As much as I tired myself out, I was desperately hoping for a peaceful night’s sleep, but alas, it was not in the cards. I opened my eyes to find I was in the void, yet again. Interestingly enough, I had something resembling a body this time around. I appeared much more ethereal than corporeal, almost as if I was a faint hologram, but it was better than empty space.
“What even is this place,” I asked myself, absentmindedly. Okay, I can talk this time around? Nothing seems to be getting any less weird any time soon, I guess, I thought, just before that haunting voice boomed out in reply.
“NOWHERE. YOU ARE BEFORE,” the voice declared.
“What is that even supposed to mean?!” I thought I was confused before with everything being so hectic, but that was one of the most cryptic statements I’ve heard in my entire life. Of course, people tend not to bother with mystery or intrigue in my line of work; unless something really needs to be kept under wraps.
“NOT IMPORTANT. ATTUNING TAKES FOCUS,” the voice said, almost sounding a hint annoyed by my question.
“Attuning? Attuning to what? Who even are you,” I demanded. It’s one thing to kidnap my soul, but to act like I’m being an inconvenience for it? I take offense to that. I haven’t chosen to come here for whatever the voice is doing, and I’d much rather be dreaming of drinking on a tropical beach or relaxing by my pool.
“DEIMOS.” And now, with more questions than answers, I rocketed off to nowhere once more. This time around, the experience was much less fear-inducing than before. However, the same could not be said for the light and humming sound, those were just as unsettling as before. With the light and noise reaching their crescendo, my eyes shot open and I rejoined the waking world.
Thankfully, my little backpack solution did the trick, and I did not plummet to my death in the middle of the night. I had apparently managed to sleep quite a bit longer than I expected, though. The sun was already clear of the horizon, although not by all that much. I unhooked myself from my makeshift harness, climbed down the tree, and got out my phone to maybe get an idea of the time.
“Well, I have to admit, that’s not exactly what I was expecting to see,” I grumbled. Three in the morning, with the sun in the sky. While unexpected, this could be explained away pretty easily. It’s very possible that once I was knocked out, my phone was found and put in airplane mode until I was far enough away from towers that I wouldn’t show up anywhere. That would mean my phone wouldn’t have automatically tracked a time zone change, so my best guess is that I was only flown about four or five hours East, which means I’m likely in central or Eastern Europe now!
“Alright, I may not have been out as long as I may have thought at first. While it’s a setback, there is a very real possibility I can get in contact with some local acquaintances,” I thought aloud. With renewed spirit, it was time to start my morning. I started by looking for some more water, and ended up coming across a small pond. Using the same pot and shirt-filter method as before, I collected some of the water, and set about collecting materials for a small fire.
After getting the fire going and setting the pot on to boil, my stomach decided to call out in frustration. Limiting rations is not fun, but absolutely necessary until I’m able to locate and hunt an animal that isn’t showing signs of severe illness, and bird hunting with a pistol would be an exercise in futility. Deciding that I should, in fact, have the other half of my ration bar to start the day right before the climbing ahead of me today, I went over to rinse the dirt off of my hands in the pond.
With the dirt cleaned off, I gave myself a little once-over, as I never took the time to make sure I was fine after tripping yesterday due to my panicked state. Satisfied that I was in tact, I almost failed to notice a faint new mark I had on the back of my right hand. Almost reminiscent of scarring, I noticed that the mark almost seemed to be some type of… font? Unrecognizable, yet firmly distinct, the mark was composed of several intersecting curves and angular lines, covering a good twenty percent of my skin. It was slightly gray in color, which I found no comfort in.
“Am I… going septic somehow? I didn’t manage to find any cuts or scrapes… Could it be a reaction to whatever I was drugged with,” I asked myself. Then, an uncomfortable thought crept into my mind. The crystal. The crystal could be something toxic. My stomach twisted into a knot at the idea, and I plucked the pieces from my pocket.
With more than a cursory glance this time, I inspected the object in my hands. Still as black as before, but not glittering this time. Possibly due to its current broken status? Taking a closer look at the patterns covering the surface of the gems, my stomach twisted even further. I don’t recognize any of this, but some are similar… How could they be connected, though, I pondered. This couldn’t be anything good, whether it be toxicity or something else. Thinking was going to bring me no comfort or answers here. Quite frankly, I’ve only ever seen something at all similar to this in ridiculous fantasy stories.
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Slightly less spirited than before, I shoved my thoughts aside and checked on the water. It was boiling hard and the water level in the pot had dropped a noticeable amount, so I took it off the fire to cool. While that was happening, I ate my rations and contemplated my plans for the day. I needed to get to a higher vantage point to scout out what my next move should be. Maybe, if lucky, even spot signs of people nearby. Even so much as a dilapidated logging road would be a blessing right about now.
Food eaten and water chugged, I packed up and set off to find a good spot to begin my ascent. It only took about ten minutes to reach the base of the mountain proper, and my eyes landed on a nice little ledge a good two hundred feet up. It was a decently shallow slope, for being a rock climb. Perfectly doable, even with a lack of proper climbing gear. My bag was still nice and light, despite all I was carrying, and there appeared to be good enough holds for a relaxing climb.
Feeling very well rested, with a somewhat full stomach, I started up the rock face. It was, indeed, a leisurely climb, and I silently thanked myself for making the effort to have hobbies instead of spending all of my time outside of work drinking myself into a coma. While I’d never claim that my job is particularly hard, per se, I’d definitely say it’s demanding and mentally taxing at times. Climbing was always a good way to relax and get away from that stress, and have gone up much higher and steeper than this.
About halfway up the wall, there was a particularly nice set of holds, I stopped for a bit of a rest and a preliminary look for anything interesting. The view was incredibly beautiful. The forest was quite expansive, and buzzing with life. Birds chirping in the distance, the occasional couple of squirrels chasing each other around the trees. I watched as a small flock of strangely large birds took to the wing and headed off toward the horizon, presumably to go find their breakfast for the morning. Aside from the view, though, there wasn’t too much of note. Hanging from the side of a cliff doesn’t allow for many motions that grant a large field of view, after all.
Continuing the climb after my short break, I quickly reached the ledge and took a better look at my surroundings. The forest stretched on much further than I had thought with my limited view on the wall, and I must have been dropped rather near the edge of the forest to have made it out in a single day. That, or I ran much farther than I realized, which is a possibility with how long I slept last night. Off to my North-West was a much larger river than I had initially sourced water from yesterday. As my eyes followed the river further into the distance, my gaze landed on the edge of a rather large clearing.
Scanning the clearing, I had to do a double take. “Smoke?! Is that smoke over there,” I all but cried out. After only one night, I had managed to find signs of people! Overwhelmed with joy, my worries from the past couple of days started to melt away. I could find a town, get in touch with my contacts, and get the fuck out of here. Then I can figure out what's wrong with my hand, and deliver this mystery crystal. I’m saved! Well, I could be, and that’s all that matters.
Excitedly, I looked for the best spot to start my descent. Some of the holds were a bit too far apart for the climb back down, but there were thankfully a few promising alternatives. While not as fun as going up, I was too happy to be worried about the climb back down. Two hundred feet down and roughly six miles away was my potential safety. A good two thirds of the way down, I was met with a nasty surprise.
I must have gotten too close to a nest or something, because out of nowhere I heard a screech and felt talons scrape the back of my head. Due to the sheer surprise, I twisted to look toward the source of the sound and slipped from my position on the rock face. Realizing my mistake way too late, I desperately tried to grab back on to one of my holds, to no avail.
Luckily enough, I was still in a shallower area of the climb, so I fell more down than away from the wall. This resulted in me being able to regain a hold by shooting out my arm to a small ledge off to my left. That, unfortunately, was where the good news ended and the bad news began. Despite my luck of managing to find and cling to a hold, I had already managed to fall a good twenty five feet, and only managed to catch the ledge with one hand. This caused my shoulder to be yanked out of socket with the abrupt stop to my momentum.
I somehow managed to maintain my hold, and quickly swung my other arm up to get another hold as I screamed out in pain. But, even with the fall stopped, I had other problems. I still had another fifty feet to climb down, no way was I gonna attempt to drop the rest of the way. And, there was still the issue of the very angry, quite dangerous bird. I could hear it coming in for another pass at me, but there was nothing I could do about it. With one arm dislocated, I had no way to defend myself during the climb, so I made the only choice I had. Ignore it and keep climbing.
With the injury, I was much slower on the way down. And being harassed by the bird’s multiple swipes at me was not making it any easier. It made many successful attacks, and they were quite painful. Thankfully it was content to keep flying and swiping at me with its talons, rather than land on me and try to peck my eyes out. Eventually, I managed to make it the rest of the way to solid ground.
Now quite battered and thoroughly pissed, I drew my pistol and used my only functioning arm to try to line up the shot for its next pass. This fucker drew blood and I want my pound of flesh as compensation. Admittedly, it would also be nice to eat some actual meat later. With my shot as steady as I could manage, and the bird getting close for its next attack, I squeezed the trigger, and… missed. The noise, however, was plenty enough to make the bird rethink its choices, and it took off back up the mountain.
“COME BACK HERE, YOU SHIT-HEAD! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU,” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Sadly, birds are not concerned with such things as taunts or challenges, and I was left without my revenge. Now seemingly safe, I got to work treating my injuries. After a few tries, I managed to put my arm back in place with a well executed body-slam into the trunk of a nice, thick tree. With another scream of pain, relief started to wash over me. Next, all I needed to do was pull out some gauze and medical tape from my chest rig and fashion a bandage for the back of my neck and shoulders. “Fucker really managed to cut me up good,” I muttered to myself.
After a thorough coating of antibacterial ointment, I applied the bandage and set off in the direction of the river. It wasn’t long before I came across it, and started my hike downstream, to where I would hopefully find my sweet, sweet extraction. The past couple days may have been a nightmare, but at least I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel.