Coniferous | dreamnotnap

2. Water, Witch

With his tent collapsed, his blankets folded, his fire snuffed out, and all his gear packed in his giant backpack all in perfect order, Sapnap set off.

He had woken up that morning questioning again whether the encounter of the previous night was truly a Dream or not. It became a dull haze of a memory, and he'd been up for a few minutes before the thought struck him. But he had more important things to deal with. He needed water.

So, he brushed it off as a bad dream, lowercase d.

He huffed out a sigh. Sticks and pine needles crunched and slid under his boots. He had traveled far from civilization, through northern woods with no trails and no sign that another human lived there, let alone even passed through. Adventure was his pursuit, even though it was mostly walking and he didn't know what he was looking for exactly. He enjoyed it enough to devote weeks, sometimes months weaving between tree trunks and crawling under thick brush. Maybe he liked the seclusion of it, or the risk. He could have easily never returned home. Never see his beloved mother's face, never rest in his old bed and lie there for days in recovery, never swatch a taste of homemade jam. Never again. It could've happened in the blink of an eye.

The Dream. He could have died, if it were real. Still, he couldn't be sure. His 'brushing off' didn't last too long.

Maybe if he saw it again, he'd say it wasn't an illusion.

He nodded to himself, affirming his choice. The sun had slowly risen to sit nearly directly above, but it clung slightly to the South. Sapnap paused, and looked at it with hand-sheltered eyes. He pointed at the blazing star and dragged his finger across the sky, in the opposite direction of its hanging. To the North.

"Water will be..." he closed his eyes and spun around a few times, finger still pointed. He stopped when he got dizzy and opened his eyes, letting his brain calm down before seeing which direction he was looking. "Northeast."

He walked with purpose, and it didn't take long for him to hear the promising rush of water. Moving water was always best.

He ran toward the sound and found himself standing on a large rock, overlooking a crystal clear, shallow river with a small waterfall not far away. A bunch of dry, flat rocks stretched all the way across, making an easy bridge that lead to a large, grassy meadow loaded with colourful wildflowers. In the not so far off distance, he saw more forest. After his quick survey and a little happy dance, he dropped his backpack and removed his coat.

He shuffled through the bag, pulling out the majority of his items and setting them on the rock. Blankets, underwear, a small axe, rope. He reached in deep, finally feeling what he was looking for. He pulled out a large pot.

After removing his boots and socks, and rolling up his dirty pant legs, he took the pot to the water. His throat felt almost unbearably dry, but the water had to be boiled and cooled before it was consumable. He stepped into the rocky, pebbled river, knee deep. The water was freezing, but it washed away the icky feeling of dirt and sweat around his toes and made him realize how achy his feet had gotten. He almost completely sat down in the water, and would have done so if he didn't need to drink it so soon. He filled the pot and lugged it out.

He quickly gathered some thinner tree branches with his axe and got a fire started. He placed a metal cooking rack over it and spent no time in setting the pot over the buzzing coals.

Sapnap rubbed his cracking lips. It would take awhile to reach its boiling point.

He stripped down to his underwear and brought all his washables with him to the river. His clothes, socks, and other underwear; he only washed his coat and blankets at home. They went weeks without a wash, but the didn't get dirty as fast, so it was alright. He just didn't want to be caught dead and frozen because they took too long to dry.