Chapter 3. I thrived. (Wilderness, Part 3)
My picking grounds were getting terribly thin on spots I hadn't already plundered. I knew I needed to find a better source of food soon. I needed to expand my search territory and find something other than bugs to eat. Actually, I needed to start looking for civilization again, but I knew I wasn't quite ready. I needed to become more competent in finding food, water and tools.
It was a bizarre conundrum. I needed to move around to keep from exhausting my resources, but moving around could also mean getting lost and failing to find resources again. That lake was the only source of water I knew of and the water skin in my pack might hold a day's worth of water in it.
I got a fire going to cook the leg I managed to keep away from everything but the crows who had just barely gotten started on the exposed end of the leg. I took the leg down, chopped it up as best I could with the crowbar and tiny temporary blade I had, set the good parts out to cook and made sure to give the tidbits and other parts I wasn't sure about to the crows.
Now you might ask why did I throw the tidbits to the crows? The answer was because I knew some creatures like other primates, certain birds, and other higher intelligence creatures—like crows—were known to hold grudges. I had just taken away the easy picking they didn't have to compete against the ground scavengers for. Naturally, I wanted to show I was willing to share with them. The last thing I wanted to do was have crows attack me later on down the road when I could potentially avoid it now.
After getting the meat going, I went about other tasks. I had so many I needed to do now that my meal was already cooking so early in the day I knew I should try to take a good chunk out of my list. I needed to get back to finding food other than bugs, I needed to try knapping a proper knife actually capable of carving up a kill out of the large lump of flint that had been sitting on the shore. I also needed to work on experimenting on my new found water breathing ability to make sure I understood it right.
...That last one was probably going to stay on the bottom of my to do list. I wasn't exactly eager to test it.
"If only the create water spell that water genasi are supposed to have worked along with my water breathing," I grumbled to myself as I resharpened my spear from the other day. It was just lying there washed up on the shore and was easier than carving a new one from scratch. So naturally I took the blessing as it came.
Since I had small critters eating at the bulk of the dead black bear instead of larger creatures like a pack of wolves, I used the situation to my advantage. I didn't really want to eat after an opossum, or even eat something that had been marinading in its own blood instead of being drained lest I get sick. So I practiced fishing with my spear in about the same spot as I had the day before, keeping an eye on the campfire and an ear on the critters chomping down. While the bulk of the meat was going to waste, I could still use them as an early warning system should something try to sneak up on me again today.
I wasn't having as much luck on the fishing that day as I did the day before. My bear meat was actually done before I managed to catch a fish. But surprisingly I did feel like I was getting a better feel for it. I just knew I had to be careful to not over fish any fishing hole. I could lean on it a little, but I had make sure I didn't become dependent on it then run the holes devoid of fish, like I was starting to do with the bugs.
With the first bit of meat stowed away for safe keeping I set a second bit of fish meat cooking from my eventual catch on some sticks. I also did my best to work on knapping the flint stone and getting my water skin topped off for tomorrow with water, sterilized by boiling it in the tin. Whether I managed to get a knife or not, I decided I needed to start looking around and expand my knowledge of the area more. I couldn't afford to wait for perfect conditions.
About twenty minutes in, after a few botched attempts and lightly mashed fingers, I broke off a decent chunk. At first I thought it was just another misshaped piece that was useless but upon sticking my fingers into my mouth on smashing them yet again, I took enough of a pause to see value in it.
It wasn't enough to be a large knife of quality, but if I tried, I should be able to make a small shiv knife out of it.
I knew even before I finished it, it wouldn't be any good in a fight with about a one inch blade and a dinky handle I would only get about half my fingers around, but still better than my excuse for a barbie doll sized executioner's axe. I'd at least be able to get the leverage needed to carve up an animal right with it. Had I had this yesterday, I might have been able to salvage more than one dangling leg from the bear.
I wrapped the knife's handle part up in a bit of the cloth that had protected my hand from the digging a few nights earlier and took a moment to admire it. No matter what way I looked at it, I knew the thing would probably only last a half a dozen, maybe a dozen uses if I were careful. It was a piece of junk knife, but it was still my piece of junk knife.
I looked at the big piece of flint I had been trying to knap, up at the soon to be noon sun and then to my hands. I had bruised fingers on one hand, and the slowly healing blisters on the other. "Yea. I got time, but not a whole lot of hand left to spare. This is about as good as I am going to get right now."
Once lunch was ready, I contemplated if I should do something else or confirm what had happened the day before as I ate my fish. Ultimately, there was no getting around it. I had to confirm my ability or I might screw up later.
Not trusting my newfound meat reserves to the crows or other scavengers, I put the bear meat in my cooking tin and left them to dry in the still slightly aflame fire pit. Hopefully I'd get something like jerky out of it when I got back and not charcoal... or have them stolen.
I carefully stepped out into the water barefoot, and slowly lowered myself to the water's surface. I was just deep enough to dip my head in without disturbing the mud below, but shallow enough to easily pull myself out in the likelihood that this ended up being a bad idea.
This was it, I was actually going to try to breathe water on purpose. The thought had crossed my mind the last few weeks, but considering I didn't have any of the other abilities of a water genasi I figured I probably didn't have this one and it wasn't worth trying. Now though, I had reason to believe I could. So I had to make sure.
I lowered my face to the water, closed my eyes and froze. I tried to inhale but my lungs were stubbornly holding my breath. I had to wade a little further in, push my head further under water, face forward into the lake, and angrily force my lungs to empty. Then I commanded my lungs with sheer determination to take in a chunk of water.
My lungs buckled out of reflex and I almost surfaced, but it passed almost as fast as it came. My lungs weren't fighting it anymore. In fact they were asking for more.
I knelt there, at the shore of the lake, breathing water while carefully monitoring my vitals. Pulse was relatively non-elevated, the lungs weren't burning for air and my senses weren't blurring out as if I were drowning.
I pulled my head out of the water and held my breath for a moment, still full of water. Sure enough, after a few seconds the burning sensation arose, the pulse quickened and the urge to exhale came, though only mildly before I acted. Naturally I obliged and coughed out the water before things escalated.
I took a long moment to catch my breath and make sure I was good before trying again. With a quick check on my stuff at shore I could see the crows were leaving it alone and nothing was around.
I once again knelt below the surface and forced myself to take the water into my lungs. This time however, after steadying my breathing, I made a point to hold my breath, while staying under water. As expected, the burning sensation and desire to exhale came back. I held it just long enough to know it wasn't simply my mind playing tricks on me, telling me I needed it, then exhaled and took in more water.
It was a little slower than air, possibly due to the slight increase in the amount of force needed to push a liquid instead of a gas, but sure enough I was catching my breath even while under water.
* * *
With the first outright awesome thing to happen since getting here confirmed, I did something that was probably irresponsible. I took the afternoon off from survival and just played in the water. I swam around, scaring some of the fish, did laps around the lake, and went diving for treasures.
I did notice the breathing was slightly harder the deeper I went, but it didn't suddenly stop and I was still fine as long as I stayed calm. Whether it was the pressure, or the lack of oxygen at a lower depth, I don't know, but I made note of it nonetheless.
As for treasures, I surprised myself: I had found a pouch of similar build to my backpack at the bottom of the lake. It was probably a part of my supplies that had sank as I was drifting to shore. In the pouch I found a magnifying glass, small rods of metal with sharpened ends and a small number of tiny gems that were probably not worth a whole lot considering how many where there. I playfully put the pouch over my shoulder and kept searching the nearby area.
The only other thing I found was simple, but significant. A squiggly bit of metal with a handle at the end was sitting handle down in the mud. I stared at it a moment before I recognized it. It was Moss's Wand of Lightning Bolts, the only magic item I had gotten from playing with my group. I carefully picked it up and put it in the pouch. While it was cool, it was also a reminder of this being my D&D character's body, and in turn it was a reminder of my old life. Of all the things that I could find that would have normally been cool, that had to be the most anti-climatic buzz kill of my life. I solemnly returned to the surface and got back to survival mode.
The only other thing I found worth mentioning as I packed up for the day was that I made a mental note to repeat this experiment as a formality with another body of water, to make sure it was indeed me and not just the lake.
With a clearer head and a better feel for what I could and couldn't do from the weeks past, I set out to expand my territory and maybe get some leads that would get me to civilization. I started in the direction I had made an educated guess was leading out of Ash's territory. In spite of the attempt to get away from bear country, I still kept my fishing spear at hand and my crowbar within easy access. I had seen at least two bears now and I doubt the next one I met would be as indifferent to me as Ash has been.
I actually recognized some of the spots I had bumbled through on my first attempt. I had to suppress a bit of self directed schadenfreude like laughter when I saw the things I did wrong the first time. Running around in a panic really messed with your sense of direction.
This continued on for several days, with me finding new watering holes, another fishing spot, all sorts of spots I could look for bugs at—that I made note of but only lightly delved into—and even what looked like a fruit bearing tree with blossoms just starting to bloom. Hopefully I wouldn't be here long enough to need it.
Yes, I had found ample food and water by what I approximated was the end of my third week. But the real eye opener was what I discovered on the last day of the third week, just before I started to turn back and return to my den.
Standing in front of me in the middle of a clearing was something I hadn't expected to see. A zebra was there, slowly approaching me. This was strange because zebra's were native to savanna lands in or at least close to the tropics last time I guessed. This forest felt more like a temperate zone and definitely was not a savanna.
But what else I noticed surprised me more. It was wearing jewelry. Multiple brightly polished rings were around its neck and front left leg. It was also sporting impressive loops of the same metal dangling from its ears.
The thing that surprised me the most, however, was what it did when it came near.
"E tvsephi tohjv yuos gusn it natv izqsitt, cuv O ximduni yua vu Iwisgsii popivjimitt. Yuas xomm vu mowi epf miv mowi O fu dunnipf. Puv nepy e cioph xomm e dsux demm e gsoipf."
I could only fall backwards prone on the ground at what I just heard. The rhythm, the complexity of sound, the way it seemed to rhyme. I didn't need to call on that bizarre sense of intuition that came with the tingle in the back of my neck to tell me what that was. I had already figured it out on my own: That zebra had just spoke to me.
I had no idea what it said, but looking into those larger than average eyes I found an intelligence far surpassing that of what I saw in Ash's eyes. This creature was sentient, sapient, and whatever words would otherwise only apply to a person and not just some animal. With the way she looked at me while I was sprawled on the ground, she knew I was more than some animal too. I honestly had no idea what to think of at that point.
When a crow landed next to me and cawed, I finally went over the edge. I shuffled backwards about a yard, got up, turned around and ran back to my den as fast as I could, abandoning my fishing spear/walking stick in my haste.
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Because he is a water type will he be able to learn how to minipulate water in the future
8680544
)
The character he's modeled after would be able to, yes. Now if he could... That's another story. (this story!
8680696
yay hes a waterbender will he meet a fire bender or an earthbender oh will the pegusi be airbenders eath ponys would seem like earthbenders i am rambling now
8681197
Umm... before you do more "rambling" I want to remind you and anyone that's reading this comment that this story is a crossover of MLP and Dungions and Dragons 5e (fifth edition). The magic in this story will be based on either of these franchises, including limitations. While what you say about characters in D&D being able to "water bend" is kinda sorta similar in concept, it is not based off Avatar the Last Air Bender, nor is it nearly as flexible in D&D.
You might want to look up Water genasi's in the Elemental Evil player's companion. (The PDF version is free of charge.) as well as some of the 5e basic rules or the 5e player handbook. Sadly I can't seem to find any free link to basic rules. If you can't do that, then at least prepare yourself for the boring rules of tabletop RPG to dampen the range of potential magic abilities.
Now, with the party pooping out of the way, It's nice to see you're getting excited. Just didn't want to get mislead from not being familiar with the series/franchise. (That's the job of all the red herrings I put in my stories!
)
Eyy, nice to see a D&D character make their way to this little land of happiness and low CR creatures. Could you give us a stat block and proficiencies for this Genasi of yours? No Class Features, Feats, or spells yet, mind you - he doesn't seem to have the Verbal, Somatic, and Material parts to his spells down yet.
8681918
Actually... I was hoping that would be prime material for the readers to try to figure out in time as more and more clues come in. (but yes, there is an actual character sheet for him)
8681918
as for profficencies and stat blocks... I'll meet you half way: he definitely has exactly 4 skill proficiencies that have been serving him well so far, but not flawlessly. (although the whole he's not actually his character, just in his character's form does affect decision making to an extent.) As for his stat block... I'm not comfortable sharing that right yet. I want some people to make some educated guesses to them first as the story progresses.
I will hint, however, that his 4 skill profficencies do stack well with his stats. Have fun with that little tidbit my little theorist.
8681943
Dear, I have been foiled! Oh well, it was worth a try.
I'm trying to write my own sort-of crossover, using a Four Elements Monk-style Tales of Equestria character, and this has given me a lot of inspiration for it, so thanks.
8681979
I'd love to swap notes some time.
But If I were to give advice: Be careful about information dumps and keep them as small/few/integrated into the flow of the story as you can manage. Realize that you need to write for 2 audiences: one where they don't know what's going on and you need to give them enough information to keep up without overwhelming them, and a second where they know everything about the source material and don't need you to to feed them information they already know. Find a balance between them that keeps both entertained without having to just dump info. Exposition in mass can be a real buzz kill for a reader of either end of the spectrum. Sometimes when the reader only has small hints to the bigger picture or only partial explanations, it can help draw people into the story.
(thus why I'm not just dumping the entirety of his stats into the story in one large chunk.)