Chapter 16

It's okay. You have got this, Detoro. You can do this. Just ignore the fall to the pits of hell below you. It is just a little drop, don't worry about it. You can do this. Psyching myself up, I reaffirm my grip on the vine and steady my feet against the bark, and then I push with all my might going for the swing.

The rope swings and I follow it, but only for a moment. Then, something goes wrong, and my left leg is stuck for some reason, which prevents me from completing my swing, and the swing stops before it even really went. So I end up once again stuck in the middle of the air, my left leg still attached to the tree branch for some reason and holding onto the vine, which is now above my head.

Because I swung, I am now facing the ground, held in place by my left foot and my arms above my head, holding onto the vine. Unfortunately, the vine is perpendicular to the ground, and I can feel my hands slowly losing their grip.

Managing a look behind me, I see the root of my problem. One of my feet did indeed leave the tree, but my left leg did not leave because, like the idiot I am, I forgot that I had wrapped the vine on that branch around my leg. So when I grabbed the vine with my right hand, I twisted to face the ground, and my foot became even more tangled.

To put it simply, I am between a rock and a hard place, even though I am between a vine and a branch surrounded by nothing but air, and I am screwed because my hands are slowly slipping. Crap, I have to complete the swing before I slip and fall to my death, and to do that, I have to untangle my leg from the vine, and I don't have the time to be neat about it.

I begin to kick and kick, trying to free myself, kicking against the tree as well as pulling my leg, trying my utmost to free myself. With each passing moment, I can feel myself slipping, and my struggle is not helping me. Finally, my hands are nearly at the bottom. At this point, I am really panicking, and I just start to move my legs in a frenzy, both of them, just trying to survive.

*Snap*

Yes, I am free, and now I am swinging, and I am going to make it. I am going to-

"AGGGHHHHHH!!"

I slipped halfway through the swing. I missed my target completely, not even landing on my backup branches. I fly feet first right underneath them, travelling through the forest, and-

"UGGH!"

I impact a tree which stops my travel. I flop off of it like a wet pancake and begin falling down to my death. I am-

"Ugh."

I feel myself impact something much softer than wood. It still hurts but is not severe. Not the, oh my god, I am dying kind of pain. Whatever it is, it doesn't do much to slow me down, and I continue to fall. Down I go and-

"Ugh."

I hit another one, and then another one and then I am just being barraged by them as I continue my travel, and I have no idea what the hell is happening, but my speed is slowing down, and that is a good thing. I might actually survive. Then, I suddenly land roughly on my ass on something, and my journey ends there. My momentum carries through, and my back falls back as well. My back slams into what is obviously the ground, and a cloud of dust blooms in my wake.

Damn, that really hurt my ass, and my back isn't doing so good either, but thank god I am alive. I could have seriously died, but my speed had diminished so much that I didn't break my ass. Unfortunately, though, I am going to have a massive bruise. So I stay there for a moment, in a state of shock and intense relief at my survival. But, goddamn it, why am I so bloody clumsy? Damn you, my past self. Why did you make such bad decisions?

Hmm, what the hell are all those yellow things in the sky, and why are they getting so much bigger? They kind of look like- Crap. I quickly move my arms and cross them over my face. I bring my knees up over my stomach as well, all to protect myself.

"Ugh."

"Agh."

"Gah."

I grunt as the multiple projectiles slam down on me, battering my arms and legs, but thankfully my hasty defence was good enough that none of them managed to slip through and punch into my stomach or head. Instead, they continue to wallop into my limbs, seriously bruising them. My limbs shake with each hit, gravity assisting it in battering my arms and legs, and I very nearly drop my guard, but before I can, the barrage stops.

I stay like that for a moment, just in case any more are coming, but it seems to be over. I chance a peek over my arms, and there is nothing above me except the green of the canopy above me. Feeling safe now, I move my arms out of my face and sit up, and I take a look at what the hell it was that had broken my fall.

Looking down, I can see a bunch of green vines underneath my butt, like a whole ton of them. These must have been what broke my fall. I was falling so fast that I kept running through them one by one, which slowed me down, and I even ended up taking them with me to the floor. They also helped break my fall. With the amount there, it is like I have a net made of vines. I can hardly see the grass underneath it due to the sheer amount.

All of these vines were attached and wrapped around trees, so it is obvious that they were the reason for the sudden barrage. But, in addition, it was because every time I broke landed on one of these things, the vines would strain and tug on the tree before either coming loose or snapping. Either way, with the number of vines being pulled and tugged on as I descended, the trees were constantly shaken, which ended up throwing some other things down with me.

The things that were falling down on me were some kind of yellow fruit. The trees were shaken so much that these things shook loose as well and fell down, and there is a whole bunch of them, more than two dozen of them. Reaching out, I grab one of them. It is a round yellow fruit. It is hard and hairy like a coconut, except it has yellow hair, but unlike a coconut, this has a stalk, like a banana.

Fiddling around with it, I can't seem to figure it out and am not able to open it, it is very hard all the way around, but I have discovered that the section between the stalk and the rest of the fruit is very soft. So I grab hold of it and pull it down, not dissimilar to how one would peel a banana.

The hard outer shell comes off. It seems to have been on top of the soft skin inside, and inside, the fruit is something akin to the inside of a banana but round and segmented like an orange. I take a bite. It was delicious, I quickly scoffed it down, and before I knew it, the whole thing was gone.

I am left with the hard shell, which had been segmented when I peeled the fruit. They are like little rigid plates. I could probably use this for something. But, dismissing that for now, I look at my surroundings and at all the surrounding fruit and then at the big green net under me, which is made of vines.

I get up and start to gather all of the fruits together and place them in the middle of the net. I then gather the edges all together and lift them up. I have fashioned myself a makeshift bag from the vines to hold my food and take it with me on my journey back to the beach.

I can't tell if I am lucky or I am unlucky. Due to my clumsiness, I took a severe fall and hurt myself quite a bit, and yet due to that, I figured out which direction to go, collected a whole bunch of fruits, and acquired a vine net to store the fruit. I completed all my immediate objectives in one go, yet I have seriously bruised my ass, back, forearms and shins. Am I really lucky?

Sighing, I ignore the many questions I have that will never be answered and heft my makeshift bag over my back. I walk back into the clearing, which, thankfully, is not too far. It is a good thing I hit that branch and fell so close to it. Otherwise, I would have to do another dreaded climb again to regain my bearings.

Reenetreing the clearing, I walk up to the tree that I had climbed, the tree I used as a bearing point, and I walk past it heading south, heading towards the beach. Finally, I have my bearings, I have food, and I have had enough sleep. It should just be a straight shot from here to the beach now. Easy enough. I just need to walk in a straight line. How hard could it be?

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"ROAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"Huff... Huff... Huff..." I pant as I stay pasted to the back of the giant boulder I have hidden behind, doing my best to keep my breath from coming out. Still, the best I can limit it to is a slight panting, but at least I can keep my crackling breath and wheeze from coming out, which would surely alert the beast currently looking for me.

I was an idiot when I thought this would be a walk in the park. I must have cursed myself because this journey has been anything but easy since I left the clearing. From the simplest things, such as somehow getting turned around and significant obstructions in my way, to something like an animal getting too close and freaking out or even attacking me.

All manner of things in this hell-like forest have constantly gotten in my way and made me lose my footing. I have had to climb trees quite a few times to get a sighting of the sun so that I can continue the trek in the right direction.

*Smash*

"GROAAAAAAAH!!!"

I hear the massive gorilla behind me bellow in rage and smash something to smithereens in anger because it can't find me. I suppress a shiver when some debris comes shooting past me and imbeds itself into the trees in front of me. I had come across a few different animals here, a deer that got spooked and knocked me to the ground, some foxes that stalked me for a while, and some kind of wild tiger cat, which I thankfully saw first and hid from before it could spot me.

I hear the heavy footsteps of the giant gorilla behind me and then some shuffling behind me. What the hell is he doi- I fall backwards and get laid out on the ground, staring up in confusion at the massive gorilla that is standing right above my supine body. The beast towers above me, holding the colossal boulder that I was resting on high above his head, I am cast in their large shadow, and I feel as if the sun has disappeared as a cold chill runs through my body.

I don't know what to do, and my body doesn't either, so I just continue to lay on the green grass, the dangerous creature holding its equally dangerous weapon above my defenceless body.

I am so screwed.