Chapter 3: Mendo Ralft
As the man approached the fire, his self got the illumination Jonas already possessed. He looked rather young to Jonas, maybe in his early twenties or late teens, which was pretty strange considering the circumstances. His Grey hair shined in the dim light the campfire provided, giving him more of a youthful look.
As he put down the bag he carried on his back, he sat down and skimmed through his bag, taking out an old looking field flask. He quickly opened it up and gave it a long sip, shortly thereafter offering the same to Jonas who gratefully agreed. Jonas quickly had to realize though, that the flask which he thought contained water was instead filled with a healthy amount of poor tasting booze. As Jonas was extremely thirsty though, he wholeheartedly took a large sip of the distasteful liquor.
"I've gotta say, your one hell of a guy to be camping in the middle of a road like that. Not only that, but even one leading through this massive forest" The young man said. His face looked like he had been walking for the entire day, being completely red, although that didn't distract from the fact that he looked quite handsome.
Jonas looked perplexed, he took his look from the man and once again, looked into the fire. He scratched his unkempt beard and answered to the young man after thinking for a few seconds "I wish i would know the answer why im here myself" He responded, his eyes once again looking absent.
The young guy didn't answer for a while, making the loudest noise one could hear the cracking of the fire. After the short while passed, the young man took the initiative and put his hand forward as a fist, looking as if he wanted to fist bump one of his classmates or friends. Jonas, not thinking anything of it, struck his fist out to bump his with some strength as one would normally do in a fist bump. To his surprise, the young man was startled at this, taking his fist back quite a bit and thereby confusing Jonas.
The awkward silence returned once more, but this time the young man looked quite weird. His facial expression seemed to be disappointed for some unknown reason. As Jonas didn't wan't the other guy to feel uncomfortable around him as he was the only thing that kept him from fearing the dark again, he finally broke the silence he induced before.
"The name's Jonas, nice to meet you" He said with an grateful expression. He still thought of this man as the only ray of hope he had in this dire situation of his. The other guy, seeming pleasantly surprised, answered rather quickly with a smile on his handsome face "Pleasure to meet ya, Mendo is my name, Mendo Ralft." He once again put out his fist, this time he seemed to be a bit more careful. Jonas, surprised by his odd name, didn't really bump his fist but rather lightly touched it with his. The other party seemed to finally be pleased with the result as he took his fist back with a face full of content. As Jonas didn't really want to return to the silence they had before he tried his best to engage in a conversation with the young guy called Mendo. "So... i would like to know if you come from some kinda village nearby? I mean, normally you would just drive towards your location but you walked, so does that mean a you come from a little town or something in the area?" Jonas asked in a polite but grave tone. He knew very well that whatever he would do tomorrow depended on the answer the young lad in front of him would hopefully supply him with.
Mendo on the other hand looked quite confused, he got a rough sheet of paper out of his well worn cotton bag and got a bit closer to Jonas.
"You are quite the person, being on the road towards one of the last villages there on the track and not even knowing were you came from... Well i guess it can't be helped, i don't wanna probe into other peoples business to much so im just gonna tell you were we are." Mendo put the map to the ground. The map he had put down looked hand made and looked to be drawn with something like charcoal. The river he had heard for quite some time now looked as if it was wriggling its way through the map while the paths on it were marked pretty simply with a dotted line. Three dots with names above them which seemed to be the villages Mendo previously mentioned were drawn on it aswell, although all of them appeared to be at the same level of height which was indicated by the rough contour lines that were also included on the map.
Jonas, who once again had his hand scratching on his beard, was taken aback. This time it wasn't as rough as the other times as he was quite used to being surprised by now, but the thing that depressed him the most was the confirmation that he really was somewhere completely foreign. Up until this point he had a vague hope that he could at least find his way back home towards the village he had not even moved into yet, but this little hope was instantly crushed by the ruthlessness of reality.
Jonas clenched his fist as he looked at the poorly lit map, while Mendo didn't care to give him a look as he was concentrated on coming up with a way to recognize were they were on the path right now. After 2 minutes Mendos expression changed from thoughtful to proud as he had finally found out where they were.
"Ok sooo... this is were i just came from" He pointed at one of the three small dots which were indicating the villages. weirdly enough it looked as though they were writing and talking in German, yet a landscape such as he had seen here was nowhere to be found in any German speaking country. In fact, Jonas didn't think there were any trees on earth such as those he had found here. The trees in this forest were easily above 130 Meters tall, that would make them the new tallest trees in the world. Something like this wouldn't just go undiscovered, especially not with modern technology such as satellites and the likes.
The village Mendo was pointing at was in the middle-left of the map, surrounded by the big river. The road it had connected in almost one straight line to the main one he was on at the moment. The main path he was on connected to the bottom of the map, seemingly following the river. While the way he was going right now led to a village named Fontechia. While looking at the map and instantly memorizing it, Mendo took over again saying "I went down the road from Cercico which is on the left here, then when i hit the connection to the main path it was already noon so i started to get my lamp ready. I walked quite a way but this fuckin forest get's really cold during night and i thought i wouldn't make it to Fontechia today, so when it was already dark and i saw the fire on the road you wouldn't believe how happy i was. Especially because i don't wanna encounter a pack of Fullbears out here." Mendo shivered as he talked about the weird pack animal. Not understanding a single thing Mendo talked about in the later half of his sentence, Jonas inquired "Okay so wait a minute, what the hell is a Fullbear supposed to be and how does it hunt in packs? Isn't a bear a loner animal?" Jonas leaned onto his hands which supported his upper body.
Mendo, looking bewildered by the question asked in return "What do you mean bear? you can't just cut the name of an animal and say it hunts alone. You know, Fullbears, those enormous beasts with teeth as sharp as the highest quality blades and with fur as rough as that of the hardest scrubber. You should've at least heard of em if your walking on this path right?" Mendo looked with a worried expression as he asked the question, looked like it was quite a big deal Jonas didn't know what the terrifying beast's were.
As terrifying as the news of a weird beast was, Jonas felt like he had to clarify that he had no idea where the hell he was. "How the hell should i know what in god's name a fucking 'Fullbear' is if i don't even have a clue as to how I've got here?" He exclaimed in an agitated voice. The whole situation was just way to much for Jonas at this moment as he still couldn't comprehend what happened and why the names of everything here were so weird.
Mendo, who apparently recoiled a bit at Jonases slight rant, seemed to not have an answer to the what the other Party said. He waited for a couple of minutes to let Jonas cool off a bit and then pointed at the map again. "Okay... i don't really have any answers to those questions but look. We both better walk together tomorrow as it is safer then to split again and as you've already said, you don't really know where you are." Mendo made a short pause as Jonas looked into his eyes with a look of gratitude and helplessness "Ok, then i guess we both will stick around each other for another day then haha!" Mendos laughing sounded as if both of them were in a sound isolated room thanks to the thick and tall grass, but the laughing nonetheless helped Jonas relax a bit.
Not a few minutes after the loud laughter Mendo sounded, Jonas put his hand into his cheap jacket and got out a small plastic bag. Mendo, who looked as if he had never seen clear plastic before, studied the green grass ball that was tightly sealed in it. Jonas, who noticed the look on Mendos face, got out about one and a half grams of the weed and put it into a little white paper, shortly thereafter crafting two weird looking paper sticks which were filled with the grass.
Jonas handed one Mendo, put the other one in his own mouth and lighted it with his Lighter. He did the same for the surprised Mendo who had copied the way Jonas put his paper stick in his mouth. After inhaling a bit of the weird smelling smoke, Mendo copied him but instantly started coughing.
For the first time in a while Jonas started laughing.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MrMonoxid
MrMonoxid Link for the map Mendo used: https://imgur.com/a/M2vcCfF
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