《Choices》8: The Eighth Choice
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You hesitate for a while, unsure what to eat. You go over your options, listing to yourself why you should or should not eat them, but you can't decide.
You keep staring at the food on the ground, almost as if you’re waiting for a sign. One that never comes.
Letting out a sigh, you gather up the spilt berries and mushrooms, stacking them in two separate piles, before grabbing the squirrel as well and placing it next to them.
If you want to eat the squirrel, you would definitely need to cook it. You think you could probably get a fire started but you’re already starving and you have no idea how long it would take too long to get one going.
Deciding that you can cook it once you've satiated your immediate hunger, you pick up a handful of berries and tentatively pop one into your mouth. You shut your eyes and bite into it expecting the worst.
As the berry bursts your eyes open wide in surprise. It tastes great! Much better than you were expecting. Kind of like a raspberry, but sweeter.
You slowly begin eating the rest of the berries, savoring every bite. Too soon you’ve popped the last of the berries in your mouth and you can’t help but feel remorseful that you weren't able to take more as your stomach growls hungrily.
Reluctantly you forget about the berries and pick up one of the mushrooms. It’s spongey and looks unappetizing in comparison to the berries, but maybe its looks are deceiving. You brace yourself before taking a small bite out of it, only to grimace at the bitterness that coats your tongue.
You force yourself to chew the spongy mushroom and swallow. You don’t want to continue, but the growling of your stomach urges you on.
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Somehow you force yourself to pick up another one. And another, and another, until you’ve finally, at last, finished. You really should have picked up more of those berries.
To your relief, your stomach has finally seemed to settle.
You stare down at the squirrel as its dead eyes meet yours. Now that you’re not as hungry, you think you could probably spend the time to try to cook it. Although you don’t have any modern means to start a fire with you, you have some general knowledge about using friction to produce a fire. All you need are some sticks and basic kindling.
You get up and head into the forest to get some for the fire.
You spin the wood between your fingers quickly as you squat in the middle of the clearing, grimacing as you accidently press too hard and drive the thorn deeper into your hand.
You stop for a second and stare at it in confusion
A thorn? How did that get there? And where did you get the sticks from?
The small fire flickers as you slowly turn the squirrel. You want to make sure it's cooked right.
You stop and look around.
What’s going on? What’s happening?
A moan of pleasure escapes you as you bite into the meat, the squirrel only slightly burnt but nonetheless delicious.
You lie down contentedly, your stomach full. You just need a small nap after that meal.
You pant as you stumble through the dark forest, your hands clutching your stomach as a severe pain racks your body.
Something is wrong.
You retch the remaining contents of your stomach which unfortunately land on your shirt.
Why is it dark out?
You heave again, however this time the bile is flecked with dark specks of blood.
You feel a burning pain in your throat and you fall to your knees.
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Something is very wrong.
You heave again, your stomach empty as you spit out more and more blood.
You don’t know what’s happening but you want it to stop. You need it to stop.
The pain is too much, you can’t handle it. It needs to end.
You fall face first to the ground, landing in a pool of you own vomit.
You twitch helplessly as the pain wracks your body, unable to move.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain begins to fade, replaced by a cold numbness.
Finally, it’s over.
You have died. Please choose again.
1) The red berries?
2) The bizarre looking mushrooms?
3) The Gicko Squirrel?
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On Darkened Wings
Serena never knew her parents, they had given her to the Hammers of Light the moment they saw her wings. As an Avriel, Serena was blessed by the gods, and the paladins taught her to channel their power, as well as teaching her swordsmanship. Her wings would carry her to the brightest peaks of their order. But on her graduation mission she learned that it wasn't too be. Inspired by a D&D campaign and character Cover not mine. If the owner wants it taken down then tell me.
8 114Dominion Expansion (a 4X LitRPG)
Clay is one of the world's top players of 4X games, a genre where the goal is to eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. He's also one of the only players in the world to so stubbornly stick to the one city strategy, a favorite tactic of his that involves only ever using a single city or planet depending on the game's setting. All that matters to him is winning with his favorite strategy, but earning the respect of his fellow players for taking a sub-optimal strategy to its highest level has always been a nice bonus. And now it is because of his skill and entertaining determination that he has been chosen to represent a higher realm in a strategy game where the fate of Earth and dozens of other worlds are at stake. To the victor goes the spoils, and the spoils include entire worlds and billions of lives. That's how he ends up representing the ascended realm of Hell in a grand "game" between an entire pantheon of godly beings and other higher powers. But while it may just be a game to those overseeing it, it is a genuine war for survival to those participating in it where billions of real lives will go to the victor of whoever wins, and many will die before the game is over. Quick Author's Notes: System inspired by Civilization, Endless Legend, Stellaris, and Crusader Kings 2. Combat mechanics inspired by the Total War series. Slow-paced with many long-term plans. Protagonist has a personality heavily inspired by Ron Swanson. Know who that is and love him? You should like Clay. Know who Ron Swanson is and hate him? You'll probably hate Clay. Planning on writing every single day (turn). Days with important things happening will have the system/game mechanics be the priority of the chapter. Days where there isn't really anything important happening will be more slice-of-life and focused on character interactions. Designed a dice-based randomized map generator to create the world as the story goes on, so I don't even know myself exactly what's going to happen as a lot is dependent on world generation. Tech tree with hundreds of technologies already designed. There is a "harem," but it's not the main focus, the girls won't be cardboard cutouts, and I'm not going to completely forget about any previous women in the relationship whenever a new one comes along. One last thing. The "game" starts off with primitive technology level. The current plan is for the "endgame" tech level to be equivilent to WW2-era technology. After that and war just gets boring until you end up in space. Cover is temporary and made from royalty-free stock images while waiting for the real cover's commission to finish.
8 129Shades Of Meaning Book 1 : Ghost Shy
Grace tried never to interact with the ghosts that plagued her. After years of practice she was pretty good at pretending they didn't exist. Life was almost normal. That is until she was betrayed and kidnapped. Then it went to hell fast. Breaking free of her captors was only the first step. Despite her resistance, she came to realize that her new 'normal' would include making friends, or enemies, of ghosts, witches werewolves and a host of other individuals she had no names for. She had to fight for her life and the lives of the people she was coming to care for. To do that she would have to make a pact with a ghost and learn to harness the abilities she had suppressed all her life. But time was growing short and her reluctance to accept she was a necromancer of extraordinary power was proving a major problem.
8 202The Legend of the North
Betrayed by his family, Ezer has no choice but to head to the cold Northlands where beasts rule. Pursued by men at his back and by beasts in front, he must use his instincts to survive by accepting unexpected help. Perhaps these lands hold the answer to his visions of a world known only to him.
8 115BREATHE
She was floating around under water. Suffocating and slowly dying, the blue of the water causing her to not see anything. Tears covered her eyes, leaking out and flowing down her face like a stream. Suddenly she can see a bright light, and a hand was reached out towards her. She slowly reached up taking his hand. He pulled her out into the light. Her darkskin glowing and shining. With one more pull she was out the water, sensing everything around her. Finally seeing everything around her. She can finally BREATHE.
8 113Flora
"She's dying, and nobody even knows it" ***©2015 TheHuntersBirdTrigger warning.
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