I walked idly down the forest path. The daylight began to slowly fade away, causing the sky to turn the familiar hues of pink and purple that preluded the imminent night. Cicadas sang their ever-constant song, and the distant trickle of a stream could be heard but not seen.

    I was surrounded by the lush, green trees that hugged the boarders of the pathway. The grass and vegetation in the surrounding area was overgrown, as it had been allowed to flourish wherever it pleased for who knows how many years. 

    The pathway was unkempt and difficult to see at times, and it was often only distinguishable by the many small rocks that had once paved it. They were now nearly concealed in the wild grasses that overran it.

    I was careful of my steps as I continued my steady stride due to my current barefoot state, although to where I was headed exactly, I did not know. I had become lost in my aimless wandering a good couple of hours ago, although I was not worried in the slightest. It can be comforting to get away. To take your mind off of your worries, which by this point in my life, I had a large number of.

    In fact, for all I cared, I could become lost forever. I was completely tired and fed up with the way that I was being treated in my day to day life by those who were supposed to love and care for me. But I suppose that family had a different definition than the standard dictionary terms to my kin.

    I stopped in my tracks and sat down in the middle of the path as it suddenly split into a forked road with two different directions. Right and left. I sighed, as I had no idea where I was in the first place, but it would be nice to find a way back to some kind of civilization before it turned into full-blown night. 

    Who knows what kind of wild animals would be lurking about in the shadows then. Wild boars were an absolute given, and those are dangerous enough on their own.

    I closed my eyes, still seated before the forked path, and began to take in the sounds. I am often one to rely heavily on my senses when all logic escaped me. I wasn't quite sure if it would help in influencing my decision of which path would be best to take, but to my surprise, it helped immensely. 

    I was immediately drawn to the left-hand path from which I heard the now more prominent trickle of water from the steam resonating through the darkening, humid forest. 

    I figured that my best bet would be to follow it. Since it was a water source, there was a slight possibility of people being nearby. Or at least some kind of shelter that I could take refuge in for the night. Civilization is always built around water, after all.

    The pathways at the fork were a bit more clear from the roughage of the previous path, which would make it a bit easier on my feet that were now a bit sore and blistered. 

    I stood up and brushed away the debris on the ground that clung my jeans and started my venture down the left hand path. I walked down the path for a good ten minutes, and the sound of the rushing water drew closer and closer as I continued my stride. Eventually, I came upon a small clearing in the trees which made the small stream visible to me.

    I decided to climb through the cluster of vegetation of the forest and walk directly alongside the stream. As I was climbing over the brush, I caught my pants on a mess of a thorn bush that tore my pants at the knee and cut my leg a bit. I winced at the pain, but tried my best to ignore it as I continued towards the stream.

    I finally reached the side of the water and began a steady walk along the bank of it. Luckily there was little to no debris to irritate my feet due to the water washing it all away previously. It was now beginning to become darker and darker as the time slowly ticked by, and I became slightly nervous. What if there were wild boars or poisonous snakes? I tried to shake the thought from my mind, and kept walking.

    After several more minutes I began to see that the stream ended and connected into a rather large pond. I sighed once more, as it seemed that following the stream was all for not. There were no structures in sight, and the pond was the end of the line for the stream. 

    I slowly approached the edge of the pond and dipped my feet into the luke-warm water. It stung the blisters and cuts on my feet which caused me to hiss a bit in pain, but it was soothing in the end to rest my tired, aching feet. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths as I attempted to relax myself and forget the fact that I was hopelessly lost, and that it was now pitch black outside.

    I sat there for a good while until my feet began to prune up from the water. Damn osmosis, I always hated that feeling. I stood up and stretched my limbs, but almost jumped out of my skin as I heard a large cracking sound, followed by the splashing of water.

    My eyes adjusted to my night vision to see a large tree branch that previously hung over the pond quickly sinking to it's questionable depths. The tree branch must have snapped away from the tree. 
    
    I began to walk away from the pond back in the direction of the path so that I could retrace my steps and see where the other path in the forked road would lead me. However, after a few steps, I continued to hear splashing sounds emanating from the pond.

    I looked back in curiosity, that that feeling soon turned to horror as I saw the unmistakable form of a human splashing about in the water, clearly unable to swim. He must have been on the tree branch when it snapped and feel into the water as well!

    Without a thought, I ran to the pond and dove in, swimming to the figure as fast as my weary arms and legs would allow me. I drew nearer and nearer to the form, who I was able to distinguish as a male from the sounds of his struggling gaps the closer I got to him.

    I saw him begin to sink a bit into the depths of the water before I was able to reach him completely, and broke out swimming as fast as my burning arms and legs would propel me. 

    By the time I reached him, he had already sank under the water entirely. I immediately dove under the surface of the water and was able to see him just barely due to the very light color of his hair reflecting from the very little amount of starlight visible; since the moon was hidden beyond the trees. I kicked down hard, and succeeded in grabbing the man, pulling him up to the surface with me.

    I could immediately tell that he was unconscious, so I looped his arms around my neck as I sluggishly swam back to the bank of the pond. It was quite difficult since he was a bit larger than me and I was already previously exhausted, but the adrenaline kept me going until I finally succeeded in pulling him out of the water and onto the ground.

    Her appeared to be breathing, but he was still unconscious, which worried me a great amount.

    "Hello? Can you hear me? Wake up!" I said frantically as I tapped his cheek with my hand, causing a low groan from him. However, he did not open his eyes. Was he sick? What was wrong with him?

    Filled with unknown worry, I pulled the man onto my back and began to run as fast as my legs could carry me. I have no idea how I found the strength to achieve such a great feat, especially since I was barefoot, but I did.

    I ran and ran, past the edge of the stream, through the thorny and unforgiving brush that continued to shred my pants and cut my legs, but I cared for nothing at the moment other than finding help for this individual.

    I ran more and more, ignoring the rocks and debris that continually cut my feet until I finally reached the fork in the path and veered right, hoping that it would take us somewhere helpful.

    It was dark and therefore almost impossible to see as I neared what looked like a clearing up ahead. I could make out a break in the trees only by the illuminating moonlight that shone up ahead.

    I continued to run as fast as I was capable of, but did not see the error I had made until it was much to late for my feet to stop in time. Up adead was not a clearing, but a steep ledge. 

    I screamed, and immediately dropped the fellow on my back on the ground before I rolled and toppled down the side of the small cliff alone. I hoped that he would wake up and be fine up there as I fell. It's funny how even in the event of my imminent death, I always put others before myself.

    I hit rocks and branches as I went down, feeling my ribs snap like twigs against the impact before I finally reached the bottom of my drop into a lower part of the forest. There were a few trees and bushes around, but it was much clearer than where I was previously.

    I tried to move, but found it impossible. I was much too badly injured. As I tried to draw in deep breaths, my efforts were stifled. It seemed as if one of my ribs had punctured my left lung. I coughed a bit, and the action caused massive pain to radiate through my whole body. I let out a singular sob as I wiped the wetness from my mouth, which turned out to be my own blood.

    I lay there for what seemed like an hour, but was probably only here moments before I began to lose my grip on reality and become unbearably tired, however I did not want to close my eyes. Was I really going to die this way?

    Suddenly, there was very bright shining light that took over my whole field of vision. That was the last thing I saw before everything faded to black.