Ignorance is misery

Following the deer was not exactly proving to be a pleasant experience. Especially for Kes who was still dehydrated and hungry.

The deer kept running all over the place, but there was still no water source in sight. And the deer did not stop for a rest. Kes knew deer barely slept because they were wary of predators. He was not confident enough in his own Flow proficiency to sense the deer moving away and sleep together with them, so it was not like he could take a quick nap. 

When the deer finally slept Kes just had to sit there and wait. There was one major problem, it was incredibly boring. Sitting and watching sleeping deer for what felt like a long long time was proving to be not very amusing. And with no stimulation it was hard for Kes to keep himself awake.

So, he decided to just sit close to the deer and meditate. Not the special meditation he had done in the Stinky Cave but normal meditation instead. He would have to focus too much if he tried to completely clear his mind and might lose sight of his surroundings since he had to turn his senses completely inward.

Kes closed his eyes and while meditating tried expanding his senses outwards instead of inwards. He tried to sense his environment and all the changes that were happening within it. 

While expanding his senses he could feel the deer that were sleeping close to him. He could feel their Flow, it even felt like he could feel their vitality. He was trying to proficiently read the Flow of the deer. 

Kes had been slacking on his Flow reading training, so now, instead of with normal humans, he was going to try to read the Flow of beasts instead. He wanted to feel the raw emotions the beasts felt, the ways they thought, the ways they felt. But also the nuances, when exactly would they rush in and disregard their life and when would they run away and desperately flee instead.

Kes knew that if he managed to become incredibly proficient at the reading of the Flow of wild animals he would become a much better hunter. It was easy to read the rawer emotions of beasts, they simply exuded them all the time and made no effort to try and hide them. But Kes believed picking up on the nuances was also very important for reading the Flow of beasts.

Unlike humans, beasts did not necessarily hide their emotions. It would be much easier to make a qualitative breakthrough in his Flow reading abilities here. If he got better at reading the Flow of beasts he would most likely become more proficient at reading the Flow of humans too. But right now his priority was beasts instead, he was stuck alone in a forest and would most likely have to fight a lot of beasts in the future. It would be a major advantage for Kes if he managed to perfectly read the Flow of the beasts he was going to be up against.

He moved his focus towards the deer. He felt the Flow fluctuating, Most deer were sleeping peacefully he only felt calm coming from their Flow. One of the deer was acting quite strangely. It seemed a little distraught, not something that should be happening while it was peacefully sleeping.

'It might be a nightmare.' Kes theorized.

He did not know if animals could also have nightmares or if it was something exclusive to humans. But in the end humans were animals too, Kes could not imagine why other animals would not be able to experience nightmares.

If it was not a nightmare Kes should be concerned about the agitated deer, but while sensing his surroundings he could not pick up on any other presences.

'Unless the deer has picked up on my presence, that would be quite troublesome.' Kes thought. But he did not think it was very likely, the deer did not seem very smart or strong. And Kes thought he was hiding his presence quite well. Even though Kes was not especially strong, the advantage humans held over beasts was their intelligence, and thus their ability to more proficiently use Flow and more proficiently hide their presence.

'It sure is great to be human.'

A short while after, which to Kes felt like an eternity, the deer finally started waking up again. They were going to move once again.

'It was about damn time.' Kes rubbed his eyes, he was desperately trying to stay awake. He really could not let himself fall asleep here now. If he lost the deer it would be catastrophic.

Kes would probably not die but it would set him back a whole lot. Right now he was on track to find a water source really soon. He just needed to keep tracking the deer. But if he lost them he would have to find a whole new pack of animals. And those animals were probably not as optimal as this group of deer.

This was not an opportunity he could let go of, and that was why he had to stay awake, grit his teeth, and keep following the deer.

The deer took off and started nimbly dashing through the forest, they moved quite fast. Kes was behind them, quietly tracking the group of animals as he too dashed through the forest.

While he dashed he felt the forest breeze caress his skin. His hair waved in the wind, his clothes fluttered and the breeze felt calm on his face. Kes was enjoying this dash through the forest quite a lot.

He imagined himself as a deer. A nimble deer, dashing through the forest every day within his pack. Enjoying the blessings of the forest, the calm of the forest and the gentle forest breeze every day.

A life without worries, life as a deer seemed very nice. A human had so much to worry about, meanwhile these deer just enjoyed their daily dashes through the forest while avoiding their predators. They had no needlessly deep emotions, no worries, no needless thoughts within their head.

A deer simply just had to enjoy the blessings of the forest, they were incredibly free. 

Kes shook his head as he dashed behind the deer. 'But if I could choose, I would still choose to be a human in every lifetime.'

Being a human might be cruel, you had so many things to think about, so many useless emotions. But at the same time those things were essential, it were those needless feelings that gave someone a sense of self. 

'High intelligence may be cruel, ignorance is bliss. But I love being intelligent, I love being able to think. Even if that gives me emotions that would impair my judgement.' Kes thought as he looked at the blissfully unaware deer dashing in front of them.

If he did not know better, if he was born a deer in the first place, would he still want to become a human? Probably not, one only knew of their own circumstance. You only know how bad or good you have when you know the other reality exists.

'Just how I now know that my current situation is awful.' Kes sighed. 

If he had been born alone within the forest and did not know the comfort of the village he might have seen his current life as normal. He would not know how good he could actually have it.

He overlooked the deer again, this time with a pitying look. 'They will never know.'

Kes followed the deer for the rest of the day. But just when he was getting quite worried he suddenly heard the streaming sound of water. He knew they must have gotten close to a water source somewhere. 

Kes dashed forwards. Moving towards the sound and dashing in front of the deer, he needed to see the source of the sound he was hearing. He finally, for the first time in many days, wanted to have a good and reliable water source again.

Kes got closer and closer to the sound and eventually passed through some trees to see a magnificent sight, free of any trees surrounding it. He had found it, he had finally found it, a water source.

It was a river, a river that ran through the forest. The riverbank was padded with stones, fresh water streamed all throughout. The river was not very wide, Kes could probably jump over it. But that did not matter, Kes had a lasting water source now. He could move his mind towards what he should do next.

'But first, time to drink something.' 

Kes snuck away from the deer, leaving them behind for a while. Even though the deer had led him to the riverbank and he had grown a little attached to them, his hunger was a lot more pressing, he would surely return for them.

But drinking water was more pressing. Kes made his way towards the riverbank and leaned his head into the cold streaming water. He greedily opened his mouth, the clean and cold water streamed into his mouth. 

For the first time in many days Kes could finally drink as much as he wanted to again.

Kes' expression became one of bliss. Water really did taste very good.