The first few rays of dawn trickled into the cave, rousing Leo from his dreamless slumber. He rose unsteadily to his feet, body aching from a long, stiff night on the hard ground and sluggish from malnutrition. His throat was parched again and he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten.

A deep breath of the cool morning air caused him to abruptly choke from the nauseating smell that made its way up his nose. He looked at himself; his skin was covered in dried, cracked blood, his pants were shredded and stained, and he even found a small piece of flesh hanging from his uncombed hair. Yup! Doing dandy! he thought with less enthusiasm than he really felt.

Stretching out his arms, he did a few muscle tests to ensure everything was moving as it should. It was amazing what one night of magical healing could do for you! His stomach let out a gurgling growl, and he noticed the piece of flesh dangling in his hair was becoming slightly more appealing. Deciding it was time to wash up and find food before he lost his civility entirely, he headed back into the forest.

* * *

Leo crouched in the thick underbrush, peering into the clearing from yesterday through a gap in the leaves. His run-in with the wolves had taught him this was probably a commonly used waterhole for the local wildlife. If he wasn’t careful, he might end up meeting man’s best friend again, and if he was, he may just find a tasty level one critter to catch. After fruitlessly waiting and finding out that leaves really were different from lettuce, he decided it was safe enough to approach. His rancid smell had probably driven off all the surrounding prey anyway.

His bundled shirt with the herbs he had collected the day before was exactly where he had left it, and he quickly added the rest of his torn clothing to the pile. He walked toward the pond naked as the day he was born and hesitated before the cold waters; rinsing off all the blood and muck from his skin would spoil his sole water supply. As he carefully weighed the issue of cleanliness versus dehydration, he noticed the body of the lead wolf he had slain float slowly by, continuing its trek around the pond on currents made by the waterfall.

Without a second thought, Leo took off at a running start and let out a loud cry before cannonballing into the chilly waters.

He rubbed vigorously at his skin, releasing a dark cloud of waste into the clear liquid surrounding him. Then he paddled over to the small waterfall, opening his mouth to let the untainted water trickle into it before dunking his whole head. After his body was moderately clean, he dragged over what was left of his clothes, cleaning them the best he could before setting them out on a nearby sunbaked rock to dry.

He drifted in the refreshing waters, pretending for just a moment that he was simply taking a short dip in a lake back on Earth, when a reflective shine caught his attention from the depths of the pond. Curious, he swam over to see what it was. Not able to tell much through the ripples in the water, he took a deep breath and plunged under.

The pond was deeper than it appeared, the waters turned colder and darker as most of the sun’s warm rays failed to penetrate its full depth. After diving over a dozen feet, he reached the bottom, hands sinking into the slushy wet dirt as he tried to reorient himself.

He reached for the small piece of gleaming metal, finding out most of its length had actually been submerged under a pileup of gravel and dirt over the years. The metal was attached to what appeared to be a long leather strap that floated on the undercurrents.

Throwing the strap over his shoulder, he dug his feet into the soft earth and used his back to try to force the object out of the ground with all his meager strength. After a moment of straining, the item slowly began to unearth.

Running out of breath, Leo kicked off the ground hard, forcing the sludge to give up its claim and breaking the rest of the object free. He clawed his way back up to the surface as his insides twisted from the lack of oxygen. He managed to break free of the icy waters just as the demand in his lungs became too much to bear.

With a loud inhale he greedily gulped down air, struggling to make it back to shore while carrying his precious find. When he finally reached the edge of the pond, he threw himself from the water and onto the dry land. Breathing had never felt so good as he flopped on his back and clutched his treasure.

After he wasn’t panting for air, he finally took a look at his prize. His eyes grew wide and his smile grew into a boyish grin. The item he had retrieved was a sword belt lined with different pouches to store small items. The leather had cracked slightly with age and wear, but anything was an upgrade for him at this point. The best part was that the belt wasn’t empty.

Sitting outside the attached scabbard was the same shiny metal piece that had caught his eye in the first place, the hilt of a sword. Leo touched the eagle-shaped pommel, feeling the slight grooves that ran down the grip of the weapon and he prayed the metal hadn’t rusted shut. He gripped the pommel of the blade and marveled at the ease with which the previously submerged sword slid out of its sheath. There had to be some sort of preservation magic at work.

The blade was several feet in length and completely see-through, with what appeared to be joints creating different sections every four inches. Each section was viciously shaped; on one side it was a normal flat edge, but the other was similar to the barb of an arrow. Unable to contain himself anymore, he cast Observation on his findings.

Leo let out a low whistle as he stared at the named weapon in his hand. I could die just by nicking myself with this blade…The stray thought flitted through the back of his mind and he started holding the sword more gingerly. Tilting it at an angle where the glass caught the light, he could make out faint grooves on each section of the blade. The etchings all possessed the same complex pattern of strange interconnecting characters surrounded by various shapes and lines.

He stood and headed over to the thick trunk of a nearby tree. Gripping the blade tightly in his right hand, he swung the sword hard toward a spot on the trunk where the bark had started to peel. The blade arced through the air and hit the trunk several inches above his intended mark.

The strike carved cleanly through the tough wood, parting it as easily as a hot knife through butter, forcing him to spin in place as he struggled to stop the momentum of his swing. A splitting sound filled the air, causing small nearby birds to take flight as the large tree gave way, crashing down right toward him! Leo yelled out a curse as he dove out of the way of the falling giant, landing roughly in the dirt as it crashed to the ground behind him with a thunderous boom.

He stood, brushing off the bits of dirt that had been kicked up from the massive impact. The tree was at least a hundred feet tall and ended up stretching across almost the entirety of the clearing. His grin made its way back to his face as he looked at the sword with a newfound respect.

“I think you and I are going to be great friends, Aveth.” As soon as he said the weapon’s name, a clanking sound erupted from the sword as one at a time, the joints making up the blade extended and grew limp.

“Uhhh...Aveth?” he said, surprised and more than a bit concerned that he had somehow broken his amazing new sword. As quickly as they had extended, the joints in the blade stiffened, reverting to their original form. “Great friends indeed,” he said with a smile.