Silence greeted me when I awoke. Groggily, I rolled over covering my head with the fur pelt. When I couldn't go back to sleep I finally conceded to reason and opened my eyes to greet the bleak day. The first thing I saw was that it was incredibly dark. My brain came up with three options for this reason. One: I closed the door before I went to sleep, Two: It was currently nightime, or Three: Both. The only way to find out was to get out of my bed.
Slowly I got up. My back was still having painful reminders of the last few days, so I didn't want to agitate it. Successfully not breaking any skin on my bandaged hide, I stood up and walked towards the entrance of my abode. Sure enough the door was closed and shut tight. I sighed knowing what was about to take place. Hopefully this won't pull out my back.
Carefully I positioned my feet along the fur carpet and pushed. The stone rolled out of the way into a special enclave I made for it. Thankfully my back hadn't given out on me yet. Light streamed in from the empty doorway illuminating my home as well as the scrap of leaves and fur that I call my sleeping arrangements. I grumbled as I went outside. I'm never much of a morning person anyway.
Trees greeted my vision as I stepped onto the stone pathway on the mountain. "*sigh*Well...Good morning Mark. It's another day in paradise..." I sighed. After feeling sorry for myself, like I always do, I looked around and I noticed that my worksite was slightly messed up. Instead of the normally orderly firepit and rain catcher, I saw instead shredded remains of the once awesome thing that I barely managed to build. I was kind of mad at whatever did this. It took me 5 days to get the bowl right. The fucking chisel I made kept breaking and the stupid bowl split in half once, so I had to get another round rock and began working on it. Sighing all the while I picked up the broken rain catcher and walked back into the cave towards my workshop.
Now my workshop isn't really that much of one to begin with. It was just a hand-carved table with all of my stone hammers, chisels, and my trusty knife. I set the remains upon the table and walked away. I planned to use the broken bowl as maybe some replacement to the broken tools I will usually get after a while. eventually I would also get another fairly round stone to make another bowl, but I wasn't really thirsty this early in the morning, and I already had a great backup supply in the giant wooden tank by my bed. While cleaning the work area was a good thing, it also meant that the wild life was getting restless again.
I sighed as I walked towards my backpack that was leaning against the wall over by the entrance. It was the only thing I was able to bring with me besides the clothes on my back. I opened it and fished around until I finally found my IPhone and the portable speakers. My IPhone and I had been through some tough times and it was amazing that it still had charge left through all that thick and thin. although I doubt that it will survive after what I'm about to do with it.
Grabbing the two items from my backpack, I stood up and walked out of my home and walked up the hill that my house was inlaid into. I was lucky finding this place. I still remember that I was soaking wet from the rain with thunder in my ears. Then in a flash of light I saw this place. A cave set into the giant mountain. After a painfully long hike up the mountain I came across the cave that I had seen. Carefully I stalked into there wary of predators and having the desperate need for shelter. After greater inspection I found that this place would make a better home then my blasted tent did beforehand. Fuckin' thing flew away in that giant storm. I also found some precious metals and gems inlaid inside the cave. I didn't think of anything at the time until the cave's previous owner came inside.
He was illuminated by the flash of thunder and lightning. A giant lizard covered in red scales. At first I was geeking out because I'm a major fan of dragons. He eyed me with green irises until he roared at my face. I narrowly avoided his flame breath. My clothes were slightly singed. As I ran in circles around the damn thing I got my backpack open and started grabbing whatever I could get a hold of. Now that I think about it I probably got lucky when I killed the damn thing. I was just throwing shit at it randomly at the time. It was a damn miracle when my knife flew into his throat. It must of hurt a lot since it was also prone to the heat blast. I wasn't able to even get it out of there until two days after the body had been dead, and even then it was half-melted, so I had to make a new one. Now I have a Dragon's head above my workstation along all my other trophies. *Ahhhhh* His body served me well for about three days. I made some crude armour out of the scales he had, and I also ate some of him since I imagine such a proud creature would not want to die and not be used by the victor. Then I got some sort of virus infecting my system. I don't know whether it was the melted iron inside him, or anything else like foreign bacteria, but I vowed never to eat dragon again.
Anyway, as I stopped reminiscing I noticed how low the sun was above the trees. Holding my fingers above the horizon, I calculated that there would at least be two or three hours left of daylight in this godforsaken place. I needed to work right now if I were to get this done. Carefully I set my portable speakers on top of the giant pillar I had made from many stones. I plugged my phone into it and let it be. I had a fire pit to redo.
Arranging the rocks was an easy part of reassembly the fire pit. The hard part however was getting the timber for it. I would need a lot more wood than what I have now and I don't really believe that I should just use all of my wood to ward of the beasts of the night. I decided to go onto the path down below to get a backup supply that I had hidden. It was about two meters away from my abode near the end of the stone path and where nature began. It was in a pit I had dug and hidden by a rotten log.
After a while I found myself at the exact spot harvesting the wood from my fallen prey. I never believed that those damn wolves had ever truly died when I chopped them up, so I put them somewhere where they could possibly regenerate and leave me in piece. Surprisingly when I moved the log the pieces were still there. I guess that answered my question on whether or not they could truly escape their deaths. I carried as much as I could out of there before any creature would notice my presence.
When I got back I looked around carefully to try and notice anything out of the ordinary. Thankfully, I didn't see any large animal tracks around. I began to set up a bonfire near the entrance to my path to the cave. Log upon log was being put down in the circle. After about a few minutes I had everything set up for the elaborate ritual I would perform. All except my battle gear and the fire starters I had in my backpack. Cursing myself I went back inside my home to get the things I would need.
When I got inside I immediately went over to the workstation. I grabbed my armor, my wooden spear, and the head. How I got that head is still in my mind. I was walking through the forest one day not long after I got the cave. I then saw statues. A lot of statues littering a clearing of sorts. The statues were of many things; dragons, ponies of various races(being unicorn, plain, and pegasi), and some manticores; you know natural wildlife and they were all made of the same kind of stone. At first my hopes rose at the possibility of civilization. At last I would be able to escape this accursed forest. My hopes were all dashed away when I heard an inhumane scream.
I looked around startled and ran towards the source of the sound. There in another clearing was an animal. Now I didn't know what this thing was. It sort of looked like the unholy procreation of a chicken and a snake. I approached cautiously until the foliage that blocked part of my vision was gone. In front of the creature was a manticore. It was staring at the creature with a pained expression on its face. I then noticed a change on his body.
A grey stone was creeping along the tip of his tail downward. Now I was a man of science, and when I saw this I went absolutely mental inside my mind. I wanted to study it. I wanted to see how it was doing what it was doing, and in the back of my mind I was reminded of a greek story where someone had cut the head off of medusa and used it to turn whatever he wanted to stone. I grinned. Instantly I rushed the little chicken and pulled my knife on him.
The moment the blade contacted he tried to turn and look at me, but it was too late. I had chopped of his head. Now I had often heard of stories regarding that the bodies of chopped off chickens usually ran around for a while. I'm delighted to say that was true. Unfortunately the hilarity of said action was heavily downgraded by the amount of blood that spewed off the stump and the looks of pain and grief drastically switching on the chicken's face. Eventually, the body fell over and the chicken head stopped moving.
I was saddened at the life I had to take for survival. If I had left that chicken to do what it kept on doing eventually it would've gone to my current place of residence. Then I would be the one stoned. Instantly I noticed the current condition of the manticore. The stone was receding his body back to its origin on the tip of its tail. Instantly I ran away from the beast. I knew how awful their tails were when they struck. I would have been in incredible pain if I didn't leave him immediately. I then noticed the many roars and groans coming from the previous clearing. I had to leave that area immediately. Ever since that fateful day, I've had a Chicken head hanging beside my hand-carved spear that I was also taking for this ritual.
I went over to the backpack and grabbed the firestarter as well as some flint and steel. I left the cave and walked towards my glorious firepit of awesome. I put the firestarter dead center and lit it. The fire started slow, but I knew that it would gradually burn bigger and faster over time. I went over to the IPhone setup and looked for the perfect music to accompany me for the epic battle to come. Eventually I came upon a little piece called "This Will Be The Day". It was one of the more awesome fighting songs I had experienced during my life. It was made for an AMERICAN anime. Seriously. I never thought I'd see the day where America would produce that kind of quality stuff. I'm proud to say that it blew my expectations, away since I was expecting another Naruto rip-off series.
I turned my phone on and set it to do the song on a loop. The sound would surely attract all the savage beasties that walked these parts. There was also a method to my madness. After the battle any predator that would dare to intrude on my abode would be met with the smell of blood, decay and death that I would spread around the hill. This would dissuade them as even they can smell the blood and guts of their fellow species. I didn't like what I had to do, but I did it. I would do whatever it would take to protect my home.