Hey everyone.

It’s me the author.

Sorry for not posting anything recently. I just got into a little slump.

And I apologize for that. But it’s hard to do right a story that you think is good and get nothing from it.

I’m not saying I want your money or your love or anything like that. The thing I really want the most is for you guys the readers who choose to read my little story to interact with me. Any way you want to.

Comment that you liked this aspect or that you hated another. Tell me my grammar mistakes. (I’m sure you can find some.) Tell me what you guys want to see happen in my story. Tell me your ideas. Make a character, make a monster, design a special move, make a new continent to discover, whatever you want to do. Tell me what your thinking. It will help so much more then you think.

Will I be able to use everything?

Probably not.

Will it help?

YES.

Don't want to share your ideas so that you can use them yourself.

Wright your own story then. It's hard. But extremely rewarding. (And I haven't even felt the support you could get if you wright an amazing piece.)

Don’t believe me then read what Durrendal wrought about "How to support authors?"

I read it. It was right.

And I realized that I can be a better fan of the authors whose fictions I read.

And I hope that you tell me just what you’re thinking. Good or bad. It lets me know that what I’m doing isn’t a waste of time.

Sorry if this sounded like a sermon.

If it did tell me. :-P

Anyways back to the story.

And thanks for reading.

CH 10

…

Day six

…

When I woke the sun was slowly rising as it woke up the world. There where clear skies with a few clouds scattered above. And the fire had dying down in the night. I put some more wood onto the fire before beginning my day.

“Grumble”

Aww man I need to eat something. I’m wasting away here. I’ve been feeling light headed recently. If it’s from a lack of food or something else I don’t know. I hope it’s from the lack of food or else I’m going to get into trouble soon enough. And until I find out why I feel this way I’m going to have to be more cautions.

I wonder if anything was attracted to the sweet syrup that I found the other day. If not I can eat some of it for breakfast. Hopefully a small animal is attracted. That would be an easy kill, I think. But there’s no use if I just thinking about it. I better get a move on then.

…

“Oh what do we have here?”

Standing at the base of the tree there was a frost rabbit. It’s about the same size as me and has white fur with reflective shards of ice covering it in a few places of its back. It has crimson red eyes. With small claws on its feet and long fangs that only get stronger with age. It’s bigger than the frost rabbits that hide around the village. It must be older than the ones I’ve seen. Father has told me that some of the really nasty ones can be as tall as man and as wide as a sheep. I’m told that if I ever meat one of those then I should offer it food. If you don’t have any then you should sit down and wait for it to decide on what it’s going to do with you.

It isn’t the big one so I might be able to take it. But then again I don’t know if I could come out of the fight intact. But I really need the meat. I could die. But then again I could die at any time out here. Plus the longer I don’t bring in food the greater the risk of dying from starvation is. Rather than dying from starvation I’d prefer to die fighting.

Ok. I’ve decided. I’m going to kill it. I didn’t bring my spear with me so I only have my dagger to fight with. I could go back and get my spear. But the frost rabbit might leave by the time I get back. I have to decide right now, whether I’m going to fight with my dagger now or go get my spear and try to track it down latter.

“Grumble”

Well my stomach settled that. I’m going for it. This is the first animal I’ve seen since I’ve been out here and I’m not going to risk losing it. It still hasn’t noticed me yet or it thinks I’m insignificant. Please be the first one.

I run at the beast with my dagger tightly griped in my right hand. I get ready to stab its head. As I rush towards the beast its ears shoot up and it begins to turn its head towards me. I run faster. If it sees me it will ether run or attack. I can’t afford ether of these options right now.

Once I get into range I’ll have it. I’ll be able to kill it.

But that’s not how life works.

Once I’m in range to stab it. The frost rabbit shoots off the ground leaving imprints of its feet in its place, it had just flipped right over my head. And instead of stabbing it like I had planned. I just run into the tree that was behind the frost rabbit like a foul. But I can’t stop now or I’ll die. I spin around as fast as I can. I’m holding onto my dagger for dear life. Fearing that I’m about to be bitten in half. I look at the frost rabbit and am surprised that it is just sitting there watching me fumble about.

It doesn’t even recognize me as a threat.

It is right though. I’m not really a threat at all.

But I refuse to just walk away and wait to starve. I refuse to die like that.

So what can I do?

I’ll die if I fight, but I’ll die if I don’t.

I’ll fight…

And if I do die at least I died in an attempt to survive instead of doing nothing.

Ok

I’m ready to die to this fluffy beast.

“AHHHHH”

I run at the beast. No thoughts run through my head. I only see the beast in front of me.

This time it attacks by swings its hind legs around to kick me. I dive to the ground and feel a cold gust of wind pass over me. I hop up and try to stab it with my dagger as it tries to take a bite out of me. Instead following through with my attack I pull myself back, narrowly avoiding getting my hand bitten off. I press my attack again and make a slight scratch into its side with my dagger.

“THUMP”

All I saw was the frost rabbit getting farther and farther away. Then I feel a great pain in my back as I slam into something. I land onto the ground and start coughing up blood. Everything hurts and it is hard to move. Crap. The frost rabbit is bouncing over here. It’s probable coming to finish me off.

So what was the point of it all, being taught by my parents, fighting brother to get stronger, even gathering mana?

What did it do for me?

It did everything for me.

Mother and fathers teaching let me live at least a few days out here.

The fights with brother gave me the confidence to fight.

And mana is the very reason I’m alive at all. It is the only thing that existed in both the spirit world and mortal one. Mana was everything in the spirit world. Mana was power.

I just have to learn how to use that power. Focus Martoel, gather the mana and use it somehow. But all I can do is move it around my body. Wait, maybe I can reinforce my body, make myself stronger, fix my wounds, and give me the power to overcome my enemies.

I start to swirl the mana inside me around. Then I begin to spread that energy into every part of my body. I slowly reinforce myself, until..

“AHHH”

My shoulder starts burning painfully. After a few short seconds the pain lessons to the point where it is bearable.

But I feel stronger and all the pain I was feeling across my body begins to slowly subside. I have to ignore the lingering pain and stand. Or I will die before I can use this newfound power. I slowly get to my feet even though I should be so broken that I should never walk again.

“You. Beast. I will kill you now.”

I scream at the beast as I prepare to run at it again. I look at the beast in front of me and charge again. This time I run low to the ground, trying to anticipate its next move as I run.

As I approach the frost rabbit it starts to swing around its hind legs around. And I jump back barley avoiding the tips of its feet. Then I jump forward and manage to plunge my dagger into its back as it is spinning. The dagger plunges into the frost rabbit and I hold onto the dagger for dear life as the frost rabbit leaps forward trying to shake me off. The dagger slips out of the wound I made on the frost rabbit and I fall to the ground.

I stand up again and prepare for its attack. It charges me with its mouth gaping open and fangs ready to pierce through me. How can I avoid this, Jump out of the way, lie down and hope it goes over me. But then in the heat of the moment I jump towards it and slightly to the left. But still towards the beast that’s trying to kill me. I thrust my dagger towards the frost rabbit’s face.

The dagger catches the corner of its mouth and cuts a large gash on the side of its face. I spin around a few times from the force put on my body and get thrown a little ways away. The frost rabbit now faces me again with blood leaking out of its mouth and dying its back red. While I stand there bruised and broken with blood stained lips. We stare at each other and don’t make a single move, waiting for the other to fall or attack.

The frost rabbit hops up into the air. I look up trying to figure out where it will land only to see it speeding toward me. I jump to the side only to be blown farther away from the impact the frost rabbit made on the ground. I hop up in an instant and stare at the snowy mist in front of me waiting for the beast to emerge.

Then it charges out of the mist strait towards me and rams me head on caring me away. But I refuse to be taken away by this beast and start to stab repeatedly into the frost rabbits head. Then I’m rammed into a tree. The frost rabbit jumps back and I fall to the ground. Blood spurt out of my mouth and onto the white snow dyed in red.

But I can’t die yet so I stood again teetering on my feet ready to pass out at any moment. I looked at the frost rabbit. Much of its fur was now covered in its own blood. It gets ready to ram me against the tree again while I prepare to make my last attempt at survival against the frost rabbit.

It charged me, head down and angered. Once it got close enough I drove my dagger straight into its forehead and leapt up with all my remaining strength, in an attempt to go over the frost rabbit. Instead I flipped myself onto its back dragging my dagger across its forehead. Then I bounce off of it as it rams itself into a tree.

It fell and sat there motionless on the ground. I walked over to the beast and stabbed its head over and over again until I believed it was truly dead. I sat down next to it exhausted and an immense pain that seemed to be radiating from my left shoulder overwhelmed my senses and I passed out.

…

When I awoke the sun was falling back towards the ground but was still high in the sky. Nothing was around, like usual, except the dead Frost rabbit that sat beside me. I fell week but I refuse to give up any of this meat that I just had won from my fight for my life. So I reinforce myself grab the frost rabbit by it feet and drag it back to base. I don’t know where I am in reference to my base so I follow the trails of blood, broken branches, and overturned snow that had been a result of the battle.

The way back to base wasn’t hard to follow there was carnage every ware. But there was an eerie pressure in the forest that wasn’t there before. Like the forest was preparing for more destruction and more carnage. In the end I ignored it and continued to push onward.

…

Once I got back to base I took the time to skin the fur off of the beast and put it aside. Then I take the meet and put it on the other side of the wood pile. I cut chunks of meat off of the beast and skewered them on a pointed stick. I plant two Y shaped sticks on opposite sides of the fire and place the skewered meat over the fire. Since I was just hanging around I decide to gather some snow and put it into the pot that I had and put it close to the fire like mother had taught me.

As time went on I slowly rotated the meat that had been skewered. Once the snow melted I grabbed the pot of water to have a drink, only to almost burn my hands off. I grab two pieces of cloth and try to pick up the pot again. This time I succeed and drank the boiling water. As it rolls down my throat I feel like I was about to catch on fire. But I drank it greedily as that pain it caused couldn’t compare to the pain I had already felt from the fight. Still thirsty I gather more snow into the pot and place it next to the fire again.

…

By the time the meat was completely cooked I had already burned the two pieces of clothe from trying to use them to pick up the pot. So I had resorted to using my hands even against my better judgment. I had drunk seven pots of water like this by the time I thought the meat was cooked completely. The meat was a bit burnt on the outside but retained most of its juices and was kind of tender. It tasted great considering that I had never cooked by myself before. And I was shore that I wasn’t going to get sick from the under cooked meat. Mother warned me that a little raw meat was fine but too much cooked meat was never a problem.

Today was the first day that I had fought for my own survival. Now I know I need to be stronger if I want to live. Much much stronger. I have to train more, I’ll gather mana constantly, and move it around my body as I work throughout the day. I also need to find stronger beasts and fight them. Once I fight a strong enough beast I’ll go and fight weaker ones without the help of mana. But I must remember that I can be killed at any time on any given day. That’s how it is out here. So I have to grow stronger than I ever thought was possible.

As the sun set I noticed that the mark on my shoulder was glowing faintly. I wonder if this is related to the fight. But there are too many immediate problems to worry about right now. I need to focus on survival. I’ll ask the elder about my mark when I get back.

Then I drift off to sleep.