Damien awoke completely still. He had entered a light sleep, and it had saved him. He could hear a fairly loud rustling nearing him, something was coming. Silently getting up and grabbing his spear he started off to hide behind the tree he was just laying on. With bated breath, he waited. He soon peaked around the thick trunk, being careful not to expose himself more than necessary. He saw a large wolf, roughly the size of a small bear.

‘Is that a fucking dire wolf?’ He mentally exclaimed. He doubted he shitty spear could take this monstrosity out. The wolf started to sniff around his campsite. Damien wasn’t sure how scent tracking worked, but he wasn’t too keen on figuring it out. Fighting it was a death sentence. He wasn’t sure running was a much better option either. Hiding seemed to only delay dealing with the very large problem. So he had three shitty cards and needed either luck or ingenuity to survive.

‘Wasn’t fire and smoke supposed to keep animals away?’ he thought in frustration but soon noticed that it seemed his fire had gone out while he slept. He knew you could intimidate a black bear, would that work on a dire wolf? ‘That’s an idiotic plan.’ he realized noting he was a small child. There were no good options.

He remained absolutely still so the wolf didn’t hear him, but it seemed to be meandering over in his direction. He had to make a choice fast. He glanced around and took note of all the tools on him. He had his makeshift spear, both rabbit horns, his sharp rock, hand-sized rock, and the clothes on his back. The only things nearby were his campsite and the trees around him. There were a few trees nearby but that didn’t seem useful. ‘Wait, wolves aren’t great climbers.’ He thought as his epiphany gave him a plan.

It was time to put the idea into motion. First, he gathered fae energy around him, then started absorbing it inside him. He tossed his large rock high aiming for the other side of the clearing, it hit a tree startling the beast. Damien made a break for it. The closest tree that he knew he could climb was about one hundred feet to his left so he ran in that direction. He had a head start and was extremely fast due to his adrenaline, elven nature, and natura physical boost. But he was still racing a wolf, an extremely large one at that. Damien was halfway to his destination and heard the wolf chasing behind him as its predatory instincts activated. He could hear it gaining on him, fear gripping his heart and drawing further speed out of his body that he didn’t know he had. It still wasn’t enough.

He could tell the wolf was right behind him now. He felt like it was breathing down his neck.he quickly grabbed the sharp stone behind him. This bought him a bit more time but not much. Salvation was a scant few meters away. The wolf had caught back up after his distraction. He made a gambit. Whipping around, he stabbed back with his spear, catching part of the wolf but doing no real damage. He managed to startle the wolf and it halted its chase. He then slowly backed up, and the wolf seemed to size him up. He soon felt the tree on his pack, and then scrambled up it as the wolf renewed its charge.

It caught his leg, teeth ripping into flesh causing him agonizing pain, but he managed to escape. Thankfully the wolf didn't have magic teeth like the rabbits’ horn, so he focused on his regeneration. His efficiently and control was improving leaps and bounds from the extreme amounts of usage he was getting out of it. It also invigorated him and reduced pain so he managed to avoid fainting from the bite.

His leg wound wasn't completely healed but he took a breather as he was exhausted and couldn't muster the focus for anymore. The wolf was growling and wolfing at him from the base of the tree, flesh and blood still painting its maw forming a grim visage.

“Fucker,” Damien exclaimed as he spat down towards the wolf. Taking petty revenge for his leg injury, 'Now what do I do?’ He was trapped in a tree with a better, but still injured leg and a monstrous wolf hounding him below.

Having spent the better part of an hour, the wolf soon started to slink off. That's how it appeared at first but Damien heard it stop not too far away but still out of his sight. The bastard was smart. Damien had already finished healing his bum leg but the injury was severe enough for it to still be tender and extremely sore. He knew it wasn't smart to put a lot of weight on it but to maneuver in the tree he would have to.

He gently stood up and started to crawl over to one of the branches. He hoped to monkey through the trees to get away from the wolf. His enhanced dexterity served him greatly and even in his debilitated state, he managed to nimbly move through several trees. He looked around to spot his campfire to reorient himself; it hadn't been as long as he hoped but the forest was too dangerous to continue waiting like a damsel. He managed to spot it ahead of him slightly to his right and saw the tree he had laid on to the right of it as he crawled through the trees. That meant that the stream was in front of him if he moved forward. He had lost track of the wolf and was worried about being ambushed by the lurking monstrosity. He continued in the trees as far as he could then rested for a while.

Nearly an hour later, he mustered the courage and will to move, urged by his cramping muscles and the stiffness that started to plague him. He slowly lowered himself, and as he touched down he was careful to put his weight on his good leg to avoid a flaring of pain. Reappropriating his slightly cracked spear as a walking stick, he hobbled in the direction of the stream.

God's he missed the village. He hoped he could roughly guess the direction after finding water. He eventually made his return to the stream and looked around. It was starting to darken, but this was perfect. He spotted a golden glow of light towards his right. That means east and west were to his sides. He knew the forest was east of the village and that the fae energy strengthened the deeper in the forest you go. What else could he use?

Damien finally recalled that to the west of the village were a series of mountains from which the river next to it flowed from. Assuming that this stream was from the village's river, then he needed to head to his right, as that is where the water flowed from.

Smiling to himself Damien started trekking in that direction, enduring the pain of his leg. He also noted that the sun must set in the east. He wasn't sure if this was the same as Earth but either way, it was useful to remember to prevent this from happening again.

Soon Damien's guess was confirmed, as he had noticed the natura around him was significantly thinner after a few hours of travel as well as the tree density. the river wasn't straight increasing travel time, and he would probably be fine to head straight but he didn't want to take any chances.

As he finally exited the forest, he spotted his village only a few hundred feet away. He was home.