SURVIVAL 101

Finding myself staring down the maw of a strangely beautiful creature as it was about to gobble me up in all my entirety.

I found myself wondering how I got into this… well toothy situation.

'It was supposed to be a simple fake and run operation how did it turn out like this' he thought to himself.

Snapping out of his dazed state he ducked under the beast causing its teeth to miss his head by a few centimeters and started to run through the unfamiliar forest.

He kept thinking to himself 'don't look back, don't look back', betraying himself he turned his head to look at the creature.

 It had the body of a wolf but with a strangely humanoid face staring at him with hunger in its eyes.

Averting his gaze, he could hear the harrowing creature closing in on him.

He slowed down to duck under another tree branch and felt a sharp pain as his left ankle was torn apart by its claws.

 He was reminded of a documentary he had watched of prehistoric lions chasing and tackling their prey.

His situation was a bit like that.

He fell down hard and rolled over to get away from the beast and also for dramatic effect.

Picking a branch that lay nearby, he hobbled to his feet and faced his attacker since he couldn't run anyway anymore.

Today he had no intention of dying, they stared at each other like they were in a "wild west" movie, the beast broke the still moment and lunged at him in a fury of claws and teeth.

Shoving the branch in its mouth while toppling over with the beast on top of him, just then he remembered watching a kids movie "L*on king" Remembering the move S*mba pulled against S*ar'.

He shoved his legs against the monster's underbelly and pushed or at least he tried to.

A stabbing sensation pierced his ankle as he was reminded that he was injured. The beast meanwhile was trying to chew through the branch.

It finally broke, thinking fast he shoved his right arm into the maw of his attacker, another wave of pain assaulted his senses so much so that he only so red.

Just then there was relief as the jaw holding onto his arm let go as a 'bang' sound was heard followed by a thudding sound beside him.

Looking to his side he found that a clean hole was made in the beast's forehead.

Trying to stand up he yelped and promptly fell to the ground in pain, he turned on his belly and tried to crawl away from the dead beast but his right arm which now resembled a discarded chew toy failed to exert any strength. After that escapade he just lay there pain racking his body.

 Just then he felt a pressure in his loins like never before.

'I am going to survive this without wetting my pants!' he thought to himself.

'Ah that was a close call.'

Two boots appeared in his field of view from his current position, he assumed they belonged to the one who fired the shot.

He felt a lurching sensation as he was lifted onto the shoulders of his supposed savior like a sack of potatoes.

"Don't move", he said in a gruff voice.

'Its not like I can' he thought to himself.

Every movement from the man caused a jolt of pain to coarse through his body.

But then something strange started to happen, the wounds on his arm started closing albeit slowly and the pain was lessening bit by bit every minute or so.

Eventually he gained the presence of mind to notice his surroundings.

There was a strange mist in his surroundings that was swirling around his body particularly his arm.

The forest he was in had a strange ethereal beauty that he had not noticed while being chased by that monster.

His savior was moving through the forest almost as if he knew it inside out.

From time to time he felt gazes fall on them and at those moments he would freeze and not move until the gaze passed.

He had no idea how he sensed that something was watching them but he did sense them.

Some gazes were more sinister and forceful than others, some weaker but more wily though freezing always seemed to do the trick at least so far.

They were went on in this manner until they arrived at a crack in a cliff face. At this point most of his wounds were fully healed though he still pretended to be injured.

His savior had told him not to move anyway.

Passing through the crack, they reached a cave where the man promptly dropped him to the ground.

He was almost expecting another wave of pain when he hit the ground but thankfully nothing of the sort happened since he had been healed by the mist.

The man looked at him intensely for a few moments and spoke.

"The name is Gordon"

Pausing for a few moments he also replied.

"Rephan"

Gordon joined him on the floor and proceeded to pull a bright luminescent orb out of thin air.

Rephan was stunned, staring at Gordon with his mouth agape for a dozen seconds before holding it shut and asking.

"How did you do that?"

"And, What was the thing that attacked me?"

"What is this pla-"

Gordon held his hand asking him to pause. Rephan let out a breath he did not even know he was holding.

Gordon then started speaking.

"First of all, I will begin with what this place is, first of all this place…. Well you can call it a mirror version of earth except for one key difference, the existence of this energy you felt the one that healed your wounds…if you wanted to call it a name well magic would be the first to come to mind."

"M- magic?" Rephan said before slumping against the cave wall.