The Forest of No Return

Ch.6

Day 2

I wake up to the sound of birds singing again. It sounds so beautiful. I feel like waking up to the sounds of nature is the best way to wake up. It just makes your day so much better. Bring happiness to you before the day has even started. Looking out at the lake and the trees is a sight to see. The glistening on the water, the morning fog rising the beams of the morning light shining down across the open area. It's just so beautiful. I power my phone on and take a photo. I know I need to save my battery just in case but I have no service anyways and this sight is just picture worthy.

Climbing down from the tree I check the meat that's by the still burning fire. Lucky for me the meat is done. I wrap the strips in a leaf and put it in a little basket type of bag I made last night while I was sitting by the fire. It even has a woven strap that makes it a cross body bag. I then strap my wooden bottle to the straps on my scabbard and quiver combo. After putting out the fire I sling my bow over my shoulder and grab my spear. I walk over to check the fish trap to see I caught 5 good sized ones. They all look to be some sort of catfish. I strap the trap to to my combo scabbard like I did my bottle. I love that my father had this made customer because it's so multifunctional and is coming quiet in handy. He always thought everything out and wanted to make sure he could carry less and have his hands free for weapons.

After making sure I had everything I headed out. Looking around I notice heavily growing moss. My father always said " Moss grows to the north" I know that's true for northern hemisphere's but I don't know where I am. Not over thinking it and following my fathers words I start following the moss since the stars aren't visible. Ive been trekking through the woods for a about an hour now. It's been very quiet so far apart from birds singing. I never see the birds but I can hear them. Stepping over a fallen log I see something move towards my left. I draw my bow about to shoot it but I undraw it quick. It's just a rabbit, actually it's a dead rabbit and some weird looking weasel thing. The odd thing is that the weasel creature is dragging the rabbit that is twice it's size. It's a pretty cool sight to see watching a tiny predator drag its prized kill. It didn't even look to be struggling. It must be very strong. After it dragged it into a near by bush I decided to move on. No need to stay when the entertainment is gone. Plus I need to find either humans for safety or shelter for the night and a potential water source.

A couple hours later I'm still walking. Following the moss that's leading me towards the north. I hear rustling in the trees above me. That's when I see a blur of red fly to another tree. I follow the blur of red until it comes around the side of the tree. It was a red squirrel. Another one ran across the ground and hopped up onto the the tree chasing after the other squirrel. I've never seen a red squirrel before. I've only ever seen grey and brown squirrels but these ones are a fiery red color. Almost like flames of fire coating their body for fur. They look so cool. I continued on my way, walking further into the woods or well hopefully out of the woods and toward some help.

It's now coming close to lunch time. Which should be around 12 or 1 o'clock in the afternoon. At least that's what the position of the sun is saying. My father taught me a long time ago on how to read the position of the sun. So I could tell how much daylight is left for the day. I still can't believe how handy his lessons have been lately. I am forever grateful to him. I wish he was still here because I have so much to learn still. It would be a dream come true to have my best friend and father back. Wiping a tear away I open up my woven bag and grab a piece of jerky. The 3 filets ended up making about 12 bigger sized pieces of jerky. I take a bite of it and keep on walking.

It's around 5 o'clock in the afternoon when I decided to stop. I've been walking for about 9 hours straight and my feet are killing me. From yesterdays observation it gets dark around 9 o'clock so I have about 4 hours to make a fire and smoke the fish I caught earlier. There's no water source here but I do have claimable tree. I still have about 3/4 of my water in the bottle so I will need to find a water source tomorrow or the next day. I gathered wood and made a pile next to the tree I'll be sleeping in tonight. I start the fire up using the same tactic I used last time. But this time I got it started even faster. Getting excited again I do a little happy dance.