A cold bath

---- Somewhere in Skeldergate forest, evening, 10 DSTR ----

The day was comming to an end and the shadows of the forest grew longer and denser as the minutes past by. The darkness however didn't bother Gareth as he had no problem seeing through it.

He still hadn't figured out where he were recording to his map, but when being all alone he didn't see any other option than to continue walking until he either found some formation which were drawn on the map or maybe somebody who could help him out.

After awhile he reached the edge of a wide river. This has to be the river that's drawn on the map! he thought to himself as he eagerly pulled out the map from his pocket. It seemed as though he was right, but it wasn't much of a help since this river was running through almost the entire length of the wast forest.

He let out a small sigh of disappointment before folding med map together once more. This wasn't going to be as easy as he had imagined. Of course he hadn't expected it to be easy at all to find his family, if it was even possible, but as the days went by it just became more an more apparent to him just how difficult it was going to be.

To try to get his mind off this rather demotivating thought he decided to take another break and exploit the oppotunity to get a much needed bath. Since no one appeared to be around he simply took his clothes off and placed it close to the riverbank along with his bag and then stepped out into the calm water of the river.

Despite the almost freezing cold water it was nice to finally get all the dirt, sweat and some minor bloodstains off his skin. Now that he was clean he returned to the shore. He had wanted to wash his clothes too, but it was just too cold now that the sun had almost gone so he quickly put on his pants. However before putting his shirt back on he couldn't help but give it a quick wash in the clear river water before putting it back on aswell because it was simply so stained and covered in dust that it would be a shame not to clean it now that he had the chance.

The cold feeling of the wet shirt against his skin and the freezing droplets from his wet hair soon made him shiver all over. Sure, he knew he wasn't able to get sick from this, but that didn't mean it was a pleasant experience either. As his bodytemperature continued to drop he started to pace back and forth in order to keep warm, but to little help. Being as cold as he was his mind soon started focusing on blood: The heavenly scent, the beautiful crimson colour, but most importantly now; that warm feeling he always got when drinking it straight from the neck which would slowly spread throughout his body. It had been days since he'd last had some and the mere thought of it made his mouth watering.
Just before his mind completely drifted off he reminded himself to stay focused on the task ahead of him: He still needed to find his family, no matter how long it had to take. And right now, when feeling cold and tired, as tempting as it might be he simply couldn't let himself throw it all away and go hunting in the forest just because he wanted some blood. After all, he'd finally found the river. Sure he didn't know excatly what part of the river it was, but maybe if he followed it upstream he would eventually run into some people or another marker which would indicate his position.