Is it edible?

Leaving the pod and taking a proper look at his surroundings Ace was overwhelmed. Trees piercing through the sky on one side, an ocean covering the horizon on the other and twenty meters of sand in between.

He could see where he had landed as there were tracks on the ground but where he had expected something like a small canyon, maybe even a bit of glass from the heated surface of the pod burning the sand but there was barely even a ditch. A small groove with some sand splashed around ending with a more round hole in the ground. With tracks like this Ace understood why it was such a hard landing despite it being sand.

Crouching down and letting a fistful of sand glide through his fingers he confirmed it was indeed ordinary sand. Standing and walking on it felt like solid ground however. It seems the gravity affects small things like this as well.

'But how do the trees grow so tall?' Ace thought while turning to look at the forest.

He hadn't prepared any equipment for fishing so his only choice was to head into the forest to look for food. Just walking the short distance to the forest almost had Ace slightly winded. Just surviving under heavy gravity would be nothing short of an extreme training regimen. Reaching the tree line Ace went to one of the trees and upon touching it was shocked. All trees he had ever touched felt like, well trees but these trees were incomparably solid. If someone told him it was a sculpture made of stone he wouldn't have doubted it but his instincts and observations told him these were indeed trees.

Not to mention the towering height up-close, just the circumference would require a minute to walk around. Standing in a forest of giant trees truly humbled Ace and deepened his feelings of smallness and inconsequentiality as a singular human in a large universe.

Not letting his thoughts drift any further he pulled himself back to the moment. He couldn't identify what kind of trees they were but since the ground was covered in waist-high grass and other similar plants it shouldn't be any kind of coniferous tree. Which is promising since fruits and berries are more commonly found in places with leafy trees.

Taking it slow and steady while looking for anything that looked like he could eat it without sacrificing his teeth or health Ace continued walking along the forest edge. It didn't take long until he chanced upon a change in scenery. Instead of the usual enormous trees there was a ship sized patch of what seemed to be the same kind of tree but a lot smaller and younger. The sprouts were still several meters taller than Ace but he could easily reach around it with one arm.

Carefully looking around Ace tried to figure out why there was an irregularity here but with his limited knowledge of the planet he couldn't figure anything. He did notice an indentation in the ground where the trees grew.

Confirming there were no immediate dangers Ace was about to walk forward when he could feel slight tremors in the ground, quickly increasing in magnitude. It didn't take long for the one causing the tremors to appear. It was a deer. Although it was very different to the deer Ace was thinking of.

While it looked the same overall it's size gave Ace the idea that maybe it wasn't just trees that were growing like there was no limit. He felt like if he were to stand next to it he would almost reach the top of its hooves, if they could be called that. The limbs and joints seemed to be more flexible and stronger than the ones from his home planet. What would have been hooves on a normal deer were instead some sort of combination with claws. There was one claw in every direction with two pointed forwards. Kind of like the claws on a bird but on steroids and on a weird giant deer.

It seemed the beast was only passing through as it didn't even stop while biting off large chunks of several trees as it walked by, leaving some splinters on the ground. After walking past the spot where Ace hid in the grass however it's nose twitched and it paused as it looked around. When it's gaze passed through the spot where Ace lay he felt an overwhelming pressure descend upon him. He didn't feel scared, he wasn't close enough to being a threat for the deer to scare him. The deer's gaze naturally carried weight and if the observed isn't strong enough they wouldn't be able to bear it. Simple as that.

Having determined the source of the unknown scent the deer moved on without taking any action. As the ground stopped trembling completely Ace let out a sigh of relief as he realized he had been holding his breath since the deer first entered his sight. He still couldn't properly move after that gaze though.

After a few minutes when his nerves had calmed down he got up and started walking again. Continuing through the patch of young trees Ace decided to touch one of the smaller ones. Arriving in front of one barely a meter taller than him he put his hand on the light green stem. While it felt like a young sprout unlike it's rock-like kin Ace noticed it was still sturdy. After pulling on it with his entire weight he managade to make it tremble slightly. Giving up on eating it like the deer had done he instead picked up a few of the smallest splinters and tried chewing on it. While the tree itself didn't break when he bit it hard enough small amounts of sap leaked out.

While it was unclear if he could digest it properly or not it tasted surprisingly fresh and sweet so Ace decided to gather as many of the splinters as he could before heading back to the pod. With creatures like the deer roaming around he definitely didn't want to sleep outside.

Although the pod was conspicuous and not optimal since it seemed like any stray beast could flatten it with simple step he could still use it while getting accustomed to this planet and building a proper camp or shelter. For now he would do his best simply to live another day.

Absentmindedly chewing on the splinters Ace reached the pod and crawled inside, quickly laying down in the seat. Having walked around in supergravity all day he was exhausted and fell asleep with a splinter in his mouth while unconsciously using the sleep-breathing technique.