Chapter 13 - A Walk in the Woods
Alpha Date Year(002): 315,848
Day: 288/365
Day 30:
As J woke up, his eyes felt heavy after his rest, yet when he lifted them and peeked out of his tent, he woke up with a newfound vigor in the morning, with the monster core in his hand shining brightly as it lay there firmly in his grasp. Rising from his tent, he looked around him and found that the morning had brought no problems. If anything, it brought a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine, and unusually warm air wrapped around him, considering it was approaching fall. Walking around his camp, he looked at tree branches and everything around him to check for any signs of bad weather, but found nothing. J then decided to make for the waterway. He needed to wash his face for the morning. Making his way to the foot of the river, he washed his face while at times staring at the giant monster core the size of his palm. "I wonder how much this is worth. How much could this be worth if I were to convert it into nights? Is this worth a month in the cave? Can I even use this for nights? Or do I have to talk to Uncle?"
He then started to make his way back to his camp. He needed to prep his camp for the following day because he would definitely not be there for the night. He would retrieve his spoils and make his way into his uncle's cave for this night, but he still needed to prep all his gear. So he ate what he had left of his rations, prepped whatever else he could from the large animal pelt that he carried on his back. He also made sure to wash his now blood-stained clothes as much as he could in the waterway, letting them ebb and bob down the river as he washed them by hand. He tried his best but couldn't get out all the stains, no matter how much he tried. Overall, his time washing the clothes was more painful than actually wearing them. But he still soldiered on and simply took his bloodstained clothes in another bag. He then packed up his tent, sleeping bag, and other supplies, and hoisted them back up the tree that he usually used to mark where his camp was. "This is almost too nice a day…But I don't think I'll go hunting. Besides, I gotta know how much this is worth. Maybe Uncle would be impressed. After all, I did kill a beast. The same beast he told me not to face at all…I killed it. I wonder what I'll be able to get….if only things could go back to the way they were before. It took me forever just to kill that monster. Maybe he was expecting it earlier?"
Jay was starting to overthink everything up to this point. "Why am I doing this?" That question repeated in his head every day. Why was he in the woods? Couldn't he have just stayed with Uncle and learned with him? But then he remembered all the things he did, by himself, and he was starting to get some clarity. "Maybe Uncle wanted me to figure things out for myself. After all, it took me a while to realize that when he meant use everything, he meant use EVERYTHING. Even if you have to take things apart. That was exactly what I needed to survive. Without that, I wouldn't be able to even catch one rabbit. Or face those mountain hounds." After all his gear was secured properly to the tree, he then prepared his clothes, using another separate sack for his other bloody clothes, and put his gear neatly in a pile beside the campfire. After doing all the chores he needed, J was now left doing whatever he wanted. He went back into his childlike state of mind, the same mindset where he could just walk around the woods with his uncle, and no danger would be faced.
"It's a calm day today. I don't sense any rustling or any animals running about. I wonder what they're doing right now. Did the mountain hounds already discover the body? Or did they not find it yet…no, they definitely found it. After all, the smell of blood was so strong, even I could smell it, and the meat's probably spoiled by now." J thought about all the meat that was left in the pit. Although it smelled awful, he did read about how to properly prepare the meat so that it was still edible. "That could have fed me for a while. Next time…if there is a next one, I'm definitely harvesting the meat. But what am I going to get from Uncle? Hmm…I don't need a coat anymore. I've already decided that I'm going to make the coat myself. I don't need much, just something to cover my body. And I have plenty of dogbane with me. I almost took too much from the bushes when I was building the pit." As he looked at the sticks lying in a pile next to his campsite, he realized that he harvested way more dogbane than he needed to. But it was to his own benefit, because once he came back, he could already start winding it into a thin thread to actually properly sew himself a coat.
"I'm probably going to need a lot of thread for the coat. If I stitch it the right way, though, then I think it will last me for the winter. Luckily, I learned from that one book how to sew it properly. More specifically, for seamless sewing. So that way it insulates it. There were traps in the Traps and Entanglements book that told me how to properly sew fabric together to make cloaks. They said it was good for something called insulation, which I don't really know much about. But I'm guessing that it keeps me warm, kind of like my regular clothes. But the more it insulates, the warmer you feel." J was young, trying to put words to their meaning, but either way, he knew he would not need the coat anymore, at least for the winter now. Though he wondered if he could keep hunting those mountain hounds, then eventually, what else could he do?
He then started his way through the woods. He walked around, not taking his gear, feeling free to just walk around. The woods were now his playground. He walked around and met a peculiar tree. It was the tree that he spotted when he was making his way towards this area after his original campsite was raided by the Mountain Hounds. "This tree is so different. It's so shiny. I didn't expect a tree to be so shiny. It's both dark and shiny. The texture of the tree is also weird. Unlike bark, which is so rough. The bark here is super smooth, almost like it has holes rather than lines. And they're super small and feel nice to the touch. As he grasped the tree, he felt something arousing in him. It was such a nice tree to be around. That's all he knew. The tree also gave off an air of strangeness to him. He didn't know what the tree was doing, but around the tree, where other trees were somewhat grouped, it lay alone, almost as if the trees didn't dare to approach. It was a solitary tree. It seemed powerful, wonderful, and to J, it seemed like the perfect place to take a quick rest. As he lay down on the ground, he put his back against the tree and lay there watching the sky through a perfect canopy where the tree led in the sky to show the bright blue, wide, cloudless sky.
"It's such a good day. I feel so relaxed. I remember when I was like this with Uncle. Before the training and everything. He used to just let me do whatever. I used to just walk around and write things on the ground." J then picked up a stick and began to write the same things he wrote before. "Uncle… I used to write his name a lot. And I wrote my name all the time." Although J's name only had one letter, it was his. And then there was his Uncle. When J was young, he was impressed that he had five letters in his name. "I used to think that it meant Uncle was five times as strong as me." But then, once he thought about the Mountain Hound, he realized that the mountain hound wasn't that strong. "So maybe names have different meanings. Maybe they just describe people and animals. Uncle was so strong that I used to just follow him anywhere. At least when I didn't get sick that day. There were a lot of times when I was sick. Even more times when I was alone, and Uncle would have to leave. I usually felt scared, but he let me stay in the cave. I would always be safe in the cave. No monster would ever come because Uncle had made us a home there. If any monster even came close to the cave, Uncle would make them our dinner. It was quite a nice time, at least better than now. I wonder, when can I go back to those times? I hope they're not gone forever."
Even though his life was seemingly simple, J wondered a thousand things. There was another thought after another, and he unwound them like thread. But as he sat there underneath the tree, it seemed so simple. He found that this tree was a quiet place for him, and he appreciated it. Normally, he would mark the tree with his knife, but he decided not to. Besides, he didn't even think that he could. It seemed almost the same strength as his own knife. He was afraid that he would actually chip his knife. That was how powerful the tree seemed. How dense it seemed, even down to its fibers. It almost felt like it was made of metal. "This tree is so interesting. I wonder what it is named and where it's from. Maybe there's a book I can get that tells me about it. Hmm. Eh, well, better make it back. Or at least go on a walk and check my traps." He still brought his knife with him to check his traps. And he would use whatever shortcuts he could to make it through the woods as safely and quickly as possible. But overall, he was enjoying his time. He had conquered something. And now he felt...ten times as tall as he did before. Before, he related more to the rabbits. Now, he relates more to the mountain hounds.
"Do you become what you kill?" J thought this was a joke, but on second thought, he wondered if it was exactly what happened. J made his way, checking on all of his pits. His first pit, then his second, and lastly his third. And he could already smell the third. The third rancid, quite awful pit that now has a skinless corpse. He expected at least some mountain hounds to be in the area, but no. It seemed like from the tracks around, the mountain hounds did find the corpse, and were stomping around. And from the looks of things, they wondered whether or not they could help, or at least regain the corpse. "They were digging at the side of the pit; it seemed like they were trying to get down, but they gave up and didn't make it down. It seemed like a bunch of them pulled back, but they were circling the pit for a long time." He saw the numerous tracks around, which showed that they were just circling and circling. Sometimes in pairs, other times it was just one. "Were they mad…or were they sad?" J then started to feel the same way he did when he first captured a rabbit. "Were they sad for their friend?" J then thought about what happened to him. "It…was either him or me, and he wouldn't stop. If he had given up at any point, then I wouldn't have killed him, but he didn't. Though I'm still grateful for everything he's given me." J then stared at the pit, giving it a few seconds of solace.
But then, after hearing a small rustling in the woods, he began to retreat. "If I stay out here any longer, then I'll definitely be caught alongside him. Then they'll definitely kill me. I have to keep moving." His walk intensified as he made his way back to camp and picked up his supplies. He had been walking for a while, but now he needed to make his way up the mountain. He could simply wait near the entrance for a while. Besides, there was one more thing he wanted to do for the day. As he gathered his belongings, his clean clothes, his bloodstained clothes, the monster's coat, and lastly, and most importantly, all his monster cores, including the giant Mountain Hound core. As he grasped it, he saw how shiny it was. It almost seemed to glow even more than the rabbit cores, and he realized the light source did emit from it; it was just very faint to the eye. "I wonder if the brighter it glows, the stronger it is." Questions that he would definitely ask his Uncle later. As he made his way through the woods, up the mountain, he walked on through the safe path, which the Mountain hounds nor anything would dare approach. The path was relatively nice, definitely sculpted, almost as if a human had made it. "I wonder if Uncle made this path. Doesn't seem like the cliffs that we've seen before. But then he noticed how wide it was. "If not, then I wonder if something else made it."
He had so many questions. But as he walked forward, he knew that he needed to do one thing. He needed to make it up the mountain. It didn't take him too long. It was already late afternoon by the time he made it up. Not quite time to go in, but definitely near sundown. And that's exactly what he wanted to see. He wanted to watch the day go down. As he made it, he was only a few tens of yards away from where his uncle would be. From the entrance of the mountain, which was wide and smooth. Almost as if something had stabbed through the mountain. He knew it wasn't time yet, so he waited as much as he could so that he could sit there to wait and see the view. From the mountain, you could see everything. It stretched all the way around where they lived. Almost everything J could see was the dense forest. But what he couldn't see was the slight patches of greenery that lay beyond the forest that his eye couldn't quite pick up. "What's beyond here? Uncle barely mentions anything about it, but I want to know." J had so much curiosity. But that was one of the major questions he wanted to ask. What lay outside the forest? His uncle...Spoke of talking with other people.
J wondered if other people lay beyond the forest. Or maybe they're in here with him, and he just hasn't met them yet. But he'd probably seen them already by now. After all, humans go all over the place. Even Uncle and he went all over the place when they used to walk together. He enjoyed those times. He could talk about whatever questions he wanted, and they were answered. They didn't require a price. He only wished that everything went back to the way it was. Maybe he could learn even more from his Uncle now. After all, now he knows what questions to ask. "The sunset does look nice today." The sky turned amber as it was now nearing sundown. The sun was already creeping over and about to hide beneath the trees and even beneath the forest. J loved to watch the sun go down. He could see almost all the landscape reflected in the sun. It was a wide golden path that he could almost imagine running on. That path lay where the sun lay, but beyond that, there was a horizon. All he knew of the horizon was that it was the line where the sun meets the earth. He wondered if that's where the sun would disappear to. If it could disappear. Sometimes the moon would also appear there and disappear. J only wanted to know exactly what lay beyond. He'd always take the time in his day to just stare out at the horizon, at where the sun meets the earth, and everything seemed to be shown.
It appeared to him in such intensity, almost as if saying, "It's here…go there…take it." He wanted to know exactly who was there, what lived there, what was possible there, and what he could do there. The horizon meant possibilities to him. But every day, that horizon disappeared right before he could even decide to walk forward. J knew, though, if they just stood there for maybe another minute, or maybe even in another second, then he'd definitely go running there with or without his Uncle. He cared for his Uncle. He was the only person he ever knew. But he wanted answers. That's all. He didn't want anything else. Just answers. Answers to all his questions that were never truly answered in these small woods. As the sunset was ending, and a shadow almost fully enveloped the forest, he then slung his gear back over his shoulder, and in just a few minutes, he was already walking right back into the cave, right as the sunset was ending, making it just on time.