[[ Rudra ]]
It was decided that we set camp here. It is probably the first time even Rana might be spending a night here this deep inside the forest. I know that the forest flips a complete 180 when it becomes night. So, whatever we have come across until now could be called a calm before the storm. But we had managed to find a decent ground for our tent. There are tall trees around, and setting up a campfire would turn away any wild animals. We heard howls of wolves just before the sunset, it made me worry a bit.
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We needed to stay vigilant. We had gathered some tree branches and dry leaves to get the fire going. Once it caught on fire, it brightly lit up our surroundings. We had our battery-powered torches, but we decided to conserve our resources. Over the fire, I roasted the leftover meat after slightly adding some seasoning. I took some along since I didn't want to forget the flavors immediately. It would not be too long before I would be forced to eat raw meat, if I managed to survive that is.
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We certainly needed rest and relaxation but the forest keeps on making a noise which automatically puts us in emergency mode. It was an eerie noise that makes one feel like the forest itself is crying.
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We set up our tent quickly, made a campfire, and created a perimeter around the tent with the rope that came with the mountaineering gear. We were satisfied. Then, we talked about our plans for tomorrow. The X is just roughly located on the map and we don't know its precise location. We just know that it is somewhere on the G-Sector mountain range's slope. Finding it should be a challenge nonetheless. But in order to do that, we must survive the night first. Rana was looking at the map and going through the Engineer's journal for more than an hour. I hoped for something good. The spot we chose to lay our tent was excellent. But, due to the tall trees, it was not receiving much moonlight. We decided to take turns on the night watch. I am taking the first 3 hours.
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I could never get used to the noise of the night forest. It was borderline torture. I wondered how worse it would get during the forest festival. I didn't want to have such haunting thoughts now, but they kept on invading my mind anyway. I kept telling myself to be brave and it is at this moment that I had to be the bravest. Because I was alone and there was no one covering my back. I opened my rucksack and rechecked the inventory. Everything got jumbled up when we were running trying to escape from the huge bear. Maybe I could get used to being an adrenaline junkie.
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The rustling of the forest never seemed to stop. Rana looked at his watch, it was 3 AM early morning. So far so good. Just a little further. He was giving himself some confidence, but he also knew that it was just their first night among the many nights that they would have to spend in the forest. The fire was still burning. And then Rana suddenly notices a presence in the surroundings. It wasn't like the one when they were attacked by humanoid creatures. This was definitely something else.