Chapter 32

In the vast desert, strong winds blew. Dust clouds as tall and wide as hundreds of meters formed and crushed into anything before them. The thick brown dust swept across the entire plain sparing nothing in its wake. Tiny jade desert lizards ran clumsily as they made their way back to their tiny homes, escaping the harsh sandstorm. In the midst of the raging dust cloud an array of sounds could be heard, some depicted intense shrieks of pain as several unlucky creatures suffered the bombardment of the sandstorm they were caught in, some were of crushing rocks being lifted and thrown off into the distance before landing with a loud thud, some were of breaking twigs that just couldn’t hold out anymore under the intense pressure of the winds.

Under the harsh and cruel effect of the sandstorm and raging winds, different creatures, rocks, twigs, everything living or non-living reacted in their own way, all reactions expressed their anguish, all but one. Amidst the vast symphony of sounds one in particular stood out, it was the gentle hum of a lullaby sung by a youth dressed in feathers. Under the constant barrage by the wind and the occasional attack from flying rocks he still hummed merrily, a wide smile covering half his face. Delight and anticipation flashed in his eyes as he hoped, skipped and ran through the sandstorm not shifting his direction once, not even under the intense barrage. This youth was Lwanda.

After leaving the paradise piece he tried his best to decide on his next destination, he was aware his journey would be a long and tedious one, thus he was fully prepared to spend the foreseeable future just looking for a good observation point, little did he expect that the first sight that greeted him would be that which he’d been longing for this whole time.

Beyond the dust cloud Lwanda spotted a thick forest several kilometers away, based on the estimated distance and massive size of trees he could guess just how humongous those trees were, that alone would have been enough to make his day, but fortune wasn’t done with him yet, amidst the massive gigantic trees one stood out, it was so massive it made the others look insignificant, almost like an ant standing close to an elephant. The massive tree span several kilometers in width and it was so tall he couldn’t see an end to it. The trunk broke the cloud layer and continued on, Lwanda could only imagine just how tall the tree was.

“That’s it !!”

Upon seeing the tree Lwanda couldn’t help swallow a bit of saliva, this was more than he’d expected. A deep feeling of anticipation washed through his whole body and he couldn’t wait anymore, he immediately set off for the world tree. In high spirits he continued on, slight inconveniences like sandstorms and dust clouds couldn’t do anything to sully his fantastic mood, so he hummed. This was a song his father used to sing to him to put him to sleep. After countless times the song was permanently ingrained into his mind and with it a safe space was created, one where he could return to if he ever needed to feel safe or connected.

He’d been in this world for multiple weeks now and in all that time he hadn’t come across any other humans, the solitude was harsh, he longed to be part of something other than himself, he longed for company and for the joy and frustration the latter brought. So, no matter what, his resolve was steeled, nothing would shake it, nothing would get in his way of achieving what he needed to do.

After five days of travel, Lwanda finally left the desert area, he could see little traces of plant life starting to manifest. He was exhilarated especially since the trees in the distance kept getting bigger and bigger indicating he was getting closer. Lwanda couldn’t wait, he couldn’t wait to connect with others if there were others, if not .... well, that was a possibility he chose to ignore for now.

“It’s been days since the last time I ate, but surprisingly I’m managing the hunger just fine”

Ever since his rebirth Lwanda had always felt different, he didn’t have the time to study the extent of this change because he was dealing with the jaguar back then, but now he had nothing but time, during his five-day journey through the desert, to deal with the boredom he often run tests and experiments trying to figure out just how much he’d changed.

He realized that other than his connection with the environment, he could also vaguely feel a formless energy in the air and environment around him. The energy was in everything, in some places more than others, Lwanda didn’t know what the energy was but he could feel it. He also realized that his body had improved by a lot, although it wasn’t as impressive as it was when he was covered in the black veins, he still had amazing strength, speed, reflexes and mostly tolerance. He’d been without food for days but he felt like he could go a few more without much of a hustle.

“The new me”

Lwanda said as he grabbed the calabash containing the sup, this was by far his greatest treasure, he was careful enough to keep checking on it to make sure everything was still fine inside the calabash.

“With this by my side I don’t have to worry about mutations from the meat, I can eat and evolve safely as much as I want hahaha”

Lwanda laughed heartily, in a world where despair was the order of the day, he had to remember to enjoy the little things.

“But I don’t want to waste it, I don’t know if I’ll run into the magical vines again, I might have already used up all my luck in this lifetime by run into them once, I must be careful on how I use them”

Lwanda reminded himself, this was a resource he couldn’t take lightly. He immediately started pondering how he could maximize both the effect of the vibe sup and their storage. After moments of thought he finally revealed a smile.

“The spring, I’m not sure which came first; the vines or the spring, but I’m sure the spring had some of the healing properties of the vines, if that’s the case then it should be fine mixing the sup with some water right?”

Lwanda had always thought the spring was special, he couldn’t quit figure it out but the feeling was deeply ingrained in his soul, couple that with the jaguar always running for the spring whenever it was injured, he thus deduced that the spring must have the same type of heeling ability the vines had, there was also the possibility that the heeling ability came from the spring itself and the vines soaked in the spring acquired it as a result. All the same it was safe to say that mixing some water with the sup would be fine, although the effect might be diluted, he didn’t need to worry about that because he still had the raw sup, he could always have some if the mutation became dangerous.

“Now I have another reason to hunt for water”

Standing before the massive tree that span hundreds of meters in height and dozens of meters in diameter, Lwanda couldn’t hide his excitement, he had finally arrived at the vast forest and his destination was just ahead of him. With a smile on his face, he rushed past the first tree setting off for the world tree and the next part of his torturous adventure.