Nothing can save me.

Face down in the dirt, my broken body screams and I know it's bad - I know. because it doesn't hurt enough. The pain of something incredibly wrong, so wrong my brain doesn't understand it -

My mind runs in circles, gibbering, still trying to understand how I fell, still falling.

The attack - a heavy paw crushes down on my back and slams me to the ground - the pull, the shaking, a horrible tear that mangles my leg, it ripples across my lean skin - vibrating my body. A chunk of my leg gone.

This is what it feels like to be helpless.

-4 HP. You are Bleeding. -1 HP every five seconds.

My Armor is no protection. It has me, chewed through like jerky, more nourishment to its appetite. I hear a terrible tongue greedily licking, tasting me - I don't feel it because that piece of me is already gone.

This is what it feels like to be exposed.

I am helpless - as it lays on top of me to hold me still - not to stop me from escaping or to guard against a blow, but for leverage.

So it can tear off a bigger bite.

-7 HP. You are Bleeding. Bleeding damage now -2 HP every five seconds.

Roar!

Nothing can save me.

Not with the teeth closing around me - pulling, shaking it's head again I feel my hips, my legs banging together, slung wildly, the only thing stopping me from being slapped against trees, my neck snapping from the momentum is the predator that lays on top of me, rests on top of me, chews through me.

-9 HP. Bleeding damage increased to -3 HP every four seconds.

From the glimpse of orange and white I caught in this land of greens and browns, I know what has me - and the roar, how so easily it ripped away my arrogance, my confidence, all my strength and ambitions as I moved through the trees thinking I was a hunter - I know!

This is a hunter.

I'm a mouse - squeaking, trembling.

I'm food.

I reached for anything - struggling to survive another second as what hadn't been torn away was leaking out, my broken body twisting in resistance that wasn't - just presenting a new part to be bitten, ripped at - my bones broken as easily as any dreams I'd hoarded.

Any hopes I'd held.

I bought a point of vitality. A bought a potion. All my money couldn't buy a way out, only extra seconds.

The hands of my mind trembled as they fumbled for the cork of a small red vial popping it, I poured the liquid out from my inventory - directly into my mouth to take it down and I felt it fizz right through my body without even swallowing - healing.

+20 HP! Bleeding Healed

Bringing ripped parts back together, only to fill it's mouth take another bite, already tight around my leg, I felt the weight transfer - and flex, as the paw pushed into my thigh, and the neck twisted.

My shin ripped away at the knee, stars spinning past my eyes as the pain caught up to me and I felt my foot arch in resistance, still arching, still screaming - even though nothing was there.

As easily as as plucking out a loose tooth. A splinter, My leg was gone.

-17 HP. You are Bleeding. -1 HP every five seconds.

Roar!

Nothing can save me.

No new lesson came to me - no fatherly advice, or inspiration. Just the same life I'd been living, what it had always been coming to -

This is what it feels like to be alone.

Never big enough. Never fast enough. Never strong enough.

Just me and my pain. Crushed. Being eaten alive one bite at a time as I do anything to escape, It wasn't that it didn't know I lived - didn't know I felt pain - it didn't care. It didn't see me as a threat, it saw me as a steak - an easy meal with no way to fight back, with nothing left but to close my eyes to the pain - wait for death - and...

Pray. Because that is all I can do when I am weak.

Prey. Because that is all I can be when I am weak.

It was always the same -

Nothing can save me.

Another Roar!

I have to save myself -

My ROAR!

I grab my backpack strap and it vanishes into nothing, and I push up! The pain stick revealed between us. I pushed up! With everything, every insult - every indignity, every scratch and sadness and shame, every lonely moment saved and stored.

This time I reached for the pain, I grasped it -

And I shared it!

The jungle cat sprung off my back, screeching - sending my crippled body spinning away, vomit splattering, as the pain crushed over me in waves -

I drug myself until I could crawl - until I could climb into the trees for safety, night was creeping up - I'd started heading back while my leg was still a stump, trying to make it to my hut before the night could fall over me.

I stumbled along the branches searching for my shelter - even as most of my mind still focused on the tiger that occupied it.

I'm not sure if I could have even found my refuge without the occasional shriek of a monkey - I was dizzy, weak - my mana and stamina, they were all at a third...I was vulnerable.

But the pursuit - I looked behind me, listening, straining for any sound. Nothing yet.

The monkeys were subdued as I stumbled into view, alert, they'd heard the roars - I hadn't been that far away, they knew what it meant.

What was out there.

Now I did too.

But as they watched me limp, my body physically whole, but still torn, still injured - I struggled to climb, pulling myself over the branches tenderly.

The monkeys silence became heavier - more intent..

I didn't jump, or even hop. I climbed the tree like a slug, pulling myself up the trunk, the tattered strips of my ruined Armor dangling around me - catching on the branches. Snagging on the bark.

They begin to whisper, a slow susurrous of satisfaction.

I finally made it - my home. I struggle with the door, I barely have enough mana to push apart the welds I'd used to lock it into place -

They whoop - bouncing, leaves and branches start shaking, slapping together, louder, more insistent.

I slam the door behind me, drop the bar in place and take a deep breath - as I slide down the wall, as the Queen looks over - staring at me.

Like I'm the interloper. In her house. Like I didn't build this place? Like I'm not the King?

I heard the monkeys outside, making a ruckus. Popping their lips - slapping at each other, hooting.

I ignored all of them - all I could feel was relief. I'd made it back, alive. Finally I could relax and just - unpack the tiger.

I looked down at my hands, still trembling. It felt like my ears were still ringing from those roars -

I couldn't quite believe that I was alive, that I had escaped - that it even had been real.

I can see it - so much blood. My brutal butchery. The thick fur, now it ripples with every motion. How the stripes look sharp enough to cut - I got the chills thinking about it there, resting on my back - against my neck.

It's wide mouth, filled with fierce teeth - longer than my fingers. Saber-toothed.

It was so much bigger, so much stronger than anything back home. Massive, those front paws, how easily they tore into my skin, they were weapons - heavy mauls that would cut, tear -

The Monkey's were close, inching closer. Right outside. In this tree. Screeching. Howling.

I laid back and sucked the remnants of my armor in - no way to repair it. I could see the bite marks - the gaps left there, how the mouth had fit over my whole leg - ripped it clean off.

How easily I could fit my whole head in its mouth.

They dove - scampering over and around my rest, testing it. I heard them gathering. All their voices. Fifty? A hundred? The whole tree, my house was rocking with their excitement -

Surrounded -

They had seen my weakness - now they were attacking.

I crouched in my cocoon - and in a way I felt like a worm. That I had come here worthless. From the bottom - squirming and filthy, lower than dirt.

I wanted to change, I wanted to be better.

I was embarrassed, unworthy of my name -

I'm my father's son. I'm Cody Abbot.

I felt small - they called me the 'little guy.'

They saw me as soft, now I'm hard.

They called me weak, a 'pussy.'

Doesn't everybody love pussy?

I kicked open my door - and emerged. The pelt of the tiger I'd just finished skinning wrapped over my shoulders - I wore it's hollowed head as my crown.

King of the Jungle -

I only had to shake the bottle three times for the Queen to congratulate me, to play a coronation melody.

And apparently - Monkeys don't like pussy.

Oh, I wish I had a camera. Their faces!

Two mauls appeared, one in each hand - hard bone, heavy, fresh - sharp claws, and teeth. Still glistening. Still hungry.

I finally felt like a man.

Protecting my home.

And it was time to go to work.