Night of the Dancing Lights

That night, the sky was clear. I waited until midnight expecting to experience the boulder/rays of moonlight phenomenon again. The nature did not fail to meet my expectation. The same thing happened that night as well. I saw the boulder being illuminated by the rays of moonlight, and animals converging into the area again.

I stood up from my shelter, and joined the animals in the boulder area. Sitting down about ten metres away from the boulder, I stared at it just like the animals. This phenomenon looked incredibly beautiful, while the rays of moonlight danced around mysteriously. My thoughts began drifting away to some distance place. I felt calm for some reason, and focused only on that boulder.

Suddenly, I felt that my consciousness began drifting away too. At first, I tried to resist, but with each passing second, the resistance slowly faded. I felt safe, and carefree when staring at the rays of moonlight. Then something appeared atop the boulder. A sort of misty figure. Small, perhaps even tiny, and seemed to have wings at the back. Whatever the creature was, it danced happily on the boulder. As if providing a show for everyone gathered. I was shocked so much, my mind and consciousness returned to its original state, and the creature atop the boulder simply vanished. Taking a look around, the animals continued to stare. 'Maybe I'm just tired?' I thought.

I decided to stare at the boulder one more time. After a while, the same sensation overwhelmed my body. My consciousness drift away, while a dreamy and hazy figure with wings began to emerge. I wasn't as shocked as before, and didn't snap out of the dream like state. I continued to watch the creature, while forgetting everything else.

I knew nothing about dancing or hazy creatures, but witnessing the happy dance of that little creature, placed me in a state I can't properly describe with words. A sort of carefree, happy and peaceful feeling took over my body. This was entirely new experience to me, perhaps addictive too. The animals would be there each time the phenomenon happened.

Once the rays of moonlight disappeared, I woke up from my dreamy state. All the animals woke up as well, and simply headed back into the forest. I wanted to get up, but my body felt very heavy. I felt like, I was working hard non stop for couple of days.

With a bit of struggle, I finally managed to crawl back to my shelter and feel asleep instantly. The following day greeted me with the sun high over the horizon. It was afternoon already, and more importantly, I felt immense hunger. With no meat leftover, I had to satisfy my hunger with more berries. This alone took a while, since my appetite that afternoon was really strong. Then I thought about previous night's events. The mysterious creature dancing atop a boulder, my consciousness drifting away, and the whole situation with hunger. Going to sleep late and dead tired, I'd wake up in the morning hours nonetheless.

I went to the boulder to examine it again, but found nothing unusual. Then, I got an idea. 'What if I stand on the boulder, before the rays of moonlight shine on it? There would be no animals to stare swords at me at. I could just wait for the rays of moonlight to descend. That'd let me find out what's so special about this place, and perhaps that creature' I thought.

With my new plan formed, I decided to spend the rest of the day training and hunting. I was still a Human being, Humans didn't feed on plants alone. I went deeper into the forest in search of my prey. With my throwing skills improving everyday, it didn't take long to hunt another rabbit. After my dinner, I practiced my throwing skills again, awaiting the night time to test out my plan.

My accuracy increased day by day. 'During today's practice, I was able to hit the tree two out of four throws!' I thought. I noticed that the better accuracy I wanted to achieve, the harder and longer it took to get there. 'I guess no one becomes a master after a day or two' I thought.

When the night came, I executed my plan and climbed on top of the boulder. I sat down and awaited the moonlight. As expected, it appeared at pretty much the same time it did the day before. Although I was happy that it worked, when the rays of moonlight shined onto my body, I felt like dying. The feeling I had was no longer pleasant, carefree or happy, no. It felt more like a pig awaiting its slaughter. The rays of moonlight were taking my breaths away.

I tried to move, to get away from the boulder, but my body was incredibly heavy. I was barely keeping myself conscious. The pain intensified, few seconds felt like eternity when finally, I fainted.

I woke up the next day or rather, I assumed it was the next day. This time, it was morning. When I woke up, I was happy at the thought that I was still alive. I was alive, but very weak at the same time. When I tried to prop myself up, I realised that my hand was really shrivelled. I got startled by that discovery, and check my whole arm. The same sight welcomed me. In panic, I check the other arm, then both legs and finally I touched my face.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!"

I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was shrivelled and dry like a skeleton. I looked like a dried corpse awaking from its long slumber. I was terrified at myself. 'What the hell happened to me? Did those rays of moonlight suck away my life? Will I stay like this forever?' I asked myself. There were more questions popping into my mind every second. I was scared, confused and maybe even a bit angry.

It took a while for me to finally calm down. I first tried to get off of that cursed boulder. When I moved everything hurt, as if I never used that body before. As if my muscles and bones were grinding against each other. This was not the end. As soon as I moved, the desire to eat something changed to starvation. 'I can even eat grass at that point, anything edible!' I thought.

When I finally managed to get myself off of that boulder, I furiously looked for berries. I knew grass was not ideal type of food for me, it could do more harm than good. Berries were the easiest food to find in the forest, so it didn't take me long to find some.

I started eating. I ate, then ate more, then more and more. Until I ate about two buckets worth of berries. I was surprised myself. 'How was it possible for me to eat two buckets of food.... of berries nonetheless?' I asked myself. Somehow, I managed that. I was no longer starving, but still felt some hunger. I stopped eating for now, I didn't want to overdo it. My current state was much more bearable, compared to when I just woke up. I could still feel pain all over my body, but it was nothing to what I felt before.

When I laid down on the grass, I tried to organise my thoughts. 'The idea of standing on that boulder while waiting for the moonlight, was stupid. I need to leave this place. This place is cursed!' I thought. I no longer had any interest with that boulder, or those rays of moonlight.

I've rested for an hour or two, and even though I did nothing in mid-time, I still felt very hungry. I ate berries again, until I felt better. After another round of eating and resting, I managed to recover enough strength to move normally. I was still too tired to run, but it was an improvement nevertheless. I noticed that the shrivelled skin improved a bit. 'This should mean, if I just rest, and eat, my skin should return to normal' I thought. I was happy about that, if I were to visit another village in the future, people would either attack me, or scream "AAAAHHH! It's a walking corpse!".

I prepared to stay one more night at that place, to rest properly. This time though, I would just go to sleep, and never go near the boulder or that moonlight again.