//------------------------------// // 3- At least I had a lighter // Story: Still No Signal // by Axel Azabash //------------------------------// Those pesky dummy wolves... they wouldn't go away... Growls, barks, pacing, circling the tree... they were persistent. Sometimes they looked like they were talking to each other... how peculiar. I would love to investigate that behavior but from a safe distance, of course. I tried to recreate in the stars and the moon. Wow... the moon was abnormally HUGE, and full... and uncanny... I'm no expert in astronomy, but that moon didn't look the same. “Because that’s no moon…” I said to myself. The stars were also weird. There weren't as many stars as I would have expected from an area without lights, but they were bright, like a telltale sky, like someone had painted it. There also should be the faint glow of the nearby city, but there wasn’t. “One moment... then...” I checked my phone again. No line and no GPS signal. If the sky was that weird, could it mean that... What? What would it mean? That this wasn't the normal sky and that's why there weren't satellites? Probably my phone was broken... that looked more reasonable. Then again... wood wolves and snake chickens... How reasonable was that? It got really dark. If it weren't for the huge full moon, I couldn't probably see anything. I picked my flashlight and pointed it downwards to see how my woody friends were doing. They looked just fine and healthy, except for the fact that they avoided the light when they first saw it. Would I be able to scare them with my flashlight? Maybe stun and blind them enough time to run away? Not worth enough, I knew the killers were always faster than the survivors... If I tried to get down the tree scaring them with the light, they would eventually figure out that it's harmless... And would chase me... and kill me... and tear me to pieces... and throw every piece into a fi... WAIT. Small source of light, they are scared of it... That's IT! FIRE! They are made out of wood! They were scared because they thought that I had fire, but no, it was just a mysterious little glowing device... The point is... Did I really have fire? But of course! I had a lighter. It's way better than using friction to start a fire... way, way better... Picking up my lighter, I used it to create a little flame and showed it to the dummy wolves. They suddenly stopped and stared back at me with their ears flat and a variety of expressions on their woody faces, ranging from 'The hell is that?' to 'Are you kidding me?' Yes, they were that expressive. They looked to each other emitting timid growls and barks. "Okay, let's try this." I said out loud. I grabbed a few dead dried twigs and lighting one on fire a little I let it fall just above one of the wolves. The wolf jumped away whining like the twig on fire was the evil incarnated. The little flame died out a few seconds after touching the damp ground. The risk of causing a fire in this fucking jungle was low because of how humid it was, and if I did, it could all go to hell after the trouble and bullshit it was throwing at me. The wolves accepted the challenge at first. Growling at me, they went back at biting, clawing and circling the trunk. I lighted another little twig, and instead of letting it fall gently, I threw it at one of the wolves that was busy clawing the tree trunk and it didn't see it coming. The twig got tangled with its little branches and leaves, setting some of them on fire. When the wolf realized it, it shrieked, running around and finally rolling on the ground, whining like a puppy. The little blackened patch of its bark and leaves didn't regenerate, and the other wolves stepped back from the tree. After another set of timid barks and growls, they all finally ran away. "Yeah! Run away, filthy clanners! Inner Sphere rules!" I screamed back at them. "Fucking Timberwolves, they are OP." ... The forest remained silent. Sorry... fat chance... Anyways... 'Timberwolves' sounded really accurate to describe those creatures. And I’m way above making the easy Pokemon type reference. Knowing that plant pokemons were weak against fire was more useful here than your regular survival guide, what the fuck was going on? The crickets started chirping, and I rested my head on the trunk of the tree. It was going to be a long, long night, and it was way too cold to just wear shorts and a tee... *** Of course, I didn't have any sleep that night, it was too cold. The sunrise was also... peculiar. It started with the normal faint glow above the horizon... and then, suddenly, the Sun came out, just like that. I should be freaking out about that, but after the weird moon and sky, the timberwolves and the chicken-snake... I just found myself saying out loud "Okay..." The pain in my right ankle made me remember the timberwolves... and all their families... hope they all burn in hell. But now I know their weakness... them plant 'mons are weak to fire attacks! It was super effective! If they came back again, they were going to have a bad time... I should prepare a torch or two... Well, I guess my reference standards were getting lower over time, I needed at least to have a laugh to cope with this mess. But the ankle... It was already an awkward climb to get down. How I had managed to climb this tree was beyond my knowledge... just the power of adrenaline, I suppose. It's a trick I wasn't going to be able to do again with the wounded ankle... the bite looked deep, and it hurt a lot. Luckily, it wasn't bleeding anymore, but my right shoe was now a nice composition of different shades of reds and browns. And the ankle was slightly swollen. I poured some more water on the wound, trying to clean it a little, then some more disinfectant and bandaged it crudely, but the ridiculous first aid kit I had was more meant for little scratches rather than this, I couldn’t even cover it all with the couple of sterile cloths it had. I opened my backpack and took one of the sandwiches I had for the picnic. I had four of them, and two water bottles, one of them half full... yes... half full... stay positive... The rest was in my car, parked probably a couple of universes away. I checked the phone, no signal. 56% battery left... I fastened the little solar panel to the backpack and used the extra battery to load again the phone back to 100% while charging the power bank with the panel. I didn't need it, it had plenty of battery left, but it felt right just to do something productive. I got up, but my ankle screamed in pain. Ok, I needed to use a big stick for support. I would also have it ready just in case I got attacked by other creatures. Even though I was still hungry, I only ate one of my sandwiches... Who knows for how long I would be out in the forest without any help? And I didn't want to know how the bugs taste, and they could also poison me... Wincing and limping I continued my way... Just walk. I had nothing left in my mind. This was starting to become pointless. With a wounded and probably infected ankle, I wouldn't be able to make it too far. That's it... they won... those timberwolves were going to let me slowly die so they could eat me. In order to distract myself from those dark places, I checked the phone again. Still no signal. Chirps and tweets. The crickets and night creatures went to sleep, and now there were happy birds and day critters like squirrels and stuff like that. It was heartwarming although it was still cold, even with the Sun up. It all cheered me a little bit. A pair of birds flew around me, really, really close, and then they landed on a nearby branch, looking at me and tweeting to each other. How peculiar, it looked like they were talking. They tweeted at me, and I tried to tweet back. I'm pretty good at tweeting. Hashtag chirp! They flew around me in circles while twitting and chirping, then again, they landed on another branch nearby. It looked like they were interested in me. Looking carefully I saw that one was red, and the other blue. Why two birds from different species would fly together and why they were interested in me was beyond comprehension. How peculiar. After a few minutes of interacting with me, the two birds flew away, leaving me alone again. That was a good distraction, but I was still lost in this jungle. Well, as they say... one step at a time... I continued slowly walking away. *** "There you go, little sweeties... not so fast." Fluttershy said to her little animals while pouring some food on their bowls. The animals just ignored her advice and stuffed their faces as fast as they could. She went outside, checking that the bird feeders were full, a few birds already feasting on them. Happy tweets and chirps greeted the mare. Suddenly, a pair of birds, a blue robin and a cardinal flew around her, chirping furiously. "Oh, my... Please, calm down, sweeties. Please..." She said in a kind tone. The birds landed on the feeders, not even paying attention to the food, they just tweeted and chirped to Fluttershy. "Please, calm down, one at a time." Fluttershy tried to calm them down, her sweet expression turning a little into one of worry. "What happened?" The two birds looked into each other, then back to the mare and again, started to tweet and chirp at the same time. "Shhhh... ok, please. Um... you." Fluttershy hushed the birds and pointed to the blue robin with a hoof. Both birds went silent, then, the blue bird started to chirp and tweet. Fluttershy's face went from worry to curiosity, then shock, and finally worry again. "Really? Where did you see it?" The bird twitted back. "That's near the castle and... into the timberwolves's territory... Oh my..." Fluttershy put a hoof on her mouth. "They could hurt it..." Then, the cardinal chirped. Fluttershy gasped. "Is it hurt already!? Oh no... Poor thing. Ho... How can we help it?" The cardinal tweeted. "Th... The Everfree forest? I... I... just... It's too dangerous." Fluttershy stuttered. The blue robin shrugged its little blue wings and twitted. "I know, I know... It's not that far, and there shouldn't be any dangerous creatures at this time of the day, but... Is it that bad?" Asked Fluttershy. The cardinal tweeted again. "Okay... I know..." Fluttershy looked down. The two birds looked at each other again. After a few seconds, Fluttershy perked up again. "I have plan! You two, go back to where the strange creature is and try to guide it back to the path. I will go to Zecora's hut for some medicines, and then I could go a little further to help it, If... if it's too bad, I can bring it here." The two birds stared at her. "I... if you don't mind, of course..." Fluttershy blushed "I will be at Zecora's house." The two birds chirped, ruffled their feathers and took flight. Fluttershy took a few seconds to calm herself down, then ran into her house, took her first aid kit and ran out of her cottage, telling Angel Bunny to guard the house while she was out. She stopped in front of the Everfree. "Ok, there we go..." then, after a few shaky steps, she ran into the forest, headed to Zecora's hut. *** The ankle was killing me, walking was a pain, but if I stayed, I wouldn't get anywhere. I was hungry so I took another sandwich. I felt weak, and I wasn't going to let my meal to go as an additional snack to the creatures in this cursed place. I didn't know how much blood I had lost, probably not a lot, but enough to make me feel weak. Probably I was also getting sick because of an infection... Those stinky muzzles didn't look very healthy. I ended up eating all the remaining food. I needed a little boost, something, anything to distract my mind. It somehow felt good to just sit down and have my meal like nothing was happening. I was getting up when suddenly, the birds came back, flying around, chirping all the time. Then, they landed in front of me, a few meters away. "Hello, what's up?" I greeted the birds. They chirped and flew away, but landed again a little further. I got closer, then they chirped and flew away another few meters. "Okay... well..." I scratched my head, puzzled by those weird birds. Then decided to continue in the direction I was walking before. The birds flew around me again, chirping all the time and repeated the process. Landing near me, and when I got closer, they moved a little, and then a little more. "What do you want?" I asked them... like if they were going to tell me. At least they ruffled their feathers and chirped. Well, that was a relatively good answer, for a bird I mean... After five minutes, I started following the birds. They seemed happy about it, probably they wanted me to follow them. Why would a pair of birds want me to follow them? I had no idea, but in this cursed place, all the creatures seemed a little more intelligent than they should be. And a lot more expressive. Would it be a good thing to follow the birds? I had no idea, but I realized something. I wasn't thinking about my situation, nor my ankle anymore, they were distracting me, they gave me an objective, as silly as it was, just discover what the heck did those birds want. I was getting out of the course I wanted to follow, a straight line until I found something, but thinking about it, that tactic didn't work before, and now? I was in no condition to cover large distances, so I would end up giving up really soon. With all those thoughts in mind, I decided that following birds that wanted me to do so was a little objective that would keep me going. Therefore, I followed, letting them decide the direction I should go, after all, the directions, the area, the maps... everything seemed wrong. And my trusty phone still had no signal.