I arrived at the river after sundown.
Since it was already dark out and I didn't have a shelter, yet I didn't bother to look for some rapids to drink the water from.
The was a reason I needed to drink from a rapid instead of regular water that ran threw the river. Although I didn't know all the specifics, I knew that the general idea was that in slow moving waters, the chances of bacterial build up was much higher then in running water.
And so, water from rapids were often a lot safer for consumption then the opposite.
Luckly for myself I did have some fruits that could sustain my thirst for now.
This time my shelter wasn't nearly as nice, I just rolled up under a pine tree and put whatever clothes I could around me to make myself comfortable.
After pushing myself all day to reach the river I wasn't in good shape.
My injuries were still haunting me, and I was simply drained, I needed a good night sleep if I wanted to set out again tomorrow.
And that's how I went to bed that night, uncomfortable and dead tired.
I woke up to the sounds of birds, it was quite nice to hear, it reminded me of my hometown, when I could still wake up to the birds chirping and to the crickets waking up at night.
Those were the days… when I didn't have to go to war with aliens and when I wasn't hunted by an unknown man…
As I started to pack my things my whole body felt sore. My neck and back probably from the position I was sleeping in. And then my arms and legs from the day of walking and pushing branches out of the way.
I took out some of the food I had and ate it while sitting on a big rock.
The rock was a good 3-4 meters two high, it was by far the biggest one around.
With that, I could finally look around.
The river was honestly stunning, its clear waters that seemed almost transparent as well as its beautiful shine that was emitted from it. Around the river a thick morning fog was there, enveloping the whole area.
Outside, there was a radiant sun all around, no clouds in sight.
I made a safe guess to assume that the shining was caused by magic, because light normally would never be emitted in the way that it was, but it was really nice to look at. It had this mystical feel to it, especially with the current fog.
When I got up the rock with my food, I had also brought out my map.
In front of me was the river, it was in a serpent pattern which made it quite easy to identify on the map lucky for me.
I now had to decide on what direction to head in. Although the map didn't indicate weather there were rapids anywhere, it at least showed the topography of the map (the height levels).
Because the river followed a small mountain, well if you could even call it a mountain. Nonetheless, by looking at the map I could see I was very near the bottom. And so, my best chances to find rapids would be upstream.
Rapids often occurred between a significant change between its topographic level, and so I had to head in the direction where the chances were the highest.
Based on that I found where I wanted to head to, and so I decided that I would go around the river first to head in that direction as it would save me quite a fair amount of time.
With that knowledge, I finished my breakfast and headed down the rock to get the rest of my things ready.
The walk to get to the other side wasn't super long. Honestly, I could of just swam across, but I was scared of getting some of my food wet, if it got moldy I wouldn't have much else to eat for the rest of my trip.
After I got to the other side, I started to cross the forest, there was no reason to follow the river, it would simply take more time.
With that I went on my way.
There were no paths as it was before, so my pace wasn't the quickest that had ever existed. But I had gotten used to it, I knew better how apt my body was to certain situations and thus I knew how to optimise my speed much better than I initially was able to.
With that, a good 4h had already passed and I was nearing the rapids. On my way there I had noticed that quite a few trees were cut down.
Although the map didn't indicate any towns around, it wasn't too surprising that there were humans around such a beautiful lake.
My only worry was who lived there, honestly speaking, if such a beautiful river was isolated from everyone, it would mean that it was owned.
And if it was owned, it was by a reach family, possibly even the one who attacked me. And so, I decided to take my time traversing the rest of the way.
Although another detour would take time, adding an additional day, at least it would save me from an unsavory encounter.
And so, I headed deeper in the forest, getting as far from the river as possible, because the odds of there being more people around the river was much higher than the opposite.
It was much simpler to get access to water like that, they wouldn't do the opposite logically speaking.
And so, I was back onto my walk, it was another 5 hours later and my legs were killing me. Seems like I would need to take a day of rest once I got out of the area, I didn't want to destroy my own body by pushing myself too hard.
Luckly, this time around I managed to find a small cave in which to sleep in.
Thankfully it was big enough to stop most of the wind that came around, I decided not to make a fire this time around.
I didn't want to run the risk of giving away my location to the people of the area. Instead, I took the chance to finish the last of the fruits I had as it didn't require to be warmed up unlike some of the other foods I had.
Tomorrow I will need to fill the water containers I had and fill them up enough to finish the trip. Thankfully most of the trip had already been done, I only had about 2 days left if I kept the pace I had.
My setup this night was eerily similar to the last night, I just covered myself up with the clothes I had, I also made myself a cushion for my head since I would be sleeping on rocks. I had to make it as comfortable as possible.
Thankfully this time sleep managed to find me quickly enough, it was a calm night.
I slept peacefully, there was no noise, no wind, no cold. If anything, it was warm, the rocks were covered by some clothes, so overall it was actually quite comfortable.
With that, the night went by quickly, although I couldn't remember what, I seemed to have dreamed quite nicely.
Ah… yep, I needed a good night sleep like this one to continue forward.
I stretched a bit as I got up. Sleeping in a cave was much better than some makeshift sheds and beds.
I packed my things quicky and took something to eat while I walked. I didn't want to linger too long.
The longer I stayed, the higher the chances that my location would be compromised.
Today it was a much cloudier day. The whole sky was covered with these big gray clouds, the temperature was quite chilly compared to the previous days.
Because of that, I couldn't tell exactly what time it was currently.
And so, unlike the previous day where I took some detours to stray from the river, I decided to take the shortest route possible.
I still took a cautious pace, I had to balance patience and impatience if I didn't want to get caught.
It took another hour and a half to get to the rapids, this time I followed the river. Looking around I realized how barren the river was. I expected to see some civilisation, to see at least a few houses or people.
It was a beautiful river, how could no one want to live close to it?
I decided to double my caution, if there weren't any people around these parts it meant that there were powerful beasts of some kind to keep people away.
And, if it was powerful enough to ward off mages, imagine myself a regular human. I don't think I would last a second, so I walked a bit slower and scanned my perimeter at least five times more then I was before.
Even with all the extra caution I still hadn't seen anyone or anything around until I got to the rapids. They were quite large and strong, so I decided to look further up the river a bit.
I wanted to see if there was a better option as to where I should drink the water from.
It didn't take long before I found a large tree that had fallen over a narrower part of the river, around that area the current was a bit softer and the access to the river a lot easier.
And so, I took out the water jugs I had and got closer to the water…