Fellow Wanderer

I kept on laughing and laughing to let my happiness out and started the journey upstream.

Sometimes, I would wonder if everything I was facing was just a bad dream or an illusion cast upon me by some godly mage but the chilling cold at night and the eerie embrace of the silence would bring me back to reality where I shuddered, constantly lacking warmth.

The thrill of finding hope subsided after the 11th day when I started feeling famished again. I found it impossible to hunt deer at that time, I had eaten all the fruits, and there was no fish in the stream. Perhaps, it wasn't even possible for the fish to exist in such a small stream.

My soles began to hurt even more as they were turning purple now. White and sensitive blisters began to grow and burst, but like always I chose to continue walking, even when my legs felt like giving up. The most important factor for this choice being a distinct lack of any other choice.

It continued for 2 more days until one night, as I was taking a numb, dull, and gradual tread to find any other fruit-bearing tree near the stream, I heard some strange sounds in the bushes nearby. I felt eerie but hopeful. As I walked towards the source of the sound, I was dumbfounded to see it was someone of my age, a little boy.

He appeared to be around 6-7 years old with long and tangled hair and an unkempt appearance as it should be after a few days in the wild. Unlike me who has decided to wash myself regularly after I found the stream, this one reeked like a dead cat from afar. Moreover, the kid didn't even have leaves wrapped and around his waist so he was completely naked.

He looked to be in his own world as he was punching a tree in a special rhythm. Whenever he put his one hand down after the punch, it shuddered while making loud crunching noises. Without even looking at it, he punched with his other hand and kept repeating the process. After every two punches, he took a rest of 1-2 seconds and continued again.

Just when I decided to walk up to him and introduce myself, his immature voice called out to me,

"WHO is it?" He asked loudly with slight vigilance showing up on his face. His language was the same as mine which reassured me that I could at least hold a conversation and perhaps, even get to find a way out of the cursed wilderness where I was enduring for the past two weeks. But instead of enjoying the relief, I panicked as I was caught.

I took a step forward to clear the misunderstanding but due to panic, starvation, and not speaking anything for the past two weeks, the words came out blurry and incoherent.

"Hey there, sorry, hehe, I'm here, I don't know why ah-..due to a freak incident, I am somehow los—"

"So it's just a kid" The kid muttered while looking deep in thought.

I was unable to finish my whole sentence before I was interrupted and ignored. Annoyed by his calm behavior, I had black lines on my forehead. I tried to be nice for a second time as I cleared my throat, even when it hurt, and used the last dregs of my energy to talk.

"HEY, y'know it's just the two of us here, so we can be friends. I'm Ryne and earlier.."

"Fetch me some water, brat" the nude kid muttered while punching the tree.

It was as much as I could endure. The disregard made me forget my situation and I muttered some things my father used to say when I behaved mischievously,

"Undisciplined little brat, learn to behave in front of your father."

It was the worst that I could say and saying those words calmed my heart a little as I was pretending to be someone who, like a mountain, always provided me a sense of calmness, might, and security.

At that time I didn't know what those words signified but I guess the unkempt kid knew as he stopped doing everything else and looked at me with a glare.

"You little piece of s***, what did you SAY?"

I was a little happy to see him like this and as such, I used the same method. Faking a long sigh which signifies loss, even when I felt like fainting, I put up a melancholic expression as I chided,

"Your mother would be so disappointed if she knew what she carried for nine months in her womb turned out like this - a tree punching loser."

I added something of my own in the end. The kid on the other end who was turning red and white one second earlier soon had a calm smile on his face as he asked politely

"Hello, I'm Daney and who might you be?"

I was about to answer when suddenly I felt the world turning dark as a fist arrived in front of my face. I only opened my eyes the next morning.

...

It was my first meeting with Daney, someone who has had a massive influence on my upcoming life.