Ryan covered his eyes with his hand and looked up at the sun, which now rested directly above him. He growled, realizing that he had spent the past two hours looking for the location Zecora had mentioned. He was still tired from his fight with the wolves and the lack of food did nothing to help his mood. He did his best to recall her words that she had told him (sort of) in which direction to go, and also what she had wanted.
"What I seek is water that is the best. You will find this water in a giant tree to the west," she had explained to him. Ryan raised an eyebrow at her.
"That's it? That's my first "quest"? No, 'I'm walking into a death trap' or 'I will probably lose both my legs in the process'?" Ryan asked sarcastically.
"Whether you escape unscathed depends solely on you. Follow your gut and remember to stay true."
"What does that even mean?"
"It means you are taking too long. Now, hurry up and be gone!" she yelled with a laugh, haven giving him the 'get out' hoof motion.
After two hours of searching, he was lost. All the forest looked the same to him, no matter which way he headed. He had no compass, nor was there any way of telling which way was west. He cursed the zebra and opened his pack, fishing out some food. Zecora had been nice enough to pack some food for him on his journey, even though he didn't recognize any of it. He popped one of the items in his mouth and bit down. He had expected it to taste terrible, but much to his surprise and enjoyment he found the treat had a tangy taste. After he finished chewing, he felt energy flowing through his body again. He had to give Zecora credit, she knew her meds. He stowed a few more of the snacks in his jacket, then he closed his pack and began to think.
Now that he had the energy to think clearly, he walked over to the nearest tree and quickly scaled it. Once he reached the top, he started looking for parts of the forest where certain trees were taller than others. If this water was supposed to be inside a giant tree, then he'd simply look for the tallest tree. Spotting a section of the forest where the trees seemed taller than the rest, he smiled and climbed back down. Once down, he started to make his way over to where the tall trees were.
His walk took him another ten minutes, until he finally arrived at what looked like an odd gorge with trees growing all around. Looking over the edge, Ryan saw a vertical drop into darkness and mist. He kicked a stone down into the hole and waited to hear a noise. Nothing. Ryan shook his head and looked up, trying to see through the mist to the other side. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as if he was heading the right way. Maybe he was getting that 'sixth sense' everyone on Earth seemed to take so much interest in? After a moment of trying to figure out how to cross, he happened to look up. There was his solution...and his problem. The trees were growing out of the sides of the gorge, forming an odd branch bridge of sorts. He could use those to get across if he could climb up. The problem was he had never jumped from branch to branch before.
'Yeah, now I see what you meant by it being up to me if I'd live or not,' he grumbled to himself, remembering what Zecora had said. Ryan walked over to the closest tree to him and hoisted himself up onto its first branch. He looked out to the next branch, trying to figure how hard he'd need to jump to reach it. He also was using all his willpower to avoid looking down. There's no getting up from a drop like that. Tensing his legs, Ryan aimed his body at the next branch, and with one final farewell to his sanity, he launched himself at the branch. His timing was perfect and he landed stomach-first onto the branch, before quickly wrapping his arms around it. Panting, he looked up at all the other branches he'd need to cross. One down...
Ryan mustered his courage once again and propelled himself to the next branch. After a few jumps, he felt that he was ready to try and land one on his feet. So he took aim at the next branch and jumped. Bad idea. The moment his feet hit the branch, they slipped off and tossed him over the abyss. In pure fear-fueled adrenaline, he managed to reach out his hand and grab onto the branch from which he had slipped. The adrenaline pumping through his veins gave him a death grip on the tree branch, so he didn't slip into the black oblivion. Swallowing his fear, Ryan pulled himself back up onto the branch.
"Ryan, you are not that good yet. You can't do that kind of crap after only a few tries," he told himself, still shaking from the adrenaline boost. Slowly getting back into the crouch position, he continued across the branches in the manner he had before, landing stomach first. While this hurt him to a degree, it was infinitely better than the alternative. He had proceeded halfway when he came across something that stumped him. It was a branch with the leaves facing down. While this shouldn't have been a problem, something just felt wrong. He looked back at the branches he had been jumping on and found all their leaves were pointing up. He looked back at the branch with the down leaves, wondering why it felt off. It was an easy jump, even for him. He looked a little to the right and found a branch that he could also jump to, with all of its leaves facing up.
"I don't know why, but I get the feeling if I go on that branch it won't end well." Even though it was harder, Ryan managed to leap to the branch with the leaves facing up. And it was a good thing he did. When he looked back at the other branch, he watched with wide eyes as it slowly slithered back into the tree.
"Okay, Zecora was right in telling me to listen to my gut. Zecora: 3; Me: zero," he said to himself with a small smirk. Ryan proceeded across the rest of the branches with little incident, although he was aware of every time he had to avoid one of the down-leaved branches. After about forty branches and what felt like a shattered rib cage later, Ryan finally made it to the other side. He landed with a thud and rolled onto his back, trying to regain his lost breath.
"Good God, that hurt," he groaned, unzipping his jacket and lifting his shirt to see what the damage was. He winced as he saw the bruises on his chest and abdominal area. THAT he would feel in the morning. Ryan opened his bag again, wondering if Zecora had given him anything to treat injuries. He fished out a jar of a weird blue cream that had no label on it, but he could see some writing scrawled on the side.
"This will heal you whenever you are hit. I packed it because I knew you would need it."
Ryan smirked at the writing. Even when she wasn't near him, she found a way to mess with him. He opened the lid and took a finger full of cream. He gave it a curious look, but since Zecora hadn't failed him yet, he applied the cream to a particular bad area. Again to his surprise, the pain faded away almost instantly, as if his body had absorbed the healing medication. Looking down, he realized that his body HAD absorbed it. After applying the cream to the rest of his injured front, he zipped his jacket back up and turned around. Before him was a long pathway under the root of a massive tree, though he couldn't see how very far down it went because of the mist. But that was the direction which indicated a giant tree, and towards a giant tree was where he needed to go, so with a deep breath, he started walking.
/\/\/\
\/\/\/
After a short walk through the massive root, he found on the other side one of the most spectacular sights he had ever seen. A glorious oak tree ascended into the heavens, and the way the light fell between the leaves was something of pure beauty. To his sides were trees so close together that only small animals would be able to fit and each of those trees were nearly as tall as the oak, but the oak was magnificent--and it was HUGE. Ryan wouldn't have been surprised if the oak's roots reached for miles, it was that large. After a minute or two of marveling, Ryan snapped out of his daze. If his thinking was correct, he would bet that the water Zecora wanted was somewhere inside that tree, so he needed to find a way inside.
He walked up to the massive trunk and looked up. A multitude of vines hung from the trunk, all of them leading upwards. He looked to find where they originated and found what looked like an entrance. He was too far away to be certain, but it was his best bet at the moment. Ryan grabbed one of the vines, half expecting it to bite him. He tugged a few times and after making certain it was secure, began his climb up. He had never really rock-climbed or anything along those lines before, but he knew how to properly do it. He pulled up when he took a step, keeping a steady rhythm. When he had made it half way up, he felt his arms begin to burn. Ryan swore to himself and wrapped the vine around his wrist, allowing him to use his other arm to reach for one of the snacks he had put in his coat. He popped the small seed-like thing into his mouth and felt energy flood through him again. He smiled and resumed his climb, feeling energized. He noticed that he had reached where this vine was growing from the tree. No problem, he would just grab another vine and-
HHHHIIISSSSSSSS!!
Ryan quickly let go of the vine that he had just grabbed to find that he had actually grabbed onto a giant snake. The creature's head emerged from within the vines and it slowly turned to face him, its tongue flickering in a threatening manner. Ryan grabbed onto his vine with both hands and slid back down to the forest floor. The snake let out a loud hiss and slithered down the tree after him. He turned to face the monstrosity, not liking his chances. The snake was at least fifty feet long, a foot and a half in diameter, and looked to be of the constrictor family.
"Well, I guess I'm screwed then," Ryan said with a smirk, doing his best to suppress his fear while drawing his stun baton at the same time. Although he had no idea how the little weapon would be of any help against this beast, it was still better than nothing. The snake rose up to its full height and eyed the human carefully, its tongue smelling the air. It could smell the fear coming off of this strange beast, the same fear that all its other prey secreted. The serpent reared its head back and lashed out. Ryan just barely rolled out of the way of the attack, watching as the serpent's head slammed into the ground. It shook its head and rose back up to its full height, its head swaying back and forth, eyeing the human.
"Whoever's been watching over me so far, I could really use some help right now!" Ryan yelled up at the sky. But instead of help, he received another attack by the snake and had to roll across the forest floor to stay alive.
"Fine! I'll deal with it myself!" he yelled at the heavens, flipping his hood up. This time when the snake lunged, Ryan only half jumped out of the way. When the serpent's head slammed into the ground this time, Ryan was close enough to bring his weapon down upon its head. Unfortunately, the baton bounced off the serpent’s scales, not damaging it in the least. Ryan was not so fortunate, as the serpent swung its tail into him and launched him across the forest floor. He landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him, miraculously holding onto his weapon. The serpent sensed victory was near and slowly slithered over to him. Ryan looked up to watch the serpent draw back before lashing out one last time.
He had planned it perfectly. The moment the serpent had launched him across the ground; Ryan realized that he would need to hit the serpent somewhere that hurt...somewhere major. So he played possum and acted like he couldn't move, getting the snake to lower its guard. The moment it had gone for the killing blow, Ryan rolled out of the way and watched it again slam its face into the ground. Then it was his turn. Ryan flipped the power switch on and drove the weapon into the snake's one weak spot--its eye. The beast roared with pain as electricity flooded through its vision. Before it could get back up, Ryan gripped the baton with both hands and rammed the baton through the snake’s eye. Blood gushed from the wound as the serpent lashed back and forth in agony, while Ryan rolled away from it to a safe distance. The snake retreated into the forest surrounding the tree, its wails of agony echoing throughout the area.
"Yeah...that's right...you'd better run," Ryan panted, falling onto his rear in exhaustion. He spent a while after that try to calm his nerves. He looked down at his blood soaked baton, thanking his lucky star that he had it. He didn't even think of what the outcome would've been if he had to use his fist on it.
"First Timberwolves, then talking zebras and now giant snakes. It seems like I'm destined to fight everything in this Godforsaken land," he panted. After a quick reprieve and another one of Zecora’s energy snacks, Ryan turned his attention back to the vines. He made a promise when he grabbed the first vine that if another snake came out he was going home. He tugged on it like before and then started his climb back up.
Unlike his previous climb, this one, while tiring, was uneventful. When he had finally reached what had looked like the entrance, Ryan found to his surprise that he had only made it a fraction of the way up the tree. But he had at least reached an entrance and this was definitely the biggest tree in the forest. He gazed at the hole in the tree in amazement since it was even bigger than the serpent. He hoped that there wasn't a nest of those things in there. He walked inside and then proceeded to slump to the floor. He was tired, hurt, and now covered in blood. It was safe to say he was having a bad day. He took a full half hour to rest before applying more of Zecora's medicine to where the snake had hit him and hauled himself up.
Ryan kept his stun baton out as he walked deeper inside the tree, waiting for something to leap out at him. And something did, but it was nowhere near what he expected. The interior of the tree was like a massive skyscraper, just going up and up. Ryan craned his neck back to get a better view of the place. Sunlight shone in through the leaves near the top and cast a warm yet soothing glow all over the tree. Branches, surprisingly, grew on the inside of the tree, although they were not as large as the ones on the trunk. However, near the very top seemed to be some sort of platform. Was that where the water was being held? He really didn't want to climb up there, but if he had to-
Suddenly, a loud shriek filled the center, echoing off the walls. Ryan turned on the power to his stun baton and glanced around, trying to find the source of the noise. While he was looking around, he felt something slam into his back and knock him to the floor. He quickly sprang back up, but saw no sign of the attacker. Then with dread he realized that he felt a lot lighter than before. He looked over his shoulder to find that his backpack was missing. He snarled and looked forward, only to be attacked again from behind. This time he used his hands to catch himself, even if he had to drop the baton to do it. He looked up just in time to see his attacker take his baton.
His attacker was a monkey.