Visit the Forest!
Friday, 6/30/23
Welcome, intrepid explorers!!
If you have twenty-four hours in the Jakar Forest, we’ve got an itinerary designed to help you make the most of your experience appreciating the natural beauty. Enjoy the trees, the waterfall, and the hostile animals and hopefully you can make it out alive! Watch out for the Beast!
Morning
8am – Congratulations surviving the trip to the Forest!
8:15am – Go to the waterfall and stream to gather some water. Be careful though, since you’ll have to boil the water before you drink it. You don’t want to mess with waterborne infections!
Some waterfall, eh? This is a stock image, unfortunately. The real one is FAR smaller and MORE CONTAMINATED than you actually think.
9:00am – Take a stroll around the perimeter of the Forest and admire the Energite pillars at regular intervals at the boundary between the trees and the desert. No one knows who put them there.
10:00am – There are many identified Pristine Plants in the Forest, which have some of the juiciest fruit on Ralga. Look for its characteristic blue-green bark and diamond shaped leaves. Have some of the fruit for breakfast. You may also find some small fish in the stream. Remember clean them before you eat them!
11:00am – **SPECIAL “THE BEST OF RALGA 2023” SURPRISE: Try to find an old flyer for a band that existed before the mass destruction on planet Ralga. It’s hidden very close to the waterfall. The performers dressed like an animal found in the Jakar Forest (one you DO NOT want to meet!)
We found this concert poster in the Forest. The band’s name is original, if not a little on the nose: “We Eat You for a Living”
Afternoon
12:00pm – We at “The Best of Ralga 2023” recommend not venturing farther into the Jakar Forest than the waterfall and stream. Thankfully, you have options of things to do near the desert/Forest perimeter. Listen to the 25 different species of birds recognized by the Jakar people. Maybe you’ll discover a new species!
1pm – The animals flying in the air don’t compare to those that live near the ground in the Forest. There are several species of spider, snake, lizard, and squirrel that live at or below the ground. Be careful not to disturb the local fauna, though. Many are VERY deadly!
4pm – The water gatherers from Jakar generally arrive now. Enjoy meeting some of the interesting members of the desert community as they gather water. Don’t get used to having them around much longer than an hour or so: they wouldn’t risk spending the night in the Forest!
Don’t let the Forest in the day fool you: it’s worse at night.
6pm – Start a fire and get mentally prepared for the night.
Evening
6pm – Dinner in the Forest can be a mixed bag. The water gatherers may have left some food behind for you. If not, you may need to kill some lizards or a snake. You may have a fish from earlier that you can roast over the fire.
8:00pm – If it’s a beautiful night, enjoy the stars and the moons!
Wow, it looks like something out of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”! Or, better yet, one of the most famous singles “We Eat You for a Living” put out: “A Midsummer Night’s Scream.”
10pm – Enjoy the time around the fire. If you hear any noises, you should probably run. You’ll definitely get your steps in on this vacation!
This article was originally published in June 2023 for “The Best of Ralga 2023.”
Disclaimer: the images of the settings were generated using the Adobe Firefly (Beta AI) software. They aren’t the final representation of the images found in “Dark Salvation” but, rather, visual representations so you can understand the settings better. Unlike like Canva and other AI-image-generating platforms, Adobe Firefly utilizes only data sources it owns (e.g. images found in its internal databases.) The hope is that Adobe’s Firefly doesn’t infringe on copyrights and pull information from all over the Internet in its algorithms. See the Adobe Firefly FAQ for more information: https://firefly.adobe.com/faq.