Among the Living

A dulling sensation of pain went through the captain as he lay in the darkness of death.

'Pain?!' the man thought, pain was something reserved for the living, and had he not died just moments ago? In his short live of 51 he had been close to death many times, but the true feeling and realisation of death had only appeared once, when his life had ebbed out on the battlefield fighting the army of the mage kingdom.

He was quite certain that he had passed away, a regretful and resentful death at that, yet here he was feeling pain? When he focused on the pain he quickly began to feel other sensations of the living, he could hear birds chirping, insects buzzing, and branches rustling, the sounds of a forest, maybe? There was also a wet cold feeling, like he was lying in a shallow pool of mud? Questions kept popping into his mind. It didn't take long before he clumsily attempted to move his body, but he found it difficult, like a baby that didn't fully understand what muscle made what body part move.

He wasn't entirely sure as to how long had passed when he finally began opening his eyes slowly, a blindingly bright white light met him as he finally opened his eyes in full. All he saw was blurry outlines of green and brown. The only movement he could make was his steady blinking as his eyes slowly adjusted to the daylight.

What met his sight was large treetops, although from his position he could see that the branches were broken and light shone down from the space that this had created. Regardless his guess had indeed been correct, he was in a forest, and from his position it looked to be quite dense as well. He saw squirrels scatter about and small birds jumping between the branches singing and playing with one another.

As he became more aware of his surroundings he also became more aware of his body and its condition, the dull pain turned sharper and more critical. It didn't take long before he realised that he was heavily wounded, what he had original thought was mud turned out to be a pool of his own blood. He was curious as to what happened since he had died, or if somehow he had not died at all? Despite of his concerns he was still a soldier and a warrior at heart, to lie in philosophical quandaries about life and death? Or to get up and survive? He did not waste his time with these concerns, and quickly got to work.

From the pain that he could feel it was clear that the bleeding came from his right thigh and his head, and from the weak state of his body and somewhat dry mouth he must've been bleeding out for a while. Whilst analysing his body he had begun moving his fingers and toes, slowly getting used to moving around, like an avalanche the unfamiliarity began slow, and was a process, but he soon got the hang of moving again and slowly sat up.

His view changed and he had indeed been correct in his assumption, the forest was dense, the undergrowth was full of bushes and leaves, barely any grass on the forest floor which was covered in a perpetual shade of semi-darkness as the sun couldn't breach through the thick overgrowth of trees.

It took longer than he was hoping for to adjust his body, but eventually he succeeded in getting into a meditative position. With his eyes half open he began adjusting his breath, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth, the rhythm of his breath steady and controlled. He had been suspecting it previously, when he had sat up and seen the angle of his view, but it became very clear to him now, this was not his body!

…..

Although his current body hadn't awoken and broken through the first border of the warrior realm, it didn't mean that all of his knowledge was useless. Currently he was using the Hibernating Bear Breath, which stimulated blood flow and vitality, for any low class warrior it would allow the healing of minor and larger injuries, in fact it could be said that it was a technique best used by low class warriors as it didn't have any requirements on the unlocking of acupoints or meridians, unfortunately it wasn't a divine technique as the captain now realised, even though it had helped stop the bleeding, it was a painfully slow process for someone who hadn't awoken as a warrior.

The night blanketed the forest, neither starlight nor moonlight was visible even through the clearing in the trees above him, which meant that it was a cloudy night. This was not good! The captain knew this, right now he was lucky that his blood hadn't attracted any larger animals, but it was only a matter of time if he stayed where he was, however with darkness all around, it would be difficult for him to move around, and yet he knew that he had to. From the sounds around him it was clear that the nightly prowlers had begun their activities, eventually they would find him, and he was in no condition to defend himself, no matter how skilled he had been in his previous life.

What you want and what you can do are two separate things entirely, what he had wanted to do was to find some sharp branch that he could fashion as a spear, and find a safe place to hide before nightfall. He had not been able to recover enough to move around until nightfall, and despite his previous training in seeing in the dark, he did not have this ability now, not that he wasted his time bemoaning this loss, it was but a passing thought as he slowly stood up. There were multiple eye techniques that could allow a person to gain partial to full night-vision, however all of them required warrior energy. This did not mean that he was helpless, during his recovery he had been observing the forest and despite it denseness, there was still plenty of space in-between the trees as their roots needed enough nutrition to grow, this meant that there was certain degree of space to move around in, furthermore he had observed a broken branch next to him, although it was slightly too big, it was the best he could get currently.

Before long he was making his way through the dark forest slowly, his 'weapon' functioning as a makeshift crutch. It seemed that moving had been the right choice as he had been hearing the howling of what he hoped was only wolves from behind him approaching. Despite his willingness to speed up the darkness did not allow him this luxury.

No matter how his eyes adjusted to the darkness, when there was no moon and stars out, in the middle of a dense forest, there were only two types of darkness dark, and darker. He relied mostly on his hearing, as he was listening intently for a very specific sound. The sound did not come right away, and the more intensely he listened the more he heard rustling and movement all around him. How long had it been since he had felt so vulnerable? Despite his demise, that was a controlled decision, he had not felt vulnerable as he had died, but now he did, and it was not a feeling that he appreciated.

Step by clumsy step, fall by fall he finally heard what he was listening for, and none to soon as the howling was approaching him rapidly. A small pang of joy and satisfaction ran through his body as he heard the sound of running water, it was still far, but it was a goal! He needed to cross the river and mask his scent in mud and dirt, despite the risks of infection this might carry.

He began moving quicker and more frantically as the sound of the water grew louder, he did not have the leisure of carefully moving forward any longer, the howling animals were definitely tracking him judging from their approaching howls.

They had caught up to him! He could vaguely hear their paws walking around him, their laboured breathing and silent snarls, yet they did not attack him? They were obviously predators, but they could not have been wolves, wolves didn't play with their prey, no this was something else, and although he had ideas, none of them were positive. Despite his dread that he would soon die once more, the drawn out cat and mouse allowed him to move forward, and what he heard was thunderous rapids of water.

A wet cold and refreshing mist of water permeated the air as he neared the roaring river, his choice obvious, the only question was if the animals would allow him to take that risk? His answer came almost immediately, the sound of something heavy and colossal, bouldered through the forest. He heard the squeaking and breaking of trees, and the galloping of hoofs, whatever ungodly natural order had put the howling animals under the pecking order of an Iron-hoofed Warthog he didn't understand, but it was clear that the lack of attack was because they had awaited their alpha.

He didn't know just how big the river was, judging by the sound it was mighty, it was obvious that crossing it wasn't an option, which meant that jumping in and hoping for the best was his only option. His path was cut off however, as he heard a loud snarl from his front, somehow the animals seemed to understand that their prey was more eager to try its chances with the river than them.

He took a deep breath, he wouldn't be able to attack them, even if he hit them he would deal them no damage, he did however have foot techniques, they would severely damage his legs in his current state, but they might just allow him to dodge the animal and make it to the river. His sight only met darkness, but he could still see a deeper darkness blocking his view, it was almost as tall as himself.

Breathing techniques were plentiful, and they allowed for all sorts of mystical effects, although there was a limited amount that could be used by people who hadn't awakened as warriors, he still knew a couple that he would teach the new recruits. One of them was called Bulls Stance, it overstimulated the brain and allowed the body to break some of its natural chains, the downsides were large, especially for someone without warrior energy, but this was the only option.

He huffed and puffed as he directed the energy in his breath through his body, he felt the sweet stimulation allowing him strength and power, it would be a short-lived joy, he knew, followed by endless pain.

…..

The animal had once been the beta to its previous alpha, but as their pack leader was defeated the choice was either death or compromise.

Although the pack had a certain degree of resentment at first towards the boar, they had come to enjoy the newfound their new standing in the forest, and so they followed the boars commands. In this case they had smelled a human, and the boar was adamant in killing and devouring the man itself, so they had caught up to him, he was severely injured so they hadn't injured him further as that might bring about his demise, and that would have dire consequences for their pack.

The man in front of it changed his breathing, his breath became unstable, dangerous even, and then he disappeared. In a low moving position he zigzagged strangely, and despite being slower than the beast, the man still somehow avoided the lunge it attempted.

Shortly afterwards he was in the rapids, he would surely die, the animal knew, but so would a member of its pack. Best it found a scapegoat before the alpha appeared. The beta didn't wait long before it lunged anew on the nearest pack member.