With a spear in hand again I felt infinitely better about the scenario I found myself stuck in. Sure, I was extremely under geared to be out here in the wild by myself. Yeah, I’d been figuratively backstabbed and dragged an unknown distance back into the brush. And of course, by best weapon was a knife that was only slightly larger than my hand and I was surrounded by hostile wildlife.

All that sucked, but I now had a sturdy stick in my hand with a nice pointy end, and a hand that could fondle the most succulent berries off even a barren bush. There was probably a better way to phrase that, but I was excited and optimistic for the first time that since Brook drugged and robbed me the day before.

After eating my fill of berries, nuts, and tubers I managed to coax out of the ground with my magic, I decided it was time to trek out of the forest again and get back on the road. I quickly found out just how difficult that was without a road to follow or a dog to lead me. Seriously, I didn’t think I could be this directionally challenged. I ended up just picking a direction and walking in a straight line, to the best of my ability. Eventually the forest had to end again and I didn’t think that Brook could have dragged me too far.

The trees in this forest loomed over me, glaring down at the human who dared walk amongst their branches. It wasn’t as foreboding as the forest I’d found near westway weeks ago, but I still felt like I wasn’t exactly welcome. I decided to try and use my [Growth] spell on a nearby tree to appease it, and to see what would happen. The spell consumed more than twice as much mana as it usually would but gave no visible results. The forest felt less menacing afterwards. That or my almost-lightheaded state made me less perceptive to the angry trees.

It was hard to keep time in the forest by myself. In the past I was more aware of the passage of the hours because of casual chatter with Brook or she would suggest when to stop for a meal. Right now, however, I was just zoning out while making my way through the brush, occasionally slowing down to bribe the trees with my sweet, sweet growth spell. It was the only way I could track the time, counting the mana regeneration, and some small part of me told me that it was gaining me favor with the wooden giants of the forest.

By my count it was probably about noon the day after I’d been hoodwinked when things started to go wrong again. My mana had just topped off and I spent it on a sturdy looking oak, allowing it to drain away at my stores with my [Growth] spell. As I turned to continue on my way (West? North?) I heard a loud groaning, like something really heavy stepping on a wooden board and stretching it out past its limit.

I turned around quickly, expecting to see the tree grow, but couldn’t find the source of the tree. I wrote it off as my mind playing tricks on me and started walking away. That’s when I heard another noise. A tree branch far overhead cracked and then snapped. I head snapped up and what I saw was terrifying. A flying pig was leaping out of a nearby tree and diving at me like a hawk!

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I jumped to the side and rolled, hearing a very loud impact off to my side. I pushed myself back onto my feet with my spear at the ready to observe my assailant. The flying pig, for lack of a better word coming to mind that moment, was probably as large as I was. It had two tusks, each the length of about half of my forearm, and a very pissed off look in its black eyes. The boar’s coloration matched the trees surrounding us, a motley of dull browns, from its fur to its oversized wings. Oh yeah, that is what the important part was.

The fucking pig had wings that resembled a blackbird’s, but much larger. Its wingspan was at least 15 feet from tip to tip, and far more muscular than it had any right to be. It looked like tweety bird had been pumping iron for 20 years in prison with daily doses of steroids and a hefty amount of eating the other prisoners for protein.

I tried to snag the beast with my [Entangling Roots], knowing it wouldn’t hold for long but hoping it would hold for long enough. There was no way I was fighting this behemoth sized boar on its own turf. The day I threw my life away like that would be the day pigs fly. Wait a minute…

Naturally when I went to use my new spell nothing happened. I’d just drained my mana feeding it to an oak tree, and was unable to cast the snare now! While I was coming to accept that pigs did fly, and I was going to die here, the boar finally made its next move. It came charging at me, on foot this time, intent on getting me for trespassing in its territory. I scrambled backwards and fell on my ass, holding my makeshift spear in front of me in a feeble attempt to protect myself.

Then the boar died and I survived.

Really, it happened just like that and I missed it too. Somehow, mid charge, when I totally did not have my eyes closed with tears streaming down my face crying to my mother, a root exposed itself from underground and snagged the boars hoof as it charged me down. The boar went tumbling forward, its momentum not completely arrested, and landed neck-first on my spear, which was somehow braced against yet another root I hadn’t seen before.

Somehow, the surrounding trees had banded together and saved my life while I was cowering. I’d been putting up a bravado, telling myself everything was fine and I’d make it out of this alive even without Brook or Sophie, but it had been a lie. It took until I was going to die from a boar attack for me to realize that I’d given up the moment I woke up alone, and I had resigned myself to die even while telling myself I hadn’t.

Standing up and dusting myself off, I decided that was a load of pig shit. I wasn’t just going to die and I wasn’t just going to forget this had happened. I was going to track Brook down somehow, and I was going to make her pay for what she’d done, but to do that I needed to get out of here alive. I had been spending my mana to keep myself in a lightheaded state, so I wouldn’t have to think about my situation, but no more. I would keep enough back now that I could defend myself if need be.

I would also need to find somewhere to wash my pants. It was a good thing nobody had been around to see what happened.

Or had they? I had started to here an awful lot of quiet wood-groaning noises that sounded a bit like laughter.