Leo started to walk again, so I followed her until we came out into a clearing.
Here, a crystal clear river was running, and it seemed a lot brighter, due to there being fewer trees in the area.
“I can see the sky now. Judging by the sun, it is probably midday.”
“Wuff! Guff-guff.”
As I looked up at the sky, Leo ran forward and jumped into the river, which she then started to lap up.
For a moment I wondered if it was really okay to drink this river water, but Leo was drinking it greedily as if it was delicious, so it was probably fine.
And so I followed Leo over to the river.
When I put my hand in the flowing water, it was cool and relaxing.
“Mmm…glug…glug…”
As I had walked for quite some time in the forest, I was very thirsty.
Scooping up the water with my hands was not enough, and so I dunked my head into the river and drank.
“Ahhh!”
I drank and then pulled my head out.
It was like I had washed my face in the cool river water, and it felt good.
“We should rest here for a while.”
“Wou!”
I sat down close to the river and rested my body.
Leo seemed to be satisfied as well, as she got out of the river, shook her body to dry herself, and then sat down next to me.
“Woou!”
She must have felt quite relaxed, as she placed her head on my lap.
“…I used to be able to put you on my lap when you were small. But now it’s just your head. And your head alone is heavier than what you were before.”
“Wou!? Wou!”
Perhaps she was protesting the notion that she was heavy, as she sounded a little displeased.
Well, in spite of her appearance, she was a girl. So I shouldn’t say that she is heavy.
“Now… What should I do…”
“Wou?”
I looked up at the sky and thought.
I had appeared in this forest out of nowhere.
And so I started walking, thinking that I could get out of it, but the end was nowhere in sight.
We might be stranded here.
Thanks to Leo, we found a river, so we wouldn’t have to worry about water. But I was still worried about food.
I didn’t know much about wild plants, but I knew that it was dangerous to go around and eat things randomly.
None of the trees I had seen up until now had any fruit, so I had no hopes there.
“…What to do…”
I just didn’t have knowledge for surviving in the wild.
After all, I was more of an indoors person.
I had only ever camped outside as part of a school trip.
The idea of some real camping had not been appealing to me. But more than anything, my job had kept me so busy that I wouldn’t have had time to do it.
“Ahh… Still, the air is so fresh here.”
“Woou.”
I listened to Leo’s reply and took a deep breath.
With a river nearby, and trees everywhere, the air here was completely different compared to the city.
Had I not been worried about how I was going to get out of the forest, I would have been more relaxed than I had been since… Since when, I wonder…?
Even when I was in school, I was busy with my part time job in order to support myself.
And once I started working full time, it became normal to only have one day off every few months.
It was also normal to work overtime up until midnight. And so even if I did have a day off, I would just rest in order to recover from exhaustion.
Perhaps it was actually my first time ever being able to relax out in nature like this…