The Encounter
’It is going to be one of those days again,’ he thought to himself as he heard his stomach growl yet again. He had not eaten anything that day, the only thing that they managed to catch was a beaver, a rabbit and the pack of hungry wolves was already fighting for who would have how much of each. Unlike them he decided to leave them to fight for the food they managed to get today, they all needed more than he did.
He decided to try his luck at hunting by himself even if it was already night. Something was better than nothing, he might even find a bird nest to steal the eggs it had. If he was lucky, the bird might even be there.
He picked up his bow, a couple of arrows and his wooden spear. They might not be in the best of condition or even crafted correctly, but they did their job... most of the time. He decided to wear his bear hide since it seemed to be a chilly night and the fire wouldn’t be warming him anymore. He slung the bow and arrows onto his back and carried the spear in his hand, ready to kill whatever animal would be unlucky enough to cross his path. He was about to leave the clearing where they would sleep tonight when he noticed that a small figure was following him. He quickly turned back and yelled at the pup, “No!” he pointed back to the clearing “Stay!” The pup lowered his ears, and went back towards his pack. Usually he loved being with him, but tonight, he couldn’t risk him giving away his position or alerting the wildlife that he was there.
He set off into the forest, the full moon illuminating his way through the treetops with its beautiful silver light. The grass below his feet crunched softly as he stepped through the forest floor and a soft breeze rustled the branches above without the chill thanks to the hide he had on. Soon enough, he began to hear a soft buzz in the treetops. He stopped. He tried to find where the buzzing came from, and high above in one of the trees, he found the source. A small beehive, bees still working in the night to keep their supply of honey.
At first, he thought about going up there to retrieve the delicious honey, but he quickly reconsidered remembering what had happened a few months ago when a badly aimed arrow had hit a similar hive. That was an experience he didn’t want to relive. Fortunately, this time, he knew what to do in order to not get stung as badly as before
He quickly searched around for dead leaves, small twigs and low hanging branches from the trees he could use. He bunched up the smaller and drier leaves and twigs grabbed a straight-looking branch and brought over his bow. He got the branch through the string and began to make it spin. He went at it for a while until, finally, he could see he a small puff of smoke coming out. So he kept going until he thought it was enough and blew on it gently as to not put out the small embers. Adding them to the remaining dead leaves and twigs, he continued to blow until a very small fire came to life. Continuing to feed the fire, he made sure the smoke would be drifting upwards towards the hive, hopefully calming the bees inside.
After a small while of the smoke cloud successfully heading towards the hive, he searched for a rock big enough to bring it down but small enough to be thrown. Finally finding a reasonably sized rock, he prepared to launch the rock and bring down the sugary goodness. Taking aim as well as he could with a rock of that size, he threw it upwards, hitting the hive at its center causing it to drop a big chunk of its honey-covered walls. The bees’ reaction was instantaneous; the once small buzzing grew louder from the infuriated bees whose home was being assaulted. He thought quickly and grabbed the downed piece of honey-covered hive, shook it to rid it of any bees that held on to their former home and ran as fast as his legs could carry him starting to feel the wrath of the vengeful bees. It would seem that his plan did not go out as he had expected it to go.
After about ten minutes of sprinting and many many stings to his body, the bees finally stopped their assault on the human, leaving him to eat his delicious prize. He sat at the base of a nearby tree and ate happily at his hard earned prize, and boy was it something. No wonder that annoying yellow bear he used to watch when he was small loved to eat the damned thing.
Unfortunately for him, his sugary treat did not last long. Licking his fingers of the remainder of the sticky but delicious substance. He got up, and realised for the first time of his situation. He was lost. Thinking quickly, he climbed the tallest nearby tree he found and searched around for the recognisable landmarks that neared the clearing his pack was residing in. Unfortunately those landmarks were quite the distance away, but what caught his eyes was not the distance towards the clearing but what he saw behind him.
Trees, rows and rows of neatly positioned trees that looked nothing like the ones he was used to seeing. These trees were smaller and each filled with red dots that made them look like…’Apples trees?’. In all his years in the forest, the only sign of intelligent life was them, and from the incident that he had had with those things forth he swore he would never near one of them ever again. But it seemed like this day luck was finally on his side, finding a human settlement was no easy task...
He quickly got off the tree and ran towards the general direction of the apple trees. Soon enough, he spotted a small fence that he easily jumped over, which made him think what kind of intruder or farm animal is that supposed to stop. Do to its hight, the fence could barely hold in a small horse or foal, maybe even a calf. He kept running until in the horizon he could see a barn and a small two-story farm house by its side. Screaming to get the proprietors' attention passed through his mind, but quickly thought otherwise. After all, the farm folk he used to pass time with used to be the shoot-first, ask-questions-while-shooting kind. Instead, he chose to approach slowly and avoid the wrath of whoever lived there.
As he was about to exit the tree line and head towards the main building, he caught some movement in the corner of his eyes. Stopping quickly, he hid behind the closest tree. There, coming out of the other side of the orchard was... one of them, one of those strange horse-like creatures that he loathed so much. This one’s primary coloring was red with a straw-colored mane and tail; a green apple mariking was visible on his backside. He stood there, shocked. His beacon of hope being destroyed by one of those damned things.
The big red one could be seen approaching the front door of the house. As soon as it stood in front of the door, it brought forth one of its front legs and opened it. Opening the door, it revealed a smaller yellow one with a red mane and a smaller brown and white dog that looked to be a border collie. The small yellow one quickly snatched on to the red one's neck and spoke to it in a strange tongue. While observing the creatures, he failed to see that the dog had turned its head towards his position, its ears splaying forward.
Suddenly, the dog got onto its legs and growled in his general direction, gaining a questioning look from both of the creatures. Finally snapping back to his current situation, he thought it best to get out of there before one of the creatures took notice of him. He got up from his crouching position and made a start on slowly backing away, making sure to not make any noise.
With his attention on the dog, he failed to see a root on his path that caught on his foot causing him to trip with an audible thud and a grunt of pain on the ground. This triggered the dog to finally leapt forward and start barking at his direction, which quickly caught the residents’ attention. Seeing that his cover had been compromised, he quickly got up and ran as fast as his feet could take him, the dog giving chase behind him.
This wasn’t looking any good for him; having a dog barking on his tail would quickly alert the residents of his escape route. Quickly turning around he prepared himself for the encounter with the dog. He had thought to take it out quickly with his bow, but quickly thought otherwise. Killing the dog would only infuriate the owners. The dog finally caught up to him circling him as to not let him get away. He prepared his spear, turning it upside down as to not use the sharp tip on the dog, grabbing it with both hands and circling the dog as well to not let it get behind him. Not wasting any time, the dog quickly launched itself towards him. He quickly evaded to the left and swung at the dogs’ slide sending it flying into a tree with a pain-filled whine. The strong hit proved to make short work of the dog causing it to get up immediately and run back the way it came from.
Finally without the dog following him, he looked up at the trees and their ripe fruit, it had been a long time since he had a decent meal and even more since he had eaten an apple. Grabbing the lower part of the bear hide, he brought it up to his chest and started to collect the fruit before those things caught up, no doubt the cries of the dog giving them a general direction of where to look for him. He had collected about ten apples when he heard the soft clopping of hooves not too far from his position. Turning to the source of the noise, he found out that they had been following closer than he had originally thought.
There, just a few metres away was the small yellow one that he had seen behind the door of the farmhouse, its golden eyes widening once they met with his own. Its ears splayed back and took a slow step back, ready to run away at the first sign of hostility. Deciding that he had enough apples, he strengthened his grip on the hide holding them and ran in the general direction where he first came in. Due to his strong and fast strides, he was not able to hear the softer clip-clop of hooves right behind him.
She didn’t know why she was doing this, but there was no stopping now. AppleBloom had heard the rumours of the strange creature that was living in the forest and the things that it did. She realized that actually seeing it and making eye contact with it was much scarier than the stories told about it. They were told it was tall, but seeing how it easily reached up at the trees to pick apples was something else. They were also told of how dangerous it was. Seeing it wear the skin of a bear that was much bigger and most probably stronger than it, was a testament of its might. And yet here she was following it through the orchard. Thankfully for her, it hadn’t noticed her following him.
They reached the fence that marked the end of the orchard quickly; she even saw just how easily it jumped over it. Seeing that his head was turning, she quickly dived at the closest tree for cover. She could hear how it stopped running, probably making sure that it wasn’t being followed. It didn’t take long, but once she heard the thumping of its legs once again, she took a quick peek and saw it continuing its retreat towards the forest. Getting out of her hiding spot, she was met with a decision, return to the farm house or continue giving chase to the creature.
With a hesitant step forward, she headed towards the fence, crouching to get under it as to continue following the odd creature. Once on the other side, she realized that the creature had gotten too far from her to continue following. With a sigh, she cast her eyes down, her head following suit at the disappointment of losing it. Just as she was about to go back to the farm, she noticed some barely visible indentations on the ground. Remembering the times she and her friends tried to get their dangerous animal tracker cutie marks, she decided to get a closer look at them. Seeing how the marks were not like any other animal she had seen, and how they matched the ones left where she presumed it had jumped the fence, she decided to use them as a trail and resumed her search for the strange creature.
As she continued to give chase to the creature, she noticed that his trail was starting to disappear the deeper she went into the forest. When the trail finally became unnoticeable she began to panic. Realizing that she was lost deep into the deadly creatures territory, and if the rumors were true, it wasn’t going to be alone. Beginning to to lose her calm, her eyes began scanning the ground to see if she could at least find its trail once more. If she did, she could use them to get back home. But as fate would have it, she would found none.
A small breeze brought a chill to her spine, bringing her out of her panicked state and also a faint smell of smoke. Looking around for a sign of a forest fire she realized that it wasn’t a that what brought the smell. It wasn’t until she followed the smell that she found where it had come from.
Seeing that there was a clearing where the smoky smell was coming from she started getting closer until she could clearly hear the sound of a crackling fire. Wary of what might be inside of the clearing, she slowly made her way to some bushes that surrounded the clearing and gazed inside. Her jaw dropped at what her eyes were seeing. Inside the clearing a small pack of wolves could be seen around a fire, some of them eating what looked to be the remains of a small unfortunate animal. But what really caught her attention was the figure towering above them.
Under the moon’s silver light, she could now clearly see the creature for the first time in the night. The creature was now only covered by a very ragged piece of old cloth at his midsection, revealing a brownish almost hairless skin that was covered in scars, a testimony of all the battles he had fought in the forest. With the light of the moon and the small fire below it she could now clearly see the creature’s face. It was covered in scars just like the rest of its body, the biggest one being three deep cuts that ran through the left side of his face. His long, unattended black hair and long, scraggly beard hiding other smaller scars.
He reached down with one of his arms where his bear hide was, brought out an apple and took a bite out of it. Sitting in front of the fire with the rest of the pack, he placed one hand on the ground and continued eating the apple with the other. It looked up to the night sky, eyes lost in the countless stars as if it was enjoying the night sky.
The calmness of it all reminded her of the time when her sister and their friends went camping to the Winsome Falls . It all made her wonder how a savage creature could have so much in common with them. Deciding that it was better to not let them notice her, she slowly started to walk away from the clearing, keeping her eyes on the creature and the wolves making sure to not startle them. Without any attention being paid to where she was going, she tripped over a small thorny branch that caught on her hoof, prompting a small yelp.
A faint sound was heard by him and the pack while relaxing after a tiring night, all of them instantly turning to the source of the noise. When he saw the four fully grown wolves get up, he brought out his bow and pointed it to the bush where the sound came from. Many times had the forest’s predators thought it was best to come up behind them during the night to steal their food or try and make them their food. Sending out a warning shot to scare away the possible predator, he heard something he never expected to hear after all this time in the forest. The shriek of a scared child.
The wolves instantly launched themselves towards what sounded like a small animal running away. Deciding to find out what made that noise, he too joined the wolves in their hunt for the unknown animal, trying to get to it before they could kill it. It was hard at first since the wolves had the advantage of speed. Even with that advantage, the small creature seemed to be more nimble than them, as well as apparently having better endurance. They began to fall behind after some time of following it, finding that they could not catch it as easily as they had thought. With the wolves now unable to catch it he continued to follow the sounds of breaking twigs and crunching foliage the fleeing animal made. There might be faster animals out there, but none of them had the endurance that allowed him to hunt so efficiently.
‘This is bad, really really bad’
At first she had thought that she was finally out of danger, thinking that she lost the wolves seeing how she could no longer hear them hot on her tail. But, that all changed when she heard the thundering steps of the creature almost right behind her. Now feeling the burning in her muscles from the strain of running away from the pack of wolves, her options on getting away alive were either keep running and risk passing out of exhaustion, or hide and pray that the creature doesn’t find her. With the screams of her aching muscles getting louder and louder, she realized that the latter was probably the best option. Without another moment to spare she jumped to the nearest bush hoping that the creature would pass her by without noticing her.
Unfortunately she never realized that the bush that she had jumped to was a thorn bush. With thorns piercing her skin in many places of her body, she grit her teeth in an attempt to stifle the pain from the offending thorns. She heard that the creature was now practically above her. Stiffening her body as to not make a sound, she tried to control her breathing. It partly helped that there was a very sharp thorn branch poking at her her stomach every time she breathed in too much.
The creature, apparently, took notice of the lack of her fleeing hoofsteps as it stayed near the bush, trying to find her trail. Tears were starting to form at the corners of her eyes. The pain of being poked by so many thorns and the current situation in which she found herself threatening to make her blow her cover with her soft whimpering. The creature must have heard her crying as it now stopped looking around and now stood in front of the bush she was hiding in.
She could feel her heart begin to race inside her chest. This was it, this is where it all ended. To make matters worse it seemed that the wolves had now caught up to them, quickly surrounding the bush as to not let her get away. She could see one of them closing in from where she had entered, its cold predatory eyes drilling deep inside her own. When the wolf finally reached the bush, however, she saw that the creature planted what looked like a spear right in front of the wolf’s path; cutting it off before it could get any closer to her. The wolf stopped dead in its tracks and looked up, growling to the creature. Not letting himself be intimidated, it growled back louder with bared teeth, getting into the wolf’s muzzle. The wolf only let out a small whimper and backed off quickly.
To her surprise, it got its spear out of the ground and shooed away the pack, yelling at them something in a strange language to which they obeyed and back off.
He couldn’t believe that actually worked. He had expected Dover to put up more of a fight when it came to taking away its prey or at least for one of the others to try and challenge him. But alas, this was probably the hierarchy he had in the pack. Turning his attention to the unknown creature in the bushes, he knelt down to where it had probably entered it in the first place and glanced inside to finally answer what made that child-like yelp before. What he saw inside shocked him, his small brown eyes widening as they met its big golden ones.
Inside the bush, the source of this little hunt was one of them. Its yellow coat was dotted with blood from the wounds of the thorns. Its red mane, tail and bow were tangled within the countless thorns of the bush. How one of them managed to get that deep into the forest and find his pack's resting place, no less, was beyond him. It was almost as if it was following him… ’wait a second…yellow coat...’ It all made sense to him now, that yellow creature was most probably the same one he saw back at the orchard. It must have followed him somehow without him noticing.
Taking a second glance at it, he could now see just in what state the poor thing was in. Besides the tangled and wounded mess it was in, it was probably scared out of its poor young mind. The signs of its state were almost as easy to read as those of a small child, yet another chilling parallel with his own kind. It was astonishing just how much they both shared these type of things.
Deciding to put the poor thing out its misery, he brought out his knife of his makeshift belt, the poor thing's eyes widening as they met with the sight of the blade. He decided to hurry up what he was about to do; every second he didn’t only made the poor thing even more scared, trying even harder to get out the other way. This resulting in it only deepening its cuts and tangling itself even more than it already was. He quickly reached out with one of his hands and started to cut with the other, making his way into the bush to retrieve the poor scared foal.
Its small cries of anguish only intensified, seeing how his hand almost reached her. With a few more cuts here and there there was now enough space for him to fit both of his hands and reach it. Grabbing a hold of it with one hand on its underside he could now feel just how scared the poor thing was. Its heartbeat feeling as if a hummingbird was stuck inside its chest. Using his other hand to cut her free from the thorns that still held on to her, he finally managed to set her free of the thorn bush.
Setting her down he kept a hand on her as to not let her get away. He used his other hand to start untangling any thorn branches that were still stuck on her body. While trying to get her free of the remaining thorns, his free hand started to absently stroke her mane as to get it to calm down. Said action seemed to be working on the foal. It now looked to be calmer, its breaths now becoming less franatic and no longer cowering in fear. Ripping out a piece of cloth from what remained of his old pants, he used his canteen to moisten it and began to clean the small wounds of the blood that stained them.
He knew that out here it was the law of the jungle, but as any good hunter knows one must always let the young ones go. Such an action would allow them to grow and become more food later. It would also help to not damage the population by killing off the new generation. But today that wasn’t what drove him to protect the foal from the pack. This foal was like a lost child and those deep golden eyes filled to the brim with fear spoke to him to such a degree and he couldn’t let it be killed in such a way.
It was astounding just how much it resembled a child, the thankful smile it flashed him as well as the nuzzle at his leg almost melting his heart. It said something in its strange tongue, most probably a thank you, to which he responded with messing its mane a little and a smile of his own.
“Applebloom!Appleboom where are ya!”A loud voice in their strange tongue broke the silence.
The foal’s expression lighted up quickly. No doubt the sound of one of its kin looking for her brightening its mood. ’Time to get going’, he thought. He couldn’t be seen next to the disappeared foal as he would be undoubtedly blamed. He got up from his kneeling stance and ran back where he came from.
Just as he left the clearing an orange mare entered it about to call out once again but stopped when she found her sister.“There you are!” she exclaimed “I was worried sick young filly! Why’d you run off that!?”
“Well, I saw the thing the towns always talking about you know, that hairless mino… something and ran after it.”
“Ya did what!?” Applejack yelled, stern-faced. “Are you out of your mind? Just look at yourself,” she said pointing to the small wounds on her coat, “what happened to you!”
There was a pause, with Applebloom trailing a hoof across the forest floor before sheepishly mumbling "Long story…”
“Well, it’s a long way to the house, and you have some explaining to do, young lady.”
Meanwhile, he could only watch from the treetop’s camouflage that he was hiding in how these creatures communicated in their strange language. From the look of things, the young one was being visibly scolded by the older orange one. While watching them disappear through the trees, he could only try to replicate what he had heard.
“Uh-pul Blu-um?”
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Whole lot of deleted comments for some reason... Anyway, I liked this story - wish there was more, but if you don't want to write more chapters, so be it.
I like the premise, where he's doing what ancient humans supposedly did, making himself alpha and endurance hunting, eating whatever he can find.
That and the whole 'he's been here for years and years' bit IS much more interesting than other HiE stories.
This intrigues me, and I humbly request for more.
Awesome work bro!
This is p good.
interesting take on hie stories
5202155 you know that it was posted today, right? So I still have hope
moar pls i like this history
The idea is very well presented, but you must try to avoid reapiting words and phrases, it gets annoying.
I have enjoyed this please continue.
5203261 You have no idea how many more there were before glocky came in too help. Also I have never wrote something this long in english. I live in a spanish country so i never get the chance to practice my english. Hopefully i will get better in future stories/chapters.
5202155 Comments were from glocky and I before I remembered I had this on Gdocs
Slight typo in your description there.
5203578 Fixed, Thanks for pointing that out.
love the concept! But towards the end when Apple Jack was calling for Applebloom.....i thought he couldn't understand the ponies, I think you need to indicate when it was from Apple bloom's perspective and not his. Other than that it was entertaining and I would love to see more!
Do to its hight, the fence
Due and Height
5203551 and i have a german friend who is... "worse" i suppose (the german anfd english language are quite similar) nay ways, besides those two errors, I like this story so please continue
I seek more of your pony words good sir.
I've read one where the human was there for a Millennium. (Or a few centuries, I forgot a few details.)
5204057 Really? What's the story called, I'd like to read it.
5204136. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/116956/the-magic-of-immortality
It's not updated in a long while, and the idea is interesting to say the least.
Edit: It's only mentioned once in a later chapter, not really a plot point.
5204146 Sweet, thanks for the link I will definitely read it when I get the chance.
5204000 Fixed. Thanks for catching that
You really need to work on not repeating yourself. You use many of the same words over and over in the same paragraph, and sometimes, in the same sentence. Also, you need to add apostrophes where appropriate, that was another big thing.
5204224 no problem, I notice junk like that a lot (Mostly in my own storys but... no one is perfect in their writing)
TOO MANY RUN-ON SENTENCES.
Just from the very first paragraph:
'It is going to be one of those days again,’ he thought to himself as he heard his stomach growl yet again. He had not eaten anything that day, the only thing that they managed to catch was a beaver, a rabbit and the pack was already fighting for who would have how much of each. Unlike them he decided to leave them to fight for the food they managed to get today, they all needed more than he did.
Corrected version:
'It is going to be one of those days again,’ he thought to himself as he heard his stomach growl yet again. He had not eaten anything that day. The only thing his pack had managed to catch was a beaver and a rabbit, and they were already fighting over who would have how much of each. He decided to let the pack fight over the food. They all needed it more than he did.
Do you see the differences?!
Must play Connors life theme from assassins creed 3, fits so well.
5204647 Yes I do
, I will go in to chek for errors later to see if i can catch any more.
I know you're probably going to answer in the coming chapters, but I feel the need to ask any way. Why does he fear/hate the ponies?
5205080 Lets just say that the first encounters here aren't as smooth as in other stories.
great story, looking for the next chapters.
5205060 Maybe it's just be love for run-on sentences, but I thought yours sounded better. That's not to say that yours was without fault, but the 'corrected' one just sounded realy clunky when it kept stopping and starting.
good story, just in need of some editing so far, lets hope you decide to continue it
gonna fav this for more.
so more chapters soon?
Cool story can't wait for more
Nice story. Can't wait for more.
5204647
media2.giphy.com/media/OV1blc3qpmM7K/200.gif
From what I can remember, there were a lot more in the beginning.
Persistence hunting… its the stuff of nightmares…
This is a great first chapter and I eagerly await the next one.
I like how our good human friend has used his natural advantages to survive. Taming the wolves (proving once again that dog is mans best friend), using endurance hunting to get to things, surprisingly, before the faster species do (I guess the old story of the rabbit and turtle racing has some actual context for us after all) and how his time spent as a savage hasn't dulled his conscience. I believe many of us would think that a person who spends all of his time as a savage would become, at heart, a savage.
Particularly, I liked the endurance hunting part quite a bit. Many people on this site champion the ponies as the undisputed champions in this area when humans are the ones who can keep going far longer than anyone else. So I give unto thee KUDOS!
I don't really have any criticisms of the chapter, but I do have a few questions.
Was the thing that drove him to hate ponies a contrived misunderstanding, or a genuinely horrible first impression? Maybe a mix of the two? I'd be careful about the first one if that's the case. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and many readers, upon reading that, may look at it in twenty-twenty and have their suspension in disbelief strained. If the latter, is there hope of the responsible parties being brought to justice? Has hope of such things been wiped away by the ever cruel tides of fate? If a mix, can the scars from these things ever be healed, or will our dear Hunter Gatherer nurse these wounds for the rest of his life?
I find his lack of attempts at creating a house or home from stones or even wood to be interesting. What did he use to do before he got swept to Equestria? Does he have any knowledge of construction or technology at all? Or was his schooling primarily in the (quite useless in this situation) arts? Or was it of the fantastically useful wilderness survival kind?
I look forward to the next update and the answers to these questions as they come naturally. :)
5206380 Taming wolves takes generations of selective breeding. It doesn't happen spontaneously. This is an egregious example of both plot convenience and lack of research.
Anyway, given this guy's whacko mental state about... pretty much everything... I suppose this is where that crazy murderer survivalist in Pennsylvania has REALLY been hiding!
He hates the ponies because they obey The Man, dude! They're part of the CONSPIRACY!! The wolves tell him so!
So this guy's been here for years and NEVER noticed that the ponies have settlements. Strike 1 for his IQ.
Yep, insane survivalist. No one else would think this way.
Great story, so far. I look forward to more.
5206450
Does it? Well, darn! I guess I'm guilty of that lack of research too. :)
The do not obey the man. They obey the mare. There is a distinct difference there.
5206450 Ah alondro how I enjoy your comments on this site, being on the feature box is one thing but having you comment on my story is truly special. And yes the wolves do tell him to hate them, they've got to keep his head straight to counteract the lies that the foxes tell him
.