Chapter 3

As the sun rises Eli’s eyes open, birds chirping but not quite the same as he remembers. Getting to his feet with a groan, he stretches to relieve some of the soreness from yesterday's exertions. Grabbing his boar tusk, he looks to the boar carcass surprised to find it hasn’t rotted all that much through the night. “Weird that no animals came and tried to eat it, not going to push my good luck.” Stripping more meat from the boar with some difficulty, he relights his fire with more ease than the day before. Cooking enough for breakfast and some to take with him, he quickly eats and then puts out the fire. Gathering some leftover fruit and the meat into his backpack he sets out back to the forest, weapon at the ready. After a few hours of walking through the forest Eli snags his foot on a tripwire, then he feels a sharp pain in his side before falling at the foot of a tree. As he tries to get up, he slowly starts to lose feeling in his body. As the feeling gets stronger Eli realizes it's going to paralyze him, he sets his body against the tree. His body finally is fully paralyzed, stuck with nothing but his own mind. As times passes at first, he is struck with panic that someone or something is going to come get him in his helpless state. After about an hour he starts to relax as nothing has showed up yet, he notices that something in him doesn’t feel completely right. It's almost feels like another body part attached to himself, and as he tries to move this phantom limb, it feels like something else inside his skin. After a couple hours of trying to manipulate this feeling, his body slowly starts to move as whatever was paralyzing him wears off. After a couple minutes of slowly moving his limbs he finally regains full control. Looking at his surroundings he notices a dart lodged in his side, it being very small maybe two inches long and a green matching the leaves around him. Checking the area close to where he lays down, he finds a thin rope, broken from when he tripped over it. “This a is a trap, maybe there's people nearby.” Eli whispers with hope in his voice. “Yeah but that doesn’t mean they're friendly” He says to himself. “If I could find them, maybe they’d tell me where I am. Assuming we speak the same language, but first I have to figure out which direction they're in.” Checking the area around him he finds a light trail as the sun starts to set, leading away from the trap. Gathering his pack, Eli sets camp for the night far enough so he can see the location of where the trap is, he huddles next to a tree. Eating a about half of the boar meat he has left along with a few fruits, he lays his head on the tree with his hoodie up using a shrub close to the tree as cover. As the sun sets, his eyelids slowly close, letting him fall into a light sleep.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.