The next morning, I wandered out and found that the fog had lifted. Upon traveling a few hundred feet, I found a clearing full of wooden furniture and barrels, along with a number of logs. I realized this must have been where the Splinter Rapids citizens ended up, but I saw no sign of them. Guessing that they must've just decided to live a minimalist life somewhere far away, I gathered up their belongings and dragged them towards my cave. After a long morning of work, I had managed to build myself a well-furnished dwelling, with multiple rooms provided by a wooden shelter that I added on to the front of the cave.

As I rested in the afternoon, I saw the fog begin to creep back into the woods, which made navigation in the already dense forest impossible. At the same time, and to my amazement, I saw the former occupants of Splinter Rapids come strolling from what I guessed to be the direction of the river. They set up camp in the same place where I found their belongings this morning, belongings which they seemed to still have with them. Still soaking wet, they started to make a fire to dry out by as night settled in.

I had been keeping hidden in my shelter, in hopes that they wouldn't notice I stole their wood and supplies. However, after an hour, I decided to venture out slightly to get a better view of what they were doing. Just then, shouts rang out from the woods directly opposite of what I concluded to be the river, and thus, west. These shouts were followed by a brigade of soldiers, the very ones from last night in fact, who emerged from the woods and fog to settle upon the townsfolk.

They grabbed them, wrestled them, and dragged them away, no doubt to add them to their ranks, much as they had done to the poor drifter last night. After a few moments, I crept out and over to the campsite. I gathered some supplies, then retreated to my shelter where I stocked up, closed off the door of the cave, and fell asleep almost instantly.

Realizing that I really didn't know where to go next, or how to get out of the woods, I decided to stay in my cave for a while. That while turned into a year, and pretty soon, I was accustomed to this strange forest.

I survived from the continuous supplies the townsfolk brought me, and even made contact with them a few times. They never seemed to remember me, but were always friendly. I was even brave enough to investigate the soldiers further, noticing that their ranks did indeed grow each night, though they never saw or noticed me.

I soon pieced together a few things. The soldiers were fighting someone across the river, who I could never see, but I could hear a lot of gunfire and some explosions, which apparently freed the river from the dam that ended up blocking it. Therefore, every day the waterfall existed, and every night it was closed up.

After a while though, I was becoming bored with this, and decided to see what was beyond the woods. I had worked out that my cave was south, the river east, and the soldiers came from the west, so I decided to travel north. I gathered up a week's worth of supplies, and a makeshift tent, and struck out to find a way out of the forest. The next day, I exited the woods into a treeless meadow. It was so abrupt that I nearly turned back towards the woods out of sheer surprise.