First Night

Roger watched as the feline paced back and forth beneath him, its wounded paw raised so it didn't put any weight on it.

Now that he had a chance to view the entire creature, he considered how it looked like a large tiger. If a tiger had a tail with a spike on it, that is.

Or if tigers could walk on water.

It was still difficult to wrap his head around the magical aspects of Avar, but seeing things happen with your own eyes had a way of making you into a believer pretty fast.

Resting back on the branch, he exhaled deeply. This wasn't going to be as easy as killing the eel, and he couldn't just wait the beast out.

Water and food were not in large supply at the top of trees.

With a thought, he pulled up the Systems screen again.

[System Initializing…]

'I hope this thing plans to kick it before I die up here, I could really use those abilities the old man spoke of right now!'

Nothing answered his plea, and so Roger could only wait. And wait.

And wait some more.

Minutes ticked by slowly, the tiger periodically roaring up at him, reminding him it was still waiting. After the first hour, it attempted to climb up the tree again but fell once more. 

No more claws were lost this time, but the first one was still lodged in the tree.

Roger began to grow bored and settled to entertain himself by studying the beast. 

He looked at its sleek orange fur and realized it reminded him of the colorful fruits sometimes served in the prison cafeteria. They were synthetic ones, of course, as natural oranges cost a small fortune. Still, the prisoners often looked forward to any sweet foods. They were rare and therefore a prized treat when you could acquire one.

It had old wounds all over, patches where fur had been torn out and pink flesh could be seen. 

The largest of these wounds crossed directly over its back, and Roger was surprised its spine was still intact. Or maybe it just had a healing ability.

He was trying to break the habit of assuming anything in this new world.

As he watched, he noticed that the creature always led with its head. Wherever the head went, the body followed, trusting the tail to stab anything that tried to sneak up on it.

He learned that last part when it impaled one of the small creatures running around, skewering it before bringing the corpse to its mouth and swallowing it whole. 

The sight sent shivers down Rogers's spine.

After the second hour, the tiger ran off into the trees, causing Roger to celebrate silently. Waiting a few minutes to be sure, he slowly began to climb down, taking care to not injure his leg any more than it already was.

Just before he crossed the point of no return, the beast returned, unleashing a bestial roar and causing Roger to almost fall.

In a moment of terror, he raced back up the tree, tearing his makeshift bandage in the process. 

Once back at the top, he leaned his head against the bark of the tree and screamed into the air, his frustration reaching new levels.

His blood dripped out of his wound, slowly falling off the tree branch and dripping onto the dirt far below. 

Looking down at the focus of his troubles, he saw the predator had fresh wounds on its body. Blood seeped from what appeared to be claw marks, deep ones at that. 

The creature's teeth were stained red, pieces of flesh and meat still stuck in them.

'Why couldn't it have lost to whatever it just fought?'

Night approached, the sun dipping below the horizon to reveal a black sky full of stars. Even with the day he was having, Roger took the time to lean back and watch them.

There were no stars left to see in the night sky back on Earth, not that Roger had been outside to look for them anytime recently. 

All that was up there were the industrial rings that orbited the planet and large satellites that held the spaceports for interplanetary travel vessels, otherwise known as ITVs. Roger had always wondered what it would be like to travel on one and start a new life on one of the other populated planets.

His fellow inmates had always dreamed about visiting Venus, the planet of pleasure, but Roger wanted to go to the artificial planet, Vulcan.

There he could personally work on a colossus beyond organizing metal to be shipped to the forges of Vulcan.

Watching the stars above him twinkle, Roger felt himself grow weary. He tried to fight the feeling at first but eventually gave in, willing himself to close his eyes and sleep. His exhaustion made the task easy. 

When morning came, Roger woke with the rising sun. 

His skin was deathly pale from blood loss and the frigid cold of an unprotected night. It felt worse than even the prison nights, something Roger had not expected. 

His leg was still bleeding, the skin turning purple in many places. It had even begun to spread lower along the limb, making him lose feeling in his right foot.

He tried to wiggle his toes and found the task difficult, only being able to do so when he put all his focus on them.

From his vantage point, he was able to see the light spread far and wide, illuminating miles of forest. Far to his North, he saw mountains tower high, and to his South he thought he saw even taller trees, marking a jungle.

For a while, he sat there cursing his luck at being trapped in such a wild place, before he realized something.

He hadn't heard the tiger since he awoke.

Looking over the side with renewed vigor, his hopes were dashed when he saw the familiar orange fur near the trunk of the tree, but then he noticed something important.

The beast was still asleep.

Smiling at his luck, he began to formulate a plan.

He could sneak down the tree, taking his time to not make any excess noise. Then, once he made it to the forest floor, he could creep off. Then, returning to the river, he could follow it downstream until he was far enough from the tiger to build a shelter and wait for the System to finish whatever it was doing!

Confident the plan would work, he carefully swung his leg over the edge of the branch and found a strong foothold in the bark. He then swung his injured leg over and let it dangle in the air, not wanting to risk screaming out in pain if he put weight on it.

He then grabbed into grooves in the wood and slowly began to lower himself. 

He would find a strong place to put his good foot, before grabbing lower parts of the bark, repeating the process by trusting his upper body strength to keep him flat against the trunk.

It helped that the tree was slightly curved as it was, letting gravity help him stay pressed against it.

Multiple times during his descent Roger stopped to test the strength of his next step, worried that a falling piece of bark could hit the beast and wake it up.

Over the course of ten minutes, he moved inch by inch, slowly approaching the ground. 

He grew more and more worried the creature would wake up before he made it down, but it never did, panting loudly as it rested.

Roger was able to see the wounds it had experienced the day prior as he climbed lower and saw just how damaging they were.

He was terrified of whatever could manage to hurt such a ferocious beast but was glad that it had encountered the tiger. If it hadn't, it might not need so much sleep.

Eventually, he finally made it to the bottom, and shimmied down the bark, taking care to stand on his one good leg once he was there. He began to slowly hop away from the tree and the beast, avoiding any leaves that he could step on and cause noise with.

His eyes were a flurry of motion, darting between the sleeping tiger and the ground he was stepping on. 

At this point, he began to believe that he really would escape! All he had to do now was follow the sound of the river and then trace its path through the forest. 

Just as he was able to feel confident in his victory, he saw a small creature crawl down the trunk of a nearby tree. It had a long furry body and large cheeks, with big beady eyes adorning its tiny head. 

To Roger's horror, the creature noticed him and froze before opening its tiny mouth.

The high-pitched screech it released would've sounded adorable if not for the situation he was in.

Turning his head in terror, he stared at the creature's head, praying to any god that would listen for the beast to remain asleep.

Two yellow eyes opened and met his gaze with a ravenous hunger.