thanks for playing. I appreciate the comments. You're not the only to have issues in the forest, if I were to do it again, I'd redesign it, I was trying to make the player really feel lost by making them feel like they didn't know what they were doing, and a lot of people really over thought the riddle.
And yes. Both the timer and getting hit don't impact the game(at least until the last level), and it was a design choice as I felt like that hurt the experience in the end, but the systems are still there to try and get you to feel pressure.
Overall, I hope you enjoyed the experience and story of the game. And thank you for the feedback. :)