Cooper woke on the cold ground, surrounded by plant life adorned with morning dew. He took stock of his situation and gathered his bearings, soon realizing that he had no memory of anything except his own name. He didn't know how he got here, where 'here' was and no recollection of his entire life, only that his name was Cooper came to him as a hazy memory. He was surrounded by forest in every direction, no clear landmarks apart from where he stood, where there was burnt ground and a symbol formed from it, seemingly depicting three interlocked shields. Memorizing the symbol, he decided there was nothing else interesting around him and started walking in a direction.
After a few hours of walking, he came upon a clearing and he finally saw something other than trees and various plant life. A mountain. Barely visible now thanks to the clearing, but it was there. It looked like a small mountain, but it was something other than a forest, so he chose it as his next destination. After a short walk, he arrived at the edge of the forest and saw the base of the mountain and nothing in between him and it. Figuring the mountain was taller than the trees around him, he thought it might look like a good place to figure out what to do next, where to go. After a short thinking session, he chose to climb the mountain, hoping he could see something other than endless forest from the top. Climbing the mountain did not turn out to be as easy as he'd hoped, there was no clear path up the mountain, sturdy footholds were not that common, the rocks giving way as he searched for a solid next point to climb. After arduous climbing and scaling of cliffside, he eventually made it to easier to climb parts of the mountain, less steep, more sturdy, hard, solid rock giving way to loose stones and dirt. Climbing to the what he thought was the tallest point from here was easy compared to the effort he had to exert earlier and soon found himself at his destination. Breathing a sigh of relief as the mountain did turn out to be taller than the trees surrounding him, Cooper looked over the endless forest canopy, trying to find something, civilization, life, food, water, anything. After a brief search, his eyes spied small plumes of smoke in the far distance. Trying to find landmarks to guide him there turned out to be easier than he initially thought, as a small river starting from the other side of the mountain seemed to lead in its direction, only losing sight of it close to what he assumed was a village. Cooper took a deep breath, exhaling as he realized what a long walk to the village it was. "Fuck."
With most of the day already spent walking and scaling an actual mountain, small comparatively to an actual mountain it may have been, it was nevertheless tiring work that took its time and the sun was setting slowly. Cooper assumed with this much walking, he must be close to the village by now, determined not to sleep on the cold ground with no shelter, he pressed on. Soon he heard twigs breaking and what he thought was whispering, he turned around, looking for the source, hoping to find people, that did not wish ill upon him. He heard rustling from behind him, turning around, still trying to find the mysterious source of the sounds, scanning the near-darkness for movement, soon he spotted the origin of the sounds. A creature not too dissimilar to a wolf, four legs, a slightly longer, thinner tail, longer body but not by much, longer snout but also not by much, shaggy, slightly sparse fur, thin floppy ears and mean, hungry looking teeth. So not a friendly human then. Probably. Jury was still out. Stepping out of the darkness into a small opening of light created by the canopy, the wolf-thing eyed what Cooper now realized was its prey. Him. Looking for something to defend himself with, he found several branches and sticks, most looking too thin and easily breakable, but one seemed sturdy enough in a hurry, and in a hurry he was as the wolf-thing was not just content eating with its eyes had been moving closer and closer to Cooper, hungry eyes gleaming in the ever encroaching darkness. Cooper took a fighting stance, or more accurately, he held the stick in front of him in and poked and slashed about. The wolf-thing was not impressed by this meagre display and kept on its approach.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Soon it was close enough for Cooper to smell it, the hunger, the desperation. The wolf-thing seemed to no longer be content just circling its soon-to-be prey and started to take small steps forward, snapping at Cooper and quickly backing off as a very formidable stick was being swung in the air in front of the wolf-thing. Then the wolf-thing decided enough was enough and quickly committed to a lunge, aiming for Cooper's arm, which Cooper sidestepped with surprising grace, catching the wolf-thing's shoulder (did wolves have shoulders?) with a quick strike. Leaping a bit further out to avoid another devastating blow by the fearsome stick, the wolf-thing decided to get some distance from Cooper and try to slink back into the shadows. Not wanting to waste this opportunity and some primal instinct guiding him forwards, Cooper tried closing the distance, his terrifying stick held out in front of him, pointed at his enemy. The wolf-thing found itself on the backfoot after it's failed lunge, slowly backing away from the menacing stick, but hampered by its wounded and aching leg, the stick having done more damage than expected. Cooper saw the wolf-thing was favouring it's other leg and struck again, aiming at the weakened one, not connecting this time as his adversary dodged it just in time, but caught it in the wounded leg with a surprise stab, this time very clearly weakening its mobility to the point where it could no longer realistically flee. The wolf-thing realized it was defeated and soon the stick would claim victory for good, it did the only thing it could. It laid down, casting its gaze down, hoping his would-have-been prey would spare it.
Cooper looked down on the wolf-thing as it laid down, seemingly as a sign of submission. He stared at it, stick held high, ready to strike, as the wolf-thing seemingly tried to make itself seem smaller, less threatening, pleading for its life. Cooper hesitated to make the final blow, or blows as his stick was not very lethal, having been lucky to get two good hits on the wolf-thing and knocking the fight out of it. He lowered his stick, backing up and resting up against a tree. The wolf-thing carefully raised its gaze but made no other moves, seemingly content with the situation. Cooper wondered if he'd made the right choice when an intangible blue-ish box appeared in the air in front of him.
----------------------------------------
Level 1 Juvenile Grey Stalker defeated.
25 XP gained.
----------------------------------------
"Huh."