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Written By – DemonKiller
Edited By – CurlyAdi
Proofread By – SmartyMouth
Chapter 0002 – Coming Out of The Forest
It has already been three days since the village hunting party had come out of the forest, the weather above the forest was still the same, with black clouds covering the entire sky along with the sound of thunder rumbling. But everyone could see that the black lightning storm was slowly dissipating. It was the first time for the villagers to see such a weather for such a long time. Usually the weather above the forest, no matter what, dispersed in about a day at max, so since the stormy weather was still visible, although weakening, it was still yet to dissipate even after 3 days.
At first, the villages were very scared when they saw the hunting party return in such a ragged condition and running out of the forest as if their life was depended on it. Just a few moments after, they saw that the entire perimeter of the forest in front of them was lined with all kinds of ferocious beasts and wild animals, it was as if they themselves were running away from something, although there were even some terribly powerful ferocious beasts within those masses, but the fear in their eyes was evident. But because of the restriction on the forest, none of the ferocious beasts or the wild animals were able to get of the forest, and were completely stopped at the boundary of the forest. Although they were not able to get out, their fearful roars still could be heard back at the village, which made everyone tremble with fright while silently praying for thanks to the ancestor who put the restriction on the forest, preventing the wild animals and the various ferocious beasts to come out of there.
If not for that restriction, everyone was sure that that day would have definitely been the last day for them and their village, probably even the Sunspot Town would not be able to contend with the beast horde that would inevitably come their way. After all as the saying goes, an animal is the most dangerous when it was at the extreme end of fear, or even the other saying, a cornered rat will always bite the fiercest.
When the villagers saw the hunting party come out of the forest, albeit looking heavily injured, they all breathed a sigh of relief. By the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the wildly running hunting party finally reached the Rocky Fist Village. It was then that the villagers were able to clearly see the condition of the people in the hunting party, and their faces immediately paled, almost all of them looked heavily injured as they all collapsed on the ground, many of them had broken bones, some even had missing limbs and in their place shredded stumps. But for the villagers, the most dreaded thing was the limp bodies that they saw on the backs of the hunting party.
There were around 29 bodies, strapped to the backs of the still able bodied members of the hunting party, almost a fifth of the entire hunting party. They were afraid of finding the identities of those dead people fearing that they would be their own family. It was the village heads and a few elders who came forward and helped them unload the bodies from their backs. After silently removing the bodies, the rest of the hunting party members stood at the side with their heads down, not even daring to speak. Most of the dead were the newly joined young and strong villagers.
This hunt was supposed to be a joyous occasion, as it was the coming of age ceremony for these youths, coupled with the huge and bountiful harvest, the entire village should have been in a festive mood. But because of the disaster of the weather, everything was finished. The joy turned into extreme grief as the villagers came forward to claim their dead, some of them were crying loudly, while the others just stood by silently with tears streaming down their face.
Even though the remaining members of the hunting party explained to them what had happened, they were inconsolable. How could a few words comfort them for the loss of their beloved ones? They themselves were feeling grief and sadness, but they all knew that they wouldn’t be able to do anything. This world was filled with dangers lurking at every corner, if they were not careful or did not have enough strength, then the only thing that they would meet with was death.
Although every villager knew this point, but how could they not mourn for their dear ones. How could a parent not mourn the death of their child that they raised so painstakingly, how could a brother or sister not mourn the loss of their siblings who they played with, protected and were protected by. How could the newly wedded spouses not weep tears of grief for their newly wedded husbands.
No matter who died, it affected the whole village, after all there were not many people in the village to begin with, so all of them were very close to each other.
After a day of mourning, the villagers that came from the surrounding villages took their dead and departed intending to complete their final rites back at their home villages. Even in the Rocky Fist Village, the village head and the elders mobilised the rest of the able bodied men to prepare for the final rites for their own dead.
After preparing everything, the dead were brought out from their homes and placed into simple wooden caskets before burying them in the already dug out earth that the other people had dug out previously. The village head and the three highest elders of the village performed the final rites and offered their prayers along with a few other things before the able bodied villages started to pour in the earth that they had dug out.
…………
While the villagers were mourning the loss of their family, me and Frank were still inside the crater, slowly recovering, It had already been about 4 days since I had arrived here, and thanks to the food packets and some kind of delicious fruit that Frank was able to find in the forest, we were able to survive there.
Although I was still weak, but at least I was able to walk around by himself, I estimated that in a few more days, I would be back to my previous health. For the time being I did not go far from the area of the crater, and made it a temporary place to recuperate. Moreover although I was in the middle of the forest, but for some reason I could not spot any animals around him in the forest.
On the first day, I was so scared of being alone in the forest that I refused to fall asleep fearing that the animals would pounce on me once I closed my eyes. I had seen a few documentaries back in my ‘university’ days that many carnivorous animals liked to hunt in the night and there were even a few who would patiently wait for their prey to lose focus before they pounced on them.
As such initially I was very scared and as soon as I regained some strength in my legs and was able to support myself, I immediately tried to leave the forest. But no matter in which direction I went, I would ultimately circle back to the crater from where I started. It was really frustrating for me, to me who had lived my entire life in the cities, trying to survive in the forest was something akin to trying to fix a high end computer with a paint brush. After attempting to escape a few times, I just decided to rest in the crater till I gets back to my peak condition before trying once more.
But during the times that I desperately tried to escape, I confirmed that there were no wild animals around my location, even though I did not go far ahead and explore further I simply knew from the fact that as Frank was calm as still water, so there were no wild animals around me. Even if there were any wild animals around me, they did not have any intentions of attacking me.
That was because Frank, for some reason, was very sensitive towards anyone that had any intention to harm me. Frank had saved his life so many times till now that I had come to rely and even respect Frank’s sense of danger detection. Once Frank detected any danger towards me, he would immediately be on his guard and would always try to warn me, even before the actual danger arrived.
Seeing Frank being calm, even playful actually, also calmed my heart, and I decided to rest in the crater till I was fully healed, although I did not receive any major injuries but there was still the sense of being dead tired, but thankfully it was slowly dissipating.
The food packets were already finished, but the forest had plenty of fruits in there, some even I did not know about, so at least I had no worries about starving to death.
Creating a makeshift bed, that was simply a pile of giant leaves that I collected from the forest floor around the crater, along with stockpiling a few fruits from the forest, I stayed there for almost 5 days. I was a bit worried that I did not have any roof over his head, and thus would be drenched when it rained, but fortunately during the 5 days I stayed there, there was no rain and thus was able to stay dry. The weather all around me was warm and a bit humid, but it was not something that would make me uncomfortable. Well it was mostly because I was a guy who grew up in a place in India where hot and humid was a kind of a norm during the summer and fall seasons.
During the five days, I could feel my energy recovering, and once I could move around without having to stop for breath every few hours, I decided to leave this forest. Although I was able to live a bit peacefully during these five days, but I kept getting the feeling that I was being watched by someone or something, but I could never pinpoint it, no matter how much I tried. It made me feel unsettled.
After deciding to leave this forest, I packed up some of the fruits that I had gathered previously in my shirt, I did not have any kind of carry bag and as such had to make do with what I had. As for the big fruits I just left them there, there was no point in carrying so much weight around with me, after all this was a forest, and although I did not meet any animals during the past five days, that did not mean that this forest was devoid of animals. I knew for a fact that there definitely were a lot of animals here based on the sounds that I heard, which ranged from roars that sounded like tigers and lions to bird like screeches. If I ended meeting a wild animal or two, then the additional weight would only drag me and Frank down.
After wrapping up the fruits that I carry, I slung the shirt-converted-bag on my shoulder as me and Frank made our way in the direction which we thought would lead us outside. I did keep the little money that I had with me, but as for the fried phone, I simply left it back there.
Sharing the food with Frank, we slowly and carefully walked through the forest, looking out for hidden dangers, as I had read previously that many animals liked to hide and ambush their prey, it was especially so with snakes, and I for one did not want to meet such snakes. Alright I admit that I really am afraid of snakes, as I was bit by one during my childhood, it was one of the most painful memories that I had, as I not only had to endure the constant pain for 3 days but even had to endure the ridicule from my so called friends as my leg was swollen to the size of an elephant’s foot.
After walking carefully for a few hours, we did not encounter any animals and as such started to speed up, I still did not know If I was going in the right direction or not, since the forest was pretty dark and only had little bit of lighting trickling down from above. I did find a few weird luminous plants but I did not touch them fearing that they were poisonous, after all this was a forest and I read that most of the attractive and pretty looking things in a forest were poisonous.
Just as we decided to rest for a while, there was a burst of movement behind us and immediately a wolf like animal flew past us before stopping in front of us. I say that it was a wolf like animal, because it looked a bit like a wolf in appearance, only it was a lot bigger than an ordinary wolf, in fact it actually towered over me in size and when it opened its mouth it showed the cruel looking pointed teeth inside. Moreover a bloody and nauseating smell was coming from its mouth. It had a greyish black fur and a horn on top of its head. Simply put it was as if this wolf like creature came out of a monster movie. I blinked my eyes a few times to confirm that I was not hallucinating, after all how could such an animal exist.
Well whether or not such a creature existed or not, it did not matter as it was standing in front of me with its fangs barred. I swear it had a hungry look on is face. Frank who was beside me, the moment it appeared, immediately turned to his battle mode, well it’s something that I call when Frank becomes a fierce dog when he senses a life threatening danger to me and is preparing to attack that danger. But how could we fight against such a huge monstrosity by ourselves and that too without any weapons.
It was at this moment that this wolf like creature jumped towards me, but before Frank could even make a move, my back started to itch again, as suddenly an extremely bright golden lightning bolt erupted from my hands as I unconsciously brought it up to protect myself. The next moment, the wolf like creature that was in mid air jumping towards me was immediately burnt pitch black and before his body could even reach us, it disintegrated to ash and floated away with the wind, covering me and Frank in a layer of black soot.
I stood there standing with a dumbfounded look on my face, completely forgetting that the itching sensation on my back that had once more completely died down. I simply could not process what had happened right now. All I saw was a flash of an extremely bright golden lightning and then that wolf like creature turned to ash.
Just what the hell happened.
I really was scared.
Immediately without thinking anything else, me and Frank started running as if our life depended on it, this forest was too scary, although we only met a single animal but it was a really terrifying animal that I had never seen or heard in my life. Was it a previously undiscovered animal? Was it a failed scientific experiment?…… Countless wild thoughts emerged in my mind, each more ridiculous than others. At the moment I had completely forgotten about the golden lightning that came out from my hands and was only thinking about that terrifying beast.
Unknowingly, me and Frank ran for almost an entire day, we did not know about the passage of time, as we, at least me, was running scared. I really did not know if we would be attacked once again by other animals. But soon I was able to see that the trees were getting more sparse and there was more lighting, and realized that we were nearing the forest edge. I immediately felt happy, and somehow increased my speed to the maximum possible limit, I wanted to get out of this forest as soon as possible. Since the forest was thinning out then wasn’t this obvious that they were nearing the edge of the forest.
Soon in just a couple of minutes, I was able to see the stony plains outside of the forest dotted with patches of green grass, I felt really happy that at last me and Frank could finally get out of this god forsaken forest.
In just a few moments, me and Frank finally left the forest cover behind and reached a huge boulder at a distance to finally catch our breath and rest for a bit as we ate some fruit.
……….
Just as John and Frank came out of the forest.
An ancient sigh could be heard all across the forest, this sigh was something only those who were inside the forest could hear, as for those outside, none of them could hear it.
Accompanied with the sigh was an ancient voice that felt extremely feeble, as if whoever it belonged was in his/her last throes of life.
“Child this is the only time that I can help you, from now you have to rely on yourself. Sigh, I have waited far too long for a successor, even if you are not of this world, you still were the only one to be compatible with the Mystical Lightning. If only I was not sealed off by those despicable bastards who call themselves the so called “Righteous Knights”, I would have at least gifted you with the other Mystical Elements to help you out. My body is already on the verge of collapsing, once it does, those Mystical Elements would be scattered into the world to begin their search for new masters.”
“I hope that you can once again gather the rest of the Mystical Elements and fullfill this one wish of this old woman. That Mystical Lightning in you is a bit unruly and naughty but I hope you can tame her wild spirit and get along with it. As for the other Mystical Elements, only fate will decide who they go to.”
“I have opened up the restriction placed on this forest by that bastard who sealed me in here, to let your friend out of this forest, with the last bit of my power that I have been saving up for the past thousand years. I can see that your fates are entwined and even your souls connected. I hope we can meet again in this life before I die………”
This voice, although ancient, was filled with tenderness and pain, as if it belonged to a tearful mother sending off her child knowing that she would not be able to see her child again.
Once the voice faded out, the forest became completely silent, there was not even a single sound to be heard throughout the forest, even the wind seemed to have stopped for a few moments as John and Frank ran out of the forest at that instant.
…….
After resting for an hour while eating the fruits, me and Frank finally recovered. Standing up, I could see that there was a vast stony plain dotted with patches of green grass in front of me that was covered in a thin layer or snow. Surprisingly I nor Frank were not feeling too cold, although the field was covered in a thin layer of snow, it was only slightly chilly for us.
Although I had long gotten over the fact that this place might not be New York during my stay in the forest, but I still felt surprised when I saw this kind of stony ground in front of me. Truthfully, although it was a stony plane, but it kind of projected a peaceful and picturesque scenery with the patches of the green grass jutting through the ground.
Since we had already eaten up all our food, I put my shirt back on, after all we were now out of the forest and well, I was a bit shy on exposing my slightly flabby body in front of others.
Lets face it, I don’t have a muscular body or a fit body to be more precise that many of you people expect a main character to have.
In a distance I could see a village, as joy started to bubble in my heart. This village should at least have a cell phone, right? Or at least a cord phone? Heck at least they should have some way to contact the law enforcement.
With that in mind, me and Frank immediately headed towards the village.
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