The quiet forest

I take a deep breath for stabilized my self. Countin from 10 to 0. I close my eyes for a moment using all my lungs, letting my abdomen swell, feeling air passing through my nose, my esophagus, entering my lungs, and I made a slow exhalation, I felt every part of my body and my presence in the present moment; I managed to calm the anxiety that began to emerge with the old technique to balance my emotions.

After Relaxing my self, I noticed that it was dawning, there was no longer that translucent haze, the light began to filter through the branches of the trees that moved as if they were moving to the rhythm of a silent song that produced the wind.

I sat down for a moment, the floor was cold. I started thinking.

- I must face these situations with a calm mind.

- I must concentrate on the now, the future does not exist and the past does not exist anymore, there is only the present moment. I repeated the old sentence.

- what should I do now?, ... if this is truly another world, unfortunately I can not stay here and wait to be rescued, the first thing i need to do is to leave this place and look for a civilization, considering the existence of the strange door and the marble pillars, there should be civilization, someone should have done them, civilizations are usually close to water sources, I must look for a river, besides i am starting to be thirsty.

-The rivers usually run down, a high place would help me to see where I'm going but in this place the only thing I see are giant trees so I should explore but before exploring there is something that I need to do preparations.

- First of all. I need tools!.

-What do I have now?,

i taked the piece of marble in the form of a knife that I had adjusted in my belt and taked the stone of marble with the vertices what was in my right pocket.

- I need a knife this piece of marble already has the shape, but the marble is fragile, is not it? Could I sharpen it a little?. i looked arround and found a solid rock and try to sharpen the knife but it did not work, it took me some time trying to sharpen it, the marble knife did not even have a scratch, after a while even the rock began to wear with friction.

- I thought the knife was going to break but do not expect this marble to be so hard.

I looked at the marble stone that I had put on the floor while working with the knife.

- Can I use it to sharpen this improvised marble knife?.

It worked but curiously the marble tip of the marble used as a sharpener is also sharpened, the only unfortunate thing was that I had to cut my finger to realize it, a drop of blood came out of the wound made on my thumb that fell on the stone, as a reflex I sucked my finger, it was bitter, my finger was smeared with the mixture of blue liquid and the strange powder made of crystal. I spited.

-who knows what substance has that mixture.

I looked the marble stone with vertices, the drop of blood sliding down its surface then i remember the three marble stones that I had thrown through the gate.

- Maybe they will serve as reserve sharpeners or who knows if I need to throw them again to try any other strange door that I find.

I went back to the cave and looked for the stones, I had not noticed before but this cave was half collapsed and it looked like it had been recent collapse, looking at the cave I noticed that it was dark however when I entered, a light emanated from my body, i looked my hand , the strange dust was shining when I saw it reminded me that I was covered by it.

-why i wasn´t shining in the light. Maybe has it some type of fluorescent property that only shine in the dark?. this could be pretty usefull .

I took a little powder from my pocket and it shone in the darkness. The brightness allowed me to see two meters clearly in front of me.

-Ok, i have a lantern now.

I put the powder in my right pocket again.

i looked for the marble stones and found them between a crumble wall of the cave. i put the stone marbles in my left pocket and i got out of the cave.

I approached the nearest tree, it felt like I was in the presence of a titan, the majesty of the giant trees made me feel really humble, small and vulnerable because they reminded me that I am a mere particle of dust in the sea of existence.

I thought for a moment I took my marble knife and then proceeded to make an inscription on the tree and then draw some lines around it, the edge allowed me to do the job easily, while doing this process made my hand hurt a little bit, so I had to use both hands, it took me a while to surround the thick trunk, the result was satisfactory¡ ; first the knife proved to be a useful tool although a little uncomfortable to the grip of the hand, I could prove it's efficiency and second I could leave a mark quite visible on the tree that allowed to distinguish it from the others.

- Now, I could know where I started and if if I do not find a shelter I could return to the cave.

I looked around and looked for a fallen branch that would serve as a cane and with the help of the knife I polished it a bit.

Then with my rudimentary preparation I began to explore the forest.

-This forest is very silent besides whispering the leaves of the trees I do not hear birds or insects. I thought.

I walked for a while using the cover of the trees until I started to find giant fallen trees, some seemed to have been torn off.

- A hurricane went through this place?

No, it could not be that, some seemed to have exploded, there were splinters all over the place.

I had to walk carefully because some splinters got embedded in the shoe soles.

- these splinters are somewhat sharp¡. I taked a moment to remove them from the shoe.

I started walking on the tips of my feet because a splinter had pierced my shoe and hurts the sole of my foot. I found that this way of walking was quieter but uncomfortable.

I kept walking until I found some traces that indicated the existence of animals in this place, feathers, many feathers left all over the place, they were large feathers of almost one meter, an image formed in my mind, a huge bird with a powerful beak that ate a mouse, then instead of the mouse I imagined a person and then replaced the person with me, I did not like the image.

I became more alert, I looked at the sky but I did not see nothing apart from the branches of the trees and the sky that was clearing more and more.

- who knows if i finds the animals that are the owners of the feathers or another animals like a bear or a tiger or something worse.

Before my mind started running wildly, I concentrated on the road and on my body, I still remembered how a moment of distraction made me fall into a hole, my arm still hurt from that fall.

This time I started to move in the shadows of the trees trying to be as stealthy as possible but I realized that as I entered a darker shade than the others I began to shine. I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand.

-As I could forget the brightness of the dust adhered to my body, and I believe that I were careful.

-It's good that i have light when the night arrives but my shine can be dangerous too if i attract the atention of any kind of animal.

- I must cover the shine somehow.

Look at my feet, my shoes were covered with it by the bright dust but some places had mixed with earth and leaves and in those parts the brightness was more opaque.

I had an idea, at first I thought that this sticky liquid would fall only when it was dry but it has already passed some time and it has not, maybe it can serve me.

I taked some soil and place it on my clothes i came back to the shadow and check, the brightness had diminished, i repeated the process until the shine stops emanating.

- Now I have camouflage.

-Now that I have something that helps me hide, how should I proceed?

-There could be giant birds, if they are birds of prey it could be dangerous but according to what I know the birds are always near fresh water sources, they like to clean themselves. If I follow this trail of feathers maybe I can find where they live and where there is water.

- Maybe it's dangerous, but it's more dangerous not knowing where to go and even more not finding water. Besides, many times the birds of prey only eat a specific type of animal. I said to myself trying to convince myself to keep going.

I kept walking among the trees this time I had some problems to overcome the obstacles in which the fallen trees had become, because of this sometimes i walked in circles but thanks to the marks left with the cane while I walked, I could realize what was happening.

I climbed a fallen tree because it was very difficult for me to surround it, these trees are immense, some that left spaces to pass through, but others like this blocked the way and I was already getting tired of surrounding them.

I started walking through the tree trunk, I was surprised to find several nests of different kinds with differents sizes, some were completely damaged I found one particularly strange nest in the tree that it was four meters long and and about 6 meters deep besides had animal remains like feathers, feces, bones of animals similar to rodents, some broken eggs, fish bones of about 150 centimeters to 2 meter. That filled me with hope because it reinforced my theory of the nearby water although it also filled me with fear because it confirmed the existence of a huge animal.

-Sweet God, I'm tired!. I made an exclamation of fatigue and I sat.

-This is bad I am spending a lot of energy and every time I am thirstier, I need to find food desides the water but what kind of food can I find in this place? and how can I distinguish if it is edible?.

I looked at the broken shells of the eggs.

-Eggs are the best source of protein and very good nutrients, are generally not toxic unless they come into contact with some kind of harmful chemical substance, will there be toxic substances in this place? However, what else could I eat? It's a shame they're all broken.

-Maybe I can use the peels as a source of calcium according to what I read they are a source of calcium of high quality but I must clean them first, the feces of birds can have harmful parasite or bacteria.

I looked at the scratches on my hand, wrist, arm and I took off my shoe to check the little puncture I had on the sole of my foot.

-I have to treat my wounds but I do not know what to do, some of these fallen trees drip sap but I do not know these species, i can try but if that has some type of neurotoxin or another type of harmful substance it could be dangerous, if they were some kind of maple tree or birch tree I would have a source of nutrients and even a way to disinfect my wounds but I still need a pot to boil the sap in water, everything takes me to the water, I need water.

I put on the shoe again.

-I need to use something like a pot too, with that I could boil water, to cook and clean my wounds. I will look for a solution for that later, first it is to determine if I can use this sap.

-The sap is not white or milky so it should be edible, as I remember the only exceptions were the mango tree and the papaya. But these do not look like mango trees.

For a moment I imagined some huge mangoes the size of a house, in which one could enter rest and eat just as the Smurfs lived in their mushroom houses.

-Where did that thought come from? I really do not know. - Maybe because I'm a little hungry?

-Should I taste the sap?.

I shook my head.

-The best thing to do now is wait I will taste the sap when I find the water.

For a moment I was perceiving the strange silence that enveloped the forest.

-This forest is very silent besides whispering of the wind with the leaves of the trees I do not hear birds or insects. Certainly this is a quiet forest. I thought.

-The day is already very illuminated and fortunately the weather is not hot, I must begin to move forward to find civilization as soon as possible or look for a refuge before it darkens if I can not find I could go back to this nest.

I left the nest and I started looking for eggs in the others nests I had seen but none had anything.

I looked for some type of fruit or berry but I did not find any

-It seems that it is not harvest season.

The branches of the tree made it difficult for me to search, while separating the branches with the cane to be able to follow my path I found some chrysalis, It was the first trace of insects that I found, now I realized that I had not even heard the sound of cicadas, some kind of cricket or another type of insect, I had not seen mosquitoes, beetles or ants, I had not seen either other animals like arachnids, there were not scorpions, spiders or ticks or another kind of small animal, this kind of forest is really strange.

I tried to think the reason, -maybe it was not the right climate, maybe I have not explored enough.

Suddenly I felt that the tree trembled a little, I felt a shadow to my right, there was a huge animal, It looked like a 5 meter jaguar, it had huge yellow eyes, looking at me hidden among the branches of the fallen tree. The animal roared me.

-I stayed watching it petrified.

It had black skin, the jaguar had legs the same size as an elephant, the claws were large, it´s mouth seemed to be able to eat a whole man, and its broken fangs seemed to be able to split him in half, it had a cut on the face that went through its nose and also had blood spots and cuts on its body, the animal looked hurt and eyes showed an expression of ... fear ?.

We both had eye contact for 2 seconds, after which the animal ran away. While running the feature that caught my attention was that it had gray wings although they looked broken and in very bad condition.

After the jaguar fled, it was as if the enchantment that had me paralyzed had disappeared, my heart began to beat like crazy, I started to sweat and I had a huge desire to urinate, my breathing accelerated and my skin became pale. Fear enveloped me like a cloak.

I ran to the opposite side of that beast ran, my only thought was to flee and get away as quickly as possible from that place, ran until my lungs and my legs could not take it anymore I did not even realize how I get off the trunk.

When I came back to my sense of my panic attack, I found myself on a path where trees were inclined to one another, they had almost been uprooted but they remain standing.

- What !"#$%& was that?. I cursed.

-That beast was huge.

What was that beast doing there? Why did not he attack me?

- Maybe like me, it looked for food, perhaps refuge. Was it hurt?,

-Yes, It looked hurt. Answered myself.

-That's why the jaguar fled. Perhaps, like many wild animals, Is it afraid of humans?.Its behavior reminds me of a stray cat that got into the house once, had been chased by another cat and it had been bitten, beaten and mistreated, when I approached it hissed growled and then ran away.

What did it have? were they wings?, how is it that jaguar has wings? Physically it would not be possible for an animal like that to fly. Although maybe the logic does not apply to this. Am i not in a dream?.

-This is getting more and more crazy.

After calming down a bit, I approached a tree.

-I was lucky not to hurt me again, there are splinters all over the place.

I lowered the zipper of my pants and I started to urinate resting a hand on the tree.

When I was finished urinating, I stopped feeling the support of my hand on the tree and saw how in slow motion the tree began to fall. Like when the lumberjacks threw the trees in the videos on the internet, then I ran away quickly, when the tree fell down three others that were supported and as if domino pieces fell one after another, the impact that was deafening, rose a cloud of earth, it was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness.