1- At least it wasn't a librarian's nor a princess' spell going wild, I hope...
The forest I was walking in was getting darker and darker. How peculiar, I didn't remember such a place here and it was starting to get into my nerves. There wasn't a sign, or a limit, or any other landmark telling me that I was getting into another area, it just happened. This was the kind of creepy sensation that something is out of place but you can't put your finger on it, the place just got darker and darker, plants growing everywhere and the path harder and harder to follow.
Hiking is relaxing, a nice therapy and tension release from a life in a city and everyday problems. You can also get some exercise into your body and also helps the mind to get some distance from any other human being and just connect with nature for a while. I was hoping to have one of those days. I decided to go camping and hiking in a nearby little nice area and decided to explore some after I parked my car, all by myself. I packed light, just one of those self-assembling tents for the night, a few cans of food, my trusty canteen full of water and a few more frozen bottles in an ice box, my cellphone and my gimmicky solar panel and power bank to charge it just in case and an assortment of various knick-knacks. This far away from civilization lights, I could even have a half decent night of stargazing as long as I didn’t look in the city’s direction.
But back to the issue at hand…
I walked five minutes into that dark place more or less but I didn't like it, so I decided to go back. Following my own tracks, piece of cake, I just came here walking straight, so it should be easy to get out.
Six, eight, ten minutes walking in the opposite direction and nothing happened. Did I got lost in this place? I just walked a few minutes on a straight line! Well... plan B, my trusty cell phone an it's little GPS apps.
No line... how peculiar. I wasn't that far away from civilization... And before getting into this little creepy area I had perfect telephone coverage, this is dark magic! I haven’t seen a purple flash of magic or something like that, so it should be the internet service getting funny just when I needed it the most.
Well... plan C. I had already downloaded the maps for this area, therefore I shouldn't need a line. When you go hiking all by yourself you need to take a lot of precautions, because you don't have anyone to ask for help in case you need it so I took my phone fully charged, my before mentioned power bank and the pesky solar panel that takes forever to charge anything. Just in case the battery indicator decided to go wild. If you have ever had a cell phone you know how their batteries are... especially when you need them most.
As I was saying... Flight mode activate! I don't need the phone to spend all the battery looking for a nonexistent line and then I turned on the GPS and waited. And waited... and waited... ten minutes already and nothing happened. Well, sometimes, the GPS app gets a little funny, but I had another support app for finding GPS satellites that I turned on immediately.
The little app said that there weren’t any satellites nearby. Ok, maybe the GPS antenna turned off for some reason (I know for sure that in this model you can use the GPS while in flight mode, GPS is a passive location system that only needs to receive signals, but doesn’t emit anything, so it’s perfectly compatible with the flight mode, I also tried to turn off the flight mode for a few minutes just in case). Ok, it's fine... Just restart the phone... Nothing happened. Restart the line... nothing happened. Restart all the restart-able stuff... nothing happened.
Well... I guess the IT gods have abandoned me. I put the phone in a pocket with the location services activated. It happens sometimes, usually when you need it the most. If it weren't for the fact that I was lost in this creepy place, I would've been perfectly calm, just waited, relaxed and looked for my way back, but I wanted to get out of there, and fast. The nagging sensation of being watched and the creepy, uncanny, dark forest were getting into my nerves, and fast.
Plan D: Orientate myself by traditional methods. I took the compass and checked the sun's position... Hmmm... the sun's position... Is already that late? It should be up, but it was setting. And my watch was telling me it was just midday. Ok, this place was starting to play tricks on my mind. The urge to get out of there was increased. I had at least an hour of light before things could really start to get dicey.
And then, just like that, when I was expecting at least half an hour of sunlight and then some more time of residual light, the Sun went suddenly down, the sky was replaced by a sea of stars and darkness enveloped me.
“Wait… That’s illegal in many countries, Sun, just come back up!” I yelled at the universe in general, pointing at the night sky.
“Murphy! I didn’t even say the ‘at least it couldn’t be worse!’ What the fuck!?” I said to no one in particular as I picked up my flashlight.
Okay, I’m a human being, the pinnacle of nature evolution, the craftiest of the craftiest, the almighty, always resourceful human. I could already feel the panic and I needed to calm down. Panic could make you do stupid things, and the last thing I needed right now was ‘stupid’ to happen. My analytic brain was the most powerful tool on Earth, and I needed to take full advantage of it.
That magnificent tool also provided the plausible, but totally not helpful mention that I could as well be going crazy, because nothing made sense anymore, not even the sun. I could have probably fainted without realizing it, that would explain the sudden change of time.
But… not the watch. The watch still said it was 1 PM, it should be brightly lit outside. And the phone, and the sudden mockery the sun made when I was trying to orient myself… At this point I was completely panicked, my hands and legs trembled, but I forced myself to do the most reasonable thing I could think of.
Well... the most reasonable thing that crossed my mind was to walk on a straight line to the West. I came here walking to the East, so, if I kept walking West, I should find a landmark, or something familiar.
After half an hour of walking, something caught my eye. A giant castle in the middle of nowhere. It was in ruins and covered in vegetation, protected by a ravine with a precarious rope and wood bridge, one of those that felt like a miracle that it was able to sustain its own weight. No, I didn't feel like Indiana Jones just yet... but the castle was an important landmark, therefore I picked up my phone again and looked on the downloaded maps for the castle in the jungle... But I couldn't find it, you know why? Because it wasn't supposed to be a freaking jungle anywhere near the place I was hiking to begin with!
And the line hadn't come back... nor the GPS signal... Panic started to show its ugly face again. This should be a bad dream, I kept telling myself, but everything looked so real... And there is a rule about dreams... If it is a dream, you will never think about it, no matter how ridiculous it could be, until you get up.
Okay, I genuinely panicked... this situation was too much already. If it was a bad dream, I should wake up at any moment. I started walking parallel to the ravine, I couldn't walk West anymore because of it. West, the last pillar that was keeping my sanity was now shattered on the floor, from now on I didn't have any plans left. I just walked quickly, fueled by adrenaline, my eardrums feeling my own accelerated heartbeat.
The adrenaline rush started to wear off and I realized it was really cold outside... And I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt... because it was summer... or it was SUPPOSED to be summer. It was way too cold for just a slightly cooler summer day. My legs were also covered in scratches from the wild plants because I wasn't supposed to be walking across a damn jungle.
The panic started to wear off again, and my rational thinking started to come back. I was in dire situation, but there were things I could do. I was no professional, but I could follow some general knowledge about what to do when you get lost in a hostile environment. Man vs Wild with Bear Grylls mode activate... Except that I'm not Bear Grylls.
Well... I'm physically weaker than that guy, and I'm not up to eating bugs now... but who knows... That show was a favorite of mine. Although I lacked the training and knowledge, there were a lot of useful tips that I could follow in order to increase my chances.
Water, food and shelter, I had water and food for at least a day in my backpack. It was relatively dark and the sun was gone, so I needed shelter first.
The castle. It looked like a nice idea if it wasn't for one thing... The precarious bridge. It looked like too much risk; it was likely to break if I tried to cross it. I could probably go back and really check it... Actually, on second thought... I had nothing better to do. I could always try to climb a tree, and there were plenty of them.
Back to the castle and the bridge. It wasn't that far, just following the ravine. I had a little time to think about my situation meanwhile I walked there. The weird thing is that I didn't saw it coming... Just the forest got darker and darker, there wasn't anything that marked the beginning of this jungle. I just walked a little and when I realized where I was getting into, I immediately tried to go back, but the path wasn't there. It was like I suddenly was in a totally different place; nothing looked the same, and instead of coming out, I got deeper and deeper. It made no sense, it was like I suddenly was in a totally different planet, even the Sun was weird.
I also checked the phone again, but nothing... I was starting to think that the phone was really broken.
Chicken clucks. I suddenly heard chicken clucks. Could it be a farm? I hadn't seen anything the first time I came here. It was probably a wild bird or something like that, but it was worth a shot. I followed the sound a little into the forest.
Suddenly I stumbled onto something. Something cold and slippery, the thing just slithered away at the contact with another burst of furious clucks. I immediately jumped back. Was it some kind of snake? The last thing I needed was being bitten by a snake, a snake that could probably be poisonous.
But I didn't feel the bite, looks like I avoided it by jumping back. Although, now I was curious about what kind of snake could it have been. I don't remember any snake that could cluck... Snakes aren't very fast, therefore as long as I keep my distance, I should be safe.
Following the rustling of the bushes and the clucks, I located the animal, but what I saw was something really unexpected.
The long snake tail was attached to a chicken body. The happy-go-lucky part of me cheered "Of course, that's why it clucks! Because it's half chicken!" But the rest of me thought "What the fuuuuu...!?" Well, at least, if it's half chicken, it shouldn't have poisonous fangs.
Then it turned around.
Its beak had fangs.
But what caught my attention were its glowing red eyes. A horrible chill went down my spine. A new rush of adrenaline took control over me, screaming to run in the opposite direction. I turned around in a painfully slow motion, my whole body feeling numb. It was exactly the same sensation when you are having a nightmare and something is chasing you, but you feel restrained and heavy, simply feeling terribly slow...
Out of a childish logic, triggered by the feeling of being in a nightmare, I closed my eyes. If I can't see it, it doesn't exist. I ran blindly in the opposite direction, slowly feeling faster and faster until I dared to open my eyes. The image of those red glowing eyes was printed in my brain.
When I was able to slow down and recover, I thought about the encounter. It was just a half snake, half chicken thing! It shouldn't be that scary. But those eyes... the feeling of being paralyzed... What had unchained the panic attack wasn't the creature on its own, it had been the feeling of numbness and paralysis... which for some reason, my mind had linked with those red glowing eyes that I had only gazed into for a fraction of a second.
Whatever... fuck the bridge, I wasn't coming back that way. That thing scared me, and I couldn't put my finger on why exactly it was so creepy. Was it those glowing eyes? In a part, yes... Was it because of how uncanny it was? Probably a little.
But why I had panicked so hard that I had felt paralyzed? Ok, no more thinking... Just more looking for a shelter to spend the night. I checked the phone to see if it had decided to start working again in order to save me from spending the night in this place, but still… no signal.
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Very fun first chapter!
Don't want to stop and visit the castle when a snake-chicken monstrosity is trying to eat you?
Understandable, have a nice day.
Since you posted the first three chapters all at once, is the whole story pre-written, or just these chapters?
11329746
I would say that about three quarters of the story are drafted. About 24 short chapters, but some of them might be merged together or extended. I also need to give them a few reads. I’m not making a schedule for the updates, just as long as I feel I have something good enough to upload.
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Wanted: The Sun.
Reward: At least 10 bits.
Crime: Did the sleepy time thing a bit too soon. Very rude.
Just wanted to say, Venomous snake, not poisonous. Poison is ingested, venom is injected. Other than that, liking this so far.
Buen inicio.
XD
Nice first chapter.
Should have brought a gun just incase there's bears, fool! Alone in the woods without a weapon? Come on!
Oh yeah, I can relate to that. Hike 10-20 miles over a weekend every fall during deer season, generally by myself. Redundancy of critical supplies and communications equipment is a necessity.
Referring to cell signal reception as “a line” outside of referencing a specific subscriber’s device in a billing context is a bit off to me... but maybe that’s a regional thing? I can see the obvious etymological root for it as a throwback to landline telephone lines, we just don’t describe wireless signals that way here.
Before I read this story...
That's... a title.
Edit:This was a great chapter.
This is a pretty good starting chapter. Now I want to read more.
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/207/Screen_Shot_2019-01-17_at_4.22.43_PM.jpg
I'd say this is a good first chapter, all I really have to say are nitpicks...like WHERE on earth are you going to be w/o GPS? I mean it's right there in the name - Global Positioning System. Also, even being generous at a pretty impressive pace of 5MPH, 15 mins isn't much more than a mile...and in reality most people march at about 2 MPH. My guy doesn't feel nearly confused enough, EVERYTHING he knows about how reality is supposed to function just ISN'T.
Wait, so is he affected by the cockatrice magic or not?
Because it seemed like both.
11691075
Both indeed. Depending on something that will be eventually hinted and maybe explained in the future.