This time, when I fell asleep I was too tired to dream. I must have slept for a long time because when I awoke and crawled out of the thicket, night had already cycled back to day. My neck and back ached from spending another night sleeping on the hard ground, and the sharp pangs of intense hunger wracked my body. I knew that I would have to find something to eat soon because if I didn’t I would start to weaken and eventually be just as dead as I would have been had the orcs slain me.
The skills and abilities that I had absorbed from the essence crystals were strange. They certainly didn’t seem to impart identical degrees of power. From Juma, I had obtained a small amount of strength and some form of self-healing. The vision with the hunter hadn’t improved me physically at all, but seemed to have imparted intrinsic knowledge of some hunting and survival skills. I wasn’t sure what I had gained from the old woman because I hadn’t had time to explore any changes before I had collapsed in an exhausted heap. So, finding out what I had gained, if anything, became my first priority.
Of course, the first thing I decided to test is whether I had gained magic. Rummaging through my thoughts, I couldn’t identify anything that seemed all that different. I decided to sit and meditate for a little bit, thinking that perhaps meditation would unlock any lurking latent possibilities. I sat on the ground, closed my eyes and attempted to clear my mind. It was difficult at first, as I had lived in a heightened state of awareness for the last few days. Several times, I almost gave up as sounds from the forest around me – the crackle of underbrush as things scurried about, the cry of some hunting bird, branches of trees rustling and rubbing together as the wind blew – interrupted my attempts to focus my attention inward. I persisted, though, and eventually cleared my mind, searching for any spark similar to the one I felt from the older woman. I won’t call her old because she could have clearly kicked my ass. After searching for an indeterminate amount of time I found nothing, not even a faint echo of the woman’s power.
On one hand, this disappointed me. Getting a leg up in the magical arms race would certainly have been nice, and would likely have increased my power significantly. That is, of course, unless my affinities ran in a strange direction. With my luck, maybe I would find that I was closely aligned with the form of pudding and my sole magical power would be to spray the area with a delicious chocolate custard. Not that I would complain right now, as that would be a step towards solving the hunger issue.
On the other side of the coin, however, I was thankful for the knowledge that I had obtained. I knew that magic was possible, and that it was personal, linked to your inherent identity. I guess it made sense to me that my identity and the old woman’s were very different, and if I ever manifested any magical powers those would be different from hers as well. I had observed some basic techniques that would enable me to take the first steps down that road, and perhaps if I couldn’t find my way through self discovery, I at least had enough knowledge to approach someone to train me without looking like an utter buffoon.
Giving up on the meditation, I decided to determine if anything had changed physically for me after the last vision. First, I checked my flexibility. While I had been pretty limber when I was working out at the McDojo, that had been some time ago. I had spent quite a bit of time prioritizing getting high over improving myself physically and had never really gotten back into working out. This, given my current circumstances, was something I had come to keenly regret. I sat on the ground and began stretching, and was happily surprised to find that I was nearly as flexible as I had been at the height of my training. I also knew that had not been the case yesterday.
For lack of a better way to test myself, I started working my way through the techniques and katas that I had learned in the past. Expecting that things would be sloppy and I would exhaust myself after only a few minutes, I was surprised at how easily I chained things together. My feet were light and my balance was good as I moved from kick to punch, from stance to block. Now, I hadn’t become some master martial artist, and my proficiency more closely resembled the struggling people in the back rows of my vision than those in the front. I would say, though, that I was better at this stuff right now than I had been when I was training four days a week. I wondered whether any of this improvement would translate into actual skill if I was forced to fight unarmed, but had no way to really know without actually testing it. I was not in a hurry to do so, even though I was barely out of breath at the end of my impromptu workout.
By this point, a couple of hours had passed, and after expending some more energy my hunger had grown instead of abated. It was time to try to find some food.
Glancing at the river, I briefly thought about going fishing. Fish wasn’t my favorite food, but I imagined that fish with a liberal basting of hunger sauce would be absolutely delicious. After considering it, though, I rejected the idea as the river was too wide and fast moving for spear fishing and I didn’t have nets, fishing line, a pole, hooks or bait. Frankly, I probably would have eaten the bait before it ever made it on the hook. I was that hungry. Instead, I decided it was time to go hunting.
I retrieved my things from the thicket and quickly packed up. I didn’t have a bow, and didn’t want to waste my bullets, so any hunting would have to be done up close and personal. I considered forging my way deeper into the forest, but realizing that I had a good source of fresh water beside me, I elected to work my way down the stream instead. I knew that animals are drawn to water sources and perhaps I would get lucky and blunder into something that I could kill and eat.
As I moved down the river, from time to time I noticed plants that I somehow inherently knew were safe to eat. Thanks, elf hunter! I grazed on them, consuming them raw. Many of them tasted awful, and while they did little to assuage my hunger, some fuel was better than no fuel.
As I continued along the river, it continued to widen and I could sense that I was descending. I noticed a variety of small woodland creatures including birds, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, and other things I really didn’t know the name of. As I moved down the river, I kept my eyes out for rocks that were the right size to throw and loaded up the rest of my fanny pack with them. Keeping a few in my hand, I would wing them at the small, delicious looking creatures that crossed my path. Every once in awhile, I would throw one accurately enough to hit one of the creatures. In my mind, I saw myself throwing a rock and stunning a critter with it long enough for me to close the distance and harvest it with my knife or my sword. Reality was less kind. None of my throws stunned anything. Instead, the creatures that I would plunk with the rocks would chitter or screech angrily at me and quickly limp their way deeper into the forest.
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I was starting to get pretty damn frustrated until I rounded a bend in the river and noticed a small deer or antelope-like creature drinking from it. It stood perhaps three and a half feet tall, and had dense wiry hair springing forth in an unruly mess all over its body. Instead of the graceful, elongated snout of a deer its compact face looked more similar to a sheep. When I rounded the bend, it looked up at me and then indifferently went back to drinking.
This was my chance! The creature didn’t seem to be nearly as skittish as most things in the forest. In fact, as I stealthily approached, it stopped drinking and began eating, browsing the vegetation around the river. As quietly as I could, I silently drew my rapier as I closed the distance between us but it didn’t seem to be the least bit nervous. On a couple of occasions, it glanced up at me but went right back to eating.
Was this thing stupid or diseased? Why was it not reacting to my presence? I didn’t understand how something could grow to that size and exhibit no survival instincts at all.
Finally, I had closed to striking distance. Preparing myself, I quickly through myself forward in an awkward lunge, the tip of my rapier piercing all the way through its midsection. Its scream split the forest and it started to try to run, but I dove on top of it sending us both crashing to the ground.
As it bucked and writhed, I managed to get my weight on top of it, holding it in place. Then I pulled my belt knife and began stabbing. There was nothing genteel or humane about my approach. I just tried to do as much damage to it as I could. Its screams turned to cries, then whimpers until finally it was still.
Relying on my newfound knowledge, I used my rope to hoist the carcass onto a low tree branch, allowing the blood to drain. Then I butchered it, taking extra care not to poison the meat when I removed the intestines and other viscera. I quickly acquired enough meat for a couple of meals and was wrapping it and packing it away when I heard movement in the forest. I quickly stood and prepared to defend my kill.
Out of the forest strode a human dressed in a peasant smock, rough pants, sandals and carrying a thick staff. Following closely behind him were about a dozen more creatures like the one that I had just slain. He was slightly shorter than me with dusky skin, dark hair, a broad set of shoulders and a murderous expression on his face.
Suddenly, everything clicked into focus for me. The reason the creature had been so trusting, so easy to take down was because it was habituated to humans. Instead of hunting some creature of the wild, I had successfully stealthed up to and slain some poor herdsman’s unsuspecting livestock. My feelings of pride and accomplishment soon gave way to dismay as the man stalked forward. Instead of an accomplished hunter, I was essentially a cattle rustler, or a rustler of whatever sort of critter this was.
“What do you think you are doing!” he roared as he steadily approached. “What sort of idiot kills another man’s livelihood, you thief!”
The knuckles of the hand he was using to grasp the staff were clenched tightly enough that they were turning white. His face was almost purple, blotchy with rage. I had no doubt that when he reached me he intended to give me a taste of his staff. Don’t be dirty minded! The wooden staff in his hand is the one I am talking about.
“I’m sorry, I thought it was a wild animal,” I said as I raised my left hand, palm forward, in a placating gesture.
“Sure you did, you dirty five-finger. Where is your master? Where did you run away from?”
Well, shit. In my panic, I had forgotten what Zreng had told me about my hands. I tried one more time to defuse the situation.
“I can pay you for it! I’ll pay you twice what its worth.”
He stopped advancing for a moment and studied me, taking in my dirty, tattered and bloodstained appearance. For a second, his eyes passed over my rapier and I could see the gleam of greed in his eyes. Then, he looked up and locked eyes with me.
“I will take your sword as payment,” he said.
“Sure, you take my only weapon and then you beat me down anyway,” I replied. It was not my only weapon, but he didn’t need to know that. Reaching into my pocket and fumbling around until I grasped one of the rings that I had stashed there, I pulled it out. Glancing down, I could see that it was a gold band with a large red gem attached to the top.
“This is a family heirloom. It is the only thing of value that I have that I do not need to survive,” I lied. “My father would spin in his grave if he knew I was offering it to you. I am certain it is worth more than your entire herd. I will give it to you in payment if you will trade me the one I have slain and two more and help me prepare the meat.”
For a moment, he stared at the ring with a calculating gaze. I could see him running the numbers in his head, trying to determine whether he could take me in a straight fight. After a few moments, caution must have momentarily overtaken avarice, as he once again looked up at me and spoke.
“I need my herd to survive. Even someone as dim as you seem to be must realize that their coats are ready to be sheared. I have a sack of food back at my camp. It contains bread, vegetables, and preserved meat and fish. I will trade you the sack and the creature that you killed for the ring. If you refuse, then I will beat you to death.”
I guess there are bullies in every world. Although my wealth was not infinite, I had plenty of other valuable things secreted on my person and stored in my pack, and I really wanted to eat, not fight. Reaching forward with my hand containing the ring, I deposited it in the hand he had reflexively reached out to receive it.
“We have a deal,” I said.
Nodding, he placed the ring in a pouch on his waist. I held myself ready in case he attempted a double cross, but he didn’t make any hostile moves towards me. Instead, he gestured at the animal I had slain.
“Get your meat.”
So, I did. He asked if he could keep the hide, and since I had no way to preserve it I left it to him. Turning, and surrounded by the herd of whatever the hell these creatures were named, we began retracing his steps back into the forest.