> Dave

>

> Fallen Jungle

>

> 52nd of Cycle 2, 1015

My eyes shot open as I jolted awake. Densely packed trees surrounded me, allowing only a small amount of sunlight to penetrate through their leaves. A bed of moss extended around me in every direction, making the dirt underneath nearly invisible to the naked eye. Low hanging vines stretched from tree to tree, and the air was so humid that I could almost taste it.

Where am I?

I didn’t get any time to ponder that question since a bush near me made a rustling noise. Wherever I was, I wasn’t alone. I got up to my feet slowly and carefully stepped towards the source of the sound, holding my breath out of instinct when I got within a few feet in front of it. With a quick step, I swiped at the bush, then I heard a low growl emerge from it. The noise caught me off guard, and I fell onto my butt like an actor in an 80’s slapstick comedy.

The creature lunged out in a fury and tried to stab me with the spike on its head. I put my hands up in a somewhat defensive pose and yelped in pain when the horn pierced straight through my right hand. I instinctively grabbed it with my other hand and slammed it into my knee. The creature, which resembled something like a bloodthirsty horned rabbit, let out a cry of pain as it desperately tried to kick itself free. The claws on its hind legs scratched me all over my body, but I knew that if I were to let go now, I wouldn’t get another opportunity like this, so I slammed the rabbit into my knee again, and again, each time its kicks getting weaker until finally, it stopped kicking.

I sat there panting for a few seconds, which felt like minutes. As the adrenaline from the fight faded, the pain started to settle in, and boy did it hurt. It felt like my hand was on fire, and I had to resist the urge to flail it around wildly since that would only make the wound bigger. I was losing a lot of blood, so I ripped out a vine hanging above me and tied it tightly around my forearm, hoping that it would act as a tourniquet.

I took a moment to think about the bigger picture. I should've died yesterday night at the bar, so why was I still alive, and how did I end up here? I laid out some possibilities. One, I survived, and was thrown into a jungle after I recovered. That option sounded pretty stupid in my head, so I moved past it. Two, I was in a hospital bed, and this was some kind of coma-dream. It felt too real to be a dream, but I'd never been in a coma before, so I wasn't sure if this was normal or not. Three, I died, and this was the afterlife, or some kind of reincarnation. That would explain the strange creature that just attacked me. Rabbits didn't have horns where I came from, so unless this was a rare species...

I shook my head. I could figure out what was going on after I secured the basics of survival: food, water, and shelter. I looked down at the rabbit on my lap and mentally crossed food off of that list. I grabbed another vine and tied the rabbit around my waist, freeing up my left hand.

I decided that making a shelter should be my priority, but starting a fire was a tall order to give someone who only had one usable hand, so I would probably have to settle for a makeshift blanket. Now to look for a decent spot.

After trudging through the jungle for a while, I found myself looking at a suspicious plant. Nothing was growing around it, and there was a strange glowing appendage hanging in front of its petals. As I stared at it, my vision became clouded with pretty colors, and I unconsciously started walking toward it. Then, the colors suddenly disappeared, and I was standing about ten feet from the plant. I noticed a horned rabbit standing next to it, so I backed up in anticipation of its charge, but it just stood there in a daze. The plant retracted its glowing appendage in a flash and opened its petals, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

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Before I could wrap my head around the madness happening in front of my eyes, the plant chomped down onto the rabbit with a loud crunch. After a few seconds, it finished its meal, let out a belch, and returned its appendage to its original spot.

That could’ve been me...

My gut told me to run away, but then I had an idea. Wasn’t this the perfect place to make a shelter? The strange hypnotizing plant could protect me against the local wildlife, so all I needed to do now was to make a blanket. I foraged for a bit nearby and gathered the largest leaves I could find. Tying them together, I made something that vaguely resembled a blanket.

“Shelter secured!” I pumped my fist into the air. Then eyed the rabbit hanging around my waist. “I should probably deal with this horn now,” I said with much less enthusiasm.

After some more foraging, I gathered some smaller leaves and tied them into something that could vaguely be called a bandage. I gripped the rabbit’s head with my left hand and tried to pull its horn out of my right hand slowly. The pain was unbearable and the horn wouldn’t budge, so in a stroke of genius, I yanked it out quickly.

That was a mistake.

The pain from before was child’s play compared to what I felt now. I writhed around on the ground and screeched like a banshee as tears started welling up in my eyes. I bit down hard on the collar of my shirt, wrapped the ‘bandage’ around the wound, and started applying pressure firmly with my left hand. There wasn’t too much blood, thanks to the makeshift tourniquet I had on my forearm, and the bleeding soon stopped entirely.

I started feeling light-headed and weak, so I decided that it would be a good time for a meal. I found a rock that wasn’t particularly sharp but wasn’t completely dull either, and I started scraping away the rabbit’s white fur.

> Elven Huntress

>

> Fallen Jungle

>

> 52nd of Cycle 2, 1015

I heard a distinct screech in the distance during my patrol today. None of the hunters from our village should’ve been in that direction, so who could it be? I stalked towards the source of the sound and stopped in horror when I saw the culprit.

A black-haired human boy was kneeling about twenty feet away from a man-eater, skinning a rabbit. That deadly plant had killed many of our tribes young in the past, but its hypnosis didn't seem to affect him. What was a human with hypnosis resistance doing in this jungle?

I cringed when I noticed what he was using to skin the rabbit. The humans I heard about in stories were supposed to be intelligent creatures who had mastered tool use, but this boy was using a dull rock to skin his prey! Had human society regressed to this point in the years we hadn’t kept contact with them? No, it was more likely that he was some kind of anomaly, which made it all the more important for me to keep my eye on him.

An hour passed as the boy clumsily skinned the rabbit, ruining its pelt and most of the meat.

Is he... no way, he’s not really going to-. My thoughts were cut off as the boy bit into the uncooked rabbit. What a barbarian! Didn’t he know how to start a fire? Or maybe he was toying with me... baiting me into thinking he is some kind of savage, so I let my guard down, and he can strike at me. He must’ve noticed me then. It would make sense that a human with hypnosis resistance would have a detection skill as well. I think it would be safer to withdraw for now and come back with reinforcements later, but if I left, would we be able to track him down again? I shook my head. I couldn't just leave it up to chance. For the sake of my village, I had to observe him until I was certain that he posed no threat to us.

It’s going to be a long night, I thought to myself as I stealthily climbed up one of the trees and crouched down.

A long night indeed.