Pheyis is long gone by the time I make it to the massive boulder she singled out. I’ve been slowly limping under the slowly worsening rain for the last hour.

I had to move though, being sleeveless under the rain got really cold really quickly. I usually love the feeling of raindrops, but even though the air is warm, it’s not hot like in summer either, and I have no easy access to towels and hot tea. Quite a different experience.

On the upside, we didn’t get mauled by some horrible monster yet!

And of course, I made it to her stupid rock but with the rain growing stronger I can’t see the damn village I’m supposed to find. So I’m standing here by the crooked rock. Which is hardly useful because it doesn’t provide any real shelter.

Perhaps a monster ending it all wouldn’t be that bad.

I contemplate the rain drenched valley that slithers between the mountains. In all likeliness, the village is somewhere in the middle of the valley, close to the central river. Even in a magical land, I don’t see how easy access to water wouldn’t be a staple of town planing.

I sigh and hobble to a better spot. A dusty corner at the foot of the rock, hardly providing much protection but better than nothing. Quite similar to my first shelter in this cursed world really.

I sit down hugging my knees to try and keep some warmth. There’s an actual village close by, with houses and fire and food, and I’m stuck out here in the rain.

Damn Pheyis, I don't get her at all.

- - -

When I wake up for the second time today, this time because of how cold I am, the rain has died down back to a drizzle. I apparently slept for about two hours and I… Feel pretty bad. But not so much I can’t stand up for once.

Right, my feet hurt, right under the heels. No amount of stretching will rid me of that.

Time to limp my way down the valley and hope I make it to the right place.

A little while later, as I’m getting near the tree line, I try to spot the town one last time. Even the drizzle stopped, clearing the view a bit further, but I still can’t spot any constructions.

Wait, is that smoke? I squint hard, trying to figure out whether I dreamed or not, but I think yes, there is a small plume of smoke that quickly disperses right in the direction I assume the town is.

Well, that sure puts a figurative spring in my figurative step as I slowly make my way forward, down to the trees.

I knew all along it would be fine.

Hush you, it’s still a long way and the last time we entered a forest there was that sludgeling thing. Right now, I don’t even have a stick to defend myself, and there’s no way I can run away if we do find trouble.

I’ll be happy enough if the worse that happens is me slipping on the damp ground again and covering myself in mud.

The slope is really quite steep in places and I often need to hold onto the trees to climb down reasonably safely.

There might be easier paths toward the sides but right now, my goal is to walk straight in the direction of the smoke I glimpsed.

And so I enter the forest.

- - -

I have to face it, I’m kind of lost.

I mean, I thought it would be easy, just walk in an approximatively straight line right?

Well, one dos not simply walk in a straight line inside a forest. Even more so in mountainous lands, there are areas completely blocked by boulders, deep gaps, thick bushes and brambles… And everything is damp. It’s not easy at all.

The thing is, this place is more of an actual forest, with much older trees, unlike the thin woods I explored by myself two days ago. I’ve been advancing for about two hours and I have no idea how far I still need to go.

With the thick canopy of leaves above my head, I can’t even hope to see the smoke again, I currently can’t even tell anymore how the mountains are placed around me. I did come up with a plan though, find the river and follow it.

I came up with that, you were busy getting lost.

Right. Well, it’s a good plan, simple makes perfect. Now I just need to find the damn river. I’ve been mostly going down although I was occasionally forced to climb back up to avoid the occasional thicker vegetation, and still nothing to really point me in the way of a river.

I mean, the whole forest is dripping from the recent rain, droplets constantly falling everywhere filling it with soft sounds. It also smells great, a pleasant and earthy smell of fresh plants and moss. But this just means I have two senses that can’t really pick up hints of running water. Of course, there are thick trees and bushes everywhere so I can hardly see further than 50 meters around me.

Yeah, I’m really walking blind and relying on luck.

At least this forest seems to be just as devoid of large animal life as the woods I’ve crossed before, I don’t know if it’s normal to not see anything bigger than the occasional bird when one walks in a forest on Earth but I can only guess this must be the norm here at this point. Unless everything is just waiting for the rain to pass.

Or maybe it’s related to the anomaly around my arrival, Pheyis didn’t say much on the topic.

I sigh. Nothing else to do but keep going.

Hey, can you teach me marching songs? I can tell you know some but I can’t bring up the memories.

I can do that.

- - -

Another two hours pass with me humming catchy tunes and slowly making my way in what I hope is the correct direction. Which is, roughly following the river that I did end up finding. When finally, something worth mentioning happens, besides that one useless progress of the hiker trait.

A gilfeith is walking in my direction and it’s quite obviously not Pheyis. He’s very different, his skin is much darker, almost red instead of Pheyis’s light lilac, he also has larger horns, that go straight up like a bull’s would. In terms of clothes, he’s wearing pants made in some rough cloth and while he doesn’t have a real shirt, he’s wearing some kind of leather light armor, a bunch of pieces attached together by a mess of straps. Finally, he has a tail but it is much thinner than Pheyis’s. I’m saying he because he has rather masculine features, including short black hair and some beard, but maybe female gilfeiths can grow beards, who knows.

He’s also tightly holding a spear.

It seems to me like a curious weapon choice to be really practical for a fight in a forest, but it’s not like I have any real knowledge on medieval weaponry strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, now isn’t the time to ponder on the topic. He’s making a beeline for me, and he doesn’t seem very friendly. A bit on the angry side actually. Like he was just chilling minding his own business and somebody sent him to look for a lost human in the woods a couple hours ago.

And his best friend just died in an accident so he’s mad at the world itself.

Yeah, good point. He looks exactly like that.

Although we might be reading a bit too much into it.

I’ve stopped moving, letting him get closer. His eyes briefly flash in a greenish light when he’s about ten paces away and he speaks up as he stops.

“...Follow… to Wathamber”

Well, he clearly said more stuff than that, but it seems the system doesn’t feel like translating more than the overall meaning.

I’m pretty sure his tone is downright disrespectful too but it’s hard to focus on tone of voice with the way the system whispers the translation straight into my brain.

He spits on the floor and turns around, heading in a slightly different direction than he came from.

Yeah OK, this guy clearly hates me for some reason.

At least he didn’t kill us. And he walks much slower and less gracefully than Pheyis, odds are you can actually follow. Silver linings, you know it.

Well, he didn’t kill us yet.

I do my best to ignore the pain and tiredness in my legs, and follow him in silence for the next fifty minutes. I swear he’s being petty and using slightly harder paths, where I struggle to keep up and he can push branches away just right to have them slap me once he’s past.

I actually didn’t see it coming at all the first time and fell right on my ass on the muddy ground.

I was more careful afterwards but he’s good enough to do it in such a way that I can’t be sure whether it’s on purpose or not. Although the mocking snickers did say a lot.

I’ll have my revenge when I’m not half dead and too tired to really care.

And maybe after I figure out why he hates me.

Finally, we break out of the forest and I see the village of Wathamber for the first time.

It’s not very impressive, we’re in an area that has been mostly cleared of trees. The river, a small thing a couple meters across, isn’t far. A well traveled path leads to it from an opening in the stone wall that surrounds the village proper. The wall is about two meters tall, clearly only expected to prevent wandering beasts from going in.

A single bored-looking gilfeith wearing similar gear as my unwilling guide is by the entrance, this one has a sheathed sword at his side.

I made it.