As soon as I woke up I heard a loud drumming noise, when the noise faded I started looking around and just stood there mouth gape open not even understanding what’s going on.

In front of me a lush forest, trees as tall as building spanning up to 50 meters, cicadas singing, birds chirping, I could feel the air blowing on my face and the scent of flowers entering my nose, wait my nose?

I start looking down and realize that my body is neither the pebble I was nor the rock I became, I looked hideous, well I’m not saying that I looked majestic as a rock or a pebble but right now I’m some kind of creature, well I look like a creature, still made of rocks nonetheless, my body a 1.2m humanoid with disproportioned arms that come down to my knees while my legs are short and on my face I can feel two tusks coming out like some kind of boar and dagger sharp teeth I try touching my head and feel like I’m touching smooth stone, I conclude that my whole body is the same and indeed it is, not a single speck of hair to be found anywhere, At this point my whole body is red-ish and I’m standing naked around so I decide to climb a tree to get a better view of my situation.

Before climbing I figure that I should at least make myself more accustomed to my body and thus I sit down to acknowledge how to move around in this body and surprisingly enough I feel that I’ve the required knowledge and thus I get up and start stretching my muscles, don’t ask me how but even though I’ve got a body made out of rocks it softened enough to give me organs, muscles and everything this body needs to act as a normal humanoid one.

After feeling satisfied I get down to business and start climbing the closest tree and observe all around me, once again I’m taken aback to just how beautiful this place is, I can see a big lake from up here, even though it took me quite some time I’ve been able to climb to the top of this tree, the lake really gives this forest a refreshing feel, up on the sky I can see numerous birds flapping their wings, only thing is that they’re actually made of stone and not just normal birds, after contemplating enough of the blue sky, I redirect my attention downwards and realize that there are stone made animals and I finally get it, must be that bastard’s (Carl, the Creator) work.

I just can’t describe how relieved I am to have killed so many guys before, this form must be thanks to that, while all those stupid guys that just stood there listening to him became dumb animals, note to self though, just because I killed some of them and ended like this doesn’t mean that no one else did and thus if consuming pebbles gave me tiny drops of energy then killing these animals should give me more and killing other more advanced life forms should give me even more and I most certainly won’t be this kind of goblin anymore.

First thing to consider while being here is survival, I’ll need somewhere to sleep, even if I’m a rock I need to sleep to get rid of the fatigue sadly, I start going toward the lake all the while staying on top of the trees, this helps me working on my balance all the while further adjusting with this new body and soon enough I can clearly see that I’m coming close so I take a more subtle approach looking for a refuge, or at least the perfect place to make one.

Suddenly I start hearing some growling and start looking to my right and I manage to discern a rock-bear fighting a rock-boar, the boar suddenly starts running putting all his strength on this charge, the bear on the other hand just goes on his hind legs and waits, but then something shocking happened, as soon as the boar started getting close to the bear his tusks grew and went straight for the bear’s heart, the bear on the other hand sensing something wrong made his fur hard enough to be able to stop the boar’s attack.

At this point my mind is going crazy, still trying to explain how these guys got enough control over their bodies to do something like that naturally, that’s the point they did it way too naturally as if on instinct, so I can guess that they don’t understand what they’re doing, they’re just doing it, well I hope so for my well being or else my whole life is going to get way harder.

Grasping control over my mind once again I went back to enjoying the fight and it really was quite close, when the boar attacked, the bear simply defended using his rock hard skin, on the other hand when the bear made use of his claws and hardened them the same way he hardened his fur, the boar simply used his high mobility to dodge, and that went on for quite a while till the boar became too exhausted and started going wild not using his speed that much and trying to attack too wildly, it would’ve ended instantly if the bear hadn’t also been exhausted.

That’s when I knew that they were ripe enough to consume, see guys, all you have to do is wait, watch and deduce, at this point they should fall pretty easily, since my body isn’t really fit for the spike anymore I only got to use my claws, now the real question is who to get first, obviously the bear because his hardening could put me in quite a tough spot, now I can either go crazy and jump on him from up here or close in calmly, let’s play it safe for now, I still got enough time to go crazy on my hopefully long life, making sure to take cover behind the trees I climb down and soon enough I’m 10 meters behind the bear, at this point the battle is only a staring one since they’re both desperate.

Sneaking as best as I can, I get behind the bear and I guess his senses are simply off from this long battle, well good for me, I just plant my hand inside him and pull it out while holding his heart and crush it on the spot before speeding towards the boar who just stood there dumbfounded not having a single idea what’s going on anymore, once I’m in range, I simply kick him in the chin and use my claws to sever the arteries on his neck and let him bleed out.

Well Lady Luck is definitely on my side, who would’ve thought that I would get two big preys so easily, not wanting to make the same mistake as my preys I quickly climb on a tree once again and keep a good watch around me before assimilating all the energy I got just now, closing my eyes I can feel that all the previous energy I had is still there and I guide this newfound power to it then I feel a burning sensation in my chest and slowly my eyes close.