I get up from my crouched position and start to think where I should start looking for shelter. I could follow the creek down and see where it takes me. Or go up the creek past the creatures and see what is upwards.
My gut is telling me to go up the creek. My gut hasn't told me wrong yet, and I do faintly remember someone telling me to 'follow one's gut', whatever that means.
I then head back into the forest to give me cover from the creatures that I still don't trust. I try to be stealth as I follow a similar path back to when I first saw the clearing. I notice a berry bush, so I grab some of the cyan berries to have for later. Even though I don't have anywhere to put them.
Guess I'll have to carry them in my hands for now till I find a better way to carry them. I glance over at the creatures at the creek... they are not there! My eyes get big as I didn't even notice them leaving. I try to see if there are any tracks left by the deer creatures. Just to get an idea if they are going the same way I am.... I hope not.
With a quick look to see if they left any tracks and I see that they walk into the forest away from the creek. The opposite way of when I first saw them. 'Few' thank god that they aren't going the same way I am.
I cautiously keep walking in the woods with the creek being on my right side, I feel that it slowly starts to slope upwards. Making me work a little harder, along with making my breathing harder. I look up and it's a slight hill that keeps going. Casting shadows from the trees.
Roughly an hour later of walking, my breathing gets more and more labored as I climb this hill with the creek to my right. I didn't think this hill was going to be this bad when I started. But I have to keep going. I HAVE to find shelter. If not I'll probably be dead by morning.... If I even live that long....
POLA! Get out of your head, you dummy! Your goal right now is to find shelter. Worry about other things later. Don't look at the ifs, you got to survive... NO you will! After my little pep talk I get some energy and keep walking.
As my hike continues I keep close to the creek so I don't get lost. So far this is my only source of water and I really don't want to find another. I take a small break by drinking some of the creek water and snacking on the cyan berries that I gathered earlier. They are still as sour as the first time. I won't ever get used to it I think.
After a few minute break I get back to walking up the hill. I look around constantly to see if anything pops out that says 'Shelter'. More time passes and I start to feel that this hill won't ever end. Is it a mountain? It could be, but I have no way of knowing.
I look over to my left away from the creek and see a hill that sharply slopes up and not many trees around it. That might be a good spot. It's not far from the creek and I can come back pretty easily if nothing stands out.
I make my way over to the steep hill and see that it does stop but there's a lone tree at the top. It's really pretty. With multiple colors twisting up the bark and the leaves being just as magical. If nothing else fails I do have a landmark I can't miss.
I make my way to the multi-colored tree. I walk up the steep hill losing my footing more than once and almost falling down. Especially tumbling... thank heavens I didn't. After a few minutes of stumbling and tripping, I made it to the base of the tree.
Now that the tree is in front of me, it is far more magical and larger than I thought. The tree's normal color is a pale grey with streaks of red, blue, green, purple, and yellow. All twisting in different directions till they get to the branches. Only one color per large branch, and the interesting thing is the leaves are the color of the streaks. If a blue streak is on a branch all the leaves are blue! So the leaves are multiple of colors and look so pretty.
*Ding*
[Item Identified - ???]
"Huh? That's new, identify hasn't done that before. Could identify be broken? Hmm I'll have to look into that later."
I walk around the tree and look out from the hill to see if any landmarks pop out. For instance like a lake, mountain, maybe even settlements? When I had the thought of people I got the chills. I go to take my next step and when I went to put my foot down there was NOTHING there.
"UWAH!" 'Thump' "Oof! Man that hurt!" I hit my chest on the ground right next to the hole, where my leg is currently in. I get my leg out and then I look into the hole. It doesn't seem to be small... I hope it's not a predator hole or I would be shit out of luck.
Well I look in the hole it goes in pretty deep. I don't see any tracks around the whole but mine and nothing inside it.... Maybe its safe? I take a look to see where the suns are in the sky. To see how much time left I got before it is night time.
And to my amazing luck! Not much! The suns are going down and it is already starting to sunset. I guess this deep hole is my only choice for today.... Let's hope it is deeper than it looks.
I put my head over the hole and look right down the deep hole to see how far it goes down. It's deep but not deathly deep where I would die from falling in. As I look longer in the hole I notice that there are ridges on the side, where I can put my feet to get down. It also looks like it gets a little larger at the bottom, and possibly an off shoot? I think that's what it's called?
"Uck" Yup its an offshoot, thanks brain for the knowledge pain that happens every time I learn something new. Well time to explore this hole and see where it goes.
I sit on the edge and put both feet in first, then slowly scoot forwards so one of my feet catch a ridge on the side. Thankfully one of my feet caught a ridge. Slowly I make my way into the hole, lifting one arm up so that I can fit my shoulders in. After a few cautions steps down on the ridges and a few scrapes I make it to the bottom,
From where my eyes are to the top of the hole it's a few feet. I can almost reach it with my arms but not quite. Its very dim in the hole and as I look at the bottom where my feet are and see an offshoot. Well a small hole on the side where it looks to go horizontal. I get to my knees to get a better look.
From my knees I see an offshoot that goes a way back. I can't tell how far due to the tunnel being so dark the further in it goes. I think I can fit? The hole to the offshoot comes up to my knee. So plenty of room to crawl through.
Should I crawl through? Or should I just wait here? I mean there's nothing stopping me from crawling into the darker depths.... I think I should, I mean I don't know what is at the end, but I do know I will be safer from any threats.
As I have made up my mind I get on my hands and knees, to crawl through the off shoot. I first put my hands through then my head and the rest of my body. Once I do, I notice that I have more room than I thought. Well, above my head, the sides are still tight. I inch my way forward, breathing a little labored as the offshoot is stuffy and slightly damp. Also realizing that I am slowly going downwards.
After what feels like a few minutes my hands feel an opening. Granted I can't see anything in front of me, I'm praying that it is nothing dangerous. I still feel a hard floor but it opens up a whole lot more. I keep inching forward until my head is through. Then it gets easier to get my hips and legs out.
Once I am through the offshoot I lift my hand above my head slowly to see if I can stand. Thankfully I can! So I stand up and shuffle my feet forward, while keeping my hands out in front of me so I don't smack my face into a wall.
*Ding* [New skill learned]
"Fuck!" I crouch quickly from the ding I heard in my head. It scared the crap out of me. Once I realized I was fine I call out the system. "System"
...
No response? It worked last time. Maybe I have to say something different?
"Open? Work? Uhh System Open?" ... Still no response. Hmm, maybe status? That would make sense due to it showing my name before along with a skill. Trying won't hurt.
"Status?"
---[ Status ]---
[User - Pola]
[Skills - Identify, Dark Vision]
------
Yes! It worked, maybe show Dark Vision?
[Dark Vision - Helps to see a bit better in dark environments]
After reading my skill Dark Vision, I realized that I can see a bit more in what looks to be a cave. Still very dark and I only see outlines with not too much detail. The room of the cave is much taller than me and slopes down in a dome shape. The dome slopes so much that I would have to crouch, so I don't hit my head. I think this will work for my shelter for tonight, nothing should come down here.