He was alive.

That was a problem. He had cheated by killing himself. Fate had cheated by saving him.

“I was so close to being free.” His thoughts swirled around in his mind, getting worse as they went. Then the wind shimmied past him, and it reminded him of his surroundings. To be specific, a dark, cold forest. Very cold, so cold that the wind chilled him to the bone as it slipped past.

He picked himself out of the mud that had ensnared him, wiping the grime from his face. With his nostrils cleared of the mud, a new scent assaulted them. It almost reminded him of fruit, yet it wasn’t. It was too sweet. Sweeter than pure sugar. Yet not sickly sweet like rotting fruit. It was… more, it could not be summed up so easily.

The area around him consisted of trees, mud, and bushes. The trees towered over the man, so tall that the tops were lost in the twilight mist of the sky. If not for the bark that clung to them, he might have mistaken them for pillars holding up the sky.

The man brushed himself off as he stood, but the mud clung to him rather stubbornly. His boots squelched in the mud as he carried himself out of it. It only took him a few paces before he hit hard ground. Looking back at it, he suddenly understood why it was there.

“This must have been a small pond that dried up…”

Nodding as if a small mystery in the world had been understood, he continued trekking into the forest. The scenery did not change much, and the only sounds came from the wind. For someone that enjoyed the quiet, it was peaceful. All it needed was some sun, and he’d never leave. Alas, the sun did not come out to greet him, but something did. It let out a growl that disturbed the quiet of the forest, and announced its presence.

It was big.

Taller than the man even on four legs, the hulking creature slowly moved through the forest. Its eyes were large and grayed, and it somewhat resembled a bear, though with no fur. Unlike a bear though, this creature had a long tail, and regularly swept it across the ground as it walked.

The man almost felt sorry for the creature, it was obvious it was blind, and getting on in age. His pity distracted him from two simple facts. The first, that there were no creatures like this on earth, and the second, that it was obviously a carnivore. Its teeth were almost as long as its claws, and more jagged. Perfect for tearing flesh.

He was reminded of the second fact by the creature itself. It had picked up his scent, and wanted to tell him so. It let out a roar that dwarfed the first, and charged. The helpless and pitiful creature from before was now barreling down on him, intent on crushing him and snacking on his bones.

“Fuck!”

The man had just enough time to dive to the side as the creature swept past, right into one of the many trees. The sound of splintering wood echoed through the woods, though the man did not stop to admire the beasts power. He was already up and running for dear life.

It recovered surprisingly quickly, and the chase was on. Fortunately for the man, the trees prevented the creature from catching up too quickly. Unfortunately, they also got in his way as he had to look out for roots, not an easy thing to do while terrified and panicking.

He stumbled on a tree root, falling past a tree as he did. The sound of cracking wood reverberated behind him. That had been too close. The beast claws had stuck into the wood, giving him the time to get back up and running. It roared as it heard him getting away, and tore its claw out of the tree.

The trunk cracked.

The chase did not last long, as the man had barely made it one hundred yards before the trees gave way to a small clearing. Beyond the clearing though, stood the reason the chase had to end. A rock face that climbed as far as the trees that stood before him.

The rock face had plenty of moss growing on it, and it looked quite beautiful. The man had little time to admire that though, as the creature had caught up and didn’t seem keen on stopping.

A dumb idea fought through the haze of panic.

“If he slams into this wall, it might kill him! Please, please work…” the man quickly hatched a plan as he placed his back to the wall. It had already proven once that the creatures could not turn well, and its blindness prevented it from attacking well with its claws. Its only chance was to charge, and the man’s only chance was to dodge.

It paused long enough to roar, daring the man to dodge as it charged.

And dodge he did, though the creature seemed to have learned from its last mistake. A claw came flashing out as he fell to the side, catching his shoulder. Three long claws raked his shoulder and back as the creature’s momentum carried it on.

Into the waiting rock face.

With a sickening sound, the creature head-butted the wall. Both broke. The creature was powerful enough to cause the rock to crack and fall, as it also fell to the ground. Its neck had broken from the collision, and it moved no more.

The man would have let out a sigh of relief, if it wasn’t for the blood pouring out of his open wounds. They weren’t deep, but they were long. Traveling from his shoulder blade over his shoulder, they leaked like a sieve.

‘Crunch’

The sound of footsteps distracted him from his pain. At the edge of the clearing, there had to be at least twenty kin of the creature that lay dead at his side. Their eyes bore hatred that told him all he needed to know. They wanted revenge.

“Well I made it this far… I guess there are worse ways to die...? I didnt want to live anyway...”

Something broke him of his suicidal thoughts.

The part of the rock face that the creature had rammed had split, and while pieces of it had fallen to the ground, there was a deep blackness that hinted at more than just rock. The blind creature had opened a hole that led deeper into the rock face.

“Fuck it, If im going to die, I want it to be quick!”

His foot sunk into the dirt as he threw himself at the hole. The blind monstrosity became his savior, because he used it as a step stool to make it into the hole. The jagged rocks bit into his hands, but the hatred in those ferocious roars helped him ignore the pain.

The rock face shook as several of the beasts smacked against it, teeth flashing as they barely missed his legs. Several of the creatures attacked the rock face, but it held, and he was safely inside.

His shoulder leaked onto the rock underneath him making it slippery. The hole in the rock face led to a tunnel, pitch black and jagged in many places. The number of cuts on his arms and legs increased by quite a bit before he pulled himself through and into a larger, smoother tunnel.

“Motherfucker, where the hell am I?”

He had finally reached a place where something wasn’t trying to eat him, yet, and took the time to reflect.

“Why arent I dead? and what the fuck were those things? is this some kind of sick joke?

The pain from his wounds came back in full force, distracting him from his external monologue, and the man was forced to tear the remains of his shirt up into bandages. The shirt was dirty, but it’d have to do for now.

It didn’t take long for the bandages to be soaked with blood as he carried himself further through the tunnel.

The tunnel was dark. Not dark like outside in the forest, but pitch black. The only way the man knew he was in a tunnel was by holding onto the wall and following it. He must have walked for a whole minute before he realized something.

“I have a freaking lighter in my pocket!”

It had been stabbing him as he walked, but he assumed it to be another cut. He whipped it out and the struck the lighter once.

It sparked, but did not light.

“come on, damn it…”

The man continued striking it, and it finally lit on the fourth try.

“Thank goodness.”

He was greeted by the sight of, well, a tunnel. The lighter waved towards him, telling him that there was airflow in the tunnel. This time he was sure of where he was going at least. It took him rather deep into the rock face, before spilling out into a large cavern. The ceiling was so high that the valiant flame of the lighter did not illuminate it.

He moved further into the cavern and came upon something he never expected to see. Books, and furniture. Someone had been living here, once upon a time.

“Books, beautiful books! Those covers are so well done; they must have cost a fortune. I wonder who these belong too? Why are they inside the rock face?”

The former question was answered too quickly as he came across a pile of bones. A skull of a creature as large as the one outside and some supporting bones were draped atop the bones and skull of something that appeared humanoid. The bones were thinner than he thought humans should be though, so he hesitated to assume they were human. The bones were resting against a destroyed bookshelf, where many of the books had fallen onto the ground.

“I wonder how long these have been here…”

The man stooped and picked up one of the books. Its cover felt smooth and expensive in his hand. It had plenty of weight, enough that he was surprised by it. The front of the book had plenty of markings, but did not recognize the language. It certainly wasn’t English. He flicked through it a little, but the flame on his lighter was getting rather small, so he set it back down, and continued exploring.

He came across a total of ten bookshelves, including the broken one. They were arranged in a circle, almost creating a room within the cavern. Past the bookshelves sat the remains of a primitive bed. The bed had simply been what appeared to be leather strung from one side to the other, creating something similar to a hammock. The supports had long since dry rotted though, and the bed had fallen into disrepair.

Next to the bed sat a barrel and a desk. The barrel was full of something he desperately needed, candles. The barrel was so full that some had fallen out of it, while others were set carefully on top of the barrel, stacked up taller than the desk.

He wasted no time grabbing one of them, which unfortunately caused the pile to fall. He lit the candle with the last dregs of the lighter.

There was a pitiful amount of fluid left in it. “Oh well, I have no cigarettes to smoke anyway…”

Some of the candles fell onto the desk, and one fell on something that made a rather metallic sound. A knife lay on the table, a candle leaning against it. Just barely too short to be called a dagger, the knife had a beautiful bone handle that fit in his hand rather well.

“I was needing something like this, thanks mister!”

The man spoke out loud to the bones that lay not far away. The knife was most likely the humanoid’s, and had it been carrying the knife when it fought the beast, the bones might not have been laying here to be found.

The candle gave off much more light than the lighter, giving him a view of the cavern ceiling. Stalactites hung resolutely from the ceiling, which had to be at least fifty feet up. He could also make out where the cavern ended. It was long, but not very wide, with the majority of the furniture piled up in the back. He continued walking around the cavern, eventually coming back to the bookshelves, and the skeletons.

Something caught his eye, his candle light reflecting off of it. If not, he would not have even noticed it. The shine came from the humanoids skeleton, specifically the right hand. A silver ring perched precariously on the middle finger bone. He touched the skeleton and the hand fell apart, the ring falling to the floor with it. He snatched it from the pile of bones and held it close to the candle.

It was a rather simple ring. It appeared to be a standard silver ring, except for the etchings that encircled the entire band. He could not find an ending, the lines continued to swirl no matter how long he followed the lines.

He grinned, and wiped the blood off the relic, before trying to slip it onto his middle finger. It was far too small, barely gettting to the second knuckle. it slid nicely onto his ring finger though, if just a tad snug.

“As thanks for the ring, I guess I’ll clean up your library a little. I’ll probably be living here for a while anyway, once I can get some food. This shoulder of my mine is going to take a while to heal…”

That’s when the sound of running water tickled his ears. On the other side from he had entered a small stream could be seen. He made his way over to it, only to be pleasantly surprised. The water was crystal clear, and while he would undoubtedly boil if he could, he didn’t think he’d have much to worry about.

The stream was no more than foot wide and less than a foot deep, with eroded stone at its bottom, but the water moved steadily. He could do his business downstream, and it would carry it away without having to worry about contaminating the water, hopefully. A recess at the end of the stream led its way into the rock, flowing to parts unknown.

“I guess that takes care of my water situation for now, now I need some food.”

The pain in his shoulder reminded him of a big pile of meat sitting outside his doorstep.

“hmm, I could probably eat it, I mean, it didn’t look diseased or anything, just old. I’m definitely going to need to cook the meat though.” He voiced his thoughts out loud as he planned to combat the sheer silence that consumed the cavern.

“I don’t think I need to worry about lighting a fire in here, because I can feel airflow. As long as it doesn’t get too big, I should be able to cook it in here, right next to the stream, just in case.”

In order to put his plan into motion, the man lit several of the candles and spread them through the cavern, creating a well-lit room. Then he made his way over to the large creature. He picked out one of the straight bones in the pile, what appeared to be part of a leg bone, and yanked it from the pile. Using the knife, he broke one end of the bone into a sharp point. Not exactly a weapon, but better than nothing, and nearly twice the length of his knife.

While observing the bones, he noticed that the ruined clothes of the humanoid were in good enough condition to be used as bandages, or hand wrappings. Well, anything would be welcome at this point. Bones rattled to the floor as he secured the fabric, and put it to good use by wrapping his hands in it. It would help him navigate the jagged tunnel without injury.

Though it didn’t help much, just covering the wounds he already had. Several cuts later, and he poked his head out of the hole.

The other creatures did not appear to be cannibals, as they had not touched the corpse of the blind one. That was good news for him. Still, he would need to preserve the food somehow if he wanted to really make use of the large creature.

It would probably be fine for a day, if the chill in the air was anything to judge by.

“I wonder how long it’s been since I last gutted an animal. Though that was a deer. Not sure that this thing counts as an animal. Monster sounds like a better definition.”

It didn’t take long for him to run into a problem trying to process the animal. The skin of the creature was excessively tough. His knife refused to pierce the hide.

"How the hell am i supposed to butcher something i cant cut? Damn dull knife!"

He gave the knife a once over, noticing that the spine of the knife was thicker than the rest.

"I Guess it was made for chopping more than slicing. Hmm..."

He rested the blade of the knife against the ankle of the beast, and used his bone weapon as a hammer.

'Clunk'

It took several heavy swings, but the blade eventually bit into the hide.

"Success!"

He had to start at the foot, and gently cut through the fur. Then slice the fur up past the haunch, and yank it and the sinew off the muscles. Easier said than done. Certain parts he didn’t bother with, like the groin, and armpits, he just cut around that part. The skin was not difficult to work from the inside at all.

It took a while, probably more than half an hour, but he had removed most of the fur from the side facing up. Other portions like the legs he could move and get to more of it, but the stomach was not something he would be alble to retrieve. He wouldnt be able to tip the beast over even if his shoulder didnt feel like he stuck it in a blender.

The hide was surprisingly supple, If he could somehow treat it, it would make good protection from climate and creature alike. Sadly, what he knew about leather tanning was pitiful, and it involved stretching it with a rack and scraping the skin. he wasnt even sure if that was applicable, considering it was hairless.

He set that aside and focused on the meat. Luckily the creature’s muscles were large, but not too dense, and the knife pierced through it easily enough. He laid the meat on the interior of the skin so it wouldn’t get dirty as he worked.

If the skinning took half an hour, this part easily took an hour. When he had removed all the meat he cared too, he wrapped the meat as best he could and set it inside of the tunnel. It was tall enough he wouldn’t half to worry about most creatures getting to it.

That, and the rock face was dangerously slippery. nothing would be trying to climb the rock face for food. The only reason he could enter the hole was because he had a step stool of a carcass at his feet. With the last of the creature tucked safely in the hole, he squeezed by the pile, taking a good portion with him.

This time he didn’t fall to the floor as he reached the end of makeshift tunnel. His hands also fared much better. He carried the meat in both hands as he made his way to the stream. He set the meat next to the ice cold water, sitting next to it to rest. He was cold, and his wounds ached, especially his hands. Butchering a carcass with bloody hands was not a simple matter.

He unwrapped his hands, rinsing the blood off both his hand wrapping and his hands. The stream sent shivers of ice to his core, but it helped.

"Sigh... Lets see, now i need some fire wood to cook the meat. Cooked meat will last a lot longer than raw meat. Maybe a few books? No! oh, the broken bookshelf will work..."

The wood did not seem to be in that poor of condition, so he could use it for firewood. The bed frame too, though he wanted to use that wood as an example of how to make a bed. The bedframe would be his reserve wood in case he could not cook all the meat with the bookshelf.

He shifted the books out of the way, stomping on any pieces of wood that he deemed too large. The bookshelf would be taller than himself if it werent broken, so he didn’t have to worry about a lack of firewood for at least the night.

Once he had broken the wood into smaller pieces, he used one of the many lit candles to get the kindling going. Even though the wood could be considered aged, dried, and perfect for burning it took longer than he’d like, but eventually he had a small fire going that he continued to feed wood too.

He made use of the rib-cage of the monstrosity as a cooking rack. It held together well, and kept the meat from getting ash on it. He watched the meat for a little while, but quickly became bored. The strange books behind him called out to him, and he went to explore.

He would pick them up one at a time, inspecting the cover and the words inside, careful to not bleed on them. These books seemed to be rather valuable, and he would not want to diminish there value.

He recognized none of it.

He was familiar with several languages, yet none of the marks and characters looked remotely familiar. It hinted at something he was hoping wasn’t true. That was, until he came across a small book, hidden behind the neatly stacked books. It almost looked like the humanoid had been protecting it.

It was in English. Well most of it was, most of the early pages of the book were in English, while the later portions were a mix of the unfamiliar language and English. The humanoid had been attempting to translate the book, and had gotten rather far. Judging by the notes. The only letters he did not see matched with another marking were the letters Z, Q, and W.

“I don’t really blame you on having trouble with those letters. They tend to get people confused.”

He realized what the book was. It was an awful romance novel. What the humanoid had been attempting to translate, and almost succeeded in had been the worst of English literature. It also appeared that the humanoid had died trying to protect it.

It was awful… Awfully funny.

Still, he would use the book to help him translate the humanoids language. He wanted to unlock the secrets of this library. He brought the book over to the fire, and began reading it as he cooked the meat.

Every few minutes he would eat a little of the cooked meat, which had quickly become a pile of its own. It was bland, and tough to chew. But he didn’t feel any negative effects, aside from his jaw becoming tired.

Like this, eleven days passed.