Neil

As soon as I woke up in the morning I prepared and ate an MRE being more careful than normal to keep the plastic that it had come in in one piece. As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I had realized that I could probably keep my potions as a paste or powder in the plastic MRE bags then just add water to them when I needed them. It would make transportation of potions a lot simpler, and I wouldn’t have to worry about several hundred-year-old glass shattering in my bag on me. I would even be able to hold a lot more than normal.

After eating a larger than normal breakfast I went through my trash bag looking for the least damaged MRE bags. Most of them were in good enough condition that I could probably use them and because I refused to throw away anything while on a hike I still had all of them. I just needed some kind of string to tie them closed, something from my sewing kit would probably work. Breakfast done I filled up my water bottles with fresh water, not bothering with the iodine pill. If magic water wasn’t free of parasites or anything else then I was probably pretty fucked by now, especially since I had been using it in my potions without boiling it or adding the iodine.

Last night before slipping off to sleep I decided to test out my stamina potions today. It would let me try out the fruits of my labor, get off the mountain for a little bit, and I might be able to get a better feeling for Mana Shock.

Checking my pack I wished that I had a smaller bag with me that I could wear, but unfortunately my big one was it. I didn’t really want to bring too much with me but it was better safe than sorry so I was going through my things to try and decide what I might need. All of my canteens and all the potions I had made so far were the first things I put in my bag. I could not think of why I would need two potions of Night Eye in the middle of the day but they were in there too wrapped up in some of my clothes to protect them from being jostled during my run. My first aid kit, iodine pills, one MRE and some Yarlaw fruits rounded out what I had in my bag.

I should be over my Magic Shock by now and these had far fewer impurities in them than the healing potions so I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any problems. Drinking the weaker of the stamina potions I tried to get a feel for any effects as the warm liquid went down my throat. I thought I felt a slight strain deep in my body, but it may have just been gas from my breakfast. Checking my watch I made a mental note of when 1 hour and 14 minutes would be.

Putting the empty vial down I made sure my bag was securely on my back with all of the straps tightened. Loaded up with as much as I wanted to carry I tried to see if I felt any different but as far as I could tell the potion had done nothing, but the real test was about to begin. Starting down the steps with my fence post in hand I carefully yet quickly descended.

The steps were just as treacherous as I remembered, they were shallow, uneven, and weathered so badly they sometimes crumbled as I walked on them. Going a little faster than a quick walk I nonetheless found descending was far easier than ascending had been and after just 10 minutes I found myself on the narrow trail and I was jogging quickly along it. Keeping an eye on the trail in front of my I wasn’t able to look at the view as much as I would have liked but the few glances I took showed it was just as spectacular as I had remembered it to be. The mountain range in front of me Shassala had called the Veil of the Gods was just as tall and imposing as I remembered it to be. The river far below was a deep blue color and absolutely glittered, off in the distance I saw what I thought was a lake that sparkled in the like a jewel. Either visibility was better today than it had been when I came up the mountain or I simply hadn’t been paying enough attention then.

Wiping sweat from my brow I slowed my jog to a quick walk in order to drink some water from my canteen. Looking at the trail I was pretty sure I was where I had originally appeared on this world. This had taken me what? 20 minutes of running to get this far? The hike from here up the mountain had taken me several hours and left me exhausted at the end of it, I didn’t even feel winded now. Closing up my canteen I decided to see how far I could run before this potion ran out. I knew that I was taking a risk with this, but I had been going a little stir crazy on that mountain so the idea of going a little further really appealed to me.

Increasing my pace I started sprinting as quickly as I could and I began laughing and smiling at how easy it was. My lungs which would normally be burning now felt fine, my legs which preferred a nice slow walk were eating at the ground easily. This potion made sprinting just as easy as a leisurely walk.

The trail itself snaked its way back and forth across the mountain with a large number of switchbacks cutting back and forth, in several places I had to slow my pace when rock slides destroyed the trail and made it fairly treacherous, but before long I found myself surrounded by more and more trees and the path was getting more overgrown.

I was just trying to push forwards through a tangle of vines when I realized that my legs were very suddenly feeling exhausted, and my breathing was coming in shorter and shorter gasps. Stopping I all but collapsed skinning both my knees and my palms on the ground as I landed on the ground in a heap. Panting I tried to get my heart and breathing under control as my heart seemed to be trying to beat its way out of my chest. After a few minutes I found my heartbeat slowly going back to normal and the muscles in my legs stopped burning quite so badly. Trying to stand up I found that just because they weren’t burning however didn’t mean that my legs weren’t wobbly and my back and arms weren’t much better.

Glancing at my watch I saw that I had taken the potion about 1 hour and 20 minutes ago. I couldn’t have been on the ground for more than five minutes so that means that almost as soon as the potion ended all of that exertion caught up to me in a wave that knocked me on my ass. Sitting down against a tree I realized that my clothes were absolutely soaked through with my sweat.

Drinking as much water as I could, I dumped some of the still cool water on my head careful to not use too much. My head pounding, stomach churning and still finding it hard to breath I realized what was wrong. In my excitement at running as fast as I could, I had forgotten that it was really damn hot here and while I may have been in the shade here on the ground, when I was on the mountain I had been in the sun the entire time and it was still far too hot to be running let alone sprinting. I had given myself heat stroke.

Laying down in the shade I tried to let my body cool itself off as I considered what I should do. My stomach was doing flips at the moment and the idea of eating anything just made it worse. I still had my larger canteen left and I was trying to decide if I should dump it on me in order to cool down or save it to drink.

Deciding that my clothes were wet enough I drank some more water and just lay in the shade of the trees.

Now that I wasn’t moving I had the time to think about just how stupid I had been, heat stroke kills pretty easily. Especially since I was stuck outside and I couldn’t exactly get myself to any place cooler than this.

God, for someone who should know better I was taking an awful lot of stupid and somewhat pointless risks. But as I sat under the tree listening to the sounds of the forest around me I couldn’t regret it. My heart had steadied, my stomach was feeling better and I was even feeling a little cool as a light wind blew across my soaked shirt.

As nice as this was though I wanted to hurry things along a little, sitting here almost defenseless was a terrible idea after all. Sitting up I looked through my pack and examined all of the potions one by one. Finding a health potion I pulled out the stopper and drank it slowly. As I felt the liquid going down my throat I concentrated on what, if anything my body was feeling, and there it was again. This time I felt it a little more clearly, it was like a twinge somewhere deep in my body, small but now that I knew what I was feeling for fairly obvious.

Sighing in relief I felt my headache disappear completely, my knees and palms stopped burning as the skin on my hands and knees repaired itself and all of my muscles felt good as new. Stretching my arms above my head I decided to get a little bit of walking in before heading back up the mountain. Eating a piece of Yarlaw fruit as I walked through the trees I Identified every plant that I saw. I didn’t see anything too useful, a few fruits that I grabbed some samples of, a few poisonous plants as well that I avoided. I also managed to see some wildlife that wasn’t a slime or mutant spider rat.

They were small lizards clinging to a tree. At half a foot long, with brownish green scales that blended in to the trees I had almost walked straight passed them but sudden movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to see them.

“Identify.”

DING

Khalos Lizard

A small lizard native to the Alatross Islands. These lizards are scavengers and will often eat carrion left by larger predators.

Neat! Probably not something I wanted to eat given that they looked to be the equivalent of a rat or maybe a crow. Looking up I saw that the sun was starting its descent from the sky, hoping that this would help with the heat at least a little bit I turned around and started back to the trail to the mountain. I had intentionally snapped branches, overturned rocks and an easy trail for myself to find my way back.

Just as I approached the edge of the trees I stopped, opened my bag and took out my other stamina potion. I could still remember that feeling of a twinge when I drank the other potions and as I drank this one I felt it again but a little stronger. Now that I knew what I was looking for it was obvious.

DING

With simple concentration and experimentation, you have developed the Mana Sense Skill! Continue to practice or find a teacher to improve this skill!

As I read the window my jaw dropped open. Could this be what I’ve been missing from my magic practice? I wanted to practice this now!

But before I could do so much as put my flask away a crash in the forest drew my attention. Turning I looked towards the sound. It reminded me of the time I had run into a black bear on a trail. We had looked at each other for a few moments before I started yelling at it and it turned and barreled into the forest knocking trees around as it went.

I scanned the forest as I dropped the flask in the bag. Slowly lowering it to the ground my eyes darted over the trees when I saw it. It was in a tree branch roughly 30 feet back completely unmoving. It looked like the largest mountain lion I had ever heard of. At least 8 feet long from nose to tail with a dark brown coloring, and 6 legs instead of just 4, each topped with sharp claws.

As the two of us stared at each other I got the distinct impression that it was sizing me up and waiting for something.

Pulling out the vial of waste product from my potion making, I slowly opened it, took out my knife and dumped most of the vial over the blade, putting the stopper back in the vial I slowly shifted my body until my pack was on my back again. Knife in one hand and fence post in the other I slowly walked backwards keeping an eye on the animal.

I knew from my talk with Shassala that this was probably an Onca Parda. They almost never attacked groups and rarely attacked people, but they could still be very territorial and if it was hungry it wouldn’t matter how many people were there.

I was partway up the trail and almost had it out of my sights when it moved. Jumping down with the grace I expected from a jungle cat it held itself low and followed me closing the distance between us to half when it stopped and lay down looking at me with its ears back and tail stiff behind it.

When it stopped I once again backed up increasing the distance between us. Again just before I was out of sight it started stalking me. Staying low to the ground it followed me closing the distance to just under half before it stopped again.

My mouth dry but my hands far wetter than they should be I was just about to piss myself when I started away from it again.

We continued on like this for more than an hour. Just when I started to think it was giving up it would follow me again further and further up the mountain. Never letting me out of its sight, and always waiting for a moment of weakness.

Once when I had stumbled on a loose rock as I had been scrambling up the mountain it had stood up and prepared to run at me but I managed to get my knife and fence post back up in front of me in time for it to reconsider. I held that pose trying not to shake for what felt like an hour, but was probably just minutes when it settled back down to just watching me.

By this time I was a good way up the mountain and the drop beside me had gone from just being steep to being a sheer cliff. This couldn’t continue, or before long it would be following me into my tent. It looked like I was getting close to where I had originally appeared when I decided to act. Breathing deeply, I quickly looked around and formed a plan.

When I was about 55 feet from the animal, about as far as it ever let me get, I dropped my pack, turned and ran. I saw it get up and start to sprint after me as soon as I started to turn, but fortunately my potion was still working and I was able to sprint with no trouble whatsoever.

Turning a corner I knelt down, my back to the steep drop with my knife and post held in front of me. A moment later it came bounding towards me with murder in its eyes. When it was roughly 20 feet away I saw its hind legs tense, I was just about to throw myself to the side when I saw that it wasn’t actually jumping, and instead sliding towards me. It had seen the cliff. Fuck.

Running towards it I screamed and hoped that the homemade poison I had put on my blade was effective, and still there. For all I knew it had evaporated by now.

Anyone whos ever had a cat before can read expressions on their faces and this one was no different. Looking as shocked as a massive jungle cat can look it reared back mouth open displaying the largest teeth I had ever seen. Over balancing itself, it fell over in its haste to pull away from me. Stabbing my knife into its hindquarters this was apparently enough to spook it and with a pained yowl it ran away a good 50 feet before it turned around and looked at.

Triumphant I help my arms out to my side and shouted at it. “What? You don’t want a piece of me anymore? Come on kitty bring it!”

At the shout of ‘what?’ there was a ding that I ignored in favor of taunting the animal. As it turned and fled down the mountain I finally read the window.

Juvenile Onca Parda

The Onca Parda is one of the most fearsome land creatures on the Alatross Islands. Although it will usually avoid groups if it decides to attack no other land hunter can match its aggression, ferocity and sheer size. This one is a Juvenile and can be expected to grow considerably larger. The juveniles are never far from their mothers.

Reading the box I felt faint. If that was a juvenile how big did they get? Watching the apparently small Onca Parda run down the mountain I grabbed my bag and started sprinting up the mountain. If I was lucky I would never find out.