The feeling of warm grass underneath me, softly caressing against my skin like a warm blanket, my eyes shielded from heat as the sounds of leaves brushing as they sway against one another, as a beam of light shines onto my face through the treetops.
Though unwilling, I try to get up before I realise.. I’m unable to.
A sudden jolt of pain rushes me as I hack out after my lungs forces me into a coughing fit, my arms.. wait, no, they don’t look like—
“Oh my god,” I blurt out loud, my voice.. different, somehow, as the voice of a child rings out from my mouth, raising my arm upwards to touch my face, my arms almost fall limp as I use the rest of my willpower to slap myself awake, taking a better assessment of myself.. or whoever this child is.
My arms, bruised and filled with wounds as I start to feel the source of my coughing fit, a nostalgic taste of blood running through my teeth as I spit the contents of my mouth onto the floor.
A flush of memories rushes through my head as vivid flashes of buildings made ofmetal and glass, streets-lit by colorful lights fill the streets as far as my eye could see, with the last thing I see is the wearied image of someone's, no, my own chest?, a warm crimson flow gouging out from a hole pierced through it.
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I awaken to the sounds of crickets chirping, many hours seemingly past since my rude awakening, the same weary feeling washing over me as I feel the blood dripping from my mouth having already scabbed up, reaching up and wiping itoff, I feel my arm feeling less... tired.
I'm suddenly more aware of the fact that this body feels foreign somehow, small, even, as I don't even know what I look like, other than the nicks, cuts and bruises scattered throughout my body.
Looking upwards at my surroundings around me now, the same tree-tops still stares down from above me, as a cliff stands directly before me.. maybe the source of my injuries?, a two-story drop, for a child, no less.
Willing the rest of my strength, I push myself up from the ground, slowly stumbling my way across the forest floor as I prop myself up against a tree, the sounds of crickets chirping loud as ever, as I spot a few.. fireflies?,
A relatively mild sense of calm washes over me as I watch them slowly drift in the air, a warm fuzzy feeling encompassing me as I shake myself awake.
'...wait, no, I shouldn't be wasting time, I should be.. finding food, probably getting back to civilization and ....finding out who I.. am?'
Pondering for a bit, is this what they call amnesia?, I don't even remember where I came from, how I got injured.. or how my body still feels.. unwieldy unfamiliar and unyielding to me.
I guess I should be thankful that I'm male?, not particularly sure what I'm thankful for, though there has been one thing bugging me.
My ears feel.. wiggly, ever since I focused on the firefly-looking things, now with closer inspection seem to be just.. small glowing orbs of light, a warm blue-ish glow coming out from them, a stray orb floating it's way over from the ruffled up patch of dirt that i presumably fell from, approaching me.
'...huh, that's weird,' thinking to myself, I reached outwards to grasp the orb, as it seamlessly seeps into my palm.
Surprised, I flip my palm over before realising the source of the warm fuzzy feeling I got earlier was the same as touching one of them, it's an.. invigorating effect?, easing the pain and tiredness over my body, only by a small margin.
Trying to get up to touch more of these.. orbs, I'm struck with the realisation that I still can't walk very far, searching around for anything to use around me as support, I grab a loose dead-branch around the height of my shoulder, using it to support myself and approaching the cluster that formed around where I woke up.
Extending my hands outwards, instead of me having to touch each individual orb, a trail of light-blueish smoke? forms from the surface of the orbs, my hand seemingly sucking them out and giving me a greater invigorating effect compared to having 'absorbed' only one orb.
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My breathing feels slightly eased now as i take another glance of my surroundings, the cool night sky shining down on ,e, the stars brighter than I've ever remembered.
...though that's not saying a lot, if only I was a.. I don't know, a diviner or something, I could probably use the stars to guide me to civilization, or better, some water, as I'm feeling mighty parched.
Speaking of water, actually, now that I think harder on it, I should be able to find some people if I go to a river or swtream, right?, if not I'll able to atleast catch some fish for food.. though maybe not the wisest idea as I have no way to cook or really store anything on me right now.
Walking back to my leaning-tree with my walking-stick, I chuckle a bit at my own condition, wiping off the dirt from presumably having fallen, I mark this spot in my head as a possible. orb-source?, in the case that I don't see more of them again, I start walking forwards in a straight line, hopefully not losing my way.
Sure hope there aren't any predators nearby, though I'm thinking I could probably defend myself a bit if a single starving stray-pup came after me with this stick, before thinking that I should probably sharpen my stick to make a make-shift spear, so I could probably delay something that was coming after me with it.
Racking through my head for any possible ways to defend myself and maybe hunt, maybe a rock sling?, though I don't have any twine readily accessible, I could probably find some vines and cord it up into some rope, would be useful for other things, too.
'i guess I've got a bucket list of things to do then, but first, water.'
Staying as light on my feet as possible in the case that something would be chasing after me, I scoff abit as I feel paranoia looming over me, I stride forwards, balancing the weight of my body equally on both feet, making sure to keep my eyes peeled for anything useful.
[A DECENT? AMOUNT OF TIME PASSED]
"...gods. where is this forsaken river." I mutter to myself as havingbeen practiscing my speech and intonation throughout the duration of my walk and having managed to even whistle!
As you could evidently tell, no river in sight, but I've been keeping my mind distracted from the possible spook of a random creature ambushing me by just speaking to myself, hell, it might even help me manage my isolation, if I get stuck here for long, that is.
My eyesight is better than expected?, as I'm able to see quite clearly in the dark, not as well as in daytime, mind you, though if I focus hard enough I'm able to peek through a good, I don't know, a good 10 paces or so?
I've spotted a few insects?, which I've left alone, hoping that I won't have to resort to them for sustenance, along with some mushrooms, though not the conventional round-top type.
They were growing from a long dead tree, with moss wrapped around the base of the trunk, shaped like a flipped upside-down cone, almost like some type-of goblet, growing from a singular sprout, with a bit of a rubbery-texture, so I tore off some, stuffing it into my waistsband as my pants lack any pockets to store them, I could probably wrap up my shirt into a knapsack at worst, but storage is not much of an issue for now.
Not really having any way to see if these are toxic? or not, I guess I'll have to eat them eventually if it comes to it, but again like the insects, would rather not have to resort to it.
Thoughts and questions fill my head as I endlessly walk while practiscing my whistle, like how I remember and know certain things, like how cities have people and a variety of different things, but nothing at all of where I came from, why I fell down that cliff, if I was running from something, though I'm just gonna stuff that to the back of my mind for now and hopefully come to it when I have the time to.. unwind.
One thing that stood out to me kind of prevalently was the surprising lack of animals, even if it was nighttime, I could only hear the sounds of owls occasionally hootering or the same crickets chirping constantly, so I've just been preparing to throw my as-of-currently blunt stick towards any nearby bird so I can have something to eat for breakfast.
My eyelids are slowly starting to get heavier as I could somewhat tell with the moon.. wait, no, moons? in the sky... huh.
I didn't really look at it that hard previously because I was just focussing on more... material matters at hand, but yeah, there are two moons, one with a large chunk taken out of it, and the othjer seeming to be what remains of that chunk just a smaller round-ish orb orbitting the other moon.
'Huh, that's... weird.'
My thoughts are suddenly interrupted as I hear a ruffling along with a brief glow emanated from a bush a good 5 paces infront of me, shifting my pole upwards as I raise the tip over my head, I prepare to strike as I carefully approach the bush.
A lone baby deer, no, a fawn was sitting in the bush completely still, as it was staring blankly into the spot where I previously was, as a cool ethereal glow poured out from the fawn's barely noticeable antlers, pale-blue dots spotted on the creature's antlers much like the night-sky above me, as I'm almost tempted to reach out and touch it like the blue-orbs I seen before, but stop myself.
Lowering my walking stick downwards, I'm faced with the dillema of what to do with this creature, as it could very well provide sustenance to me for a few days.. though I really don't wanna find out what a mother doe would do to me if it saw me clubbing it's spawn to death, so I'd rather not.
I guess I'll just.. leave it alone and remember this spot as 'star-horned-deer' territory and leave it for the best.
I'm not really finding a whole lot on my walk and I'm starting to get pretty tired, so I find a somewhat stable looking tree, placing my quarterstaff against it before using the rest of my childlike energy to hop up onto the tree and lie against a solid-enough branch that wouldn't break under my weight.
Goodnight baby-deer, and goodnight me.