Fresh food

'Hard ro… no wait it's not.' Kes woke up from a long and good sleep. His first night in what felt like ages, that had not been spent sleeping on solid rock. 

Yesterday he had spent quite a while gathering bushes to form some sort of decent pillow and mattress. It was completely lackluster, but to Kes it was almost heavenly. 

'You really don't know what you have until it's gone.' The reason sleeping like this felt so good was because of the stark contrast to the hard rock. And the reason the hard rock felt so bad was because of the stark contrast to his usual bed. Apparently the beds were even better in the big cities, Kes could not help but look forward to eventually sleeping on one.

'But for that I have to make it there first.'

Kes still had not given up on his dream of reaching the big cities and staying there. If anything his dream had only been pulled forward. Surviving went first right now, he would first need to make it out of the forest.

Kes had completely put the idea of avenging his village out of his head, it would simply be futile. There would be no point in Kes trying to find the still surviving villagers and try to free them. Just like there would be no point to try to find the raiders and try to kill them for their actions. Kes would just die and that was that, there was no point. Maybe if Kes got incredibly powerful in the future, but he never expected himself to ever get that strong.

This did not mean that he was not interested in why exactly their village had been raided and who it had been done by, Kes would surely research that as fast as he could. But for now all he could do was grit his teeth and grieve his fallen villagers in silence, he could not actually do anything for them. If the opportunity arose, without risking himself, Kes would help out.

'I guess that makes me cowardly in the mind of some. But to me it is just being realistic.' Kes let out a loud sigh.

He had his own problems to worry about. First and foremost, his hunger. He had still not eaten anything so he would really like to find some animal to kill. Preferably something that went down easily, because he was hungry he was also weaker. So Kes did not have a lot of confidence beating stronger beasts, he needed to find something weak.

Of course if he could find some edible plants that would be even more preferable, his father, Yosen had taught him about the plants within the forest that Kes could eat. But although the forest was luscious and green it did not have a lot of stuff that was actually edible. With enough searching Kes would probably find something, so his plan right now was to search for a beast and edible plants at the same time.

Something that was available all over the place were mushrooms, but Kes was really not confident with them. He had been taught about the dangers of mushrooms many times before and was not sure if he could recognize which ones were edible and which ones were poisonous. If he ate the wrong one by accident he could be in for a lot of trouble, so he decided to refrain from the mushrooms so far.

'If I cannot find anything to eat within three days I will eat them. But I am quite confident that I can find something edible nearby. Usually while hunting it was quite easy to find prey, it is just that this is bear territory.' 

Kes had yet to pick up on the presence of any other living beings since yesterday. Luckily he had no run into the bear either. The mushrooms were looking more and more alluring the hungrier he got.

'If only Nash was here, he would be able to recognize these mushrooms.' Kes' thoughts turned melancholic, he really missed his best friend.

Even though he had spent a lot of time with him, just like with the bed, you only knew what you had when it was gone.

'It does feel a bit wrong to compare him to my bed, though.' Kes smiled thinking of how his friend would have reacted to that joke. He obviously wondered if he was still alive. But Kes did not want to think about it, he would just hope for the best.

Kes decided to just put it all out of his head for now and spend the day hunting and walking through the forest. The air that blew in a soft breeze throughout the green forest would surely help him calm his mind. He really deserved a break after the previous week in the Stinky Cave.

But Kes was still getting unlucky with the hunt on for beasts. After further consideration Kes finally realized that this being bear territory might not be the only reason for so little animals to be around. The other reason was that there was no water source nearby.

It had been incredibly easy to find beasts to hunt in the part of the forest close to Ashen village and Kes now realized that was because of the nearby water source. It all made sense in hindsight, the beasts would obviously flock towards the springs to drink and populate the area around it. This is why it was such a proficient spot to hunt in and could always provide for most of the food within the whole village.

This was not a good realization. Because it meant that there was still no water source nearby, and Kes really really needed a water source. He did not want a repeat of his previous thirst episode.

But, sure enough, after a long while of searching.

'Found you.' Kes finally spotted a living animal, it was a hare. Finally he would have some food to eat, he had been looking forward to this for what felt like ages.

But there was an annoying bit of rationality nagging him deep within his mind.

'Shouldn't I leave the hare alive and follow it towards a water source. It would probably increase my chances of survival.'

Kes thought about it long and hard, he really wanted food but on the other hand he also really needed water for the future. But in the end he just decided to catch and kill this hare right here. He could not let the juicy and delicious looking hare escape him now, he needed to eat.

'It should also allow for me to regain a bit of my vitality, making it easier to go on my next hunt. I will just follow my next prey all the way to the water source.' 

In the end all Kes' moves were calculated. If this were a group of deer he would no doubt have followed them. But an elusive hare was hard to track and easy to lose. Sure if he managed to track the hare all the way to a water source his gains would be great, but it did not seem to be worth it in the end.

Kes slowly but surely sneaked up on the fluffy hare. It had a gray tint to its fur, the fur could probably come in useful in the future too. But when looking at the real important part, the juicy meat, Kes could not help but lick his lips.

Kes quietly made his way through the bushes making sure not to let the hare notice a thing. He also suppressed his Flow as much as he possibly could, if the beast sensed his presence it would make a break for it without a doubt.

Then when he was quite close to the hare, just a stone's throw away, the fluffy gray creature suddenly twisted its neck into the direction Kes was coming from. 

The hare had noticed him and it dashed away without hesitation.

Kes was not slow to react either, he instantly strengthened his whole body as proficiently as he possibly could and jumped towards the hare. He stretched his arms wide and just barely grabbed the air as he moved in to grab the furry gray beast.

But Kes was not done. Like he had become a hare himself he quickly shifted the position of his flailing arms and turned them towards the ground. He pushed both his arms and legs off the ground, jumping up with as much speed as he could muster, pouncing the desperately fleeing hare.

This time he did not miss, the weird jump had given him an unexpected burst of speed which made him instantly catch up to the fleeing hare. Kes had finally caught some food.

He looked at the fluffy hare that desperately struggled within his tightly clamped arms, he was never letting it go. 

Kes took the hare's neck into one hand and swiftly snapped its neck with the other. It was a cruel death for the fuzzy beast but it was the best Kes could manage right now. After all, he did not have any weapons. He could not grant the beast a less painful death than this.

Kes salivated as he saw the dead beast within his grasp.

'Time to finally eat something.'