Chapter 91 - Rain

After what felt like three hours during which Kaiser had wandered in the shadows underneath the large trees. Patches that let the slightly green tinted light through was getting more and more sparse the further he continued into the forest. Climbing up another tree, which was much larger than the one had climbed first, to the top he saw that he had gotten quite far already, the tree that covered the sides of the mountain's foothills making it a bit more difficult to navigate so he had strayed a bit more towards the center of the zone than he had wanted. Leaning his back on the smooth surface of the tree while he sat on a large branch close to the top he was able to get a breather.

The smooth surface had caused him quite a lot of trouble when he had climbed especially since few branches had been growing in a lower area. In the process of climbing he had first chosen a rather young tree which he managed to climb up to reach the lower branches of the tall tree he was on now. The process had seemingly paid off as now, contrasting to when he had observed the zone close to the entrance he managed to spot two additional different things from the first time.

First of all he managed to spot a large gorge in between the foothills on the opposite side of his that would most probably lead to the desert, allowing him to pass into the other region without having to return to the cornucopia where he would need to fight the other tributes. Perhaps there was one on his side as well? The second thing he spotted was a rather large rock formation in the distance which he would say was roughly the center of the zone. Although he had tried to see more he couldn't. This meant that he would probably have to spend a few additional minutes in a few hours to climb up a tree once more.

The feeling that he had about coming to this place was continuously advance towards him although from time to time it seemed to turn away before returning even stronger. Kaiser was quite curious on what this might be but was patient enough to wait for it. Instead he decided to invest his time properly. Right now it seemed relatively safe and due to the high humidity and heat that he had to endure below which was now no longer as bad due to the cool breeze at his height. Due to that he decided to look what his backpack contained. His knife which he had cleaned properly a while ago had already been secured in one of the pockets of his coat that he had tied around his waist.

Opening his backpack he grabbed inside it and the first thing he pulled out was a metal box. Opening it it was filled with stripes of cooked and salted meat. Which absolutely didn't help him as it would only increase his need for water. Stuffing it back inside he pulled out a large piece of tarp. That seemed useful and Kaiser stored it carefully. The next thing he pulled out was a small set of knifes which seemed more like scalpels so they didn't seem that useful for him at the moment. The next thing he found was the winner. A large metal bottle that could potentially hold about two liters. His disappointment was great however when he opened it up only to find it empty.

The more he studied the regions the more he thought that water would be the greatest problem. First off he hadn't found any rivers up until now, he only had salted meat, the high humidity in this region caused one to produce a lot of sweat without being able to cool down. The desert would be similar, just like the sea one as long as the water was inedible.

Frustrated by his findings he began to collect vines that grew towards the top of the tree. Sadly he had to climb a few meters down until he found a good width that seemed stable. Cutting them off Kaiser tied them around himself before climbing back up. Taking the tarp out of his backpack Kaiser looked at it more closely. Luckily the tarp was not a perfect square and had holes in the corners with which it could be tied to something. Seeing this Kaiser smiled and took off the first vine he had gathered and tied one end to a corner and and used the shorter side to tie both corners around the large tree trunk just above him where other branches grew out of it. For his plan to work he needed to cut down a few smaller branches that hung above his position as well as remove a few leaves and twigs. Following that, having secured one side of his tarp and worked on the branches above he used two vines, one in each corner of the to tie it to the large branches above him, as far out as possible while allowing the tarp to drop down a bit.

It was almost midday and the sun was shining down intensely. His new sun sail above him gave him cool shade while he could still feel the breeze. Luckily he hadn't managed to spot a lot of insects at his height although he spotted a few smaller monkeys and birds a few trees away. That filled the air with constant noise. Leaning back he waited for the strange sensation and the rain that should come down in a few hours.

Woken up by the drum like sound of heavy rainfall Kaiser looked up to see his tarp holding strong. Luckily although Kaiser's tree was tall it wasn't the tallest so he wasn't all to afraid that he would die from a lightning strike although if he did it would at least be quick. Although in general dying right now was a pretty bad idea since he hadn't gathered his familiars yet. The sensation that he had felt wasn't to far away but remained constant and wasn't "flickering" anymore. By now he thought that it must be one of his familiars and the sensation was their latent Soul Bond that was attempting to be renewed. Sadly it seemed as though the distance was still too far and it was currently impossible to connect fully.

Enjoying the noise of the rain Kaiser watched as the rain poured down and though about what kind of creatures the game makers had placed down that were activated in different scenarios. It seemed as though his familiar was one of those that were most active in the morning and perhaps after the rainfall. There might be more that were active during the night as well as some that were most active during the rainfall?

Leaning back he suddenly heard something from below.

Flatsch.

Flatsch.

Flatsch.

Confused Kaiser tried to look below but it seemed impossible due to the almost steel gray wall of rain. However due to the small room that was devoid of rain just below Kaiser managed to see something. It seemed to be a squirming wiggling mass that scaled the tree and it looked like the whole tree was covered in tumors. Far below him he could see that the whole ground had been flooded and a multitude of shadowy creatures were swimming in it. Due to the noise Kaiser assumed them to be some kind of slimy creature that were climbing up the trees. He was curious how they had found him but when he barely managed to make out the neighboring trees that seemed to be in a similar situation he thought they just climbed all trees in hope of picking up anyone that had fled on the trees due to the rising water. At that sign Kaiser simply couldn't help himself but to curse.

"Screw this! Who in their right mind designed this? Who could survive this? Don't the people in the capitol want to let the tributes fight each other?"

The creatures continued to climb higher until they reached about 25 meters above the ground. They had about reached the halfway point towards Kaiser and were still climbing.

28 meters

30 meters

32 meters

Somewhere around 35 meters they came to a stop and refused to climb higher. Noticing that they had encountered nothing and the rain was receding they slowly moved back towards towards the ground, some moving to quickly, falling down onto the flooded floor. Drawing one of his small sharp knifes Kaiser throws it at a retreating creature, pinning it against a branch it had been trying to climb down.

Once the rain had fully receded Kaiser looked up to see his custom made sun sail had been flooded and was filled to the brim with fresh water was excited and quickly wore his cloak properly and raising it's hood. Switching to the other side of the tree he climbed up to the branches which were directly above his place. Although they were still slippery and everything was still wet his cloak was quite effective in warding off falling droplets. Soon he had succeeded and was now standing just barely above his tarp. Pulling the metal bottle out of his backpack he filled it before slowly drinking it, enjoying the wonderful sensation. As there was still a lot left Kaiser filled it up one more time, storing the filled bottle in his backpack. Before leaning forwards, taking a few more large gulps. Looking up he saw that it would still take some time until the sun would go down. By now the trees bark and leaves had dried and the cries of monkey, birds and various other animals had returned, filling the air with their voices crying for food, shelter, water and their groups. Finally he could also sense what he assumed to be his familiar approaching. Deciding to climb down to look at what had climbed all of the trees he found a toad like creature which was really dry now. Pulling out the knife and storing it he noticed that they had teeth, many and large ones at that. Climbing up underneath his sun sail to watch the sun as well as look for signs of his familiar he relaxed while he continued to observe his first kill in the arena.