Laugh Wolf

About a couple of days later, Marcus finally had finished crafting the equipment he needed to start exploring the forest.

"Do-do-do-doooo!" he hummed a game item fanfare as he finished tying the last laces "You got the Shitty Backpack! Now you can actually have an inventory!"

Jokes aside, the "backpack" was more like a deep basket made of woven grass and sticks that he could carry over his shoulder. It wasn't pretty and it didn't seem particularly robust, but it would serve the purpose of letting Marcus carry his few belongings, which now included a bowl full of water, a knife and a few needles all made out from the crab's shell fragments.

He also had a wooden spear and wore a cloak made out of green leaves held together by woven grass. Not the most fashionable outfit, but it beated strolling around naked. Luckily he didn't need any kind of shoes, as the armour on his leg was more resilient than anything he could make.

All things considered, he felt ready and eager to start the exploration of this new world. To be honest, he was kinda excited: he felt like the protagonist of some adventure tale.

The fact that he had managed to somehow feed himself added to his good mood: he had caught another horned snake (albeit smaller than the previous one) and some kind of huge, red grasshopper.

Neither of these meals had actually managed to completely sate his appetite, but he certainly didn't feel weak from hunger, anymore. And maybe he could find a better hunting spot somewhere else, since his options in this place were kinda reduced by the presence of the crystal horned deer guarding the only source of water.

Without further ado, he lifted the "backpack" over his shoulder, grabbed the spear and proceeded in the direction of the place he had chosen to start off his exploration: a big, steep hill that had a barren, rocky top. That hill was the highest point he could see, as it towered over the ones around it, and it was perfect to get a better look at the geography of the region.

He started the march with a brisk walk, eager to reach his destination, which lasted until he reached the bottom of the hill and started climbing it.

Then he slowed down considerably, since the terrain was steep and rough, forcing him to frequently take detours to get around some natural obstacles.

Despite starting his march early in the morning, it was past noon when he reached the peak, but he wasn't particularly tired, having taken numerous breaks during the climb.

The top of the hill was barren, safe for some stiff grass and a couple of thorny bushes. The trees disappeared about a couple dozen meters under the peak, and it was relatively easy to see the reason of that: the remainings of a few trees still stood above that level, burned and cracked by lightning. Evidently, thunderbolts were frequent on that particular hill.

But right now the sky was clear, so there shouldn't be any danger.

Actually, it was quite a nice place: the sun was hot, but there was a nice breeze that made Marcus feel refreshed.

He basked in that feeling for a while, recovering some energies, before taking a good look around.

Being barren, the top had nothing blocking the view, and the hills around him were like a beautiful, perfect map that blurred on the horizon.

The forest continued in almost every direction, much to his chagrin.

On the south, the hills slowly disappeared into a great plain, entirely covered by the forest, and the same thing happened to the east.

On the contrary, the hills in the west gradually got bigger, and he could see the profile of actual mountains on the horizon.

Finally, on the north the hills continued for quite a bit, to the point that he couldn't see what was beyond them, but at the same time he saw the most promising detail on that direction: a small, faint wisp of smoke was rising to the sky behind a hill. He looked harder, and although he couldn't see the source of that smoke, he could see something equally promising: what seemed to be a small tower was on the top of that hill.

"Finally!" he rejoiced "There are people living in this world after all! But will they be hostile? Or even human?"

He stopped for a second. After all, if this was an alien world, it was actually quite probable that the people living here would be aliens as well.

"Well, no point in worrying now. First, I have to actually reach that tower. Then I'll see what the inhabitants are like!"

He tried to gauge the distance between himself and the tower. It couldn't be more than 10 kilometers away, he thought. Maybe, if he didn't get stuck in some rough terrain, he could get there by the end of the day.

Eager to come in contact with some civilization, Marcus started walking.

About 6 hours later, Marcus was stuck on some rough terrain.

At first, he had no problem walking towards his destination, but after the first hill there was a deep gulch that he didn't see from his previous observation spot, and that forced him to go around it.

But then the hill he tried to climb was very steep and covered in thick vegetation that all but blocked the path. He had to cut his way through thorny bushes for hours before reaching the top, and when he did the sun had almost set. Shadows became longer as the sky darkened, and Marcus was in a hurry to find some sort of shelter.

"Goddammit!" he cursed while looking around "I hate this! I swear, I'll burn this damn forest down as soon as I get out of it!"

But finding a suitable place was proving to be difficult. The terrain was rocky and hard, and the few holes he could find were too small for him to crawl into. He kept searching as the night fell, luckily aided by his nightvision, but he could not find anything.

"Wait! What is that?" he murmured, having finally spotted something.

The hill in front of him was even more rocky, mostly devoid of any trees and only covered in small bushes. But what had captured his attention was a rock face full of holes, some of which seemed to be actual caves.

"That looks like a good shelter!" he said, a little relieved "As long as the caves are not already occupied by some random monstrosity, that is. But it's worth taking a peek at them!"

He started moving in the direction of that cave, when suddenly he froze.

A weird, wailing noise was from the dark woods around him. It was a mix between an howl and a demented laugh, and it made Marcus' blood run cold in his veins.

The noise repeated several times, coming from various directions. If it was the sound of some animals then it meant that there was a whole pack of them, and that they had him surrounded.

Marcus looked around nervously. He didn't actually want to meet whatever was making that noise face to face, so he'd have to find a temporary shelter, but the only one he had seen so far was the cave and that was too far.

The only choice he had left was to climb up a tree, but most of them were too tall and thin to do that. He desperately searched for a broader one, and, on a small clearing a hundred or so meters from him, he could see one: a big but not overly tall oak tree, whose canopy covered almost all of the glade.

The laughing howl repeated itself, this time much closer, and Marcus sprinted for the oak, hoping to reach it before the beasts would show themself.

But his hopes were disappointed: he noticed a sudden movement on his right, and when he turned in that direction he could see a big, dark shadow crawling on the ground.

He couldn't make the details out, but he saw clearly a pair of glowing, crazy yellow eyes and a demented smile full of sharp fangs.

Other shadows were moving behind that one, all converging in his direction, and Marcus had to take desperate measures.

He knew that he wouldn't be a match for those creatures in a fight, so he just let go of the spear and the backpack in order to be faster, and ran towards the tree with all of his might.

While he was running, he could hear the mad cackling of the creatures behind him getting a tone of hunger and anticipation as they drew closer, but he refused to look behind.

His heart was beating like crazy, thumping in his ears, as the ground flew under his feet.

He was almost there. He had reached the clearing, and the tree was right in front of him.

The howling now was right behind his back, urging him to sprint even faster, covering the remaining meters in a flash before jumping to grab one of the branches and desperately lifting himself up.

And he did it just in time, as he heard the snapping of jaws right behind his feet.

Breathing frantically, he climbed a few more branches and looked down.

About ten creatures were now moving in the clearing, circling the tree he was hiding on.

The creatures looked kinda like wolves, but were actually something very different: covered head to toe in black fur, they had powerful front legs, way longer than the hind legs, which gave them a an almost erect posture, like that of a gorilla, and their long, thin tails were similar to that of a cat.

But their most terrifying feature was their face: they had triangular heads, similar to that of a wolf, but their mouth was unnaturally big, distorted into a mad grin that showed their fangs, and their eyes were glowing with malice and hunger.

Marcus shivered. He didn't know if things like werewolves existed in this world, but those creatures certainly looked like a pack of lycanthropes. He didn't want to think about what they could have done to him.

At least, as long as he remained on the tree, he should be safe...

But then, with a powerful jump, one of the creatures grabbed one of the branches with his paws, which looked disturbingly like clawed and twisted human hands, and lifted himself with ease, biting Marcus' leg.

He screamed, both in surprise and in pain, and instinctively grabbed one of the branches with both hands.

The last action saved his life, cause the creature that was biting him tried to make him fall to the ground, where its companions were waiting, but Marcus managed to somehow keep himself on the tree.

The creature kept pulling him, but he held tight, despite the pain in his leg. The creatures had an incredibly strong bite, even capable of getting through the chitin armour that covered his limb.

Tears of pain and desperation flowed through Marcus' cheeks, but he held tight on the branch. He wanted to live, and he was ready to fight for it.

Using his free leg, he started kicking the beast that was biting him.

With a stroke of luck, one of the kicks hit the monster right on the nose, and with a yelp the animal let go of his legs, falling on the ground.

A growling, angry noise came from the other wolf-things, and the got closer to the tree, preparing to jump on it.

Marcus was still terrified and in pain, but he gave the predators a defiant look.

"Come and get me fuckers!" he screamed hysterically, fear slowly turning into rage "You want to bite me!?! Then bite me! I'll make you choke on it you pieces of shit!"

It was a desperate situation. The beasts let out another one of their laughing howls, and prepared to jump on the tree... when a new noise echoed through the forest. It was a low, reverberating groan, so powerful that Marcus felt it to his bones, and the crazy werewolf things freezed in response to it.

Then, whining and crying in fear, they immediately ran away, disappearing into the night like shadows.

Marcus stayed on the tree, too surprised to feel relieved. He just sat on the branch, breathing frantically, as his emotions were slowly cooling down.

The forest was dead quiet. It was like the air itself had turned into ice, and everything suddenly turned immobile and silent: the wind, the insects, the birds... the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat.

And then, it came. Crawling on the ground, but still incomprehensibly huge, a gargantuan shadow slithered under the tree.

Marcus could feel his blood freezing in his veins. A new kind of terror gripped his heart: when the wolf things had chased him, he could at least react and ran away, but now, all he could do was stay still.

This beast was something different from anything he had met before, an existence so unnaturally powerful, big and predatory that he had turned catatonic at its mere presence.

He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't even think. He could only stay there, paralyzed in terror, hoping with every fiber of his being that this new creature wouldn't notice him.

This new horror was at least 20 meters long from head to tail, and at least 4 meters tall even while crawling on the ground. Six powerful legs moved his bloated, scaly body, while a huge, beaked head shook left and right.

2 pairs of yellow glowing eyes looked at the ground in the forest, eyes devoid of anything even remotely similar to fear or caution. This beast was the peerless ruler of this place, and it's quiet arrogance emanated from his every movement.

It was similar to an humongous, monstrous monitor lizard, but that wasn't the word Marcus would have used to describe that creature. No, the word that continued popping in his mind was another, one that carried an healthy dose of respect for the immense strength of that animal.

The word was "dragon".

The monster stood there for over a minute, letting out an overly long, raspy tongue similar to a misshapen worm to taste the air.

Every second felt like an eternity to Marcus, each moment carrying the promise of a swift death in that enormous, beaked jaw, but finally the reptilian creature moved, continuing his stroll undisturbed and unaware of the terrified creature that was looking at him from the tree.

Too terrified to move, Marcus spent the rest of the night clung to that tree.