Sour Meat (Solo)

Dread wrote:It took John little time to come up with a routine for his days and nights spent in the forest. He even managed to keep something of a schedule for his daily activities despite the fact he lacked a time piece. He simply tracked the sun’s progress across the sky and, when it reached a certain point, he would stop doing one thing and initiate another activity.

He kept his mind and body occupied with physical exercise, he fished and cooked what he caught for meals, and he practiced flying through the forest rather than above it to improve his coordination. When the sun began setting on the second day of “Coach’s” third lesson for him, John sought out the cave where his teacher originally condemned him to a horrible fate, a fate to which he nearly succumbed.

The omnivorous inhabitants of the cave avoided any amount of light at all costs; leaving their actual appearance to John’s imagination. They only became aggressive whenever they sensed a significant power level and that was a lesson John certainly learned the hard way. They had attempted to eat him before, but he immediately garnered their affection after he learned to suppress his energy.

They had seemed so passive towards him when he last saw them that he wanted to revisit them. The utter darkness that comforted them and had instilled great terror in him no longer disconcerted him. He learned how to navigate the cave by sensing the life energy that flowed within his newfound friends.

Soon after he descended back into the abysmal blackness, he was swarmed by the creatures. They eagerly nuzzled him, tickling him and making him laugh. He tended to them and stroked some among them, but they had already proved jealous before. They constantly nudged each other out of the way, greedy for the slightest bit of attention from him.

He later enjoyed slumbering with them in their cave; ironically enough for creatures of darkness, they slept during the night. They all but smothered him with their soft and warm bodies and, when John was surrounded on all sides by them, he felt some of the bigger members of the group bully their way through the concentrated mass of bodies toward him.

He had often petted them from their heads to their hips and learned, through touch alone, they were as large as wild cats. They lacked tails and had elongated snouts with long bristles for whiskers. Their fur remained silken and soft to the touch unless they felt threatened at which point their hairs would stand on end and harden into rough spines like those of a porcupine.

They loathed to see him leave and mewled sadly whenever he departed from their subterranean sanctuary for the world of burning light. None among their numbers dared venture outside the blackness of their home. John always walked the final passage, dimly lit by penetrating rays of sunlight, to the outside alone.

He was all set to go fishing at the river as he had done before when, after his second sleepover with the cave-dwelling creatures, he was greeted on the outside by sheets of rain. Hardly any sunlight filtered through the dismal clouds above. Lightning struck the earth some distance away and, seconds later, the world shuddered with the rumble of terrible thunder. John frowned at this latest turn of events and waited for the storm to pass.

Hours went by and John spent them all performing pushups, sit ups, and various stretches. He sat down at the edge of the cave and crossed his legs where he meditated for a time to enhance his spiritual power. He focused on the life energies throughout the forest and noted that nothing within it contained hardly more than a spark of power.

The wolves may have been the forest’s fiercest hunters, but they amounted to almost nothing in John’s mind. The eldest of trees that performed important functions for its ecosystem (Providing food, shelter, shade, and clean air for a wild assortment of life forms) whispered only the tiniest bit of energy. John expanded his focus over the entirety of the forest and smiled. While no singular inhabitant of this wild realm could impress John, the collective energy of all living things contained within it proved greatly abundant. The sheer concentration of untapped ki energy in one location filled John with a sense of awe.

Dread wrote:The rain subsided by late afternoon and John stepped outside the cave only to have water drip down onto him in thin streams as he passed through its mouth. He walked onto the muddy earth and surveyed his surroundings to his tremendous disappointment. Everything as far as he could see appeared thoroughly soaked, which meant he would have an additional long wait before he could build another fire. No fire obviously meant he could not cook his next meal. I should have stockpiled wood in the cave in case this happened. John thought sourly; of course, such wisdom came to him only in hindsight.

He decided to head toward the river anyway; he felt hungry enough to eat fish raw and sushi was a common delicacy in some parts of the world. He figured he could try it even though he had never eaten any sushi in his entire life. He arrived at the river in hardly any time at all where, as per usual, he stripped naked before diving into the water. He waded toward the river’s center until its water came up to his waist. Now all I have to do is watch, wait, and strike. He thought confidently to himself.

He watched the river and waited, he noticed fish aplenty in the clear current, but he encountered a severe problem. They swam erratically as though incredibly disturbed, but John knew nothing about their behavior or what caused them to act so strangely. He examined the water closely for any changes that may have driven the fish mad. He then noticed, for the first time that day, the river appeared somewhat murky as though sprayed with a layer of dust. It took only a moment for him to figure out only one thing could have caused such a widespread change; the storm he had only recently witnessed.

He could not begin to predict the movements of the fish and none dared venture near him. Their movements, however random they seemed, suggested they remembered John. It was almost as though he had become some notorious mass murderer in their eyes and they were making the effort to avoid him. John shook his head at the ridiculous thought. “All I got to do is wait for things to return to normal. Fish are stupid.” He spoke aloud to confirm to himself his suspicions were nothing more than silly notions without foundation.

He still wanted badly to eat something; since fish were off the menu, John thought to hunt as he left the river and dressed. Rabbits proved abundant in the forest; John saw many numbers of them at a time in relatively small areas. He collected rocks, worn to absolute smoothness by the river, from the shore and pocketed them. He had, once before, thought of throwing a rock through a rabbit’s skull with his enhanced strength and he now fully intended to do just that. He entirely forgot about the current shortage on fire wood in the rain drenched forest.

He searched for the small edible beasties, but his eyes showed him nothing of import. The storm had scared most creatures back into their dens and the scent it left behind hung heavily in the air. He realized as much and now doubted that anything would creep out for a bit of sunshine until much later. Silly bunnies. He thought as he grinned rather sadistically. You can’t hide from me; I can smell your energy!

Dread wrote:John discovered that trying to locate something as small and fragile as a rabbit through his sixth sense proved troublesome. The forest pulsated with life and it all intermixed into one overwhelming melting pot of energy. Tracking down something specific by its energy seemed impossible when the quarry involved hardly generated anything detectable. John realized his sixth sense was of hardly any use to him beyond detecting threats so that he could avoid him.

He had no trouble walking in the dark forest cave, but that involved a simple matter of making the right turns toward the general direction in which he sensed life. Apart from sensing life energy to guide him in the dark, John could guess, with some accuracy, what lived in the forest by the energy signatures he picked up on. He could only do so if he focused, but he could not pinpoint the exact locations of the life forms he sensed. These are things he only just realized to his utmost frustration and it was not as though he had become an expert tracker during the few days he had camped out.

He made an attempt to look for animal burrows and found that matter incredibly bothersome. The tall grass that grew wildly throughout the forest hid any and all holes in the ground from view. John gritted his teeth and fell to his knees in absolute frustration. He punched his right fist onto the ground beside him. It sunk several inches into the ground; he thought he had punched a small crater into the ground until he felt the emptiness of a shallowly dug hollow surrounding his hand.

He noticed movement out of the corner of his vision; he turned his head in time to see a frightened rabbit bounding into view. It had popped out of its burrow, the entrance to which rested only a couple paces away from him. He had, he realized, punched a hole through the roof of the critter’s home. He allowed a delighted grin to curl across his face as he stood up and retrieved a pebble from one of his pockets.

He took aim at his target, which had stopped to graze on some grass as though having entirely forgotten why it had come outside. John threw the stone and missed entirely. The rabbit contentedly gnawed on the grass before it; it had its back turned to John, still unaware of his presence. He tried to hit it a few more times, but his aim never improved and, as a result, he always failed to hit the target.

The rabbit eventually realized John was standing nearby, but only because he had given up on killing it with one blow. He had begun hurling fistfuls of rocks at it, but they all thudded deeply into the ground and harmlessly all around the rabbit, the only thing he could not seem to strike. The rabbit stared at him as though to say, “I’m bored of you.” It then hopped away at a leisurely pace; John growled and felt his pockets for more ammunition, but he had exhausted his supply.

Dread wrote:He clenched and unclenched his jaw then ascended a few feet into the air and took off after the rabbit with his hands extended, fingers hooked like deadly talons. He had tried chasing a rabbit before in the same manner, but he had made the mistake of not watching out for obstacles. Prey animals like rabbits knew exactly how to escape predators; the wide separation of their eyes allowed them to execute such a method. As they ran, they could see perfectly to either side of them, allowing them to make sharp turns whenever possible.

Predators often had difficulty keeping up with such zigzagging prey unless they hunted in packs so as to cut off the escape routes of their quarry. John was alone, denying him the benefit of a group hunt; he had to watch the course of his target while also looking out ahead to avoid a repeat collision into a tree. His advantage over the rabbit was that he had spent hours practicing flying through the forest as though it was nothing more than an obstacle course built for his amusement.

His fingertips brushed through the now-frightened animal, which fled as quickly as its legs could carry it forward, but John proved immensely faster. He wrapped his fingers around its midsection and ascended, lifting his prey off the ground as it helplessly kicked out to continue onward. Success literally in hand, John landed on his feet and held his catch up to his face for examination. It was a light brown-furred thing and its soft coat almost made him groan with the prospect of having to skin it.

The rabbit squirmed helplessly in his grip, but it eventually stopped as though having surrendered itself to its inescapable fate. It then gazed at John and wriggled its nose frantically, its eyes wide with terror. John lost himself in the dark orbs that gazed back at him; they begged him for mercy and just about convinced John to let the rabbit on its way. “I can’t kill you,” John announced aloud.

He loosened his grip and nearly dropped the rabbit to the ground when it suddenly bit his left hand. “AH! YOU DICK!” John screamed and angrily tossed the thing causing him pain at the nearest tree; he had not meant to do it harm, but he heard a sickening crunch all the same.

He walked over to where the creature had fallen and knew it would not be going anywhere without some major assistance. It was, after all, dead. John picked it up and suddenly lost his appetite at the sight of it. Blood matted the fur around its mouth and it continued to stare at him, pleading for help. It was beyond help and John tossed it aside for the carrion eaters of the forest. If he kept it, he would have to have skinned it and even if he had the tools for the task, he could not bring himself to do it. The idea of doing so felt too much like mutilation to him.

“What a terrible waste,” An unfamiliar voice said from directly behind him; John immediately seized up with terror. The presence behind him generated a significant amount of energy; whoever it was wanted John to know of their strength because they had kept it hidden from him up until that point. “Mind if I take it?” The stranger asked.

John’s body locked up; he could not even turn around to gaze at the person to commit their features to memory. The stranger may not have been as strong as “Coach”, but whoever it was certainly surpassed either of “Coach’s” assistants in terms of power. “G-go ahead,” John managed to say, willing the terrible entity away.

“Thanks; be seeing you soon.” The stranger departed and that was when John vomited.