There I sat in caution and worry as I watched the lining of the dark forest for anything that moved out of place. There I sat in wonder and mystery as the world around me ticked away the minutes. There I sat with my eyes heavy and stature falling as I waited for dawn to strike the horizon. My mind had not gotten rest and my body not a single wink of sleep. I was hazy that first morning, not really paying any attention to my surrounds as I looked forward. That large pack of wooden wolves had long since abandoned me and were of to find another poor soul to torture. Though, that still didn’t ease my tension, I still felt like something was out there waiting for me and watching my every move.

And even as the sun slowly rose over the summit of the earth, all I could do was stare emptily into it. I felt its cold rays of light bend over and around my body, as if I didn’t exist. The calming sight sent shivers down my spin as I looked at them, I felt a crippling chill run across my body, further unsettling me. I, in my weakened state and mind, started to push myself off of the cold rock and stood up. Only for my left leg to buckle underneath itself as I screamed in pain. I looked down my leg to see what was causing me so much pain, but it looked completely fine.

I thought for one second what was wrong before I remembered the condition of my feet, and with panic beginning to take over my mind again, I started to take off my shoe. And low and behold, my foot was covered in bloodied blisters. I put my footwear back on and felt my foot give out a cry of agony. It was painful, more painful than before, but I had to tough through it. I took off my shoe and sock on my right foot but it looked like it was it was completely fine, as if nothing had happened. I put my shoe and sock back on and tried desperately to ignore the pain on my left After my little incident with my feet, I pushed myself back up and tried so desperately to walk forward only to fall back down on my side.

I kept pushing myself back up for the hope that I would be able to walk through the foliage of the forest, but I kept falling right back on my face with every attempt. And after attempt after attempt of trying to stand and walk forward, I soon stopped trying to and began to look around me to see how I could get off the edge. But I was soon distracted with the sound of sticks and brush breaking. I heard the colossal steps of crunching wood slowly making its way towards me.

I looked up at the forest that was in front of me, and stared in horror as I saw the wooden anomalies from last night marching their way out of their green fortress. I saw three of them take heap outside of the green stronghold, and looked at them as they slowly pulled themselves to me. I weighed my options here.

Option one: Accept it. I had a good run, maybe I should just accept that I wouldn’t be able to make it out here. That I’m going to die at that moment and let them tear me into tiny pieces. I would never make it out of this forest and my body would be forgotten as the sands of time would wilt my bones as my carcass sat here.

Option two: Jump into the river. I could jump back into the river below, like I did the other day and narrowly avoid death. But I barely made it down the river without splitting my head open, who knows if I could’ve done it again. And even then, I got lucky the first time with that log, I doubt another piece would save me this time. I’d more than likely drown if I attempted to go back into the waters again.

Option three: Fight back. Pull out your guns and make the shots count. If I could manage to kill one of them, I could manage a fighting chance. Even then, at least I’d kill one of them, that’s one less wolf for some other poor soul to deal with.

And seeing as I’m writing this, it’s obvious I picked the third option.

As the cretans slowly stalked their way towards me, their massive wooden claws chipping the rock beneath them, I saw their maws of raw wood start to salivate at the sight of me, spewing a putrid looking green liquid. I slowly pulled out my revolver as slowly and with as much care as I possibly could and took aim at the one in the middle.

The one I had took aim at, the leader I assume, stopped and looked at me for a second, a look of curiosity and wanting sparking up from its face, before it continued lurking towards me. My hands were still shaking as I aimed at them never stopping as I tried my best to stand still, either from exhaustion or adrenaline I do not know. I took a heavy breath to try and calm down my shaking body. After a few more deep calming breaths, my arms stopped shaking so much and my hands stopped wobbling. So, with my body calmed and my life in the balance I could only take one immediate action. I steadied my aim to the best of my ability, pulled back the hammer, and held my breath as I shot the middle one in the head. The reaction was near instantaneous. Its body fell onto the floor and scattered into a million wooden pieces as its allies whimpered. Splinters from the point of impact shooting everywhere as the bullet had pushed itself deep into the wolf's head.

I then re-aimed my gun to the next closest predator and tried to kill it the same way. Tried being the word. The bullet had narrowly missed it by a mere few inches and flew off into the forest. The wolf in that moment realized what was happening and knocked itself out of its daze before it began to run at me with full force. So, in a blind attempt, I shot at it again and managed to scrape a piece of its leg. Its leg bent in a heinous way as it tried to stop itself from moving forward. But in its attempts at stopping, it managed to fall right past me and into the abyss of the canyon. I need not guess what happened to it as I heard the sickening sound of wood cracking beneath me. The third one had gotten too close for comfort and was almost in biting distance. I aimed my revolver in its general direction and shot at it twice in hopes that I would kill it. I was wrong.

While I did manage to scrape a bit of its shoulder, all it seemed to do was piss it off even more. I dropped the then empty revolver and more or less swung my rifle around me and took aim at the wolf. At that point it couldn’t have been a few feet away. I’m lucky I survived. I aimed at its gaping maw that was ready to rip my neck out, and pulled the trigger. Its body scattered into a thousand wooden pieces as I covered my head from any collateral damage. After waiting for the wooden rain to stop pouring down on me, I put my head back up and stared at the forest again. I pulled back the bolt of the sniper rifle, ejecting the empty round as a new one took its place, and aimed it back at the forest. I’m not sure if there were more of those wolves or not, but I did not want to take any chances. But as the minutes ticked by and as the rustling of leaves had soon stopped rustling, I brought my rifle back down to me and took one final look around me.

As soon as I was done scouting out the forest, I no sooner looked down at the ground and picked my revolver. I pulled my backpack off and began to pull out the amount of ammo I need, keeping a vigilant eye on the forest for anything suspicious. Slowly, I pulled out the cylinder, pressed the ejector, and watched all the empty rounds fall out of the revolver. I slowly began to reload the revolver, putting in one bullet at a time, while I still watched the forest for anything. I soon snapped the cylinder back into its rightful place and put it into my holster as I continued to simply stare at the forest. I soon zipped up the backpack, lugged it back over my shoulders, and began looking for anyway to drag myself away from the cliff.

I tried to grab the long vines that hung above my head, I tried to crawl forward and away from the edge, I even grabbed onto the small miniscule bit of dirt that was stuck to the ground. But alas, I was stranded on the small island I had. That was before I realized that I had thousands of wooden branches around me. I grabbed the biggest, bulkiest branch that was closest to me and pushed myself up, used it as a cane of sorts. I had nearly fallen back down onto the ground from the pain that struck me, but I managed to stay standing. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, the prickles of the wood burying themselves deep into my palm, but with my options limited as they were, it was the only choice I had.

So, with little left to do, I started to take head into the forest, with my revolver out for extra protection. Maybe I should have stayed on that rock. I would have starved to death, or maybe a wild animal would eat me, but I would have taken it over the events that would transpire long after.

After an hour or two of ‘walking’, sweat was pouring down my face. My shirt had since turned from grimy beige to a drenched black. My head was spinning, and my body was limping as I continued to walk further into the graveyard. The weather had done a complete one-eighty from last night. It was near freezing cold, and now it was exhaustingly hot. I could hardly stand the sheer heat that blasted my body and would almost pass out from it.

My sore hand was covered in splinters from the walking stick, my shoulder had begun aching with pain as I walked forward, my arm remained stiff and tensed as it pointed my revolver ahead of me, and my feet were faltering as I continued to walk forward. The sweat of my brow kept dripping into my eyes, causing my vision to blur and turn hazy. My body was exhausted from a night of restlessness and I was shaking from pure, unadulterated, fear as I continued to walk further into the forest.

Maybe it was my mind growing tiresome, or maybe I'm just an idiot, but as I walked forward I couldn’t help but hear feet pitter and patter against the ground as I continued to walk forward. I simply ignored it and continued walking even as I continued hearing it follow me. And not five minutes later, after walking tirelessly through the green hellhole, I felt a sharp prick pierce my back. I soon stopped in my tracks entirely and dropped my revolver on the ground. I let my then free hand begin to scour my back. Soon, after finding a small abnormality, I pulled out whatever had stuck to me and brought it up to me. In my hand, between my fingers, lay a small dart that had an even smaller bit of blood on its tip. As soon as I saw the blood, I began to panic and worry as to what I had been drugged with. Almost in that instant, I began to calm down immensely.

I felt the sweet caress of the winds wrap itself around my body, almost in a protective manner. I felt my mind become hazy and mellow as my eyelids began to close on their own. I looked upon the brown bark of the trees and watched the thick base of the tree bend and swerve with the blowing winds. The feeling, however,... the feeling is indescribable. It felt like my body was melting and was floating in the air. I guess that’s why I ‘passed out’ the second right afterwards. I’m not certain if passed out is the right term for it, but it’s the only word I could come up with since if felt as though I was about to fall asleep.

“Remin’ me not ta piss ya off,” I heard a man with a southern drawl say as I heard footsteps get closer to me. I then heard a hum of acknowledgement as I felt something roughly grab my cloths and lift me onto something. I couldn't tell what grabbed me, my body was numbing from the foreign entity that was inside of it. And I couldn’t see what was grabbing me for my sight had turned too distorted to recognize anything. “Gah, ‘ow long ya been sweatin’?” I heard the southerner say.

“Ya know wha this reminds me of? Reminds me of this time where my buddy and me went out huntin’. And let me tell ya’ it mussa been a hundred outside ‘cause after a minute of walking through mud ‘n shit, we’s was sweatin’ up buckets of sweat before we finally found this big ol’ proud buck munching on grass. And as we’s was about to-”

“Can this wait?” I heard a woman say in an irritated voice.

“Alright, no need ta get all huffy ‘n puffy about it,” the southern man replied before I felt them lift me up with whatever they were carrying me. And while all of this was happening, I could only listen to my environment as my body refused to function properly. Not another word was exchanged between them as they carried me for miles on end.

But the rocking of the hammock and the gentleness of the wind had soon lulled me to sleep, like baby in a crib.

I looked over the small hills in the ground at my house. I was outside with a small short plastic shovel in my small short arms. I couldn’t have been no more than five digging up dirt and mixing it with water that was inside of my blue, plastic bucket. I planted the bucket down on the soft, warm, summer grass and pulled it up.

After lifting the small bucket with a great amount of effort, I saw a giant castle of mud emerge from inside. Not a small sand castle that would be about the same size of the bucket, but a full on castle. Bigger than that Disney castle and far more extravagant than it could ever hope to become. Being the age that I was, I was absolutely giddy at my accomplishment. That was until I felt the ground underneath me shake.

The earth seemed to shake more and more as I looked around confused and scared. I felt the vibrations of rocks being smashed into the ground, and heard the sounds of the earth cracking under pressure. It wasn’t until I looked up to see a thousand foot man looming over me with an annoyed gazed.

Merly moments after staring at each other, I felt him breath in a massive amount of air into his gigantic body. I felt the air around me being drained into his mouth as I looked up in fear.

But after a minute of his massive jaw taking in the air around me, I saw his body rippling with the amount of oxygen in him. He suddenly snapped his eyes at me and proceeded to scream out every single atom of air at me.

I felt my body being forced onto the ground and felt the castle that I proudly built being destroyed around me. I tried to stand up, but every time I did, I felt his alcoholic breath shove me back down onto the ground.

All I could do was endure the tournament as the thousand foot man continued to howl his angers of virtue unto me.

But even though I was pushed and punished, I managed to peek my eyes open and saw the strangest of sight in the sky. Up through the brightened sky I could see the stars in the form of a horse's head.

Its giant head moved this way and that in a curious state as it observed the scene before it. But just as it was about to descend upon me, I was blown away into the black matter of my mind. It wasn’t until my eyes started burning that I finally woke up from that nightmare.

It was a simple pain of light shining in my eyes that woke me up. It shined this way and that, turning off and on, the way a doctor would look over their patient.

“Seems alright so far,” I heard a man of intellect say as my eye was blinded.

“No trauma, bones are in place, we’ll have to take care of that foot though. Some bruising around the upper torso, but that’ll heal on its own. However, from a physical standpoint, everything else is completely fine. We’ll have to wait and see if he’s sick with anything and hope he can recover,” He said as I felt my eyelid clamp shut. I heard him move around my body, and felt my arm expertly being grabbed and pulled towards him. A moment later I felt my arm being swabbed with some sort of wet cloth as he continued to talk to himself.

“I’m not certain if the foot is salvageable. If it is however, he’ll have to remain confined to a bed for a least a week or so, depending on how fast it heals,” After another bout of talking, I felt a cold piece of metal split my skin apart.

“We’ll have to make sure that it is dry and warm, and wet it on occasion. And if the foot isn’t savable, we’ll have to amputate it to prevent it from rotting and giving the patient necrosis-”

“Ya’ done talkin’ ta yerself?” I heard the same man with the same southern drawl from before say as I heard a door close behind him. Except something was different. This time instead of sounding happy, like he was when I was drugged, he sounded distasteful and spiteful of talking to the man that was tending to me.

“I’ve told you many times before that it helps me focusing, not because I’m ‘loosin’ mah mind’,” The man replied mocking the southerners voice with the same amount of bitterness and coldness as he removed the needle from my arm.

“Fine, but ya still ‘ave ta look at Grunk, he ain’t lookin’ too good.”

“Of course,” He said in a degenerated tone as I heard him walk out of the room. As soon as I heard the doctor close the door behind them, I tried to move my arms but it felt like I was trying to move a mountain. I tried to open my eyes to see what was wrong, but they were sealed shut and refused to open. Then I heard the door open and ceased all my attempts at motion and listened in as much as I could.

“Almost forgot,” I heard the same man of intellectual understanding say before I felt him plant another needle into my vein. And after a few seconds of waiting to see what would happen, I felt my body relax to a staggering degree and felt my subconscious take reign over me.

I walked past the lonesome gray lockers that lined the white walls as I pulled a heavy backpack behind me. I wondered the great halls as I continued to walk past crowds of other kids my age. I no sooner found myself at an imperious door made of solid wood and pushed it open to see that a teacher was sitting at his desk looking over papers. His classroom consisted of large black tables with strong steel legs, a poster of the periodic table, and quotes from well-known scientists on the wall.

I slowly walked in and let the door slam behind me as I walked up towards the man behind the desk. He looked up from his work and looked me in the eyes as I got closer to him, a small bit of surprise popping up in his eyes.

“James?” He said in a disconcerted tone with a gruffness in his voice that did nothing more but signify his age.

“Never expected to see you come in after school. What do you need?” He said. I pulled my backpack off of me and pulled out a binder that I assigned for this class. And after scouring through many papers that I had tossed inside of it, I pulled out a test paper that I had gotten that day prior and gave it to him.

“I was wondering… if I could retake the test,” I said in a quiet tone as my eyes wandered to the ground. I felt his gaze meet my head and heard him speak to me again.

“James, I don’t do retakes,” I looked up from ground and stared into his strict blue eyes.

“... Is there... anything else... that I can do?”

“James, all I can tell you to do is study, do your homework, and take notes. Other than that, there’s not much you can do,” I felt degraded, but I knew he was going to say something along those lines.

“Can I come in some days and get help?” I said with the same quiet tone that I had used before.

“Yes, you can come in after school, but I’m gone at four,” He said as a small smile curled its way onto his face. “But you’ll have to work hard to bring your grade up; a ‘D’ may be passing by school standards but not by mine. Now, sit down, feel free to ask me a couple of questions,” He said as he handed me back my paper. I sat down soon after and was about to ask him a question about the test, but soon felt like something was staring at me.

“How… interesting,” I heard the tone of a cold and demanding voice say behind me. I turned around immediately and saw a horse with dark blue fur and a flowing aquamarine mane. It wore shoes made of silver, and a necklace and Tiara made from some black material. Upon its back I could see a long, elegant set of wings, the same color as her fur, and a horn atop of its head standing strong and imposing But even though I knew what it was, I could only stare in utter disbelief at what stood before me.

“Very interesting...”

My eyes suddenly snapped open and my heart was thumping in my chest. In my scared state and static mind, I looked this way and that to see where I was and was surprised to see that I was in a half built wooden shack. The walls were made from simple logs, only thing holding them together was string that weaved around each and every log and the ground of dirt that it used as support. The wooden logs were old and its bark was starting to peel off, giving it that rustic look to the whole shack overall.

Soon, after observing the small, old wooden fort, I looked down at myself to see if I had been seriously injured or not. The only notable thing was that I was wearing a red shirt instead of my beige and that a blanket was covering everything from my chest down, concealing anything that was below it.

I tried to move my arms to see what had happened to the rest of my body, but I felt something keep my arms in place. I looked at my hands to see that I had been handcuffed to the ‘bed’ that I laid on. The bed was really just a large piece a cloth that had been tightly knitted into the wooden bars that formed a frame for a mattress. It was uncomfortable, sweaty, and reeked with the smell of sweat. I took one last look at the handcuffs and I knew that no matter how much I struggled, or how much I tried, I would never be able to break free from my metal bonds so easily.

So after a few minutes of doing absolutely nothing, I heard the ‘door’ creak open and looked up to see who my captor was. But instead of being angry and spiteful, I was in complete shock at the being who entered my small prison.

There standing on two legs was a man who wore a dirty white lab coat that clashed with his dark skin, and a pair of bulky dark rimmed glasses. He was looking down at a notebook that was in his hands and mumbled to himself. All I could do was stare at his brown eyes and bald head. At seeing the first human in a week, I could do nothing more than just stare at him. Watch him move as I felt the loneliness and despair leave my system. The feeling of hope filling me up as I looked at him. A small shiver of shock tingling its way up my spine. I can’t describe how much relief and shock came to me in that second of awe.

About a minute later, he finally looked up from his notebook and looked at me with surprise on his face.

“Huh, didn’t expect to see you awake,” He said with intellectual interest.

Author's Note

This toke me forever to make. Not only did my computer decide to crash while I was writing it, corrupting the file, but I also had to a couple of projects to make. So that was extremely fun.