Kase opened his eyes when he felt a sharp pain in his hand, yanking it close to his chest and watching the bright green bird flutter up to the trees. His finger had been neatly pierced by the bird's beak and steadily trickled blood onto his still damp shirt. As soon as he noticed his shirt the memories of yesterday came rushing back to him and he began to shiver from the briefly forgotten cold. He staggered to his feet, stumbling into a tree and started to look around for firewood.
“N-n-ne-eed to get w-warm.”
Unsurprisingly, wood was in healthy supply in the forest, and he quickly had a good sized pile. He knew how to start fires from working in the House, and managed to find a couple of rocks that should work. He used a piece of metal and a stone to light the stoves at work, but metal was just a refined rock so it should work fine.
At least an hour later all he had to show for his efforts were two bruised and cut hands, and a pile of rock chunks. He felt his frustrations boil over and he started to cry, the hot trails soothing his cold cheeks. Once he had cried himself out he stumbled over to the river and started bringing cupped handfuls of water to his face. He knew it was important to stay hydrated and he had just wasted quite a bit of moisture after all.
He stared down at his reflection in the rushing water, pale skin offset with red cheeks and dark bags below the eyes. He looked like the dead, and didn't feel much better, but felt a fire of resolve smoldering in his stomach. He would survive, he would rescue his mother, and he would live a long and happy life!
Kase spent the remainder of the day scrounging for what food he could find, berries mostly, and gathering more stones to try and start a fire. Once the sun went down and he crushed his fingertips between his rocks for the sixth time he gave up and wrapped himself in fallen leaves and shivered himself to sleep. He woke up cold and itchy, which distracted from how hungry he was. He finished off his small handful of berries and started looking for more food.
Small animals were busily scampering around the forest and looking for their own meals. Kase was abjectly terrified of most of them. The only ones he wasn't concerned about were the birds, he had seen birds all the time in the city. But those weird fluffy tailed rats that ran around the trees must be some kind of weird monster or spirit beast. He made sure to keep his distance from those things, barely, but he did it. Most of the creatures on the ground were quite slow and those that didn't run from him were easy to run from.
He saw a few mushrooms, but he knew not to eat those after Poht tried some while he was under punishment. He tried a few leaves one creature was chewing on, but they were bitter and made his tongue itch. He hadn't found much to eat, but by midday had given up to work on the fire some more. He thought he saw a few sparks, but that was probably wishful thinking since he never even saw a smolder. The last thing he did before he fully lost the light was to gather more fallen leaves to bed down in.
His stomach tried to keep him awake, but it wasn't the first time he had to go to sleep hungry. In the morning he shook debris out of his shirt and scratched at his shoulders and ribs where bugs were crawling around. He killed or drove away the invading insects and shook their corpses out of the stained cloth. He saw a beetle bounce off of his foot and had a stroke of genius.
He snatched the bug off of the ground and shoved it into his mouth, crunching down on the hard shell and feeling its inner goop squish out around his teeth. He went hunting for food again, this time adding bugs to his prospective menu. He found a few more berries and saved those for dessert, eating the bugs he caught right away. Mainly because he was afraid he would lose his nerve if he tried to hold onto them, but partially because he was really hungry.
Kase once again failed to start a fire, and had all but given up hope for ever being warm again. Thankfully, he had stopped noticing the cold as much, but his body still shivered occasionally for some reason. He found fewer and fewer berries and had to rely on finding bugs more often. Though that was alleviated by his finding a tree hollow filled with nuts at one point, he had devoured them quickly and ran away from the rat thing that tried to attack him afterward.
That had been a worrisome day, but was nowhere near his most terrifying encounter with a beast. He had just found a big colorful worm thing and had been about to eat it when he froze, not from the cold, but like his body couldn't move. Then a strange bird thing walked out of a bush, staring at him, with four eyes! It walked slowly towards him, the two eyes on its head staring intently at his food. The two eyes on its chest meanwhile were fixated on him, unblinking and terrifying.
When the bird got within a few feet of him a giant mass of feathers bloomed off of its back and it screamed. Suddenly, Kase could move again, and he used that gift of freedom to get as far as humanly possible from the bird that he could. It didn't chase him down, possibly because he had dropped his dinner, but he was pretty sure he would be it's dinner if he stopped running. He didn't pay attention to where he was going and wound up even more lost than before, not even knowing how to find his leaf bed.
He gathered more leaves for a new bed, and laid down to sleep beneath his itchy blanket. He would have better luck tomorrow and would find a bush practically dripping with berries! That hopeful thought carried him to the land of dreams and he slept soundly, not even stirring when it started to rain.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Three days later Kase scraped his hands in the mud caused by the light drizzle, eventually revealing the treasure he sought.
“Found you!”
He brought one of the squirming worms up to his mouth and sucked it up, biting into the tender flesh and swallowing quickly. Just the one worm did little to salve his hunger, but there were plenty to go around. He moved from tree to tree, digging and scraping around their roots to find more bugs to eat. He interspersed his eating with occasionally opening his mouth to the sky to swallow what rain he could catch. If he got too thirsty, he would just wring the water out of his sleeves again, but the rain would do for now.
He retched a bit from the amount of dirt he had eaten, but he wouldn't let even a morsel go. He pressed his back to the tree and dug his fists into his stomach to force it to calm down. He felt warm and had trouble thinking clearly, but managed to stay focused on survival. He closed his eyes briefly, dozing off in the gentle rain before being woken by a jolt of feeling. He couldn't describe exactly what it was, but his heart was racing and his already muddied thoughts grew murkier still.
He looked around and quickly found the source of the feeling, a large boar staring at him from only 30 feet away. That was a short enough distance that even a normal boar would be able to charge and gore him no problem, but this wasn't a normal boar. This was some kind of monster boar. He wasn't sure how it compared in size to it's standard cousins, as the only ones he had seen were the ones roasted for festivals.
The glowing blue spirals on its tusks and the gentle mist creeping off of the raised ridge along its back were what separated it from a normal boar. Kase tried to slowly reach his arm to the side to get up, but that slight movement set the monster into kill mode. With a squeal that he swore he could feel in his bones the boar charged and he did the only thing he could think to do.
Kase shoved himself sideways, kicking off of the roots with every bit of strength he could muster and sliding through the mud. The boar charged past him close enough that the cold radiating from its hide nearly made his feet go numb. He scrambled to his feet and began to run through the trees, frantically dodging left and right to try and throw off the beast. It had a hard time catching him since his slight frame was much more maneuverable than its bulk, but that didn't stop it for long.
Letting out a second loud squeal it smashed into a tree, sending frozen shards of wood splintering in every direction and toppling it. Kase didn't think he could speed up any more, but after that display he was proven wrong. His feet tried to slip and slide in the mud, but he managed to keep himself upright through sheer force of will. And a lot of luck.
“Rrraaaa-Aaaiighhh!”
A sky shattering roar cascaded through the trees and Kase felt himself seize up, none of his muscles responding to his commands. He hit the ground and skidded past a tree and into the edge of a small clearing. He pulled his face out of the muck and felt a warmth spreading in his pants at the sight that greeted him. The boar came charging out of the trees just behind him and with its greater speed and weight was carried farther into the clearing to face death first.
Dominating the space in the clearing was an enormous Dragon, dark green scales covering the massive form that had to be bigger than Kase’s home! Terrible yellow eyes blazed with rage, split only by a thin vertical line of black as it stared down at the snack that was the boar. It opened its mouth, and the rows upon rows of ivory teeth practically glinted in the faint light of the cloudy day. Quicker than he could see, the Dragon's head shot forward and the boar was gone, devoured like his birthday dumpling.
It opened its terrible mouth again and he could see the crushed and mangled form of the boar, as the Dragon tossed back its head and swallowed. It's eyes turned to him, the blazing glow lighting up the ground around him as he was fixed in its baleful gaze. The world seemed to slow down, and Kase could see the ripple of muscle beneath the scales as the great behemoth began to charge.
Kase wasn't supposed to die here, he had been a good boy! He had helped around the House, had taken care of his younger siblings, had saved his older sister from further abuse! He had only just found out who his mother was, and he was going to die. But he didn't want to die! He wanted to live! He felt the anger that had been simmering on the flame of his resolve suddenly begin to boil as his inner fire blazed with life!
He pushed himself to his hands and knees, he would show this Dragon that he did. Not. Fear. It. That he would fight with whatever meager strength he had! He felt the pressure building in his chest and as the Dragon stepped towards him he did the only thing he could do.
He yelled.
No.
He roared.
He let all of his pain and rage, his anguish and regret, his resolve and indignation, burst out of him. The sheer force of his outburst brought him up, to face the Dragon head on. He felt something shift inside of him and shut his eyes to block out the image of the sea of dagger-like teeth about to close around him.
The pain didn't come, he felt his body shaking as it waited for the pain that never arrived. He opened his eyes and stared into the eyes of the Dragon, no longer thin slits but ovals of deep black, speckled with floating motes of gold. He was hypnotized by the sight and was only broken out of it when the Dragon blinked. Kase shook his head trying to clear it but was stunned again as the Dragon leaned in closer.
He was convinced he was going to die any second, but he felt no fear. Strangely enough he felt almost as safe as he had when Lady Golden Wren had hugged him. A warm breeze flowed from the Dragon’s mouth, and the faint smell of blood and flames enveloped him. The warm air flowed and spun in gentle swirls, seeming to caress his frozen skin and he felt himself relaxing. No, he felt himself falling asleep! He tried to fight off the encroaching darkness but to no effect, and the last thing he saw was rows of sharpened teeth.