Val was falling.
“--”
He continued to fall.
“--”
The air blowed against him, making his closed eyes twitch.
“--”
He hadn't yet opened his eyes.
“--”
And suddenly, as he finally was ready to open those eyes—
The ground was nearer than what he had imagined.
Fortunately, the surrounding area was filled with dense bushes.
The sound of leaves moving could be heard, along with a loud groan by Val.
Val: [Ow! Shit!]
He finally rolled on the grass. The soft, cold grass.
While lying on that ground, arms stretched and legs apart, he opened his eyes that had been closed again upon “landing”.
“--”
For a while, he remained there, observing.
A wind came from his left, disrupting this temporary peace he had found.
He could just stay there. He definitely wanted to.
Val: [That would be wrong.]
Val said that while putting strength in his abdomen, effectively sitting up.
He was speaking to himself. He used to do that often before the whole thing happened.
He now felt that light breeze even more. It wasn't so light anymore though...
Val looked around.
He looked behind him, where various similar-looking trees stood tall.
His deduction, thanks to this, was that it was some sort of forest. He had read about those.
Then he looked to his sides, and the wall he fell beside just continued, with bushes growing in front of him.
It looked almost like a really steep mountain.
He couldn't see if the wall ended or not.
He then looked up; just the sun, that shun only close to the wall, as the rest was covered by trees.
Heaven was up there. His mother, his “friends”, and anyone else.
Thinking, he simply reacted with a disappointed, or disgusted, face. Something along those lines.
Finally, he looked directly in front of him.
Nothing worth taking note of; just a large extent of tall bushes and then the wall, on which the sun placed its rays.
His understanding of things—although it was simply an educated guess based on what he had read about earth—was that this place was the side of what humans called the “Holy Mountain”, or something like that.
He couldn't really remember clearly.
His idea was to roam around the forest in search for something. Anything, really.
And so, taking action, he stood up, brushing away dirt and leaves that had got on him.
Before leaving, he stood still for a moment.
This is what he wanted.
Val breathed in—
And then he breathed out.
And off he was, through this forest he went.
--
Some time had passed from the moment of his fall, but still this forest he had stumbled upon was really empty.
Except for the big trees that completely blocked out the sun, nothing was really there.
Though he was able to make a small fire and find one single living thing to eat for the night, nothing else was active in this forest.
He had also made a mini-spear, with a sharp rock, a stick, and leaves he made into rope.
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He had hoped this forest could bring action, or drama, or horror, or anything apart from the total bore this was in reality.
For the moment, his head was filled with dissatisfaction, even though some of it was directed to himself in the back of his mind.
Val: [Really empty... Really empty... Really, really, really very much empty...]
He repeated this to himself while eating, almost humming also.
At this lonely dinner, he had no one to talk to but himself.
But thinking too hard would definitely bring consequences he didn't even want to imagine.
“----”
A sound. What was that?
“----”
Again.
Val turned around to face its origin.
Nothing but the trees which stood still, and more trees, and even more trees.
What had made that noise?
Val: [Ugh, why now?]
Val sighed.
He would have much preferred things to appear during the day instead of the night, when he was tired.
“----?”
A small deer came out from behind a tree.
The two looked at each other.
For a moment, they remained still in this state of mutual understanding.
His shoulders loosened.
He felt like whatever pent-up emotions he had had disappeared, for that moment.
Then, the deer ran off, never to be seen by Val again.
He could've chased after it.
He would have probably been able to catch it and eat it.
As he had had difficulties in killing that bunny he was eating already, he decided to let it go, feigning ignorance.
The wind blew, and the flame burned confidently anyways.
He didn't really have time to think about his day, as his eyes started to close on their own.
“----?”
He was pretty confused, due to sleepiness.
Recognizing this, Val made the decision to prepare to go to sleep.
He used some leaves as a sort of pillow, even though they quickly lost cohesion or form.
Nevertheless, while making a disappointed face, he gathered those leaves and placed them near the tree he decided to use as his main base.
He lay down, and moved.
He changed positions.
Again.
Again.
And again.
This was not an ideal sleeping setup.
But he would make it work anyways.
Thankfully, after one last change of position, his eyes remained closed and he fell asleep.
“----”
Bump, bump.
“----”
Bump.
Val: [Hu, huh? What?]
He woke up suddenly, because of something poking him from the side—or was it trying to move him?
Then, as soon as Val moved, whatever was bothering him backed out and made somewhat of a deep screeching sound.
Val turned around.
“---!”
Something you would call a boar was standing fiercely in front of Val.
The screeching sound once more came out of that thing's mouth.
Its form was that of something similar to a boar, but it had more horns than usual.
It was also bigger than a normal one.
Obviously, Val had never seen anything close to a boar, so it was a creature completely novel to him.
He was unsure if the sound it made indicated aggression, fear, or anything of the likes.
Maybe it was just startled, and it really didn't mean any harm?
However, once he heard more of that hideous sound from behind him, Val turned around.
There were more of these boars, maybe five or six, every one of them different in size.
This was most probably a dangerous situation in most cases.
Thinking so, his instincts told him to grab his mini-spear, and that's what he did.
But as soon as he felt that weapon in his hands, he looked at it with worry.
Was he gonna be able to fend off these wild animals?
He was definitely capable of such a feat physically, so what was it that was stopping him?
Without fail, his violent instincts awakened, telling him all sorts of things about these boars.
But this time, they weren't invasive.
They had their rightful place, which was previously empty.
Still, he didn't like the idea of giving way to these thoughts.
Quickly, after some time dedicated to thought, the moment had arrived for the beast's attack.
And so, the first boar he had seen charged.
Val could only stand there, torn between two options, observing as something tried to hurt him.
Before getting hit though, survival intuition took control, and his body evaded.
He jumped over the beast, effectively not getting hit.
But instead, he got scratched on his right leg by one of that thing's many horns.
It stopped, confused.
But instead of turning back, Val started running the opposite way.
He ran, as fast as he could.
He wanted to avoid any conflict.
I guess these dilemmas are my punishment.
He continued running, even though he had just woken up.
He didn't yet look back.
Val started breathing heavily after a while.
And at that point he turned back, to see that he couldn't even spot the fire's light anymore.
He was now even more tired than when he had gone to sleep previously that night.
Temporarily, he lay down once again on the grass, looking up at the night sky that was actually covered up by the trees' branches.
He breathed in deeply.
Then he let the air out.
A small fraction of the starry sky could be seen, in between some of the leaves.
Focusing on that, Val swiftly fell asleep.
“----”
--
Val: [Ughhhhhh]
He found himself face down on the grass, and as a consequence his neck hurt really bad.
Some light passed through his eyelids, and it got him thinking back to the previous morning.
But he quickly got those memories out of his head.
He let out a long, loud groan.
He was slightly annoyed.
Val: [Huuuuufffff..... Gah! Ow...]
Trying to turn his neck the right way, he felt how bad the pain was.
As usual, the thought of remaining where he was— not getting up, not doing anything with his day—passed by.
This time though, he was able to send it off quickly.
Val: [Whyyy...]
Val lamented about his hurting neck.
He touched it, massaged it, but the pain didn't go away immediately.
Instead, it remained, at some points even seeming worse.
Anyways, he got up, placing his palms under his armpits and pushing his body up.
He got his knees on the ground, and then, he looked around.
“----”
A beautiful new day in this very boring forest.
Val got up, and started another day of survival.
--
Walking.
Val was walking, and he had walked for a lot now.
There was absolutely nothing of value he could find.
His face looked more like it was gonna droop off of him.
His steps grew slow, and his breathing grew heavy.
His eyes darted around, desperately searching for anything to look at...
Val: [Oh come on!]
He lamented once more.
But this time, he did it throwing his only weapon to the ground.
He didn't give thought to the fact that that thing was, in fact, very much fragile.
Val: [Shit!]
The stick that the sharp stone was attached to flew off, and it separated from where it was supposed to be.
Disappointed in himself, Val stood there, looking at the now broken mini-spear.
Even though the damage was going to be pretty easy to repair, anything would bring his morale down in this desperate, boring situation.
He regretted that, even though it wasn't really that big of a problem.
“---?”
Though while raising his head, Val spotted something he would've never even imagined seeing.
