W.L. LEFT

Chapter 3

[Content Warning! Animal death, light gore, violent implications] if you're sensitive, please read with caution! [+mild language]

The forest was threateningly silent. The vast trees loomed over the stretch below. Every plant, every rock, every animal, everything in this forest was on guard. Staring. Hissing. Imminent. The darkness was inescapable. Nothing could be seen. 
Aero fearfully walked across the grass, wings outstretched to find anything hiding in the dark. 
There! Aero jumped slightly. Light! Nightglow really does show!
As the Nightglows rose into the sky, the forest lit up. 
Who would’ve thought the Shadow Forest is so beautiful?
He looked around, amazed at the transformation. The dark, disturbing forest of danger, had become an elegant, light, stretch of pure peace. The trees, that had once creeped upon any clearing, were now posed peacefully, figures in the Nightshine glow. 
There even seemed to be little wisps, little flakes of light. Almost like Lightfall, but it was still Bloomtime. 

The bird slowly stepped forward, careful not to disturb the beauty of the forest. Well, no matter how pretty this place is, I’ll still die here if I don’t get out soon.

He trudged through the bushes and grass, rid of his delicate stance. 
Aero continued through the forest for what seemed like hours, carrying the leaves in shaky talons, as the Nightglow shone through the endless canopy. Aero was tired. The forest seemed to stretch on, and on, and on. Oh. What’s that?
A clearing opened up above, a piece of the forest that had any open sky. This place will have light at day! I can stay here until tomorrow night!
He strut into the patch of light. 
The Nightglow shown so clearly without the trees blocking it. Aero didn’t think it was possible for any bit of land to be so beautiful, with a nearly black shade of blue stretching up above, with the little swirls of the night sky surrounding the Nightglow orbs. And the way that the trees seemed to have a stunning color of scarlet on every leaf. This will be a very useful camp. I can wait out the day here.
He dropped the armfulls of leaves delicately. I can make a nest for tonight with these.
He shook his wings and stretched. Wait. There was something on their shoulders… My travel bag! How did I forget that?
Aero quickly unlatched and grasped the bag.
I hope I brought at least SOMETHING good.
Aero pulled the zipper and opened up their bag, shaking with anticipation. A granola bar, a rope, a bottle of water, a bag of shineflower seeds, a cloak, and a few coins. He stared into the empty bag. I’m trying to escape them and didn’t think to pack any more than a few snacks and some cloth? 
Whatever, it's better than nothing.
He sorted the items from most to least useful. cloak, rope, water, seeds, granola bar, coins. Maybe the cloak could provide warmth. The rope might also be of assistance in that department. Water would be decently helpful, until he could find any more. And he could eat the seeds and bar. He didn't need the coins unless he could get out of the forest.
Well, I should make shelter before- 
There was something in the small front pouch. He reached in slowly, almost shaking in his anticipation. Is that a-... A small electronic bar. No way I actually packed a screenteller!
Aero bounced and clicked the power switch to on. Sure enough, a little hologram screen popped up. He tapped it. “Insert password to open”
“Shit” he put his talon over his beak in disappointment. “How did I forget my own password?” He squawked furiously. “Ugh!... What was it? 875912?”
Beep! “Wrong password. Try again” Aero flicked the screen. “876912” Bing! “Opening…” 
Aero watched the screenteller load, nervous.
“An error has occurred. Restoring data…” 1%... 2%... 3%... 4%... “Ugh! Of course it’s taking forever out here!”
Aero dropped the screenteller, and strut over to their leaf pile. Might as well start making shelter while that thing loads.
“Leaf here… Leaf there… Tie them together… Do it again… Ugh…” Aero mumbled as he connected the plants into some sort of a roof. “Tie this. Tie that. Tie, tie, tie, tie…”
Rrrripp.
His talons completely penetrated the knot he was tying. “Fucking piece of-” He growled and tied it again. And he tied more. And more. Until the leaves formed a tarp. Okay now I just find something to hold this up… Oh! That tree sapling over there!  Aero gazed proudly at his makeshift tent. It still had holes but it would provide shelter.
Now for the inside. The bird tore up some dry grass from a nearby patch, and bunched it together into a sloppy nest. And then he put their repacked bag in. Aero grabbed the screenteller. 56%... Buffering…
“Laggy piece of junk.” He tossed it onto their nest. 
“Wow. The Dayglow’s already up?” He mumbled. “Maybe I could catch something to eat.” He looked around. Something would probably pass by near his camp. Aero could hide in a bush . 
There were some Grasseater tracks next to one bush close. Maybe he could wait in the branches above for the little animal to return. 
Rustle rustle. He barely had time to climb into the tree before the Grasseater came back. Its tiny, long ears were perked. It’s little nose twitched. It began to nibble on the grass. It trimmed the undergrowth with a nervous shine in its eyes. It was so fluffy, so little. So… Innocent.
Aero jumped down on the creature, claws outstretched hungrily. He grasped the creature before it could react. Aero dug in his claws into the Grasseater. It shrieked softly, pained. It stopped thrashing after a few seconds. Aero pulled out their claws, and stared briefly at their prey’s blood covering their talons. He picked up the corpse and carried it back to his camp. 
It was just a Grasseater. Why should he feel bad about it? It was going to die anyway. It was nothing. Just another piece of meat, something had to eat it. 
Was it like this when- NOPE NOT THINKING ABOUT THAT!
He looked at the piece of meat guiltlessly and sighed. I could cook this above a fire. It won’t be as good as at a Foodplace. He trotted into the clearing, dropped his soon-to-be meal, and returned to the trees to scavenge firewood. A branch here, a twig there. A piece of fallen tree. The ground was absolutely littered in dead branches, despite the trees appearing healthy as ever. 
The Dayglow was well in the sky by the time he had enough wood to burn. He carried it back to the clearing, still bright enough to find from any distance. Tossing the wood into a pile, the bird re-entered the tent to check on the screenteller. 97%... 98%... 99% …  Aero stared at the screen. Nothing happened. 99. Just 99%. It wasn’t changing. 
Finally, after what seemed like hours, a flicker on the screen. “Error. The data has not yet been restored.”  The screen said.
“Continuing the restoration process may delete the remaining information, would you like to restart the download?” The bird stared down at the two choices.
“Yes, restart” and “No, continue”.
Why couldn’t he just see which piece of data was still there? Why couldn’t he know what was at risk? This decision was too big. He needed to think. 
Aero exited the tent, and stomped over to the pile of wood. I’ll work on cooking that Grasseater for now. Then I can decide what to do about the screenteller.
He roughly shoved the wood pieces into a fire pit. Okay, just gotta make a fire. That’s not so hard. Literally the easiest thing I do regularly.
He picked up a stick from the pile and flapped his wings. Flap, flap, flap. “Fire!” He hissed quietly. The branch lit up in flames, and he quickly tossed it into the pile. Did I really just get scared by my own spell? That’s absolute nonsense. I know my spells won’t hurt me! That’s how magic works!
Aero grabbed the limp Grasseater, and plunged it right into the middle of the fire, still holding it. Not. Getting. Hurt. It's my fire spell. He pulled out the flaming Grasseater and shook off the fire. Great. Now I’ve burnt it. 
But no amount of burnt would stop him from eating now. He tore into the charred piece of meat, ripping off bits of it with their sharp beak. He literally lived off eating meat, anyways, so this wasn’t bothersome. even burnt. 
After finishing his meal, he scuttered to their tent, and  blanket nest. Aero settled down to the sight of a large fire, emitting its light all the way across the clearing. At least this fire didn’t go out immediately. Like the last one did. He was tired, anyway. He could sleep until Dayend. Then Aero would find a way out of this cursed forest.

End of chapter

Thanks for reading this far! This is one of the longest chapters, so far!
Actually, of chapters 1-3 this one IS the longest.
Which is why it was such a pain to write. And that is why I'm a week late. (Sorry)

Yeah I was kind of tired so I just turned off the language censor, sorry about that.
[Note, if you're sensitive to cuss words, you may have trouble with other parts of this.]

Lastly, I'd like to apologize for the announcements. If you happened to read them, ALL statements made have been retracted.
Besides maybe one. Which I will update shortly.

Thanks.

Check back in a few days. We'll have a (outside if book) update by then.