"W... where?"
He quietly looked around with a heavy heart. The plants seemed to sway at any movement he made, the moon looked down at him with glowing brightness, the glowing plants and fireflies seemed to glow heavenly with a mystical blue.
Everything was pure fantasy like situation. Only it all still looked familiar….
Everything scattered.
"Shen Yu! Get back in your tent!"
"A-Ah! Sorry Ms. Wen!"
He rushed back in his own tent and took a deep breath in, everything he saw out there looked so real, like he was in the center of everything. It was to cool, waaay to cool.
What if he suddenly got superpowers? Or turned into an immortal?
The teen looked at his hands and looked out his small screen window, after looking around for a while did, he stared at the small moth. He whispered quietly.
"Turn into a mythical moth~."
He moved his hands in fake elegance, the moth quickly flapped it wings and flew away with random movements. The teen sighed with disappointment and went to his sleeping back, he shivered and put the blanket closer.
"C-cold."
He complained, he couldn't even feel the ground under him warm up. Heating only his tent from the cold nights.
A few fireflies danced around it with dim lights.
----------
"Shen Yu wake up! It's time for the morning routine!"
He dramatically ground and forcefully pulled himself out of his warm and comfy tent. The Woman froze for a second when she felt the warm draft of air and immediately checked the inside, it was warm and comfy…. But there were no batteries much less heaters allowed in the camp.
But even when she looked around, there wasn't a single heater in the small tent. Only a few solar rechargeable lamps. Not only that but when she entered, everything seemed to freeze, as if she entered a forbidden Zone.
Only Shen Yu looked at her with a cold Gaze, silently telling her to leave in his heart. Thankfully the woman left soon after the cold became too much and turned the random splash of heat to be something of her imagination.
The early morning was misty and cold, making the poor campers shiver. Shen Yu yawned and enjoyed the light mist with the warm sunlight on his skin. The wind was stagnant as he happily relaxed.
He looked to the other campers, that avoided him since the beginning, shiver. They rubbed their arms with fever as they tried their hardest to stay warm with the freezing winds. The teen smiled happily with the warm spot he found. Feeling a little bit superior.
"Run you rounds around the lake! If you dare walk any time during the run, you'll miss breakfast!"
Shen Yu stared at the merciless Instructor before beginning the run. Was this going to be the 3rd day in a row without breakfast? Was he going to wait until he catches a small fish before he could eat anything again?
The rules of this camp sucks. Only allowing breakfast to be the only served meal and making the other campers find their own meal for the rest of the day. Not only that but it's just oatmeal and a banana. That was it.
But it was a lot better than eating only little fish and small berries in the woods.
So, he jogged steadily, going a bit faster than normal but that was not to drag behind the rest. After staying a bit further up from the back, he continued to jog steadily.
What happened last night anyway, was he just hallucinating? Was he actually starving to the point of hallucinations because of this god forsaken place? Did his mother want him to lose weight that bad?
He was rather large, but that didn't matter. His grades at school where above average and he never got into any trouble. Sending him to camp for being fat was purely injustice!
"If only I wasn't fat, ah why can't all those calories go into my brain or muscles?"
Those words seemed to make his stomach burn, but he ignored it after linking it to his running. But he still didn't stop. The air seemed to cool around him, elevating the burning pain.
"Over!"
He looked over in surprise and happily went over to the canteen to finally eat something filling. After not eating much for so long, the bowl of oatmeal and the banana was a happy welcome. Immediately he ate everything before someone could come over and spill it, and thankfully no one bothered him today.
As a daily routine, he would first look in the forest for fruits and put it into his lunch box to eat for the rest of the day. After that he'd fish for meat, if he caught something he'd put it in his bucket and take it back to his tent and use the fire pit to cook it. If he caught nothing, he'd go back into the forest and try to find edible mushrooms to eat.
Thankfully the area around him was full of food things. Partially because the camp planted countless edible plants everywhere in the forest. Finding and collecting was based on the camper.
He grabbed a few berries that seemed extra plump and store them carefully, after walking a little further, he found and apple tree.... Only it was on top of a huge cliff with only one way up… and that was up
"Ahh, I want one!"
His wish was quickly answered, a hawk swooped down and picked up the apple carefully before throwing it down. Shen Yu quickly caught it and looked up at the proud hawk.
"Thank you, Great ancestor! May gods bless you thousands of times!"
He happily praised the bird a few more times before leaving. Immediately putting hawks at the top of his 'favorite animal' list. Wolves being a close second.
After leaving the forest with a full harvest, he grabbed his fishing pole and went fishing. The small fishing rod was an ice fishing one, small and easy to carry around, but still strong and sturdy.
"Pleeeeeease tasty~ fish~"
As always, he would sing a little song to relieve his boredom. Most of the time it would be about catching a tasty fish or having a good harvest… but for some reason, his singing seemed to make a few hawks appear.
He watched them in a daze as they happily caught their own catch, but he didn't have a single bite on his own fishing rod. So instead of being salty, he just watched the show. Finding it endlessly amazing that so many hawks came over to fish.
But he still sang the tasty fish song, munching on a few berries well doing so.
"Ah!?"
A hawk dove towards him and dropped something in his fish bucket. He quickly looked around and went over to pick up his bucket, thinking that this area got too dangerous to continue… only to sit right back down and look at the hawks with admiration.
Right in his bucket was a fat fish. So of course, he'd be happy and sing with all his might, normally this was to relieve boredom, but now he didn't know any other way to express his happiness.
He thought the hawk accidentally dropped its fish after being startled by something. And the other hawk dropped the apple because it was being playful. But it still made the opinion of hawks escalate in Shen Yu's heart.
"What a great day."
After returning home earlier than normal, he started to cook his fish. He only got one, but it wasn't small in the least. Not only that but he also got some mushrooms from the forest earlier, so he now could eat half of the big fish now and eat the rest later. But he was going to cook it first and store it in one of his plastic containers.
The fruit was turned to fruit juice and the scraps were eaten. His canteen that was normally filled with water now had tasty fruit juice…
Today was really a great day.
But he still had a little more than 2 weeks left of this hell hole.
He went back to the forest, and the apple was taken with him. The mushrooms and other fruits were already all used up to make everything, but he didn't feel heartbroken at all. Instead, he felt happy to eat so much in one day. Feeling as if he could last another few days with only a small amount of food once again.
The only reason why he went back into the forest was to just relax. Since the instructors were strict about campers staying in their tents; he had no choice but to find a different spo-.
His thoughts were interrupted, a cave just big enough to get through, was hidden behind the veins. He went through without hesitation and looked inside. Fireflies and a small crack in the ceiling covered with a clear developing crystal enveloped the whole room with an amazing special of soft colors. On the ground was soft moss, carpeting the floor.
A small stream of water went through the middle of the mythical looking cave, it was clear and clean… he couldn't help but drink some of it.
His eyes dropped as he laid down on the soft moss, happily enjoying this new piece of paradise.
Today really was a great day...