18:00

26 : Carrots

Early morning air hit Trophy as he began walking away from the hotel. The grass beneath his feet was covered in dew, which was slightly uncomfortable. But he wasn't going to quit this early, he was more resilient than that.

The breeze felt nice after spending so much time inside. Trophy had almost forgotten why he used to enjoy his morning jogs. Of course, things had happened, and he stopped taking them. He made a mental note to take up that old routine of his again once things got back to normal, or at least normal enough for him to restart the habit.

He walked towards the forest, going in the opposite direction of Test Tube's lab. Having his plan ended by getting caught by her was far from ideal, and Trophy wasn't going to let that happen that easily.

Getting past the clearing was easily the most stressful part of the walk. Anybody in the hotel could happen to look out a window during the minute or two it would take him to actually reach the forest, which obviously wasn't ideal either. That wasn't saying a lot though, as all Trophy did during it was continue walking forward. Once you have been planning something as simple as this for long enough, you reach a point where it's hard for the plan to go wrong.

Once he stepped into the shrubbery of the forest, an odd sense of safety loomed over him the same way the trees did. He quickly accepted the feeling, walking deeper into the greenery of the outside.

In all honesty, he had no real idea where he was going. He knew where not to go, but as far as an exact location he wanted? Nothing. But it was too late to turn back, so he only continued forward.

There was quite a lot of scenery. Sights you wouldn't be able to see in the hotel's garden, and things even Trophy couldn't name. His hands glazed over his camera, which still hung around his neck.

Normally he had trouble taking photos, especially since the lab incident. It brought something up in him, something he had tried to bury. But he hadn't had any trouble taking a photo of Fan's laptop, had he? Maybe...

Trophy stopped in his tracks for a second, lifting his camera up. He turned it on and aimed it towards some mushrooms.

Click!

The camera made a snap as it took the photo. That uncomfortable feeling didn't arise in Trophy this time. At least, not fully. He still felt his heart tighten the slightest bit as his finger ran over the buttons of the camera again, but it wasn't as terrible a feeling as before. Perhaps he could take some photos to look at, for later?

He continued his journey, taking a couple photos along the way. He made sure to save his camera's storage for stuff he couldn't see back at the hotel, but he still got quite a few photographs in.

During some point, he stumbled upon a small clearing. There were a couple logs laid down around a pile of charred material, mostly likely an old campfire. Grass didn't seem to grow as much in the area either, and the sun couldn't sneak through the canopy despite it being a clearing. There was also a tree stump near the logs, but there wasn't much anybody could do about that.

...He was pretty deep in the forest now. It'd be best to set up camp at some point, so that he won't be stuck making it in the dead of night.

Trophy carefully, but stick forcefully, tried to push one of the logs aside to make room. It rolled with some effort, bumping into one of the trees at the edge of the clearing. Cleaning up the small opening in the forest was a breeze, which had been far from Trophy's expectations, but still nice.

He set his backpack off to the side, leaving it closed. The backpack mentioned before happened to have a tarp in it, which Trophy had gotten from the storage closet beforehand for making a place to rest. The first thing he'd have to do is set up a frame for his camp, since the tarp needed somewhere to go.