Aaaah!

...aah?

......okay? Dirt, lots of dirt, wet dirt, that's mud ugh he hates the damp why is this happening

Away from the deerthing. Slowly. Looking around but mostly at the deerthing.

The deerthing takes one enormous step and noses him again.

Aaaaahhh run run run

More jungle!

Cliff!

fuck

okay he can heal bruises and scratches and whatever when he gets to the bottom or on the way there if it gets too bad but ugh

Softish landing, anyway, in deep glucky mud, and the drop was only about twenty feet. There is more jungle down here. There is more megafauna in it.

why are the things here so big

Okay calm down, deep breaths, that wasn't so bad, and besides he is a mage, okay? Yes, keep that in mind, being a mage means the first thing he learned how to do was making things bleed from every pore (wince) and set them on fire, he can actually (probably) deal with anything that attacks him here. Yes, good. Okay. No need to be (completely) terrified of everything.

(why the rain why couldn't it be snow or scorching sun or winds or something)

He stays still and looks around.

There's another deerthing. There's some of the car-size fliers up a tree. There is a bug-looking thing that is only half Sadde's height.

Oh my god that's disgusting.

Not moving, though.

The deerthing approaches.

Hold breath.

Nose nose nose.

please don't eat me

The deerthing does not eat him. It noses at him and then goes away.

...okay.

He'll stay there for a while longer.

The mud welcomes him. The bug finds him uninteresting. The car birds are looking at him but not budging.

This is so disgusting.

He will slowly (slowly) try to look for shelter again.

There is another cavey arrangement of tree roots. There's a tree that was struck by lightning and is missing a large chunk of wood he could maybe prop up somewhere if he has been drinking his protein shakes lately.

...does the cave have eight-eyed fuzzy things in it.

Just one!

He reaches for a flashlight (he is still carrying his backpack maybe he should've ditched it before or something but now he's thankful he didn't) and lights it, not pointing directly at the thing, but somewhat away from it, just enough light to see (and especially see whether this might plausibly be the baby version of the giant dinosaur thing)...

The dinosaur thing was not fuzzy. This thing is fuzzy. It is alarmed by the light and scampers deeper into the rootcave.

Okay so he will stay there and turn off the light and maybe use it to scare the thing away if he needs to and make it fall into a puddle of its own blood if he needs to (he's very sorry if you're sapient, fuzzy thing).

The fuzzy thing does not approach him.

So he can spend quite a while there. Waiting. For something.