Flow of Existence

It was morning again, Kes woke up as he, once again, felt the hard rock press against his back.

He stretched and yawned. The first thing that he noticed was, of course, the awful smell of the Stinky Cave.

'I got an absolutely awful night of sleep, it might have been even worse than yesterday.'

He had barely gotten any sleep. He had spent all of last night trying to sleep, but, despite his exhaustion, he just couldn't manage to fall asleep. The scene of the corpses and the burning village was etched deep within his retina, he couldn't manage to keep it out of his mind.

He had realized his earlier ideals had been naive. Giving up everything to escape, nothing is worth anything if you die, survive at all cost, Kes had thought he would be able to do all of those things without hesitation.

But reality was different, reality was harsh. He now realized why humans were deeply illogical, ruled by their own emotions. He had always seen it as idiotic, but now he had felt it himself.

Not the desire to die, but the desire to protect.

He wanted to live, there was nothing he wanted to do more than wanting to live. But at the same time he found it hard to make concessions, he didn't want to give up everyone and everything he loved to survive.

But in this case, he had to. He had no other choice.

Like the old village chief had once said to him, what would be the point of it all if you die, everything is pointless once you die.

If you die there is nothing, just emptiness. 

Kes didn't care for his legacy or the mark he left on history, but he did care about certain people. But did he care enough about them to throw his life away? He had never thought so, and had now been proven right.

He did run, he didn't fight. But the guilt and grief ate away at him more than he could have ever expected them to.

Even though he knew that, in reality, him staying behind there would have changed nothing, it still hurt.

The awful smell wasn't helping his muddled mind from escaping his spiraling thought patterns, Kes decided to get out of the Stinky Cave as soon as possible.

But he had another problem, quite the major one in fact. He was incredibly hungry, but most importantly, he was dying of thirst.

He hadn't drank anything in more than a day now, his whole body screamed for a bit of water.

Yesterday hadn't been successful, but today he had to find a spring, otherwise he would probably die.

'Dying here after fleeing so pathetically, I can't let that happen.'

Kes heaved himself up from the stone interior of the cave as he stepped outside again.

The fresh air helped him clear his mind a little. He closed his eyes as he slowly took a deep breath in, seemingly trying to absorb the fresh forest air.

His thoughts dispersed as he got on the right track again.

He felt the soft forest breeze sting on his dry and chapped lips as it gently swept against his body.

'Water, it's just water now.'

He felt the dry sensation within his throat, begging him to drink something. He pushed all else out of his mind, focusing just on this awful sensation. 

Even though this sensation was awful he found it easier to think this way, shutting off all else as he just thought of one singular thing.

He decided to scout the forest again, this time into a different direction than last time. Hopefully he would find a singular sign of life. And if he did find a sign of life, hopefully that sign of life wouldn't be some incredible monster.

But he doubted he could even defeat a boar right now, he body felt so weak. Even though he strengthened it with his Flow, it didn't matter. He was too hungry, too thirsty, he felt like a walking skeleton. 

It was hard for him to even move, let alone fight. If not for his sufficient Flow pool and Flow proficiency he would already be crawling on the ground right now, his training at the academy was all that kept him standing up. And it was also the only thing that kept him alive.

But yet he stepped forward, the thirst in his mind being his sole drive to explore the forest.

He moved aside the branches, the bushes and the leaves but yet he couldn't find anything. He couldn't find a sign of life or any pool or even puddle of water.

He was so thirsty he would even drink mudded water right now.

But suddenly, he did sense something. A sign of life that was, but he would rather have not sensed the thing at all.

The absolutely terrifying presence he felt made him shrink, goosebumps ran all over his body, the hairs on his flesh stood on end. But he couldn't help but take a peek, and so he slowly moved towards the sign of life, the presence that he had sensed.

A gigantic brown bear was resting there, exuding terrifying pressure. 

The beast rested its gigantic brown fur back against a tree as it was chewing on something. The corners of his mouth were colored red with blood.

As Kes scanned its body further he noticed its brown fur was smeared with clots of red too. 

Its gigantic body probably took a lot of prey to feed, and Kes could tell this was true from the Flow the bear possessed. It was absolutely horrifying and the most unrestrained Flow Kes had felt in his entire life. He presumed that, in pure quantity, the bear even eclipsed the strongest hunters within the village. 

The beast had most definitely formed its own innate element already, but Kes didn't have time to think about which one it could be. Nothing in the area showed signs of it being used anyways.

He wondered if Cantor or the old village chief had more Flow than the beast, but he did expect both of them would be able to beat it in a fight.

But to the thirsty, weak, tired and hungry Kes this sight was absolutely terrifying. He knew from the pressure the beast released, even in top condition it would be hard to even get away from it.

Now he knew why there wasn't a single sign of life within the whole area, Kes had found himself deep within bear territory. 

Kes couldn't help but feel an extreme fear when he looked at the gigantic brown predator feasting on his prey, he knew that wasn't good.

And indeed, the bear's head slowly turned towards the position he had been hiding, his fear had given him away.

'Shit.' A simple thought was all that ran through Kes' mind.

At once he somehow forgot his hunger, forgot his thirst, forgot all his problems and simply ran away. 

The bear gave a loud roar but Kes had gotten a head start, he was using Flow to the maximum proficiency he could currently muster to run away as fast as possible.

He dashed quickly as he felt the pressure from the bear slowly but surely approaching him, the brown beast was a lot quicker than him. 

It made sense, the bear possessed a lot more Flow and it was also just naturally a lot faster than Kes, who was still just an underdeveloped human teenager.

He weaved through the trees trying to use his smaller size to his advantage. He suddenly noticed his mind was currently clearer than it had been all day.

'Somehow with my life being in danger, I can relax the most.'

He felt himself enjoying the situation a little, it was a strange feeling. A huge brown blood smeared beast was chasing behind him, if he slowed down he would definitely die. But yet this was the most he had enjoyed himself all day.

He almost faltered as he jumped over a large log, but kept running. The enjoyment of being chased fueling his body to keep pressing forward.

The brown beast kept roaring, it just couldn't seem to catch the little pest that was running away from it. As a bear it was an incredibly proficient hunter his annoyance was understandable. He had never run into a clever human like Kes before.

He kept running and running as he slowly but surely arrived at the place he wanted to, the cramped and especially awful smelling Stinky Cave came into sight. He had never expected to be glad to see the putrid place, but yet here he was.

The bear really was on his heels now, he swiftly sprinted and dashed at maximum velocity as he dived into the tight space of the Stinky Cave. Kes dragged his now very tired body to the back of the cave as he saw the bear stick its maw as deep into the cave as it could.

It was close to Kes, but the beast was too large it couldn't reach him.

The expression of the beast twisted into an unreadable expression as it, no doubt, finally smelled the putrid scent spread all throughout the cave.

Kes laughed as he panted heavily, he looked at the ugly expression of bear he had just narrowly escaped from.

He had almost died, but he couldn't stop smiling.

"That was a lot of fun."