[Congratulations! You survived the night! Welcome to a new day in the afterlife. As with all Norse afterlives, you spent all day fighting, pillaging, and plundering. Some lived, and some died. But all those lives lost are returned, to pillage and plunder again until the Ragnarok decides to come and create the cycle again.]
I jumped in the river. I would drown that damn blue box and its eye searing, all encompassing, color assault. By extension I was able to clean up after yesterday's construction work and prepare for today's adventure. I was going to take that bow and arrow and go hunting. The area I jumped in was only hip deep, so I didn’t get swept away, even though the river did tug at me relentlessly.
After a quick clean up, I geared up. I gathered up my rucksack and dumped it out on a rock. Pest wasn’t amused as he was suddenly upended on a rock. I noticed that my bag had some additions I didn’t add to it. Amongst my meager belongings were some extra sticks, slightly chewed, a pretty rock of pink quartz that shined in the light, and a half dozen dead beetles. Looks like Pest brought home some prizes from his adventures.
‘Violation!’ He shouted at me and collected up a beetle, he looked around wildly and bolted, making his way towards the new hut. As I picked through and examined my property, he made a continuous circuit of collecting what was his and running it into the new domicile. I could feel his glower each time he retrieved a new item.
“I’m going hunting today, on the other side of the river, if you want to join me.” I informed him on one of his trips. He didn’t answer until he had finished his rounds. And I hope he didn’t think I didn’t notice him stealing a few bits of my leather scraps and twine while he was at it.
‘Hostile acquisitions?’ He asked me when he deemed his property was properly secure elsewhere.
“Uhm, I suppose you could call it that, more of a supply run. Going to try to snag an animal to eat. Maybe a deer or something? That would last us a little while I hope.” I scratched my chin. “If we can preserve it somehow, I guess.”
My chin was covered with a decent amount of stubble these days. I was fine with that, I enjoyed a beard and had only shaved before because the situation demanded it. Not to mention every time I shaved it looked like I slipped mid-shave and slit my throat. Blood everywhere. My skin was not agreeable to a razor.
“I know that up the clearer river doesn't have a good crossing, the downriver either, so my plan is to travel up the forest on the muddy river side until we find a good crossing or something to eat.” I told Pest. He stared at me. Maybe he understood all that, maybe he didn’t. He didn’t really acknowledge me either way. Just stared.
I squared away my pack and slipped it on. I had packed it with full water skins, some apples and the last of the snake bits. I left behind the extra knife but took the extra belt and remaining twine. Hopefully, that was enough for supplies. I also slipped on my hip bag that I made at the cannibals camp. Maybe I could find some harvestables along the way. The only other notable item I still held was the stone shaped like a spear head. I didn’t want to carry a spear and bow at the same time, so I left it.
“So, what say you, Mr. Pest?” I asked him formally.
‘Hunt!’ He announced to me and started sniffing at the ground ahead of me. For a moment I wasn’t sure if that meant he was hunting with me or without me. But the System had something for me.
[Pest has joined your party.]
A notification slid into my vision. A party system? Classic!
“Party!” I announced and danced a little.
[Viktor - Healthy]
[Pest - Healthy]
Displayed and stuck to the upper left of my vision, both names were green, and a tiny outline followed Pest around. Party, I thought again, and it disappeared. Awesome, a little bit of help for a group. Health and location indicators. I turned it back on and wondered about the range. As Pest moved along it didn’t seem to diminish, so if it did have a range, it wasn’t one that cut out at a dozen steps.
I left the indicator running and made my way along the bank.
Nothing exciting showed up as I went along. I took some fleeting shots with the bow and arrow at trees as I walked, just to practice with it, but stopped as soon as I ended up breaking one of the arrows. That put me down to five. Too valuable to risk practicing with. I was happy with the few shots I made, a lot more accurate than I had any justification for. Pest happily ranged around taking occasional bursts of little odd ferret jogging to catch up to me as he needed. He made occasional noises and informed me of what sort of trail he caught as we went.
‘Mouse?’ He would announce. I chose to take it as a question.
“No buddy, we want bigger.” I replied.
‘Serpent?’
“Ehhh, god no, yuck!” I made a face at him. “They taste horrid.”
‘Hmmm,’ he made a noise at me and gave me a good long stare.
“But I appreciate the one you brought in for us.” I quickly back-peddled. My Charisma score was so good I can even put my foot in a mouth with my ferret friend. Maybe I should up that stat.
‘Okay,’ he said simply and went back to scanning the forest floor as we sedately made our way along it. After an hour or so of walking, he slunk up to me as I was examining a dead tree.
‘Nest, Pest tired,’ he announced and tried to climb my leg. I plucked him up and held him at my shoulder, he crawled across me, his long little nails digging uncomfortably at my neck, and slipped under the flap of my rucksack disappearing inside. After a little scrabbling around he poked his head out, just enough to look around, and seemed to settle. I smiled. How cool was he?
Shortly after he joined me, we found a crossing point. On a particular point the river narrowed, and two logs had fallen across it. The logs were old and weathered, obviously having been there for quite a while. Thick brush was all along my side of the bank, no obvious trail leading up to the logs. But I still didn’t think the way the two logs sit here at a narrowing in the river was natural. I didn’t see any evidence of tools having been used to work the wood to fit it into place or cut the trees down. It was hard to see the ends, buried in the brush as they were.
I had to thrash around with a handy stick to beat the brush back enough to reach this end of the log bridge. I put a foot on each log and hopped up and down. Both were placed solidly. Its limbs had long ago been stripped so there were no handholds, but I didn’t feel nervous about crossing. The bank on my side was about 5 feet high, while the other side about half that, so there was a slight decline. I used my pilfered stick as a walking stick for extra balance and crossed easily. On the other side of the muddy river was an open grassland. Small groups of trees broke up the landscape with a singular stubby tree here and there, but for the most part it was open and spanned some hills as they gently stretched off into the distance.
Pest sniffed at the air but didn’t seem interested in getting out of the pack just now. Which was probably good, if I set him down here, he would instantly disappear in the hip deep grass. Who knows what other predators might be in there. With a sudden flash of fear, I recalled that large predator birds would hunt these sorts of areas too.
“Be careful little buddy,” I told him, “Keep your eyes on the sky too, I’d hate for a hawk to come snatch you up.”
‘Bad deal,’ he responded, and I agreed.
I dropped the walking stick and made my bow ready. If I was a prey animal, this would look like a good place to live. Lots of flowers and grasses to eat, lots of places to burrow and hide. Those stands of trees would be a good place for a deer to hide from the sun too. I steadily made my way towards one.
‘There!’ Pest whisper-yelled at me. I felt a mind tickle in a certain direction, it was hard to describe, but basically it was a feeling of ‘there’, passing into my mind. I looked and saw a large ugly rabbit sitting and munching on something. It wasn’t normal looking with huge ears and scrawny long legs. Maybe it was a hare or jackrabbit or something, but I didn’t know the difference. It just looked like a stretched out rabbit. Like a basketball player, all lean and long limbs. I tried to quietly bring up the bow, pulling an arrow from my quiver and notching it. I fumbled a little and the bunny focused his ears on me. It held stock still, its little chewing mouth stopped.
I brought up the bow and arrow, took a deep breath, drew back, struggling a little with the bow pull, and released. The arrow sailed through the air with a slight wobble and completely missed. It plowed into the grass a mere foot and a half away from the rabbit. Yep. Complete miss. And that rabbit disappeared. Well not literally. It just started running. And it was insanely fast. Poof! Gone! Never to be seen again into the grass. I sighed.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
‘Fumbled negotiation,’ Pest informed me.
“Negotiation?” I asked, confused. “Whatever,” I said in annoyance, mostly at myself. “Thank you for pointing it out. Keep that up, that was a great help.”
‘Pest finds deals.’
“Yea, deals, sure. Find us some more.” I grumbled. “Some good deals.”
The System was blinking rapidly at me with its after action report, so I let it spill out before the poor thing had a heart attack.
[Your sneak attempt fails!]
[Congratulations. You have unlocked the Sneak Skill!]
[Your attack misses!]
[Congratulations. You have unlocked the Archery Skill!]
[Basketball Bunny has successfully fled!]
I snorted at the name of the bunny. It was pretty amusing that the System named things based on my knowledge. I wondered if there was an inspection or identification skill that would give me the real name or details about things. Information was power after all. But no matter what mental command I shouted or how long I stared at something I didn't get any magical, ding! [Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog]! Besides, if staring worked for getting information Pest would be the master of all secrets.
I gave him a scratch on the head, he didn’t appreciate it and moved his head out from under my hand. I went ahead and triggered my new skill information notification.
[Sneak]
Unlock Conditions - Try to sneak around someone.
[lvl 1] - You have a chance to go without notice with proper cover and stealth.
[lvl 3] - You can go without notice with proper cover and stealth.
[lvl 6] - You are nearly invisible in the shadows and blend in very well in the light.
[lvl 9] - Your skills are legendary, you can crouch down directly in front of someone and somehow completely disappear from their notice. LIKE A SHADOW, I AM!
[Archery]
Unlock Conditions - Take a shot at something.
[lvl 1] - You are more likely to hit what you are aiming at than miss it.
[lvl 3] - You rarely miss normal shots and can attempt trick shots.
[lvl 6] - You never miss a normal shot and trick shots will most likely hit.
[lvl 9] - You never miss, unless you want to, bending the very laws of the world around your arrows. WE HAVEN’T MET YET, I’M CLINT!
I snickered at the references. Loki may put up a front, but he definitely had some MCU knowledge under his belt. But considering it has been saturating the world for the last 20 years, who didn’t? The other reference, I doubt most people would get, but I appreciated it.
I made my way to the copse of trees. Nothing obvious stood out to me, but it was a nice place to stand and look out at the grasslands. A pleasant breeze made the tall grass dance in a mesmerizing wave. I smiled, enjoying the moment. The last years of my life were rough, and I was just learning how to enjoy the small things again before it ended. I had to force myself to enjoy things like this, to retrain my brain to enjoy life again. I thanked my wife for that, she started the journey of self-healing and taught me how to do it for myself. Even if I was a little slower and more stubborn about it. I dedicate this moment to her. Damn, I loved her.
‘DOWN,’ Pest mentally yelled, breaking my moment of peace. I was surprised and froze up.
“What?!” I felt something slam into my bag and Pest squealed violently. My party indicator changed.
[Viktor - Healthy]
[Pest - Injured]
His color changed to yellow. I jerked my head around not seeing anything. I finally dove onto my stomach and shuffled forward trying to hide behind a tree. I slipped my bag off and brought it up. An arrow was sticking out of it, blood staining the bag. I tore it open and found Pest frantically biting at a shaft that had stabbed through his side and into the leather belt that was wrapped up inside the bag. It didn’t look like it had gotten a big bite, just through his loose fur but I couldn’t be sure. I quickly broke off the arrow and tugged the sections out of his skin. I momentarily freaked out, remembering a moment too late, you shouldn’t remove a foreign object like that. But the feared gush of blood didn’t happen.
He bit my hand as I covered his wound, putting pressure on it.
“Fucking stop it, we gotta put pressure on it!” I yelled at him as he drew blood with his bites. He stopped chomping me but still was squealing as I pressed on his wound. My attention was diverted suddenly as pain stabbed into my leg. I yelped and jerked my hands off him to find another arrow protruding from my calf.
“God fucking damnit! You fucking fuckless fucker!” I screamed violently and didn’t hesitate to break the shaft off the arrow. It was stabbed all the way though right above my knee and to the outside. I was fucking furious.
[Viktor - Injured]
[Pest - Injured]
I grabbed my bow and notched an arrow, luckily, I still had arrows in my quiver after the fuckery that happened after the first hit. Screaming incoherently, I got to my feet and wildly looked around. I was going to fucking murder someone. My leg screamed in pain, but it was a pain I knew. Long ago I broke a ligament in my knee and after a botched surgery chronic pain was a constant companion. It was something I knew and sometimes in my darkest moments, relished. Pain was life. Pain was power. Pain fueled my rage.
My eyes met a man with a bow, another arrow drew back and ready to release. It was that son-of-bitch cannibal. He found me. I was going to kill him. Again. On purpose. He released the arrow and I jerked myself to the side, just missing getting an arrow to the chest, it scraped across my arm to fuck off into the bushes somewhere behind me. I ripped back on my bowstring, fueled by anger and pain, and let loose aiming in only the most instinctual way. And I’ll be god damned if my arrow didn’t fly true and smash itself into his face. It wasn’t something beautiful like in the eye, nice and pretty and perfect. No, it stabbed him in the face and tore half his cheek off as it deflected off to the side.
I charged in, limping, but taking powerful and confident strides. He was reeling from the hit, but not down. I Bullrushed into him smashing us both to the ground. He fumbled and went down hard. I smashed him in the face with a fist. His face was slick with blood and loose skin and felt quite disconcerting. I decided my other fist needed to feel the same sensation, and let it join the party. I continued until I was tired. He never got back up.
As I straddled the stinky son of a bitch and panted, I let out a primal roar of rage. Fuck I hated this guy. Pure unadulterated hate. If he insisted on fucking with me, maybe it was time I fucked back. I didn’t know which way to his camp, but after he respawned and made his way back here, I assumed he would be able to track me back to mine. I’d have to lay some traps. This fucking savage was going to be a constant threat, an involuntary penance in my afterlife, until I figured out how to be rid of him forever.
I got off of him and rushed over to Pest. He seemed okay, grooming his wound but otherwise whole and healthy. There wasn’t any active bleeding, just some punctures in his skin.
“You okay little buddy?” I asked him as I examined him.
‘Hurts,’ was all he said. I nodded at him and looked at the partial shaft still in my leg.
“I know what you mean.” I flopped down next to him and grabbed what little supplies I had. The leather belt I had stolen from the bastard cannibal the first go around, and my twine. Wasn’t much. I bundled up the twine and bit onto it. That's what they did in the movies after all. Setting my foot up on the tree I grabbed the piece of arrow poking out of the back of my leg and pulled.
Fuck. It was not pleasant. But with lots of rage screaming, tears and cursing through a mouthful of twine, I pulled the thing out. A half foot of arrow with a primitive arrowhead attached on the end was my reward. He had made upgrades. There was a lot of blood. But not like, a LOT of blood. I assumed unimportant bits were hit. I rolled up my pant leg and used the extra belt to secure it over the wound, like a messed up LL COOL J bandage. Get it, ‘cause he only rolled up one pant leg? I thought to myself. One needed to be in a special frame of mind to explain one’s own jokes to oneself. Ugh.
I slumped down. Fuck this. After a moment of rest, slipping Pest the last of the snake meat and having a healthy drink of water I felt a little better. I looked around the copse we were in. It was a group of trees, of an unknown kind, which made a nice little shady spot on a slight rise in the meadow that the grassland formed here.
“I say we camp here for the night,” I told Pest. He didn’t disagree, just took a big breath followed by a long sigh. “You go ahead and sleep little buddy, I'm going to tend to our uninvited guest and start us a fire.”
First things first, I stripped all of the cannibal's belongings this time, even his stank ass clothes. Some I had to cut off with my knife, rather then handle his body anymore than I had to. He wore a bag around his neck, which I hadn’t noticed the first go around so I snatched that too. He wasn’t going to respawn with anything this time around. I found his bow and a basket-like bag made out of some plants. He had a quiver made of more woven grass, which held three more of his fancy new arrows and a half-dozen plain sharpened stick arrows. I brought that all over to where Pest lay. The Golden Ticket must have had pity because a dead tree shared the copse with us, so I was easily able to gather some wood and had a fire burning merrily away. The fire pit was roughly made after a little Frontiersman clearing to remove the immediate brush and some stones gathered into a circle.
Once I had that all in order, I decided to bury the cannibal to get rid of his stink. Using a sharp stick to dig with, my Excavator assisted me in making a shallow grave for him. My hope was that it would disrupt his scent enough to give me a night without any predators seeking his corpse. Same reasoning with the fire. Animals didn’t like fire. The thought made me quickly look around. I hope this grassland biome didn’t support Rhinos. They liked to rush in and smash fire to death. Crazy things.
I finally plopped down again next to Pest sometime later, all these chores done. I ate an apple and watched the little fellow sleep. I had grown attached to him very quickly. I knew it was some crazy emotional survival technique of my mind to grow so attached so quickly. Like Wilson and Tom Hanks. When he got hurt, I was panicked and breaking apart. When I got hurt, I burst into a sudden violent rage, all that panic and stress crystallizing into a focused intent to do violence. It was intense. Something that only happened to me a few times in my entire life. Things I don’t know if I could talk about even if I could remember what happened in the red fueled rage.
Maybe my new Recollection stat was already showing its worth. Because I could remember exactly what I did to that cannibal. And I didn't regret a single moment of it, other than my own inaction when Pest told me to duck, and I failed to protect him from that arrow. Apple finished, I tossed the core into the copse. Call me Johnny Appleseed, spreading seeds and shit.