The following days were a haze of surviving and gathering information about the hidden cave.
On the first of the three days Luke searched nearby to find any reliable source of food. It took a while but he spotted a bush which contained a flurry of red berries.
They looked similar to blueberries resembling the same shapes and sizes, the only difference being the apparent color difference.
[Crush one berry and apply it to a sensitive part of your skin. Wait half a day to see if any redness or rashes arise. If not, eat a small amount and wait for any potential unpleasant symptoms. If no symptoms arise, eat with caution.]
There it was again, those whispers. Offering advice, hints, and specks of knowledge. It never did offer him a concrete answer though.
Heeding the whispers advice, he rubbed the juices of the smooshed berry onto the skin of his wrist.
Now having to wait half a day before seeing the results, he continued to search for any food source.
Luckily he found another bush of sleek black berries, ones which emit a sour smell. Unfortunately only a few minutes after applying the berry paste to his right wrist it began showing signs of redness and itchiness.
Finding his way back to the creek of fresh water, he began to clean off the area of his right wrist.
Though it was still irritating, it was still at a manageable degree. Feeling tired from having walked around for a few hours, Luke sat under the tree in which he had also slept.
Looking towards his left wrist, no sign of irritation showed despite it being a few hours already. While one door had closed the other still showed signs of hope. Of course the real result would depend till he actually ate a few.
Having allocated time for himself to rest, Luke's mind began to wander onto the circumstances he had fallen into.
He reminisced on the last whisper he had heard before ending up in this mysterious place.
[You will die tomorrow.]
It was simple, it was sweet, and it was damning. Never once before had a whisper about his fate been so concrete.
He'd hear whispers of potential poisonings, assassination attempts, even accidental vehicle crashes.
But never once were they set in stone, at least not until that day.
He had still tried to prevent his death through every method possible of course. He had hired the best doctors, security teams, and even locked himself in his most secure location.
In the end it didn't work of course, or else he wouldn't have been here.
Soon the twin suns crowned themselves high in the sky, indicating it was time for Luke to get off his ass.
It took a bit of retracing but he eventually found the hill which held the inheritance the whispers had spoken of.
Unlike yesterday he took the time to scout the location which surrounded the area. He looked for signs of another entrance but ended up finding none. Looking nearby showed no signs that an animal or monsters had made the cave their home.
Of course he wasn't exactly an expert at tracking animals or monsters, he was simply making his best guess based on what he could tell.
Seeing that there wasn't much for him to do besides actually going into the cave or at least going near it he decided to stake out nearby to see if anything came across as weird.
Hours passed by and not the slightest thing happened. Nothing came out of the cave, nothing went in.
In fact the only thing which ran through these trees were the occasional rustle of branches and leaves.
It was eerily quiet in fact nothing stood out that really indicated any sign of animal life.
If Luke had to guess it probably had to do with the fact he was currently residing along the borders of the 'Queen's territory'.
The two creatures that had manhandled him yesterday had already spoken of the Queen's mind controlling powers.
The idea itself reminded him of an ant colony, which was in itself a hive mind of sorts that moved to achieve a common goal.
For the time being though he didn't know if it really was something similar to an ant colony or some more magical mind control.
Looking at it from that perspective he was glad that the forest around him was quiet. If even one creature managed to catch sight of him it'd be game over.
As the sun began to fall over the horizon, Luke stopped his stalk out and started to head back to the bush of red berries he had found.
The first of three days was coming to an end, and he hoped that at least one fruitful thing came of this day.
Eating a few berries, which were not nearly enough to satiate his hunger, he slept under the same tree from the previous night.
The next day passed by in a haze of repeated boring routines. The red berries which he had found didn't manage to upset his stomach so he began to consider it as his food source.
Once again he began his stake out, however this time instead of dwelling onto his thoughts he attempted to start a fire.
Due to the warm temperatures both in day and night, Luke never had to create one till now but he assumed it would be a good way to pass the time.
Using the most basic of methods that he knew, he brought over two fallen sticks and gathered a small pile of dead wood and leaves.
For the next few hours, he spent his whole time just rubbing two sticks together. On occasions there showed signs of smoke, but each time the little ember that did form died before reaching the pile of dead leaves.
It took what might've been close to his 50th try before he finally was able to create a small fire.
In the end however, due to lack of experience he actually managed to kill the fire by smothering it with a larger branch.
It was a painful loss but the fact he had managed to even make a small fire was encouraging.
An hour later, on his 20th try he managed to once again light an actual flame. This time around he managed it properly enough to let it grow into a real fire.
It took some time to ignite but he managed to set the tip of a branch with said fire, making something that resembled a torch.
In the end that was his goal after all, if he wanted to explore the cave he needed to get some sort of light source.
Technically speaking it was still only the second day, but he wasn't the type to sit idly and waste time.
He had learned everything he could from the cave's surroundings, now it was time he began actually exploring what lay inside.