For the first day after the discovery of the hole in the hill and its origins, I was angry. During the second day, I've been depressed and fear of dying from the fungal infection persisted, despite that - eventually I've calmed down.. I've been good with accepting my own mortality, not like that was the first time..

The third day - was when I returned to normal routine. Gathering, crafting, hoarding and hunting. Meat I've dried and cured, ended up being a success, even without any salt or anything. It didn't taste particularly good, but now - I've been in possession of a reserve of food, which could last me some time in case of emergency.

Another week passed as I was consumed by the alternating tasks, dreams of black world and training. I accepted the situation, really - there was no point to try to deny it. I was ok with living like this.

....

"The little ones are growing quite fast"- I was watching the herd of the deer-like animals for the past two days, and hunting wasn't the only reason. It was relaxing to say the least, these animals seemed so alert, yet so calm at the same time. I wanted to learn more about them, but for now the only thing I could see- was two of them mating. Yep, apparently they couldn't find any better time to do the deed, making me look like some pervert.

"Really.. animals.. no sense of shame" - I laughed silently, until I've felt like something was coming up.. And no, not funny. It was as similar to the feeling when you are about to throw up, but my stomach was just fine. I felt my heartbeat skyrocket in an instant, but what was important - I wasn't the only one who was affected.. The deers straightened their heads as if listening to something, even the mating stopped as they looked around - panic in their beady eyes.

"Just.." - I couldn't even think of anything, as suddenly a deafening roar popped inside of my head. I knew that - it was the whispering, or the roaring from the dream.. but this time it was in reality, it roared somewhere deep down - inside the earth. Roared and made my whole consciousness feel like a tiny stone being pulled in by a giant planet... It was pulling on me, or rather I felt the urge to jump straight down, diving head first into the moss.. I was able to resist, but my vision was blurry and darkened, tunneled.. I felt my grip loosen, making me slip down the tree, as my leg lost footing. Bark scraped on my face, but I've been able to hold on..until the ground shook violently.

My hands strained as I felt the tree wave around, creaking.. the ground was rumbling like mad, and it got louder and louder until the earth started breaking up and moving as if it was alive. Trees were breaking and flailing violently, I've heard yelps of the deers that failed to remain standing or got hit by a branch. I couldn't keep holding to the tree and was sent flying, the landing was not soft in the slightest. The air was knocked out of my lungs so violently, that I could feel something ripping inside. Even on the ground, I wasn't simply lying, but tossed into the air - two or three meters high.. every few seconds.

My eyes were seeing everything in a blur, moving - flying around.. trees, stones, animals - everything was a mess.. I could swear that I've caught a glance of the tops of the pine trees for a brief moment.. that was - until my vision darkened from the power of another strike.. I've lost consciousness..

...

"Still alive?" - I doubted my own condition as I could feel my own breathing, hesitant to open my eyelids. In the end, despite feeling battered up and bruised, I was quite fine. I tried to roll to my side while opening my eyes, but the feeling of emptiness where the ground should have been made my eyes pop open.

The ground was somewhere thirty meters below, quite a long fall to be honest. I grasped the dirt, moss and stones trying to pull myself back and move away from the edge. I felt solid ground behind me, as I shook my head violently - trying to see where I was going, as my feet and arms scraped on the surface of the ground to get back to safety. My heart raced as I faced the results of the mighty quake that I've survived. Before me wasn't the scenery that I've lived the past months in, giant cracks in the ground, looking like gaping mouths of giant beasts were lining the land before me. Small hills that I've seen before were no more, substituted with giant, pillar-like mountains of different sizes, but most importantly - there was it. IT was impossible to miss, as it could be called a center piece of this whole disaster.

Looming over the smaller pillars, mighty and grand column of jagged mountains and raised earth - hundreds of meters high. It didn't look like something made by nature, nor by man.. it was as if some deity grabbed the mountains and the plains and built a sandcastle using a bucket.. I felt like an ant in comparison.

...

It took me a while to finally calm down and start using my head, by looking around myself closer. I was located at the face of the cliff - on a ledge a few meters wide and ten to fourteen long. It was mostly ground and rocks, but occasionally I could see the roots of the trees protrude from the cliff - looking like unmoving tentacles. I didn't see the top of the cliff to be honest, but as far as I knew - there was another ledge around five meters above.

"Going down is out of the question.." - Without tools and rope, going down the steep cliff was the same as jumping from an airplane without a parachute.. and there would be no safety net to catch me. - "... my stuff is lost too."

Seems like all that being thrown around during the earthquake made me lose my atatl, spear, leaving me with only a stone knife, that was still tightly tied to my belt. That wasn't much, but it was something right? Lets just say the knife made me a bit more confident, as I looked at the dangling roots of the tree - trying to decide if it was worth the shot..