I still await for the two young men to come back. What is taking them so long? Maybe I should go find them. Nah, they might think I care about them. I look at my most prized possession(besides my eight lives), the bear head. I made it so the bear's head rests perfectly on mine. I wear it with pure pride. It makes me feel like a king. I feel like I deserve that power. Maybe if I get more lives people might agree.

I see that finally, the two young men have arrived. I could hear the conversation faintly in the distance.

“You found this amazing catch, Darren!” The one says that I killed last night.

“Thanks, but you're the one that killed it, Steven,” Darren said.

Yes! I finally know their names. So I don't have to call them Thing 1 and Thing 2.

When they walk up their eyes go wide. Darren tries to hold in a laugh but a snicker comes out of him. Steven elbows him. Darren coughs and they stare at me. They were laughing at the bear's head. I look down at what they are holding. It seems like they killed a deer. Too bad they didn't keep the antlers. They would have been useful. Steven holds a variety of deer parts. And Darren holds two deer legs on his left arm. I look down at Darren’s right hand held sort of behind his back. I see a knife a white-ish knife made of deer antlers. How dare he! It would have made an incredible crown. Even more to solidify the idea of me being king. I frown at Darren first snickering at me and then using antlers for selfish reasons.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Darren deserved to lose that life.

“I'll start a fire,” I sigh. I grab firewood while the two begin to cut the deer.

…

The night begins to fall. And my stomach is full of deer. Darren's stomach growls. He deserves to starve.

We sit in pure silence. The only sound is the fire crackling.

I yawn. I should sleep. Another day of being the most powerful on this land awaits.

I like being powerful.

No wait, I don't like it.

I love being powerful.

And now my job is to make sure everyone else knows it too.

…

I'm half asleep. It's probably midnight. I hear whispers, most likely Darren talking in his sleep. Oh how much I hate him.

But the whispering is close to me like right above me. I open my eyes like I woke up from a nightmare but I didn't wake up from a nightmare I woke up to a nightmare. There Darren stands right above me with his deer antler knife about to stab me. Stupid bastard. I grab the knife so suddenly and I pull him to the wall of the cave and press his knife to his neck. Blood spills out of his neck. He breathes heavily and shakes. Good, good. Be scared of me.

“Pull a stunt like this again,” I whisper into his ear “And next time I'll make sure you have zero lives. You understand?” he shakes his head up and down. I let go, shoving him into the wall and throwing his knife down on the ground. “Good thing you’re useful or I would already have you dead.” Steven wakes up behind me. Shocked by what I've done to his friend. Darren lays on the ground blood on his hands and neck going down onto his chest, out of breath and bruised.

“Maybe you can learn from this Steven,” I say while cracking my knuckles, “you'll never be able to betray me since I'll already have you dead,” I scorn.

I walk out of the cave into the forest. I need to clear my mind.