A couple days passed by and by now, the settlers had moved on and I was again alone with nothing else but my thoughts. I continued to gather berries from the forest and even managed to catch a rabbit or two after a few attempts of failing to catch one. I had stored whatever leftover meat I had in places where wolves or bears wouldn't reach them and saved the animal skin for making clothes that I would need for much colder weather. I knew I would have to start soon before that happened if I wanted any chance of survival but for now, I needed to prepare myself for traveling and I was nowhere near ready to do so. I decided that day to check what I had and what I needed to prepare for the long journey ahead. When I was finished, I decided to gather and collect what I needed for maybe a few days journey but after that I would need to hunt for what I needed. A few days passed as I prepared myself for a long journey ahead. I had found some scraps of leather and materials left over from when the settlers were here and used them to make pouch's to hold water and a bit of food for the journey. It was early morning when I woke up and I could once again hear the birds chirping and the bug's buzzing around me.

I then got a drink of water before I made sure that I was truly ready for the long journey ahead. I then decided to revisit the ruins of my village one last time before heading off into the woods again and headed towards the direction of when I went on the hunt with the men some time ago. As I walked through the woods, I could hear the ground crunching underneath me and the birds continued to chirp and fly around from tree to tree. On occasion, I could hear squirrels crawling up a tree or eating a nut or berry. I walked and walked until I could see the sun starting to set and decided to make camp for the night. Once I started a small fire, I took out some berries and a bit of rabbit I had brought and started eating dinner for that night. Once done eating, I used my old clothes as a blanket for myself as the night were still cold and didn't have anything better to cover myself with and slowly drifted off to sleep. I could hear the frogs and bugs in the far distance and nothing moved around me as I laid next to the fire, hearing the fire crackle as I did so. Smoke rose up into the night sky as I laid there, looking up at the sky, seeing the many stars and moon above me through the tops of the trees. Light from the moon made its way down through the cracks in the treetops and onto the ground below but very little was seen. I laid there looking up at the sky until I fell asleep and faded into darkness. The next morning, I woke up early and by this point, the fire has already died out and the ground was charred a bit black and covered in ash from where I had started the fire.

Once I finished eating breakfast, I packed up what little stuff I had and continued walking. I walked through the woods, listening to the many different sounds around me, being aware of my surroundings and where I was going. Some time passed by uneventfully until I ended up at a small river near a path that over a small cliff side and passed huge trees on one side. I decided to drink a bit of water but putting some into a small pouch that I had made earlier before I decided continued walking some more along the river bank to see if there was a shallow part where I could maybe walk across to the other side. As I walked along the bank, I could a loud roaring sound coming from ahead of me and I decided to see what it was. as I got closer to the source of the sound, I could see the water starting to ripple a bit and then, it dawned on me as I got to the area where the noise was coming from and it turned out to be a waterfall. Water seas rushing down from a high and steep slope of rock on the base of a steep hill. Trees were still covering the surrounding area and I could see some huge logs scattered around the area as well. Moss was growing on the logs and some of the trees and on the rocks as well. I looked at the roaring waterfall and wondered how I was going to get across the water. I then found some old pieces of branches and wood scattered around on the rocks and decided to see which one was good for using to across with. After some searching, I found a small enough log that I could maybe push into the water near the bank of the river. I tried pushing it into the water but didn't move due to how heavy it was. I tried a few times before giving up and sitting down next to it, all worn out from trying to push it. Once I caught my breath and rested enough, I decided to try again one last time before then making the risky decision of trying to swim across myself.  After one last effort, I gave up on trying to push the log into the water and decided to swim across. But I didn't want to leave all of my belongings behind so I decided to see if I could maybe carry them across on my head or out in front of me. Just as I was deciding what to do, I heard a sound coming from behind me. I could hear the faint sound of branches breaking while the waterfall still flowed loudly behind me. I turned around to see what the sound was and to my horror, it was a mountain lion.

I just stood there frozen as the mountain lion growled and roared before slowly walking towards me. I didn't know what to do. I knew if I stayed here, I would be killed so I made the choice to slowly walk backwards and make myself bigger, while making lots of noises in hopes that it would scare it off but it didn't. It just kept slowly coming towards me as it's feet quietly walked on the ground, it's teeth bear and ready to dig into me. I then got to the edge of the river and stopped. I knew I couldn't go anywhere now and was back into a corner. I then saw the mountain lion stop and get ready to jump into the air and attack me. I had to think fast and quickly to jump into the river. I knew I could drown or lose my belongings but I knew I also had to survive. So I took a breath, turned around to face the river and jumped just as the mountain lion pounced but only got air as I hit the water now, going downstream and into the unknown.