Jeff felt as though his mind was being drug around like a rag doll through his memories. He imagined this was what lucid dreaming was like. Except, in this dream, he was not the one in control.

He felt the System scouring his brain for memories that all pertained to…something. He couldn't quite tell what it was looking for. It felt like the System was quickly opening and closing new tabs on his brain's memory browser.

It was like his life was flashing before his eyes, but at a pace that he could barely follow. He felt a lurch as the System stopped its search and then he was thrust into a memory from his childhood.

He was 11 years old and riding horses with his family. They were out looking for a few of his step dad's lost cattle. His mom decided to make the chore into a family outing and his step-dad begrudgingly let them come along.

They were trotting through the dense, rocky mountain juniper trees. The horse dodged the trees well enough for itself, but it didn't seem to care that something was riding atop it. He had to constantly duck and dodge around the tree branches. Sometimes there was no dodging and he let the branch bend and snap back behind him.

He tried to guide the mare away from the bad ones, but his 11 year old arms weren't commanding enough on the reins. The horse just followed along with the three other riders and Jeff let it.

A smile crossed Jeff's face and he reached out to the upcoming branch. The juniper berries were ripe and abundant. He plucked a quick handful and picked out a perfect berry. Then he threw the hard berry at his older brother. It bounced off his shoulder and he quickly turned around.

Jeff busied himself with the beautiful rocky mountain views and purposefully looked everywhere but at his brother. Soon a berry came and hit him back. He broke into a grin. The game was on.

The rest of the day he and his brother wove between trees gathering berries and tossing them at each other. His mom got involved at one point, but called a truce once her two youngest sons ganged up on her.

He felt he was winning their little game. His brother had a bit better aim than him, but he was able to grab more berries each time and quicker. He won by sheer volume.

He could reach his left hand out and gather large handfuls while continuing his barrage on his brother. The berries came off easily into his hands.

Eventually his fourteen year old brother wanted the upper hand and grabbed a massive handful of tree, berries and leaves included, and hurled them at him. Jeff laughed as he got hit all over, but so did his horse.

The mare spooked and bolted through the brush. Jeff held on for dear life as he was whipped and scratched by each passing tree. He tried to pull back on the reins, but the normally docile horse was in control now.

The horse galloped and he bounced up and down. His legs were still a bit too short for the stirrups so he kept bouncing up and down. Between bobbing and weaving through branches he couldn't focus on keeping himself on the horse's back. He was quickly bucked off balance and Jeff reached out for a tree branch as he fell off the mare.

His hand grabbed hold and scraped down the tree branch. Luckily, the branch held as he swung down to a stop. It wasn't a graceful landing, but at least he didn't roll over the dirt and rocks.

He had survived.

— — — — —

Jeff mind got pulled from the memory. It was jarring and he felt a lurch from within his spirit. He barely got a moments reprieve before he was dumped into the next memory.

He was out camping with Emily. They had come with another family. It was his first time camping since Ammon had been born. His son was two years old and Emily was five months pregnant with Ember.

Jeff felt pride as he showed his curious little tike how to build a fire, how to set up a tent, and, most importantly, how to properly roast a golden brown marshmallow. His toddler son was too young to learn much, but he was excited about everything going on in the great outdoors.

The next morning Emily took Ammon out on a nature walk in their off road stroller while Jeff packed up all their camping supplies. Their friends had brought a bunch of Pinterest DIY camping activities and he helped clean that up with them as well.

Suddenly, he noticed how long his family had been gone. He had been cleaning up for nearly an hour and his wife still hadn't returned. He asked their friends to stay and wait for them while he jogged down the trail.

Mountain lion and bear attacks were rare in this area, but they did happen. He knew he was probably overreacting, but if the worst had happened, then he needed to get to them quick.

About 200 yards up the trail he came to a road that crossed his path. He could see lots of empty road to his right, and to his left the road went up over a small rise. The trail ahead had a little metal gate. Jeff could choose to look left on the road or straight ahead. He figured Emily would keep Ammon off the road so he sprinted ahead onto the trail.

Emily had been gone for an hour. Walking at her pace with the stroller she could have made it two miles. He doubted she went that far, but he figured he would run about a mile down the trail and then head back and check the camp. If she still was missing he would run down the road.

With his choice made, Jeff started running after his missing family. On his way he used his limited skills to check for tracks. He saw what he thought was a line in the dirt trail that matched the stroller. He followed the tracks and trail up to the peak of a small mountain and back down its other side.

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It had been an hour and fifteen minutes now since Emily had left. If Emily had gone this far and he still hadn’t run into her on her way coming back, then the likelyhood of an attack increased. She was probably attacked at her furthest point and Jeff kept feeling the need to continue on.

It took Jeff about a mile and a half of following the tire tracks before he stopped in realization. There was no way Emily went this far with a baby in the stroller and five months pregnant. The tracks he was following must be mountain bike tracks. He was so worried about their safety that he hadn’t thought through what else he might be following.

He immediately turned back around and ran toward the camp site. As the trail neared the peak of the mountain he tried skipping past the constant switch backs up by running straight down the sandy mountain side. He nearly blew out his knee, but he continued on with a slight limp in his gait.

Soon Jeff realized that he was on a different trail than the one he was on before. He somehow skipped past the trail to his campground and ended up on one that went on a more flat path to a road he saw coming up.

He checked the sun in the sky and the moss growing on the rocks to make sure of his cardinal directions. He was in the northern hemisphere, so the sun was further south than he was. That meant the moss grew on the darker north side of the rocks. The road he was coming up to seemed to run the same direction as the one he crossed before.

Instead of back tracking he decided he would make it back to his waiting wife earlier if he got on the road and found the trail back to the camp. Jeff followed the road northeast looking for the trail. He couldn’t find it. He ran up the road about a mile then back half a mile.

He came to a terrible realization. He was lost.

— — — — —

Jeff was roughly pulled out of the memory and felt the strain on his spirit. He groaned at the pain and the shame of what he just relived. He recalled making it back to a main road and hitch hiking his way back to his family. He felt awful for breaking one of the main rules of survival, never make a bad situation worse by rushing and losing your way. It was a major weakness of his.

The system seemed to wait for Jeff to come to that conclusion then painfully rocketed him off toward another memory.

He was 12 and at scout camp. He was trying to get his Wilderness Survival merit badge and only had one thing left to do. Build your own shelter and sleep in it for a night. He found a number of sticks and logs and quickly built a type of lincoln log style of fort with three walls and a roof. Then he gathered pine needles and put them all around his fort. It was only a meter high and just long enough to fit his sleeping bag into it. He was worried he was in for a restless night. To his surprise he slept warmer than he had the previous night in his tent. He even asked to be allowed to sleep there another night.

The painful lurch dragged him out of the memory and plopped him into another one.

He was at college in Hawaii and on a hike with his then girlfriend. Seven Falls was the name of the hike and he was currently climbing the fourth waterfall. It was about fifteen feet tall and was far larger than ones before. It had a rope that came down near the falling water that he climbed up with some effort. The rope brought him to a ledge ten feet up that he then had to shimmy across to another rope that went up the last five feet. He made his way across the tiny slippery edge and grabbed the rope. Feeling victorious he turned around and posed for a picture.

He quickly climbed the last stretch and stood atop the waterfall feeling accomplished. Then he turned around and saw the fifth waterfall about a football field away. It was about thirty-five feet tall and the rope didn’t have knots like the last ones did. He felt his stomach drop.

How far was he willing to push his fear of heights today?

— — — — —

Jeff felt like his spirit was being stretched and strained and he landed in the next memory.

He was ten years old and out in the garden with his step family. He had to do his chores before he could play video games and today that meant weeding his assigned row in the garden. He crawled on his hands and knees while he plucked the weeds out of the damp earth. He had practiced pulling and twisting just the right way so that the roots would come out with the rest of the obnoxious plants. About halfway down his row he noticed a one of the growing string beans looked long and ripe. He plucked it off and ran inside, tracking mud all over, to show his mom it was almost time to harvest.

— — — — —

He was seven years old and hiking with his grandmother as she told him about her life before modern conveniences. She showed him how to find pine sap that you could chew like gum. She picked him off a piece and watched expectantly as he placed it in his mouth. He chewed the crunchy sap. It tasted a bit like how pine trees smell, but it also tasted like tree bark. He smiled and gave a thumbs up to his grandmother. The moment she moved on to show his brother the pine gum she had found he spat the disgusting stuff out of his mouth.

Jeff felt like his spirit was being ripped in two. He relived each camping trip, hike, and gardening experience the system deemed worthy. Each time it would lug his mind and spirit along to a new memory he felt the rips and tears in his spirit grow. He felt like his whole being was in tatters and hoped the system was done with him.

The system seemed to come to a stop for a blessed moment and then he felt his existence blur as he was shoved ruthlessly into one last memory. He only had a moment to notice that the memory wasn’t his. He was living through the memory of an alien.

— — — — —

Hrashtel looked into the puddle made by the beasts large paws. She saw her face reflected back by the still water. Her face was wooden like the trees around her. She brushed her leaf-like hair out of her face and glanced at the trail the monster had made.

She used her stretching roots to crawl down the trail, dodging trees as she needed. It was still weird for her to learn that most trees in this new world were dumb and dormant, like the unthinking animals back on her home planet.

She remembered her planet being exposed to the Mysts nearly 250 years ago now. She was just a young sapling then and was taken to a planet designed to train up warriors for the Boschyan Army. She had since retired from the army as a well decorated veteran.

Now she was trying to clear off the monsters from the land she was given. This one beast had been a pain, sneaking into her garden and eating up her spirit herbs. It was time to end this monster.

She flexed her Tracking ability and saw the path of her prey glow clearly in her eyes. She had gotten the ability to peak mastery long ago and confidently strode her way along its path. Clues that would otherwise be impossible to see suddenly became clearly visible. Each bent blade of grass and missing dew drop from leaves showed the path clearly.

Hrashtel soon swayed above a small burrow hole ready to finish off this little hassle. The tracking ability let her know exactly where the monster was in it's den. She reached out with her roots into the den and with a quick flick ended the Monster.

You have defeated:

Apocalypse Squirrel - Level 307

Myst Abilities:

Full Camouflage

Sneaky Steps

Laser Beam

Mighty Scrapes

Flying Pounce

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