The sun’s rays finally made it to the interior of the cave. Brightening the world, and waking the plethora of animal that inhibited the colorful forest. Hungry hunters will be out stalking, while the plants would be basking in the sun's return. Yet, its journey across the sky was not a wonderful sight for everybody. No, for Mutasm, it meant he did not get a single wink in all night. He felt his eyes were about to tear themselves out of their sockets, he watched as the little girl rolled on the ground with a beautiful smile gracing her face and energy aplenty. It would have been a sight to warm the heart if he had gotten some sleep. But, unfortunately, every time he closed his eyes for a second, she would wake him up with a whimper or a tiny scratch from her claws.

Oh, yea, she has super cute and tiny claws on her hands. She would scratch on Mutasm every time she saw him close his eyes. Desperately begging him to stay up with her. It broke his heart when, for the fifth time he dozed of, she had watery eyes and a pouting face. He couldn't handle the accusation in her eyes, so for the rest of the night, he had stayed awake with her. Rubbing his eyes, he watched as the sun seemed to shine brighter than any day before. It was weird, ever since he had been here, the sun was never this bright. It was as though the sun seemed to be concentrating its entire effort on the cave. But, what Mutasm found even more unusual was the light seemed to run circles around the little girl. It was hard to spot, but it was there and very confusing. Of course, Mutasm put it out of his mind. His eyes were probably just playing tricks on him; that tends to be what happens when he doesn't get enough sleep.

Groaning, Mutasm got up, his body felt really sore from all the climbing he had done to get to the cave every day. He would have loved to get a day break from all this struggling to survive. But, he had things he needed to do, even more so considering he had adopted a baby. With shuffling steps, he walked towards the fire he had built to keep warm from the cold that started to come. He needed to make food for both of them. “I wonder if she would eat mashed potatoes?” Thought Mutasm as he gathered a few potatoes from his large stash. Washing them with the hot water, he had purified them through boiling. He took his time making the food. It would be pretty bland, but nutritious nevertheless.

It took great efforts, but eventually, he had her on his lap ready to eat. He had to fight against her wiggling body for quite a while before she had given up escaping, her protruding lip made it obvious where she would rather be - playing around in her blankets. Reaching around her, Mutasm took a small scoop of hot mashed potatoes, bringing it closer to himself, he blew on it. It would not be right to scold the little girl. Bringing it to her mouth, she started to wiggle about even more. Adamant that she eats, Mutasm would not let her go. She needed to stay healthy. Her pouting lips and small tongue sticking out were a strong defense, but with persistence, he eventually won. Having fed her the entire bowl, he had to check on the snares he kept replacing; hoping that something would eventually fall prey to them.

But, first, he had to make a fence to put her in. The safest place for her would be in the cave, where no one could enter except him. Putting the little girl down, she finally started giggling - triumphing over her captor. Smiling as warmth spread inside of him, he walked to the ropes and larger rocks he had. Tying the rocks with multiple knots then connecting the ropes with another rock on the other end. He made a few that he stacked up on top of each other forming a fence like structure. It might not have been the most efficient fence, but it was enough for the little girl who had yet to learn to crawl. With a large smile, he grabbed the blankets and the little girl who was rolling on them and placed them into the fence; all the while she was nibbling on his arm with non-existent teeth. “Be a good girl and don’t leave this area, understand?” he said teasingly, only to see her large blue and gold eyes - taking most of her face - answering in silence. Intelligence, he must have imagined, seemed to shine brightly as they responded to his demand.

Brows knitted and an awkward smile on his face, he watched as she started to roll around again. For a while he watched, and she never once went near the fence limits. Scratching his head, he turned away towards the illusion. With a heavy sigh, he began walking to the outside. He hated exposing himself to the dangers of the world out there, but the snares and wild vegetables were not going to be brought to him on a silver platter. No, he would need to check for them himself. Grabbing a few ropes, he quietly snuck into the cold weather and under the rays of the sun. Standing at the edge of the ledge, he threw down the ropes. With ease, he climbed down the handholds without issue, it had become second nature to him after so long. His feet were still without cover, the soles landing on the cold and wet ground had him shivering. “It's getting cold. I need to stock up a lot of food, or we will die,” said Mutasm, recognizing the likelihood he would survive hunting in the freezing temperatures. Then again, with only a flimsy - torn up - pajama for cover and a knife in his hand, he would probably die of frostbite before anything killed him if he left the warmth of the cave. Shrugging the rope he had taken with him onto his shoulder, he started to walk into the forest.

Following his routine, he began to head towards the snares he had set up. It was quicker just to reset them, then search for wild vegetables. All the traps would usually be broken to smithereens or left untouched - the animals to smart. The first few were like always; their rhythm never broken. The first and second were always utterly destroyed, the trees around them smashed to tiny bits. These two were still anxiety-inducing. He could never come near them without feeling tremendous butterflies in his stomach, or his mind trying to rationalize a million different reasons to not check on them. Something pretty big and dumb keeps getting stuck in the snares. Or it could have been a whole lot of big and dumb animals. With a sigh of relief, he picked up the remains of the ropes - the usable ones - and moved the snares a bit further out to an area that had not been decimated by the flailing of the animals.

The next three were usually left untouched every night. The animals around this area must be too smart to get caught or learned after the first time. Finally checking on them, he sighed at how useless they felt. But the next few were the ones he had the most hope in. They always caught an animal, but they would escape by cutting the snares. It would not have been surprising to find a few rabbits out there with ropes tied tightly to their legs running about. Pushing through the bushes, he felt the usual small shock. Yet, it was much more reserved. It didn't hurt him as much as before, nor did he feel zapped. It was like he was getting used to the feeling, which is something he couldn't understand. How would he get used to electricity running through him? It was also the same with the goosebump vegetables; every meal he had of them, the fewer shivers he would get until recently, he barely felt anything at all from them.

Continuing on to the sixth snare he had set up, he froze with a leg about to land. His entire body not moving an inch. Listening carefully, he heard the rustling of branches and the struggle of an animal in distress. From the sounds it was making, it was alone and most importantly caught in his snare! Smiling a wicked smile, Mutasm barely held himself from rushing in like a madman. Slowly, he put down the ropes and carefully walked towards his prey, his right hand - holding the whittling knife - shaking from anticipation. He noticed how much the little girl hated the mashed potatoes, she probably had been fed meat and detested her vegetables; like all children would rather be inclined to do. Mutasm felt this moment to be a defining one; he would finally be able to catch a source of meat. Salivating at the image of roasted squirrels and rabbits, he gulped audibly as he finally broke past the bushes.

Coming out, he saw the- “Damn, you are one massive rabbit!” exclaimed Mutasm. This was the mother of all giant rabbits. With one foot raised into the air by the snare he had placed, it was somehow still touching the ground with its front two paws comfortably and its right back paw extending enough to barely touch the ground as well. It also had a massive amount of tendrils coming out of its back sway around. Colored completely in gold and with a massive unicorn horn, it stood at least four feet into the air. “You're supposed to be hanging! An easy catch!” complained Mutasm as he circled the beast, no, the prey. And he was the predator.

Be the predator! Be the predator!

Mutasm repeated to himself, over and over again to motivate himself; a mantra he needed to believe in. Especially considering he will have a first-hand experience of how the tendrils work. The farther right he circled, the rabbit would reorient itself by hoping to look at him with horn bared ready to fight back and tendrils swaying menacingly. Holding his knife with white knuckles, he felt his hands become a bit clammy and his head heavy. But, the longer he continued to focus on this, the more those nervous feelings lessened and a new one - one he was quite unfamiliar with in this world - came. He felt his blood pumping a million miles per second, and his mind and eyes felt extremely clear. Adrenalin was blasting its way through his body in preparation of a fight he needed to win. It was unusual, Mutasm had played sports, but the effects were always much more reserved than this. As hard to believe as it was, but he felt great.

With a release of his breath, he rushed towards the golden rabbit that had clear and entirely black eyes. The rabbit noticed this and began to swing its horn in warning, but he was undeterred by this show of strength. The length of the horn doesn't matter if it can’t connect. As he rushed to the right, he quickly faked his movements in that direction and jumped to the left. Falling for the maneuver, the rabbit had thrust its horn in that direction, only to hit the air instead of the flesh it expected. Quickly it swung the horn towards Mutasm as he lept towards it, whittling knife barred to sink into the fluffy golden rabbit; cuteness be damned. With a grunt, Mutasm felt himself pass right through the ethereal tendrils and landed on top of the rabbit. But his grunt wasn't from the cold feeling he felt pass through him from them. No, it was because the horn had grazed the side of his waist as it sung around causing a cut. Gritting his teeth at the pain, he closed his eyes with effort as he kept stabbing the rabbit with the knife. No matter how fluffy the rabbit looked and felt, he needed to eat some meat.

Slowly, the struggling animal stopped moving and bellowing in pain as it died. The blood it had, spewing out of it from the plethora of wounds and stabs he had caused. Finally, after what felt like ages to Mutasm, it stopped moving entirely. Pushing himself off of it, he laid on his back, with a hand on his wound and the other placed on his forehead. The tendrils were ethereal in nature and did not react in any way when the rabbit had attacked him - for that he was eternally grateful. He had imagined being picked up by the massive tentacle-like extremities then tossed around like a rag doll.

Breathing out a tired sigh, he felt the adrenaline leave his system. The adrenaline boost had felt like a drug, and it was terrific, but now he was feeling the withdrawal effects. His entire body hurt - head throbbing, arms and legs shaking in exertion. The cut was a dull thrum of pain in the background highlighting all the others with a burning sensation. Thankfully, while it did hurt, it was not life-threatening and a shallow cut. He needed to wash it and keep it clean, but that wasn't really a difficult task. The difficult task was getting a clean piece of cloth to cover it.

With a sudden startle, he heard a massive rumbling near him. Getting up to a sitting position, his head swiveled like crazy trying to find the source of the noise. Until finally it fell on a massive leopard that was colored in gray and spotted with purple and green dots. The leopard snarled and bared its teeth at him. It was a sight that caused Mutasm great fright, even more so since fog seemed too continually come out of its feet; obscuring most of its lower body. Like the rabbit, it also had the ethereal tendrils that were massive in size. With a sudden moment of Eureka, it made sense that the leopard was here. All the ropes were cut with proficiency, not torn away by a fleeing animal. It must have been taking advantage of the snares to get an easy meal. And now, he would be its easy meal.

Unable to move from shock and the sudden lack of energy after the battle, all he could do was watch the leopard’s chest rumble as it growled. Steadily he watched it bare its fangs, demanding he stay away from its meal. Its ethereal tendrils seemed to reach for the dead rabbit, trying to pull it apart. Mutasm watched as it stopped and faced him completely, lowering itself, it tightened its muscles and prepared to leap towards him for the kill. All the while, he could not do anything about it. He felt his arms were too heavy to move and his legs seemed to be unresponsive. Unaccustomed to being so close to a predator, he froze in his spot - fear taking hold of him.

Just as it was about to jump, a pulse of green light from above Mutasm’s head gave it pause. Mutasm had completely forgotten about the green wisp of light that seemed to hover just above his head everywhere he went. He tried to look up at it, but it stayed perfectly above the flat of his head, making it impossible to look at. Roaring in anger, the leopard started taking steps back. Confused, Mutasm was finally able to gather himself; he turned around and pushed his limp body up to run. Hearing another roar, a blast of intense green light covered the entire area, blinding both Mutasm and the leopard. Bumbling through the forest with one arm covering his wound and the other covering his eyes, he tried to get as far away from it as possible, only to crash into a solid wall. Disoriented, he fell back with a groan of pain and eyes still adjusting to the sudden shift of light.

As the glare went away, he found himself in front of his cave - right at the handholds. Jaw slowly dropping, he stared in awe and surprise. “How did I end up here? What happened? Wasn't I being chased by the leopard?” said Mutasm with a voice filled with confusion. Had he been teleported? If so, how, why, and who did it? Laying on his back, he moved his sight towards the clear sky. He needed time to understand what just happened.

Sprawling about, he extended his legs and hands. Touching something wet and furry, he flinched and quickly got up into a kneeling position. Eyes wide, he saw the dead rabbit laying there next to him in its fully horned and golden glory. Yet, its dead form did not have the rotten tendrils he had seen before. This, once again, gave credence to his theory of it being invisible to everyone but him. Then again, he couldn't care less at the moment. Finally something, incredibly weird, but good happened to him.

Salivating at the thought of meat he grabbed the right foot of the rabbit. The second he did, he instantly regretted it. He felt an incredible shock run through him. “F-fu…” Unable to finish the exclamation he fell back onto the floor shaking from the extreme zap he had felt. Yet again he was proven that good things never come without baggage.