Chapter 5

"Okay Muninn, I'm your owner now so you have to listen to me okay?" Noel slowly spoke to the raven on his arm. The raven, Muninn, cocked its head before cooeeing at Noel. "I'll take that as an agreement."

"Muninn, I need you to help me search for someplace safe that also has a clean water source nearby, can you do that?" Noel asked his pet raven. Muninn cocked its head once again before flying off of Noel's arm to the Northeast direction. Hoping that the raven understood his intentions, Noel quickly followed after it.

After running and stealthily sneaking by some animals, Noel finally reached the place where Muninn stopped and circled at.

Hidden behind a dense amount of greenery was a hidden canyon with a tall majestic waterfall falling through the middle, leading to a clear blue lake flowing gently outwards from the force of the waterfall. The view was breathtakingly beautiful, taking even Noel's breath away from the sight of it.

After staring in a daze at the waterfall, Noel woke himself up, knowing that he can continue appreciating the scenery later. Noel looked around and observed that there was not even a soul in sight there, except for Noel himself and Muninn.

"Good job boy." Noel praised Muninn while rubbing its head in satisfaction. Muninn cooed back at Noel, as if thanking him for the praise.

Seeing as to how there was finally clean water, Noel immediately ran up to quench his thirst. He wasn't as thirsty after eating the few berries he had found but he wanted to drink some of the lake's water before bathing in it.

After drinking, Noel stripped off his thin ragged clothing before diving into the lake. The lake wasn't as deep as it had looked on the surface, but deep enough that light could not shine through the depths of the lake.

The cool water sliding past Noel's skin refreshed him greatly, clearing off the worries that Noel didn't even know he had from his mind. Surfacing, Noel swam nearer to the shore to be able to stand in the lake. After getting a good footing, Noel began to viscously scrub off the dirt clinging onto his skin. He had been wanting to get rid of them ever since day one and having to run through the forest for the past two days and getting dirtier and dirtier because of it just greatly displeased and disgusted him and made him want to get rid of the dirt on him even more.

After washing off the dirt on him, Noel felt more refreshed and cleansed. With a much clearer mind, Noel began to look at his reflection on the clear waters. He saw a silver shoulder-length hair with an equally silver phoenix-eyed young pale scrawny boy staring back at him. A very eye-catching feature of the boy was the beauty mark below the corner of the right side of the young boy's full cracked lips. Overall, the boy looked as if he was blessed by the goddess of beauty herself with his features, ignoring the sunken face, scrawny body, and cracked lips. However, Noel was very indifferent to his looks as he had no sense of beauty, only thinking of how this was how he looked now.

After enjoying his time in the lake, Noel walked out of it and washed his clothes. After scrubbing the clothing as clean as he could get it, he decided to not wear it over again and just tore it into pieces and made them into some shoes and something that resembles an underwear using some plant fibers to complete the simple creations.

Noel then picked a few sharp pieces of stone and made a few throwing spears by tying them on some sturdy sticks he found nearby. With that done, Noel finally had the tools to hunt some easy prey. Even though he could live off just eating some edible plants and fruits, eating meat would provide him with more nutrients and a more balanced diet, making him healthier and increasing his body growth.

"Come on Muninn, let's go hunting," Noel said to the raven flying overhead. Muninn cawed in reply and flew off to the nearest prey it could find with Noel following behind it.