Pain overwhelming.
It shot through his head. It felt like a nail was being driven up into his eyebrow. He noticed a small branch protruded from his leg, as he started to sit up to pull the foreign object from his body, his back suddenly gave way from where it had struck the cliff and he slumped over-unconscious from the pain.
* * *
How long he had been there he did not know, but the storm had passed. It seemed to be mid-morning. He was at the base of the cliff, the rock face stretched up behind him. 10 feet in front of him were a row of trees, presumably leading to the landscape of forests that he observed the night he took the plunge.
Though his wounds still pained him he rose, took a few steps, then fell face first into the gravel. A loud scraping sound could be heard on impact, he laid there for a few seconds, then rose again. Snapping the branch off from his leg, he slowly staggered forward into the treeline.
Sunlight.
It poured through the leaves. The forest was covered with a thick coat of fauna. Each footstep he took disturbed nature that had been allowed to flourish for many years. His feet were covered with black cloth wrapped tightly to the skin. For soles, a thick leather had been sewn to the bottom of the cloth. To keep it bound to his skin, string wrapped around his feet and legs in a crisscross pattern. This continued up his leg and disappeared underneath the cloak that hid his body.
Step after step, one foot in front of the other was all he could focus on. The sun was heating everything around him and the black cloak offered no respite, but it did not leave his shoulders. It was a traveler's cloak-at this point well worn. He wore it with the hood up, shielding his face from sight. It extended down below his knees tattered and torn at the bottom. In the middle of the cloak, at his collarbone was a silver clasp. It was fairly simple, just an oval. Below the clasp his hand grasped the cloak together, encasing his body inside it.
Step after step, the pain started to ease somewhat with time. The cloaked figure had no clue where he was. sometimes he would push his way through foliage, sometimes ducking under tree branches, one foot in front of the other.
Burbling.
The sound of a stream reached the ears. It sounded off to his right, so he changed directions to head toward it. Pebbles ground together to make way for foot as he