A dark yet darker forest was everywhere. What just happened?
Eddarnon felt how energy was slowly filling his body. Already enough to get back on the feet.
Other questions should be leaved behind. This is either a hallucination or another planet.
And the only problem here that my methods of identifying reality are all working. In other words, this must be reality. In sooth, I can still die here, and I must find a place to rest and think about my further actions.
...
- "Unknown plants, strange celestial movement, this whole situation and... A skeleton? If this is another planet, and let's imagine another event transported me into a new place, how can a human skeleton lie in an endless desert?"
Fumetsumi went through his thoughts another time.
- "A space shift... A dimension shift... a parallel reality, huh?"
He clearly understood what was going on.
Although he couldn't believe it. All "alternative universes" existed somehwere there, in fiction, and from a scientific point of view they didn't make any sense!
A more likely theory here is that this is a simulation. A hyperrealistic simulation made by a hyperadvanced civilization to live in. This can explain literally everything!
...
A panacea, he thought. A panacea is never the right option...
You should guess from your own point: is this a simulation or an "alternative universe"? The answer is harder than you might think.
Fumetsumi carefully examined his surroundings. Everything is clear, but where to go? Despite he had a lot of energy now, he was terribly thirsty, and his stomach seems to be close to digesting itself.
Ugh... big amount of energy isn't always linked to a good health state...
Fumetsumi was really lucky that he almost lost consciousness due to the energy loss, not because of the real death of dehydration or starving.
Energy loss...
Eddarnon really loves sweet things. When he stopped eating sweets for 24 hours, he really thought he would loss consciousness due to glucose level fall. Actually, people never lose consciousness out of that, but he absolutely thought so, which resulted in a real threat.
After walking only for 10 minutes, it was clear that the forest was exploited by humans. Tree stumps without trunks, lightly trampled areas of land, and reliably low animal activity.
But Eddarnon concentrated on another thing.
He was really happy when he heard birds singing. Although, the singing of these birds was unknown to him, as well as the singers, who were sometimes really distinct from Eddarnon's expectations.
I doubt that anyone saw a 4-winged owl before, he thought.
Another 10 minutes of examining the forest passed reslly fast, when Himetsuryu was interrupted:
- "Oh finally, I hear the sound of the flowing water. This must be a small mountain stream."
- "If I go to the flow direction, will I find a settlement of intelligent life, whatever it may be here?"
If there's no Intelligent life on this planet, then I don't see any reason surviving here. I won't be able to create a clone machine to build a civilization here in such short time as human life.
When Fumetsumi reached the mysterious flow, it was a pure win.
It is logical to make a stop in this place, but first...
He leaned over the quiet and calm stream and started drinking.
Very carefully, very slowly, not to cause electrolyte imbalance and not to overload the kidneys.
Goal 1 has been achieved. Ahead are goal 2 - find food, goal 3 - build a camp, and goal 4 - find humans, or other intelligent species.
- "Also, maybe I should have a wash first? Although I was sure that my body was all covered in sand, but it seems that I'm still very clean. At any case, bacterias don't sleep..."
- "... As well as bacterias in this river. I don't have any time to check or try to boil the water. Despite it seens like a pure safe-to-drink mountain stream, it may be bad for my orgabism. If I'll wash myself in such water, it may cause a lot more trouble if I won't.
Maybe I'll have a wash on the next day, when I'll be sure if this water is dangerous or not."
For the next 3 hours Fumetsumi was trying to collect some food and some materials. He made himself a weapon out of a think stick that he masterfully broke to sharpen the end. Sadly, there were no available rocks in this forest.
Among the food, he collected a small number of even smaller berries, and a couple of sprouts of young plants.
But...
Exactly, what is this?
- "Five relatively large yellow berries similar to blueberries, that grow on a plant from rosaceae family and... 8 small purple berries similar to hippophae that grew on a fragaria-like plant and... 31 red-coloured relatively mid-sized berries that grew on a tree."
And all are actually small compared to any berry from Earth.
- "I will either die out of starvation or poisoning. I chose poisoning."
He carefully washed this scarce gathering results in a river and ate them. Luckily no berries were lost to the stream.
All are sour as hell... I will cook sprouts when I'll finally have fire.
His "camp" was located under a tree of unknown flora species. He planned to make a small shelter hut with wood, but making a fire now was more important.
Eddarnon saw that the Sun was moving towards the sunset.
- "I have a lot of small wood branches and some tree bark with dry grass for start. The forest is likely very ancient, since it's easy to find materials here. That's useful for me, I guess."
Making fire with your bare hands is a true challenge. Finding a good stick and giving it enough friction with a good wood surface was hard for Fumetsumi. He stopped and started the process for 6 times, before he got a little charcoal that had enough heat to fire up the grass, that then fired up the bark, that slowly started spreading fire to the sticks.
- "A huge advance, if I'll keep the fire burning, it'll be more than enough to survive for a couple of days. But local might be too unpredictable.."
Fire allows me to cook food like sprouts, and, if I encounter enyone, it'll save me from an unnecessary contact.
The story won't follow every step of Eddarnon in the forest. He spent the next 4 hours collecting wood, exploring the area along the way and picking up anything that looked edible, based on his knowledge of botany.
The forest had obviously been the site of aggressive battles. Claw marks on the trees were common, but fortunately they were not new, which doesn't mean that it is not important to worry about meeting local fauna.
It was already dusk, and Eddarnon was prepared for a restless night.
He managed to make fire big enough for it to support itself at least 7 more hours. Fumetsumi mostly sleeps for 5-6 hours, so he'll likely automatically wake up before the fire rans out of fuel.
He sat down under a tree, because he was already feeling sleepy, and decided that the night should pass normally, since he did not find any traces of the animal activity during the day. What else can happen, in fact?