Having collected himself, Kay returned to the campsite and went to sleep. In the morning, he woke up, well rested. His leg muscle still felt sore and hunger gnawed at his stomach, though it seemed better today. Whether the gallons of water he'd drank last night had slaked his thirst or he was simply growing accustomed to the sensation of hunger, he wasn't sure.
Still, he felt pretty good. It was time to do something productive. One person had already reached the tower, and he definitely didn't want to be last.
First, he needed to find some food. For a couple days he'd be fine, but after that his condition would begin to worsen. Plants weren't an option because he didn't know which ones were viable, which left meat.
It may have been stupid to focus on finding a sustainable source of food when the trial was to find the tower, but it was necessary. Whoever had finished the trial last night undoubtedly was far more skilled than he. For someone with his skills, or lack thereof, it could've taken days or even weeks to find his destination. He needed to prepare for that.
So, settling in for a long day, he returned to the pond and drank plenty of the refreshing liquid. After his belly was sloshing with gallons, he steeled himself for the trial to come… after he peed into a nearby bush.
.....
If there was one thing he could count on, it was that he was incapable of overestimating himself. The past two days had shown him just how weak and pathetic he was. Though finding meat was a priority, he would not put his life on the line in search of it.
Within the first hours, he caught glimpses of jaguars, tigers, and hippos from afar, none of which he had any chance of killing. He made sure to keep his distance from those.
Then, there were the animals he thought he could kill, if only he could catch the speedy creatures.
He had settled on rocks as his weapon of choice. Strew plentifully on the jungle floor, he didn't even need to carry his weapon around; he could simply take the nearest stone where it lay, use it for its intended purpose, and toss it aside. However, that was all in theory; he hadn't managed to kill anything due to his lacking hunting skills.
A couple times he saw herbivores like deer and turkeys, but his stealth was awful. Anytime he tried approaching one, rock in hand ready to bash their brains out, he stepped on a twig or his feet squelched in the mud, sending his prey running for their lives.
There was one time he had gotten close to a capybara that had been lazing on a riverbed, but that too had gone wrong. In anticipation, he took off his shoes so that he could make a soundless approach and he also made sure to move incredibly slowly. He was like a ninja, a very overweight ninja.
The creature laid on its belly, letting thin rays of sunshine warm its brown, furry back. The thing was remarkably still, the only vital sign was the slow and heavy fall of its breaths. Maybe it was napping, and if Kay had it his way it would be an eternal slumber.
There was a small part of him that didn't want to eat the medium-sized rodent, but the pangs coming from his stomach soon obliviated any misgivings he may have had; meat was meat.
He crawled inch by inch until he was less than a foot before the resting capybara. The rock he was carrying was the size of his head, light enough for him to carry but heavy enough to deal a deadly blow. Hesitantly, he stood. Was he really going to do this? Was he finally going to accomplish something in the jungle?
BOOM! A nearby explosion popped Kay's stealthy approach like a bubble. Tremors shook the ground and the acrid smell of fire filled the musky jungle air. In a flash, the capybara hurled its body into the river and swam far away.
Now, common sense told Kay what he should've done. Following his former prey's example, he should've ran clear in the opposite direction. He should've treated the explosion site the same way he'd treated the predators he'd seen earlier, giving them a wide berth.
No.
The minor annoyances he'd encountered over the past two days, coupled with the near miss of his hunt had caused him to snap. Grabbing the shoes he'd stored in a nearby bush, he stormed in the direction of the explosion.
Each thundering step brought him closer to the aftermath of the blast. Burning trees continued passing fire amongst each other, playing a game of hot potato where everyone dies in the end. The nauseating scent of burnt carbon grew unbearable, so Kay unfastened his tie, breathing into the silky black cloth.
Thin of air and heavy with smoke, he could tell the epicenter of the blast was close. There were seconds until he'd see whoever had caused him to lose his prey. He was ready to unleash the full might of his anger. Was it the god? If so, he was going to at least give him a single punch.
Standing in the clearing, at the center of the charred forest, was the old elven mage. In his left hand he clutched an intricately carved wooden staff shaped like a hook, and with his left hand he was prodding an elephant that looked burnt to a crisp. He broke off a chunk of the well done animal, crumbling and black, which he gingerly brought to his mouth.
"Yuck!" the mage shouted, hacking and gagging on the beast's foul remains.
"What the hell are you doing!?" said Kay. He was definitely mad at the wizard, but the bizarreness of the situation had left him dumbfounded. Surely, it wasn't what it looked like. Surely, the explosion he'd felt hadn't been the wizard's piss poor attempt at hunting.
The elf caught sight of the overweight man staring at him, mouth agape.
"Be careful, my cloak resists fire, but I don't sense any magic from your clothes," said the wizard helpfully.
Kay needed a moment to process everything he was seeing. In his past life he had never tried any hallucinatory drugs, but he wondered if these were the things those people saw. A hellish, burning landscape with a lone, undisturbed wizard at the center. Yep, he had seen it all.
"Well, I don't want the poor fellow to die," the wizard muttered to himself. Then, it looked like he had an idea.
Taking a firm hold on his staff the wizard pointed skyward. The atmosphere of the scene changed; Kay could feel tingling all over his flesh as he detected something otherworldly. From the tip of the wizard's staff shot a thick stream of intangible plasma that soared into the sky.
Then, it started to rain. Gradually at first, with only a handful of raindrops falling towards the ground, however, the gentleness of the phenomena didn't last long. The old man ushered a warning.
"Laddy, you might want to hold onto something!" the wizard screamed at him from across the clearing, holding onto the slain elephant for dear life.
What is he talking about? thought Kay. The reason soon became apparent.
Not opening the laws of physics, a small lake's worth of water slowly approached from above like a ceiling closing down on the scorched forest. That confirmed it. The wizard was a master at overkill. He had subbed out one natural disaster for another.
Scrambling for his life, Kay ran to the opposite side of the clearing towards one of the few trees that wasn't ablaze. Ingraining his feet deeply into the soft mud below, he hugged the bark tightly. Placing all of his weight onto the pillar of wood, he dared to look towards the sky.
The block of water was millimeters from his eye, and as the water made impact, Kay thought one thing: When he'd set out today, all he'd wanted was to find some meat.