As they walked, Satya felt something he had been ignoring because of the severity of his situation.
He felt Hunger.
He was starving because he had not eaten anything for days.
So he started searching for food.
He looked everywhere, yet he couldn't find anything edible, so he asked the Shadow,
"Hey, Shadow... do you know where I can find food? There wasn't anything to eat in that forest."
"Food... I know of a berry tree, but it is half a day's distance away from here."
"I've already been hungry for days. I can definitely wait half a day more."
So Satya followed The Shadow.
He had survived on water alone all this time, and it was the only thing keeping him alive.
His beef jerky had been lost somewhere along the ashen trail of fallen trees.
Most of his clothes were burned, and his only real weapon was chipped.
Burn marks covered his entire body.
Even though escaping the forest had been difficult, he had somehow managed to survive.
Now he finally felt a strange sense of freedom.
During the journey to the berry tree, neither Satya nor The Shadow spoke.
It was as if The Shadow was giving Satya time to organize his thoughts.
So Satya used that silence to think.
[My clothes are covered in sweat and ash.
I don't know where my home is anymore.
I don't even know if my home still exists.
What happened to my parents and the villagers... only time will tell.]
Satya tried to think of a way out of his situation, but hunger clouded his thoughts.
His mind felt heavy and slow.
Right now, survival was all he could think about.
Even walking forward was becoming difficult.
His movements were unsteady, and keeping a proper pace exhausted him.
Still, he continued forward with excitement in his heart.
Because he was finally out of that cursed forest.
Just thinking about the forest made cold sweat run down his back.
After struggling for hours, they finally reached the berry tree.
At the sight of food Satya jumped straight into eating the berries
"Eat slowly. And don't eat too much at once,"
The Shadow warned.
"Why...?"
Satya said, with a mouth full of berries.
"Eating too much after a long time of being hungry can lead to death."
The Shadow gave a stern warning.
Satya slowed down his mouth.
The Shadow's warning was just like life after being devoid of something for so long when you finally gain it,
You should enjoy it slowly,
Because all of it at once is just harmful.
After eating only a small amount and drinking water, Satya built a passage for water and cast his spell.
This time the passage was much larger, so it required all of his willpower to fill it.
As Satya worked, the Shadow simply watched him in silence.
Satya could never understand what The Shadow was truly thinking.
Sometimes it was talkative.
Sometimes completely silent.
Almost as if it was observing him.
Testing him.
But if that was true, then The Shadow was probably disappointed.
Because Satya appeared indifferent to such things.
Yet the more silent The Shadow became, the more Satya glanced toward it.
After washing his clothes and cleaning his body, Satya treated his wounds.
Only then did he finally look around properly.
He was standing in an endless plain.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing except grass and the occasional lonely tree.
He could hear the wind rustling through the grass
And he could even hear his own thoughts in this silence
He stood beneath one of those trees.
When he walked a few steps forward, he could see the horizon stretching endlessly into the distance.
Nothing blocked his sight.
Yet somehow, that freedom felt lonely.
Perhaps because there was no longer a forest surrounding him.
The sun had already begun to set.
The sky was filled with a golden glow.
White clouds drifted across it, yet instead of hiding the sunset, they only made it more beautiful.
"Feels lonely, doesn't it?"
The Shadow suddenly said.
"Standing alone, beneath a tree... looking toward a distant horizon, yet the only person you can find is yourself."
Satya was startled.
Not because The Shadow had spoken—
but because it had perfectly described what he was feeling.
"Yeah... that's exactly how it feels."
{Walking forward with a heart full of emptiness
Only one thought remains in my mind
That thought controls my body
As if I can no longer control myself
Life itself is but a single thought
Filled with endless hope}