Waking up in a daze with a bright beam of light shone on his face through the light vegetation covering the space above him, Aaron's eyes twitched in reaction to the brightness, as he tried turning his body.
He tried to sit up, but as he tried to move, he was immediately braced with excruciating pain that covered his entire body. It seemed he was lying in a poodle of water that was just the right size to submerge his entire body, leaving only his face and parts of his body outside.
'It hurts all over, and it's cold. I have to move my body no matter what.' He thought to himself as he struggled to lift himself.
It seemed close to evening, as the shade from the covering above let through little rays of orange evening sun light. Aaron was unsure of how long his unconscious body had been laying there defenseless, he could only thank his luck for being so good, imagining what could have happened to him. He rolled his tongue over his lips as he felt a little sting in them, he had some cuts on them, and on different parts of his body. Luckily none was life threatening.
He waited for a while, and after he had gained a little strength, he pulled himself out of the poodle as he dragged himself out, step by step. There was a small branch that had pierced through his thigh, damaging some muscle in the process, but luckily it missed the bone, so he could only move that leg to a certain degree.
After he got close to a tree close to his crash site, he sat in between the roots of the large tree that seemed to have larger roots than its own trunk.
After using the little energy he had regained, Aaron decided to remain there for the time being.
While resting on the body of the tree, Aaron kept hearing the sound of running water, more like that of a huge river, he thought to himself. 'I'm not sure of how deep we wnet before Gerald dropped me, but if I was to guess, I'd say I am quite next to the river of ends.' As he thought of it, it seemed even more strange that it would be the fabled river.
'That is definitely the river of ends, but how am I still alive? This is strange. In any case, I need to find a way to get out of here fast before this luck turns to misfortune.'
"I wonder how I ended up so close to the river. Gerald must have dropped me in the forest, even he can't get so close… Wait, how could I have forgotten?" Aaron's eyes lit up as he turned to check his lower back. 'It's lit up!'. "So this is what is preventing me from dying, and it must be why I'm so close to the river. I've only ever used it for flight since it doesn't consume magic, even though I can use flight magic. It utilizes mana from the surrounding. It must have activated automatically." 'As for what I can see, it's resisting outside pressure and by so doing, making it possible for me to survive here. Isn't this just perfect.'
As he sat by the tree, the sun gradually went down, and soon it was night. The moon wasn't up, but that left the sky filled with stars that Aaron couldn't enjoy the full view of, as the trees above covered most of it. This also meant the forest was as dark as dark could be in many places, and Aaron was in one of those places.
It was clear that his tattoo artifact possessed other abilities that he didn't know of, and since the ruins he found it in was rumored to be left by the gods, it's even more possible.
'Now that I think about it, there was that one time I almost flew out of the earth's atmosphere but could still breathe perfectly at that altitude. So this protection and the artifact are definitely related.' Aaron said in his mind.
"Still, it would be stupid to get complacent even if I had suffered these injuries. The protection won't last forever, and I'm guessing not for long either."
The next day, around the time the sun rises, Aaron was already awake. He couldn't enjoy a good night's sleep due to the pain, and the thought of being attacked by some magical beast in his sleep.
Feeling no better than the previous day, he was a bit determined to do something about himself. The branch that was still in his thigh caused some pain whenever he would move, and he had more broken bones than flesh wounds. There could have also been internal injury, but there was no way of knowing for sure since he couldn't use his magic.
Some time had passed after he woke up, he sat still thinking about how to go with things.
It was quite clear that he needed to put something in his stomach, but that was the least of his worries.
Even with that, it seemed the heavens hadn't abandoned him just yet. The tree he was sitting under had apple looking fruits growing from it. He would have been able to reach it if he was standing, with a little jump, but in his state that would be impossible.
Luckily for him, the apple dropped from the tree, onto his head, then rolled away slowly as it hit the ground.
Noticing this opportunity, without thinking he stretched out his hand to grab the fruit before it rolled too far, and he succeeded, but not without pain. 'Good morning to you too, tree.'
"I can only hope it's edible. I'm at the brink of death here, and I have also escaped death recently, so death got nothing on me."
He took a bite into the fruit without thinking about it much.
'This scenario is cliché, but I won't complain one bit. If only another one would fall.' And just as he asked, another one fell, this time he caught it before it rolled off far.
"Will another one fall if I say so again?..." "Fruit, fall…."
"I thought as much. Luck can't be that much."