Upon waking up I realize that I have rejoined existence. An amazing revelation that was quickly quashed by the need to empty the contents of my stomach onto the ground. The nausea that was unable to be acted upon during my journey returned with a vengeance.
I quickly rolled onto my hands and knees as my body continued to heave and expel. I clutched the ground and my fingers dug into the soil beneath them with ease unnatural to anything I could recognize. My control must have slipped while I was vomiting, the knowledge and instincts granted by my patron would have easily prevented this had I been in a right state of mind.
Over the course of minutes the nausea died down, with dry retching being the theme of the last two minutes or so. When my body finally returned to normal I wiped my mouth using my hand, which was then wiped off on the grass. I would have to experiment with my twists, but I do know one that would easily clean the vomit and dirt stuck to my body.
Upon finally standing up I was able to take in my surroundings for the first time. I have arrived in a small glade, with trees that towered over anything that I had ever seen personally. They were conifer trees, trees with needles, they would be a pain and a half to climb up and that is even without taking into account the magic in this world. These trees could very well be super durable with their needles being strong enough to pierce flesh.
The grass surrounding me was just as durable as normal grass from what I could tell. The grass itself came up to just below my knees, insects could easily hide in the grasses, which is another worry to add onto the ever growing list. The sky itself was still blue, and there is still only one sun in the sky, or rather one sun that is visible at this moment in time. The air is definitely breathable as I easily would be dead by now if that was the case. There isn’t anything noticeable that is visible along the skyline, which is already obscured by the monstrous trees surrounding the glade.
My ears pick up upon various background noises as I stand still to eliminate any noise that I make aside from the occasional soft breath that I need to take. The chirping of several different types of birds or what I can only assume as birds is the most easily identified sound. This is then followed by the buzzing of flying insects, several of which are easily visible to my eyes. There were no sounds of footfalls or of the underbrush being pushed aside by a larger creature. Magic could counteract this however and I have absolutely no idea what creatures currently reside in this forest.
My nose doesn’t smell anything that would indicate there being a corpse nearby or any animal droppings. All that was noticed were some more generic pine tree scents and grass. The trees were surprisingly aromatic which is something that I am even more suspicious about considering that I am not particularly near the trees themselves. Then again most of my experience with these trees are in close proximity when I used to sell them on a christmas tree lot from when I was much younger than I am now.
I couldn’t detect anything hostile at the moment and I did not want to stay in this glade forever, I want to get to some form of civilization so I can get my bearings, get some more supplies, figure out this world’s currencies, and start using my twists to make money by healing wounds and curing diseases while I figure out some long term goals for myself, perhaps learning some actual magic for when I begin to run low on vitality or even as something to expend before using my vitality to alter reality.
I readjust my backpack before taking another look at the sun, I was going to head directly towards the sun. I have absolutely no idea what time it is and no idea where anything is meaning that any direction is an equally okay option, I simply just chose to go directly in line with the sun. I take a deep breath and begin my journey.
A quarter of the way to the trees, movement blurs through the corner of my right eye, flitting through the gaps between the tree trunks. A movement that I would have never focused on or even noticed without the alterations granted upon me. I immediately began to observe the general area where I believe to have seen the movement in, doing my best not to focus too much on any one spot so that I could hopefully glimpse another movement from whatever is out there.
The movement did not return, which only put me more on edge. Something was out there and I have no idea what it is nor where it is. This is bad to say in the least, I am in an unknown area with unknown flora and fauna, with an unknown creature in the surrounding area.
Good enough of a reason to enact my first twist upon reality. The knowledge given to me tells me that this would not be a pleasant experience especially because this is my first time doing this, but better now than later. From deep within myself I reach out into the greater reality with a sliver of the burning yet soothing energy that is vitality. The process takes a couple of seconds and actually using the vitality to twist reality enough that I can enforce part of my personal reality onto existence takes a couple of seconds longer.
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Soon enough a dull gold-grey barrier glows into existence and outlines my body, protecting me as much as it could for the vitality spent from both physical and more supernatural damages. I frantically reach out once more and spend a bit more vitality, perhaps more than needed to render the barrier invisible so that I did not glow like a torch and broadcast my location to every living creature that has eyes.
This would have to do for now, my body feels slightly drained and everything seems a bit dull in comparison to everything only moments before. The effects are much more pronounced due to this being my first time doing this in any capacity. I would only improve with time and practice.
My eyes perform yet another sweep of the surrounding area. Never hurts to check if there are any more unwanted surprises waiting about. Especially with the earlier incident in mind. If the being out there is hostile they would have just had a great opportunity to target me while I was concentrating. Not entirely sure if that is comforting or disturbing. Comforting because it could mean that the being is no longer in the general area and disturbing because the being could also be watching me to make sure I have no nasty tricks hidden up my sleeve. Which I did, I have several and they are the only reason that I can feel even remotely safe at the moment.
A couple of minutes pass with nothing overt happening, I wait a bit longer with my senses focused and my breath quiet. Once again, nothing happens. Good time to get a move on then. With my staff at the ready, and all of my belongings secure I begin to make my way into the woods, directly opposite of the side that I saw the movement. Only someone with a death wish would do that in an unknown environment, and I no longer have such wishes.
Upon reaching the treeline I hesitate for a second as I remember the experiment I was planning to perform on the trees before actually heading deeper into the forest. The movement in the corner of my eye has distracted my mind enough to nearly forget what I was planning. Holding my staff by the very end, I take a deep breath and whack it into the side of the tree before immediately throwing my body to the side, the barrier visibly flashing as it cushions my fall and prevents harm. It takes less than a second to realize that nothing happened and the tree did not retaliate.
Good, that means that there are normal trees in the forest and while not all the trees may be normal, this tree at least proves that there are normal trees. Regardless of the tree to not-tree ratio, I was not planning on letting my guard down, even with my barrier. People get killed by doing that in a hostile environment.
With next to no effort, I pushed myself back onto my feet and squatted down to grab my staff. Luckily the staff was not damaged when I whacked it into the tree. I doubted that it would have gotten damaged in the first place when I whacked the tree with it, but it typically never hurts to verify.The staff should last me a while depending on whether or not I use it mainly as a walking stick or a headbasher.
I inhale as deep as I can before letting out a loud rumbling sigh. Probably not the best decision, but the familiar action has always helped me to temporarily remove some of the tension and anxiety I feel. I need to give myself a slight break so I can analyze what I am feeling, and work through it.
It turns out I am currently suffering a large amount of anxiety, mostly revolving around the idea of leaving the glade and heading out into potentially more hostile terrain. I know the glade, I woke up here and nothing has attacked me, doesn’t mean that nothing ever will, but it was more familiar than the actual forest. The earlier movement I saw is a huge factor in what I am currently feeling and my inclination towards more negative paths of thought only worsens the problem.
The short of it being that the majority of my fear, hesitence, and anxiety is spawned from the unknown variables in play and the more illogical parts of myself. Once more a deep inhale fills my chest with an extended exhale leaving it empty. I have reasons to fear the forest, just not as much as I currently am. I am shielded and while the shield is by no means perfect, it easily is strong enough to stop several bullets, which would cause it to flare and alert me of the attack. I can easily twist another much stronger shield into existence from there and retaliate or flee as needed. The knowledge and instincts granted upon me by my patron will help greatly in both situations.
Another deep breath passes, and I steel my nerves before taking that last step forward. No more stalling, I have a world to explore, people to meet, and things to do. My boot hits the ground and immediately snaps a twig on the ground causing me to freeze up and immediately begin to search my surroundings for anything hostile. My senses immediately focus on every single detail they can notice. A full minute passes before I am able to calm myself down from the frantic searching the twig caused.
A deep rumbling sigh once more leaves my lips causing a slight vibrating feeling in my chest. To get so worked up over the sound of a stick snapping, a noise that I caused myself nonetheless. It wasn’t even that loud and yet I immediately panicked. I really need to work on that. More deep breaths followed by long exhales allows myself to calm down enough to continue.
My boot impacts the ground again, creating more noise but I immediately take another. I cannot afford to hesitate like this as much as I want to. I keep my strides at a medium pace, faster than casual walking but slower than speed walking. I have an indeterminate amount of miles before I reach anything resembling civilization and I definitely want to preserve some energy for running or fighting.
My journey finally begins as I head past the outer ring of trees and finally enter the forest proper.