(Solo) An Arboreal Contemplation

It was blessedly quiet, here. I had found myself a spot near the edge of town, and was sitting outside of the township itself. I sat on the ground, feeling pebbles and clods of first jutting up into my thighs as I twirled a small stick between my fingers. My head tilted back and thumped against the tree I was sitting in front of, bark pressing against my scalp through my hair as I let my eyes drift closed.

Everything around me was so strange. Familiar, but not quite right. Flavors were ever so subtly off, smells were tangy in a way that I was hard-pressed to accurately describe. Colors thankfully weren't that different - if they had been, I might just have ended up losing my mind in the early days. Hells, even the people were different - races I was used to seeing about were entirely gone, instead replaced with ones that I could dredge up only the faintest of memories of.

Whoever I had been before… Waking up, had not been the most widely traveled of folks. That made sense, considering what I had learned about my previous self's attitude - why bother traveling when you could bully the people immediately around you into giving you everything you could want? Not for the first time, I felt a brief stab of righteous vindication that that person was dead and gone, and I moved in his stead.

Leaves rustled above my head, and I allowed my eyes to slide open. Nothing had come close enough for me to feel its presence, but I wasn't going to just completely let my guard down. My range was rather small, and I didn't want to be caught unaware by something dropping down on me from outside of where I could detect it. But, no, all that happened was a gust of wind blew past me, making my hair dance in time with the branches above.

The scent on the air was familiar/unfamiliar. Like a spice I could just barely not remember, a word on the tip of my tongue that begged to be spoken, but wouldn't slip my lips. I let out a huff of frustration and ran the fingers of my empty hand through my hair. I would be immensely glad once my mind settled and the memories solidified.

Curiosityhungerworry. A confusing jumbled mess washed over me and my eyes flicked around. That mess was too indistinct to be a human, too foreign to be anything recognizable. An animal nearby then?

There was a soft patter along the tree that I was sitting against, so faint that most would likely miss it. But I was alerted to it, expecting to hear something nearby, straining for any sound around me. I looked back up and saw it - a faint flicker of brown and gray above me, flashing between leaves and branches above my head.

The small creature paused in a clear stretch of branch, and I got my first clear view of it. It looked almost like an atarin. Small, brown and gray coat with a tiny head and miniscule, nimble quasi-hands. But where an atarin would have a fork in its thin tail, this thing had a bushy tail that danced back and forth as it's liquid brown eyes darted around, taking in everything.

Squirrel. An unbidden memory came to me, the echo of a voice I could almost remember. Alright to eat, but not a lot of meat on them. Unless you can catch them by surprise, they aren't worth the effort. The words, the voice, were accompanied by a flare of pain in my temples, and I reached up to grab my head as my head ached. panicfearstartlementshockfearurgency

By the time the swell of pain eased and I could see clearly, the… squirrel, was gone. I let out a slight groan and shook my head. That was the clearest flash of memory I had recovered from my old life, at least while I was awake. If that was going to be how all of the memories I got back were going to come, I would much prefer to not get any more. I could go without that pain.

Especially since I had no idea what had triggered that echo - if I stumbled across something like that while I was doing something precarious or dangerous, then I ran the risk of getting seriously hurt. The pain had passed pretty quickly, but in the moment it had been disorienting.

I sighed and dropped my head back against the tree, letting my hand drop to the grassy dirt by my sides. My fingers dug into the slightly damp soil, releasing a faint whiff of raw earth. Even that wasn't quite right, the scent was somehow richer than anything I was familiar with. Like the smell of the dirt in the air was thicker in some indescribable way. I closed my eyes, sun and shadows dancing against my eyelids as the light filtered through the branches and leaves above me.

Wind rustled my hair, lifting it from my scalp. A chill washed over me, and I slowly opened my eyes again. I didn't know when I drifted off to sleep, but I clearly had - the sun was now setting, the last rays of its light visible over the edge of the mountain. The deepening dark of evening was creeping around, bathing the area in gloomy shadows.

The forest behind me was especially bad - shapes twisted and cavorted in the inky blackness beyond the treeline, just out of where I could clearly see them. That was rather disconcerting, since I had no idea what kind of creatures came out at night here. Koliss take it it was times like this that I really wished Thaelis hadn't gone to take care of something and left me alone - he'd know if some ghoulish thing was living in this forest that would love to make a meal of my innards.

I forced myself to my feet, my body aching from the slumped over position I had fallen asleep in. The grass and dirt beneath me hadn't done me any favors either - my pant legs were caked with slightly sticky soil, and I could feel at least one spot where a stone that had been under my right thigh had jutted into me long enough to form a small bruise. All that washed away though, when I could swear I heard something growl in the woods. Right, no time for dallying.

I moved swiftly then, gathering up branches and dry leaves. Finding suitable rocks took a little longer, but I didn't want to risk the fire raging out of control and spreading to the woods. I carried the fuel and tinder over a short distance from the woods, then lugged the stones together and laid them out in a circle, packing the stones in place with small mounds of dirt. Once I was relatively sure my little firepit was decently set up, I made a small pile of the dry leaves I had gathered up and then piled twigs and branches on top.

A reasonable heap put together. I stood up, having knelt when I was putting together the start of the fire, then held out one hand to my little campfire. The gesture was unnecessary, but it reassured me to do, a familiar mnemonic in a world that was not what I was used to. Heat coiled in my arm, pooled in my palm - then leapt outwards, pushed by a surge of will and focus.

Red bloomed, crackling to life as small curls of flame licked at the pile of leaves and twigs I had stacked together. Soon enough they caught properly, fire dancing up and bright as it consumed. Once I was sure it wasn't going to go out, I started feeding branches into it to keep it alight.

Almost as soon as the fire had sprung to life, banishing the dark immediately around me, I felt lighter. While I may not know this world fully, while things in the night might be trying to make a meal of me; fire, fire I knew. Fire I trusted. And whatever might have been prowling in the shadows beyond the treeline was not willing to come into the light - if there had even been something there in the first place, and not just my mind playing tricks on me in this unfamiliar land.

The campfire crackled and popped next to me, the heat of the flames washing over my side as I turned my attention back to the tree I had inadvertently napped against. Thankfully, it seemed like no one had come along while I was asleep - all of my stuff was still there, resting against the tree or on the ground. Untouched, except for where the flap of my knapsack had been blown open by the wind.

A few strides and I was scooping the bag up, tilting it to make sure that nothing had been blown out and lost while I was unaware. It seemed like everything was in order though, nothing lost or fallen to the dirt nearby. Once I was sure the bag's contents were all in order I closed the flap back up and slung the knapsack over my shoulder, hefting it once to get it fully settled in place. There was something near the bottom that had shifted in the bag and was now digging into my back, but I was only going a few steps before I'd be putting the bag down again.

Once I was sure the bag wasn't going to fall and spill, I hooked my foot under my bow and kicked it up, catching it when it got up high enough. Unstrung like this it was more a staff than a bow, but the ends were curved and grooved so a discerning eye would be able to spot the difference. I checked it, running my fingers and eyes along the surface, making sure there were no cracks or splits in the wood. But no, the treatment seemed to be holding up well enough for now, even though I had done it with unfamiliar reagents.

I twirled the wood up onto my shoulders and walked back over to my fire, basking in the warmth from the popping flames. The bag went back down, and I sat down, propping my elbow up on it. What to do now was the question - I did not much feel like going into town in the dark of night. Not only would that have me leaving my fire and the safety of its light, I'd be getting in well on in the night. A bit suspicious to say the least. So I needed something to do to occupy my time, since I couldn't fall asleep after my impromptu nap.


Well. I did have that rabbit hide I could work on. While I didn't have any of the tanning chemicals with me, I could do some prep work on the hide in the mean time. A flick of my wrist popped the bag under my arm open, and I began rummaging through. The raw hide was in a water tight tube with a few others,to prevent any unfortunate leakage. As a side bonus, the sealed tube kept my bag from stinking up. I dragged the tube out and popped it open, taking a second to sort through the jumble inside to get the hide I wanted.

A pull and twist, and the tube was sealed back up while I flicked the the hide about. Ah hells, I hadn't thought about this. Now I had to find my little stretching stand in my bag with one hand while my other kept the hide off the ground. It wouldn't ruin the hide to be on the ground, but I'd already cleaned it once and I didn't want to have to do it again. With a grumble at my own lack of foresight I started shifting things in my knapsack, trying to find the stretching stand.

I should have known. The stretching rack was what had moved in the bottom of my bag and had been jabbing in the back. Pulling it out ended up dragging several things along with it. With a huff I dumped the rack on the ground so I could shove the rest of my belongings back in. It took a minute or two to manage with one hand, but I would rather take that time than have to go find a stream to clean the hide again.

But in the end, nothing came out of the darkness to interrupt me, and I was able to get my things stowed away. That done, I stretched my legs out towards the fire, feeling the heat from the dancing, snapping flames through the soles of my boots. My free hand scooped the stand up from the ground, and I set it on one thigh so I could brush it clean of dirt and the minor detritus from the ground.

Once it was reasonably clean I started hooking the rabbit hide onto the frame, using the metal hooks to secure it in place. Drawing it taut took a little more effort, pulling the rack apart along the extensions built into the sides and locking it into place. Now with the skin taut and firm, I could actually work on it. I drew my knife out and tested the edge on one thumb - still sharp. Excellent. I propped the stretching stand up on my leg and began gliding my knife along the surfaces, peeling away fur and the outermost layer of skin as the blade moved along the surface.

As my hands worked at the familiar task, my mind wandered back to what I had been thinking about earlier. This place was just off, even now. This wasn't the first night I'd spent by a fire under the stars, not even the first where I had to pass time without a companion. But jarring me from that comfortable routine was the fact that even now, things were out of place. The smell of the burning wood was just off, not quite right and familiar.

The language translated the same, so thankfully I hadn't been forced to learn from the ground up. But even so, what this place called an 'oak' and what I did weren't the same. Didn't even burn quite the same, the wood here burned just a little longer, just a little dimmer, than what I was used to. But that was far from the only thing disrupting the familiarity of the night around me.

Unbidden, my eyes slid upwards as my body followed my thoughts. Far, far above, far off in the distance, pinpricks of light shone down. But they were not the stars I knew. No safe, known constellations glimmered in the night sky above me. That more than anything else was what told me I was not home any more.

That had been my first thought. Magic existed there, like it clearly did here. I'd thought that I had been thrown forward or back when I woke up to so much that was just slightly off. Temporal magic was poorly understood, but some people dabbled in it every so often. My last memories had been that my closest friend and I had been pursuing one such magus, who wanted to enact…..something….. by going into the past.

Or the future. His tenses had been all jumbled and confused. But no. Unless whatever that magus had been working on had been massively overpowered, he could not have thrown me through time far enough for the stars themselves to change in position so much as to be completely unrecognizable. And even then, if that had been the case - such an event would have been almost cataclysmic in terms of power used and released.

While I could not say I had searched every scrap of history, what I had found showed no such signs of that happening. In fact, from what I could find, magics that affected time were almost unheard of, or limited to a rare few instances. I sighed as my hands mechanically flipped the stretching rack over, and I began the process of cleaning the last remaining bits of viscera from the other side of the hide.

Breathe in, breathe out. I swiped the blade back and forth steadily, in time with my chest swelling and shrinking. The steady work with my hands kept me occupied as my mind dwelt on the other options for how I had ended up in this strange, almost familiar place.

My second guess was some kind of spatial magic. Dimension related maybe, since this world was similar to mine but not, at the same time? Either that, or I'd been thrown across worlds, a distance almost as absurd as traveling to another dimension. Again, that would have required ludicrous amounts of power from the magus, but - the one my friend and I had been pursuing was dedicated to time magic, not space magic. He wouldn't have had anywhere near the kind of expertise necessary to pull this off.

So that had been another dead end. At least, I thought it was. Who knows, some artifact might have triggered and been responsible, but I thought it unlikely. I paused in the stripping of the hide and held my hand up, spreading my fingers wide. I stared at my hand, turning my palm back and forth as I did.

The final option, the one I felt most probable but almost as insane as the other two, was some kind of reincarnation. It was something I struggled not to think about, because if I did think about it I began to feel wrong in my own skin, an invader in a house that wasn't his, out of place and uncomfortable. Awkward and gangly, my muscles untrained and not what I was used to -

This was my hand, that I stared at now. My fingers held my knife, my wrist supported my hand, my forearm lead to my bicep to my torso and on and on to my head where the struggle not to freak the hells out was going on. It was my hand.

But it was not my hand.

My hand had scars this hand lacked. My hand was calloused from years of fighting, of channeling magics. My hand had a branching, twisting white scar on the back from where I was struck by a lightning spell while trying to catch a rogue mage. My hand was dense and muscled, fingers long used to strenuous exercise.

This hand lacked all of that. This hand had only one scar - from when I intercepted a dagger that was meant for my heart. And that had been me, not the person I had once been here.

That difference was writ all across my body. Gone was the toning, the flexibility of years of exercise and struggle. While I had been forcing myself back into shape in the here and now, I was nowhere near as fit as I remembered being. Worse, all the scars of my life were gone, the proofs and marks of my victories and losses. I had nothing.

If I let myself dwell on the fact that my body was not my own for too long, I shut down. I'd done it before, and only came out of it when my brother had shaken me roughly. I dragged myself out of my thoughts, shoving that particular worry into a small box in the back of my mind, and focused my eyes on the here-and-now.

The hide had been thoroughly cleaned at this point, and was smooth on both sides. Still slightly damp on what had been the 'inside' for lack of a better term, though. I grunted once and propped the stretching rack up near the fire, facing inwards so the warmth from the campfire would dry the thing out. That done, I fed more twigs and branches into my fire and sat back down, staring into the dancing flames.

The first indication I had that something wasn't right - beyond just the unfamiliarity I was struggling to overcome - was the sound of feet beating rapidly against the ground, wood snapping and cracking beneath a frantic tread. My head snapped up and swiveled in the direction of the sounds, to see a shadowed figure bursting out of the treeline.

It was something felinoid, I think. It had the lean look of a predator, but it was not something I recognized, and there was no accompanying flash of memory to clear it up. The four-legged shadow paused, prowling just at the edge of the light, circling around. I heard/felt a low rumble that vibrated my bones and set my teeth on edge.

Without hesitation I rolled to my feet and snatched up my unstrung bow, hefting the comforting weight in my hands. I didn't have time to string the thing, so if this unknown creature decided to attack I'd just have to make do with the staff.

HUNGERPAINHUNGER My head swam as the shadow darted inwards, diving into the light. The creature had come into my range, and the echo of its emotions was clear enough for me to actually understand despite the inhuman nature of what it felt. Of course, I did really have time to process that, because with one bound the predator had launched itself at me.

I caught the striking claws on my staff, falling backwards as the weight of the felinoid bore me to the ground. Sharpened hooks scrabbled at wood, trying to get at me, but I managed to keep the cat-thing from actually getting me. The muscles in my arms strained before I managed to throw the thing off to one side. A piercing shriek rent the night air, making my ears ring, and my eyes snapped to where I had flung the creature as I got to my feet.

PAINANGERHUNGERPAINFURY

By a stroke of luck, I had managed to throw the beast into the campfire. It was already on its feet, and my fire had been crushed beneath its weight. But now in the lull as the felinoid recovered from the scorching heat, I was able to get a good look at it in the dying light of the embers. It was emaciated, its fur hanging loosely about it as it snarled at me. With that snarl the creature charged at me, claws tearing up my firepit as it moved.

I was ready for it this time though. The beast lunged for me, and I stepped to the side in time to avoid the attack. My arms flexed and twisted, sweeping my staff up in an arc. There was a meaty thud as wood met flesh, and the thing yelped in pain as it landed, stumbling as its feet hit the ground again.

Despite the rough landing, I had to feel I came out the worse of that trade of blows. This fight was just proving to me how woefully out of condition I was. My forearms and wrists ached with the reverberations from the impact, and I had almost dropped my staff. As the dark-hued creature turned around to face me again, I realized something.

In a straight fight, I was not going to be able to put this thing down. Maybe if I had had time to get my bow strung, and I could fill it with Arrows, but alone, off guard like this, not a chance. Even on the edge of starvation like this beast was, it was still more than enough to take me down. Especially since, despite the scorching from the campfire and the fact that I had just caught it with a hit to the head, the thing was still broadcasting the same wave of painful hunger and fury.

If this thing hadn't been almost completely mad with rage and hunger, I might have been able to hurt it enough to make it back off and leave me alone. But as it was, for this felinoid I was a walking meal or two, just waiting for the taking. I saw its eyes, faded yellow orbs, flick over me, and I braced myself.

Just in time, too - the cat-thing picked up speed again, tearing towards me. Clods of dirt and grass flew into the air behind the pounding feet, some ripped up by sharp claws. Its rage gave it a boost to speed as it leapt at me again, this time slamming into me and sending me flying. I hit the ground and bounced, dirt and stones kicking up around me and digging into my back as I slid across the earth from the shoulder rush.

My staff flew from my hands, rolling out of reach as I tried to recover. But I didn't have time - the felinoid pounced, paws pinning my limbs to the ground. I barely managed to get my arm free before the slavering jaws flashed for my throat.

HUNGER

White hot pain shot through me as fangs ripped into flesh.

Blood dripped down onto my face, wet and hot, mixing with the felinoid's drool. I had just, just gotten my arm in the way of those snapping fangs. The cat creature worked its mouth, tooth scraping against bone and sending bolts of agony through me as it chewed on my forearm. My eyes locked with the wild, crazed, yellowed eyes of the beast.

"Does that taste good ghalis?" I spat the words out from bloodied lips, expelling some of my own falling blood from my mouth with them. The thing twisted its head, tearing at my flesh. A fresh wave of pain rolled down my arm, and I nearly collapsed. But if I did that, I was dead. And while this may not be my world, may not be my body - I was not ready to die.

Anger and defiance sparked another heat in my chest, one that clashed with the hot shards of anguish from the cat thing that was chewing on me. There was a flicker, a dance of light and hat sparked from nothingness, one that rapidly grew. Ruddy red light washed over the gaunt face above me, and I could see the moment when the creature saw its fate.

On one side of fire was the warm campfire, providing comfort and safety to weary travelers. But few claimed that was the only aspect of flame. No - on the other face of that coin was the ravenous flame, the fire that devoured and consumed, that scorched and devastated.

The sparking, angry red flames that had sprung to life bare inches from the ground by my shoulder were the first herald of that fire. A far cry from a raging inferno, they were still hot, hotter than the campfire had ever gotten. "Let me cook that for you!" I snarled defiance at the cat thing as I tore my arm free from its fangs, fighting through the agony that shot through me as teeth ripped gouges in my arm.

Before the thing had a chance to close its mouth I acted - almost in tandem with moving my arm out of the way in fact. A surge of will, driven by a desire to live and honed by my own anger at this thing, launched the ball of red flames forward, right down the throat of the beast that had decided I should be its meal.

The creature let out a choked, garbled cry of pain as it reeled back, trying to get away from the fire that had suddenly come to life in its mouth. My arm hanging limp, I sat up, another orb of fire springing to life above my shoulder, sparked into being by rage. This time the ball of flames smashed into the creature's chest, washing over the grimy fur as it did.

And unlike the campfire earlier, this time the flames caught on the fur. Before my eyes, the creature went up in a flash, red sprouting up the brown/black fur as it started thrashing about, trying to put the fires out.

I dragged myself over to my staff, and used it to force myself to my feet. The writhing creature wasn't even howling at this point. The orb of flames I had shot down its mouth as a chaser for my flesh had cooked its throat enough that all it could let out were croaks and gurgle. I staggered slightly, bloodloss making me sway on my feet as I stood over the thrashing, burning beast.

painterrorpainterrorterrorfearpainhungerfear

"Go back to Kholis." I swung up, then down. The crack this time was much louder, heavier. Wetter. I slumped to my knees, holding myself up with my staff as I stared at the… Carcass. Nothing like this thing existed where I once lived. A cat the size of a large dog? No. But I didn't have time to ponder the thing that had attacked me. I dragged myself over to my knapsack, finding it from where it had been sent in the fight. Its contents were scattered across the ground, but that was actually a help to me now.

Made it easier to find the bandages before I bled out. I dropped my bow staff from numb fingers and picked up the roll of linen bandages. It took some fumbling, and I ended up biting the loose end of the roll between my teeth and letting it unfurl and fall to ground. Then I began winding it around my arm, trying my best to stem the loss of blood. I was lucky this thing wasn't any bigger - if it had been, I might not survive without burning my wounds shut.

I used the whole roll, winding the linen around my arm over and over again. It was a waste, but at this moment I didn't particularly care. I gathered up my belongings and shoved them back into my bag, then hooked the staff through the straps on one side of the knapsack before slinging the bag up and over my good arm and shoulder. That done, I stared at the cat thing. I could leave it here, but I had no idea if this thing was common, or some kind of abomination even in this world. I bit back a sigh and patted out the last of the flames that were now guttering out on the burnt fur, then grabbed one leg and started dragging it.

A cracking sound made me stop and look back. I frowned and cursed in the back of my head. The hells-taken stretching rack with the rabbit hide I had been working on had apparently been pinned beneath the felinoid when it was thrashing and burning. The wood and hide were now mangled and useless, burnt beyond any usage.

"Blasted cat." I started the trek to town. While I hadn't wanted to go into town in the dead of night - as it was, if I didn't, I would probably die out here. One foot in front of the other, I walked down the road, dragging the body of my attacker behind me.