It was time to head further west and find that massive underground cave network. It looks like it will be a short two-day journey to get to that landing site. Before heading off you head into the ship to pick up some supplies and then head back out to pack up the emergency shelter you will be taking along.
You are mostly going on this walk to get some detailed mapping of the area. The computer will be pulling data your wristwatch collects and making some finer detail maps while it tries to locate if there are any other noticeable areas to check out.
Since you are heading to a location that has already been designated as a landing spot. That ship will take off and meet you over there at some point in your journey when it has determined it would not be worth turning back in case you needed to.
Unlike the other trails in these woods. This one was quite winding and all over the place. It also seemed to just change directions at random for no reason. The computer however reassured you that it would end up taking you west to the cave network.
After double-checking, you had everything you needed you set off. It was a usually hot day so you ended up walking at quite a slower pace than you would have liked. This also meant that you took a break every half an hour to an hour. Giving yourself a chance to try and cool down somewhat if that was even possible in this heat.
You are not quite sure why you even spent so much time in the forest anyway and were glad to be leaving it. It seemed to be a waste of time at best. This moon must have something of interest going on. There are just too many unusual things such as these trails leading to different locations that nothing seems to ever walk on yet appear to be heavily used.
Overall the walk on the first day was uneventful. It was also quite an easy one. Other than the weaving in and out all over the place the trail. The ground itself was rather flat and free of any debris that might cause tripping hazards.
It was like no time had been spent walking at all before you realized the sun was already starting to set on the forest treetops. While you have the memories of endless walking in these woods it just did not feel like that at all. You were rather still full of energy.
You set up the emergency shelter and take a well-deserved long break just watching the wind pick up and move the pine tree branches around. That wind had been rather sudden for this entire part of the journey to the next location.
While you did not get amazing sleep. It was better or above average for what you had been getting on this moon. You somewhat wish you had the sounds of the ocean or something to have made drifting into the sleep zone a better experience. The slight wind was not enough since the forest was just filled with pine trees.
You got up bright and early the next day. Before the sun had even risen above the tree tops you already had the emergency shelter packed. You worked out it would be a close call to be able to make it before it got too dark to the ship and to set up the shelter at the new landing area. So you wanted to get an early start on the day.
It was dark enough that even the light on your wristwatch had turned on. It was almost shining light exactly on the middle of the trail you were taking slowly getting you far enough west. It however exactly at this point appeared to be taking you a bit north before turning again to send you west.
By the time lunch had rolled around you were quite looking for a break. Unlike the first day which was rather hot requiring a lot of breaks. You had not stopped once as there was more than enough of a cool breeze to keep you going almost continually.
After a short rest and another food cube, you packed your things up and kept heading down the trail. Every time you thought how remarkable and perfect the trail was the idea quickly floated out of your head like a passing cloud you could see in the sky.
It did start to get quite dark before you could make out what appeared to be the lights from your ship in the distance. You could not quite see it yet as the trail was winding all over the place for the last stretch of this journey. Instead, you just got glimpses of the light through the trees as you slowly got closer and closer.
Then finally, there was the last stretch of this journey as the trail led straight to the next landing site. Your ship as you could tell from the lights had been already waiting for you. You could not help but think a nice cold shower to cool you off some and a change of clothing sounded nice right about now.
It was almost like you did not even take the last few hundred steps to make it to the sight. In almost a blink of an eye, you were walking up the ramp into your ship. The ship already had the shower running and you noticed clean clothing was also already waiting for you.
You decided while it was tempting to sleep in the ship's bed to yet again venture outside and set up the emergency shelter. You had grown rather fond of sleeping in it by now. You did not quite know how many more days you would be remaining on this moon at this point.
While looking around you only noticed the trail you came into this camp on. Along with another trail that headed north that took you to the cave network off into the distance. You found a decent spot away from both trails and the ship to set up the shelter.
Before you could even question this place any further you had drifted into a deep sleep. Not a single sound from the ship could have woken you up at this point. It appears the couple-day walk was far more draining than you were expecting it to be.
Content is written by @Enjar of @Enjargames. AI artwork was created using Playgroundai.
