//------------------------------//
// Day 2: Find rescue: 
// Story: Afterlife 
// by Star Sparkle 
//------------------------------//

I woke up to what I assumed to be the next day, and I crept out of the cave that had served as my makeshift camp for the night. I listened out carefully for any sounds of other humans or hungry animals, but, like the day before, heard nothing. I looked around briefly, and could see no sources of food or water. Looking up, the sky was a clear blue, with barely any clouds.

“Another day in the sun.” I muttered, and rolled my eyes.

I felt a dull ache in my eyes, and they started to itch. “Must be some sleep,” I thought. But rubbing my eyes gave no relief, and no relief seemed in sight after carrying on.

“Maybe a lack of water,” I concluded, and forced myself to stop rubbing my eyes and look for a way to get up to the top of the mountain I was still only at the base of.

I walked around the mountain for a while, and found a winding trail going up, so I followed it.

I walked for what felt like hours, but it could’ve been less than an hour, or even longer. “We have to stop and take a break,” my body protested, “we’re exhausted”. Ignoring my body, I carried on, wanting at least some respite from the sun beating down, but no luck.

My vision almost seemed to pulse to the beat of my racing heart. I slumped to the ground to catch my breath, and my eyes fell on the ground below, maybe 25 meters down, and as I tilted my head back I guessed I was maybe a third of the way up. Still panting, I decided it was time to move on.

After my rest, I walked further, and as I walked, I stared idly out on the horizon to see if I could spot a town, a house, anything really, but I couldn’t see much of anything, let alone life.

At some point I finally crested the peak of the mountain, and lay down on the ground until my heartbeat was no longer pounding in my ears, and my breaths came easier. Now I felt I had time to look around more closely, and from a good vantage point too.

Looking around a bit more carefully, I saw the mountain with the thing on its side from yesterday, there was something below it- I nearly jumped for joy, could it be some tourist town? I could only see it as a blurry blob of blackish brown, but I had to hope. I traced my eyes back from it to myself, and saw a vast dark forest was between me and it. Looking to the right, there was a smaller forest on the other side, which looked more welcome. Did I have the energy to take the safer, but more circuitous route? 

I had no source of water or food near me, and I realized I had no other choice. I decided, I had to get down from this mountain and get to what could maybe be a town before my body gave out. I would have to chance the most direct route.

I got up and started my descent, much more slowly now. I knew it would take hours to get to that town (“it just had to be a town,” I kept telling myself). I stole a glance at the sun’s place in the sky, and winced. I suspected it was about noon.

I stopped for a moment, realising that I needed something to orient myself once I was back on the ground. I looked around in a panic, eyes darting frantically from one alike tree to the next, my head pounding at the focus. “The mountain from yesterday,” I mumbled to myself “The Camel mountain...” 

Fear gripped me for a split second, had I nearly forgotten where the town was already? This was bad, if I couldn’t keep my thoughts straight and remember where I was going, I might die out here.

The fear receding, I took a good long look at the mountain, which was next to the town, and only when I felt comfortable with my memory, carried on down the path and walked down, repeated my mantra ‘To the Camel mountain…  To the Camel mountain… To the Camel mountain...’

I wanted to take another rest, but my single-minded goal kept me going for who knows how long.

I was maybe halfway down when I felt the muscles cramp in my right leg. I winced in pain and felt a horrible sense of vertigo as I lost my balance and slipped off the loose stones of the trail. I put my arms over my head, and fell a short distance before rolling down across rocks and pebbles, bruising me on my too-fast descent, and not even slowing me down. Out of pure instinct, I shot out a hand, and managed to bring myself to a stop.

As I lay on the ground with a muscle cramp in my leg, I clenched my fist and punched my leg, as I hoped to get the pain to stop, but nothing; the pain was so horrible that I closed my eyes.

As I opened my eyes, I couldn’t feel the muscle cramp in my leg anymore, but I also noticed that the sun had moved quite a bit. As I became more awake, I realised that I must’ve slept for a while. Something in my head told me this was wrong, but I couldn’t quite grasp the feeling. I stood up, brushing the dirt off me as I did so, but I felt something was cold around my knee. I looked and saw that there was a scratch on my knee, and there were small scrapes and bruises all down my legs. I wasn’t bleeding, but it still hurt, as I saw there was nothing I could do, I kept walking down the hill.

As I was close to the bottom of the hill, I felt something tickle in my nose before I let out a huge sneeze. When the echo of the sneeze stopped, there came a rumble that shook the ground. Small rocks began to fall before I realized what was about to happen “Avalanche!”

As I ran toward the wall, the big to huge stones began to fall, as I noticed a big shadow around me, I looked up, and a giant boulder came down, I jumped and barely avoided it.

I got up and got my back against the giant boulder; as I looked up, the smaller rocks rained down, and I used my arms to protect my head. After a bit, I looked between my arms and saw a football-size rock as it came down, and my instinct knew I wouldn’t be able to protect myself.

I used my right arm to push myself away from the boulder, almost flying away, but my arm was too slow, and the rock hit me and I felt horrible pain in my arm. I tried to keep from crying out, and ran to the wall as sand and smaller rocks still came down. At the wall, I was safe from all the stones, but not the disturbed sand that blew into me, stinging my skin and getting caught in my hair.

As the avalanche came to an end, and my adrenaline went away, the pain in my arm came back, and I clenched my teeth hard trying to not scream in pain.

I shook my head free of the sand and looked at my arm, it didn’t look too unnatural, hopefully not broken, and as I felt the pulsing pain, it didn’t feel like I was going to die due to it. Trying to take deep breaths, as I knew I shouldn’t panic, I managed to avoid shedding any tears- I was low enough on water as it was.

I needed help, more urgently now, and knew I had to start walking. It was more painful now, but with no other option, I continued.

I still remembered that I had a direction at the hill’s bottom, thanks to my mantra, but I was unsure where that was. I spotted the Camel mountain with a little difficulty, and thanked my foresight, before I kept trudging onwards.

Hours came and went when finally I could make out a house of sorts. Getting closer though, my common sense came back, and I froze in my tracks. Something didn’t make sense; the houses’ design looked hundreds of years old, nothing like that would ever be built today. Stranger still, they looked relatively new, showing no telltale signs of centuries of wear and tear.

Something told me I should take a closer look and maybe see a resident of the town before I walked straight in. With the small open forest next to me, I decided to get closer, and I snuck through the trees the rest of the way.

As I got closer to the town, a tree lay before me and forced me to go out into the open or deeper into the forest. I decided to go deeper into the woods, still being careful and making as little noise as possible. I also had to listen and be mindful of my surroundings. Even if the pain in my arm did make my concentration worse.

As I took my first step into the forest, my head swam and I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach. I was so thirsty, tired, exhausted, and my arm wasn’t any better. I wondered if I had even made the best decision. Should I have gone out in the open and walked directly to the town? I couldn’t lie down here and fret forever though, I knew I had to get up.

I clenched my left fist and forced it in the ground next to my head, and using as much of my strength as I could, I was able to push myself up. I got my right knee on the ground before I rested for a moment; I got my left foot stable on the ground. The pain in the arm, now  dangling at my side, gave me an immense amount of adrenaline. I pushed myself up. As I did, I spotted a branch and grabbed it with my good arm, letting me get myself stable on my feet.

When I was able to stand by myself, I let go of the branch and turned around and leaned myself on the tree. “Should I just walk into the town?” I wondered. But as I felt that I still had some energy left in me, fear of the unknown won, and I chose the forest.

I stumbled through the forest, head protesting every step of the way. It was then I heard a voice, maybe two voices. They talked to each other, though one spoke more than the other. The sounds they made were still muffled and as carefully as I could, I walked closer.

As I walked, I could make out the voices more and more precisely, but what they were saying I couldn’t make out, only that these two voices were coming from the other side of a boulder I now found in my path. While one was definitely an adult man, the other sounded more like an adolescent boy. Father and son perhaps?

I heard as they talked about something, but my head wouldn’t focus enough to listen. I heard the sound of several rolling dice, though I was still unable to see them. I had to find a way to see them without them seeing me. Hence, as I looked from where I was, I spotted a bush next to a tree and stealthily moved towards it, trying to keep myself from being spotted. Once behind the bush, I crawled under it, even as my right arm screamed at me, but I was able to stay quiet and out of their sight.

From my hiding spot, I could finally make out the voices, they were speaking English, and even though I’m fluent, I had no idea what they were talking about, though it was probably about their game.

Finally, I was able to see them from my hiding spot, and I couldn't believe what I saw: A red horse with a collar on and... My blood froze. A small purple and green dragon?! They were both sitting on some wooden stumps pulled up to a larger piece of wood that served as their table.

I tried to control my breathing, but was slowly failing, panic creeping in, and I wondered, “But where did the voices come from….”

Those were my final thoughts before my stomach growled loudly, and the dragon jumped up in alarm and yelled, “Who’s there?!”

Panicked, I pushed myself up with my left arm as quickly as possible, trying get get up and run, escape-

Pain overwhelmed me, and my eyes rolled back into my head as I fell to the ground, unconscious.