Exploration

"Uuughhhh... W-What happened?" Kai said weakly, sitting up and rubbing his forehead. "Aghhh, everything hurts..."

Kai felt around his body to check for wounds. To his surprise, all he got were a few cuts scattered across his body and a sprained ankle.

He stood up to stretch his arms which were severly cramped."A-ah, that's much better." He oddly liked the satisfying clicks and cracks they made. He then sat back down, dumbfounded from what just happened.

Kai looked around from his position. It seemed the town was placed near the sea, with jungle surrounding it. There was rubble everywhere, pretty much as far as the eye could see. No buildings were spared from the storm. Everything was flat, so he could see everything now. "How did I survive this!?" He whispered to himself. He was truly confused. The cage he got trapped in was no where to be found, which only made him even more confused.

"Wait.. what about the others in the cages!?" Kai Realized, with wide eyes. "No, actually, what about all the innocent lives lost?"

Kai wasn't the brightest at logic, as said before, but he was smart enough to know that intelligent species always had innocents, or goodhearted people. He observed closer at his surroundings, and realized the high amount of blood stains around the area, and small bits of organs..

He nearly puked at that realization, and struggled to stay upright, even though he was sitting at the moment.

Kai shook his head denying his thoughts. "No, there has to be some survivors."

He stood up, and walked to a limestone building lying crushed on the ground. He then started to search under the fallen partsand crevices of the building. "Hello? Any survivors under here?"

Kai waited for an answer, but nobody responded.

"Of course not," He said to himself. "How would there be survivors in a place like this?"

Kai frowned. Would there actually be survivors here? The place looks desolate now, and guts were splattered everywhere which still made Kai feel a little sick. "Maybe there aren't survivors, but there has to be some tools or materials," he said to himself.

He scanned the vicinity, and wandered around the area for a while. While looking under the ruins he found a sword and an axe. They seemed to be in okay condition. Kai looked around more, and found a huge piece of cloth. He decided to wrap it into a makeshift backpack, and put the tools in it.

"And lastly," kai said, "I need some food to store."

As he looked around for food, he found nothing. Everything edible was most likely crushed in the storm. His hunger made him miss his parent's cooking. He never went a day without being hungry.

He thought for a moment. 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙? The thought sent chills down Kai's spine. All he remembers were a bunch of lizardmen that raided his village, and his parents telling him to run away. It was hard then, but it was the best choice for survival at that time. It wasn't good enough though, because he was still caught, along with others from the village. That's about all he could remember.

Kai really missed everyone. His parents, his friends, his aunts, his crazy uncle, his loving grandparents.

𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛? His inner thoughts asked.

"Ugh, now's not the time Kai! Get your head in the game!" He shook his head. "Wait, wouldn't it be easier to hunt for food?" That would mean he needed to go into the deep jungle around him, or he could try to fish in the sea.

He decided to try fishing, because god only knows what lurks in the jungle.

𝐼 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝘩𝑜𝑟𝑒, 𝑠𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟, he thought as he proceeded the ocean. Kai took out his sword, and waited for an unsuspecting fish lurking in the water.

"Hah!" Kai bellowed. "Gotcha!"

He speared a small and blue looking octopus from the ocean. "E-eh? An octopus?" Kai asked himself. "That's kind of strange, but free food!"

He proceeded to find a treestump and placed the octopus on it.

"Dad taught me how to harvest animals like deer and stuff, so let's hope the knowledge transfers to this." He started to dice the octopus, and scoop the bits of into a pile. When he finished, he proceeded to eat them. "Mmmmm- this is oddly good!"

Kai never saw an octopus in real life before, so it was very interesting. The portion size was small, so it still left him a bit hungry.

He decided to rest a bit. He was honestly very tired from the whole ordeal, and was only feeling the effects of it now. "Gahhh, Maybe 10 minute nap!" He said out loud. He decided to walk toward the beach and sleep on the sand. It was pretty comfortable. He tried to fall asleep, but his inner thoughts were preventing him. 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛? 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑒? 𝑊𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝘩𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒?

Kai gritted his teeth. "No, not again, not now! Just shut up inner thoughts!"

Suddenly, a huge rumble shook the ground beneath Kai. He jumped up to his feet, alert. He stared into the distance with a distressed expression. A huge roar echoed through the air. A seemingly small shape was approaching him. As it got closer, he soon realized what is was. A huge blue octopus creature was running straight for him, somehow out of the water.

"W-wait!" Kai screamed. He decided to run as fast he could. "how do I escape?" He yelled at himself. "Oh, the jungle!" He decided to head for the jungle in seek of protection. The huge octopus looked like the one he had just eaten. He must've ate the octopus's baby without knowing it. "I'm sorry Octopus!"

He dodged and weeved through the crumpled ruins of the buildings. The octopus lay not far behind him, crushing everything in it's path.

𝑊𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝘩 𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒? Kai thought to himself. 𝐷𝑜 𝐼 𝘩𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑑 𝑙𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔? 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑, 𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑑, 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝘩𝑢𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑠?

Kai was close to the jungle, with the giant blue octopus right on his trail. Suddenly, a tentacle flew right right at him, and kai ducked in time. "You won't kill me!"

"Blblblu!" The octupus replied.

Suddenly, another tentacle flew across the ground, and Kai jumped over it.

"Im so close!" Kai roared. He was starting to get severely out of breath. "Im almost there!!" The octopus was throwing its tentacles in every direction, almost hitting Kai.

In a blink of an eye, he dived into the bushes of the jungle, and hid under a large fern.

"Groarrr!" The huge octopus was fuming, throwing it's tentacles everywhere. It never tried to enter the rainforest though. Kai was watching it rampage with wide eyes, it was throwing random objects into the air, and slapping the ground with it's tentacles.

𝐽𝑒𝑒𝑧, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝘩𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑠. 𝑊𝘩𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑑, 𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑠? He thought. He decided to run deeper into the jungle. It may be stupid because of the monsters lurking there, but that was Kai's style. As he walked through the mysterious place, he heard many sounds. Chirps, squeals, roars, rattles, and- howling?

"Why is there howling, it's the middle of the day?" He said to himself. It made no sense to him, but again, he was kind of dumb sometimes."

"Woah, look at these yellow berries!" Kai said, astonished. They were growing on a thick wooden trunk, and the vines were wrapped around it, with the berries pointing outward. He started to pick the berries from the trunk and decided to eat them, not thinking about the possibility of being poisoned.

"Screeech!" A small, pterodactyl-like creature emerged from the foliage. It was white with orange spots around its body. It was only around 2 feet tall. "Screeeeeech!" The creature started to circle around the tree. It probably wanted the berries.

"Ohohoh, do you think you will steal my food?" Kai asked. "Well I got news for you buddy!" He threw his axe at the creature, but it dodged it with ease. The axe landed in a tree trunk. "Grrrgh, you won't escape!"

He ran to the axe, and yanked it out of the tree trunk. He twirled around to get a good swing at the creature, barely missing it. "These are my berries, you won't take them!" Kai yelled. He then proceeded to charge at it, but this time the creature flew high up in the air. The creature dived at him at high speed. "Screeeech!" Kai managed to block, but got knocked to the ground.

"Ugh, you bastard!" He, said furiously. He jumped to his feet and charged at the creature, who was now sitting on the branch of a tree. "HAAAA!" Kai screamed. The creature jumped into the air again before he could hit it.

"Sccreeechh!" the creature said once more before flying away into the depths of the jungle.

"Yeah, take that!" Kai babbled. He was still mad he couldn't kill the weird creature. It may have been tasty, so it was a missed opportunity.

He went back to the berries and ate all of them. They were oddly juicy and sweet, good for flavor and hydration.

He continued to explore the jungle, stepping over roots, cutting through branches, and climbing through the trees. The thickness of the jungle was almost like swimming through honey. He crawled through the foliage, and eventually came upon a small pond. There was a another strange creature dinking from it. It had 3 legs and was standing in a tripod position. It was all black, with a serrated looking spike and glowing blue eyes. "What in the world is that?" Kai whispered to himself. The odd creature opened it's mouth wide, and a grotesque proboscis erected out of it. It started to suck up tiny bugs around the area. "Yeah, It would probably be best to stay away from that."

Kai continued through the thick jungle. After a while of searching, he found a cute rabbit creature standing still behind a bush. "Haha, foooood!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. Maybe he exclaimed a bit too kloud, because the rabbit creature heard him and ran away at speeds he never thought was possible. 𝑇𝘩𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠! Kai internally screamed.

He looked around the area more, and saw some odd looking fruit on a tree. He decided to climb up it. He lifted his right arm onto 1 spot, and his left leg onto another. "Gahh, this tree is too smooth!" He wailed, "there aren't any footholds!"

After a while Kai did manage to climb the tree, and now he was exhausted. "These fruit better be good!"

He tried them out, and they tasted like nothing! "Gahh, seriously!? He howled.

After a dissapointing outcome, he decided to climb down the tree. Right as he started to, a humongous tiger monster, with green and black fur and a huge lizard like tail jumped out of the foliage. The monster was 10 feet tall! It spooked Kai so much, he nearly fell out of the tree. He scrambled back to the top. Kai closed his eyes, and sighed. "This can't be happening," he whispered to himself, scratching his head. "What is up with this place?"

When he opened his eyes, the tiger was staring right into his soul. The bright green eyes watched him with dilated pupils. Kai looked back at the monster, mortified.

The tiger started to roar, clawing at the tree. The tree was shaking back and forth. Kai was getting thrashed around at the top. "GAHHH, I can't hold on for much longer!" Kai cried out. He was holding the branch he was on as hard as he could. "HOW IS IT SO STRONG!?"

He was getting sick of the sudden predicaments. He hated this place. Once again, he wished he could be back at his village playing his friends, and spending time with his family.

The huge 10 foot tiger suddenly rammed into the tree trunk, knocking Kai off the tree. "NO!" Kai squealed, getting on his feet. He charged at the monster. "You won't kill me no matter what!"

He pulled out his sword, and tried to slice at the monsters face. It jumped back and dodged kai's assault.

The lion roared back at Kai. It spun around and smacked Kai with his tail, sending him flying into a tree trunk. "GAHHHH!" He shrieked. The force of the blast temporarily paralyzed him, and he could only sit there and watch the monster approach him with bare teeth. His head was bleeding badly, and his body had severe cuts. 𝑊𝘩𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝐼 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑐𝘩 𝑎 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘? 𝐼 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑑... He couldn't help but smile for some reason. "I guess this is just how the world works.. The world is truly a cruel place to live in...."