Forest before the Trees
Feeling my eyes getting violated by the light after a long night of drinking I can't help but scream "Turn off the fucking lights!" Screaming out into the forest. Closing my eyes back to sleep. Wait for the forest? Snapping my eyes open looking around with deep breaths to calm my racing heart.
Taking a closer look around at the unimaginable scene before me I can not help, but gape like a fish out of water. Standing up looking after a few more deep breaths I walk around looking at the slightly rocky ground. Looking around my small clearing taking in the unfamiliar landscape. After a few moments of gawking, I shake my head. Walking up to the trees that dwarf the Giant Sequoias back in California. Running my hand down the time-worn bark I can't help but feel out of place and time. "Not in Kansas anymore." muttering lowly to myself.
Pausing a few moments looking down at the unfamiliar hands in front of me "These are not my hands." Running my fingers over the rough and callused palms. Looking myself up and down "Dam I did not have this much body hair." Looking down at my barrel chest and abs that were not there the night before. Looking lower I pause "that's not my dick?" Doing a few hip twirls and making a fan. 'Well, those who had this body before I took good care of themselves.' Shaking the thoughts out of my head again, I close my eyes and rub a hand down my face stopping at the beard going down my face.
Walking over to a small stream running through the middle of the clearing I kneel. Grabbing a hand full of water I take a sniff. Smelling nothing wrong with it I still do not want to take the risk of drinking non-boiled water. Throwing the water back into the stream I stand up and walk over to a small bolder and take a seat rubbing my temples feeling the coming of a headache. The pressure behind my eyes becomes greater and greater until my eyes start seeing starts with how much pressure I am using to massage my temples. Removing my hand from my face I take a few deep breaths before I feel the headache leave as if it was never there.
Taking one more deep breath realizing that the headache was gone so fast it is as if it did not happen. It left behind memories that are not my own. Going through the blurry memories I realize that they are a boiled-down guide to creating my own set of runes. Blinking back the blurry vision I look around at my feet grabbing a palm-sized flat river stone. Looking down at my feet I find another stone shaped like a spearhead. Laying the flat stone onto my lap holding it down I bring the sharp stone and start carving onto the flat stone tracing the pattern I want onto it.
Going into a trance I feel a warmth flow through my chest into my right hand as I carved into the river stone. Watching The sharpened stone move through the flat stone as if it was Jell-O. Focusing on the warmth I bring a few simple commands from the back of my mind to the front. The simple commands 'Heat', 'On', and 'Off' are the only ones I place onto the stone. Not able to tell the passage of time I come back to feeling tired and groggy.
Fighting down a yawn I look at the stone on my lap pick it up and look at the likes of chicken scratch on it. Searching around inside of me for that same warmth I bring it forth with a mental 'On' I feel the stone heat up in my palm. After a few moments before it becomes too hot to hold, I cut the flow of warmth off to it.
Placing the stone to my side I look at the previously spear-shaped stone I release it onto the ground as it falls apart in smaller almost grain sand-sized chunks. Musing to myself for a few moments I come to a few conclusions that the warmth I felt was my 'Mana'. I am now a novice rune smith in the middle of a forest and naked.
'Ok time for a game plan going over all of the knowledge I had available to me from all the hours of videos and tv I have watched on outdoor survival. Water is a check I just need to find or make a basin to collect said water. Food I going to be tougher, but looking at myself I have a few weeks of fat stored up. I can also make traps for small games that I have been hearing around me. Last is shelter.
Looking around the clearing I don't see anything that would be able to keep me safe at night around the clearing. Grabbing my Heat Stone, I look around for any more useful stones on the ground. After grabbing a hand full of flat stones I head upstream following the stream.
After repeatedly humming 'My mother told me for the dozenth time I come across the end of the stream which leads to a good sized crystal clear pool-sized pond of water. Looks like it is a natural spring coming to form the mouth of a cave. After checking that there were no signs of predator tracks in the surrounding of the cave I carve a knife with 'sharpness' and 'sturdy' on the knife. For a few of the other rocks, I carved a small 'Spark' and 'three seconds' onto it trying my luck. Now when I carved the 'three' I had the choice of duration or timer. Choosing a timer, I figured it would stop when I cut off the magic feed into it. It did not instead it started converting the ambient mana into it which is bullshit.
Looking over at the sparking rock as it does the only thing it is good for as of now which is to kill mosquitos I swear no matter where humans are these fuckers follow.
Getting an idea I look over at the sparking rocks which I named shock rocks. Finding a stick that is thick and now quite dead I grab onto it and use the forked end to scoop under the rock carrying it over the pool over water. Before I dip it into the water I look around at my feet making sure that I am standing on a dry rock. Grinning at the shock rock on the end of the stick I hover it above the pool and wait.
Not even a few moments later a few bluegills swim by I slowly lower the stick to touch the top of the water gaining dinner for myself. Watching all of the fish seize before floating onto their side. I quickly toss the rock onto the shore toward the entrance of the cave. Waiting a few moments I reach out with my stick and hook the fish one by one on the gills.
Making a cooking area around a hundred feet downstream I gut the fish and carve out another heat rock making an impromptu stovetop for myself. While I wait for the fish to finish cooking I take my knife and start cutting vines from undergrowth making a simple sling to carry around my tiny amount of possessions around in.
After I finished eating the fish I used my knife to make three canteens out of a waist-sized tree branch I found. Carved onto two of the canteens are 'Cold' and 'Feather'. On the last are 'Boil' and 'Feather'. Slinging the lashed vines around my shoulder I tie the canteens around my waist and head back to my camp around the cave. Looking up I realized that the sun has not moved from the same spot in the sky "The fuck?" muttering to myself I scrunch my face up wondering why that is. Shrugging my shoulders seeing that I haven't boiled from the inside out and have breathable air, I will not complain.
After getting settled into a somewhat comfortable position I started carving several timed shock runes with a lot more mana so to speak. Not realizing it before I finished with the current rune I become slack as my conciseness become black.
A/N: Planeswalker burned me out so I read around a few Nier stores and with all of them but a few I was disappointed but that is my opinion so I am writing my take keep in mind this is an AU that could be a Big AU or a Small. Hope you enjoy my own story have a good day.