth of saliva.

It may have been dangerous but,

"I can't just waste time.. nor do I have the luxury of questioning everything that has happened so far."

So I took in all my courage.

My legs trembled but I took the first, then second, then third steps slowly.

I eventually fastened my pace.

My nerves calmed down.

Though, that didn't mean that I wasn't being careful.

I still looked around attentively while looking for some sort of a food supply.

The forest darkened, indicating that the trees grew taller.

My sweat only began to trickle.

I was only wearing a shirt but I felt as if I had multiple jumpers on.

My instincts were screaming at me to get out but I ignored them.

"I've never felt like this before.. it's strangely exciting.."

I also felt a small linger of excitement in my heart as it beat faster.

Stop.

I fixed my eyes on a single tree with a strange fruit.

It had the shape of a kiwi, the color of an apple and the size of a plum.

I had never seen anything like it before.

But the branch where its stem stuck was a couple metres too high, even if I jumped.

I gently placed my hands on the bottom of the tree and began climbing it.

I placed immense concentration on the process.

My hands reached higher and higher until,

Slip— 

My hand let go of the base by accident.

Thud!— 

I felt my back crash against the floor.

"Ah.."

Luckily, the pain felt minimal and my body only suffered a few scratches.

'Let's try again..'

The dust was wiped off my body within a few seconds.

I took a deep breath before gripping the tree again.

My feet and hands arrived near the first branch.

It was an inch away.

Reach-

Grip.

My hand held on with a good grip and I put all my bodyweight over the tree.

"Phew.."

My legs sat on the branch.

The fruits were only a couple metres away, considering the branch was pretty big.

Creak— 

I heard the unstable noises from the tree after slowly taking my first step.

I knew that if I wasn't careful,

I would definitely fall.

But it's not like I would ever let that happen.

My second and third steps happened.

There was still the creaking sound but not anywhere as close to the usual sound when weight was applied normally.

I finally reached the end where I steadily crouched down and plucked the fruits.

Things went smoothly.

I had held a handful of the fruits in my arms and managed to reach back to the most stable and large part of the branch.

"There.. now, how do I know if these are edible?"