Wandering Wood

by Zeromant

Lucidity of Genisis

Chapter 2: Lucidity of Genisis

I awoke, for as cliche as it sounds, there really is no better word to describe suddenly acquiring consciousness of one's self, and surroundings from a state that distinctly lacks that same awareness. My initial thoughts lay somewhere along the all too vague lines of cursing and swearing oaths of repayment most foul to the two mad things in a vast multitude of languages, and intensity. Soon my internal monologuing tirade was brought short when the sound of rustling leaves and the sensation of wind across my body was felt.

I stirred slowly, as I was apt to do. My mental processes taking inventory of sensory input and cross referencing with cold hard logic and odds even before I started to show any signs of outward life to whatever lay around me. I felt dirt beneath, I could hear the leaves rustling, and i felt the uneven mild wind across me. Conclusion? I was outside. Simple enough. Now comes the hard part, short term memory recollection. This part was always a pain, every morning I had to fight to even remember what I was doing before I passed out. I rarely had a morning were I was able to recall the the night before within the first two hours of my waking. Well, not without external stimuli to prod the memories to life that is.

I slowly willed an eye to open, not yet ready to face whatever awaited me, but knowing I must face it soon if I was indeed not just outside in my yard. Sight sunk into my eye as I heard a wooden clack somewhere. I held my breath, keeping perfectly still as I swept my single optic over all it could see, taking in as much information as I could process. 'We're outside: Confirmed.' Great, so I'm outside, and going by the tree sizes, proximity, and sheer abundance it was clear this wasn't my front yard, or anywhere remotely close to my house. I berated myself as the two masked ones came to mind. I began to wonder if all of the night before was a simple hallucination brought on by drugs during a kidnapping, but ultimately dismissed it as I recalled too many of the details with clarity to allow that thought any validity.

I groaned inwardly as I realized there was only so much thinking I could do, so long I could internalize everything before action of the body must be had. There really wasn't any reason to hold off at this point. I huffed once, feeling the air pass through my nostrils with a reedy noise as I slowly rolled onto my stomach, pulling my limbs under me, I stopped. My eyes were both open and I could see down the length of my face, binocular vision being a wonderful thing since it allowed me to see that I now had a muzzle. I mentally scowled wondering if it was just a mask they had put upon more for the grins of it. I berated myself for losing focus, and shuffled those thoughts away for later, right now I needed to get up, get my bearings. Everything was secondary at the moment. I breathed in slowly to steady my thoughts, or rather, I tried. I quickly realized that what ever means I had for air capacity was limited, and the movements in my torso felt... wrong.

My thoughts at this realization once more begin to spiral out of control I leapt to my feet, or tried to, my forelimbs pushing me off the ground with relative ease onto my back legs, only for me to realize in that moment, much to late, that I was no longer a biped. As my hindquarters folded under my weight and I fell backwards, rolling across my back in an awkward tumble, right into a nearby tree. I lay there on my back as something not quite like, but close enough to, pain exploded through my head having hit itself in the fall. Swirls of color danced through my sight as I tried to blink away my pain and dizziness, that wooden clacking sounding with each blink. catching glimpses of my body through my dizziness and blinking I saw that i was indeed a creature of four legs now, recognizing the configuration of joints and such as i stared across my upturned belly. I only vaguely acknowledged that I was made of wood, thinking nothing of it though at the time.

'Charming, I'm a... well... not human... I never did like that form anyways... how bad can this one be?' I Winced at the last part even as it sounded in my cranium.

I rolled to my feet again, and carefully making only the minimum effort as I did so. The sensations... they just felt so ... different. Not even the new orientation, my body itself felt... detached. Almost as if I was wearing a thick glove, only the sensation spread across my body. I only felt a few things give that familiar sensation of stretching and pulling like the muscles I'd lived with for almost twenty five years. I felt nothing else actually move... I was simply aware of my limbs locations and position, and yet I could feel the wind across my back, and the dirt beneath my feet....a quick curious glance down and back told me I had paws now... wooden paws, with ragged lumps of rock embedded in them as crude claws.

'Well... cats have claws that retract, so I'm not a cat... the wood motif is starting to bug me though... I look so... brittle.' I eyed the nearly rail thin sticks that made up the thinner parts of my legs, already doubting the durability of my new form. After all, if I was made of actual wood like it seemed, and not just really good natural camouflage, then just about any spark or flame would make easy work of me. A mental image already forming unbidden, but dismissed quickly with a shake of my head, a creaking of wood accompanying my movement, confirming my fears of the nature of my body.

I sighed, or at least mimicked the motions of it, and looked around the clearing. I thought to get a better idea of my environment, even going so far as to pace around the rather miniscule clearing I found myself in. It was at least roughly 12 feet or so across, I thought to myself, but again doubt set in, as I knew nothing about my own size, and this being, possibly, a new world, I doubted the trustworthiness of the plant sizes around me.

In the midst of my doubt I caught sight of the 'bushy' tail i had, and stopped to more thoroughly inspect it, my curiosity thankfully quenching the rising doubt. My tail was some sort of narrow dead bush, dried and brittle looking it's twigs and branches rattled with each movement. I noted that at several locations along the primary stalks that the wood of it was twisted and frayed, allowing my tail to actually flex and bend as i moved it. I could've grinned at the cleverness of it had I a mouth capable of it. I noticed also a series of vacant pits along the brush stems in my tail, and looked it over more thoroughly to try and figure out what they were, and found myself rewarded half way up my tail when i found what looked to be needle like thorns easily one or two inches, I think, in length.

'Hmm... maybe that's meant to deter other creatures from grabbing it...at least I seem to have something interesting other than being made of wood... why they picked this body I'll probably never know.' The inflection of my thoughts lead me to roll my eyes at myself, I mean, I always had a habit of talking to myself, but in this situation I think that small amount of lunacy is probably all that let me keep my sanity.

I looked around the grove I was in, hoping to find one of two things. Either a pool of water I may have overlooked, or an obvious path out. Unfortunately, as was per my usual luck, neither presented themselves. internalizing a series of minor curses and complaints I picked a random direction and moved towards it, moving shakily on my feet as I continued to adjust to moving with four legs. It didn't seem all that hard actually after a few steps, the flow starting to become familiar, until my world exploded into a flurry of stars and swirling colors.

I barely managed to recognize that it was my head that was experiencing this strange perception of pain as my body skid across the dirt back into the clearing from the edge. 'That... that was different... not quite a truck, but damn... ' I righted myself back to my feet, shaking my vision clear with that annoying rattle of dry wood, and looked back at where my vision decided to a wonderful impression of a rainbow paintball.

The shrubbery looked as it had before my approach, and summary ejection there from. In all honesty I would have missed the obvious had it not given itself away that day. There, sitting on the edge of the clearing was a Fern, long stalk like stems with those narrow, slender leaves like one would expect, however at the end of one of it's stems was a roughly green disk that sat in the dirt, much like a growing fruit that was too heavy for it's branch.

I narrowed my gaze on it, finding the sight peculiar. Why, I almost went right up to push it around with my paw had it not moved then. I nearly jumped in surprise as the fern lifted this weighted disk and coiled it's stem back around the disk, retracting into the core of the fern where I could see several other coils sitting in wait.

'Great, I'm not even out of bed and the shrubbery already wants to kill me. I know my luck is less than standard, but c'mon!' I sneered at the plant, eyeballing it, gauging the length of it's fronds before I carefully stalked my way towards it. Just outside the range I had judged it at, two of the coils lashed out at me, my reactive jerk backwards all that saved me then from a pair of swirling, multicolored headaches just then. I let a snarl actually escape from my mouth at the plant, the fern seemingly reacting as it swiftly coiled up the two fronds and lashed out with another four despite my not being within striking range.

Honestly, why I didn't react with wild disbelief and wonder at the apparently active plant is something that bothers me to this day. In my world, the most reaction one could get out of a plant would be a particularly healthy fly trap with it's spring like snap jaws. This? This, thing that sat rooted in the ground before me was something out of my world's realms of fantasy, and I just sat there calling it names.

After shaking my unsavory thoughts at the plant, I paced around the clearing noticing much to my chagrin that the whole area was surrounded by these ferns. I wanted to set fire to everything and be done with it. After all, how dare they, only mere plants, impede my efforts to move about as I wished! Oh I was so arrogant, still am, but even having been hurled around from one world to another and given a new body wasn't enough to crush my pride.

A few minutes spent judging the gaps between the plants left me with only one conclusion. I would have to wade through them and hope for them to thin out after enduring their assault. ' This will not be a pleasant experience'.

_______________________________________=______________________________________

I limped my way through the woods hours later, wincing with each step of my right foreleg. The ferns had a good deal more wallop to them than I had anticipated, and that coupled with the numerous tries I had to make left me worse for wear because of it. My shoulder was heavily cracked, the wood that made up it's form shattered and splintered, even now flakes and chips fell whenever I stumbled or stepped too hard.

The rest of the forest, unlike the clearing grove place I had woken up in, was dark and noticeably devoid of direct sunlight. Something I very much did not like as a fact, though I took great pleasure in enjoying the ambiance. My home land was overly sunny, never did like that facet of it. However, now as I found myself surrounded by dense plant growth and who knows what else lurking within said plant life, the lack of direct sunlight was disturbing.

'This place is kinda nice... but I wouldn't want to live here... erg, hope it doesn't up being the case.'

It took me several hours of directionless wandering before I began to feel as if I was making any progress. The forest seemed noticeably less... oppressive. This both concerned and relieved me, after all, why would a forest this think and intent on choking out the sun suddenly want to thin out?

The reduction in general underbrush left the dirt exposed to my vision, and I took to gazing at it whenever looking into shadows grew boring. The dirt looked disturbed, pushed to the side and into piles every few steps. Some of the plants by the roots of some of the tree's bore torn stems, snapped twigs, leaves torn in half. Curiosity kept my gaze on these plants as I passed them, my thoughts torn between the unreality of what I was, where I was, and what I was seeing.

'I am a quadrupedal creature made of wood. This is a heavily dense forest with reactive plant life. There are signs of something either consuming or harvesting the lower plants. Charming. ' The sounds of the forest around me began to thin out, my attention to this detail was peculiar and yet I failed to notice the oddity of my sensitivity at the time. At some point I began to put the regularly torn brush and the regularly shuffled dirt together as two parts of some whole. It was making me think of footsteps and harvesting.

' So, someone is here in the woods, harvesting whatever these are. They drag their feet... huh... I'm on a path... when did that form?' I stopped in my tracks and looked closer at the dirt as I mulled that last line of thoughts over in my wooden noggin. When did I start thinking so clearly? I couldn't recall why, or how but since my awakening, my thoughts had been unusually clear. Devoid of the numerous ... distractions, I was used to dealing with.

A shake of my head, wood grinding against wood as I moved forward again, following the shuffled dirt now, tracks meaning there was something to find. Well, something other than those damnable ferns. ' I'll have to find some way to make those things burn.' Hmm, in retrospect, I held some very violent thoughts, even then.

It wouldn't be for another couple of hours of walking slowly, methodically, down this dirt path I had found before I finally found my destination. At least, I hoped it was my destination. It was a tree, thick and warped, stouter than any of the other nearby trees. From there at the edge of the clearing surrounding it, I could make out a door and several windows worked into the tree's very trunk, lit from within.

My curiosity was most certainly piqued at this unnatural natural structure. After all, such things were practically non existent in my home realm. So what better course of action than to throw caution to the wind and explore! .... Really. My snout was to the handle sniffing at it instinctively in seconds. There was something on the handle that made me think 'person'. I pushed at the wooden barrier with my snout, but felt it resist my efforts. Stepping back, I gave it a rather indignant glare before raising myself up and shoving with my front paws, or was it kicking now? I wasn't sure, but even still the door did not budge and I found access to the location still denied to me by a simple door.

' Just dandy. I get a new form in some gods forsaken backwoods place and I don't have any damn thumbs... figures... No one ever remembers that thumbs are integral to being a good adventurer.' I snorted once and padded over to the window next to the door, peering in and catching a constrained view of the items inside. A cauldron sitting over a fire, and shelves lining the walls, stocked to the brim with plants and books, and other various items I couldn't begin to identify.

' Hmm.... wise old hermit? Nah, they wouldn't be that cliche, would they?' I perked a single eyebrow, or I think I did anyways, not sure if I even had them then. I doubted whoever lived here was actually present, as my wooden form slamming on the front door would've certainly gotten their attention by now. So, I resigned myself to waiting it out for them and simply curled up and lay myself under the window, muzzle on my paws.

... not too sure how long it was before I dozed off.

_______________________________________=______________________________________

My first thoughts upon waking some time later centered around the fact that I had slept. Sort of. It's hard to explain so I'll tell you about that experience later in the story, but the second thing I thought of when I woke up, was the door to my right. It had been slammed shut, and even in my groggy state I could hear somebody working to block the door from the inside.

That smell I had picked up off the door when I arrived hung heavy in the air, it's owner apparently having returned while I was asleep. Knowing allready that I wouldn't be getting the door open, I sat up and turned myself around to peer in the window. Inside staring quite intently back at me with no small amount of obvious fear was a four legged creature quite smaller than myself. I'd draw out the suspense and describe the person in detail, but I'm certain you knew as soon as I did then that I was looking at a Pony. Well, a Zebra, but same difference.

' A pygmy Zebra... with jewellery... if I didn't know any better, I'd swear that's Zecora.'

" A creature such as you is a fearsome foe, but I'd much appreciate it if you just go!" The zebra inside spoke out at me, her voice clear, if somewhat shaken. Her gaze held fear, obviously, but if I knew anything about reading body language at all then, I'm certain her eyes also held curiosity for me.

'..... shit.... it, she, spoke... and rhymed... there's no way that's not Zecora... unless I'm hallucinating that vividly again...' I tilted my head to one side, wood scraping on wood as I did so, gazing through her window at her through the sparse crossbars of the wood in the frame.

I mulled the revelation over in my head for a few minutes, just staring intently at the zebra inside as she nervously moved about her hut, collecting a few things from shelves. She never took her eye off me though.

' Okay.... crazy god things.... sent me to another realm, new body... realm has Zecora... so this must be the Everfree forest of Equestria. Easy enough logic to follow I suppose... wooden body, four legs, bushy tail. I'm a Timberwolf.... I'm a... well shit... that's going to make things difficult.' I let out a whining noise from somewhere inside my chest as this newest revelation soured my climbing mood, and decided I wanted inside. So I moved away from the window and back to the door... and began scratching at it, digging light grooves into the hard wood with my claws.

" Go away you strange and wooden brute! That door will make your efforts moot!" Something was hurled out the window I had been sitting in front of just shortly ago. What ever it was it shattered and spilled across the ground in the clearing. I simply ignored it for the time being and set back to digging at the door's wood.

My stubborn efforts only served to prove Zecora's claim of the door's strength true. Even as I finally ceased pawing at it, her chuckle reached my ears driving just a smidgen of irritation into me. I would've cut a snarky remark back at her through her window as I moved back to it, but had to duck as another flask of something came sailing through it. I yelped lightly and let out a short growl before glowering at her through her window.

' Oi! I haven't done jack all to you lady! Eesh! I thought you ponies were supposed to be friendly.' I snorted loudly through my nostrils at her, an action that gave me the small satisfaction of her flinching back behind her cauldron again. 'Serves you right. Not like I've snarled or barked at you dammit. I'm just gonna lay down here until you stop being stupid.' I huffed at her and curled up to settle down again, ignoring the glaringly obvious fact that she couldn't hear me thinking loudly at her.

I lay there mulling my thoughts over, trying to make absolutely certain I wasn't utterly bat shit crazy for the next long while. Inside I could hear Zecora slow set about collecting ingredients, the occasionally clinking of bottles, the ruffling of herbs and paper, as well as the scraping of the wooden stirring stick scraping against the cauldron giving her activity away. I figured somewhere in the midst of my thinking that she was probably trying to concoct something that would 'save' her from me. I let out a throaty growl of a chuckle at this thought.

I suppose it was some time later that she came to the window, my sense of time wasn't ever too accurate. I heard her tap something wooden against the window's sill and felt something fall against my leg. It's strange honestly, feeling things through a wooden hide. I'm not sure if you know what a glove is, or how something feels through it, but that's the best way I have to describe what it was like. I snorted once, choosing to ignore it in favor of waiting out her fear of me.

The first clue that something was up, was the strange numbness of my body receding from my leg, followed closely by an acrid rotten smell reaching my snout. The final nail in these clues was the searing sensation that, despite it's clear difference to pain, was near enough to have me bolt to my feet in an instant. My leg felt like it was on fire! The sensation was burning, seething, pins and needles racing up and down my back leg as I bounced around the clearing outside her hut on my three good legs.

I yelped more than once as I threw myself to the ground and rolled across the dirt, bounced to my feet and threw myself back down again, a whine of pain echoing inside my fibrous torso. Whatever that witch had dumped on me, it burned like nothing other than fire itself! I leapt back up to feet and threw my hips up and through the air with a jerk of my shoulders, slamming my assaulted flank and limb into a tree trunk with a rotten crunch, chips of myself and strips of bark flaking off violently under the force of the impact. I've rolled, I've ground the burning spot into the dirt, I've tried to slam the stuff off, nothing works yet.

The pain though, as a human I had never had to deal with quite this level of sharp pain. My ability to think rationally was rapidly dwindling as the pain kept climbing in sharpness and intensity. Why not just rip it off? It's only wood after all. So I did.. I wrenched my head around, snapping my jaws down on the offending leg, sharp thorn teeth digging into and splintering the wood of it. More pain, sharp and tearing pain joining the burning sensation, but was a welcome distraction as I dug my bite in and pulled. I felt tendrils and stems of some fibrous plants between the wood of my leg stretch and tear under my pull. It took me two tries before I was able to finally wrench my own leg off and toss it across the dirt clearing, my pain instantly gone. I stood there, my rear falling to the dirt as I held myself up on my front legs staring at the now severed limb.

I watched as the wood and plant fibers of my limb began to crumble in upon itself, as if aging rapidly. I narrowed my gaze and dragged myself over to sniff it once, pulling my snout back as I recognized the smell too quickly. Stump Remover. The Zebra had dumped Magical Stump Remover on me. I've been in Equestria less than a day, and a rhyming zebra had nearly murdered me with gods thrice damned magical stump remover!

I turned my head to the hut and let out a series of harsh barks, my thorn fangs falling out before the stump remover on them could rot up into my head, new thorns already growing in. I could see her staring back out at me in fear before I let my barks loose, and snarled at her to drive the point home as I pushed myself up onto my three legs and carefully hobbled out of the clearing and back into the underbrush of what I now recognized as the Everfree.

' Forget that, stupid ponies scare too easily.'

Comments

[Zeromant]

well, It's been up less than six hours and I've already got a pair of dislikes with no comments. This... bothers me, but then again, first fanfic, it's expected I suppose. All I'd ask really is for the first two chapters to be read together rather than just the first one by itself, and for some feedback from those who dislike. To everyone else? enjoy.

Edit: I just realized why this chapter feels so slow to me. I'm still trying to set up how he thinks and reacts for the readers so they can understand him with fewer words in later chapters. You'd think I'd realize this sooner seeing as I'm the writer here well! there's that!

[Chewed Pencil]

Hmmm.... I like it. Seems kinda high-brow though. is it just because he is that intelligent?

Also, Where are you on the Timeline?

[Zeromant]

870346

yeah, he is very intelligent. Strong critical thinking skills, but it's easily futzed up by strong emotions if he can't maintain composure.

As for Timeline, I decided to start earlier than most, hell, probably earliest of all i think... I'm about to go and confirm if Zecora was in the forest before the show began, if so, Tiberius is there before the series began. Gives me plenty of time to work in the arcs I want without having to struggle to keep up with everyone elses stories. I would like to discuss what you have in mind for the Everfree Timberwolves privately though, See if we can work out a shared 'canon' between us concerning them.

[Baboosh]

this is ganna be an interesting view point. Can't wait to see more!

[Zeromant]

870741

ahh, i suppose that's true, hadn't thought about that, thanks for pointing that out to me. Eases the mind, that's for sure.

[TheEnemyCube]

Don't know why this has so many dislikes... Blarg of sadness for you. But anyways, good job so far, so blarg of yay for you too!

[The Rogue Wolf]

Well, I've given both chapters a read. There's nothing technically wrong with them, aside from a few misspellings, random capitalization and some incorrect usage of apostrophies. Nothing that would send me throwing my window open and screaming my rage to the heavens or the like.

I think if I had to lodge a (relatively) major complaint, it's that the story tends to meander, re-describe what we've already been told or go into a lot of detail with objects when it's not really warranted. (For example, in "Exodus", the description of the mental battle was a bit difficult for me to follow, due to a sort of "getting lost in details".) I understand that the narrative is a story being told by a character who may not be skilled at the task, but it can still be off-putting. Being economical with words is an oft-undervalued skill, and it takes a lot of practice to know what needs a lot of description and what can manage with only a few words.

That's only my opinion, though, and my own writing style has enough rough edges and blemishes that I don't hold the illusion of being an authority or even an expert. I for one find this story rather intriguing (who's done an HiE story where the character takes the form of a timberwolf?) and hope you continue on.

[Zeromant]

1563426 I see. All good things i haven't heard before. The whole being economical with my words though, that's new. I'll have to reread to see if I can spot what you mean myself.

As for the random capitalization, I could a sworn I'd gotten those during my last clean up. musta missed several still

Any pointers you could give me on how to keep a story going in terms of short term goals when dealing with writers block? that's my biggest issue at the moment, I know what I want to achieve next chapter, but kinda drawing blanks on how to do it really. Generic tips should be all I need really, but I've been stuck long enough to warrant getting help where ever I can in this regard honestly.

[The Rogue Wolf]

1563726 Writer's block... my old nemesis. I could build my own castle out of writer's blocks.

There's a handful of things I try when the creative juice just ain't flowin': Skip the part I'm having trouble with and go to another, reread the story from the beginning to restore my sense of "story flow", work on another project (sometimes completely unrelated to the story, or even writing in general). Another thing that I do, since I'm a highly visual-centric person, is "play" the story in my head as if it were a movie, and then try to imagine how the scene should progress.

One thing about the "try another project" recommendation is that it might help even more if your side-project is something completely different to what you're working on. In my case, Reinventing Trixie was a complete change of pace from Crossed Paths, and I found it a good way to "cleanse my palate" from all the grimdark

[Zeromant]

1569104 Huh... that makes a fair amount of sense, I'll be sure to give each a shot. Thank you for those ideas.

[Judoon_Warrior]

Is this story dead?

[Zeromant]

3625507 Not really, i've just been dealing with a lot of family emergencies the last year and a half that keep me from sitting down to continue it. That's finally cleared up, so i'll probably get back to it in a week or two.

[Snowfyre]

3626285 certainly seems dead to me

[Zeromant]

5411006 I've actually been considering a rewrite honestly. I'm pretty sure I jumped the gun when i decided to make it part of the chess game, and not stepping on toes is what's been keeping me from finding a solution. SO, it's not dead, but I should put it under hiatus along with my other story until I figure out wtf I'm doing. I will say I'm glad someone cares enough to have commented after so long, even if only to call it dead xD any suggestions you might have are welcomed.

[Snowfyre]

5413560 as far as I'm concerned the chess game seems dead as well as I've not really seen any new stories, or even updates for that matter, for a while now and since your not that far along you can probably very easily remove that aspect of it. In fact you can still keep how he gets to equestrian the same if you wish, just have to change those gods motivation for doing so. I'm still very interested in seeing how he would live as a Timberwolf

[Zeromant]

5413917 yeah, I think I might have an idea now thanks to you, Time to edit and trim.

[Zeromant]

5413917 as a matter of fact, i'll be rewording a lot of the first chapter, try and fix some of my run on sentences, etc etc. So I'll let you know when that's done if you want to reread them after that.

[Snowfyre]

5414165 looking forward to it then, and looking forward to future chapters :D

[Shadow of doubt]

Definitely looking forward to more.

[Rob_Rhapsody]

Why are you taking forever to write a new chapter? Ive been waiting for months! Just hurry up, I wanna know how it ends!