Tall, Tall Trees

After destroying the bear, there are two new paths into the forest you can head, but you'll want to take the western path first. You'll see the Grounder in the next screen... it can only be attacked at its tail, but it's not worth fighting so just avoid it. Continue along the path and you'll encounter some Firetotems. These can only be defeated with the Boomerang, which we don't have yet, so ignore them for now. Continue to the right until you reach the Bowlers. Now go back to the left along the lower path. Defeat the Boomerangs here to receive your own Boomerang, and continue to the hut. The Boomerang has good range like the Rocks, but as long as you catch it on its way back, you won't run out. Huzzah! If you do run out, you can always get more from the Boomerang enemies.
Two screens right of where you got the Boomerang, there will be three huts. The top hut just sells food, which is generally not worth the money, but the other two huts are important. In the middle hut, you can buy Sandals for 150G, but ONLY if you have the Papyrus (which is dropped by the Red Spider near the Marsh). If you don't, go back and defeat the Red Spider, get the Papyrus and come back. Also, in the lower hut, you can buy the Book for 200G, which is a necessary item, so you might as well pick it up while you're here.
While we're in this immediate area, there's one more task we need to accomplish. If you defeat 10 Firetotems, they will drop the Club, which is basically the same as the Rod, but with a slightly better range. You probably don't need to get it, but you might as well get it. So use your Boomerangs to defeat 10 and grab your Club.
Now return to where you slayed the bear, and head north. You'll encounter some Falconers, which throw Falconbats at you. The Falconbats are quick and tough, but they can drop Meat, which is much like Herbs, as it restores 10 HP when you use it. You may want to stock up on Meat while you're here. To the west is some more Boomerangs, so defeat them if you're running low on Boomerangs. To the south is another Bear that drops Meat, but it's not really necessary to fight it, so you might as well leave it alone. Head north until you reach the hut near the gate. If you have the Book, you'll be able to communicate to give 1 Meat in exchange for opening the gate. Otherwise, you're out of luck.
Past the gate are the aptly named Dungrolls. If you defeat all of them on the screen, you can get a refill of Stones, so do so if you like. Whatever you do, do NOT go in the hut north of the Dungrolls. A bug will sting you, which causes your HP to decrease slowly unless you cure yourself with an Herb. And that's NO GOOD! Anyway, head right, and you'll encounter two huts. You can exchange 1 Meat for rest which will fully refill your HP in the upper hut (a great deal), and you can exchange 1 Meat for an Iron Key in the lower hut. Get your Iron Key and unlock the gate. Now head south and cough up 5 Herbs to open the second gate. In this Hut you can get the Dorian Fruit, which will be useful much later in the game. Now you're ready for the Marsh. To reach it, you need to return to where you defeated the Redspider earlier. The Marsh is just to the north.

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