Two-Nine slept until noon. He was very exhausted the night before. He laid there for a little while and got up. There was morning dew on the ground. “Strange,” he said, “how could that be?” He packed up his things and set out for Poppy Pond once again. He was hungry. He didn’t have any food last night. He forgot to buy an from the village before leaving. When he gets to the pond he might look for some food. Like berries or a bird or something.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, it started to get dark and he saw a clearing. In the clearing was the still pond. It was red and murky and was surrounded by black flowers and trees that seemed to lean towards the center, only letting in small beams of dull light. He has never seen these flowers before. The pond wasn’t reflecting the roof of trees above. It was just a murky red. The beams of light didn’t reflect either. They just disappeared into the pond. Poppy Pond…. What an unfitting name for such an eerie setting.

He was finally here. No need to worry about Isis finding him. He stared at the pond for a minute then walked around it. If anyone happens to find him, then he would see them coming. They would also have to walk around the pond to get to him. When he got to the other side, he set his things up again. This time though, he set his tarp on the ground. He found four large stones and put one on each corner to keep it from flying away from any possible wind. He set his sleeping bag on one side of the tarp and put his remaining stuff next to it.

A raven landed on the other side of the pond. Raven…. What a pretty word.

Raven was also a pretty name. He had read books with people named Raven. He had never read any with people named after numbers though. Two-Nine was not a good name. He might as well have been named Rat or Orange Peel.

Two-Nine wanted a name. He asked someone once. They ignored his request. Two-Nine wanted a name. He no longer has to ask. No one could ignore him now. Raven…. He liked it. He has a name. Two-Nine was Raven.

Two-Nine, now named Raven, needed food but he didn’t know how to hunt. He had his knife so he could make a spear out of a stick. That’s exactly what he did. He collected a stick and used his knife to shave the top. Once it had a sharp enough tip, he put his knife away and paced around. How would he even be able to find and kill something? He could barely watch the butcher prepare meat! He decided to walk away from where he entered Poppy Pond.

He wouldn’t hunt ravens. They were what inspired his name after all. Maybe he could hunt animals later and collect plants for now.

He walked around the forest for a while collecting plants that looked edible. He used his shirt as a hammock for the plants. Once he obtained a large stack of mushrooms, berries, and other random greens, he walked back to his tarp and set them down. What if he cooked some of the plants and kept the others for later? He will have to make another fire in order to do that, though. He might as well make the fire neat while he camps here.

After many days, Raven figured out the pattern of time. The days were way shorter than they should be. He wasn’t good at math, so he couldn’t figure out exactly how fast. It hasn’t rained yet, which he thought was strange. He also started tallying up the days that passed by drawing in the dirt. The water in Poppy Pond was red but when it was removed from the pond, it turned clear, like normal drinking water but super cold. He decided to drink it. Stupid? Yes, but he needed to drink something otherwise he would die. Turns out the water was harmless.

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Raven became nauseous every time he skinned an animal. It was quite gross. He kept some of the skins as a kind of rug to cover the bare dirt so he can safely sit on the ground near his stuff. The other skins were used to repair any holes in his clothing. As it got colder, he realized that he needed a whole new set of clothes. He could go back to the village to get new clothing like a coat and at least a new pair of pants. People would see him if he did that though…. He had enough skins to make a shirt and pants and the only thing he needed to figure out was what he could sew with. His knife. He could make thin strips of animal skin and he could use his knife to poke holes in the skin to thread the strips through.

He was thinking of many things while making a shirt. Black absorbs heat better, also, it looks cooler. Why did Isis go crazy? If he kept making clothing then would he get better? Might as well add a cool hood. Those flowers look like they could be used for dye….

After a couple of days, he finally made a wearable shirt. It doesn’t look very good at the moment. It had long sleeves of course. It was unnaturally cold at Poppy Pond. He dug a hole in the ground and filled it with water. He then collected some black flowers from around the pond and placed them in the hole. He crushed them up and they made the water and his hand black. “If it stains my hand, then it might stain my clothes. Good.” He hasn’t spoken in a while. His voice sounded loud in the silence surrounding the pond. He started to hum a tune and kept humming all throughout his work.

Over the course of about 3 years, Raven had better clothes and tools. He had even made a small shack. Sadly, the shack would collapse often and he would have to rebuild it. It could still store stuff for a while. He would often find black feathers around the forest and eventually collected enough to attach to a hooded cloak. That was exactly what he did. If he curled up on the ground under the cloak, then he would look like a black bush. This was very helpful when hunting at night.

His hair got longer as well. He didn’t have anything to cut it with other than his knife and he didn’t really trust his knife skills. So he just let it grow. If it was a windy day he would have to pull it up with a strip of animal skin. He left his hair tangled for the most part. The only time he untangled it was if he accidentally got animal blood on himself and needed to rinse it off.

One day, he decided to go hunt for a larger animal to have enough meat to relax for a while without hunting. He was curled up with his cloak disguising him as he watched a bear. He had hunted bears before but not without a struggle. He only had a sharp stick as his weapon so it was hard to get good meat.

Raven was about to attack it when he heard a loud, ugly sound. It was like a yell followed by a choking sound. He was frozen to the spot. What is that? There was something coming closer. He heard uneven footsteps. More and more followed the pair until the creatures stopped. He still couldn’t see anything, after all, he was crouched on the ground in the shape of a bush. More loud yelling came. The footsteps started again only to move faster!

That’s it, he thought, I’m running. He got up and ran. He looked back to see if the creatures were following. Yeah… they were. They were humanoid but slimy and blackish green. They were pretty fast considering they each had one extra-long leg. They all had one to ten large, white eyes spread out on their “faces”.

If Raven got to Poppy Pond fast enough then he would be able to get in the water. They might not follow him in. He kept running until he spotted the pond. Without stopping, he grabbed his bag and ran into the pond. His bag had important stuff in it. He didn’t want the creatures to loot him.

He swam to the center of the pond and floated there. The creatures came crashing into the clearing, leaving a black, slimy trail behind. They spotted him in the lake and started to yell at each other. One of them found a large rock and threw it at him, missing by about a foot.

Raven started to panic. If the others do that too then he would have nothing else to do! He, himself, started yelling and splashing at them hoping it would make them back up. Instead of backing up though, they picked up rocks and sticks to throw at him. Well then….

Raven took a deep breath and ducked underwater. The items being thrown at him stopped suddenly. He waited until he ran out of air, then swam back up through the red water and out of Poppy Pond.