Chapter 1 - Awoken?

As my consciousness slowly came back to me, I noticed that my head was pounding. I winced in pain as the pounding in my head worsened as I sat up, using my arms, that felt weaker than usual, to help lift me off the stone ground beneath me. Did someone hit me with a sludge hammer? That's what it felt like.

I opened my heavy eyelids and let my eyes refocus in the lighting of the cave as I attempted to recall where I was and what happened previous to waking up. It was all a little bit of a blur to me, but I remembered enough to safely say I knew who I was.

Draped over me like a blanket was a soft, heavy, warm, brown pelt. Of which animal I couldn't quite say. I leaned my back against the cave wall and gently wrapped my fingers around the edge of the pelt and lifted it up in confusion. I definitely didn't have this when I entered the forest, and I definitely didn't source it myself while in the forest hunting. There wasn't even an animal in sight to hunt throughout my entire journey. I could recall that much.

I looked up at the cave entrance, a good seventeen feet ahead of me. The snow was still calmly falling outside, but you could barely make out the paw prints of something in the snow near the entrance of the cave. That means they were fresh enough that the snow didn't have time to cover them completely.

Dropping the pelt and putting my palms to the cold ground, I slowly lifted myself onto my trembling legs. I used the wall behind me to help stablelize. My breath was heavy, as if I ran a marathon, which was weird considering I was asleep for who knows how long. I used the wall as a crutch as I slowly walked back to the entrance of the cave to get a closer look at those prints.

Once at the entrance to the cave, I stumbled down to the ground, situating myself right in front of the snowy entrance. I looked around for the prints that I had seen minutes ago from the back of the cave, but to my surprise, there was no trace.

Weird…. I thought to myself as I looked up at the heavy, snow filled, cloud covered sky and determined it was not snowing enough to lose trace of those prints that quickly. I huffed in frustration as I crossed my arms across my sore chest in thought.

I fell back, my arms going heind my head, as I lay my back on the cold hard ground. I was still sore and tired, also noticeably thirsty, but I needed to get my mind back in working order before I could even begin to think of what I needed to do next.

I took deep, long breathes, hoping that would help with the pain that was now more noticeably spreading all throughout the inside me. Every breath was riddled in pain. My brows furrowed. I was a conditioned warrior. A hunter. I shouldn't be feeling this much pain in my joints and muscles after one night of being lost in a snow-covered forest. I opened my eyes and looked up at the looming cave ceiling, thirty feet above me. What happened?

I lifted my hands so I could see them. They were calloused as usual and pale. I was naturally pale. I wasn't able to tan, no matter how long I spent in the sun, it would only leave me with a burn. I turned them over and examined the veins that ran through the back of them and down my arms into my sleeves. It was still pumping blood, so I'm definitely not dead.

I resituated my arms back behind my head as a makeshift pillow as I let the day drag on in thought. I think I drifted back off to sleep, somehow still warm despite the cold air blowing in from the cave entrance. When I reopened my tired eyes, the sky was noticeably darker, and I could feel more of a chill seeping into my bones.

I sighed, letting out a cough afterward. I really needed to find something to drink. I looked back at where I had collapsed the night before and saw my hunting pack settled perfectly up next to the wall. I don't remember taking it off last night before falling into my deep slumber.

Deciding to ignore the deep feeling of confusion coursing through my mind, I got back onto my weak, trembling legs and, using the wall as a crutch, making my way back to the weird pelt and hunting pack in the back of the cave. I fell to my knees, kind of roughly, on the soft pelt, thankful that it cushioned my fall, so it didn't hurt much. 

I resituated my legs out in front of me, leaning against the back of the cave wall and grabbing the hunting pack. Taking out some dried jerky and my flask of water, I gulped down half the water and hungrly ripped through the meat. As I looked through my pack while eating, I noticed my hunting knife that was once tied to my leg, settled neatly inside. I blinked my eyes at it a few times in confusion before shrugging and continuing to look through my pack.

Making sure I had everything else I brought, my survival book, my match sticks, and my other snacks and necessities, I put my water flask back in and set my pack next to me. I was surprised to find the only thing missing was my compass. Right… I groaned internally to myself. Remembering  that I lost it somehow. Now, how was I to find my way back home? This forest was a maze, especially when you had no view of the sky. I was stupid to think I would succeed in hunting in the middle of winter. And even more stupid to think I wouldn't get lost because I had that compass, but without it, I would ultimately die out here in the middle of nowhere. Well, the middle of Pine Maze Forest, that is.

Finding my eyes drooping more and more, getting harder to keep them open, I decided to sleep tonight and to continue my journey home first thing in the morning. If I could even find my way out of this blasted forest. Again, I overestimated my abilities and would forever regret my dumb decision.

I pulled the new pelt out from under me and layed back down on the cave floor, wrapping myself up like a burrito in the large pelt. I wasn't going to use it. Yes, it was definitely a mysterious pelt that showed up out of nowhere and gave me a foreboding feeling, but it was a welcomed warmth, as it seemed to form around me and give me a comfort I had not felt for a long time.

The last time I felt this much comfort was when my mom would wrap me up and hug me against  her chest, humming a lullaby as my tiring eyes would close for my long awaiting sleep. Her heart was where my ear lay, thumping sootheningly. I fell asleep to that caring memory from the past, and the sound of my own heart pounding in the same comforting rhythm as my departed mom's, deciding to ignore the looming present and possibly worse future.