Leafy branches ruled the vast, crowded, and thriving forest, spread wide, covering the sky. Leaving sufficient twinkling lights to burst through the gap between leaves for the scattered seeds and life forms to grow.
A mishmash of beastly noises, most of which were insects and critters, reverberated through the air, transforming into a beautiful harmony of nature. Leaves crunched beneath the feet of four males who had been lost in the forest for about a year and still seeking the exit.
"When.." a youth grunted while holding a wooden stick. His voice was dry and weak. "..will this end?"
No one answered. All of them walked with great difficulty.
A sixteen years old skinny youth who held a wooden stick was Yi Majo, the youngest. He joined the caravan with his father and his older brother.
About a year ago, he lived a normal life. Adventurers, they were, because they visited many places, but Adventurers wielded no superpower.
They were strangers before, yet became comrades during the past year. Their journey had about forty people, ranging from teenagers to old people, and a total of six carriages.
It was a common sight if people joined together in a journey. Usually, one journey group consisted of three to ten people. Before a journey started, adventurers would discuss certain signals for certain conditions such as whistle meant continuing the journey from a break time.
Known as a dangerous route even among veteran adventurers, even the duration of the journey was said almost a half year to reach the destination. The signal discussions went solemn in this journey. Moreover, this last journey was quite special for it had many valuable goods.
Unfortunately, the title 'dangerous route' lived up to its name.
One night, the group leader, Grandpa Po, burned a tent, the highest signal, which meant the group was 'disbanded' and the situation was 'unsalvageable'. All adventurers immediately ran for their lives with their goods. Some ran randomly into the forest, swamp, and river.
These four men were in the group who jumped into the river. Until this time, they still remembered that night like yesterday night, and the cause of why Grandpa Po disbanded the journey was still unknown.
At first, only fourteen survivors gathered near the river. Agitated by emotions, they went into arguments, talking about goods and routes to survive. Most of them blamed the casual-looking male who was seventeen at that time, Po Eldu, the grandson of Grandpa Po.
In the early days of their survival, nights and days felt inexplicably long. Hunger was eating their body while stress was eating their mind. Seeing a small prey, they even behaved like animals, wildly ravaging the meat due to great mortal pain.
Adventurer is a true wanderer; anywhere is home. Still, Adventurer is a human. At least, they needed decent food.
But after jumping to the river, they lived fully like a nomad; beggars who didn't even know the name of the place they slept by.
In the first few months, the group's coordination was worse than any amateur adventurer. As the result, two survivors died, eaten by a wild beast.
Still, they blamed the grandson of the Journey's Leader because this disaster would not happen if Grandpa Po 'did his work as the leader well.' As a scapegoat, Eldu was having a tough time facing all mockers and contempt.
However, they knew they would not survive without being cool-headed and cooperative. The cooperation did not instantly establish so in the process, due to lack of obedience and trust, one died from poison. Some were recklessly acted which led them to the afterlife.
Sometimes, silence spoke more than words. No one expected the disaster. After the bond grew strong, all members gradually wanted to help each other, but they eventually lose some; losing those who once shared the depression in this lonely forest.
The final survival was these four male humans. Yi Majo, Gu Banma, Po Eldu, and Danny Dun.
In the long yet short year, four members left. Hardly talking, they could guess each other's minds better because of the solid interaction. Just by staring was enough to speak a full sentence.
"Keep going." A sturdy male who carried a bag lightly spoke. He was Gu Banma, a veteran adventurer. He was twenty-one, and the sturdiest among the four, not among normal people.
"Just walk, don't talk." said the once most-good looking man among them. He was Danny Dun, seventeen years old. Alas, he looked like a beggar now.
As Dun said that, the rest kept their mouth shut and saved their stamina.
Among those who jumped into the river, Po Eldu was the one who suffered the most. Other survivors spitted on his face, threw mud or cursed him countless times only because he was the grandchild of the leader. Even his food portion was the least among the survivors.
Po Eldu was a veteran adventurer. He started his journey when he was a baby. His mind and body were almost immune to such mockers. Humiliation was nothing but the spice of life, and people's mouth was used by themselves - he couldn't restrain it one by one.
What made him enrage and depressed was the mockery regarding Grandpa Po. Nevertheless, he kept the anger for himself. He could only try to survive as long as it was not out of line. The good news was the current group was very cooperative, so his burden lessened.
Grandpa Po was the most well-known and closest human being to Eldu. The wrinkles on his face and his harsh words were the most things he needed in the desperate time. He was a silly geezer, a sly merchant, and a pitiful old man.
'Sigh..' thinking about that old man, this grandchild couldn't help but worry him. He counted the days since he woke up near the river till now. It was almost one year.
'Did he get enough food?'
The current journey was the toughest in his life. Even though it wasn't the first time he separated from his grandpa, he couldn't get used to it easily.
The forest was still full of the unknown; humans had no power to reveal the unknown in the current circumstance.
Each second could turn one life into death. The possibility of death was almost a hundred percent in this dense forest. Getting at ease would be fine if it was the other forest, but as experienced adventurers, they knew this forest was not common.
It had many poisonous creatures. Even the non-poisonous one was also fierce.
Sometimes, the river stream heavily flowed, even streamed towards unreachable places so they had to go the other way round, moving based on the sun. They didn't dare to move in the night. It was a doom spell.
To get food, they used animal traps that might take several days if animals were truly scarce. When that happened, they had no choice but to fast. This often happened.
Fortunately, there was a tool to drain water from the trunk tree. It was like a straw made from bamboo. The edge of it was sharp and it had a hole for the water to flow. When they had to wait for their traps, they will find a certain tree then stabbed it with this tool.
However, this didn't solve the root of the problem. It was one of the ways to prevent hunger, but it was not easy to find the trees.
Chewing leaves was one of the other ways to prevent hunger. They had to make sure that the leaves were not poisoned and were proper to eat.
Well, an adventurer was better if he was not hungry. Hunger made your brain thinks poorly. It also agitated your emotions and led you to the next life due to reckless decisions.
Right now, it was necessary to meet a human. Once they met someone, being a nomad would be over.
"Look!"
Suddenly, Gu Banma exclaimed, pointing at the black smoke billowed in the blue sky. Squinted their eyes, the smoke was barely seen because the dense forest mostly covered their view.
Climbed one tree. Reached out for a better view. Banma was convinced that it was none other than black smoke, which also told them something important. Who else could create smoke, from fire that gnawing wood, but...
Human!
His lips curled up, forming a grin of gratitude on his muddy face. Regardless, they would not get lost anymore. No longer trapped in this forest.
Finally, after one year of walking with no certainty, this desperation will be over!