//------------------------------// // By The River // Story: In The Forest // by Bazing //------------------------------// On the moss I sit, I want to rest by the river - Joe Duplantier So in my first journal entry, I forgot to mention something. My birthday is in April, the beginning of Autumn/Fall (depends on what you call it). So naturally, being in Australia, it was rather cold. So this led to me wearing winter clothes, so if anyone who is reading this - better not be - is confused as to how I survived Winter. Well there you go. Also, lacking any paper and pens/quills, naturally I couldn't have written this in the forest, so I would like to clarify that I am currently NOT in the forest, which I now know to be called The Everfree Forest. It's a good name, I like it. Celestia, stop looking over my shoulder while I write this. Yes I know you're there now go away. Stupid ponies. Think they know everything. The first week was the worst. I don't even know how I managed to survive for more than 3 days but hey, I did. My time was spent wondering aimlessly down stream, sticking close to the river, my only source of water. Occasionally I would spot some dinner, but many nights were spent hungry. It was about this time when contact was made. As usual, I was following the river down stream. The day was cold and getting colder. It was about mid-day when I first saw them. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I know that I didn't know they were sentient, or even sapient. So, naturally, I thought it was food. The biggest and best source I'd found yet. The strange pastel coloured horse-thing in front of me was drinking out of the bacterial infested river. Not sure if that would spoil the meat, I took my changes. Silently creeping up and around the creature, I took position. Waiting for the moment to strike. The leaves rustled. It raised its head, and I lunged. Too little too late, the horse looked at me. Spear through the neck, it died instantly. Heaving the corpse over my shoulder, I carried it back to my temporary camp. The body was lighter than I expected. It was probably a pony. I cooked the meat and happily ate until my stomach's content. The pony meat lasted me a good few days. Being stuck in the forest with barely anything to eat has taught me to conserve food. It was also around this time when I found a good, thick log. This log would soon become my makeshift-axe. Using my all-purpose-rock, I ground a similar rock into a triangle shape, with a sharp edge to it. Embedding the rock into the log, I tied it together with some weird vine I found, similar to rope but more... vine-y. I tested my new weapon's durability. I decided it would be best to cut up some wood to use for tonight's fire, so using the axe, I cut up some decent sized logs that could burn for a while. Yeah it worked, go me. Survival 101 motherfuckers. Anyway, shit all happened for a while. Just me trying to stay alive, surviving like a boss. So the next thing I can remember was my first run in with the wood-wolves. Timberwolves I now know to be their 'names'. It was a few weeks in, and I had given up on trying to find my way out. This place was FUCKING MASSIVE. I'd stuck by the river, and luckily for me, found some weird looking cave when I went off hunting. It's probably also good to mention that I hadn't seen any of those weird looking ponies since that day either. Maybe it was unique? Oh well, tasted just fine. Anyway... I first saw those Timberwolves when they STOLE MY KILL! Fucking bastards. But seriously, they took my fucking dinner. It happened when I saw stalking some creature. I'd noticed it's prints, tracks whatever, so I followed it. I soon saw it, just standing there, looking around. Perhaps it noticed me? Thinking I would be able to kill it in time, I went to strike. Luckily for me I stopped. I could hear it, something growling. I started looking around, trying to search for the source of the growls. I looked back to the creature I was stalking, and noticed a large wooden-wolf lung straight at it. Claws around it's midsection, and jaws clamped tightly on it's throat, the poor thing didn't stand a change. More wolves followed and dug into their kill. Knowing I was outnumbered, I slowly crept away, being EXTREMELY careful to not make any noise, knowing that if I did, it would be all over. It took me a while but I managed to get away from them. The next few days had me on edge and constantly on alert. Hands on weapons 24/7. Sleep didn't come some nights I was so scared. But this wasn't the last time I would see these wolves, oh no. That was my first sighting, but since then, they never noticed my presence in the forest. I don't remember exactly when, but it was at least a week and a bit after I saw them that we had our first run in. It wasn't fun... Just like last time, they were stalking my prey. A deer this time. The same thing had happened, except the only difference was the fact that these wolves had noticed me while attacking their prey. There was a total of four. Oh fuck my life. I thought to myself. Readying for battle, I grasped my spear tightly in hand. I still had my two guns in case things got serious enough. Luckily for me, I didn't need them. The first one jumped towards me with amazing speed. Pulling my spear up, I skewered the beast before it could reach me. Little did I know however, that once they died and broke up, they could reform. I soon learned my lesson. The beast reformed right before my eyes. Shocked, I stared blankly until it was back to its original form. Discarding my spear I quickly grabbed my axe and stab the wolf in the top of the head, successfully cleaving it's face in two. The others charged almost instantly. I managed to get a lucky shot with my spear by throwing it into the torso of one of the charging wolves, pinning it's hollow body to the ground. The ones not currently either dead or out of commission, were still charging at me. I blocked the lunge of the closest with my axe, it's teeth inches away from my fingers. I pulled back my left hand and punched it in the face, knocking him back in time for me to barely dodge the lunge of the next wolf. I think I might have also broken a finger, because holy shit punching wood hurts. Unfortunately he managed to scrape my arm. It wasn't too deep, but it fucking hurt like a bitch. I ran to the pinned wolf and swung my axe at it's face. I missed, but I still managed to break it's face in two. I grabbed my spear out of it's body and turned around. The other two wolves were up and about ready to kill me. Spear in one hand and axe in the other, I braced myself. They charged. I threw. It struck. In the face. One left. I swung my axe as it lunged at me again. I missed. It bit. It fucking hurt. I dropped my axe in pain and shouted out. I reached to my sides and upholstered my gun. I gun-butted that fucker in the head. Over and over until the sides of my hand were bleeding from the constant impact with hard wood. Panting and laying on the floor with dead wood-wolves laying around me, I slowly crawled back to my camp. Ah fuck, I have no idea how to treat wounds. Silently cursing, I did the thing I thought best. Rinsed the wound with clean, boiled water (obviously cold), and tore a piece of clothing to tie around the wound, hopefully to help stop the bleeding. I'm gonna need to eat a lot of food. I've bled to much. And eat I did. I managed to catch a rabbit that un-knowingly hopped right up to me. And so ended day unknown in the forest. Time spent in the forest, unknown.