I woke up the next day with a dry mouth and an empty stomach. I was sore all over, and… very bloody. I panicked, patting myself down, looking for any wounds. The sudden movement almost threw me off the branch before I caught myself at the last second. Slowly, I calmed down, remembering last night's silent prowling, followed by a mad chase through the trees. I had slept with the bloody bag under me, which had transferred some of that blood onto my clothes. The dagger was stashed at the knot of the tree, where the bough was connected to the trunk.

[Invert]> Level 2

[Stealth Ops]> Level 3

[Body][5]+2

[Soul][3]+1

A notification popped up in my field of vision. I blinked it away.

"Status Screen?" I muttered, not knowing how to pull up the screen.

The blue status screen materialized in front of me.

Name:   Felix Blackburn Race: Human* Age: 23 Advancement: 1 Trait: Outsider     Body: 7 Mind: 5 Soul: 4     Ability: Invert [2] [Novice]     Skills (1/3) Stealth Ops [3] [Body]     Perks (1/10) Sublime Grace

Both my Ability and Skill had ranked up. I wondered if they had changed in any way. I would have to test them later. My Body and Soul stat had increased as well, but not the Mind. Why? I knew my [Stealth Ops] Skill was tied to the Body stat. So if I gained any ranks in my Skill, then it should also affect that same attribute. Following that logic, [Invert] should be tied to my Soul stat then. Which would explain the increase in my Soul. But I had also done a lot of strenuous physical activities yesterday, along with extensive use of my Essence. Did that have any effect on my attributes? Would my Mind stat increase if I solved some complex math problems? Too many questions and not enough answers. Will have to do even more testing at a later date.

I put those thoughts aside and focused on some real problems. It had been a whole day since I had any water and food. I could ignore my hunger for a while longer, but not my thirst. The average human would die within 3 days with no water, and that would be a slow, painful kind that I did not want to experience. Finding drinkable water would have to be my number one priority, followed by food and shelter.

I picked up the bloody bag and looked inside. There was some kind of dried meat, some squashed fruits, a change of clothes, and a waterskin. The food was ruined because of all the blood, but the clothes and waterskin were godsent. I really hoped the waterskin was not contaminated with blood either. I pulled the stopper and poured some of the water into my hands. It was clear. I took a small sip, pushing down my urge to upend the whole thing into my mouth. Even if the water looked clear, it might still be contaminated. I looked over the clothes while I waited. They were the simple rough homespun kind. The pants looked like they use to be the brown color, and the shirt white. They were both red now. I still wore my work clothes, which consisted of a cream-colored polo shirt along with blue chino pants and a pair of leather sneakers. My sneakers were caked in a mixture of mud and blood. The rest of my outfit did not look any better. I would not need the change of cloth, but I could still use the other clothes by cutting them into strips to make some bandages or make them into ropes when I needed them.

I suddenly realized that I have been just sitting there on a tree branch smelling of blood. Those tigers from yesterday, could probably still track me by smell. I activated my stealth skill and moved to another branch, grabbing the dagger along the way. I sat there for a bit, surveying my surroundings, listening for anything unnatural. Listening to the sounds of the forest now, I realized my mistake yesterday. Forest had sung its usual symphony when I first arrived, but the sounds were almost absent near the clearing of carnage. When I had gone after the dagger and the bag, the sounds had completely vanished. It should have been a clear sign that something wasn't right.

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"Live and learn," I muttered to myself, shaking my head.

I unsheathed the dagger looking it over. I knew jack shit about weapons, but this one seemed well made. It was about 10 inches long, with a leather hilt, and slightly curved blade. I tested the edge against my thumb and winced when I drew blood. The son of a bitch was sharp too. I played around with it for a bit, trying to get comfortable with different grips, and slashing it against the tree to further test its sharpness. When I did not feel any sicker from water, I took the waterskin, and this time, I upended the whole thing into my mouth.

With my thirst quenched, now I just need to find some food. Foraging would have been the easiest, but I had no advanced knowledge of plant life. The chances of me eating something poisonous were too high. I sat there on the branch thinking through my options. I had a dagger, and I could possibly make a nice spear from one of the tree branches. But I did not know how to hunt. I could possibly sneak up on some animal using my stealth Skill, but how would I find the said animals in the first place? My best chance at the moment was fishing. For that I would need to find water, which I needed to do anyway. With a concrete plan, I gathered my thing and set out into the forest.

I wandered around under the guise of stealth with no real directions. Initially I only traveled from tree to tree. Turned out, it was not an efficient form of travel at all, no matter how cool it might have looked. I would start sweating and heaving within half an hour of travel due to all the jumping and balancing I had to do. So I switched to traveling on the ground. I kept a slow pace, keeping my ears out for the sound of running water, and more importantly any signs of danger.

After several hours of aimless wandering, I finally heard the telltale sound of a rushing water. It was a small brook, with a shore littered with stones. I sat on a tree and surveyed the waterfront for a bit. When I did not see anything dangerous, I finally approached the brook and took a small sip of the water. While waiting, I washed the blood off the bag and the change of clothes, and refilled my waterskin. When I did not feel sick in an hour, I took a larger drink and started thinking about my fishing options.

I did not how to make a fishing rod. But I did have a dagger and stealth to help me. I waded into the brook in a half-crouch and stilled my body while scanning the riverbed for any fish. It took me at least half an hour of slowly sneaking through water before I noticed a fish. I froze, letting it come as close to my body as possible, before lunging at it with my knife. I was extremely clumsy in my efforts and completely missed the fish with my strike. I ignored the unhappy growling of my stomach and went back to fishing undeterred by my failure.

It took me three tries in a span of 2 to 3 hours to finally skewer one fish. I was tired, cold, and wet. Hunger was eating away at my stomach, and I was mentally exhausted. Partly because of, what I went through yesterday, and partly because of what I still had to go through. As i stood there looking at the dead eyes of the fish, I thought about my own hunters. Finally realizing that I, a human, was once again part of the food chain. I will eat this fish, and those cats will probably eat me. Circle of life.

"No!" I said aloud, sparks of anger smoldering in my chest.

I will not die! I am a fucking human! If anything wants to eat me, they are welcome to try. I walked back to the shore, looking around for some stones. It was time for me to build my Red Flower.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote a wonderful little story called a Jungle Book. In it, he told a tale of a Red Flower, a Flower, all animals of the jungle, were afraid of. Animals called it a Red Flower and many other things because they did dare to call it by its true name - Fire. Nurturing yet destructive, a friend and a foe all in one. It was time to see if there was any truth in that tale.

To make my fire, I would need my dagger, a stone, and a lot of kindling. I took some of the rocks from the shore and tried striking them against the back of my blade. Picking out the ones that created the largest sparks, I went back into the forest to get the kindling. I looked for the driest branches on the forest floor and found an especially dead and dried out sapling. I shaved small slivers of its wood to make a fire starter bundle and chopped up the rest as kindling.

Coming back closer to the shore, I arranged some more stones, making them into a fire pit. The shortest, and driest branches went into making a small tepee, and rest were further shaved down to make more fires starters. I put some of the shavings inside the fire tepee, and the rest I pressed into a tight ball. It took me several tries to finally catch some of the sparks in that ball. I gently blew on it until I saw some smoke and put it inside the tepee. Several minutes later, I had a fire. At that moment in my life, that fire might have been the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. I sat there staring at it, soaking up its warmth, and feeding more and more kindling to it.

Eventually, I skewered the fish with a stick and leaned it close to the flames. I tried catching more fish while it cooked, but was unsuccessful. When it was done, I devoured it, hot flesh burning my mouth, and crispy skin crackling with every bite. Back on Earth, I had lived a life of luxury, eating out almost every day. But this slightly burned, and unseasoned piece of fish tasted better than anything I had ever had from a restaurant. Maybe it was the effort of catching it and building the fire that cooked it, or may it was just the natural taste of the fish. I don't know. But I do know that one cooked fish instilled some sense of control over my circumstances. I was not helpless.

That night, I slept with a full stomach and a smile on my face. The future did not look so bleak.