CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP
I wake up to the sound of birds, I look around but I cannot see them. The sun is just rising on the horizon, it’s peeking through the leaves of the trees surrounding me. I feel quite refreshed so I probably slept for quite a while, either it was quite early in the night when I landed here or the nights are long, I should try to find some way to track time soon.
I try looking around but after peeking towards the sun, everything around me is black from the shade of the trees, it takes a good minute for my eyes to adjust. Should I think the sun is rising from the east? It’s probably not like that here but still, making up cardinal points in my head will help me not go around in circles later.
My legs, they seem to be fine, did my crushed bones really recover in a single night? I gently press at a spot I know used to be broken, doesn’t hurt. Really? Slowly I move the leg around, then a bit faster, everything feels ok. I’m unconvinced, I use my arms to crawl to a nearby tree and use it to help me up. Turns out I didn’t need it, my legs are perfectly fine and functional, don’t hurt, look healthy and muscular, I don’t know that my legs on earth ever looked that good even after my training.
“That’s some insane healing power, maybe I should be glad I landed in the middle of nowhere or I might be considered a freak by everyone around already.”
I want to check the rest of my body. The same… male parts I’ve always had, minus the hair, chiseled abs, lean muscles showing everywhere, broad shoulders, strong arms. Damn, I almost look like I’m on steroids. The perfect body was quite a good investment, especially since I won’t age, but maybe every Eisurian looks like that, I wouldn’t know.
That’s my hair? I couldn't quite pick it up in the dark the previous night, my hair color. My hair is quite long, reaching the middle of my back, slightly puffy and wavy, but most importantly, it’s a weird deep emerald color with streaks of gold red sparsely distributed around. The more I look at it the dizzier I get, those colors for sure aren’t natural, and the gold red is bright and shimmering like a flame, from afar it might seem like my hair is on fire. I get a feeling I’ll have a hard time trying to go unnoticed… Thanks a lot, Verenila… In a weird way, I kind of like it, sure changes from the old black hair buzz cut I used to have. As I start to move around it might get in the way, so cutting about half of the string from the bag with my nails, I roughly tie my hair in a high ponytail. I can’t see but I probably look quite good. Let’s hope my face is level with the rest of my body.
Tying my hair revealed some long slightly curved ears going towards the back and spreading out a bit. They're quite sensitive to touch, around 20cm long and 3 cm wide, tapering in a point towards the end. That’s a lot more pointy than I expected. When do pointy ears stop looking like an elf’s ear and more like a goblin’s?
“Now now now. Should I go around like this or try to at least make some sort of a loincloth…”
I look around but there really isn’t anything suitable to make even the most primitive clothing, and I need my canvas bag intact to carry the stuff inside.
“Going for a stroll naked I guess. Well the region seemed pretty empty when I landed so it shouldn’t be a problem.” I say, showing an exaggerated shrug.
“Sure feels fucking good to be alive again.”
I laugh aloud for a good minute, sending intergalactic fuck yous to these bastards balls of lightning of Proxima Centaury B.
I only take a single step and immediately notice something wrong. I take my head in my hands in exasperation. That’s right, the damn tail, how could I not feel this thing.
Patting my own back, I feel a thin line of scales going down from my neck, covering my whole spine, and going around the base of my new limb for a hands length before it becomes skin again, then the tail goes down for another thirty to forty centimeters. I try to bend around to see them but the muscles hinder me, finally I catch a glance at those scales at the base of my tail. Emerald green. Should’ve seen it coming. Trying to move the tail proved unfruitful, unless I want to wiggle my whole lower back. Weirdly enough, the skin part of the tail is rather unsensitive, probably due to a low number of nerves, but the scaly part, oh boy…
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Walking around with that down my back is certainly a new feeling. But it shouldn’t get in the way too much, it didn’t bother me when sitting or lying down either, I just worry about what the pants in this world look like.
Going down the hill, I look around and try to consider where to go.
“If I say the rising sun’s direction is east, then it means the mountains are west of me, and they go from north to south. I want to find water asap so I’ll follow the base of the mountain, going south I guess.”
I cross a single hill before I see it.There’s a stream of water a few hundred meters further, the vegetation around is particularly dense so it’s hard to miss. Lucky.
The water is very fresh and I don’t waste a second to jump in and wash myself. All the dirt from yesterday’s landing comes off. The stream is shallow and weak enough to step in comfortably but it’s quite wide and seems to go very far downhill. After drinking and filling my canteen, I start following the stream.
The wildlife around is a bit strange but nothing very shocking either, this thing in the distance is some kind of eight legged hornless buffalo, a spider cow? It’s chewing grass and looks harmless but I still don’t dare to get too close. A big bug tried to bite me at some point but it couldn’t get through my skin, so I had to grab it and yank it away from my leg. When I threw it, a green bird of some sort plunged from a tree and grabbed it before it could even touch the ground, thinking back on it, that bug was strangely big, could’ve eaten that.
About a kilometer further downstream I find this plant that looks like a banana tree. I want to cover my junk so I’m interested in the big leaves. It’s the only tree like this around. There’s a slight problem though.
“What in the actual hell is this thing?”
Sitting atop the small tree is what I can only describe as a weirdly muscular six armed baboon, also it is looking at me, and it looks very angry.
Before I can even decide what to do, the thing is down from the tree and running at me, and it is VERY fast.
In three seconds the thing is on me.
He jumps at me. I try to high kick it mid air but he effortlessly grabs my leg and uses it to jump again to my face. I block with my left arm but he manages to grab me with his legs and two of his arms, his claws don’t even make a dent in my skin but they provide him enough grip to cling to me. He starts battering my head with his four other arms. I try to grab him with my right hand but he manages to avoid it. My nails still graze one of his arms and leave three bloody gashes. He seems even more furious, and emits a loud screech while hammering my face. I jab at him with my nails, he jumps up to dodge, which works, but now he’s in the air, I prepare to jump up and spear him with my arms. A victorious grin appears on my face.
As I’m about to spear hand stab him anime style, his eyes start glowing. Suddenly he quite literally steps in mid air and jumps back. Oh. Magic, then. Yeah this is this kind of place isn’t it? Does he have other moves? If that’s just it I can still handle it. My head is ringing a bit but I’m still doing well.
He charges me again and our little bout continues but now he’s being more careful about my hands, taking some distance when he doesn’t find an opening. Neither of us has landed a hit for some time. Every once in a while when I almost get him he uses his spell, but he’s starting to look tired. This goes on for 3 more minutes. I catch him looking back, I think he wants to call it quits. I have decided he’s my meal, no way I’m letting him go. Slowly but surely I get his back towards the water stream.
He looks more and more tired, looking for an opportunity to escape, now is my chance.
I feint him with a stab of my left hand while he jumps around me trying to get to my back, only for me to actually jump towards him, making a grabbing motion, sensing danger he uses his magic to jump backwards, and lands in the stream. The water current is too weak and the water too shallow to incapacitate him but it’s enough that he struggles to find his footing for a second. It’s all the time I need to throw myself towards him, hands first.
My hand feels the hot blood, tough muscles, sturdy bones, then the water. The right hand went straight through, piercing his torso like butter. He struggles for a few seconds, screeching and scratching uselessly at my arm, then goes limp.
“Ladies and gentlemens, today’s meal is secured.”