BXBX NOVEL Chapter 6 - Learning The Wild
As I slept my dreams were nothing but nightmares of my past life, vivid clips of my life as a human living day to day just scraping by barely affording monthly bills let alone having the money to do anything enjoyable and when I did I felt so shitty because in my mind I always felt that I was wasting money that could be put to better use, my job was just dragging on and weighing down on my will to live, I loved my family of course and I miss them dearly to the point I shed tears but when your life was so monotonous that your only light in life was when you slept it was more than a relief to get slammed by a truck, Now to have to relive those feelings to say that it broke me deep down would be an understatement.
I woke up with a new feeling surging through me and the only thought in my mind was \'time to train and show them useless siblings, I swear I will be stronger then them all and they will serve me in the future as pawns.\' The anger I felt was so overwhelming that the thoughts of the creatures I was born with did not deserve to be called siblings all except Gaia who even through this all was still nice to me, I decided that in the future I will repay him some how. I get up and while walking I realize that I was able to move a bit faster even to the point where I tripped over myself as my eyes tried to catch up to the change in speed of movement. I arrived to the kitchen like area of the cave only to find that the other hatchlings had already eaten all the meat and had left only scraps for me.
My mother looked at what was left and then with a sad look in her eyes she looked down at me, "I am sorry Vexsus it looks like the others were hungrier than usual today but since you are going out with your father today if you do well enough you can eat your fill I believe youll do very well honey."
With that I see Gaia walk towards me followed by father "brother I am sorry I could not stop them I also overheard what Marico told you, I was not aware they felt that way but I swear that no matter what you will always be my eldest brother no matter how strong I become if needed I will become your shield and defend your life till my dying breath."
"Gaia please I greatly appreciate you feeling this way but for right now I want to train my body and only after I climb to the level that we can fight side by side will I want you to join me, but for now please strive to the best you can be in preparation for that day."
With those words Gaia nodded and turned to go off by himself even go so far as to blatantly look the other way while passing the others
"Gaia what are you doing still associating with that weakling, just join us already and we will train to be the best of the dragon race." Aurum said this as Gaia passed him only to receive silence as a response.
"Gaia you dare to disrespect our eldest brother, you should pledge your loyalty to him and hope he forgives you." I hear Marico shout only for Gaia to turn and with a look of anger that looked so out of place on his otherwise peaceful and loving face. "NO YOU ALL HAVE FORSAKEN OUR TRUE ELDEST BROTHER NOT THIS PRETENDER WHO IS NOTHING BUT A BULLY WHO HAS CORRUPTED YOUR MINDS AND TWISTED YOUR SOULS I HAVE ALREADY PLEDGED MY LOYALTY, I ACTUALLY JUST PLEDGED MY LOYALTY TO OUR ELDEST BROTHER AND WHEN HE GROWS STRONGER I WILL GLADLY STAND BY HIS SIDE AND REDUCE YOU ALL TO MERE CINDERS."
Hearing those words put a smile on my face as a he gave me a great idea instead of making them serve me why shouldn\'t I just kill them I would never truly feel safe with them watching my back so it only makes sense that when strong enough I just end my former siblings life.
At that time My Father had entered and after hearing Gaia shout like that he at first looked towards the others than after catching on to what was going on he looked down at me only to widen his eyes as a sense of bloodlust started faintly leaking from me.
"Little boy I feel like it is time you and I leave the cave and begin your training, first I will teach you how to look for edible things within the forest and afterwards I will teach you how to hunt for food because the future is not always known and food even more so, you should always eat when you can and procure your next meal just with what resources you have on hand food will always be a problem with an almost limitless number of solutions, it only depends on how far your knowledge goes and how strong your will to survive is, and after you have passed that test then we will venture further into the woods and you alone will fight a monster and claim a trophy as your own."
Father says this only for immediately afterwards Aurum ran over and yelled. "FATHER YOU DID NOT DO THAT WITH US WHILE TRAINING US WHY ARE YOU GIVING THIS USELESS BEING EXTRA TRAINING HE DOES NOT DESERVE IT AND HONESTLY WHO KNOWS IF HE WILL EVEN SURVIVE."
The next second as Aurum breathes in after his long winded and quite frankly impressive lung capacity he is thrown against the wall with my father resting his hand gently on the ground
"Boy let me tell you one thing, you have no respect for any body but yourself and it is with that pride that you will go far but keep in mind that without tempering your mindset you WILL fall."
While Aurum was getting healed by mother me and father walked out of the cave and outside for the first time I could see a view like no other, I saw trees with red leaves I could see yellow and orange like a forest in the fall, I could also tell that our cave was situated on an outcrop with what looks like a path carved and molded from the earth down to a fence surrounding a patch of land with different rows of herbs and other odd looking plants looking almost like a garden with a stone fence surrounding it. As we pass the fence my father looks down at me and says.
"look boy here is where you rolled and landed before being forced to hatch." I looked and on one of the rocks you could see a rock that was chipped and broken from a heavy impact and the rocks were also dyed in some color that looked like blood which I think came from the beast who tried to eat me, I can still see those teeth if I close my eyes and focus. "I still regret not being able to react fast enough to protect you boy, It was due to my ignorance while I was to focused on Eating to have realized some pathetic lesser being would dare to steal my hatchlings, can you please forgive me son?"
With a look of genuine sorrow in his eyes I can see how sorry he truly felt and even though I know knew the reason behind me hatching early and why I was taken away from inside the cave I still did not blame him I was just so happy to be in a new world and have the chance to live a potentially fulfilling life. "Father I have never blamed you, even now after you telling me why it happened I still do not blame you, I only hope I can survive your teachings and in the future become a son you can be proud of."
I could see something flash in his eyes but just as fast it was gone and he soon had me follow him towards the forest into a small clearing and he lead me closer over to small patch of green and yellow leafed bush. "Now this is called Valifrom and using the leafs of this bush will allow you to heal small cuts and bruises and combining them and crushing them to a powder and putting them in water will create a liquid capable of healing worse injuries, Now if you will gather a few of each color we will go over here to another plant that will be equally beneficial, this plant is called Root of mercy the plant itself can be used to create a poison capable of killing almost everything but it is said that if you can survive the poison you will have gained near immunity to poison forever, but what I plan on showing you what lies beneath this plant." with that said I thought of something completely ridiculous but not wanting to place any more importance on it I focused on my father digging up the plant and after dusting off the dirt he picked out a few good sized roots of the plant that looked almost like carrots or like some kind of potato it was orange but at the same time it was more of an oval with small roots leading off of the main root. "Now this is the root that the plant got its name from." "Father what about the mercy part of the name?" "Well son that is pertaining to 2 things one because this root can be eaten as is or cooked which makes its taste almost heavenly but the downside is that it is filled with a very strong sleeping agent that shortly after digestion you will fall asleep for a good 8-10 hours depending on your resistance to sleep inducing things, also the other is the poison in which the plant produces when ingested It kills from the Inside but also numbs the body from any pain almost like entering into a dreamlike sleep and drifting to the afterlife."
After he showed and explained a few other herbs found within the forest like one that could increase stamina for an hour when roasted, and another that could keep you awake in case your in a place where sleep could be dangerous, but after that and after I picked a few of each of the plants he turned to me slowly and spoke in a hushed tone. "Now that you know what plants to look for to help you out in the wild I will now teach you how to hunt for meat." Then he turned back around and with the softest steps manageable with his huge size we slinked through the brush until finally we stopped just outside another small clearing where upon inspection I could see several deer like creatures that instead of antlers it looked like horns made of rock and magma sprouted from their foreheads and when looking closer at their bodies you could see small layers of earth covering their body down until their hooves where black obsidian hooves were and every step a puff of steam could be seen rising up and after moving they would then eat where they stepped almost like they prefer to steam the grass before eating it. My father turned slightly and whispered "up ahead is a family of Lava Deer they are docile until provoked where they turn into bloodthirsty monsters that hunt down the aggressor and burn them with repeated stomps from their blackened hooves, I was hoping for a Wind Rabbit or maybe even a Shadow hound that would be easier handled than these creatures, it would be best to back away slowly and try and find other prey."
"Father could you not handle them?"
"Son I myself can handle them but this is not my wilderness test it is yours so let me ask do you think that YOU could handle them not just one but the whole family of them?"
"I understand ok I will follow your orders." We back away slowly and safely get far away from the clearing of those monsters Just one goal to try and overcome in the future, after a while of us walking my father catches a glimpse of something and stops me. "do not move a muscle, if what I saw was real then even I could have trouble leaving unscathed, I fear we have come to far into the forest we need to go back home as fast as possible but also we need to sneak our way out of here very quietly." But as he says then we hear a Roar from up ahead and the forest seems to darken around us as my father crouches down into a fighting stance and I can see a red glow emerge from his throat as he opens his mouth and out explodes a fireball the size of a house towards the darkness and using the light what I saw made my spine tingle in fear. I saw a creature with 2 scythe like limbs over a set of smaller limbs ending in 3 fingered hands but It was covered in fur that seemed to draw in the darkness around itself and even though it seemed to be pained by the sudden light of the fireball it looked back at us with eyes full of hunger.
"Son this is going to be a very difficult fight stay behind me and as far away from this fight as possible if you can support me even a little that will increase our chances of survival, now get ready because here it comes."