Chapter 11: Another Way Out
When he left the cabin that day he planned on never coming back. If that path looped around then he would just take a different route that got him out of this crazy hall of mirrors. He checked the satchel on the end of his spear to make sure he wouldn’t lose anything, and then he started walking.
“There has to be a way out somewhere,” he mumbled to himself as he walked to the ruins of the temple. It was as good a place as any to get started. As he headed for the stream that would lead him there he decided that there had to be more to the ruins. Maybe a tunnel underneath, or a city further back amongst the trees. He couldn’t say precisely what he hoped to find, but he was sure he’d find something. Games like this always had shortcuts and secret paths, and so far the only thing he’d found that remotely qualified was a watery grave on the third floor. There was no way that was a secret passage, it was just a dick move.
He got to the ruins quickly enough, and spent an hour searching, but found nothing new. There were some inscriptions that were still legible, but it was in a language that he was pretty sure had never been written on earth, so whatever it was trying to tell him was lost to time. There was one spot next to the temple that was caved in that might have once led to a basement or a lower story of some kind - but he’d need a crane to find out. Reluctantly he abandoned the place and started heading further south along the river.
Simon wasn’t really sure that the river was south of course, but that fit the map he’d laid out in his mind. The river went north and south, and the path went east and west, so if this really was as small a world as he thought, he should be able to get back to the path in a few hours if he just stayed in the same direction.
A few hours came and went though, and he found nothing familiar. There was no path, no ruins, and no other signs of civilization. Just a few small animals, some song birds, and endless trees. The only consolation was that this deep into the forest, the canopy was high and thick so there was very little in the way of underbrush. He tried to keep an eye out for goblin tracks, but that was difficult since he wasn’t too sure what they were supposed to look like. Around the middle of the day he reached a point of no return and spent a few minutes trying to decide if he wanted to turn around and sleep in a warm bed tonight, or if he wanted to keep going and sleep in the woods where anything might get him.
In the end he decided that it had to be the woods. He’d never find a way out if he could only ever walk half a day out from his cabin. So towards nightfall he walked away from the river to an ancient live oak. It looked very climbable, and he thought it might be a good place to spend the night. He was half right. After eating about half his remaining food, he tried to sleep. The lower branches were indeed wide enough for him to sleep on without serious fear of falling off, but it was incredibly uncomfortable. He tried to do it several different ways, but no matter how he maneuvered, he definitely wasn’t getting any sleep. In the end he climbed down in the dark and slept at the base of the tree. Whatever happened, happened he supposed.
In the morning he woke and was as surprised as anyone to be whole and uneaten. Between the thin blanket and the damp earth it had been freezing last night, but he’d still managed to get a couple hours sleep. He had a sausage for breakfast, and then he started following the stream again. He did this for half a day, growing more and more sure that he was making progress. Slowly he left the forest behind and entered a boulder strewn scrubland, but when he found the source of the small stream, he stopped to drink his fill before he left the spring behind.
The scrublands turned into hills, and from the tallest hill he could see he was surrounded by forest on most sides, with some marshy areas. He tried to avoid those, and instead re-entered the forest on the opposite side of the boulder field near sunset. By then he was most of the way out of food, and his water skin was completely dry. He sighed and found himself a place to sleep in the lightning damaged trunk of an elm. It was as safe and warm as he could hope for given the circumstances.
Simon tried to stay positive, but he knew that tomorrow was going to suck. He was right. Tomorrow did suck, and so did the day after that. The forest went on forever, and despite the fact that nothing had killed and eaten him, he was kind of starting to wish that they would. He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for over a day and so he was miserable. That misery would last for two more days before he finally succumbed to exhaustion, and eventually woke up in bed. He honestly wasn’t even mad that he’d died this time, as he started to wolf down the bread before he stopped himself. He was grateful. He also wasn’t actually hungry anymore, so he realized he shouldn’t be eating out of habit.