Chapter 4: Unexpected situation

Deep in the center of an Oregon forest, a surprising standoff was taking place.

A grizzly on its hind legs made an aggressive grunt, a clear warning to its opponent. The opponent in question was a dark-skinned boy with moderately curly hair, barely thirteen years old by his appearance. Behind him was the freshly hunted corpse of a female elk, a spear still sticking into its chest.

In spite of the large carnivore in front of him, David had no intention of moving. He stared back at the beast, eyes without a hint of fear. His expression appeared more annoyed than aggressive, as if the nine-foot-tall beast was a seagull trying to steal his lunch.

He’d hunted this thing. He’d killed it. By his logic, that meant it was his. A nearby bear thought it could be greedy and take his prize? Forget it.

His eyes glinted with anticipation, as if challenging the bear to try something.

In response to the bear’s threat, David yelled back as loud as he could, answering the bear’s provocation. If the stupid thing wanted to fight, then so be it. More meat for him.

The bear got back on all fours and charged. David took a step forward to meet it. In the face of the half ton creature. He looked like a foolish ant walking towards its own destruction. Even so, there was no sign of fear on his face.

No matter the predator, if they threatened him, they would become his dinner. None had come before and lived. He wasn’t going to compromise on this simply because it was a bear this time.

Blood race violently through his body. Immense amounts of energy coursed through him, raising his strength more than tenfold. He rushed forward, meeting the bear head on. The animal swung its paw down, slapping David’s shoulder, and raking across his chest. The bones in his shoulder snapped and shattered. He felt the claws split his skin and muscle, stopping just short of completely disemboweling him.

An injury of this degree should have immediately decided the result. Yet, contrary to the bear’s expectations, he was unfazed. In fact, in the time it took to land the slap David had counterattacked. He grabbed hold of the bear’s other front limb and lifted as high as he could. The bear was taken by surprise and lost its balance. Now on its side, the ribs had become extremely vulnerable. David stomped down with everything he had.

The bone gave way and the bear’s left ribcage was crushed. It roared out in pain and fury and bit at David’s neck in retaliation. He was only just able to avoid having his neck snapped. Its jaws sunk into his injured arm and instinctively began to shake him. Still a thirteen-year-old kid, he lacked the weight to counter this effectively and was thrown about like a ragdoll.

He gritted his teeth and put everything he had into his uninjured arm. The shaking made it impossible to pinpoint the bear’s body, so his only option was to attack the bear’s head, which was firmly latched to his shoulder. He struck it on the jaw, momentarily stunning it. His body fell to the ground as the bear’s grip loosened.

The bear shook its head and roared again. David groaned and struggled to lift himself from the ground. his left side was covered in blood and was terribly misshapen. David was numb to the pain currently, but he was no fool. The fact that he couldn’t move his left side meant his injuries were severe. Even so, he didn’t hesitate to attempt another offensive.

The bear didn’t attack again immediately, now realizing the threat of its opponent. The damage to its ribcage was taking its toll, leaving the bear in a weakened state. It carefully observed David, before deciding his wounds were near fatal. It decided to go for the finisher.

The bear’s mobility was hampered, allowing David to dodge its initial strike. He ran straight for its head, wrapping his arm around the bear’s neck. The muscles in his arm surged, using every ounce of energy David had left to tighten itself.

The bear thrashed about, trying to shake David off. The boy didn’t budge at all. His arm tightened more and more, overwhelming the bear’s neck muscles. Unable to handle the crushing pressure around its neck, the bear’s throat was crushed, followed by its neck. No longer able to control its body, it fell over, helplessly suffocating to death.

David limped weakly away swaying side to side. It felt as if the slightest breeze would knock him off balance. His head was spinning and his eyes were full of colorful lights. However, a look of satisfaction hung on his face. He could kill a bear now, it seemed. He wondered what his parents would have said if they could see him now.

The shock wore off before he had gone a few steps. All his nerves went haywire, electrocuting him with tremendous pain. He fell to ground clenching his teeth, trying as hard as he could not to scream. To avoid aggravating his chest wound further rolled onto his back and stared up at the light filtering through the trees. Completely voids of further strength, he stayed there motionless for several minutes.

Will I die this time? He wondered. The damage he’d taken this time around was worse than usual. Bears really were in another league. Only supreme idiots like himself would actually dare to put themselves in such a position.

Now that he thought about it, why did he do that. He had a spear, why hadn’t he used that? Was he some sort of masochist or was he really stupid enough to have thought this was his best option? He’d nearly been gutted. All of this suffering had been unnecessary!

He gave a small sigh, which he immediately regretted after pain shot through his chest again. It had been too close this time. Perhaps he was getting reckless. No, that wasn’t a possibility. He had been reckless for a while. If this continued, he really would die.

David heard some rustling in the bushes nearby. He tensed up at the sound, much to his body’s chagrin. Another predator? If that was the case he was screwed. Even a coyote could take him in this state.

A small, pale five-year-old boy with black hair and freckles came out of the bushes. He rushed over to David’s side and looked down at him with concerned eyes. “David? Are you okay?”

Ah, right. Patrick was here. He’d told the kid to hide in the bushes beforehand, hadn’t he? The blood loss must have been getting to him to forget something so important.

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“Nope. Did you bring some food? I could use it.” He answered weakly.

“H-here.” Patrick said quickly, holding out some dried meat. David reached up with his good arm and took the food. He slowly ate it in small bites. Despite being half dead, his mannerisms didn’t seem affected.

As soon as he swallowed, the chest wounds began to visibly heal. At the same time the bones in left arm and shoulder began popping and melding back together. As the pain began to subside, David let out a sigh of relief and got back to his feet. After giving his injuries another moment to fully recover, he tested out his restored arm. Everything was working properly.

David walked over to the bushes and grabbed a deerskin sack, pulling out a stone knife and some kindling materials, as well as another piece of dried meat. He threw the kindling materials to Patrick.

“Start a fire. we’ll be staying here for a while we cook all this up.”

“Y-yes!”

“Oh, and don’t try any of what I just did. Pretty sure this only works on me.”

Patrick nodded quickly, but there was a hint of disappointment in his expression. It couldn’t be helped. He was a five-year-old with an active imagination. He’d heard even adults, as crazy as it seemed, sometimes believe they had powers of some sort when in reality they were simply human like everyone else.

David quickly ate his second piece of dried meat to fully recover his energy and moved towards his prey.

In the time he had spent out here, there hadn’t been a single encounter with others like him. Had there been people with abilities like this in Dawn? David hadn’t heard anything of that sort, but they probably wouldn’t have told him anyway.

Aberrant, wasn’t it? David thought as he pulled out the spear and began butchering the elk.

A chance encounter with a hunting party a year ago had made him aware of the term. It was a similar situation today, with him catching a deer. They had believed they could steal it. They failed miserably and ran with their tails tucked between their legs.

It had actually been a very frightening experience. He had sustained massive injuries in the fight, similar today. His saving grace was that the moment he used his powers, the rationality of his opponents had been replaced with fright, allowing him to beat them into a retreat. That man screaming ‘aberrant’ saved his life that day, albeit unintentionally.

Come to think of it, he’d heard something similar on that fateful day five years ago as well. That spearman had caused the guard to panic as well. He hadn’t been paying close attention, but he was certain the word aberrant had come up.

He looked toward the young boy starting the fire. If that man showed up now, would he be able to protect him?

He’d grown much stronger since then. They didn’t have to worry about food like in the past, and in one on one combat almost nothing could challenge him. but was that enough? He didn’t think so.

Never mind that terrifying spearmen, those black wolves were not much weaker than the bear he’d just fought. If he were to encounter them again…

David involuntarily shivered. He could feel it. At this point in time, he was too weak. Just keeping the both of them alive in this wilderness was the most he could handle.

However, that was not enough to satisfy him.

Thinking about those raiders who’d destroyed his home, a flame of hatred kindled within his eyes. It was infuriating. Even with how far he’d come, he still felt as if he was powerless in the face of that attack. Everything he had now was still not enough. If he was ever to find them again, he wouldn’t be able to protect himself or Patrick, let alone any thoughts of revenge.

He finished butchering what he could of the deer and began stringing up the meat on a tree. Patrick’s ability to start a fire was very poor, so it would be a while before any of it could be cooked. Luckily, he had plenty to do.

“Getting anywhere with that fire, squirt?” David called out over his shoulder.

“Almost!” Patrick replied. There was a tone of frustration to his voice.

“Just keep at it. It’ll light up soon enough.”

Having finished with the deer, he moved over to the bear. However, the butchering progress was going much faster than the fire. Patrick was getting more and more frustrated too. The task was more difficult for him than normal.

David frowned. Patrick had been responsible for fire-starting for three months. In that time, he’d quickly grown adept at his job. David didn’t even feel it was necessary to keep a close eye anymore. Why was he having such trouble today?

Putting aside the butchering for now, David walked over to the fire pit Patrick had constructed. There was plenty of dry tinder and flammable materials gathered. It didn’t look any different than normal.

David studied the boy. His eyes had tears of frustration in them, but that wasn’t what caught David’s attention. the boy was breathing heavily, as if he’d been sprinting. His face had also turned bright red. Immediately, David became worried. Was he sick? He felt Patrick head with his hand. It was warm, but not feverish. He hadn’t looked sick this morning either.

“Are you feeling okay, kid?” David asked.

Patrick slumped to ground, crossing his arms. His heated expression was aimed toward the cold fire pit. “I’m fine. The fire just won’t start! Every time I get some sparks, they just disappear!”

“If that’s it, why do you look so tired?”

“I just am, okay? I don’t know!”

David was perplexed. That accounted for his frustration, but not the exhaustion. Perhaps it was just mental stress?

“Do it again. Let me see what’s happening.”

“I don’t want to! I’m tired of this!”

“Just one more time Patrick. If I can’t figure out what’s wrong, I’ll take over.”

Patrick hesitated, but grumbled in agreement after a minute. He began preparing tinder and struck the flint. Sparks flew into the tinder, igniting a warm red glow within. By David’s estimates, the fire was doing just fine. Had the other failures been a fluke?

No. Patrick’s face was still tense. It must have been happening somewhere afterward.

Just as he thought that, Patrick began nervously blowing on the weak embers. Before even a few seconds passed, the embers disappeared without a trace. Not even a trace of smoke could be detected.

David’s eyes went wide when he saw this. Patrick may not have realized, but David did. A portion of the kindling, along with the embers, had vanished entirely.

“See? It happened again! Every time I try and start a fire, this happens! You… do… it… now…” In the midst of his tantrum, Patrick stumbled and fell over.

“Patrick!” David forgot about what he’d just seen and dived forward to catch the boy. Patrick landed limply in his arms. It felt like there was no energy left in his body. He was gasping for air, face line with tremendous exhaustion.

“I… I’m… okay…” Patrick whispered. “Let me… sleep… a little…”

David’s mind was racing. This didn’t make any sense. It was too sudden. Illnesses didn’t work like this. If not an illness, why? Poison? No, he hadn’t eaten anything. This was too strange to be natural. Normal people wouldn’t just collapse like this.

Wait. Normal people?

Could it be? David wondered. He quickly shook his head. That would be to much of a coincidence. He’d only ever met one before. How could his little brother be one this whole time and avoid his notice?

The disappearing flame and the increasing exhaustion. Neither situation made sense. The symptoms were too similar to his own to simply brush off. Since that was the case…

“I’ll be right back, Patrick. No falling asleep.”

“Kay…”

David ran over to the bag and grabbed some more of their dried meat. He broke off a piece and put it in Patrick’s mouth. “Eat this. It’ll make you feel better.” He explained.

Patrick nodded and chewed. Nothing happened. David didn’t panic. It probably only worked so fast for him because his ability had an effect on it. Patrick’s situation couldn’t be compared. Sure enough, it took a few more minutes for any changes to appear. Soon, Patrick complexion improved significantly.

“You feeling alright?” David asked.

Patrick nodded. “Still, but I’m not sleepy anymore. What happened?”

“I just confirmed something. You’re going to have more to do from now on, kid. To start, you’ll be eating more meals regularly. I don’t need you fainting like this again.”

“But what about you? If I eat more, you won’t be able to.”

“Then I’ll hunt more. Between the two of us, food will be disappearing a lot faster now. I don’t know what you have yet, but I’m certain it’s something special.”

“Special? What do you mean?” Patrick wasn’t following.

David grinned. “Congratulations. It looks like you’re freak too. I can’t wait to find out what your new powers can do.”