You are standing by a tree
There are 3 paths.
One appears to go to a jungle,
one appears to go to a cave,
one appears to go to a beach,
you could try and climb the tree,
there is a nearby shop you could go in,
or you could do something else.
So what's its going to be?
Written by catprog on 01 April 2003
You sit under the tree
You sit under the tree.
Suddenly...
Written by catprog on 21 May 2003
See? Keep moving or you get tranked. That's how the game is played.
Your relaxing moment under the tree is rudely interrupted by an abrupt transformation. You are hit by a tranquilizer dart, which turns you into a person with a tranquilizer dart stuck in their neck. It's an easy change. Of course, your train of thought gets about as far as "Oh good heavens, a dart of some kind. I'd betteeerrgmphqq," at which point the dart takes effect, and you slump under the tree like a drugged-up rag doll. A half-hearted twitch is all the moving you do for quite some time. Eventually, you wake up. When you do, you are...
Written by Zodiac on 27 January 2007
A new body
Somewhere you've never been before. You're surrounded by trees, birch trees, and you hear the quiet roar of a river nearby. The moss is soft and you're wondering if it's a dream; if not, how did you get here? You look down at your hands, they're normal. Five finger on each hand.
Raising your arms, you go to stretch, but your hands hit something unfamiliar on your head. Is that...antlers? You stroke them carefully, pull a bit at them, and poke them. You can feel it! It feels like you're touching your finger nails. You touch where they start, they feel attached to you. Attached to your skull. You feel ears flutter at the sides of your antlers. You can smell everything, the sharp smell of the grass, the fresh air, the river.
You look down, and to your surprise you discover you're female, you're in a young female body. Your naked chest is clearly female and your have wider hips leading down to, wait, what, something is wrong. Instead of human thighs, your eyes meet the strong thighs of a deer. The skinny legs, and small black hooves. You're half deer, half female. You lay there for awhile, staring at your legs in shock. "This can't be real," you say out loud. You're so startled by your own voice, you back up against the tree you were leaning against, and hit your antlers against the rough bark. You wince at the feeling- those are definitely attached to your skull.
"Hello," you try again. It's so unusual, you almost can't believe it's you who's speaking. It sounds wildly different from your normal voice. It's soft, light, breezy, where your normal voice is rough, deep, scratchy. You say quiet words to yourself to get used to your voice.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 02 September 2017
Explore
You try to stand again, keyword being try, as the first time you try to stand on your own feet. Hooves. You fall. You fall forward, then backwards. You try over and over again with the same result. You're so unfamiliar with these new curves, not to mention your skinny legs and your small hooves. You try again, this time keeping your balance for about a minute, just standing, before attempting to walk and falling on your behind. You groan frustrated, but in your new voice it sounds weird to you.
Eventually you get ahold of your strange new body. You proceed to move towards the roaring river, hoping it'll lead to somewhere. With small, clumsy steps you follow the sound of the river. You try to focus on every step you take instead of overthinking the situation. Continuously you trip and fall over your own feet, but you carry on.
You pass beautiful trees, interesting plants, and the river is gorgeous, but none of that matters to you. You have to keep thinking about moving. The river turns into a stream and the stream leads to a blank lake.
You're scared to, but curiosity takes over and you have to look at your reflection.
Big brown doe eyes look back at you. You follow the feminine curves of your face with your eyes. Your cheekbones are high and sharp. Your cheeks soft. You touch them with your fingertips. Your lips are full, you touch those too. There's freckles splattered across your face. What stands out the most is your antlers, they are those of a deer. They're big and you stroke them carefully, irrationally afraid of breaking them. Below them, on each side of your head, are ears, matching the antlers. They're the same shade of brown as your long dark brown hair. It doesn't take you long to realize it. You are really half deer. You are a deer woman. Your heart pounds in your chest, and you fall backwards, screaming. It feels too real. This can't be happening. Your eyes flutter and you touch them carefully. It's happening. You stare numbly at your hooves, wishing they'd disappear. You keep touching your ears, your antlers, stroking, pulling, poking, and prodding. They're real. They're really real. You feel numb. You feel lost.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 04 September 2017
Wait until Night
You lay there until the sun goes down, until the chill evening air hits your skin, and you shiver. You have to find somewhere to go for the night. Somewhere to stay.
You wander aimlessly around in the dark, finding you see better in dark than usual, until you come across a camp. A few humans sit around a bonfire, a big tent behind them. You discover they stink, the humans, and you can smell the gasoline they sprayed the bonfire with earlier. You find yourself disliking them.
You approach, slowly walk towards them, but you're clumsy on your legs and a stick breaks underneath your hooves. They look up, and it takes them a good minute of just staring, before they scramble to get up, and run away, shouting and screaming. You wonder why it has to be this way. You wonder if you would've done the same. You sit by the camp's fire. The flames heating your skin, making you stop shivering. You feel numb.
You're tired.
You can feel tears pool in your eyes, as you lay down. This can't be happening. You fall asleep by the bonfire, staring into it, wondering what you've done to deserve this.
A light breeze ruffles your hair and your ears flutter. You open your eyes, and are greeted by the gentle light of the morning sun. It warms your skin, and you stretch your body. You find that your legs are stiffer than usual. You stand on clumsy feet. A rumbling comes from your stomach. You need food. Today you find that you're more adapted to walking in your new form. You walk more confidently, and you can even run, you find yourself a lot faster on deer legs. You wonder if there are other people like you out there, somewhere. You eat some wild berries and some leaves as you walk around, without aim, again. You ears turn every time you stop up to listen for any sign of life around you. Surely there must be something around this lake.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 07 September 2017
Search the forest
After a few hours of walking there seems to be signs of life. Stomped down bushes, hoof prints, carvings in trees. You wonder if it's people like you. You follow the leads of life, and surely, you start to hear some sort of civilization. Children screaming, playing, people chatting, young men loudly bantering.
You can see the tops of tents, a pole, smoke from fires. You near it cautiously. Behind a few bushes you observe the village.
It's filled with half deer people, like yourself. They seem to have a civilization like humans. Humans from centuries ago, but humans nonetheless. You observe young men, their heads butted together, their antlers pushing each other. Small children are running around with a ball that looks like it might be made of straw. Women sit and chat; some are making baskets with straw, some are making what looks like jewelry. You want approach them, but you're scared to. You don't know how they'd react to a stranger.
The kids’ ball hits you in the face, and suddenly you don't have a choice in the matter. You unintentionally let out a loud yelp as it smacks you in the face.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 09 September 2017
Discovered
A woman nearby turns to where you're hiding. She has long red hair, ears matching her hair, and her antlers are small. She approaches, slowly, she looks scared, curious, and a bit threatening.
"Is somebody there?" Her ears are laid down against her head. She moves a couple of branches away from where you're hiding, and your newly brown eyes meet her ice blue ones. She looks shocked at first, then scared, then confused.
"Who are you?" she asks, as you say, "Who.... am I?"
Your voice is still strange to listen to. She looks startled by your question. The young woman crouches down, and you quietly wonder how she doesn't fall. You look away from her, you will panic if you keep looking at her fluttering ears. She gently cradles your face in her hands, forcing you to look at her. She looks so human, if it wasn’t for the antlers, the ears, and the legs. She acts human too. You don't understand.
"I will take you to our leader," she says, her voice gentle. The red haired woman grabs your hand and pulls you up. "Come with me."
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 11 September 2017
Go with her
She makes an attempt to walk fast, but you stumble and she slows down. The half woman leads you through the village. It's bigger than you initially thought. Many tents are placed around a big fire. Small tents, meant for one or two people. Big tents meant for families. They seem to all be made with straw, weaved straw.
The children look at you and whisper. The women try not to stare, and the men keep their eyes on you. A stranger is in their camp.
The woman who found you leads you to a big tent, the tent of their leader. By the entrance there are placed multiple skulls. There is smoke coming out the top. She stomps her hooves three times and a voice sounds from inside.
"Come in."
She pulls you in with her.
Inside is decorated with dream catchers, talismans, and various paintings on some kind of papyrus. In the middle of the tent is a small controlled fire.
You meet the eyes of an elderly man. His eyes are very light blue, you wonder if he's blind. His hair is gray, as are his ears and legs.
"I have foreseen your arrival." His deep voice startles you.
"What happened to me?" You find yourself asking, desperate to know the answer.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 13 September 2017
A curse
"A witch has cursed you. You are cursed to stay in a new body until you accept this new body. When you do, you will be assigned a new body. There are three different bodies for you to experience; once you've accepted them all, you will be set free." His voice was calm, almost monotone throughout his speech. You shiver.
"W-what will I do?" Your voice is shaky, and your head is spinning.
"You will stay with us, until you have accepted yourself, us, and our culture."
It seemed to be his final words, because the woman that found you pulls you out of the tent. He laughs behind you, and it makes you feel uncertain. You wonder how much he's seen. The red haired woman pulls you to the other women and sit you down, you want to protest, but instead you let her.
She introduces herself as Enja in a cheerful tone. Her family are scavengers, and she is training to become one too.
"What do scavengers do?" You ask.
Enja tells you about the work she does. She scavenges for wood, rocks, nuts, and roots, and they look for gold in the river. There are six different positions you can get assigned to: farming, scavenging, hunting, guarding, building and crafting. She tells you that you will be assigned to farming.
"Since you're new and all," she says with a smile.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 15 September 2017
Stay by the Fire
You spend the first night out by the fire, it's cold and dark, and you're scared. You can't stop thinking about how you'll adjust to be here. Enja finds you, out there, by the fire. She puts a hand on your shivering arm.
"You can stay with me, I live by myself," her voice is soft.
You hesitate. Do you really trust these people? But even if you don't, isn't it safer to be inside? You choose to go with her, and she presents a small tent to you. It's nice, and warm. There's a few baskets and pots, and a small bed of straw and fur. You lay beside her and fall asleep.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 17 September 2017
Difficult Days
You find your first days there very difficult. It's hard for you to not stare at these people, creatures, even though you've seen them so many times before. You have a hard time moving like them, it's not natural for you to be in this body, and you find yourself tripping and making a fool out of yourself. They think you're strange, you hear whispers, rumours. You don't mind really, you're the one who's normal here, they're just delusional.
You get assigned to farming, which you think isn't so bad until you actually try it. First they try to make you harvest wheat, but you stumble, still not used to your hooves. You cut yourself on the scythe in the fall and cuss out loud. The other half deer laugh at you, and tell you to go home. When Enja comes back she chuckles fondly and helps you bandage your leg.
Next they make you drag the load. They'd pack things on a heavy wagon like thing and you were just meant to drag it, but because you're not used to your new body yet, you fall and the load ends up all over the ground. When you get home, you tell your red haired roommate. She laughs and ruffles your hair.
Finally they make you pick tomatoes, corn, and peppers. You do better with that, only stumbling when you have to carry the heavy baskets to the wagon. Eventually you get a hang of it, and finally you feel useful.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 19 September 2017
status quo
You have no idea what to do to "learn to accept yourself", and therefore you just settle for a comfortable routine, farming at day, and eating at the fire by evening, and sleeping with Enja at night. You think of this routine as temporary, so you don't bother getting to know Enja or anyone else, you just need to get this over with and get on with your life.
Everyone is out by the bonfire at night. They're eating, chatting, laughing. You like this, you never have to eat alone. There's always company. Enja is sitting beside you, laughing, talking to everyone. You admire her for being so outgoing, so proud of herself. You let your hand rest on top of hers and she turns to you, stunned. You feel at smile growing and she smiles at you, tilting her head. You just squeeze her hand.
That night Enja lays closer to you. You lay closer to her. She reaches up to touch your ears.
"This doesn't have to be a curse," her voice is so vulnerable, and even though you can't make out her face in the dark you know it is too.
"I know," you reply. You don't talk a lot, barely ever to other people than her. Your voice is still so weird to you. "But as soon as it doesn't feel that way, I'll have to go."
She doesn't say anything else, she just keeps stroking your ears.
You grow closer and closer, and you notice the signs. Casual touches, brief smiles, compliments. You like her. It scares you. If you fall in love, you won't want to leave, but if you accept yourself, you'll have to.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 21 September 2017
Don't get to Close
You stop talking to her, you avoid her, you barely even look at her. You sit beside someone else when you eat. You sleep at the other side of the tent. When she tries to confront you, you flee. You see that her smile fades a bit, the cheer in her voice sounds more forced, but you keep doing it. It's for the best you tell yourself.
One day, you're by the lake, getting water and out of nowhere you feel hands on your back, a shove, and you're surrounded by water. Panicked you turn around to see who shoved you into the water and you're met by the ice blue eyes of your roommate. Enja.
"You've been avoiding me. I demand to know why," there's a teasing glint in her eye, but something serious in them let's you know she's not playing.
"I'm not avoiding you."
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 23 September 2017
Tell Her
She pushes you backwards into the lake, and you fall into cold water. You can hear her laughter from under the water. As you reach the surface she jumps in there with you and splashes water at you. You splash it back at her and you end up both laughing, swimming around each other.
When you're laying in the grass she asks you again.
"Why have you been avoiding me?" her ears are slightly turned back and you can sense, practically smell, her fear.
"When I accept myself, this life, I will have no choice but to leave."
She turns to you. "I know."
Nothing else is said, and you move through the forest back to camp. She lays very close to you that night, playing with your ears, and whispering reassurances.
Slowly you get more comfortable there. You start dancing with Enja around the fire at night, the flames making her skin glow and giving her eyes a wild glint. You learn their dances, you stomp your hooves and move your hips with her. Rhythmic stomps, laughter, and song fill the night. She pulls you down by your antlers and kisses you.
It happens when you don't want it to. You're running through the forest with Enja. The trees are passing by quickly, and you're going fast, but not as fast as her. She reaches the waterfall before you, shrugs off her skirt, and jumps in. You're in right after her, and you spent the day bathing in the lake beneath the waterfall.
Later when you're laying in the grass drying off, her fingers entwine with yours. You're the happiest you've ever been, and that's when you black out.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 25 September 2017
The new world
You awake to the view of a grey and clouded sky, small drops of rain landing on your face. Under you is cold, hard rock; you're laying on the ground. A throb of pain in your temple makes you raise your hand instinctively to your forehead. Your arm feels strange- lighter, yet heavier at the same time. You turn your head to look at your arm, ignoring the strong pain shooting up your neck as you do so. Your arm is covered in brown and white feathers. You flex your fingers, they work like they normally do. You raise your arms, and to your surprise, you discover you have big wings attached to your arms and sides. Your body is completely covered in brown, white, and grey feathers. A strong wind ruffles your feathers a bit, and you find yourself enjoying the sensation. Carefully you try to sit up, but your throbbing head makes you lay back down. You close your eyes and take a deep breath, sitting up slowly this time. Jolts of sharp pain spread throughout your head, but you ignore it. You need to find out what's happening.
The landscape reveals nothing but cliffs, mountains, and dead trees. You sigh. Slowly you get on your feet, your headache is gradually subsiding. Your feet, as well as your legs, are human again, and you have to take some time to adjust. Especially when the harsh wind makes it harder to stay on your feet. Looking around you, you see no signs of civilisation. You see no means of escape. You're caught on a high mountain, no trails leading down, and the sides don't seem climbable. The rain is getting worse every minute, raindrops sliding down your feathers and your face. You wanna cry. Instead you sit down again, listening to the rain fall.
The sound of water reminds you of a thirst you didn't know was there, you feel as though you haven't drunk for hours. Facing the sky you open your mouth to catch the falling raindrops. It refreshens you, makes your head clearer.
You stretch your arms out, and to your surprise, your wingspan is much bigger than you initially thought; maybe even big enough to make you fly. An idea strikes you. Maybe you could fly down. No way. That's too dangerous. You can feel your heartbeat, and your lungs feel tight as you anxiously crawl to the cliff’s edge. Looking down makes you dizzy, and you crawl back in fear you're gonna fall down. Is it really the only way? There has to be another option, something you've overlooked. You search every corner of the cliff you're stranded on, and when you find none, you sit down defeated. You can't believe that just an hour ago you were spending time with the most beautiful woman you've ever met and now you're all alone, nothing but rock surrounding you.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 27 September 2017
Glide
The rain is pouring down and the wind is getting stronger. It pushes you back down every time you try to stand. You have to find a way down or the wind will blow you down on it's own. It's already grabbing onto your wings, you have to stand your ground to not fall backwards. An idea strikes you- you could use the strong wind to your advantage, you could be able to glide through the air to the ground. Either way, you don't really have any other options. You can't stay here, and the wind is getting too strong for you.
You walk to the edge of the cliff, take a deep breath, and close your eyes. Your heart is hammering in your throat. You hold your breath and spread your wings, and let yourself fall forward down from the cliff. You brace yourself for the impact of the ground, even as you find yourself being carried by the strong wind. It's blowing across your feathers, and caresses your hair. The air moves under your body, blowing at your wings, holding your body weight. You feel like you're sliding through the air, riding it. You close your eyes and let yourself get lost in the magical way the wind carries you. Experimentally you flap your wings, once, twice, and you're flying. You're actually flying.
You can't help but scream out in excitement. You're flying. You move your wings and fly faster through the air, riding the waves of the wind. With each flap of your wings you feel yourself being lifted up in the air, nothing you've ever experienced compares to this. You're flying through the air, screaming out happily, and you've never felt this free in your entire life.
Eventually your arms grow tired, and you have to land somewhere. You land on the hard ground. When your feet hit the ground the reality of situation comes crashing down. You have no idea where you are. You're alone, and hungry, you're tired, you're cold, and you're surrounded by nothing but rock. You wanna go back to the village, to Enja. Or home to your real home, the one where you're completely human. A sob threatens to spill out from your lips and you fall onto the cold, hard, wet ground. This is no life. You don't even know where to start finding a shelter, let alone food. Laying down on the rock you feel your eyes start to slip shut, despite the uncomfortable bed, you fall asleep in no time.
You wake up to the sound of thunder. You're shivering, and every muscle in your body feels frozen stiff. When you feel snot running from your nose you realise you have to find somewhere dry you can stay. If you don't, you could catch a cold, or worse, and with no medical supplies or anything, you're scared it could kill you. Your body is reluctant to work with you, but with a lot of willpower you eventually get your aching muscles to cooperate. You stand up, and slowly start walking. You don't know where you're going, but you're hoping you might find civilisation, or just a cave, or maybe just a covered place that'll keep you dry.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 29 September 2017
Walking
You end up walking for hours, your feet are bloody and bruised, your legs are aching. What you find isn't much, it's more of an indent in the mountain than a cave. But it's dry and relatively warm, and it'll do. When the rain stops you can build a fire, but for now you can't do anything. All wood you could possibly find would be soaked, and soaked wood can't make a fire. The ground is dry, and it's more than enough to lull you to sleep. The last thing you hear is the rain slapping against the wet ground.
The loud growling of your stomach wakes you up. You're starving. Blood rushes from your head as you sit up, making you lightheaded and you breathe out tiredly. Today is gonna be a rough day. You have to find something to eat.
The trip is tough, your feet are destroyed from yesterday’s walking and your muscles are screaming, but you keep pressing on. You feel like you're walking in circles, but it's probably just because of the repetitive landscape. After what seems like hours of walking you see a small stream ahead of you.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 30 September 2017
Drink
Elated, you run to the stream and throw yourself on your knees, drinking greedily from the clear water. Splashing water in your face you let out a long sigh of relief. Your newly golden eyes search the water, quickly your eye catches a fish, bigger than the other fish swimming in the stream. You feel your mouth water. Slowly you lower your hands into the water, careful not to alarm too many of the fish. You contemplate for a while how it would be easiest to catch them, but your new instincts seem to take over instead. You clamp your hands around the fish, digging your nails into the sides of it, and pulls it up. Using a rock lying nearby you kill it. You eat it raw, too impatient to build a fire to cook it. Surprisingly you really enjoy raw fish in this new body, and you spend all day catching them in the stream.
When darkness falls you find a cave nearby. Collecting branches and dead grass you make a small bed, more comfortable than the ground at least. You spend all night looking for sticks, twigs, branches, wood, anything to help you build a fire. You have a decent fire going, and a pile of various wood stashed before you fall asleep.
You wake up to another wash of rain. Your fire is out, and the wood you collected the previous day has been soaked completely. It's cold. You just wanna go back to Enja, or back home. You don't care right now. Just anywhere but here.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 02 October 2017
Wait the rain out
It rains heavily for several days, and you find yourself losing more and more energy. Your nose is running and has been for days. You're starving, the only thing you've had to eat being bugs and spiders trying to use your cave as a shelter from the rain. You're exhausted, the thunder keeping you from sleeping more than a few hours every day. The only thing that you have going for you is the weak fire you eventually started after trying to dry your wood. At least you're not cold. At least you have shelter.
You've been using a sharp rock to sharpen some sticks into affective wooden spears. The rain has stopped, and you need to go back to the stream after food.
On the walk back to the stream you fall and cut your wing on a sharp rock. It doesn't seem like anything serious, but you find yourself unable to use the hand the wing is attached to. It worries you, and you decide to look for grass to bandage it with.
The hunt for fish doesn't go as smoothly as last time, you slide and slip on the slippery rocks in the stream, and the fish don't seem to want to get on your stick. You get some, but not enough to return home with, you'll have to go back in a couple of days. You find some leaves and grass, along with sticks and twigs on the way home. It's not a lot, and you fear you won’t be able to bandage yourself up.
You return home safely. The fire isn't quite burned out, and you hurriedly put the new sticks on the fire. It burns brightly, lighting up the darkening evening. You bandage your wound. Your exhaustion becomes too much quickly, and you fall asleep.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 04 October 2017
Fly Away
When you wake up your wound seems to have closed and you decide it's healed enough to go take a flight. You catch some fish in the stream, but instead of returning to the cave you decide to climb the mountain again.
The climb is hard, you almost slip and fall multiple times. But newfound strength and determination brings you to the top. You spend time admiring the landscape when you reach the top. Snow adorned mountain tops, long rivers stretching between the mountains, grass filled cliffs, pine forests. This place was truly beautiful, and you're sad you didn't notice it before. You feel the cold wind ruffle your feathers. It's time. You run until you reach the cliff’s edge, then you jump. You let yourself fall down, let the adrenaline course through your veins, then you spread your wings. The wind catches in them, halting you in the air. You flap them, and they lift you high. The wind is blowing in your hair and across your feathers. You let yourself ride the air, only occasionally flapping your wings. You ignore the sharp pain that occasionally shoots from your wing to your shoulder.
You watch as the mountains disappear, and you're instead flying above a pine forest. You don't know where you're going, just wherever the wind takes you. You watch the mountains grow smaller behind you, and the forest passing by. You think of Enja, and it sends a pang of sadness through your heart. You wish you could tell her about this.
You fly past miles and miles of forest until your arms, your wings, and the rest of your body is sore. The sharp pain in your wing has gotten worse and can no longer be ignored. It's a tightly packed forest, and you struggle to find a spot for you to land, but eventually you find one. There's a small clearing and you land there, quickly grabbing your hurt wing as it falls weak. It's bleeding. You grab a piece of moss off of the forest ground, and press it against the bleeding wound. You're losing blood fast. You press it harder against the wound. You need to find something to hold this in place.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 06 October 2017
Search Franticly
Frantically you search the forest ground for anything, eventually going with a bunch of long pieces of grass. Hopefully that would stop the blood long enough for you to build a fire. Luckily, being in a forest, it's pretty easy to find wood. You put a circle of stones in the clearing and start a fire in the middle of it. The moss is soft against your back as you lay down on it. Much different from the rock ground you're used to. The fire is dancing and you're reminded of the day you and Enja danced. You look up to stare at the night sky as you feel your eyes close.
The sun is blinding, but your eyes won't open. You feel weak, tired, and your body is aching. You try to open your eyes again, but they won't keep open for too long. You sigh. Your limbs seem to work fine, except your injured wing...it refuses to move. You block the sun out of your eyes and open them. The sky is bright blue and cloud free. Slowly your eyes adjust to the bright sun and you sit up. You hold your weak wing against your chest as you stand up. Your throat feels dry. You need water.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 08 October 2017
Search until water is found
where you're going, you're just hoping to find a lake somewhere, a stream, or just a water puddle. So far there's been nothing. Your wound is throbbing, and the pain in your wing is almost unbearable. You need to get it rinsed thoroughly. The moss is soft, giving your feet a nice break from the hard rock they've become accustomed to.
Hours feel like days, and you don't know how long you've been walking when a lake appears in the distance. You don't hesitate to run and jump into the lake. The cold water is refreshing, and cleans the sweat off your feathers and skin. You drink greedily, having gone without water for an entire long day of walking. You gently rinse the wound and bandage it up using the reed from all around the lake. You try to make a sling, but it's hard and you get frustrated, throwing the reed on the ground. Instead you lay beside the lake, feeling clean for the first time in days. The sun is caressing your face and drying your feathers. You fall asleep like this.
A loud growl by your ear wakes you up. It's dark, very dark, the only source of light being the full moon above you. You can sense a presence near you, feel a breath close to your neck. Slowly you turn your head and your golden eyes meet the yellow of a big wolf. It lets out a loud growl the second your eyes meet, and you try your best to keep still. A howl startles you into backing away from the giant grey wolf. You grab a rock. The wolf gets closer again, sniffing your leg before snarling, showing its sharp teeth. Your heart stops for a second, how're you supposed to fight a big wolf? It gets closer, slowly, and carefully you raise your rock a bit. Then out of nowhere the beast jumps at you- the last thing you remember is the sickening crunch when your stone hits the side of the wolf's head, and then you black out.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 10 October 2017
A Person
Someone is lying close to you, their breathing is heavy. For a second you think it's Enja, that you're back, and all of this was just a dream, but this person feels bigger, broader. Your eyes open slowly and right beside you is a young man, probably your age if not younger. His hair is brown, tangled, the side of his head seems to be bleeding. Two large grey ears adorn the man's head. Suddenly you realise it. He was the wolf.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 12 October 2017
Treat
Hesitantly you near him, wanting to inspect the injury, but as you get close his eyes open. They flash from brown to yellow and he growls, showing his sharp canines. You pull back. He rests his head back down again, quiet whimpers escaping his throat. You want to help him, but you don't know how to approach him without injuring yourself. You watch him carefully until he falls back asleep. You near him again, quieter this time, slower. You inspect the wound without touching it, it's not too deep but you'll need to clean it. Close by you find a large leaf, big enough to be used for a bowl. You fill it with water, holding it so that the water doesn't spill, and carefully sit down beside the man again. With a piece of moss and the water you've acquired, you gently dab the side of his head. He lets out quiet growls every now and then, but doesn't open his eyes.
When you're satisfied with cleaning the wound, determining that the wound isn't deep enough to be life threatening, you pull away from the young man, sitting by a tree and watching him.
Hours pass until he stirs. His eyes blink at the sky, and he sits up quickly. Too quickly. You watch disgusted as he empties the content of his stomach, before he lays back down and groans. A hand comes to rest on his forehead. You contemplate saying something but you don't. You watch him, and eventually his eyes come to meet yours. He doesn't growl this time, he just nods at you, and you understand. He's the same as you.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 14 October 2017
Stay together for a while
You don't talk, but he follows you as you continue your journey through the forest. You don't know where you're going, and you don't think he knows why he's following you, but it's better than walking alone. You have an agreement, not needed to be spoken with words. He sleeps with you in whatever shelter you find, always close, but not too close. You share what you find to eat; toads, mice, rats. He's never far away, but never close either. You're just glad to have company. In dark, cold nights, he lays closer to the fire. You on one side, him on the other. Neither of you talk, but it works.
Some nights, when thunder is crackling and the rain is loud, he sings. You pretend not to hear, while actually listening very closely. His voice is deep, practiced, controlled. His song is wordless, but it has so much emotion behind it you find yourself crying silently every time you hear it. It's the same song, the same wordless song, every night. It's dark, melancholic, broken. Lonely, you realise one night. He's been lonely too. You wonder how long he's been out here by himself, how many days he's wandered aimlessly around. You sit closer by him, enjoying the presence of a human near you. It's nice.
You're shocked when the first snow falls. You realise you have to either find somewhere to stay, permanently, or travel quickly to avoid the snow storms ahead. The weather grows colder, rain turns into sleet and the nights turn freezing. You lay close to each other now, not quite touching, but close enough to take advantage of each other’s heat. You find yourself having another wordless agreement, one must keep awake to keep the fire alive. Every night you switch.
The snow grows thicker every day, and you see that he's worried. You are too. It's getting harder to find food. You have to find nests of animals in hibernation, or smash the ice on the lakes to catch fish. You're both starving and exhausted, but you need to keep going. There's nothing else to do.
Written by AnxiousRomeo on 15 October 2017
