1 Noodles of the nature

A bright and blazing sun, an endless green forest spread till the horizon, the sound of forest critters and howls of beast echoing through the trees. The only thing out of place was a thin man who has just dug himself out of his grave, one may assume he was dead if not for the twitching his body produced from time to time.

The trees in this area of the jungle were a bit sparse considering that it had just went through a few special renovations few weeks ago, hence the sun shined on the muddy body of the man.

"I ham….haliv*Cough." Bits of rotten flesh and shrapnel came out of his mouth but this didn't stop the man from having a peaceful smile on his face, though his body didn't have any strength left, but his eyes still glistened as he moved his head and looked deep in the forest, looking at something only known to him.

"I a…am ali..ive!!" His voice started to stabilize after some time, as the numb sensation from his mouth faded away, but the psychological impact of what happened still affect his vocabulary to some extent.

'I need to get up.' The man felt an odd sensation as the air coursed through his lungs, he can feel the blood in his body started to pick up pace, restoring the sensation of tough and pain back as time moved on, the need for hunger and thirst that had been cut away from his body was also restored following that.

The man pushed his only functioning arm forcefully against the muddy ground, but failed ultimately and still had his eyes facing the ground. All the strength that he had was already used up so that he can come out on the surface, now he didn't have any more left.

But he didn't give up, he tried again but failed.

He still continued on, but was hampered by his lack of energy and the slippery mud.

"Eat!…I ne…ed to ..eat" The dried and feeble voice sounded out from his mouth, begging to the unknown for some food, maybe the man believed in some god, maybe he was hallucinating or maybe it was an instinctual action conducted by his mind and body on the verge of death... again.

This went on for hours as the bright sun spread it's warm love on him, the mud on his skin had already dried, while cracks have appeared on them due to the twitching muscles.

'Am I really going to die?'

'Well! It wouldn't be so bad if I think about it.' As his conscious was drifting toward the hunger induced coma, a small droplet of water fell on his skin but soon got soaked by the dried and hungry clay on his skin.

But that drop was not the only one, soon water started raining down from the sky as the light dimmed and the forest descended in to an abrupt silence. In no time a curtain of cloud has formed up in the sky isolating the forest from the warmth of the sun.

The dirt that covered the man of body was washed down in this instance, exposing his damaged skin riddled with holes, though at the moment they had healed up, the scars still remained, only the small part of his garments were present on his body that had dark brown stains covering them and didn't seem to be caused by the mud.

The small rain increased in density as wind picked up and the thunder started crackled in the sky as it illuminated the whole forest.

As the hailing water started to congregate close to the man who was still close to his grave, his wavering mind awakened as the survival instinct of his conscious took over, the water had already reached to the level of his nose, impeding his breath.

Taking a loud breath and a sudden jolt of strength in the face of horrible consequences, his working hand grabbed hold of a tree root under the loose mud and pulled up, he pulled himself out of the ditch in an instant, though half his body was still drowning in the puddle.

'My hand…. It's useless too?' That sudden action had taken a toll on already atrophied muscles on his only capable arm, the muscles were torn up while his shoulder also seemed to be displaced from his collar-bone.

'Is the fate playing some sadistic game on me?........ someone'

"An…yone…. savh…me"

During his pleading to the sky, the mud beneath his face started moving, these small worms were escaping from their tunnels as they soon will be filled with water hence they started climbing loose soil. As they come out in the open, the water awash them of the mud around them, these things started grouping and slithered on the mud as small snakes.

These actions didn't get unnoticed from the man; he could feel tickling sensation on his face, though barely able to keep his eyes open in the present situation, he was still able to see the moving figures of the snakes.

They were moving all around his body, tickling every part of him. But this didn't affect him, his mind went on a totally different road altogether. 'Does somebody really listened?'

The man tilted his mouth toward a group of earthworms and gobbled them instantaneously along with some dirt. His mind had been numbed, hence even the earthy taste of the worms gave him a titillating experience, the mushy and slimy taste was a whole new experience for him. The earthworms were already famous for being highly nutritious, as 75% of their body comprised of pure protein and for the man that was descending into coma, this jolt of protein just may save his life.

"More!" A ravenous surge of hunger suddenly exploded in his brain, he wriggled his body to get close to a clump of the earth worms before devouring them, he didn't care if he also ate stones or mud, his mind was already got consumed as it found a source of protein in the surrounding. As he devoured more of these, the energy that had been reserved by his body was suddenly made in use as he slithered through one place to another in search for more food.

'I need more…..more…' His right hand that had been useless from the beginning suddenly reached out and grabbed toward a clump of worms before he threw into his mouth.

An instinctual action, but as he moved and hunted for the small and feeble source of protein, the more movements his body started to show, the dislocated shoulder that should take months to heal also moved in a weird action, the man swung it to reach out for more food, the immense pain he felt was nothing in face of the hunger he was feeling.

*crack

A gurgling sound came from his spine, the ribs that were sticking out of his flesh shook as they regained their function

"haha!! I will live…. I will survive…." The man cried as he stuffed more food in his mouth, in this forest in which only the sound of rain echoed out, a jovial event took place in the heart of this forest, even the heavens responsible for this flood were crying out in the bouts of thunder, an odd synergy formed as the laughter of the man increased with each subsequent crackle of thunder.

There was hope for the man, and this opportunity had been given to him by fate.

*****

Weeks later in the same forest, a half-naked man carrying small pouch made from dirty clothes was walking aimlessly. The man looked to be in his 30's having half his face covered with gruff and dirty beard and body riddled with scars. His face was not exempt from this attribute, as one may even find two circular scars covering his forehead, as for what was under the beard, only time may tell.

This was the same man who dug himself out of his own grave, his body now seemed nourished as a hint of vitality and redness came from his light brownish skin in response to the humid atmosphere. The man had been walking like this for a long time he didn't even know if he was going around in circle as he was not adept or even trained in this field.

The man was just an average reporter named Gaur who used to write food blogs for his news firm, but a twist of fate had led him here in a place riddled with war and herald by a bunch of sadistic bastards, who treated him worse than an animal before executing him after dishonouring him in front of the world.

He didn't know that he had just been a useless pawn killed to convey a warning and message to the world, his life and his prestige had just been collateral in between this. Would he take revenge against them, no this thought never came to his mind.

The moment Gaur had regained conscious he had been recounting the events from the day his name was selected for the transfer while practicing his speech skills by talking to himself. He had contemplated about the events again and again and understood one fact from it.

"I should just go back to my country and forgot about it all." He ignored the fact that he had to face some dirty tricks and fake allegations from his own country before he went back in, which then will be followed by the blood-sucking media trying to "expose" his true nature. He understood all these due to his prior background.

He thought of ceasing his journalist activities and help around the family shop when he got home. 'Papa and Mumma must be worried… all three of you, take care of our parents.' Gaur prayed as he looked up.

'But would I really be able to do it?' Gaur look at his arms, the inner operation of his hands appeared in his mind, he can feel each muscle of his both limbs sending a feedback to him. This feedback was a bit jumbled up and it took a lot of time for Gaur to make a sense out of these messages, but he can still somewhat understand that this was just a kind of report on the ongoing operation between the inner working of his muscle.

With regular experimentation Gaur also found out that he may be able to affect these operations if he concentrated hard enough, but these kind of actions had caused him a lot of pain and they seem to cost him huge amount of energy, the small fat that was formed after eating all kinds of disgusting things in this forest and occasionally tasty fruits were all used up.

And he even failed to do it properly and nearly caused one of his kidney from failing.

'How can this kind of volatile power even help me survive from those fatal wounds?

'here seemed to be something more to my ability!!'

"But isn't it 12years too late? Seems like I will have my name on Limca's Planet records…"

Gaur had been going on like this, thinking redundant things just to maintain his sanity and restore his linguistic ability just so that he can communicate properly, when did it became a habit, even Gaur didn't remember.

This was also going to be the same day as always.

If not for what gaur noticed as he climbed tree for a night's sleep.

Due to being surrounded by forest all the time as he journeyed ever onwards, Gaur had long since lost the sense of direction during the day, but he was still able to somewhat tell the direction during the night due to the constellation in condition that there are no clouds.

He first thought of this when he climbed the tree first time due to the fear of snakes, but it seemed looking at the stars as he slept helped Gaur recall an old show, in it were shown some survival tactics most of the time these tactics were improvised and turned into something flashy so as to cater to the young and impressionable audience. And it seemed to work in Gaur's case too.

Though gaur didn't know the name of constellations, he made some up on his own and followed them to be on the same path.

This night gaur noticed another source of light beside the ones twinkling in the sky.

These lights on the ground signified existence of people nearby, he would have been elated if this just had been the case.

But this camp illuminated by dim light was also the same place Gaur was executed, the horrific memory of having a bullet blasted through his skull resurfaced in his mind, the apathetic look that man from the Dawn gave, the warm spit of that sadist who ordered his executions, those exaggerated and fake accusations that were set to be released to the world.

All of this came to his mind as a surge of fear took over his mind, Gaur thought of backing out and try a new approach and a new direction.

'No I can circumvent along it's edges…' his Idea was simply to still keep moving forward after how long it took to see a bit of civilization, he can move along this compounds edges away from the eyes of sentries if they existed. It wouldn't affect a lot on the journey and can only increase a path that took 2 hours to be completed in 5 or more hours.

But there always existed ifs. His mind was still contemplating the chance to move in a different direction, he even had the thought of not resting and exit this area until he couldn't see that light again.

"No!! I have already been killed once, so what's to fear??" As Gaur spoke this out loud, his palpating heart calmed down a bit, and an insignificant surge of expectation and excitement birthed in his consciousness. Gaur was able to elude himself with just few words, he was beginning to become an optimist after all that he had gone through instead.

His confidence came through various things. And his awakened power being one of them.