Slightly before the events.

I finally made it past the mountains, when all I can see is a sea of trees spread out as far as the eyes can see. Such greenery never existed in the white desert mountain where I grew up. Such beauty.

However i really hope there is an abundance of food there as rumours would perceive. For the past 4 days, I traversed up and past the mountain peaks, and now that I'm on the downclimb, I have ran out of my provisions and there are barely any food on this barren side of the mountain. Just jagged terrain and moss spread amongst boulders like covering them with a blanket.

Was it a mistake going down this way? No. My mentor spoke the truth, although I heard rumours of lands with abundance of resources before, he confirmed those rumours and guided me in this direction, but I would never have imagined it was over these very mountains.

I think it will take 3 more days before I can arrive down to the foot of the mountains and into the forest below. Perhaps I’ll try and conserve my energy and move slowly from now on. I will also ditch some of my clothes to lighten the load, since I was told the weather in the forest should be much warmer.

I folded my heavy woolen clothing and placed them in a crevice amongst rocks and made my journey down the mountain towards the ‘green sea’.

~*~

On my way down the mountains, as I got closer to the edge of the forest, I noticed a clearing, I decided to head there after I enter the forest.

“Amazing…”

I unconsciously leaked out a word of amazement, for the first time in my life, I have never seen such a wonderful scene, golden rays of light piercing through clouds of green, every part of the beautiful forest lit up as if glowing. Luxurious greenery spread all over, covering browned trunks with spots of white, dense aged leaves and branches covered the ground, tree roots sprawled, climbing over each other as if one entire entity.

Taking a moment to breathe in the beautiful scene in front of me, I notice little disks of red and orange covering a root near the base of a tree. Perhaps this is the rumoured mushroom! I heard my mentor dislikes them, for they would give him some dizziness after he tried them once, but he had seen other beings harvest them, perhaps for eating as well.

I decided to pick one and try it, it doesn’t seem harmful.

I swallowed my saliva in anticipation, it is afterall, the first meal I’ll have after 3 and a half days of traversing down the mountains.

I cleared my throat and threw the whole thing in my mouth.

“Puuuuh! Yuck what is this taste? It's like eating soft tree bark, do other beings really eat this?”

I continued to spit out the contents in my mouth, I can’t imagine this being edible, no wonder why my mentor did not take a liking to them.

Now. Let’s find some animals instead, meat is always tasty, especially after roasting over a fire. Hopefully I can catch one and remove the lingering bitterness from my mouth.

I continued to make my way towards the clearing.

~*~

About 1 hour has past since I begin looking for potentially edible animals while going in the direction of the clearing when painful dizziness hit me.

My head is spinning, uncontrollably I collapsed on the spot, my body feels hot and sweat begin covering my entire body.

I couldn’t muster any energy, the dizziness continues to assault and my body starts to shake. What is happening to my body?

It’s similar to the time I came down with an illness after being exposed to the extreme cold. However It is not cold at all right now and I didn’t shake uncontrollably like this.

I checked my personal information page in my head.

Ah, I have being poisoned.

Soon after, I passed out.