I am about to die.

I don't really want to die like this but I will die nonetheless.

I had lost too much blood. My legs were censor worthy. I was covered in my own excretas and this close to fainting but my enemy was not dead yet. Even with a spear halfway through its head the tiger was not dead. The fire on its tail dimmed a lot but it was yet to burn down completely. Its burning red eyes were looking at me like a piece of coal hot in the oven, in its last thread of flame.

"The fuck are you not dead yet for you cunt?"

I cannot die before it.

I needed to end its life but I could not move my body to do so. A few minutes passed and I completed my monolog.

"Ah, I miss mom."

I said in a hush dejected tone. I will never see her again. Nor my sister. I miss the dogs. Why did I not remember the recent events right away? Is my brain playing a trick on me? Will they cry? Will they think that I ran away from home? Mom will be sad, sister too.

Floating in my thoughts I suddenly felt a violent pain coming from my leg. The tiger was trying to move, grinding my legs in the process.

"Fffffffuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkkk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk…. fukkkk"

"Bastard I will kill you for sure now, I will kill you so dead you won't even go to hell"

Saying this while picking up the broken shaft I started hitting the bottom part of the spear that is coming out of its mouth with all my might.

'Bang'

"Mother 'bang' fucking 'bang' cat 'bang' I 'bang' will 'bang' eat 'bang' your 'bang' heart"

'Bang'

"I WILL EAT YOU HEART RAW…."

I was getting angry again. I always had my anger management issues, but never really lashed out like this before. My head was spinning with bloodlust.

Ignoring all my pain I continued hammering away at the spearhead, only to stop when the shaft fell down from my hand. Every part of my body, screaming with agony. Grinding my teeth I pushed on the tiger head to remove my stuck legs from under the cat's head. It surprisingly lacked resistance.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh…."

After howling for sometime my pain subsided and anger grew again. Dragging my ass with my hand I sat up taking the tigers belly as support. With the intention to remove it I pulled on the spearhead. It came out surprisingly easily, even easier than pulling my legs out.

I started to slice its belly. Blood gushed out like a fountain painted me red. It tasted like… blood. Putting my hand inside its chest cavity, I searched for its heart.

I will eat it, and raw at that. I am going to die anyway so might as well keep my last promise.

After cutting off the veins and arteries I took the heart out. It looks weird. Almost like the heart was collapsing on itself.

Hell, everything in that place is weird.

Hesitating for a moment I started chomping it down. It tastes nothing like meat. All I could taste was a salty spicy taste from the blood and rubber like texture. Nothing else. It did not even taste like rubber. 'Maybe my taste buds are not working properly!' I suspected. Eating the raw heart was making me thirsty again. With all the adrenaline gone now I could hardly move.

"I can die for some water right now."

'That's right, the stone room. It had that water place. If I can go there I can die in peace.' Thinking this much I started crawling toward the cave. The distance that I previously covered with a short walk felt like miles away. Slowly, pulling my entire body with my arms, I moved toward the room entrance.

Seemed like an eternity passed in struggle before I finally reached the small puddle. I didn't even have the strength to cup my hands. Putting my mouth in the water I drank. I drank a bucket before lifting my head.

Now I know how you died Dave. Sorry I broke you spear brother. We will meet soon. I will tell you the story of my brave adventure.I am getting carried away.

Flipping my body to the side I laid down. Laying on my back I felt the cold again. That bone piercing cold. Tears started to burst out of my eyes.

I don't want to die. I have so much to do. I haven't even lost my virginity. I want to meet everyone again. Even my father. Every dream I had will end now. What happens after you die? Maybe I will reincarnate as a house fly or mosquito. Sad, filled with regret and a tiny bit of pride my consciousness left me.

__________

An electric current ran through my whole body. Not the numbing sensation that you get while being electrocuted but it felt like electricity was running through my vein. A comfortable pulsing. The comfortable feeling only lasted for a second before the popping sound started and pain filled my world again.

I could feel random bones breaking and turning into powder.

Is this hell? I don't know how I can think through this pain. The only comfort in this grinding is the electric pulse. A moment of numbness and comfort repeated by a few more bone breaking rituals. No shit no one wants to go to hell.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I felt one of my vertebrae breaking. I cannot describe the pain. It matches nothing. It was so painful that I forgot how to breathe. Then broke the second one. Then the third one. I passed out.

Thank goodness. I never want to feel this pain again. Ever.

Don't know how long I was passed out for but when I woke up the second torcher technique was in process. This time it was muscle. But surprisingly from a few needle bite from time to time I did not feel much pain. More accurately speaking I could not feel my muscles at all. It felt like I didn't even exist outside my bones. I tried to open my eyes to avail. No matter how I tried, I could not control any part of my body.

Is someone making me an undead! Noooooooooooo I don't want to be an undead slave. Don't you fucking dare. I will curse you for life. Ah, no, maybe that's what makes them more powerful then I will use blessing to smite you.

The electric pulse started again. It's still here, hugging every part of my body, saying "everything will be alright". My body relaxed and my worries vanished. Everything slipped out of my mind. I fell asleep. Like a baby in its mother's embrace.

I slept comfortably for a long time. Dreams let me know of that, for it was an extraordinarily long one. In that dream I even killed a tiger. Like waking up from a nightmare I jolted up in a sitting position.

Did the nightmare finally end?

looking around I could make out my surroundings. The light had increased a bit but it was not my room. I was back in that cold stone room. All my pain, gone. It was not that cold either. My legs were still in one piece.

'Did I travel back in time!' I mused myself. As if that can happen. Is this perhaps my soul! Did I become a ghost?

Calming myself I checked my body. I was able to move it like before.

Hold that thought. I can control my body even better than before.

'Did I power up?' Thinking this my heart started beating fast. What if this is a different world? What if the tiger was a magic beast? 'No no don't jinx it.' Filled with anticipation I started running.

Running was never this easy before.

I am fast now, ohhh I can run so fast now.

So I ran, and ran then ran some more. After 10 minutes of running around the room I stopped. I don't feel much tired.

I could not even run for 1 minute properly now look at me.

I started doing push ups. That was easy so I did some more. One by one I did every kind of freehand exercise I knew. Finally after doing everything I felt a bit out of breath. Moving toward Dave I sat down near the water puddle and drank some water. Something hit me and I ran out of the room at top speed.

There it is. It's not a lie. I did kill the tiger. Ate its heart and there was that unbearable pain. Can you do that on earth? Absolutely not. Okay let's think about it properly after going in the room. For now I am hungry. And there is tasty meat in front of me. Wait a second, how do I know the tiger meat is tasty? I can almost feel the test in my mouth you know. Like I have eaten it before.

Placing my hands on the tiger I finally noticed how big it really was. Now that I could see it's size, a realisation dawned on me. it was big, 7 to 8 mtr in length. Muscular in structure, metallic claw that protruded out of its fingers even after death. White colour painted half of its legs, uneven rounded pattern ran with symmetry along its length. A little elongated face. It almost did not look like a tiger. Its tail did not have the fire and finally I could lift this massive unit.

"This feels good."

While creasing through the tigers fur I noticed something. My nails were pointy and thick and I could see my fingers clearly. Due to having myopic vision I could not see things clearly that were 1ft away from my eyes. I did not notice it until now because I always wore glasses but now I could see things without glasses.

Feels like I am skipping something! Right, my hands.

Looking at it again I noticed my hands were covered in a thin coating of fur with a barely visible pattern that looked similar to that of the tiger's. I jumped back in fright.

"Did I get cursed? Like the B grade movie I once saw where if you kill the tiger you will become a tiger!"

"Nooooo I don't want thatttt"

Examining my body I found out that not just my arms, my legs, pubic reasons and head too have fur instead of hair.

No no no no, am I really turning into a tiger? No, that does not seem to be the case. My body structure, walking posture is similar to before so did I get some auxiliary characteristics of the tiger? I certainly hope so. Not like I can do anything about it either. Let's eat first.

Broken spear head in hand I started to work through the tiger carcass. First comes the skinning part. I didn't know how to do it but I had seen a few video tutorials and I was sure I could cut some meat out.

It is annoying to skin an animal with a semi sharpened spear. The good thing is that the spear feels light.

Cutting a few chunks of meat I took it inside my room.

It's my room now, for I have claimed it as my own.

It is said that anything will test good if you are hungry enough. I don't second that thought. This meat is shit. I have tested raw chicken before. That test was edible. This is not. Don't know how it will taste after cooking, but raw! No. I know now, that test in my mouth was desperation. If the tiger meat tested like it's heart I would be okay with that. All in all I will not recommend this meat.

Despite everything said my second option was Dev's bones so I will have to make do with this meat. I wish I had some fire, it would be nice to cook it somewhat. The hunger was subsiding.

I am thankful to my tiger stomach for not vomiting out this garbage. I am also thankful to my tiger teeth for chewing through this lump of fabric with ease. I know the creature does not look like a tiger much but I have named it tiger.

After wolfing down almost 1.5 kg raw meat I drank some water and laid down on the floor. I was satisfied. The floor was nice and comfy cold. Relaxed, thinking about events until now I realized something.

I am either in a coma or I have traveled to a different world. I have no other explanation for my current situation. I still feel pain if I get hit, I feel hungry and thirsty and my active participation in these activities relieves me off those needs. Either way, I don't think I can go back to how I was before and to my old life.

All right it's decided, Echo the caveman have borne on this very day, a humbling beginning to his extraordinary legends. I am going off track again. But, this could be fun. I have always wanted to be powerful, not in superficial political power but in real power. Superhuman strengths. I need to hunt some more creatures and test out my theory of evolution and its side effects.

Closing my eyes I remembered that electric flow. It was those moments of comfort that made it possible for me to go through that evolution. Concentrating in my body, I tried to feel it again. It was very faint but I felt it. It was not blood. It was not liquidy. I had never felt my blood flowing. Maybe no one ever did. I had a hunch about what this was. Feeling intoxicated and utterly relaxed I fell asleep.

After waking up this time, I was not confused. In my heart I was prepared for it. I needed to hunt something. Tiger meat didn't test well and perhaps by searching through I could find some wood to make fire. Before that, I needed to sharpen this damn spear.

I collected some sand like powder from outside and spread it on a relatively smooth surface near the water puddle. Put some water on the sand, and started grinding the spear down. After doing this for a few minutes I checked for its sharpness. It did not sharpen at all.

The sand is sandy enough, unless the spear is made from something like stainless steel it would have sharpened a little. Well, let's just be thankful that I found something pointy.

Going out of the room I looked at the tiger. 'If I remove its femur I can probably use it as a bludgeon.' Thinking this I sliced open it's leg and removed the framers. Then sliced a part of its skin and went inside. I didn't know how to tan a skin but maybe keeping it inside will draw some of its moisture and make it usable.

After cleaning the bones and spreading the skin on the ground. I took my t-shirt off and teared it into strips then wrapped around the narrow parts of the bone for a makeshift handle.

"Now that I am completely naked it's time for hunt."