Chapter 2: Sanctuary.

The dim light of the system’s night sky, struggled to break through the dense canopy overhead. Compared to the clearing I had arrived in; the surrounding forest was a dark and foreboding environment. Under foot lay various terrains that seemed to change by the minute, from soft mulchy soil, to dry nutrient void earth and my personal favourite, uneven spiney roots that shot out of the ground at random. If I wasn’t immune to damage at the time, my first trip and fall would have killed me instantly.

I had been walking for a little more than five minutes, obviously distracted by the beauty and purity of the forest around me and taking in the strange shapes of the surrounding flora, when my foot caught on a root that I was sure hadn’t been there before. Suffice to say, I fell, and the two-inch spike that protruded from the root beneath me pierced my left eye in an instant. Again, there was no pain, only an uncomfortable pressure as my skull cavity was penetrated. I lay there half blind for a minute, screaming obscenities in the dry cracked ground before I grabbed one of my fallen machetes and hacked at the root from either side of my head. The damn thing was curved at an angle that made it tough to pull out of my fucking brain and my stomach churned at the squelching pop the thing made as I yanked it out.

When I looked down as my eye and grey matter reformed, the offending root had disappeared from the ground. After that, I cut every root I came across. I walked in a straight line for another five minutes hacking a path around me, roots, branches and vines all suffered in my irrational wake. I don’t know if I was suffering from temporary brain damage or if I was just letting off my frustrations from being deposited in this monstrous, and apparently homicidal, rainforest but it felt good to lash out, that was until I saw a boar.

This wasn’t your average Baratheon killing boar, that would have been bad enough but no, this boar had tusks design for goring its prey and was almost definitely a predator. The big black furred beast locked its eyes on me and Anansi made my mouth water at the sight of it.

“I know you’re hungry bud, but this thing looks dangerous.” I said backing up slowly.

At the sound of my voice the boar grunted and kicked up dirt in excitement. I knew the overgrown pig couldn’t hurt me but if a root could puncture my skull, I could only imagine what the boar’s tusks could do to me. Before I had the chance to turn tail and run, Anansi did his thing and changed my entire viewpoint. My heart quickened its pace, my fists clenched around the hilts of my machetes, and I roared out in rage. I pushed towards the boar, and it kicked its back foot again but this time with its bassy grunt came a shimmering light around its tusks.

I ignored the abnormal sight and picked up my pace. When there was less than ten feet between us, the bastard pig flashed out of sight, reappearing in an instant with its glowing tusks piercing my gut and completely skewering me. Just like that damned thorn the tusks were curved enough to cause my body to become stuck. The lack of pain was the only comfort I had while the beast tossed its body around trying to free me from its clutches. For more minutes than I care to remember, I was thrown this way and that, smashed against trees, the ground and at some point the homicidal pig threw itself to the floor and tried to kick me off, like I was some kind of free loader.

While I suffered the embarrassment of being rag dolled, I felt Anansi crawl off of my arm and just as I was about to accuse the spider of betrayal, he did something I didn’t expect. A web shot down from between the trees and lifted the boar and I into the air. I had to marvel at the tensile strength of the woven web as the boar had to weigh at least twice my mass. Shocked at its sudden dangling position the boar went stiff and with the given opportunity I acted. I grabbed the rough black fur of the thing and heaved, blood burst from the massive holes in my stomach and miraculously what was left of my intestines didn’t fall out as I freed myself.

Relieved that the boar no longer had me in its grip I let myself fall to the ground, at the same time the beast came too and began to buck, causing it to swing. I could tell Anansi was bothered by its movements as I felt annoyance creep in under the relief of freedom and my rapidly sealing wounds. Deciding to lend my saviour aid I searched for my machetes, finding them a few feet away I grabbed them and rushed the big bastard pig pinata.

The blades had no effect. I slashed and stabbed, over and over, screaming my rage out for every beast in the vicinity to hear but nothing came of it. I didn’t know if it was the bloodlust that Anansi had filled me with or just an adrenal response from the traumatic episode, but I couldn’t think straight and at that point I needed to do more than banally swinging my blades at the boar’s impenetrable hide.

“Buddy.” I huffed, trying to get the spiders attention. “I need you to calm me down.”

My heart slowed, my jaw unclenched, and I could finally think straight.

“Firstly Anansi, I want to say, never affect my mind that way without my permission.” A wave of sadness struck me from the spider, and I continued. “Secondly, can you keep it still please?”

The spider sprung to action, spinning its webs with intricate ease. When he was done, the pinata was more like a boar meat burrito dangling above me. I asked Anansi to drop the pig, and he complied. What I noticed most when it fell to the floor was the pained grimace upon impact; there had been no acknowledgment of my machete attacks, but an eight-foot drop bothered it. I considered having Anansi pull the boar up higher to drop it down to its deserved demise but after what it had done to me, things felt personal. My best spider buddy watched me as I circled the prone beast and it reminded me of the mantis, my knife couldn’t scratch the carapace, but the insect’s mandibles sliced through like butter. Was the boar’s hide harder than the insects armour, if that was the case the bore definitely had a soft spot, and I had brought the perfect tool for the job.

When you’ve been as intimate with an object as having it penetrate your eye-socket, one simply does not discard it. Reaching to my belt I unhooked the offending root and jammed the prick directly into the boar’s eye. With a reminiscent squelch and a final squeal from my foe, the beast died.

Congratulations you have slain iron hide boar. You have gained the following: large experience, dual wielding, herbology.

I breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of the notification. I knew I would find it annoying to have my mind invaded like that every time I achieved something, but it definitely quelled the fear that the boar had somehow survived. Regardless of my surety I still gave the big pig a kick in its smug dead face; it did after all put me through my second most traumatic experience in my short time in this strange new world. Standing back and looking at the huge beast, while my freshly broken toes clicked back into place, I felt intense hunger pangs from the bottom of my gurgling gut.

“Let me get the root out of its eye and you can eat your fill, pal.” I said to the spider that dangled above the boar. “Actually Anansi, is there any chance you could tone down these sensations?” I imagined myself being peckish and tried to convey it to the spider. “That’s normal human hunger, dude. You ate a fair amount of mantis juice like an hour ago there’s no way you’re as starving as you just made me feel.”

Anansi made my cheeks heat up with embarrassment and dropped the gut-wrenching hunger down to a mild craving. It was close enough.

“You really feel your feelings don’t you, buddy.” I gave him a smile. “Let me get that root.”

As soon as I pulled the root out Anansi descended on the boar. Unlike his feast with the mantis this time he crawled into the beast through its mutilated eye socket, and I sat down to give him some privacy. The pleasure that spider sent me was welcomed. While I basked in the feeling of a slowly filling belly and the tingling sensation of enjoyment, I contemplated the system notification.

It said I had gained large experience, I assumed that meant the skills I picked up would be gaining levels during the integration period but honestly, I had no idea what that all meant. So far, deep analysis and artificing had come in handy; I wouldn’t have my machetes without them. Butchery was a weird one, and other than the fact that when I thought about it in regard to the boar I suddenly knew where and how to cut to get the best quality strips of bacon possible, the skill hadn’t been of any use so far, although thinking about it would I have known how to remove the mantis’ mandibles or the angle to jam the root into the boar’s eye without the butchery skill.

Having knowledge downloaded into my mind was a difficult thing to think about. The sudden understanding felt more like a hazy memory had come to light than it did anything else. The new skills were dual wielding and herbology. Dual wielding made sense I fought the boar with a weapon in each hand, ok I thrashed at the thing senselessly, but the system still rewarded me for it. Herbology was weird, was it like artificing, gained from proper use of materials.

Wondering what the herbology skill did for me, I inspected the sharp tipped root. The slurping sounds coming from somewhere inside the boar’s carcass mad it hard to focus but with a deep inhale I managed to activate deep analysis. Suddenly there was only the root, all else was a blur. The first thing I noticed was that it was remarkably clean for something that had been stabbed inside two brains. Its light brown skin had thin hairs that stood on end as my hand neared. I played around with it, turning it over in my hand and noted that the areas I had cut had reformed protecting the core of it. the oddest thing I saw was that the tip of the thorn looked more like a syringe and when I pricked my finger on it the blood was sucked into the root. Not just that but any blood I dripped on the thing was also absorbed. My conclusion was that whatever plant this root came from was vampiric in nature. Understanding flooded my mind, and I knew that the plant could be trained to patrol a boundary if properly maintained with a diet of blood and fresh water. The question was, did I want to raise a plant like this in my little oasis.

Before I could come to a decision, Anansi returned to my wrist and filled my mind with satisfaction. With his meal done I turned my mind to the boar. The system called it an iron hide boar, as in its skin was like iron. Had I just known its name I probably would have tried a completely different approach. Although, there wasn’t much I could have done after it blinked through the distance like that. shaking my doubts aside, I inspected the big pig’s corpse. Anansi had done a number on it; the beast was shrivelled beyond belief. Pocking and prodding it revealed that it was literally just skin, and bones and I shivered to think that in the time I had been playing with the vampire root the spider that was wrapped around my wrist had devoured every ounce of meat and blood inside the thing.

Now, I’ve never been a fan of hunting for sport, it always felt a bit cheap to me, man with powerful long range rifle murders animal with fuck all but teeth and claws, but dammit I fought this thing and well, if I wasn’t currently immortal, I’d have lost. so yeah, I wanted to take it home, if not as a trophy, then as a reminder that I had my ass handed to me. when I tried to lift it, I found that it was much too heavy to handle. The worst part was that the hide was actually pretty light and if I could cut and tan it, it would make for an impenetrable cloak, but the bones felt like they weighed a tonne.

As I sighed with disappointment, my mind spider replaced the emotion with hope.

“What are you trying to tell me, Anansi?”

He hoped off my wrist, entered into the boar’s body through its mouth and exited again pulling a strand or webbing. He then did the cutest thing ever. Waving two of his little gold and blue legs at me he wiggled his bum indicating for me to help. I stooped down and he left the strand of webbing in my hand, it was oddly hard and rough to the touch. He then circled around the boar carcass and webbed up its hind legs, that web he attached to the trunk of a tree and when he dropped back down to the ground, the strands of webbing attached to the boar’s legs pulled hard. It was a rapid chain of events, the web in my hand went tort, the iron hide flew towards the tree and a heavy parcel of bones slid out of the boar’s stretching maw. For the umpteenth time I wanted to be sick.

Deciding that my first little foyer into the forest was enough for the moment, I grabbed up the iron hide and turned back towards the oasis. With the machetes and vampire root strapped to my belt, the hide in my arms and Anansi on my wrist, the journey was a slow one. It took me around fifteen minutes to get close to where the root had tried to kill me, admittedly I was only going so slowly because I feared that said root might sneak up on me again, but with my eyes glued to the ground I saw no evidence of its presence.

When I was about five minutes away from my destination, I felt an odd sensation come over me.

“Anansi, are you doing that?” I asked the spider.

He doused my thought in negativity.

“Then why do I suddenly feel safe?”

He made me feel responsible for my surroundings

“Wait is that the area of authority I gained. Does that make things safe around here?”

He wriggled with a shared delight.

“How does that even work?”

I almost shit myself in fear.

“Right. That was a bit much, buddy but I get it. anything that approaches will be afraid to come any closer.” I thought about the distance and the math did itself. “So, are we’re saying this authority should reach around a quarter of a mile radius, right?”

We both smiled with positivity, and I walked on without a care in the world.

When I first set out my goal was to discover what my new environment was like, and I had discovered that the rain forest was dangerous beyond belief. Returning to the safety of my oasis, my sanctuary, filled both me and Anansi with the purest sense of calm imaginable and for a moment I basked in the serenity of the secure location. The area authority given to me for defeating the blade mantis meant that nothing would approach this safe space, and I could do as I pleased without having to look over my shoulder or under foot for deadly roots.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

After I had deposited my gear and taken a second to fully appreciate my surroundings I decided to start on my building project. I needed a roof over my head and a place to store things. Again, I didn’t want to live on the ground, the time I had spent in the trees of the amazon gave me comfort and so I looked to the tree line once more. Anansi’s trick with the retracting web gave me an idea and with my thought, he sent me positive feedback. Aiming my hand at a particularly thick trunk with plenty of out stretching branches he shot a web that pulled me up in an instant. Obviously, I did the spider man hand sign as I flew through the air grinning to myself. The one thing I hadn’t thought about in my giddy stupor was how to manoeuvre around the tree. So, for a minute or two I dangled by one arm feeling like a complete idiot. Asking Anansi for a hand he got me up to a steady branch and from there I began gathering wood.

The mantis blades cut the thick branches with ease and before long, I gained a rhythm of zipping from branch to branch, cutting and dropping the majority of the log sized branches down to the ground. After an hour of this I had piled up enough wood to build a log cabin and Anansi had left my wrist to snack on the mantis. it took me ages to prepare the wood, even with the mantis blades stripping the bark was a tedious affair. Cutting the log like branches into planks and beams was a little more enjoyable as I imagined what I would be using each piece for as I crafted them but, on my mind, the whole time was the fact that I was slowly using up the integration periods immortality buff.

When Anansi returned to me, I asked him to help with his adhesive webbing and the world’s best spider buddy was happy to comply, within moments we had built a twenty-foot ladder, and my tree house dream was about to become a reality. When I stuck the final rung on the ladder the system notified me of my success.

Congratulations, you have crafted an iron web infused ladder (superior) and have gained the following: carpentry.

So, I was already a pretty proficient carpenter, but the added skill did something to me that people on earth would kill for. I went from being good enough to build a shed, to having the knowledge to build a wooden cathedral. Ideas flooded my mind, bespoke armchairs, embellished wardrobes and a king-sized bed with a comfort level over nine thousand. If this was what gaining a levelled-up skill was going to be like, I wanted them all.

With the idea of gaining new skills distracting me from my goal of a comfortable tree house I decided I would have to at least do the bare minimum before setting off. up I went into the trees and with the help of Anansi’s webbing, I had built the shell of my house in just a few easy minutes. The flooring was perfectly even, level and smooth. The frame was sturdy, and the roof was so airtight even a monsoon wouldn’t be able to leak through. The last thing I had to do was attach the ladder to the hatch in the floor and I could set off on another adventure, this time I was going out with a purpose.

Before I left for the dangerous wilds of the rainforest, I stopped by the ever-present mantis corpse as I had two things I wanted to try. Those jagged blades on its arms were perfect for a new weapon and with a new weapon type would hopefully come a new skill. This time I wanted to craft a spear, If I had a spear during the boar fight, ok incident, I might have tried piercing its eye socket earlier. Using the knowledge that came with the artificer skill I instinctively knew what parts of the massive mantis’ leg would work well, and the butchery skill not only let me cut with perfect precision, but it allowed me to pry out the blades without damaging their roots making for extremely durable spear heads. While Anansi supped on the juicy meat of the leg, I whittled away at the blade root and when we were done, we worked together to finish the weapon. It was my finest work yet. The spear head ran deep into the pole affixed by Anansi expanding web adhesive and around the pole my spider buddy had weaved thin strands of webbing to help secure my grip. While I admired my work I waited for my notification, but it never came.

Shrugging I asked Anansi to confirm something for me. “Buddy, is you’re webbing harder than it was before?”

He made a vision of the boar flash in my mind.

“You got the boar’s durability?”

He hit me with that addictive positivity.

“So, when you finish eating the blade mantis?”

Visions of all the times I had sliced off my finger turned my smile upside down.

“Hey, I didn’t know what I was doing, ok.” I hit him back with the strongest annoyance I could muster up before continuing. “So, does that mean you’re webs will be sharp to the touch?”

He compounded my negativity and then slowly raised it to a pleasant feeling of content.

“You can control it then.” I said, giving him a stroke while I enjoyed the peaceful feeling he shared. “So why aren’t you eating the bug right now?”

My stomach ached with fullness, and I felt more bloated than an all you can eat taco Tuesday.

“You know, with everything you’ve eaten today I’m not surprised.”

I suddenly felt exhausted and let out an involuntary yawn.

“Woah buddy, I can’t afford to sleep right now, but if you’re tired have a nap I’ve got a few bits left to do before we head off.” With that said he put me back in control, but I had to ask. “Hey, you know that feeling of content you hit me with earlier, would you mind?”

And boy did he. I smiled like an idiot while I worked on gaining my next skill. Hoping for a gathering skill or maybe even an autopsy skill I began removing every spear head that jutted out of the mantis’ two front legs. Having the jagged blades just piled up on the ground would have been a bit too inefficient for me so I improvised and used the iron hide boar as a bag. The best thing about Anansi’s appetite was that he didn’t leave a shred of moisture in the remains of his victim, so I knew that the spear heads would be clean and safe to move around. In total there was two hundred and seventy-five jagged spear heads to remove and after I had removed the first hundred my disappointment levels pushed passed the content that Anansi had lent me. I hated to leave a job undone so regardless of the fact that no skill was coming to me, I popped out the last blade and stuffed it into the iron hide bag.

Congratulations. You have successfully harvested a full yield of blade mantis spikes (unique) and have gained the following: harvesting.

The notification repelled my disappointment and taught me something important about the system; skills only came after a job was completed. If I wanted a spear wielding skill I was going to have to go out and kill something. Ready to set off I deposited the iron hide bag at the bottom of the ladder to my tree house, noting to myself that I would have to build a pully system, and with a gentle stroke on his blue and gold back I woke Anansi.

The last time I left the oasis, I travelled in a straight line with my back to the waterfall. This time I turned left and used the mountains edge to indicate my path home. Without knowledge of the constellations above there was no way to track my direction, so, if the mountain rounded off, I would have to follow its curvature. Walking would have been too slow for the foray I had planned and honestly, I really enjoyed the web slinging that Anansi enabled so with the copyrighted hand gesture, I took to the trees.

The speed at which I zipped from tree to tree meant I failed to take in my surroundings within a minute or two I had covered the quarter mile radius of my authority and was once again venturing through the ever-dangerous rainforest. I slowed my progress when I saw a tree bearing bunches of small vibrant red fruit. Thanking the system for the herbology and harvesting skills, I zipped over. The fruit were cherry sized pears on thick black stems and let of a sweet aroma. I had to have one in my hand to gain the knowledge of its property’s but that was hardly a problem. If eaten, the little red pears would begin a slow full body healing process but if gathered and crushed into a poultice they could be used on a wound to instantly regenerate damage. If something like this existed on earth, there would be no questioning its worth and naturally big pharma would gate keep the shit out of its use. I stuffed as many of the pears as I could fit in my belt pouches and continued on my journey.

In the short time I had been zipping through the forest I had easily travelled at least three miles and the mountain’s impossibly steep edge had yet to change. It was as if it were a barrier, or a wall designed to separate the forest from the world above. I had considered giving scaling it a go in an attempt to earn a rock-climbing skill, or would it be mountain climbing, whatever the skill would be I dissuaded myself at the thought of having to finish the impossible task to gain said skill, but that was when I had a brilliant idea. Ahead of me, just a few quick web zips away grew a tree much shorter than the gargantuan redwood type trees I had been zipping between. I figured that I would have to start at the ground and reach the top to potentially gain anything and when I put my theory into practice, I was right.

Congratulations, you have successfully scaled a tree and have gained the following: climbing.

I’d have liked to have known why I didn’t receive the skill after climbing the ladder I had built, maybe it was something about the effort involved or maybe a restriction involving things made by people. Before I could fall deep into my musings my full attention was drawn to a sound in the near distance. Not just any sound a voice.

“Oh god, my eyes. No, God no, you damn cat.” Screamed the agonising voice.

The deep guttural scream was loud enough to startle the birds above and with the words spoken in my native tongue, I hurried towards it excited to meet another person who had been stolen from earth by the system. What I found made me stop in my tracks. High enough to go unnoticed I watched three ants, the size of God forsaken Pitbulls tearing apart a massive person. My ocular senses were overwhelmed as I took in the sight. The ants had tough looking mandibles at the front of their angular heads and all about their candy red carapaces jutted spikes with tips that looked almost as sharp as my spear.

Their quarry was definitely not human, but he was defiantly a person dressed in a heavy wax jacked and a pair of oddly made combat shorts was an extremely muscular green skinned man. I couldn’t describe the alien’s face as evidently it no longer had on. What I would have assumed had been a brutish and intimidating visage was now a blackened mess, dripping and oozing. Its skull showed in places and where the lips used to be protruded what looked like tusks.

While the ants where distracted in their attempts to dismember the hulking figure, I inhaled deeply, positioned myself above the largest one and gave my spider buddy a stroke for luck. Removing the spear from the sling I had Anansi weave for me, I let out my breath and dived. Wet jungle air swept my hair back as I plummeted down from the twenty-foot drop. With my spear head aimed for the ant’s head I gripped the shaft tightly and readied myself for a rough landing. As the spear head connected, I drove the pole deep into the ant’s head smiling at the satisfying crunch of its exoskeleton and squish of the juicy bits that sent Anansi into a mind warping craving for ant innards. Holding onto the pear shaft to steady my broken jellified legs, I eyed the other two ants as the notification ringed in my ears.

Congratulations, you have slain: acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience, Drop attack.

“Not the skill I had expected but Beggers can’t be choosers.” I said feeling my shins reform. “What did it say about acid?”

Before I could finish the sentence a glob of green liquid splashed my face, and I smelt what seemed to be a strong bleach like fragrance. Wiping the spit away, I realized half my face was numb and I could only see out of one eye, when I looked down at what was left of my hand it was evident that the aforementioned acid was going to be a problem. My face knitted itself back together and I leapt back as another glob of acid was spat at me. with my spear stuck inside the ant and the skin of my left-hand reforming, all I could do was dodge and roll as the angry Ants charged me.

Taking a chance I backed up, positioning myself for a risky manoeuvre. With my hand fully healed and my successful evasive action, I had grown quite confident as the ants stared me down clearly growing irritated at my actions. Stroking Anansi once more for luck, I ran towards the two monsters. The ant on my left charged me, while the one on the right spat at me, the acid landed on my chest and with the lack of pain, I simply shrugged it off. Dodging the charging Ant I pushed out my hand and Anansi splashed it with a web, I could hear it struggling behind me as I ran full pelt towards the corpse that held my spear. The other ant was hot on my heals and I felt my ass go numb as the thing definitely bit a chunk of tender rump. That was fine though as I had reached my goal. With a leap of self-belief, I vaulted over the dead ant and grabbed the shaft of my spear. With a yank the spear was free, and I was once again armed.

With hope in my heart, I ducked down and my prayers were answered as the charging ant clambered over its fallen sistren. for a split second I wondered if the ant matriarchy roles would be the same on the system as they were on earth but before my obsessive thoughts could distract me fully, it was time to act. With a powerful thrust of my spear, I drove the blade through the ant’s mid-section, instantly pulling it out again and rolling to the side before I could get covered in guts. The thing bucked and chittered erratically in its death throws until it went still, and that glorious voice sounded in my head.

Congratulations, You have slain: acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience, evasion, pole arms.

I felt like Neo, the mix of the evasion and pole arms skills filled me with the knowledge that only a shaolin monk could have honed from decades of practice. Sprinting a using my spear to pole vault over the dead ants I approached my remaining foe. The fury in it multifaceted eye did nothing to temper my vainglorious charge. It spat and I dropped to my knees sliding under the green globule. Once clear of the acid I pushed my spear down into the ground and used it to properly me bodily into the angry chittering angry. I felt like a fucking god as I hurtled through the air my spear held high and my voice box vibrating with a mighty roar.

Congratulations you have slain acid spitter ant (worker) and have gaind the following: medium experience.

“Fuck yeah, I did.” I cheered. “Go on Anansi, eat your fill.”

Naturally the greed bugger zipped directly over to the largest ant and began feasting, so, while I enjoyed his projected ecstasy I inspected the closest deceased ant. Up close and with time to really take it in the thing was horrifying and with the classification of ‘worker’ I really didn’t want to meet a soldier ant. Once Anansi had his fill I fully intended to return to this location and see what I could harvest from these ants. The mandibles looked like they would make amazing clubs or if I could cut and shape their carapaces perhaps, I could make a decent spiked shield.

Before I could let my musings indulge in my creative mind, I saw something in the corner of my vision, hobbling over to the hulking green corpse next to the largest ant. Paying it my attention I saw that the thing was a little furry black cat person. The mini-Khajit wore what I could only described as rags and had blood dripping down its leg from what looked to be a crossbow bolt embedded in it’s thigh. Its movements were painstakingly slow as it searched the corpse for something. Giving up and letting out a loud and desperate mew, the cat fainted.

I rushed over feeling sorry for the little guy. He looked helpless and was clearly brutally wounded by the dead green dude it had been trying to ransack. Looking him over, or at least I assumed it was a him, the only wound I could see was the bolt in his leg. Snapping to action I pulled out the healing pears from my bag and grabbed up an errant rock, crushing them in my palm and grinding them into a poultice, I acted without hesitation. I applied the healing sludge as quickly as I had pulled out the bolt and breathed a sigh of relief as the wound began to seal but the cat didn’t wake.

Scratching him behind the ear I said. “C’mon little guy wake up.” He was still breathing although his breaths were slow and laboured.

Congratulations. You have successfully crafted and administered high health poultice (poor) and have gained the following: first aid, chemistry.

The skill gains were welcomed but I was terrified of losing the little fella. Feeling my fear, Anansi hurried over and sent me calming thoughts, then he filled me with huger.

“No.” I reprimanded the spider. “We don’t eat the innocent.”

My best buddy hit me with a feeling of absolute stupidity and took a pear out of my pouch, rolled it into my red stained hand and once again hit me with the hunger.

“I’m so sorry.” I said pinching the bridge of my nose. “you’re right I’m stupid.”

Taking out a few more pears I crushed them up and force fed them to the cat. Still, it didn’t wake, but its breathing regulated and what was a pained moan became a relaxed snore.

“What should we do?” I asked Anansi desperate for guidance.

He made me home sick and he was right, I needed to get the cat out of this dangerous portion of the jungle, if any more ants came protecting him would be impossible. I lifted the cat onto my back and Anansi secured him tightly with a weave of soft yet sturdy webbing, I then angled my spear away from the cat and Anansi crafted me a fresh sling, tighter and more secure than the last one.

With a determined glare I looked to the trees and said. “Right buddy, let’s get home.”