It appears you might find something useful elsewhere. So you start to prepare for the couple-day hike heading to the forest to the east. You head into the ship to grab a couple of food cubes. You also check out any other information you can before heading out.
The computer reports back that it will be quite a warm journey to the forest landing site. There should however not be any other issues along the way. After checking things over again you head back out of the ship and pack up the emergency shelter to take it with you.
The ship itself will meet you at the next landing site. You will be going there on foot to gather more local data that your wristwatch will be collecting. You also wanted to have an opportunity to explore further hoping you might find something else of interest while heading to the forest landing spot.
After double-checking, you have everything you head off east down the trail. The trail itself was rather flat. It however seemed to weave back and forth quite a bit. Sometimes you would be heading east in the direction you were wanting to go. Other times it would be taking you south or even north. All you do know for certain it’s connected to the forest landing. Sooner or later you will end up getting there.
The trail was covered in the same pine-looking trees you found at the cave system landing area. They were of emerald green and had a resin sent to them. That smell you could almost get lost in for the afternoon as you were walking. For whatever reason, it was a lot stronger on the trail than back at the camp.
For a while, you put your focus on trying to see if there was anything to be found whatsoever that would explain the trail that was before you. It was in almost perfect condition. Without a single pine cone let alone a branch in the trail itself. It also looked like it was just traveled on not that long ago. Yet as hard as you tried you could not find discover anything living let alone anything else that would have caused such a trail as this to be here.
After walking for a short while you decided it was time to rest. You had yet to see a single thing like a tree stump to rest on out of nowhere you found yourself looking right at one. This forest was rather strange indeed.
There was a nice breeze going by as you rested as well. It helped cool you down somewhat. It ended up being quite a warm day however did feel like it was getting slightly cooler the further away from the cave landing site.
You also noticed the trees were getting a lot dense. While the landing area was nice and sunny and clear. The treetops here were starting to block out the sun enough you no longer felt like it was beating on the back of your neck. It was however at least for now enough light to see clearly in front of you.
The trail remained rather flat. If it was not for the weaving all over the place you could have seen down the trail for miles. Once the break was over you got up again and found yourself heading a bit more north than east. Despite it only taking two days at a good pace to make it to the forest camp the trail itself was not in any hurry to take anything there.
You did not stop to take any more breaks for that day till the sun started to rest below the tree light and it was starting to get too dark to keep going. It was time to set up the emergency shelter for the night and give you a much-needed rest.
Since you were in the middle of the trail you thought why not end the night with a small fire. It was not like you had to walk anywhere to get some firewood it was on all sides. You broke off a few branches from the trees nearby and made a small campfire.
While food cubes did not need to be heated. You had discovered during your time on this moon they were a bit more palatable being warmed up and taking on a bit of a smoke flavor. It felt like a nice treat to end the night on.
Shortly after that went to bed. You had dreams of being chased by something in a never-ending trail in the middle of the woods. You at one point woke up and laughed at the very thought. Whatever it was in your dreams you are certain you would have stopped to see what it was. As that would mean there was at least something here. Which you know at this point was not the case. That dream did not bother to come back the remainder of the night.
You woke up the next day rather refreshed and ready to take things head on. You got up just before sunrise so you could take your time packing up the emergency shelter and enjoying one more food cube over an open fire before taking off.
You knew you had a good chance at making it to the forest landing site today. It would however require you to go at a bit of a more brisk pace than you were maintaining the day before. It was not only nice and cool this early on in the morning. It remained a decent walking temperature for the remainder duration of the day.
You did not feel like taking any breaks today. The thought of reaching the next landing spot and hoping there would be something there worth exploring kept you moving forward with great haste. There was some mystery about this moon and they were not going to get solved by taking it slow.
After a while, it seemed the trail ended up striating out for quite some time. You noticed you were heading east for quite a few hours. If only the entire trail this time had been like that you would be there already you reckon.
The early morning slowly turned into late afternoon. While it was tempting at one point to stop for lunch you decided once you made it to the next landing area you could have a fire and more smoked food cubes.
The time then seemed to fly by as if someone turned a time double and set it to triple speed. You started to notice the sun was descending the sky at quite a rapid pace it would be dark in no time. You were however at least walking fast enough you should get there by nightfall.
The nice and straight trail soon turned back into weaving all over the place again. It just made zero sense why it would even do this. It was not like the trail was trying to avoid a giant pine tree or something. They all seemed to be around the same size and you can only assume to have made the trail in the first place with how wide it was that many trees would have been removed.
As nighttime fell you noticed the lights from your ship ahead through the pine trees. You could not see the site yet as you were not even heading east at this current moment. It would not be long before you did.
As you rounded one corner you could see the final stench of this adventure would be straight to the landing spot. You could see the ship off in the distance. Just a few hundred more steps and you would be there.
While it was a bit hard with how dark it was getting. Once you did get there you ended up finding a place to set up the emergency shelter for the evening. While it was tempting to spend the night on the ship you felt like that time was coming soon enough. You would rather enjoy another night sleeping with a window to the stars to gaze on.
Once the shelter was set up you did go into the ship to pick up a food cube, get a shower, and get a fresh set of clothing. It was nice to feel clean again and cool off a bit from the long day of walking. Your legs although aching a bit seemed to enjoy the cooler water.
After a quick dinner, you decided to skip finding firewood to make a fire. It was time to head off to bed. This night would be of no dreams. You just hoped you would find something useful in the morning. You closed your eyes and soon you don’t recall anything else as you fell asleep.
Content is written by @Enjar of @Enjargames. AI artwork was created using Playgroundai.
