//------------------------------//
// 2 
// Story: Son of Eternity 
// by Secrets and Lies 
//------------------------------//


(2)






Zack's eyes slowly opened up and he felt a little dizzy only temporarily. He found himself lying in a grassy plain, with the smell of nature all around him. A slight breeze cooled his face and the warm rays of sunlight bathed him. He could hear a stream of water near by and some song birds singing in the distance. His eyes were still a little blurry as he tried to pick himself up off the ground. He then realized his hands and arms looked completely different, he stopped trying to get up to examine his skin. 
It was a lighter shade, it seemed more basic and simple in its shape. All of his flaws from his previous skin were gone, the birth marks and moles had disappeared. He rubbed his hand across his skin, feeling is new, smoother body. His hands and fingers were much more basic, much like rounded squares at the end of each finger and his knuckles were more blockier too. 
He began to look over his new body, it was the same as his new arms and fingers, same texture, same simplicity. Zack felt grateful for his new appearance, he then wondered what his face looked like. He looked around the field and saw the stream of water he heard earlier which was a short distance from his location. He soon stumbled upward and walked east towards the water’s edge. He looked into his reflection as he approached the creek–his new face overwhelmed Zack. He quickly looked away in surprise, but steadily went back to looking at himself. His face more rounded and eyes, ears and nose more simplified, and of course, his skin was clear of past blemishes. His hair was more clumped up than he remembered and less strands, unless he pulled them out one by one, but still, he didn’t look half bad in his opinion.
The world around him seemed seemingly unreal, which is why he soon came to the conclusion that maybe this was a dream. He knew about lucid dreaming and thought he could wake himself up; and if it was in fact a lucid dream, he could could make anything happen. Zack steadied his body and attempted to fly or do anything dream-like, but alas, it failed.
“Could I have died?” he questioned himself as he ran his fingers through his new, almost perfect brown hair. “This can't be Heaven... can it? It doesn't resemble any biblical versions of heaven. No pearly gates, no gold streets... no seventy-two virgins.”
He stopped himself at such a remark, he obviously wasn’t in heaven. Then he came to the frightful thought of him actually hallucinating this, that maybe there was something in the weed he had smoked that made him experience that disturbing bright light, the light bulbs bursting, the voices, and this psychedelic and trippy world. He couldn't fathom what earthly drug or experience could produce such a hallucination like this with such a prolonged effect. Zack figured it could still easily be the case, so he decided to sit in the grass and wait for the drugs, or whatever was afflicting him to wear off.


__________


It seemed like hours passed by before Zack realized that he wasn’t on drugs, dead, or dreaming. Something much beyond his comprehension was taking place, he wondered if he would ever get out of this land alive. He digressed, this place isn’t half bad, and heck, if humans live here, or intelligent creatures then he could start anew. Zack wasn't too sure though how he would cope with starting a brand new life in a place he had never been, though figured he would go no where if he sat around all day.
He stopped himself from day dreaming so that he could think up a motive as to where to go next. He stood up promptly and peered around, looking at his landscape in front of him, trying to determine where civilization might be. To his west was a large forest, to his north were tall, rounded, snow-capped mountains, to his east was where the stream was and more plains and woodlands beyond that, and to his south was an overgrown mire, too thick to cross. He was in a vast, lush land; a high country of sorts where spiraling mountains dotted the far reaches of his vision and immense forest regions cloaked their roots and feet. Zack himself was atop a bare hill of sorts when he had trekked back up from the creek to where he was originally lying. From there, he could see no signs of civilization. No smoke, no skyscrapers, no vapor trails or roads. Zachary began to feel distant from Earth so much more so than before upon this conclusion.
Zack gazed upward towards the sun to try and guess the time. He looked up and noticed a lone, grey, curly cloud hanging in the sky. Zack was befuddled by this odd phenomenon. He looked elsewhere in the sky and noticed 3 others bundled together, he glanced back to the previous cloud and saw that twenty more had patched themselves together. Every time Zack turned around, more and more clouds filled the sky until the sun was finally blotted out. He soon heard the clash of thunder and felt a few small rain drops hit his shoulders and head. The wind picked up and the rain was starting to pour down faster and faster. Zack turned toward the west and sprinted toward the forest. He made it under the canopy of trees in time to avoid the torrential downpour.
As he took in his new surroundings, he looked about in awe. The tree's branches and leaves were so thick that they seemed to have stopped the rain. Only small patches between the trees would let in the rain, but the forest was crawling with life, even during the spontaneous storm. Zack seemed to be filled with new found stamina, he hardly tried to run, yet he seemed to be running his fastest; he never broke sweat or had to catch his breath afterwards, he never had this much energy before.
Zack began to walk through the forest while contemplating survival more than anything, but he caught his eyes wandering off looking through the vast and lush forest. These woods were filled with interesting and beautiful things. Large mushroom caps filled the gullies, vines spread down from the foliage above, moss laden boulders were sunk in the damp soil and the bushes were almost clean cut it seemed like the maintained parks back home. Rabbits, birds, squirrels, turtles and all sorts of little woodland creatures scampered around, hardly afraid of Zack’s presence. They probably felt he was one of them, which made him think of what the animals were terrified of if they showed no fear towards a human like Zack.
As Zack progressed through the forest, he picked up small and sharp rocks as well as twigs and vines to make tools out of, making sure he could protect himself or hunt for game if he couldn’t find civilization soon. Zack was once a knowledgeable boyscout in his youth, though he had forgotten much about survival over the years; yet he still knew plenty of tricks and his memory was being rekindled with old techniques as he thought deeper on survival in this new landscape. Along with this knowledge, he been on plenty of hunting trips with his cousins and kin, yet they never hunted with spears as he intended to attempt today. He found a nice long and sturdy branch that he broke off from a fallen tree which he then took and sharpened until he had a nice groove to place one of his stones in. He then tied one of his longest and sharpest rocks he had found earlier to the end of the shaft using the vines he collected to complete his spear. 


__________


As Zack walked deeper into the woods, less animals could be heard or seen. A heavy fog had fallen crept over forest floor and the woods had dimmed vacant of light. Night was approaching as the world grew blacker. Large, round and colorful bugs zipped by Zack’s head as he quickly ducked out of the way to avoid them. The lush plants and flowers had all been over grown and most paths were now thorns and thick brush as he continued to venture deeper. The rain off the treetop canopies grew louder and heavier, which meant the storm was getting worse. Zack hastened his movement so that he could reach the end of the forest and hopefully reach a settlement.
He soon lost track of where he was heading and was no longer sure if he was still heading west, this made him a little skeptical even about his own level of survival skills. He soon discovered the forest had become much thicker and wetter than before, he was in the most unsettled (by animals) parts of these twisted woods. The terrain became more treacherous, and he could no longer hear or see any animals, the only sounds he heard was the rain atop the canopies and the creaking of the old oak trees swaying. It gave a chill down his spine thinking of what beasts could be lurking in the outmost crevasses of this ancient forest. He soon started to run when he thought he saw the trees move and stare at him with evil faces and eyes. Zack darted in and out of hedges and shrubs as he dodged trees and hurdled over toppled logs in a wild sprint.
He finally began to run out of endurance and slowed up his pace. He soon stopped to grab hold of a tree to lean on and catch his breath. He was wide eyed, being extremely attentive to his surroundings; he had the wild idea he was being followed or stalked by something, but couldn’t tell if it was real or just paranoia. Zack pushed himself off the tree and raised his spear ahead of him, ready to attack anything that might try to ambush him for a quick meal. 
Zack’s ears perked up when he heard a distant cry off in the woods to the right of him. He turned and listened more closely. He could hear multiple steps and patters off in the distant. They were traveling fast after another pair of footsteps, maybe more, he couldn’t tell how many were being chased ahead of the pack. It seemed like a large group of people were chasing something smaller, like game animal. Zack lowered his spear, he thought that maybe they were humans and that they could bring him into a town so he wouldn’t have to sleep in the dark, wet forest. Zack began to run into the brush of the forest and follow the hunters with a newfound burst of energy. He felt he was getting closer, the could hear the footsteps pick up and the game animal’s cries, whatever it was. The animal almost sounded like a young girl, but Zack’s mind was on food and civilization to pay this attention to the cries any longer. 
He soon heard the footsteps stop up ahead of him. Zack rounded a corner of a large willow tree trunk and then quietly pressed himself up against the tree. He cautiously peeked around the tree where he thought he would see the hunters pinning the game animal against another tree. What he saw instead completely caught him off guard. Three very large, brown wolves with glowing yellow eyes were cornering a small pink deer it looked like. With closer inspection, Zack realized it was a small horse like creature, a bright eyed filly horrified of the predators. The wolves growled and stepped ever so slowly closer to the the small horse, their mouths drooling in hunger. Zack felt a tad distressed, he could care less about the pony, he was hungry, tired, and wanting to exit this forest. Though Zack looked back at the little creature, seeing it in total fear, in a fetal position almost. The oddly skinned wolves could easily kill the little thing. Zack felt an uneasy amount of courage settle in him, and he gained the feeling of wanting to help the little pink thing, even if he was meant to starve in the labyrinth of a forest. 
Just then the panicked little creature screeched, “Somepony, help me, please!” Zack’s eyes widened, he thought, “Were these the intelligent creatures of the land, capable of speech and culture?” He had to take a chance and save this interesting creature, she could lead him out of the forest. Zack prepared for action.
He took a deep breath and jumped in between the wolves and the little horse. The small creature seemed shocked at the appearance of the tall human, the wolves stepped back to examine the strange new creature, but soon started to close in on Zack. Even though Zack was larger than the wolves, the wolves would fight for their food, even if it meant killing and eating him too. Zack raised his spear and tried to keep an eye on all three at the same time, it was much more difficult to do than he had realized. After having a closer view of the wolves, he noticed that unbelievably, they appeared to be made out of wood and their teeth out of sharp, serrated and broken rocks. The right most wolf growled at Zack, he turned to look at the wolf, but the left most wolf leaped toward Zack. 
Zack saw the attacker out of the corner of his eye and quickly turned to stick his spear into the wolf’s chest. Zack flung the wolf to the side, in doing so, the other wolves took their chances and dashed toward Zack. Zack evaded the charging wolf and in one sweep turned his spear to the side to block the other wolf's hurdle towards him. The wolf was deflected, but had broken the spear in the process. Zack threw away the broken piece and used the other, shortened piece with the spear head attached to it. The wolf that was deflected leaped back at Zack. He side stepped away from the wolf and skewered the spearhead directly into it’s skull, killing the wooden wolf and leaving the spear in it’s head. Now only one remained.
Zack heard the wolf bark and jump on Zack’s back before he could turn around and look. The wolf had pinned Zack to the ground, he quickly heaved the wolf over so Zack was on top. The wolf tried and claw Zack while also trying to bite his face. He rolled off of the animal to avoid a fatal attack and the wolf recuperated quickly. It lunged at a immense speed, Zack had only time to throw his arms up to deflect his upper body. The wolf bent down and dug it’s teeth into Zack’s leg, he let out a quiver of pain and punched the wolf in the head. Zack then jumped on top of the wolf again and continued to beat the wolf’s head with his fists. He did so until the wolf stopped moving and its eyes dimmed of its yellowed glow. Zack rose up from the fight and scanned the creature. He was right, they were made out of wood.
Zack turned to see the pony in utter fear once again, now thinking that this new, much more violent creature was going to eat her. Zack cautiously limbed forward, the little pink animal was trembling and covering her face. 
“Please don’t eat me, I really don’t taste very well, honest!”
Zack bent down on one knee, “I’m not going to harm you. I heard your cries in the woods, followed you and saw that you were about to be attacked by those... things.” 
The pink pony uncovered her face. Her ovoid, brightly colored cyan eyes showed clearly in the dark of the forest. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed once again looking at Zack. Her deep pink mane and tail were straight flat and wet from the rain, she looked miserable and exhausted. 
She stammered, eyes closed and tears pouring, “I d-didn’t mean t-to ru-run away! They wanted me dead anyways! I ruined the farm, I ru-ruined the family busin-ness!” She took in a deep breath and continued, “No p-pony loves me anymore... I just wanted to have fun and make my family hap-happy for once!”
She began to weep once more, seeing that she was willing and ready to die, she thought she had nothing else to live for. Zack was trying to take all this in. “Family Business? Lives on a farm? Replacing “body” with “pony”? Where am I? A somewhat modern world controlled by ponies?” Zack then went back to the situation at hand, he tried to think of what to say to calm her down so he can get some answers out of her.
“Look, I’m here to help you, I’m not going to eat you, I’m your friend.”
She looked up into Zack’s eyes, still sobbing a bit as she asked slowly, “Wha... you... you want to be... my friend? I don’t have any friends of my own.”
Zack smiled and replied, “Of course I’ll be your friend, why wouldn’t I? You seem nice enough to me, and even accept me. There is probably no one else like me around, are there?”
“No... not that I know of...”
“Well, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zack.”
The pony wiped her eyes and softly said, “Just Zack? Oh...Pinkamena Diane Pie...pleasures...all...”
Her eyes seemed to slowly close as she collapsed in front of Zack in fatigue. Puzzled by the events that had just occurred, he then he examined the area around where they were to see where he could make camp. He looked up in the tree they were under and saw a great place to sleep. It was a struggle climbing the tree with his injured leg and carrying Pinkamena, but he finally made it up the tree, it wasn’t a far climb to where he wanted to be anyways. He had spotted a cot looking dip in two of the branches where he could sleep in off the ground if more wolves came back. He gently laid Pinkamena in a smaller branch close by his cot, but had second thoughts. She might fall off in the middle of the night if she rolled around. So with instinctive care, Zack nestled the pink pony next to him, under his arm. He reclined up against the tree and fell asleep, cradling Pinkamena in his arms.