I hate this village, and this village hates me. I was an orphan, and they treated me like crap. I had to scavenge from bins and I'd get a kick for my trouble if I was caught. Other kids my age were taught to throw rocks at the filthy boy. I lived in a shack I'd built myself on the outskirts, and I've had to rebuild it countless times after the villager bastards knocked it down. I wanted to get out, but without a caravan or any strength of my own, I was trapped by the monsters that roamed the fields outside the village.

But I have a plan for that.

Every year, the village would gather the favoured children that were about to reach the age of adulthood and they would march up the hill to the Altar of Beginnings. It was a few days hike followed by a climb up a pillar of rock. The adults would go with to protect their beloved children, keeping the weak monsters in the area at bay, and making sure the climb is safe for them. When they got there, the children would offer a prayer to the spirits of the altar to receive their power. This could be anything from innate understanding of a weapon, to crafting knowledge, to magic ability. They might even gain access to an Elemental power, the rarest gift. I said favoured children as naturally, I wasn't allowed to go, the village didn't want to risk me getting a good gift that could of gone to one of theirs.

So I was going to steal it.

Their little caravan was due to leave in a month, so I was going to gun for the goal now. I had a pair of knives I had practice fighting with to stave off anything coming at me, and had scavenged and stole supplies to last for at least two weeks. I spied on the team preparing for the ceremony, and learnt where the safe drinking water sprang from. It was a risky plan and could kill me, but if I didn't do this, I'd waste away in this village of loathing and would never get another chance at freedom. But if I could gain a power, any power, I could go out and see the world, I could earn my keep instead of scavenging. I could be free.

Stolen novel; please report.

Do or die. I packed up, and slipped out of the village towards the pillar.

I came across my first fight quite quickly out into the grassland. A scraggly hare was tearing at some sort of green.. thing with it's teeth. Grass, or leaves maybe? I pulled out my knives as it turned to stare at me and dropped whatever it was holding. It leapt at me but I sidestepped it and my knife plunging into it's torso as it flew past. Easy.

As I was dismantling the hare for meat, I noticed the object it was worrying at was a slime. I got ready to fight it but the blob seemed like it had enough from the hare. I left it alone, figuring I'd have enough fights going forward, and watched it eat the leftover bones and guts from the downed beast. I secured the meat in my bag and moved on, but as I walked I heard something flumping behind me. It was the slime. I drew my dagger but instead of attacking it just stared at me. I think, slimes don't have eyes, but I got the impression it was watching me. Maybe it was going to scavenge off my kills? I was confident it couldn't hurt me before I took it down, so I continued onwards, with the soft flump sound not far behind.

I took down a few more hares, using the same dodge-and-strike strategy as before. I tried sneaking up on them, but their hearing was too good, so I had to settle for squaring up to them. Each time I gutted and de boned them, the slime would absorb the remains. It seemed to be healthier then when I met it, a bit more of a blob and less of a puddle. It wibbled it's green mass at me while I watched it shuffle around. I'd seen other slimes, but they'd bounce off when they sensed me coming, and I wasn't going to make my quest harder by chasing fights.