A bright purple light began shining over taking the darkness. I began to feel a burning pain that jolted me awake. Waking up I could feel the burning pain and a black mark appeared on my forearm. Remembering what had happened I began to look around my wounds and clothes were the same as before the wolves attacked, no rips or blood. Looking around none of the wolves that had attacked me were around. Getting up in a rush to go check if the first wolf I killed was still there. After rustling through the bushes I found where I put the wolf but it was gone. Remembering the dagger I yelled “AHHH! I forgot the dagger now I have to go back!”. While walking back to where I woke up I started kicking bushes and rocks mumbling “I just had to forget the dagger.”. After getting back I grabbed the dagger but I remembered how I made it into a makeshift spear with a branch.

After a moment of thinking “It wouldn’t hurt to make it again and I would be ready if it happened again.” I began to look in the trees to see if there are any good branches. I could see a good branch that was the perfect size for me that was just a little bit high up jumping up to pull off the brack. I grabbed it and the brack snapped and I fell onto my leaf bed. Ripping of a piece of my shirt so I can use it as the rope to hold the dagger and branch together. While tying them together I began to hear a ticking sound. After a minute of hearing it I started to get annoyed “where is that ticking coming from.”. Taking a deep breath I got back to making the spear but the ticking didn’t stop but started to get worse and happen more often.

After an hour the ticking sound still hadn’t stopped. I decided to start looking around to see if I could find anything to eat. While walking around I remembered the mark that was on my forearm. Taking a closer look at it I noticed that it was a simple circle with spikes on the inside except for one that was shaped weirdly so it looked wiggly. The more I looked at it the more the ticking sound happened yelling out “why won’t the ticking sound stop it’s annoying”.

I noticed the smell of smoke. I looked up from my arm and saw a campfire with cooked meat on the fire. Walking up closer I heard snoring coming from the other side of the fire. Looking over the fire I saw an old man laying down on the ground sleeping. Looking at the old man I saw he had something in his ears that looked like a crumpled up piece of cloth. I gripped my spear. I pointed it at him and yelled at him to “get up and step away” while the old man stayed asleep. I yelled it again louder “get up and step away!” The old man finally woke up and pulled out the cloth in his ears and asked me “what did you say?” Noticing the spear he was surprised and pointed his finger at me.

A small light shined at the tip of his finger and said “why don’t you put down your weapon and calm down” looking at his finger. I replied asking him “why are you in the forest?” Looking at the light I gripped my spear harder. The old man looked at me with a glare and the light began to become brighter and said “I’m here looking for a village chief and a young boy” after he looked me up and down he sighed. The light on his finger went away and he whispered “now that I take a closer look you're the kid right? It’s cazlib or something” looking at the old man I responded saying “it’s cazlid and why are you looking for me?” He stood up, wiping the dirt off of his clothes. Looking at his clothes he was wearing a large cloak with some armor underneath. “The village hired me to go find you and the chief” he began to squint and tap his foot on the ground. Putting down my spear I had a question “what’s wrong with you?” He looked at me and said I don’t like places like this.

“Why this is a pretty nice forest besides the ticking sounds” I said as he began to clean up the fire and pack up the meat. He looked at me and said “it’s not the forest I have a problem with, it's the feeling it’s a pain to go to places like this alone the sounds get to your head if you stay too long” he explained while putting out the fire with a bucket of water. He looked over at me with a glare. He asked me “can you really hear the ticking sound?” I glared back at him and replied saying “yes so what it’s probably just some bugs probably” he rolled his eyes and told me to follow him. Gripping my spear I pointed it at him and said “you walk ahead if you try anything I’ll stab you” he sighed and said “fine just hurry up”.

As we walked I began to look at my forearm again and the sound of ticking got worse. I saw the old man stop and put the cloth back in his ears. Ignoring it I looked back at the mark the ticking stopped so I touched the mark and a bright purple light shined the same one that lit up the darkness and mist began to pour out of the mark the old man noticed and turned around and yelled “stop whatever you’re doing now” as he said that a wolf bit his leg and pulled him to the ground. He pointed at the wolf and shot a blast of wind blowing away the mist. He glared at me as he pointed his finger at me yelling “what did you do that for you brat” looking at the mist as it began to get closer I gripped my spear and said “I didn’t do anything! But that doesn’t matter, we have to get out of here!” I tried to reach down to help him up but a wolf dragged him away.

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As I looked around I began to run the other direction as I turned my back. A big blast of water appeared in the direction of where the wolf took the old man. Right after I felt a burning pain again where the mark was. looking at it the mark was changing and a second spike had changed shape and became squiggly as well. It was then that I realized that the mark made the wolves this and last time. And that it would happen again and by the mark it would happen three more times. I then remembered the old man and turned around to go find him. Walking towards them I saw them on the floor with a missing leg and arm. He was still alive looking down at him. He began to ask me why I did it I knelt down next to him and pushed my hair back I told him “I didn’t do it on purpose but it’s for the best since I have to stay here and protect this necklace” pointing my spear at his head I whispered to him “I have one question what is the ticking sound I hear?” The old man scoffed.

I let out a sigh and pushed the spear against his forehead and said “what is that ticking sound I hear?” He looked at me and said “it’s magic being built up in your body each time it ticks its giving you a small amount of magic in your body” he rolled his eyes and said “just end it already so we can be done already” I closed my eyes. Just as the spear went through his skull I got up and started walking back to where I was staying. Walking ahead the sun started to go down just as I got back to my bed the rainbow lights that shined before were already there. And the ticking hadn’t started yet so I decided to go to sleep and wait for the morning

When morning came the ticking sound started it was slow and quiet. I decided that if I had to fight those wolves again I would need to get ready so I decided that I could use the old man’s armor. I began to walk back to where the blast took place. Seeing the body I pushed my hair back and began to take off his armor. Looking at it I tried to put it on but most of it was too big except the arm and leg gear. It was dark silver and had black lining. I decided to take the cloak wrapping it around me. I began to walk back. It was then I noticed that the ticking had sped up a lot and was loud. I began to get worried so I started to grip my spear and tried to find an open area.

Finding a fairly open section of the forest I began to get ready as the ticking stopped. Out of the mark came the bright purple light after the light went away water camr out instead of mist. I began to panic because the puddle began to fill up the area of the forest. The wolves began to take shape out of the water. There were three and they were circling around me. Gripping my spear I pointed it at one of the wolves as it leaped at me turning to water it splashed on me soaking my clothes. The second wolf attacked me from behind, also turning into water and soaking my clothes making it harder for me to move. The third wolf attacked me, biting into my shoulder. I tried stabbing the wolf with the spear but it turned to water then dropped to the ground to reform and bite my leg.

Instead of biting my leg it bit into the armor and jumped back the water on my body began to disappear slowly. And the wolf was slowly becoming smaller. I smiled pushing my hair back I saying “all I need to do is wait you out that should be pretty easy” it attacked again going for my arm thanks to the armor the bite didn’t get through but it pushed me to the ground I rolled over and tried to stab the wolf but it changed to water and flowed away. It reformed again and tried to bite my neck but I rolled away and jabbed it with the spear.

It turned to water again but when it reformed it was only as big as my hand I stood up and sighed stepping on the wolf the water on my clothes were still there but was almost gone. Looking down at the mark the third spike became squiggly as well leaving two spikes left. I sat down under a tree and yelled “it’s a good thing we were in a forest so the ground could soak up the water!” I took off the cloak and took a look at the wound.

I stood up and pulled off a couple of leaves and began to push them against the wound. Putting the cloak back on and began to get ready to head back. When I was halfway there my stomach began to growl. I remembered that it’s been days since I last ate. looking around the area I couldn’t find anything to eat except a bush with some berries. I ran over to it and began to pick them. They were weirdly shaped and were a black color. When I ate one they were bitter and left a weird aftertaste but they seemed safe to eat so I picked a ton and carried them back to where I was staying. When I got there I got ready to put the food down but the squirrel from before was back looking at me. Feeling bad I threw some on the floor for it to eat I sat on the ground to try and relax. The squirrel curled up next to me as I fell asleep.