Now that I had figured out magic, I felt confident I could at least put up a fight against the Nightmare Cat. I opened the door and sprinted a good 15 feet before the Nightmare Cat realized I was gone. Once I got far enough that the Cat couldn't pounce on me, I yelled to get its attention "HEY! COME FIGHT ME YOU TERRIFYING, HUGE, very sharp, actually, maybe this was a bad idea." Uncaring of my regained knowledge that I am, in fact, very squishy, the Nightmare Cat leaped off the pod, landing directly in front of me. I immediately backpedaled, trying to put as much space between me and the dark feline as I could. As the beast stalked towards me, I remembered that I had literal magic, and willed it to attack the Cat. The ball of magic arced towards the Cat, slamming into the side of its face and eliciting a loud crack. Unfortunately, the attack didn't seem to hamper the Cat's movement, and it rushed towards me. I tried to dodge, but still caught a glancing blow. A long scratch now ran along my left arm, bleeding heavily, but at least it was still attached. I tried to form a new orb, the previous one having dissipated after the blow, but the Cat left me very little time to focus. Dancing away from a series of slashes, each with lethal force behind them, I managed to bring a new orb to bear, swinging it into the Cat's shoulder blade. This time, I didn't get the crack I was looking for, and had run before the feline could recover. I felt like I could only cast one more orb, so I planned to make it count. As I backed away from the Nightmare Cat, I scanned the ground for a strong stick. Finding one near the boulder, I put my back to the stone. While it meant I could no longer back up, I wanted something to brace against. The Cat had recovered by this point, and was pounding towards me at an alarming clip. Hoping that the damage from my first hit would make the Cat's bite weaker, I held the end of the stick against the rock and dropped into a crouch. I was hoping that the cat would impale itself in the stick, but I wasn't so lucky. the Cat shifted at the last second, taking the stick directly in the shoulder with a loud crunch, but avoiding a lethal blow. "I'll take it!" I exclaimed, immediately trying to put space between me and the Cat. Once I was a safe distance, I formed my last orb and flung it at the Cat's head, dropping it like a sack of rocks. "FUCK YEAHHH!!!" I celebrated, before running back to the pod.

I had planned to grab what I need before following the water to hopefully civilization, but I realized I had effectively nothing, I turned around. "at least I don't need to carry stuff" I said, looking for a silver lining. Then I remembered I was bleeding heavily. Looking for something to tie over the wound, I turned back to the pod once more. "No ones gonna miss those shitty seats, but how am I gonna get the cloth off? Heh, cloth off." I said, looking around the pod. I found a little scrap of metal, good for cutting cloth but basically nothing else, and got myself a strip of cloth. Bandaging my wounds, I complained "What kind of space ship doesn't come with a first aid kit. That's gotta be against some kind of regulation. I'm gonna send a complaint to someone when I get home" Feeling much better now that my blood was staying inside of my body, I wandered over to the Nightmare Cat, hoping to get something outside of pain form the encounter. However, as soon as I touched the Cat, I felt the small of my back inflate, almost identical to before in my head, but about twice as painful, leaving me wincing and trying to feel if I had just gotten a tumor. I felt access to a new fluid, but it felt almost oily, slipping around my perception. I tried to make an orb with it, but the second a stopped focusing on it, it dropped out of the air and splashed all over my hand. Disappointed that I couldn't control the magic, I sat down in the shade, at which point my hand disappeared from view. "Oh shit, that's what that does?" I said, too worn out to yell anymore. I formed a second orb of the oily fluid and dropped it on my head, and watched as my nose blended into the shade around me. "That is so useful, I might actually be able to hide the next time some chimeric abomination decides that I look delicious." I mused to myself while poking the Cat to make sure it was dead, before trying to pull one of it's fangs out. "How can this be so hard, all of my teeth fell out so easy when I was 6." I complained, before switching focus to the claws.

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These natural weapons had almost taken my arm off, and I wasn't leaving this glade without one. Not only was it the closest thing I could get to a knife, it would also be a memento to remember this time by, besides the scar that was almost certain to rest along my arm now. Retrieving one proved difficult, but with the use of a small rock and about half an hour of work, I finally got it out. "Wooooo, that took so long. I really hope this is worth it." I said, glad to finally be done. "Now, I really should wash this cut out at that river." I reminded myself, rising from the seated position I had taken to comfortably desecrate a corpse. I wandered over to the river, suddenly feeling terribly thirsty. Having the presence of mind to take small sips, I slowly slaked my thirst. "Now, to find shelter. And haul that big ass Cat with me. A boy's gotta eat." I stood up, aiming to search along the river for any caves or places of that nature. Finding none, I headed back to the Cat, used the claw to get a second one much faster, just in case I lost the first somehow, and looked for some pieces of wood I could use to start a fire. I wasn't the brightest, but I wasn't going to go searching for something in the dark. That was a good way to break my ankle tripping on something. I was going to start a fire and attempt to cook myself some food. By the time I found enough wood, it was almost sunset, so quickly set up the fire, hoping the sparks I saw when the cat hit the boulder weren't just my imagination. Thankfully, I managed to get the fire light right before sundown, and I got to work carving up the Cat.