DAY 7

The sun was still up when I awoke, with a few hours left of the afternoon. I could hear something, and it took me a while to recognize it after a week in the wilderness. Hammer on metal, coming from some distance. Shaking the dirt off of myself, I went out to investigate.

My wounds had healed overnight, leaving behind faintly discoloured scars. Smoke rose from the building on the far side of the cabin. It smelled of ash and metal. Creeping in, I frequently looked in all directions. When I saw movement, I froze. Two people were in front of the cabin, unloading things from a small hand cart and loading others. They were wearing rough brown shirts and pants, with long green jackets. Then they departed, heading west with their cart.

I was a bit curious about the cart. It was the first real look at anything approaching industry, but it indicated they didn't have vehicles, and may not have beasts of burden. Their clothes were clean, if basic, and they had groomed hair and beards. So it didn't look like they were living desperately. Though who would choose to pull a cart by hand if they could have a horse or something pulling it instead?

On the plus side, that probably meant my chances of being hunted down by marauding cannibals on dirtbikes was thankfully low. Cannibal goblins need not apply.

I stayed in the tree line, circling around to the east. From the smell of it, this building was the outhouse which I didn't linger near. Past that was a squat stone building, with a plume of smoke coming out the chimney. A well was quite a ways in front of there, opposite the outhouse. The hammering stopped as I was circling around the north side of the building. I could not see who was inside, so I crept right up to the wall.

The occupant could be heard moving around, things were clanging together. I risked a peek around the corner. They were faced away from me, wearing a heavy leather apron and mitts. I couldn't tell if they were the one I was following. The smell from the forge was overpowering everything else. Quickly I ducked back out of sight. Indecision was tearing me apart. I didn't want to just walk out there, but I had come too far to just walk away.

After I spent too long hesitating, the person banked the fire in the hearth, put their tools away, and then headed over to the barn. I followed at a cautious distance, but when the wind shifted and blew my scent towards them the animals inside got restless. The scent was pretty similar to the goat I had encountered earlier, and I didn't like the idea of another one of them rampaging while I was alone. I crouched near the wall and listened to the man speaking to the animals, it didn't seem to be any language I knew. Then he went to the outhouse and a few minutes after into the cabin. A small garden had been planted in front of the cabin with a wire fence all around.

It was nearing sunset and he seemed to be alone. The scent of the others I had noticed were even more faded now. I went back over to the forge, which just had a basic latch to keep the door shut, and spent a while investigating the contents. Nails, horseshoes, basic tools, and other similar things seemed to be most of what they made. Some of what had been unloaded off the cart proved to be bags of coal, and crates with bars of iron. These were marked in some unknown language, different from the book I carried. Communicating with this person might be harder than I thought.

Everything in here had a somewhat rustic, handmade, look. I didn't spot anything I'd consider to indicate modern technology.

By now I was getting quite hungry, I went to the well and peered down over the edge. A wooden lid fit over top but easily slid out of the way. Far below there was water, with a bucket and pulley up top. I slowly lowered the bucket down to fill and then drank it all. Then I replaced the lid and scampered away towards the trees.

It took some searching but I sniffed out some more berries, and some leafy plant I couldn't identify but smelled quite good. I wanted something more substantial.

After a few minutes of searching I found a lone crow sleeping in a nest, about five meters up a tree. It was the supersized variety I had come to expect here, probably twice the size of real crows.

Grabbing some rocks, I took aim, and my trajectory arc fell short. Horizontally it maxed out at about five meters if I angled it right, but vertically that dropped to less than three before it got all fuzzy and indistinct. I gave it a try anyways, and the rock didn't even come near the branch.

"Shit." I was looking at the tree considering trying to climb up when I realized that these distances were wrong. Even if I was half the size I used to be, I should be able to throw a rock into the air farther than three meters. With a bit of an effort I dismissed the aim assistance, and the red line vanished. Even though I had only used it for a short while it had become second nature to me. I picked the best looking rock in my pile, wound up, and sent the rock hurling over the branch. It flew easily double what the magic red line seemed to think my max range should be. It just left me with the difficult part of managing to hit the bird without any assistance.

My next rock also missed, but it was close enough that the bird woke up and started looking around. My third rock hit with a glancing blow and fell out of the nest. Probably more due to surprise than pain. Still, it was good enough for me, and I pounced on the bird and bit through its neck before it recovered.

I was about to finish it off when something fluttered overhead. A second crow swooped down, sending me tumbling when its claws raked across my shoulder. I grabbed some more rocks as I stood, spinning to track the crow as it circled. It straightened out, coming right towards me, and then started to dive. I wound up and threw the rock. It didn't do much damage, but the bird wobbled a bit and I dove to the side.

I put my back against a tree, the branches not letting a flier get close, and the crow landed. It rushed me with a hopping flap, beak jabbing at my chest. The thing was nearly the same height as me. I managed to parry the beak, but then it slammed its wings into me and I fell back against the tree. As it lunged in again I got a leg under it and kicked it away. We both got back to our feet at the same time, and I chucked another rock at it, getting it right in the eye. When it shrieked in pain I ran forwards and tackled it, tearing out its throat with my teeth.

I flopped to the ground, panting. That had been exhausting. Much better than the hawk attack had gone, but still a close one. I felt a bit stronger, and caught my breath quickly.

I sniffed. There was something here. Rolling over I landed on all fours, it was coming from the bodies. I followed it to their chests, and ripped them open. Inside their ribs, against the spine, was a small thing that sparkled. It was a small crystal, shining faintly with white light, and it smelled amazing. It cracked and dissolved when I bit into it, tasting like the best candy I'd ever had, leaving me with a warm afterglow.

I sprawled out on the ground, pleasantly satisfied. I did wonder though if eating these birds would have an effect on me the same way the diggers and tree goblins had. Flying would be nice. I dozed off for a while.

I slipped into another memory, easy this time. Faint and wispy it snared me like a spider web. I was very young, cocooned in a blanket on the couch between my parents after dinner. They were talking to each other, voices an indistinct murmur over the sound of the tv.

"...a few weeks at a time."

"For now. What about later?"

"Later we'll have enough saved that I can take the other job and the pay cut won't matter. Then I'll be home every night again."

I looked up, dad's face a blur of indistinct features.

"You promise?"

The memory fractured. Red lightning crackled in as something intruded and when my eyes cleared the living room was gone. I was laying at the edge of a deep hole lined with jagged rocks. From the depths unseen shapes stirred, and I shuddered as those terrible eyes seared through me. Whatever was in the pit had noticed me again.

"Feed us, Little One." Countless voices whispered in chorus.

The eyes flared with terrible power, and I writhed as a gnawing hunger burned within me. The compulsion to devour the world pulled at me. I fought against it without knowing how I was able to. Rage burned in my chest, a smoldering ember gaining heat as I heaved for breath and pushed back against the link which was draining me.

The memory of the earlier vision rushed back. How had I forgotten it? One by one, the cobweb strands in my mind start snapping.

A fragmented memory flashed through me the sensations alien and not my own, worms with hooked mouths crawling up out of the pit, searching for hosts. Each of them somehow part of the thing that lurked below.

My skin itched as that dreadful presence tried to subdue me again. The worms were burrowed inside me, feeding off me, weakening my body even as they bombarded my mind with psychic attacks. I could feel it.

Digging my claws into my flesh, I howled in agony as my fingers pressed into my guts.

"Submit!" The countless voices demanded.

A paralyzing jolt rushed through me as my fingers found something wriggling inside me, and I pulled out the worm, sickly grey. It stretched out, flailing wildly but unable to escape. With a screech its head emerged and the psychic assault immediately lessened.

The worm whipped around in a desperate frenzy until I ripped it in half and the pieces fell to the ground squirming.

The hole in my abdomen poured blood and I fell backwards, a sudden rush of cold robbed me of strength and I passed out.

Some time later I awoke on the forest floor once again, gasping in the aftershock. The afterimage of vague shapes floated in my vision, sliding away when I noticed them. My stomach grumbled, and I saw a patch of discoloured skin. My hands were covered in dried blood. One of those birds must have gotten me. How had I not noticed?

Confused, I looked around, trying to find what had woken me up. Nothing out of the ordinary came to my attention. My heart was still pounding, and I had no idea why. I felt like I had missed something again.

Hunger gnawed at me again. It felt impossible that I should be hungry again so soon but I felt hollowed out. Annoyed, I got up and went foraging.

After a few minutes of searching I stopped by the trail of a rabbit. The scent was fresh, tinged with fear. Something had scared it off, but I couldn't smell a trace of anything else nearby. Maybe a bird had gone after it.

Sniffing up edible plants was turning into a reliable, if somewhat bland, diet.

It took most of the night before I put together a plan. I went back to the forge, and left the beaded bracelet on the workbench where it would be easily seen. Then I used a claw to lightly scratch a short message into the sooty surface. “I need your help.” Then I went back to the tree line, buried my book, and waited.