Phoenix Maplewood not giving up

Of all the places he’d traversed as of recently, this forest was by far the most pleasant. It was filled with sights and scents, the abundance of which Jethro could not recall ever having been witness to before. Although the trees were nice to look at, more intriguing to him were the smaller plants that bore nice smelling fruits that were perhaps the size of small rocks, but a whole hell of a lot tastier, and presumably easier to eat than a rock would be, too. Not that he was stupid enough to try that, although the thought had been entertained before. A good way to crack a damn tooth, that would be. 

Bonus points for the easy food he’d been able to attain in the form of prey animals that were attracted to the fruits, as well. If he were the only one of his kind in the world, he wouldn’t have minded spending some time here, but he wasn’t dumb enough to let that hope foster for one moment. Because, un-fucking-fortunately for him, these were the sort of environments that others would probably tend to enjoy, frequent, and congregate within as well. Which meant, if he wanted to find some quiet place where he could just be left the hell alone for the duration of the upcoming winter, he’d have to keep going. 

A damned shame, that was. But there was nothing stopping him from coming back here of course, once the cold season had passed. Assuming he survived the winter, anyway, which was not a certainty, in and of itself. The last one had been a damned challenge, that’d pushed him to the very brink mentally and physically. This time around, however, he was a year older. A better hunter, bigger and stronger than he’d been, back then. Either way, he wasn’t going to roll over and quit.

That was what they would expect of him, and he wasn’t about to give them that satisfaction. If he didn't make it, it wouldn't be for lack of trying. Jethro didn’t dare to let himself feel any sort of optimism, for luck and fortune rarely seemed to work in his favor, but he was used to that. In fact, he preferred it. He didn’t want or need a damn thing from anyone. That way, if he failed, he hadn’t anyone but himself to blame. 

@Evien