I woke up who knows how many hours later, and
immediately inspected my body. The blood I was drenched in has dried and stuck
to me like a second layer of skin. My stomach looked okay, there were a few
marks on the seams where the xin recreated my cells, but it looked fine
otherwise. Same with my legs, a few small scars, but fully usable.
In one battle I managed to get two skills, one to regenerate my cells, one to create heat. Intrigued by this revelation I started testing my new abilities. I cut my finger with my knife and healed it at once. I winced and confirmed that it hurt ten times more to heal this way than the injury itself. But if I can recover such injuries, it was a fair tradeoff.
I moved my tired joints a bit and looked out of my hideout. It was nighttime, and quiet raindrops sparkled in the moonlight. I went out to do my usual chores, checking my numerous traps, and filling my flask with fresh water. I took off my ragged clothes and quickly washed up. The water was freezing, and although the air started to warm up somewhat, it was still cold.
I didn't gather wood as everything was moist from the rain, but I still had a few logs stored away at home. I also looked for a few edible plants, I tested some before, and since I can heal myself, I wasn't really afraid.
Arriving home, I quickly made a fire using my heating skill and set up a fired clay pot I made a few days ago. I put in a fatty part of an animal I caught and continued skinning it while it sizzled, letting out the grease. I put in some plants resembling onions, they were smaller than I was used to but packed quite a punch.
After the onion substitute browned and let out a sweet smell, I put in the cubed-up meat of the small squirrel-looking animal I caught. I added some spices from my very limited supply and fried the meat. The smell was fantastic, and I could feel my mouth watering. I added some water and bones to the mix and waited for my soup to boil.
I took the simmering pot away from the fire and waited for it to cool down for a bit. I took my spoon I carved from a piece of wood off the improvised shelf and started eating. I was expecting too much. It was bland and flat. I let out a sigh. I missed the food I had before the apocalypse.
Back then, I learned how to cook since my father wasn't the best, and I loved tinkering with stuff, and cooking is basically building with flavor. After the communications network and all other infrastructure fell, we couldn't be picky about what we ate, but you know, you only need a small number of spices for a dish. We had enough of that, and I could always make something nice with the scarce resources we had.
But now I had to start from scratch. I had a few pots and tools, but if I wanted to make a comfortable living, I'd need a garden, at least a small millstone I can use for flour, and making things out of metal would be nice too. Instead of that, I should probably find Tara’s group and go back to where they came from. They never mentioned it, but they had clothes and weapons, so there must be some kind of civilization left. I don’t know why I never asked.
The darkness and hopelessness seeped into me with each sip of the nothing-tasting soup. I felt so alone. I had no one to talk to for about a month now. I was in a world totally strange to me with magic powers and monsters waiting around every corner. I was scared.
Should I look for the others? We spent not even a day together, but they were the only people in this world I knew. The problem was I had no idea where they were, and what direction I flew in from.
Is it better if I wait a bit and train more? I had to face it: If after a month they couldn’t find me, they either didn’t look for me, or I was too far off. I should heal up, pack my things and prepare for a journey. If I can find them or maybe a town, that would be perfect.
That sounds like a nice plan for now. I finished up my meal, drank a bit of water, cleaned the plate, and put away the pot with the remaining soup. After putting out the fire, with only the smoldering coal left in the pit, I prepared to go to bed. I was a bit afraid of what tomorrow would bring, but I felt ready.
~
As soon as the sun came up, I packed my things and got ready for departure. I started heading the way I guessed I came from. I carefully took one step after the other on the sharp rocks.
Leaving behind the forest and the small clearing, I marched toward the unknown terrain. Mountains and valleys crawled slowly on the horizon, revealing more of this strange new world. I tried to avoid any attention of the beasts living here, I was trespassing and didn’t want any trouble. There weren’t that many of them that I saw, and they were all small animals I hunted before.
And so, I continued my long journey to explore the world. It changed so much… It reverted itself to the stone age, never have I seen so much nature. I had mixed feelings about it; on one hand, it was beautiful, so much greenery with no machines or factories, but humanity had to sacrifice so much for it. All that hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, during the industrial revolution and after, hundreds of years of scientific progress were lost. I still had the knowledge, but now because of the meteors, the laws of physics themselves have changed.
Or at least widened enough for me not to understand them. This was probably how the scientists of ancient times felt, wanting to know more about this beautiful world they found themselves in, but not knowing where to even start to discover its laws. I had one advantage, however, I held most of the knowledge that my ancestors collected.
After almost a day of walking the sun started to set, and it painted the sky in all sorts of beautiful colors, I saw it: the sea. It was breathtaking. My first time seeing the sea, and at a gorgeous sunset with it. I sat down for a while and just took it in, admiring the view. That’s when I was certain, I was going in the totally wrong direction.
Then, a massive fish swam up from the sea, into the sky. It swam. In the air.
A few followed it, massive golden bodies glistening in what sunlight left before it set completely, swimming toward me at least twenty meters above the ground.
Suddenly, all the chirping and other sounds that birds make subsided, and I fell into silence as the creatures swam calmly. For some reason, all the birds disappeared. Were they afraid of the giant goldfish?
Admiring the out-of-place creatures for a few seconds, I heard a loud screech that sent chills down my spine. I knew it all too well and the memory was a bit too fresh. One of those bastard griffon-looking beasts was here, heading straight for one of the koi fish. It was a strong beast I barely could beat. I watched eagerly as it approached.
When it got too close, it looked like the griffon hit a solid wall, and got stuck in the air. It tried to flap its wings to get away, but it was no use. As if it were submerged in honey, it looked like the air resistance that kept it in the air before now held it in place. The griffon started panicking as a fish got closer and closer, and in a single, terrifying motion it just opened its massive mouth and ate the griffon. It didn’t fit in one gulp, so the body was torn in half in midair. Feathers and blood spew in every direction.
This was the reason no birds were in sight. It was terrifying. After this quick fight – wasn’t even a fight, just a murder – a few more sea creatures came up from the water. A few sea turtles, smaller, colorful fish, and a few glowing jellyfish. It was like a dream, watching these creatures majestically gliding in the cold night air, drops of water shining on their bodies like glitter.
After seeing the horrific way one of those fishes eat a beast that almost killed me, I decided to find some shelter for the night and retreat. Slowly and quietly walked down to a small area with a few trees and hoped to find shelter there. It wasn’t so big that there would be large predators, so I deemed it a suitable place to rest for the night.
I gathered some fallen leaves and twigs and threw up a small shelter. I covered it with more leaves and closed it off from the outside as well as I could. It was as big as a sleeping bag, but it felt better sleeping there than under the stars. After calming down and hiding in my cozy bed, I started drifting into sleep. A few hours later, however, I was shaken up by the sound of an explosion nearby, the light from the fireball pierced through the leaves covering me.
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