Surviving

The body drifted for quite a long time, a small red ball of fur motionless crouching on it.

The stream slowly became a river, shuffling between the mountain roots, toward a gigantic lake, looking more like a small sea.

The human body floated for kilometres without any changes, small fishes often trying to take small bites, the current too powerful for them to eat for long, quickly abandoning.

As the first sun rays began to light the area, a thick mist came from the earth as it slowly heated, covering the whole place on this cold morning.

Some frost remained in the shade on the grass and tree leaves, winter was slowly coming.

In the freezing water, the body was not moving at all, its heart beating so slowly it was almost imperceptible, near the point of stopping.

Indeed the temperature inside the body was critically approaching the decisive limit of twenty-four degrees Celcius, where the heart would stop beating.

A sliver of energy was circulating through the organ, coming from the two previous black wisps on the left hand of the body, now completely white, hard to even distinguish.

The energy was maintained at a minimal temperature around it, slowly dissipating in the process.

As the last remaining bit of energy finally disappeared, a minute passed before the heart of the grounded body finally stopped beating.

As the second elapsed, the sun finally pierced through the morning mist, lighting the area.

The moment these sun rays touched the skin around the left arm of the body, a pure flow of energy was allowed, quickly mobilized to heat the body anew.

A new resounded heartbeat echoed soon in Alric's body, his blood coursing once again inside his veins.

Bathing in sunlight, small wounds on his left arm healed quickly, a black wisp even beginning to engrave itself after ten minutes.

The rest of his body was covered with wounds, coming mainly from Mozzi's claws and the hard fall in the waterfall.

Hours elapsed, the sun was now high in the blue sky, and the lake waters were sparkling with occasionally a fish jumping out in a spray of water.

Alric had not moved a finger during all this time, and so had the fox, deeply in sleep, his body shivering from time to time.

He had not been in the water contrary to Alric but the tiredness, the wounds and the air temperature had somehow let entered tried a lethargic state.

The temperature of Alric's whole body had now returned to normal, some flush could even be seen on some parts of his skin.

At this moment, some wild beasts began to inquire about the strange alien object grounded on the edge of the lake.

Their curiosity soon turned to hunger as they realized it was some immobile living meat, just at their disposition.

Luminous fishes in the lake immediately began to bite into the two legs still plunged in the water as some enormous blue crabs attacked the part on the rocky beach.

Under the pain of the sudden and multiple attacks, Alric awoke with a jolt, quickly standing on his right foot, letting Mozzi fall on the gravel under his feet, awakening it too.

The startled fierce creature immediately tried to cut the poor fox in pieces, saved in extremis by Alric's hands which grabbed it before quickly escaping on his not wounded foot farther from the avoided carnage.

Looking at the heap of beasts now attacking and biting each other, Alric sighed in a breath of relief, some sweat still dripping on his face, a painful throbbing coming from his left ankle.

-"Where I am? " he said aloud, trying to find a landmark around him, his head a bit dizzy, having difficulty standing on his two legs.

The red cub rolled in a ball in his arm and didn't lift its head, trying to find as much warmth as possible by snuggling against him.

The place before Alric's eyes was not looking like any place he knew of.

The enchanting view before his eyes was filled with gorgeous rivers and waterfalls coming from all around the sparkling azure lake and plunging into its deep waters.

Magnificient and high mountains filled with snow at their peaks were surrounding the massive valley from afar, some mountains just a bit perceptible at the limit of the horizon.

"From where did I even come?' thought Alric, completely lost in this beautiful but strange surrounding.

He had indeed floated on the lake for quite some time after coming from the river which carted him here.

He was nowhere near the source of the river which carried him, now surrounded by at least five rivers coming from all directions.

"Which one is the correct one?" he asked himself while pondering, each choice possibly warding him off from the path toward his workshop.

Looking at his watch still working, a sturdy metallic one, it looked like he had jumped off the cliff seven hours before.

"It sounds not too much, but the power behind all of these torrents isn't to be underestimated. I'm quite lucky to be alive." he pondered, trying to calculate the possible distance he ranged while unconscious.

Not finding any evidence of where he could have come from, Alric tried to find the correct orientation with the help of the sun's position.

"This method isn't reliable, I can't even see the mountain on which my workshop was built, but based on the fact I'm on the East part of the lake, I probably came from the West..." Completely unsure of his conclusion, Alric chose to worry about his present situation before taking any decision.

"Well at least, I won't die of thirst with this much water around me." he tried to think positively.

Looking around, he could see he was on a rocky beach which surrounded the lake for a good hundred meters before the forest began to grow.

The trees composing the forest were composed of more hardwood than where he used to live, showing he was not in the same area at all, and the altitude was much lower too.

"The leaves of these trees have already fallen, leaving just some resinous trees in the forest. It will be quite harder to hide in these conditions while travelling, especially for sleeping." he constated matter of factly.

Looking at his left hand with barely a black engraving showing at the tip of his finger he sighs, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to fill this helpful arm of his to the brim anytime soon.

The carnage in front of him was nearly finished, a few fishes had been grabbed by the large blue crabs with one still on its back, waving its claw above it.

Not missing anything, Alric carefully returned while hopping toward the scene where lots of blood could be seen flowing quietly in the lake, showing quite some fish had fallen there.

Taking carefully the crab by its shell while avoiding its claw, Alric looked at it from closer, searching for a possible weak point.

"I wonder how hard it could be..." he thought while suddenly throwing it with all his remaining strength against a rock.

"BAM"

A resounding sound echoed from the shell while the crabs bounce on the rock without even a scratch.

Even if he was surprised, Alric rushed somehow to grab it again, not letting it go this easily.

"As I thought, a slow creature like this one could not be too weak, as the carnage they made with the huge fish was evidence." he thought, not knowing how to break the carapace, the meat inside it making him salivate from the prospect of eating it raw and replenish a bit his energy reserves.

Looking at Mozzi that was now sitting weakly next to him, he raised his eyebrow, happy for the state of this small animal which was becoming better with each passing minute.

-"Do you think you could try to cook this beast" he tried to ask, not expecting any answer.

To his surprise, the fox slowly nodded from right to left, clearly indicating he could not for the time being.

Pleased by the comprehension of his adopted cute animal, Alric was noneoftheless in an impasse.

Taking a chisel still tied to his leather belt, he tried to pierce it but to no avail as he thought, having already some difficulties piercing the fur of other animals.

"One which specializes in defence like this one is impossible to open for me right now, fortunately, it's not overly fierce, or I would have been forced to flee...Again."

Looking toward the forest and then the lake, he disappointingly let the crabs go while moving toward the forest in search of some little prey without having to go under the shade, the sunrays continuously healing him.

"I have truly become some plant. " he thought a bit wrily. " The lake is off-limit for the time being, I can't catch a fish without any fishing rod, and in any case, I doubt they would bite it if they are half as smart as the beasts inside the forest which avoid my traps."

Quickly finding small insects under some rocks and a little robin which tried to pick at his eyes, Alric, remembered no adverse effect had happened after his consumption of raw meat previously.

He decided against waiting for Mozzi to be better, which would have allowed it to start a small fire, as time was of the essence, the longer he was in this weak state, the longer their life was in danger.

Biting in the disgusting raw meat, he could feel liquid energy flowing once again inside his veins, before being majorly swallowed by its left arm, now more and more gluttonous.

Feeling regenerated, he began to take care of his fox, giving him the small insects to eat to replenish its forces.

Not being too picky for once, Mozzi ate all of them in a minute, before soundly falling asleep against the now warm body of Alric.

While the fox was sleeping, Alric decided to check his materials and equipment, knowing full well his nearly suicidal jump in freezing water had probably cost him a lot.

He had lost one of his wood chisels with six remaining.

His coat was completely shredded by Mozzi's claws and probably some rocks during his water trip.

What was most bothering him was his leather notebook, now completely drenched.

It had swelled and some of the drawings had been erased by water.

Fortunately, pencil drawings did not have ink and some had resisted, but no text was still readable.

Putting it delicately on the ground to not destroy it further, he carefully separates each page one by one.

Even if all the knowledge contained inside the book was still in his head, he was a drawing passionate and it was never something to be happy about when losing one of his creations.

"All my other equipment except my bow and quiver seems to still be with me, even the strange steel sheet, which didn't help me at all. It's probably nothing truly useful, as I thought at the beginning, I just hoped a bit too much I guess. Now time to examine the most important part." he pondered while carefully sitting, slowly removing his left shoe.

When he broke the water surface, he could hear his left articulation cracking under the powerful forces, letting him unable to run for the time being.

"I can still move my feet so it should not be broken. My best guess would be two or three torn ligaments. In ordinary time I would heal in a week or two, not being able to run or even walk normally, but that was before my healing factor was completely boosted by my left arm." While pondering, he was seriously considering what to do.

A strain was usually nothing major, especially in normal times.

But here, each day, each hour was hard to survive, he had to move, hunt, and be silent to not attract other predatory.

"It will be one hell of a time, to be sure" he finally thought while wrapping his left calve with one of the shredded pieces of tissue from his coat. "Thankfully, the freezing temperature of the water seems to have prevented too much swelling, the pain isn't too much compared to the noise I heard when it was bent."

Looking around, he sighed, wounded and lost in this strange environment at the beginning of the winter season, his odds had been better.

Instinctively touching Mozzi to pet him a bit, he was surprised when it began to lowly purr, not realizing at the time it was the first time the fox was letting him pet it.

Glancing toward the nearest river, trying to know if it was the correct one, he suddenly saw a moving shape not so far from him, less than a hundred meters, at the limit of the forest.

Instantly recognizing the figure of a beautiful girl, he was exhilarated, his hand shaking from pure joy.

Painstakingly standing up to meet her, his mind already pointing toward a possible settlement or a human group not far from here, he hopped comically on his right foot toward the woman who appeared to have seen him too.