Chapter 2: blood upon the snow

*Step, step, step*

The smell of Pinecones, the green leaves that are covered in white and red, the sound of tree branches being broken as I fall on top of them, and lastly the feeling of My blood gushing down from my arteries.

*A few days earlier*

“WHY ARE THE ANIMALS HERE SO FAAAAAAAASSSSTTTTTT” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I sprinted across the forest with Ember resting on top of my head. Behind us was a huge deer with glistening blue antlers that was relentlessly chasing us ever since this morning after Ember had tried stealing one of the eggs it was protecting.

Putting one foot after the other I ran faster than ever. I tried using the terrain of the forest to my advantage, intentionally aiming to go towards places with more tree stumps and fallen logs that I can jump over and maneuverer around.

“You gluttons dumbass, did you REALLY have to go and try to steal that egg??! It was 3 TIMES YOUR SIZE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD” I said to Ember as I placed him in the palm of my hand and squeezed.

Ember looked over to me and gave me an annoyed look as if he was tired of being lectured.

“Oh, so now you’re annoyed, guess now you know how I feel after running for my life for the 4th freaking time ever since I met you!” I yelled.

Across this huge forest me and Ember have come across many different species of animals, albeit they weren’t all.... normal.

I was sure of it after seeing one today but, this place is definitely not earth, at the very least not the earth I know of. The animals here resemble the animals back on earth but not quite exactly. Porcupines that have glowing orange needles, a salamander with wings that can fly, a Komodo that can shoot jets of water like a garden hose, and finally this deer with glowing blue antlers.

After running for a while, the deer managed to catch up, unlike what it’s huge size entails, this deer was surprisingly very fast, so it was able to reach us in less than half an hour.

Ember started tugging on my hair and it suddenly jumped off from my head and went onto a very big tree that was to the right of me, deciding to trust the little squirrel I went ahead and followed it up the tree. Using small branches and utilizing gravity to my advantage I was able to move upwards little by little.

Luckily for me I had already managed to climb a fair distance away from the deer, so it had no way to catch up to me now. But looking down at it I could see that it was still waiting at the base of the huge tree.

Ember, my fellow furry friend decided to jump on my face and land on my nose, he looked at me and tapped my forehead with its little palms and then jumped back towards the tree, as if signalling me to go and follow it.

“Huh so you want me to trust you again little guy? Well not like I could go anywhere else at the moment...” I said with a sigh.

Following Ember I started my climb once more, jumping from tree branch to tree branch, trying to balance out my core so I don’t fall down and get impaled by the deer waiting for me at the base of the huge tree.

Standing on a big branch of the tree I saw Ember jump from that branch, spread its little wings, and then land on a faraway branch. Looking at it I decided to not shy away at a challenge like this. I walked back a few steps and started running, I reached the tree wall where I was supposed to make the jump, and with my right hand on its bark I jumped and started running alongside it’s thick walls. Using my speed and well-timed jump I was able to cover some distance before I realised my speed was falling down, and soon after I’d be doing the same. Luckily for me I had already put all of that into account, as I started falling, I extended both of my arms exposing my entire torso. I saw a small twig extending from the tree so I grabbed onto it trying to keep the momentum going so I could reach the ledge of the other tree branch. Suddenly and not according to my calculations my weight was a bit more than the twig could handle, so I wasn’t able to get enough momentum down before the twig broke. While I was free falling, I mustered all the strength in my body to tilt myself slightly towards the left. Reaching more and more near the tree branch my whole body slammed against the ledge of its branch falling down almost instantly, my head hit the ledge pretty hard and so all I could feel was blood gushing down from my nose and onto my whole face. Luckily enough for me I had Angled my body enough that I could somehow barely grab onto a little hole in the ledge where my now left hand resided. Dangling from the tree branch I gathered all the strength in my body towards my left arm, pushing myself to the limit I tried pulling myself towards the top with everything I had. My fingers started to hurt, and my skin started to peel, but surely enough I had finally managed to climb up.

Sitting down on my bottom with my head tilted towards the sky and arms placed on the ground I took deep breaths one after the other.

“Fuck I’m not going to do this ever again” I said with laughter entailing my voice.

I stood back up and pushed the blood out of my nose, gently touching it trying to see if I had broken it anywhere. Luckily for me it seemed perfectly normal.

Then a familiar squeaking voice sounded nearby. Ember looked over at me from another tree branch above me while slightly tiling his head to the left in confusion as to why I stopped climbing.

“Yeah, yeah I know, I’ll be up there in a second” I said while putting both of my hands on my knees.

Looking back at my hands, now covered in calluses and blood from all the climbing and hunting I’ve been doing for the past few days, I wondered if I had a past where I didn’t need to use them as much, making them more delicate and refined.

Shortly after and without rest I followed Ember upwards, a task that wasn’t so hard anymore after grasping how to climb this humongous tree.

“Squeak! Squeak! SQUEAK!!” said Ember enthusiastically.

Standing atop the tree I could see the whole forest bellow me. And with it I could also see it’s centre and the way I need to take to reach the castle.

I managed to notice a few things that piqued my interest, firstly there was a small village that was covered in grey fog underneath where the castle takes place. It would be a great place to visit first before going to the castle, seeing humans for the first time in a while would definitely be nice. The second thing I noticed was in fact the centre of the forest. Looking at where it’s stationed, I could certainly feel something drawing me closer towards it, a mystical feeling, yet it was also laced with danger and horror.

“I should go there next after I talk to the locals at the village when I reach it” I said to myself.

Now knowing where I needed to go next so I could take my next step, all I had to do now was go down and follow the path that I marked in my mental map.

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Ember then jumped down from where he rested on my shoulders and downwards towards the branches of the tree, showing me a faster easier path to the bottom.

Following shortly after Ember I soon reached the ground; it was a good feeling knowing that now making the smallest mistake wouldn’t get you killed from falling to your certain doom.

“Alright so from here on forwards I need to go south so that I could leav- “I said before being abruptly interrupted by the loud noise of hooves and twigs breaking.

Looking back and towards the left I saw the blue antlered deer that was waiting for us down at the base of the tree, after I had completely forgotten all about it.

“FUCK” I shouted atop my lungs.

The deer charged forwards towards me and aimed it horns at my chest, I panicked in place not knowing whether I should defend or dodge or anything.

Ember tugging on my right ear had woken me up from my dazed state, which made me instantly dodge to the rights. But it was a bit too late, since the giant deer had already grazed my chest with its antlers making my blood start to run.

“Shit shit shit, what should I do ?!” I said in a panic.

The deer didn’t let me get even a second to breath, and once again it ran towards me ready to attack again.

This time I wasn’t lost in my daze which made me immediately Roll away from its attack, saving me a few seconds to counter react.

Looking around me I couldn’t find anything sharp that I could use to harm the deer with, so I resorted to something else.

Grabbing a large rock from the ground I hunched my back slightly and took a defensive position waiting for the deer to charge again and charge it did.

This time I dodge to the left exactly at the right time, and as it was trying to hit me, I used the big rock in my hand to hit the knee on of the deer’s back legs.

The deer screeched in pain as it looked at me angrily, it tried charging at me again but this time it was limping so I could easily anticipate its upcoming move.

I moved a bit backwards and felt my back hit the wall of the big tree, so I had an idea flash in my mind. After the deer started coming towards me to hit me, I had used the wall behind me as a pillar to support me so I could jump on it and onwards onto the deer’s back.

After straddling on the back of the deer I put my hands on its antlers trying to steer it somehow, after seeing that that won’t work I used my Left arm to hold the deer’s antler so I could see the dear’s face in a certain angle, and with my right arm I used the rock to hit the deer as strong as I could on the face.

The deer fell down instantly, and I fell with it.

After standing up from the white pile of snow I walked towards where the deer was.

The deer was laying on a pile of snow that was now covered in snow and the deer’s blood.

I slowly marched forward towards the deer with a rock in my hand thinking of how this deer had hurt my chest and made me run for a long time.

I got near the deer and as I readied myself to kill it, I took one last look at its face. It had a sort of pleading look, as if it was imploring me not to kill it. The look it had on its face was sad, and it moved my emotions a bit, making me think. After all the deer wasn’t the one at fault, we were the ones who took one of its eggs, the deer was just trying to protect its children while we were harming them. Was it truly at fault for trying to kill me after we had already killed one of its children?

Looking down on the injury on my chest, and the pile of blood that was surrounding the deer, I had come to the conclusion that no matter how much I feel pity towards the deer, it wouldn’t change the fact that even if I let it live now it’ll just die from blood loss.

I knelt down on one knee and placed my left hand on the deer’s neck, I rubbed its neck gently and I said, “I’m sorry for what I did, I’ll make this fast for you.” Trying not to close my eyes, forcing myself to witness the sin I’m about to commit I lifted the rock high up in the air and bashed the deer’s head with it in one fell swoop. The deer perished instantly, but it wasn’t without pain.

This left a bitter taste in my mouth, but that’s how life works here in the jungle. If I was the one in the ground it wouldn’t have showed me mercy, and so the only thing I could do now was reflect on my actions.

I used the snow as a means to clean my hands and chest from the blood, but my injuries remained the same. I somehow managed to carry this huge deer on my back, with strength that I didn’t even know I was capable of. Maybe it was just the adrenaline doing its work, or maybe I had just gotten stronger somehow.

Nonetheless I carried the deer on my back towards one of the many hollowed out trees in these woods, and I made camp.

I laid down the deer’s body gently, and I looked at it trying to figure out what to do with it first, after all this was the first actual time, I had caught such a huge animal. All the other animals I had killed before were small rabbits, insects, and one porcupine.

An idea then suddenly popped in my head; with all my force I broke off one of the deer’s long antlers and then put it on top a round rock that I used as a table. I brought another smaller rock, and I used it to hit the antler, breaking it bit by bit and sharpening its edges.

Accidentally I broke off a small chunk of the antler, but I quickly thought of a use for that as well.

After a couple hours of carefully hammering and polishing the blue deer’s antler I managed to create 2 things. The first was a small knife that I can use to skin and butcher the animals I catch in the future, sparing me the troubles of using my hands. the second and most important thing was.... I made a sword for myself out of the antlers! It wasn’t the best sword out there, and considering its crystal-like material it was prone to breaking fairly easily. But at the very least I could finally have something to defend myself with. The sword shined with a dim azure colour with black outer lines. I made the hilt of the sword out of wood to plant the antler in place which worked well.

As for the other deer antler, I had kept it aside for now because I have no use for it. I had thought of making myself an arm’s guard with it, but the antler wasn’t wide enough, and I didn’t have enough knowledge nor skill to make a proper arm guard out of this. So, I just stored it aside for later when I have a better use for it.

I went towards the deer and placed my arm around its belly “I’m sorry and thank you for the gift. I will make sure to protect any of your kin if I see them in the future, friend.” I said to the deer as it laid lifeless on the ground.

I couldn’t bring myself to leave this deer alone, after all It had a lot of things I could still use.

I grabbed my butcher knife that I had just made and started cutting its stomach open and moving the guts and innards of the deer. I then moved towards the fur of the deer, skinning it clean so I could use the fur as a coat later on.

After I finished from everything, I cut apart the meat of the deer and used it for food. As I was cutting the deer apart blood splattered all over my body and some of it even landed in my mouth. I got disgusted at first but soon I could feel a strange sensation running its course throughout my body, thrill. For some reason I felt happy as I saw all that blood that was flowing from the body of the deer. A strange urge overcame me, I wanted more blood, I wanted to bathe in it, drink it, be one with it.

Only after I had unconsciously got a handful in of blood in my hands and drank it that I had realised what I was doing, and what had overcome me. I slapped myself trying to shake myself awake, and it actually helped. After finishing I went to clean my hands and saw Ember looking at me from the entrance of the tree. Its eyes were empty, yet it felt like it was gazing right through my soul.

“Ember?” I said in worry. Immediately the little creature shook its head and went back to its old self, jumping onto my head and pulling my hair.

“Haha, guess I was worried about nothing. Here buddy, we have a feast to celebrate today !!” I said while laughing.

Lighting a fire, I cooked the meat and ate, while I gave some nuts to Ember. After we finished eating, we rested around the fire, the warm feeling of the hot fire brought calmness to my mind after this eventful day. I was laying on my back, and I looked down and saw Ember sleeping peacefully on my stomach. I put my left hand on his small frail body and said, “Goodnight big guy, sleep well.” as I drifted towards sleep myself.

Waking up in the morning I started my day off by using the deer’s fur to make a coat to myself. Walking out of the tree with my sword brandished on my hip, and with something to finally covering my torso, I marched out wearing my blue and white fur coat.

As I started walking forward Ember jumped off from my head and towards my chest, then I noticed something strange. “It happened again, what’s going on ?!” I said in confusion as I stared down at my chest to see that all injuries had disappeared from it.

“If all my injuries heal, is there a time limit to it? And what’s the trigger for it. Yesterday when j was climbing the tree I came down and my hands were still full of calluses and injuries. Yet now looking at them they’re fully healed. Is it that I heal after sleeping? Or could it be something else...” I thought to myself.

Suddenly I heard a loud demon like screech from the middle of the forest followed by the sound of trees stumbling down.

Yet not soon after, I could see the bushes from all around me start to shake and rustle.

I took out my sword and got ready to fight whoever was coming, even if it meant I had to fight Satan himself, I promised I’d survive and figure out who I was.