Little Blue

Whoever said dogs were a man’s best friend? My vote’s on monkeys.

. . . . .

He awoke to throbbing pain in his back. The chirping of crickets filled his ears, an ode to the night. “Guess I’m alive?” he thought. That was good. It was always preferable to be alive than dead. He shifted his arms and cringed, gasping with pain. “And I guess those spikes are still in me.” He pressed his forehead against the grass as he slowed his breathing.

Clenching his eyes and gritting his teeth, he slowly reached back, his hands searching. He cried out as they found purchase on the spike that was precariously close to a kidney. Trembling, they closed around it and pulled. Tears welled in his eyes and dripped off his nose, landing on a blade of grass. He took a deep breath, braced himself, and pulled it all the way out. His scream echoed in the night.

The spike tumbled to the ground as his hands fell limp to his sides. He lay there, waiting for the pain to fade. Warm blood welled up from the newly unobstructed wound. There was still one more to deal with.

Minutes passed, in which he worked up his courage for the second go. He reached, hesitant of the coming pain but resolute in his task. However, due to its position in his shoulder, he couldn’t quite grasp it. It was too awkward.

“God. Fucking…” He sighed and pushed himself up, snarling viciously, as if to frighten the pain away. It didn’t work. Now upright, he leaned his side against the tree, careful not to bump his painful new ‘accessory’.

“O-ho-ho fuck, I want to go home.” He rested his eyes for a bit, doing his best not to move. When he was still like this, the pain was almost bearable. Still, he couldn’t remain like that forever. Particularly not when something dropped from the tree and landed in front of him.

Thump.

Graham flinched, sending pangs through him. The moon gave enough light to see, revealing a small blue monkey. Graham blinked. “Well, that’s unexpected. I hope this monkey doesn’t want to kill me.”

It was about the size of a puppy with big watery eyes. The fur on its chest and arms was a darker blue than the rest of it. Graham lifted his hands, proving they were empty. “I don’t wanna hurt you, little guy.” He gulped. “So, please don’t hurt me, alright?”

The monkey picked up the spike he’d pulled out, sniffing the blood on the tip. It tossed the spike away and circled Graham, looking at the other spike in his shoulder. Graham pursed his lips, shifting to the side to keep the monkey away from the spike. “That’s not a toy, so don’t go touching it, alright?”

The monkey tilted its head, making gibbering sounds. It jumped forth, landing on Graham’s shoulder. “Hey, quit it!” Graham shouted. It ignored him, grabbing the spike and wrenching it out. Graham cried out again as the spike scraped against torn muscle and skin. He collapsed into a heap, whimpering.

The monkey turned the bloody spike over in its hands, then tossed it with the other one. With a leap, it ascended the tree. Graham reached over to his shoulder, covering the wound with a hand. He took it away and stared at the blood adhering to it, almost black in the darkness. He sighed. “At least it’s out. It could’ve been a little gentler, though.”

The monkey dropped back down, scrambling over to Graham. It held two fruits and handed one to him; rather, shoved it in his face. Graham propped himself up and took the fruit. Without pause, he bit into it, juices dripping down his chin. “Oh God, that’s good.” It was sweet and refreshing and it spread a gentle coolness through his body that dulled the pain. He finished it off in a few bites and licked his lips.

The monkey hopped up and down, chirping incessantly and proffering the second fruit. “That’s for me, too?” Graham asked, smiling. “You’re not so bad, little guy. I’ll call you Little Blue. How’s that?”

Little Blue shoved the fruit into Graham’s hands, then gestured with his hands next to his mouth, chomping his teeth together.

Graham laughed. “Alright, I’ll eat.” He polished it off in seconds. Little Blue clapped his hands and grabbed Graham’s collar. “Wha—?” He dragged Graham to the tree’s trunk and began climbing up with him! Little Blue easily leapt from branch to branch, Graham swinging behind him.

“Holy shit!” Graham shouted. He grunted as he smacked into a branch, then again, and again. Finally, Little Blue stopped, pulling Graham into a nook where three branches split. Graham grabbed onto one of the branches and spit out a leaf. He stared at Little Blue with wide eyes. “How fucking strong are you?”

The monkey scampered off and came back with more of the fruit. Seeing no reason to turn it down, Graham ate it. But this time, he didn’t feel a cool feeling. This time it was hot. His face was burning up and his wounds became itchy. The world became hazy and his eyelids heavy. He slept...

Sunlight peeked through the trees, landing on Graham’s closed eyelids. Graham covered his face with an arm as his eyes fluttered open. He let his eyes adjust to the light, looked around, then tensed up, grabbing the branch he was leaning against, tight. “I’m in a tree?” he thought. It was surprisingly high. The ground was obscured by the leaves and branches below. Not far away from him, Little Blue was draped over a small branch, snoring away.

Graham looked down again. “That little guy carried me all the way up here? Shit.” He leaned back. “I need to get down.” Carefully, he traversed the maze of branches until he was on the ground. It was only after he’d descended that he noticed.

“That didn’t hurt at all!” He’d been impaled by spikes yesterday, but he didn’t feel any pain. Investigating with his hands revealed that there was certainly dried blood and holes in his clothes where he’d been injured but no actual wounds. The cut on his thigh had closed up as well and his foot no longer hurt. “What the hell is going on?”

Little Blue dropped from the tree to his shoulder, offering a fruit. Now that it was daylight, Graham could actually make out its appearance; purple, shiny, and shaped like a pear. He took it, thanked the monkey, polished it on his shirt, and took a bite, enjoying the refreshing coolness. The flesh of the fruit was blue like the sky. Graham’s eyes widened. “That’s it.” He looked at Little Blue. “This fruit can heal wounds! That’s incredible!”

Little Blue looked at him curiously, then hopped on one of the low branches and began grooming himself. Graham shook his head. “I guess I shouldn’t expect so much from a monkey.” He took another bite and licked the juice off his lips. “But still, this’ll be incredibly useful! I should bring some with me.”

The fruits all grew pretty high up on the tree. He’d have to climb back up to get more. “Later,” he said, moving to the edge of the hill and looking out over the sea of trees, tinted orange by morning light. “Nice view. Oh! Right. That’s what I came up here for.”

He oriented himself to the rising sun. “The sun rises in the East, which means… left must be North, right South, and West to my back. Right?” He chewed his lip, rubbing a finger on the smooth skin of his half-eaten breakfast. He shrugged and took another bite. “Let’s see what’s around. Any landmarks?”

To what he assumed was the North, there were three things of note. A tall, black tower and, beyond that, some kind of bog or marsh. The bog had many pools of water with patches of land here and there and little grass paths between. The air shimmered, visible even from the distance.

Past the bog was a giant cliff. He spun and looked in the other directions. The cliff continued in a circle surrounding the forest and the bog. “Are we in some kind of… bowl?” With huge cliffs on all sides, there wasn’t any easy way out. “I guess they chose this location to make it harder to escape…”

The only real exit was a small opening past the bog. A crack in the bowl, as it were. “Still, that’s probably three or four days’ walk from here.” Ah, well. At least he knew where he’d need to go to escape. Climbing the cliffs didn’t seem possible, considering their immense height. Not to mention, there were small dots flying around them. He couldn’t quite tell from the distance, but they looked like large bats. They roosted on the edges and dug into cracks in the rock, likely looking for food.

“What are the chances they knock off anyone who tries to climb?” he wondered. He went back to checking the surroundings. To the East, there was a waterfall pouring over the edge of the bowl with a rainbow formed in the mist at the base. West was more hilly and had a tall rocky mountain. It was slightly taller than the surrounding cliffs and snow gathered atop the peak.

The South didn’t have anything of note, as it was closest to the hill he was standing on. He could make out what appeared to be a clearing, possibly the place where he’d started, but it was hard to tell.

“Alright. So, resources. I think this tree might be one of them. I mean, fruits that can heal wounds? Definitely useful. Still, I can’t use that to kill the bear that attacked me. I need to find a scripture. I’ll need it to begin purification.”

The first stage of Seeking was to purify the body. When you eat, there are inevitably portions of the food that your body doesn’t need or can’t use. Usually, these ‘impurities’ are disposed of by the body, but it’s not perfect. It doesn’t get them all. The remaining impurities spread throughout the body, causing blockages and preventing Qi from flowing.

So, in order to remove them completely, you had to use an external force. A scripture was a manual of sorts. They contained methods to purify the body and allow the Qi to flow freely. The ability to utilize your Qi, your energy, is what separated mortals from Seekers.

“Let’s go to that tower,” he said. “That seems like the most likely place that they’d hide a scripture.” The tower was quite tall, towering over the surrounding trees, as a tower is wont to do. It was thicker at the base and tapered toward the top, roofed by an equally black cone. There were no windows to break up the stony facade.

“Yep. If this were a video game, there’d definitely be something of interest in there. I wonder if those two built it, or if it was there from the start?” He narrowed his eyes, then shrugged. Turning, he headed to the tree—intending to climb it and gather some fruit—when he noticed that there was already a small pile on the ground.

He grinned at Little Blue, who was hanging from a low branch by his tail. “You’re a real pal, y’know?” He gathered up the three fruits and shoved them in his pockets. Rubbing his chin, he thought, “I’ll need some kind of weapon, too. Something that can at least slow down that bear.” He looked down. “I’ll need to fix up my leaf-shoe, as well.”

He glanced over at the patch of grass covered in bone spikes. “Yeah, that’ll do.”

Armed with several spikes he’d tucked into the waist of his pants, a fixed leaf-shoe, some fruits, an empty canister of pepper spray, his keys, and his hole-y phone, he said his goodbyes to Little Blue. He scratched the little guy’s head. “It was good knowing you. You’ve been a better friend than most I’ve had.”

Little Blue blinked and patted Graham’s hand, then climbed up on his shoulder and began scratching Graham’s head. Graham chuckled and crouched, setting the monkey on the ground. “Well, I’ve got to go now. Wish me luck.”

Little Blue nodded; Graham quirked a brow. “Weird. Coincidence?” He shrugged and set off down the hill, heading for the Blackstone Tower. That’s what he’d decided to call it. Cool, right?

Now that he knew what to look for and where to look, he could see the tower through the openings in the canopy. He set forth at a brisk pace, trying to move quickly but also staying aware of his surroundings. He didn’t want that fucking bear to sneak up on him. God forbid.

He happened upon a pond and stopped to get a drink. It was then that he noticed something disturbing. “Pawprints. And they’re big, too.” They led to and away from the pond, sunk deep into the dirt—whatever left them was heavy.

Graham rubbed his forehead, sighing. “Just don’t let it be the bear. I don’t ever want to see that thing again.” He looked up, checking on the direction of the tower. It matched up with the footprints. “Fuck!” Birds scattered from trees and Graham slapped a hand over his mouth. “Stupid! I can’t just yell out like that! I’ll attract something.”

He took a moment to calm himself, then considered his options. “I have to get to the tower. It’s the only real landmark I can see from down here. I could take a detour, but that wouldn’t necessarily ensure that I don’t meet something scary.” He paced in front of the pond. “It’d probably be better to get to the tower as quick as possible.”

He looked at the prints. He wasn’t an expert by any means, but they looked a lot like bear prints. “Chances are, if I go straight, I’ll run into the bear again. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing? It doesn’t have its spikes anymore, I do. Plus, a known enemy is better than an unknown. I can kind of predict what it’ll do.” He nodded. “Yeah, I should be able to handle the bear. Let’s go straight.”

That decided, he drank some more from the pond and did a cursory search for something he could use as a canteen. He didn’t find anything. Shrugging, he set off again. Since he was heading the same way as the tracks, he couldn’t help but keep an eye on them. So, when they got deeper, as if the bear began running, his curiosity got the better of him. He went to check it out, despite the fact that it deviated somewhat from the path.

“I’ll just check it out real quick. If I hear anything that sounds even remotely like the bear, I’ll turn back.” Following the agitated prints, he came across the remains of an animal. It appeared to be the skeleton of a deer, though it had curly horns rather than antlers. It was stained with red, picked clean somewhat recently. Many branches in the area were snapped and the ground was tossed up. “I guess the bear caught it here? It must have struggled.”

He crouched down near the carcass and sniffed. “Ugh, smells awful. Can’t really tell how long it’s been here… Probably since last night.” The bear may have been forced to give up on him, but it would still be hungry. “Still, it’s good to know there are deer…-like things here. I’m not sure I could survive entirely on fruit. Not that I know how to hunt, or anything.”

He shrugged and stood, closing his eyes to listen. “I don’t hear the bear. Guess I’ll keep going?” A rustling sound came from his left and he leapt behind a tree. “Y’know, if that’s the bear, maybe I deserve to die? Why the fuck did I follow the tracks?” He palmed one of the spikes and held it in front of him. It didn’t have an edge but the point was sharp. He knew that first-hand.

He spotted where the bushes were rustling. A slender brown head with curly horns peeked out. “Another one of those deer?” It crept out slowly, approaching the carcass. Graham crouched, slinking into the brush behind him. “I don’t think I can trust its appearance. Little Blue was tiny, but he could lift me up a tree with one hand. This deer might be unexpectedly powerful.”

Slowly, he began to make his way through the brush back to his original path. A loud crunching sound nearly stopped his heart. He looked back and his jaw fell. “It’s eating the bones! What the fuck!?” Snap, crack, crunch, it bit off bones and chewed them to tiny pieces. Graham shivered and mentally pat himself on the back for not getting involved with that thing. He was extra careful to not step on any sticks that might alert it to his presence.

Hours passed and the tower grew larger in his sight. “Maybe another 10 or so hours and I’ll be there. But it’s getting dark. I should find somewhere to stay tonight.” Who knew what kind of things came out during the night, especially considering he’d met the fatass bear and the creepy deer in daytime.

Further ahead, he came across a ravine, preventing him from continuing. He stopped at the edge and kicked a rock down, watching it bounce against the steep side and fall into a dried up streambed. “Alright, maybe 10 hours was optimistic. I’ll have to find a way around. I don’t trust my ability to climb back out of there.”

Graham flinched as a shout broke the silence. It was followed by a familiar roar. “Oh, fuck,” Graham said. Down in the ravine, a man was being chased by the fucking bear! Graham sighed. “Thank God it’s down there.” He was just about to duck so the bear wouldn’t see him, when…

“Hey, you! A little help!?” the fleeing man shouted. Graham grimaced. “Fuck, why’d he have to see me?” The man and the bear were getting closer and it was apparent that the bear would soon outpace him. If Graham didn’t do something, the man would die. But if he did, there was a chance he’d die, too.

Graham frowned as he rubbed a finger on the rough surface of the spike he held. “Damn it. What to do?"