The Beginning

I'm sitting on one of the logs surrounding the campfire. My closest friends thought it was a good idea to come out here and get fucked up together. I didn't disagree, work has been rough lately and having a chance to unwind sounded amazing.

We take shots and pass the guitar around, taking turns playing horrible songs for one another. We, of course, all know the songs being played, so we sing along. Imagine a bunch of drunk people singing horrible songs around a campfire out of tune, having a blast, and that was us. Eventually, the guitar makes its way around to me, and I decide to play my favorite song, My soldier, by AJ Rafael. I warm up a bit practicing the strings and finally start singing when suddenly everything around me freezes, I can't move, speak, or even breathe.

That's when I realize I am dreaming. I attempt to manipulate my surroundings, because I remember hearing that when you are having a lucid dream you can do that, but nothing changes or reacts to my thoughts.

Suddenly a giant black box, with flashing yellow letters, appears in my vision.

WARNING!!! WARNING!!!

The world around me starts to fade to black, everything around me is out of my control and I'm starting to freak out. This has got to be a nightmare or something.

Suddenly the text on the black box changes.

YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER!!

Everything around me is still black, and I can't move or do anything. The awesome dream I was having suddenly turned into sleep paralysis. At this point, I just wish I would wake up. Finally the text changed again, and I started to feel my body a little bit.

WAKE UP!!!

Along with it came an extremely loud alarm, imagine a nuclear attack warning going off at full blast coming from less than an inch from your ear. Finally, I am able to move, I open my eyes, but have to hold my arm over them, as I get up, because it's bright out.

"What the fuck" The warning sign and alarm start to fade now that I am awake. I look around to take note of my surroundings, I am in a redwood forest, filled with dense foliage and giant trees, most of them around two hundred feet tall, and the ferns and other greens around them three to six feet tall.

'I'm still dreaming right?'

Suddenly a giant semitransparent blue box pops up, blocking my vision, startling me enough that I fall on my ass before I realize it's just a pop-up and not a threat.

"Welcome to your new home citizen of earth. This world is not your own, though it may seem to be so, know that it is not. You must learn to cope or die like most of the citizens we bring from your planet do." Giving me barely enough time to finish reading it before disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

Looking around, I notice a giant ant, thats about four feet tall and eight feet long, about twenty feet away headed right for me.

'shit, I don't think I can fight that. I need to hide.'

I move deeper into the ferns around me, always keeping an eye on the ant. As I sink deeper and deeper into the dense vegetation around me, the ant seems to lose track of me and starts to wander around the area it had sensed me in aimlessly.

'Why was I able to hide from it so easily? Maybe it was just a coincidence?' I wait for it to move away so that I can leave and hopefully find someplace safe.

As soon as the ant gets out of sight, another large blue window pops up:

"CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE DISCOVERED YOUR SPECIAL ABILITY 'STEALTH' EXPERIMENT MORE WITH SITUATIONS SUCH AS THIS TO DISCOVER THE GRADE AND PERKS OF YOUR ABILITY"

'hmm so I have an ability based on stealth, I wonder what grades and perks are' noticing the sun was setting I realize I don't have a lot of time before dark.

'I need to find a pair of shoes and some shelter for the night. Thank God I passed out in my clothes from work last night, even if it is just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, it's better than nothing.' I work as a bouncer at a club, I didn't sleep the day before, and I worked until almost six in the morning.

Looking around me, I notice a path not far from me, so I head towards it. I walk down the trail slowly and quietly, attempting to move unnoticed, when I hear a man scream, followed quickly by a guttural laugh, like a predator playing with its prey.

I crouch and quickly, but quietly, walk in the direction I heard the sound. "Ahhh PLEASE NO LET ME GO, I HAVE A WIFE AND KIDS PLEASE DONT EAT ME" I hear a man scream followed by more cries of pain.

I round the corner to see what looks like a slightly tall, very fat, but also muscular, green humanoid creature. "Dumb human, puny human mah food. Puny human feed one meal, then Grunk hunt more puny human."

As I get closer to the sounds, I come upon a clearing that looks like a primitive campsite. There is a large fire pit in the middle, and a large teepee like structure made out of sticks and massive skins of some creature that I couldn't identify, running along the outside of the camp ropes were hanging between trees with meat that looked suspiciously like human body parts.

As I took note of all of this, the creature was punching the man over and over, as I watch from the foliage, it was just enough to torture him and yet keep him alive and screaming. I hear more guttural laughter, "Grunk make meat tender."

'fuck this I have to do something' looking a little closer, from my hiding place in the dense foliage not far away from the clearing, I notice that Grunk has a knife, probably more for skinning than combat, and a curved sword of some sort, something that wouldn't be much use to me.

'this is a fucking stupid idea, but it might work, so I have to give it a try.'

I start to creep up on the creature, moving very slowly, trying not to be noticed. When I get close enough, I slowly reach for its belt, between the punches it's throwing at the man, and slip the knife from it. I back off a couple of feet to see if it noticed, but fortunately, it did not.

Once I'm sure I was not noticed, I slowly get close up behind it, and I wait for an opportunity to strike. Fortunately, it doesn't take long, and it stands up and even leans back a little laughing at the human man on the ground before it. I stab as hard and fast as I can at the base of the neck of the creature, I was worried that it wouldn't go through, but in the end, I was surprised at how easily it slipped into its neck and cut its spinal cord. It dropped to the ground almost faster than I realized the knife had done its job.

"Ughh ARRRGHGHGRRRRR HUMAN GRUNK KILLZZ YOU." the creature says while collapsed on the ground, unable to move. I take the knife and stab it from the base of its skull up into its brain, and even then, it is almost 10 seconds before it dies. "ok definitly not a fucking dream" I say to myself.

At this point, the other man is lying on the ground, very nearly dead. I start to move closer to him to see if there is anything I can do when he suddenly, he gives off a dim glow and starts healing at a very rapid pace.

I freeze, 'he will definitely be ok healing at that rate.' I look at the body of the monster I killed and notice it has leathers wrapped around its feet, 'its not much but much better than the nothing I have now', I think to myself as I quickly pull them off the creature, as the last of the man's wounds close up. I leave the sword at the creature hip, hoping the man will notice and take it when he wakes, and slowly go back onto the path and head in the direction of, what i hope will be, shelter and relative safety.