The Prismatic Eye

My names Auric… I think. And I've been alone ever since I can remember. I believe it was seven years ago, the morning of my eighth birthday. on that morning I had no idea who I was or where I was, however, I still knew how to speak and walk without problems, it was only my memories that had seemed to vanish. I woke up in what seemed to be a bedroom which I later learned was mine. inside the room there was a pile of many different books in the form of guides: one for hunting, one for fishing, one for foraging, one for cooking so on so on. But something else caught my attention at that time, it was a note not addressed to anyone nor did it have a writer. all it said was 'use these' it was placed on top of the books so it must of been talking about them.

I found nothing else of importance hidden inside the room. So I decided to go check around the rest of the house I was in… as I was opening the door I wanted to see if anyone else was around.

"Hello! is there anyone there?"

… …

There was nothing but silence that followed after that statement so I soon realized that I was on my own.

As I was closing the door to the room I noticed a word carved into into it… it read 'Auric'

"Auric? Is that my name?"

I then took on that name, as when I first read it I felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity with it… like I've known it for a long time. I also noticed three other rooms, each of them had words carved into them, but the only one I could make out was the word 'guest' on one of them, the other two had been scratched to the point that it could no longer be made out. Inside each of the rooms however included at least one bed.

"So they're all bedrooms… who did they belong to."

I believe that the guest room was for someone who visited this house and that the other two were for my other family members. I then went to investigate around all the other rooms in search for others living here but came up with nothing, however, I did find a bathroom, kitchen, lounge, fire place, and even in the shed was a bunch of tools which looked to be used for preparing food.

I then made my way to the front door of the house, except… I felt terrified… when I put my hand on the handle, it was as if my mind was telling me not to go outside. I followed my instincts and decided instead to go back towards my room to begin reading those guide books that were left, I knew that because I'm alone I'll have to learn as much as possible in order to survive.

…

And that was my earliest memory. It's been seven years since all that happened and I've found no trace of any other living people like me, not, a, singular one. During those years I searched all around the house I woke up in for clues but came up with nothing. I also ventured outside to see if I could come across a town of some sorts but that didn't work, because most of the time if I went too far in one direction I end up back at the house, either I've got terrible directional skills or there's something bigger happening.

But I don't have very much time to think about that as every day is busy with me trying to stay alive, like finding food so I don't starve to death… I grab my hunting backpack which stores things I may need such as spare fishing line, water, little food, and tools that I may need to repair the traps I've set, I also found both a bow and a sharp dagger that I use for hunting.

When it comes to using a bow I'm not that skilled. most of the time I hit the target but never in a fatal spot. I always hit the tails of all the animals which always ends with it getting away and never being able to catch it.

Instead I practiced more when it comes to sneaking with the dagger and setting up traps instead, which at this point has a very high success rate when it comes to catching the animal.

I open the door and step outside the cabin taking in the surroundings… the house is situated in the middle of an opening in a forest which I believe is referred to as a glade, now the house is also surrounded by a singular type of flower and that flower being 'Blue Roses' which to my knowledge should not be possible at all as in one of the books I read described blue roses as being artificially created and should not be able to grow naturally. Another crazy thing is that it has never rained since I've lived here and and I have also never watered them myself so I don't quite understand how they all look perfectly healthy.

Walking past the roses I head straight ahead towards the closest river from the house which has come to be my number one way of collecting water, as well as turning it into a connecting spot that branches off to other important areas for hunting and gathering that becomes one big loop.

Upon reaching the river I pull out all of the empty containers I have and begin filling them up with water and proceed to put each one back into the bag… standing back up I continue along the river bank.

"I wish there was some sort of spell to instantly treat the water, boiling it is quite tedious."

Now that I think about there was no book on magic, fighting or any thing of that sort which was quite strange, I guess that still gives me the hope of magic being real… let's hope.

Now as I walk towards the lake at the end of the river, I check all the traps that I've set in hopes something has been caught in one but to my surprise none of the traps have gone off, until I got to the last one. but what I saw shocked me, the trap had gone off yes but I was not expecting there to be a rabbit in it, well I believe it's a rabbit I'm looking at. What was in the trap had to be the biggest rabbit I've ever seen and to give you something to compare it to would be me. from my last measure I was around one-hundred and seventy five centimeters and this rabbit was—I'm not joking about one-hundred and forty centimeters, about three quarters of my height.

"Where am I even suppose to begin with this thing."

Like how the hell am I suppose to carry this thing, I can't hang it off my bag like I usually do because this one is way too big, not only would it be dragging along the ground but I'm not strong enough to even pick it up, however, it is still alive so I could just let it go and try finding a smaller on— "SQUEEEEEE!!!!"

The rabbit late out an ear piercing screech that forced me to cover my ears… but it wouldn't shut up, I looked towards it and emanating from it was an immense red glow that came with the feeling of severe suffering, it kept getting brighter and brighter so with no choice I decided to pull out my dagger and cut the rope, except once it hit the ground the screaming got louder and the poor thing started writhing in pain. I didn't know what to do, however on a whim I crouched down and rested my hand on the poor rabbit.

"Hey don't worry, you're okay, I won't hurt you"

Surprisingly the glow started to diminish and the rabbit began to slowly calm down, once it had calmed down it moved towards me and looked into my eyes however it was only staring at my right eye for some reason, after a while it started licking my hand before running away into the trees.

"That was weird, is something wrong with my right eye."

Now that I look back I've only ever seen my reflection in the river. However, I can only make out my scrawny body and hair, which is incredibly long being down to the back of my knees as I never learnt how to cut my own hair. with that in mind I walk down to the bank, pull back the hair covering my right eye and look into the water.

However it just looks like a normal eye and I can't tell what colour it is either, I check my left eye which looks slightly different but still no idea what it would be.

Well my traps weren't a success, so I'm guessing I should head down towards the lake to try my luck at fishing. As I began walking I noticed that above me was something i saw everyday in the air which had to be a phoenix, I read about it in the bestiary, that was one of the books I found when I woke up that day, it's said to be able to breath fire however, I've yet to see that.

"I believe there was something else about it as well… hm."

Finally, upon reaching the lake I quickly made my way to the spot where I kept the fishing rod. grabbing it out of the barrel which I originally found in the house's basement everything seemed to be in the place I last left it, although… I do notice that the current fishing line looks fairly damaged.

"I might need to replace the line today, *sigh*"

Well I'll see how many I can catch before I need to replace it. pulling back the rod I then proceed to swing it over my right shoulder and cast it into the water, not even ten seconds later the line starts moving, standing up I prepare to reel the line in however, the second I began reeling the line immediately snapped.

"What the… it snapped after the first try."

With that happening I take off my backpack and dig through it, in search of the spare line that I bought.

"Ah, here it is"

Taking it out of my bag I then replace the old line which I do with ease but I can remember it being one of the more difficult things I had to learn, due to it only being described with words in the books I received, however this doesn't pose a challenge so I stand back up and cast the rod back into the water and begin waiting. This time it took about a minute before I started to see some bites.

"Aha, there you are, hopefully I can get you this time"

With that I began to real the fis—

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

*SPLASH*

...

*GASP*

Holy shit what kind of force was that-never mind that the things still on the line it's not over yet, I realize I'm way to weak to pull this in so I have to think of something else to at least keep it confined—

"Ah, perfect I remember that group of boulders"

Using every ounce of my strength I slowly stomp over to the group of rocks I spotted which would allow me to wedge the fishing rod in so it removes the need of holding it. *scrape* *clack* with that I should be able to let go of the rod now… OK great it works, so now on to a new form of action on what I should do.

"I'm too weak to reel it in and it's swimming around like crazy right now, so I think my best bet is wait until it calms down and then get the jump on it."

I glance over at my backpack and notice the dagger, great I can use that to kill the thing, or injure it at least. I walk over and unsheathe the blade and prepare an ambush on the crazed fish, it took about two whole minutes before the mystery fish stopped panicking and luckily it decided to stop right near the edge of the lake.

I slowly creep over to where the line is still in the water, once I made it I switched to a pouncing stance and in one swift motion I jumped into the water and jabbed my knife like a spear in the direction of where the line was.

*SHNK!*

To my surprise I had actually hit something… after letting my eyes adjust to the water I was able to clearly see what it was that I had caught, it was a salmon, however, it had something in common with the last animal, it was gigantic but what was even more horrifying was that it was clearly bigger than me, it had to be at least two whole meters in length maybe even longer.

"I need to get this out of the water, let's leave panicking for later."

Yeah this things heavy, seeing I can't carry it I'm going to need to drag this out of the water, OK! One! Two! and THREE—

"HEAVE, *pant* alright *pant* it's out of the water… now to get it out of the sun."

I begin dragging it across the grass and it's way lighter than it had been when bringing it out of the water, so I was able to put it into the shade with relative ease.

"OK NOW."

…

…

…

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WHY WAS THAT SALMON SO BIG NOT ONLY THAT BUT THE RABBIT TOO HOW DID ALL THESE ANIMALS GET SO BIG IN THE SPAN OF ONE DAY!… ok ok, deep breaths, deep breaths."

*breath in* breath out*

Alright now on to more important matters. seeing that I don't have the strength to carry either the rabbit or the salmon I won't have any food, so I'll at least cut a few fillets out of the salmon so it doesn't completely go to waste.

Alright… so with that out the way what I'm thinking is heading deeper into the forest to see if I can forage for any berries or fruits, while I'm at that as well I can use it as a chance to investigate to see if other animals are affected by this rapid growth, I swear if I see a massive spider I'll die.

Heading deeper into the forest I come across some pretty big insects but they're mostly double it's original size so the problem doesn't seem to be as bad… yet. but it seems on the other hand the berry bushes are still how they've always been, *chomp* still tastes the same as well, continuing, I throw every berry I see into my separate bag, edible ones of course, and continue until I reach a mysterious hole in the side of cliff, weird thing is I've come down this way but this was never here.

"Is this what people would call a cave… should I go in."

Contemplating whether or not to go in I notice something In the mud outside the entrance, they were footprints.

"Huh?, I must be tired."

However the footprints do look relatively big, bigger than mine at least, they are also facing outside the cave, which means they came out of this and are yet to be back due to none leading back in.

"Whoever this is hasn't returned yet, I hope they aren't dangerous."

The suns starting to set so I better start heading back. However, I don't want to lose this cave, I pull out my dagger and carve an arrow pointing towards the entrance on every second tree as I make my way back to the house

*SCRAAAAPE*

Shit! I don't know how much longer this dagger will last. it's beginning to get quite dull, even if I tried sharpening the thing it most likely won't do much in terms of actually making it sharper, the blade itself is nearly destroyed.

"Ah there it is, can't wait to pass out on the couch."

As I spotted the house through the tress I noticed something odd, not only were the lights still on but the door was still open as well, and I know I didn't leave the lights on or the door ope—

"Shit! I didn't lock the door."

This is quite a bad situation I've gotten myself in, what could it be that got in, perhaps one of those big animals opened the door and bumped the light switch… thats a bit far fetch—

Oh wait no, those footprints before, maybe whoever that was accidentally stumbled across the house, ohhhhh this is bad, very very bad, before I take any drastic measures I should go peek through the windows and see who or what it is.

Making my way quietly and quickly towards the house I also take out my bow and load it with an arrow just in case.

"I may not be good with aiming but nothing else I can do."

I slowly peek my head in from the corner of the window which gave me a view of the kitchen, the lounge and the hallway. but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, everything was where it always is as well as how I left it this morning.

I circle around the house looking through each window but come back with nothing, so I guess it must of been my imagination. maybe I did leave the lights on and the door open by accident when I left the house.

"Alright guess I should go in now then."

I step through the front door and hang my bag on the hook stuck in the door and sit down on the couch.

"Damn I was kinda hoping I would see another person, well guess I'll go back to that cave tomorrow instead."

*creak*

"Huh"

Turning around I see it, something I've never seen in my life, right before my eyes was the thing I was just hoping for… another perso—

"Wait wait, why the hell do you have an orange glow around you."

What looked to be a man in his 30's gave me a shocked look.

"Wha… HUH!"