Chapter 3 Chi?

“Your chi is as real as your fist, Daniel. Bend it to your will. Wield it and let it empower you.”

-Joon-Ki Kwan

Unknown Forest

Daniel

“AAAAAHHH!” With my calf impaled, the serpent raised me off the ground and stared as I dangled over its left eye. I could feel the flesh tearing against my weight with every movement.

Fighting the impulse to flail in the pain, I latched onto the base of the horn, fumbling to pull one of the stakes out of my beltloop only to watch it slip out of my fingers and fall to the ground below.

“GAAAAHH!” I barely held on as the damned snake jerked its head to the side. With trembling hands, I successfully pulled my last sharpened stick and jammed it towards the snakes eye only to drop it as the serpent started jerking its head side to side. “AAH! STOP!”

I could feel my leg tearing while swinging and slamming against the side of its head as the serpent tried to shake me off. Holding on for dear life, with a single blaring thought to make this stop, I pulled my shoulder back with the momentum of the serpents swing.

There was no reasoning left. My mind stopped looking for ways out, giving way to baser, more primitive instincts within. This thing is trying to kill me. It will not get out of this unscathed!

At the apex point of the serpents swing, I raised a fist and rode the momentum in, striking, with intent to break, right under the base of its horn.

*KA-SPLIK!* The top half of the serpents’ head exploded with a flash of yellow light.

“Aah!” Falling to the ground, I yelp in pain as I grasp my leg. The horn had broken off but was still stuck in me.

With shuddered breath and trembling hands, I tore my shirt and started applying a tourniquet on my leg, below the knee. Need to cover the wound. I stared at the horn, not sure of what to do.

My mind felt frozen. I couldn’t think. It felt like I was watching someone else's hands as they worked, responding as my old training resurfaced to the occasion.

The giant snake was still twitching and writhing, as if it didn’t know it was dead.

Noticing some loose scales among the splatter of blood and brain matter, I dragged myself over to pick up a few. They looked like polished obsidian but more importantly, these scales were air-tight.

Tearing the rest of my shirt, I set aside what I needed for bandaging and rolled up the rest to use as a bit.

Biting down on the roll of cloth, with one hand on my knee and the other on the horn, I let out a weak whimper.

“MMMMMNNNNNN!” Blood flowed freely as the horn was pulled. “Hnnn… hnnn…”

Covering the bloody holes with scales, I wrapped them tightly to stop the bleeding. With my wounds sealed, I slowly released the tourniquet and watched to make sure there was no leakage.

The wound throbbed with wave after wave of intense pain that made it difficult to think straight. Picking up a small rock, I started rotating it counter clockwise between my ring finger and thumb, an old technique I picked up from some Rangers to take the mind off the pain. Keep your mind on something else…

Panting through clenched teeth, I focused on the sensation of points pressing against the tips of my fingers and tried to think about what I had to do while getting my breathing under control. What do I do now? Since the immediate danger had been solved, I sat, dazed and unsure of what to do next. Then it clicked. I killed the snake…

I was so caught up in fixing my leg, that that particular detail just flew past me. My gaze fell on what remained of the snakes head, a gory mess of a bloody jaw flopping about as it hung from its writhing body. Then I stared at my red stained hands as I recalled what had happened. A flash of light followed by an explosion.

What is this? It made me think of grandpa Kwan and the things he used to say about chi. Could it really be… Taking a deep breath, I tried to relax my body, still tense from the ordeal, then closed my eyes as I felt for my chi.

It used to be that I barely felt anything of note and when I did, it was so minuscule, I passed it off as imagination. It was like looking into a shallow and empty space within my body. But now, there was a depth filled with something thick and tangible. It felt hot and fluid, infused into my very being.

Startled, I opened my eyes with a gasp. Where did this come from? In my two decades of meditation, I’ve never felt anything of note. But this, it’s like suddenly regaining a your sense of touch after a lifetime without it. It felt familiar, like it was always supposed to be there.

As an experiment, I punched the empty air before me and felt my chi shoot out with a flash, distorting the space as leaves and dirt got blown away. “Haha…”

Dragging myself over to the serpents’ body, I struck its meter thick corpse while paying attention to my chi. I felt power flow through my arm before a flash of yellow and a messy hole appeared on the snake. *PuhSPLIK*

“Whoa.” As the dead serpent was still writhing, it twisted and revealed the body was only held together by a thin layer of flesh. The exit wound looked like it was blown out with a bomb.

“Ha…” I felt stupefied. I didn’t know what to think of all this and wondered if I was just having a very lucid dream. But the pain was too real to pass off as such. I just sat there, in a daze, staring at my unsteady hands for a while.

After some time, I realize I’m wasting daylight. Looking up, I notice the light filtering through the canopy had turned a shade of gold. I should find a place to camp. Before crawling away, I have a thought, Food, and glance at the mess of a snake.

Golden rays of light filtered through the trees all around me, shifting as the leaves swayed with the wind. It’s a deceptively peaceful scene. If not for my current predicament, I would take my time appreciating it as I had always been charmed by the light of sunset. But right now, my mood was grim. I need to put some distance between me and the bloody serpent as I don’t know what other predator the smell may attract. The injury, however, is making this a little difficult. I’ve had broken bones and puncture wounds before but being stabbed like this is a whole new level of suckage. Hopefully, I can get far enough before the scent of blood draws too much attention.

With a crutch made from one of the destroyed trees, I hobble through the forest with gritted teeth, keeping the sound of the river within earshot. Before leaving the snake carcass, I pocketed a few more scales and retrieved a mostly intact, half meter long, snake fang. These should come in handy at some point. The fang replaced the wooden stakes on my belt loop. Wood didn’t seem as reliable when considering what I had to face.

Of course, I didn’t forget the most prized item drop. Over my shoulder is the snake’s horn that stabbed me with a few slabs of meat hanging off the end. Being more than a meter long, the horn is a good replacement weapon… and meat stick. It’s almost poetic, the prey carrying the hunter’s meat on its own broken horn.

Sunlight was quickly fading so I picked a large tree out of a bunch to set camp. Some of the trees around here are massive. They’re not quite at the level of Redwood but large enough that their roots would shield me from sight if I lay between them.

Setting down my meat stick, I gathered firewood and put together a bow drill. The snake fang and scale were useful in carving the notches and points. Looping a sharpened stick onto the bow, I pushed and pulled, back and forth until the fireboard started smoking. Carefully dropping the little ember into a handful of kindling, I blew into it a few times as the ember expanded into a small flame.

Night had fallen by the time the fire was going strong. It was difficult to see too far from camp, but curiously, a gentle, blue light streamed down from the canopy. It wasn’t enough to walk around without tripping over anything but it was brighter than moonlight should be and definitely out of the ordinary. I wanted to try and get a better look at the source but that would be a bad idea in my condition.

The sounds of the forest had switched over to the chirping of insects and frogs with an occasional hooting from afar. I sat silently, watching the fire burn while playing with the movement of my chi, willing it to different parts of my body. It was a very warm sensation traveling up and down my limbs. So this was the source of my overheating. "Grandpa Kwan would totally freak." I muttered.

Had I known about this power sooner... Sigh. What a day this turned out to be.

Skewering the snake meat onto actual sticks, I set them to roast over the fire and sat to continue playing with my chi. Honestly, I’m not even angry anymore. Just tired. Nevermind the fatigue on the body, this entire day just left my mind listless. Waking up falling, hiking a mountain to realize I’m more than just far from home, then that damned snake monster… What was that anyway?

With everything I’ve seen today, I’m not sure if I’m even in Arkansas anymore.

I looked down at the giant snake’s horn on my lap, caressing it with a hand. It’s sleekness reflected the light as the fire danced in the night. “Where the hell did you come from?” I’ve never heard of snakes with actual horns on their heads. Then again, we’re still discovering new species of animals especially in places like the Amazon… come to think of it, those exotic birds…

Shaking away that train of thought, I rotated the snake meat sizzling on the sticks. They smelled like roasting chicken, making my stomach growl. “Almost done.”

A short while later, I was biting into the freshly cooked meat. It was a little gamey and tough but otherwise delicious. It tasted a lot like fish. Could use some Sriracha though. I placed my leftover meat with the two remaining slabs near the fire to dry. With this, I should be good for a couple days.

With fresh wood in the fire, I lay on my back, holding my snake horn, wondering if the throbbing in my leg would ever stop. It’s going to get infected if I don’t get help soon.

The plan hasn’t changed. I’ll keep heading southwest with the river. Hopefully, I’ll come across a road or some people. I don’t know how exactly I ended up here, wherever ‘here’ is, but it’s not something I can do anything about at the moment. What’s important is that I keep moving, and surviving.

The night air was cool on my shirtless body but the fire and chi flowing within kept me warm. Despite the pain, fatigue won over me and I fell into blissful sleep.

*Crunch* *Rustle* My eyes fly open to the sound of movement in the dry leaves. Startled, I sit up clutching my snake horn, looking for the source of the noise. Green eyes look back at me from the darkness and I make out some silhouettes against the moonlight. Wolves?

Backing up against the tree, I push myself to my feet, and circulate my chi, ready to fight. I count seven of them, maybe eight, but I should be able take them.

"Grrrrrr-" One of them gives off a low growl and steps into the light. This is no wolf. It was as big as one but distinctively different. It's ears were smaller, face more elongated, and the snout was higher up on its face. But the most distinguishing feature was it's jaw opening far too wide, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

"What the hell..." Am I having a nightmare? Or have I died and gone to hell? This is hell isn't it?

"Raargh!" The nightmare dogs started stepping closer and let out a bark that sounded halfway catlike.

I gather my chi and punch the empty space between us, in an attempt to scare them off but all it did was scatter some firewood and make them jump back. They appear to be committed to taking me down.

Readying myself for an attack from all sides, I see what appears to be their leader nonchalantly walk up to the fire, revealing tiger stripes on its back. It then grabbed a slab of snake meat and ran off.

"He-HEY!" I hopped forward to stop another two hell dogs who lunged at the last slab of meat and leftovers only to watch them escape with the rest of their pack. "SON OF A BIIIITCH!"