One of a Kind

by JaHarre

Five Easy Steps

Anyone, who has ever had to talk to a shrink or knows any one who has ever had to talk to a shrink after any traumatizing experience, has heard that there are five basic steps that a person goes through when dealing with grief.

Step 1. Denial
Step 2. Anger/ rage
Step 3. Bargaining
Step 4. Depression
Step 5. Acceptance

At the moment, I am sitting in a twelve foot sink hole, tired, dirty and miserable while experiencing step number five.

How did this come about you might ask. How did you end up in such a place? Both are very good questions. Let me answer those by explaining what happened earlier today or maybe it was yesterday. I don't know what time it is now or how much time has passed.

*Flash Back*
_________________________________________________________________________________

"Well, if Chief Momboza would allow me to show you what they are and how they work, then would he allow me to have them?"

"I would have to talk with him but I believe that could be arranged."

"Wonderful!"

I laid back down and watched Haiba as she goes back to stirring something in that huge black cauldron. My mind drifts in and out of thoughts as I just lay there.

My thoughts started out harmless enough. I began thinking about Zimba and how he kinda reminds me of myself at that age (which I was guessing to be about 16). Then they switched to my experiences at that age. The day I got my drivers license, the first time my parents allowed me to take the car out on my own, my junior prom, my first kiss, all came back to me.

I then began to remember all the adventures I've had in my relatively short life. That fifty mile hike with the boy scouts was awesome. The time I went snorkeling off the Florida Keys was incredible. Those two summers I spent as a life guard at the water park. It wasn't the most fun job in the world but I got an awesome tan out of it. They also taught us some pretty hardcore first aid too.

Every thing from dealing with a cut and dehydration to how to backboard a spinal injury in a pool was taught to us. It was not only taught but drilled into our heads on at least a weekly basis. Some of those scenarios they had us do were pretty life like, but they didn't teach us how to treat a head injury like Jimmy's.

My stomach began to fell sour at this point so I changed my train of thought. My mind fast forwarded a few years to college. My very first vehicle I bought myself was in freshman year. It was a 1971 Dodge d100 pick up truck (hey, I am a southern boy after all). I affectionately called her Beatrix or Trixie for short.

I remember switching out the transmission. She used to be an automatic but now she was a stick shift. I had to redesign and fabricate half the clutch linkage. That was a major turning point in my life. That project help me realize that being a mechanical engineer is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I started thinking about the first time I meet Jim and Bobby. We were sophomores taking the same AUTO CAD class. We actually started out as rivals. We each wanted to be the best designer, the best at creating 3D models, and we created masterpieces.

The professor (I think) got tired of the competition, because we never left the man alone. One of the three of us was always calling, emailing, or pestering him in his office. So for his revenge, He assigned the three of us to work together on the final project.

Chugga chugga Chugga chugga choo choo! Here we go round the bend! Oh no, we're going too fast! Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! Crash!!!!! ........... It was a complete and total disaster.

Yea, doing that project with two other egomaniacs was hell. We each had our own style of doing things. We argued and disagreed so much that nothing got done. We hurriedly threw something together the night before so we actually had something to turn in. Needless to say that we failed the final project. (and cue evil laughter of the professor).

"Bwahahahahahaha!"

We all still passed but it brought our grade down a bit. After that, we were walking out of class and across the muddy field, arguing all the way. When all of a sudden, Jimmy slipped and fell in the mud. Bobby and I looked at each other and just busted up laughing.

It wasn't two seconds later that a couple of mud balls came and hit us right in the face.

Bam! Thwack!

We looked down and there was Jimmy with the biggest grin on his stupid face holding two more mud balls. The next thing we knew, all three of us were wrestling in the mud and having a good ol' time. From that moment on, we became the best of friends.

After this memory, my mind started flashing forward again, and the memories started to come faster. That summer vacation with the family were we went hiking, the rugby class I took, all the times goofing of with my friends, the time I went to Washington DC, all of the memories for the last 2 years kept coming faster and faster and FASTER!

The project assignment for the robots, the assembly and programing, the pizza eaten and jokes made while working on them, Bobby in the hospital.....job offer............rain and mud...........pain.............blood............JIMMY!

I woke up with a gasp and was breathing heavily! My head hurt, and my stomach felt like it's tied up in knots.

I began looking around and I realized that I'm not where I'm supposed to be. 'Since when does my apartment have masks hanging on the walls? Where is my bed? What the hell happened to my hands? Why is there a fire with a big cauldron in my living room? Holy Cow! What is a zebra doing in here?'

'Wait!' I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, and took one more look around the room. The memories from the past week and a half or so came back to me, and the feelings of dread and despair only made me feel worse. I needed to find a way to distract myself.

"Are you alright?", asked a nice comforting voice from the other side of the room.

Looking over, I realized it was the zebra asking the question.

"Yes, I'm fine.......Haiba."

I had almost forgotten her name in the muddled mess that was once my brain, and I started looking around for a distraction from the clutter of emotions drowning me. I turned and saw Haiba placing rocks carefully in the bubbling goop so it doesn't splash.

"So, what are you working on?" I asked her as I shakily got up and joined her next to the big pot.

"I am working on a special brew that will, among other things, give any inanimate object that is dipped in it the strength of stone while keeping its size and weight."

She must have seen the confused look on my face so she continued.

"The magic that my people have may be different from what your kind practice." She explained, "The strength for some types of magic come from inside ones own body. Like a unicorn's magic comes from inside his or herself and is channeled out through their horn."

'My kind? Magic? Unicorns? I'm starting to feel sick again.'

"Others use magic from the environment. You can feel the ebb and flow of the magic in the land if you meditate long enough. They are able to take it into themselves and then project it back out to manipulate their surroundings as they see fit. That is how pegasi are able to move clouds and how earth ponies are able to grow food. But we zebras are different, We cannot absorb the magic of the land and then make it do what we want it to do."

'Pegasi and earth ponies? Next thing you know she'll probably say dragons are real as well.'

'Why is it so hard to breath in here?'

"We zebras have a unique talent, you may say, of being able to harvest the magic of the land by making special brews and potions. Take this brew for instance, it has a base agent in it that is helpful in the extraction and mixing of the magics of the objects placed in it. It absorbs the strength from the stones and mixes it with the rest of the brew so when the staff is dipped in it then it will receive the strength of stone. There are also the leaves of several types of plants that have known healing powers. They help to give strength and stamina to the holder of the staff.... Hey, are you all right? You don't look so good."

By this time, I was breathing so hard I was nearly hyperventilating.

"Here, drink this."

She gives me some clear liquid in a cup.

I reach for it.

"What is it?"

"It is a tonic made from the shed scales of dragons. It'll help calm you nerves and stomach.

' Did she just say what I thought she said? Oh no! this can't be happening! I need to get out of here!'

With that last thought, I dropped the cup and ran out the door. I ran through the village and out in to the savanna towards the late afternoon sun.

I ran faster than I had ever run before, but it wasn't fast enough. So, I dropped down on all fours and quickly tripled my speed. It wasn't long before those pesky problems I was running from caught up to me.

'Where am I and How did I get here? Why did Jimmy have to die? Why am I a freaking tiger man? What is this place that has talking zebras and freaky monsters the size of a rhinoceros? Are there really unicorns and pegasi here? Do they talk too? Is this all some sort of weird fever induced dream?'

'Yea, that's it! This is all a dream. What really happened is I'm sitting in some hospital bed in a coma after they dug us out of the mud. I imagined Jimmy dying when he really had woken up. When people get trapped in these types of self induced nightmares, all they have to do is realize that what they are seeing isn't reality. Then they have to wake themselves up by killing their dream selves.'

'This could work. I don't have a top to spin or anything so what can I use? I skid to a halt and look around. I see a rock. That's it! What goes up must come down. I'll just throw this rock up in the air and if it doesn't land I'll know what this place is and how to beat it.'

I picked up the rock and threw it up as high as I could. I watched it get smaller and smaller as it went higher. It just seemed to hang there.

"Yes!" I jumped up and did a little victory dance.

"Now I know what to do! Where is that gun?"

Next thing I knew, My head hurt really bad. It was like getting hit by a rock... wait a minute? I look down and there was the rock that I had thrown.

"What the..? What's going on here?"

I picked up the rock and tossed it up about a foot in the air. When I did, I noticed that the rock had a noticeable hang time of a couple seconds then it fell.

"What is this place!?"

The biggest problem that concerned me was that I was stuck. I had no answers for any of my questions. The more I thought about this strange land and the circumstances of my arrival here, the more my confusion was replaced by anger. I was pissed.

I picked up that accursed little rock with my hand... er paw (see i don't even know what I should call my own body parts!) and threw it as hard as I could. I sat there and brooded and I got angrier and angrier. I couldn't take it any more! I let out the biggest roar/ yell that I could, and I attacked anything that was close to me.

Huge clumps of grass were uprooted. dirt was thrown everywhere. Any rocks around quickly followed their friend. I destroyed the ground around me. I was a fiend. I was a force to be reckoned with.

I thought of everything as I terrorized the area.

"Stupid mud slide!" There went a clump of grass.

"Damn freaking monsters!" A bush was reduced to kindling.

"And Damn you Jimmy for leaving me here like this!" a boulder was launched into the air.

I don't remember how long I was at it. I didn't even realize that I had started running again until I felt my self fall down this hole I'm in now. The the sudden jarring from hitting the bottom was like a slap to the face. It brought me back to my senses.

My body hurt. My mind hurt. My heart hurt. I was exhausted. The tears started to flow. They didn't ask me if I wanted them to come, but I didn't stop them.This time I didn't care if they were manly or not.

My mind went back to the last day of Jimmy's life. I remembered how he thanked me for being there for him, for being his friend.

"I'm sorry Jim that I wasn't strong enough to save you."

Having said that, I sat there and cried the tears I should have finished crying at his side. I had been trying to run away from the pain while at the same time trying to remember my friend. I realized that I had been running away from the whole situation. I was running from the questions that I had no answers to.I sat there late into the night loathing myself for my cowardice about my situation.

The only thing that I have done since I got here is run from my problems, but no more! I made a vow then and there that I will face them and even if I don't understand what is going on I will find the answers no matter how strange they be. After that, I felt a strange calm come over me. Nothing about my situation has changed but oddly I'm not worried about it any more. Things will work out, come what may.

Well, That pretty much brings you to the point where I'm at right now. Sitting in a hole and trying to decide what I will do next. I had already promised Haiba that I would deliver a package to her daughter so that would be as good start as any right there. After that? Who knows.

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]Author: Hello all my readers. I apologize for the delay. Work was a killer these past couple of weeks. I realize that this chapter may still have some issues with the grammar. I will fix them as soon as I can. I wanted to get this posted mostly just to keep the story line going. I think this chapter answered a lot of questions that were posted. I do not know when the next chapter will be completed either, so please be patient with me. Comments are always appreciated

.

Comments

[Heavy Weapons Guy]

t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTC97b63KGFd7og4OJP9r3LkCqYsbC8eaKf2QyubgdVfU20Xn8E

Heavy Demands More Updates!

[Platinum2094]

WooHoo!!
New Chapter! Also
603898
Yea! what he said!

[High_Wind]

603898
gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs2/1258057_o.gif

I agree. MOAR UPDATES PLZ
The angry mob demands it

[JaHarre]

603952

It was in Wikipedia

[Kablex]

So, have you upgraded the monster yet?

[TacoTown]

*reading ar 12:30 a.m.*
...there were errors?

[JarOfHearts]

603952

bargaining is like going up to your friends dead body and sayin, "hey, quit joking around, come on we'll go to that diner you love." or some other form, like asking god to bring him/her back in exchange for a lifetime of sundays.

Great chapter by the way, this is actually pretty realistic. In survival situations often people die, but people don't react to it until they get to civilization, because they were busy surviving. Once you are safe you can stop and think, and then *BAM* you get run over by The Emotion Express.

[Azzazel]

604074 I believe you misspelled 'hart' I think you meant 'heart' no ? Heh glad to see you updating, good story you have going !

[NotABrony]

very realistic emotions and portrayed so well. bravo good sir

[Avellon]

Great chapter. Loved it just like all the others

[jillswift]

Ahh. Well done! Pacing is far better. Good character development here. I'm enjoying this story a lot.

[Ahhhhhhhhh]

I want more,but i cant have it

[Jack Ass Knife]

"My hart hurt" Should be "heart"

And you need to be more expressive when showing the thoughts of the characters. The sentences for thoughts should be indented like this.

[GuyFace]

I like it.

[ElijahBleu]

603952 thats the i do anything to take that back state

[KilaBOK]

"Anyone, who has ever had to talk to a shrink or knows any one who has ever had to talk to a shrink after any traumatizing experience, has heard that there are five basic steps that a person goes through when dealing with grief.
Step 1. Denial
Step 2. Anger/ rage
Step 3. Bargaining
Step 4. Depression
Step 5. Acceptance"
I got only two words - play this: http://solacegame.com/
;)