Just a little distance from the shore he sat leaning against a tree as he was pretty exhausted after all that running. Earlier he didn't focus on it and due to adrenaline he didn't notice, but now that he relaxed for a while all the exhaustion came crashing down. His leg muscles ached from running uphill, side of his stomach was also hurting. All in all, he was battered up pretty badly. He questioned his idea of resting but dismissed it in head thinking "Whatever happens, I'll face it, not like I can do anything currently.".
After a while he looked towards the horizon, at the sun setting in the sky. At this time his thoughts were pretty complicated to speak of. He was thinking about his family, his father who is always quiet but cares a lot, his strict and loving mother and his mischievous little sister. He was thinking about they would be doing at this time and if he would ever get the chance to meet them.
He was missing them already, despite being in this place for only a short while. He could feel his eyes moisten slightly at the thought of never seeing them again. He raised his head up so as not to let the tears fall, "Boys don't cry, you'll make it Kai. There is no use crying here, better look for a way out.". He motivated himself and stood up a little tremblingly with the help of the tree and dragged his exhausted body towards the depths of the jungle.
Walking for a while he raised his head and looked around. For a moment he was confused so he rubbed his eyes and was shocked to discover that its not an illusion but the trees were emitting a soft light. For a moment he thought that maybe there were a little bit more fireflies in this forest that's why it wasn't completely dark even after the sun set. But now he can clearly see that the light was coming from the trees.
It looked as if they possessed a halo each of a slightly different hue. He had never seen anything this beautiful and magical even in his dreams. Amazed, he looked around and saw the land he was standing on. Again he was surprised to find that even the stones and small plants are emitting that soft radiance. The whole place looked as if it came out of a fairy tale story. "Nah, an isekai story, haha.", saying so he laughed and continued moving forward.
But his mind was still thinking about all these wonders, and suddenly a thought struck him and he looked around incredously. "Holy jesus! Why does this place look like Dronagiri Parvat, plants and trees emitting light, albeit a sot one. Did I cross over to Treta Yug or something??? But in tv they are shown to be glittering like jewels and jems from afar, this does't match too much with those." He thought as he moved forward touching the trunk of a tree. "Wait! Does this mean I can find the Snajeevani Vooti?".
He lamented and hit himself on the forehead and scoldingly said, "What are you thinking Kai, can you even identify if there is any herb like that? Stop fooling around and look for a place to rest atleast if you can't find any way out…and stop talking to yourself you dumbfuck, that m*therf*cker is a bad influence.".
Muttering such profanities to himself he again walked forward, but this time with another goal- to find a safe place to rest and something to eat hopefully. After searching for a while he found some fuits that looked ripe and decided to climb up the tree to pick them up. Overestimating his skills and currently aching body and underestimating the difficulty of climbing a tree bare, he fell first time he tried and started questioning his angels. "Is this the slightly athletic body of yours you were talking about Kai, it's not even a slight bit athletic now ig.". Shaking his head he decided to change his approach and picked up some pebbles from the ground. Seeing those pebbles emitting that soft light he was once again amazes at how could such a absurd creation of nature.
"Not more absurd than you crossing over, heh.", chuckling to himself he tossed the pebble for a few times to test his grip he aimed towards the fruits and threw it with full force, "Here goes nothing.". And the pebble shoots through the leaves like a bullet, it missed. He tried again for five minutes straight, every time his aim was so good that a professional would kowtow to him and plead to never try again. After embarrassing himself in front of the tree, he silently turned around muttering to himself, "Now I know why the fox said the grapes are sour, I feel you fox bro!"
Kai was gone from that area for a few minutes when the leaves rustled, something seemed to have awakened from it's slumber after a long time. Kai thought that he had just thrown a few pebbles but one of them had gone through a long journey, going straight towards an area where the trees don't emit light. The only place devoid of light in that area. The pebble hit a rock, after a few seconds dust fell as the rock trembled slightly and amidst the swirling dust, a pair of eyes opened and flashed with a chilling light.
As the dust settled on can see a giant beast standing there, it looked towards the same direction where Kai went as if it could see him despite all the trees. It opened its wings wide as if to took off and a massive gust of wind blew and the next second it was gone from that place.
Kai, unaware of what he had done continued his search for fruits. But he had only walked a few hundred metres when he heard a loud sound, somewhat same as when a fighter jet passes from your city, this one being more loud. He looked in the direction where the sound came from a saw an unbelievable sight, He saw a massive bird over ten metre tall with a wingspan of nearly twenty one metres rising swiftly towards the sky. It flew up hundreds of metres and then down with such a speed he can swear he saw a barrier breaking.
He grew alarmed that such a beast was in this forest all while he was moving here and there. But the next second his eyes widened as the bird was coming straight for him,
"Ohh shitt!", he exclaimed and turned around to run deeper into the forest swearing and cursing his bad luck for not only throwing him in such a place but also for making him a target of such a beast. He could hear the flapping of wings as clear and loud as if it were just near his ears. From the corner of his eyes he saw that the bird was really near him just ten to fifteen metres and that was also because of the trees. If it were a plane ground he'd already be in it's stomach.
"Big brother I'm won't even fill the gap between your teeth.. Hold on, do birds even have teeth?". He shouted and again started talking to himself as he ran for his life. His body was already exhausted and he had to run again, he was getting out of breathe and his side was aching so badly as if someone was sinking a needle inside his ribs.
Just at that time the bird opened it's claws and dived down and he caught sight of it's actions and hurriedly tried to dodge. Overestimating his agility and exhausted body, just as he tried to dodge his foot slipped and he fell to his side. Successfully dodging the claw but he fell so hard and rolled to the other side. He hugged his head as shrubs continued to hit his face and then he collided with a tree. His head was buzzing, "This is what it means to see the stars, I will never want to see them now.", he mumbled and tried to stand with the help of the tree but slipped as a sharp pain assaulted his sides, heck his whole body was a mess. His hands were bloody from when he tried to protect his face. He still got a few scratches on the face but the same can't be said for his whole body.
At that moment as he noticed his hands he stopped and lifted his head and saw the tree with which he had just collided. The tree was huge and was emitting a pale light, golden and green. It looked godly, and just as he continued to gaze at the tree he was shocked to discover that it was growing in size. He shook his head and looked to find that it wasn't an illusion. The tree was really growing.