User blog:Halofan987123/From the Darkness - WIP (tl;dr dun reed yett)

WIP. I get bored a lot.

Dialogue from the main character and the titles are in italics. Don't question my formatting skills.

From the Darkness
I awake to darkness. I find this unusual, boosted due to the fact that I cannot recall where, exactly, I currently am. I am sure my eyes are open, nor do I feel a shade or blindfold covering my vision- I feel only the cold stone of a rocky and relatively uncomfortable floor. As this will not do, I stand up. It is very cold, and I see no light in any direction save a small hole in the floor to the left of me. Intrigued, I investigate to find a relatively deep hole. As I wish to minimize the fall to the greatest extent, I hang from the ledge of the hole over into the lighter ground below. I drop without sustaining injury, and can see a much more obvious light coming from the front of what appears to be an exit. As I get a better look, I recieve a face full of blinding sunlight. Slowly adjusting to the bright sun, I exit what appeared to be a cave that I was in.

I look out onto an open ocean- though it is not very open as many landmasses obstruct a clear view. My priority is water, as I am thirsty and suffering from dehydration. To no avail, I cannot locate a water source around the cave but am able to scavenge up some carrots that will surely hold me off on sustenance for the time being. As I have common since still remaining, I do not dare drink any of the water on the coast for without a doubt it is saltwater. It is cold as the wind blows off from the sea, argueably colder than the hard floor of the cave but I cannot return into the cave blind. I need to create a source of fire at the least, as well as locate some sort of water. I find clay to the side of me, and pile it up in hope I find I suitable use for it at some point.

I weave a crude canteen out of leaves and hemp allowing me to preserve what little rainwater I can collect from tropical storms which must come by now and then. Based on weather and climate, I place myself in the Atlantic ocean, in the coast of South America- though I've never seen an island desert or a snowy peak in any area of the world together, though both are clearly visible in the off distance for I've been blessed with a relatively clear day. To get a better view, I climb a tree and make my way up top the cave formation. I am amazed to find a pool of springwater from previous rain which must be salt free, for I cannot fathom how the ocean would reach this height. After tasting it, I conclude it safe enough to drink for now, just until my thirst is halted. Once I am without pressing danger, I can better boil the water to create a pure drink. However, I believe night will be upon me soon as the light begins to fail. I craft a simple firestarting bow and ingnite a small fire.

~

The night wind cuts through my thin clothes like ice. I do not know what time it is but I know I will not survive the night in the cold that blows off the sea. I decide to live I must move the fire to the best I can into the cave I was once in. I do so carefully and find that the cave keeps heat quite well. In the distance I can see the small hole in the roof I fell through, and I wonder if anyone else has been here before I, though the island looks untouched and unblemished. I am confident I will be able to make it to morning in the fire's heat that bounces off the walls of the cave, and once I again I prepare to rest. I look around first, however, seeing many stone fragments and what looks like a vein of a black powdery dust, and I plan to make use of these in the morning. However, I first take some of the black dust and knock it into the fire hoping for some sort of reaction. The fire is happy to oblige, and I can see the dust ignite slowly and I swear I feel more heat already. On this note, I sleep.

~

Morning comes and I am alive. The fire has long since gone out but the cave held in the heat given off, safely keeping me through the night. I drink from my canteen and refill, also collecting carrots that seem to have sprung up overnight, though I may have missed them yesterday in my rush to secure survival. I decide to build a shelter first as it is the most pressing issue, and am able to kick down a few trees. I use stumps to create basic walls for a hut and use a leaf thatch to provide cover. I also build a crude mill as I see large patches of wheat growing. I harvest some of the wheat and grind it into flour, making dough and eventually a loaf of dough. I light another fire which seems to burn much better as the wind is next to zero today, and cook my loaf, allowing for my diet to comprise of more than carrots. I grab the stones I had planned to get last night and smash them to pieces creating quite a few shards of cut stone. I make a clanky pickaxe and a stone knife. If one wants to survive, one must hunt.

The sun has only reached about what I judge as 2 o'clock and I have rigged together a raft. I see a huge mass of land maybe swimming's distance away, though I decide not to risk the swim and instead raft over. I find only trees and water, but it is nice to know I have a backup source of what appears to be fresh water, though this pool is close enough to very well be salty. I see movement in a nearby forest and decide not to investigate as curiousity must be staved for now. I return to my island and rig a basic sail to put utop my raft and head in the direction of a central island, which appears to have some sort of deer on it. Arriving I find many bushes of berries though I refrain from eating as I have no idea what they are or if they can kill me. The deer however, seem to enjoy them, so I assume they must be mildly safe. I pull out my knife and find a deer drinking from the stream. I need to get source of protein.

I end up with three skinned carcasses providing me with leather and three hunks of raw meat, but the sun  s too far set for me to return home- I make a very ramshackle hut to stave the cold tonight though I refrain from lighting a fire to prevent drawing any attention. Instead I block the door off with leaves to insulate and blanket myself in hemp. In the night, I hear a noise not from the deer. Against my good judgment I head out, knife in hand. I do not need a light source as someone has already lit a fire. Using darkness to my advantage I see another man who appears to be unarmed as he warms himself around the fire- how he survived last night I do not know as it is quite warming tonight than it was. He seems to be no threat but I cannot allow him to stay. If I wished to kill him the safety of darkness would provide cover, but I'm not well armed enough to provide a demise for him humane enough. I may wish to survive, but I cannot kill an unarmed man with a slow, sharp rock. I camp back in my house though ever more watchfully as I know I am not alone.

~

Once again, day comes to me and I welcome it. The man is still asleep by his fire which held life overnight, and though I cannot see any ships in the distance, I cannot guarantee that we are both alone. I quickly fasten a stone spear so that I may kill him quickly if I must, and I wake him. He is surprised and unable to speak, whether he knows English or not. He looks of European decent, and once again is at my mercy, not a threat. I have no reason of being on this island to begin with though a source of meat would be nice, so I disassemble my hut and move the supplies onto my sailboat, which amazingly, holds firm. He stares at me from a distance with distrust, and I sail off home, though over my sholder I can see another ship coming from the east, which judging by the sun is the direction of the desert.

I am home again and my island is still untouched. I decide it must still be early in the morning and I head into my safety of the cave to try and mine the black powder I found there. I know there was something else above but I am unsure of how to get up there or what I may find, so I remain to mine what appears to be coal. I mine plenty, enough to create a strong fire source from produced charcoal, and I begin building a lumbermill in hopes I can maximize the capactiy of production from my small island. I finish it and it seems to work well enough to split logs I load into it, and see that the day is still fresh. I cook my raw meat and create a thicker vestment out of the leather, hopefully warm enough to help cure the cold of the night.

~

I am awake early- the moon has already set but the sun is not yet up. I can see in the distance a fire in the same position is was the day before and I realize the man has not made progress, or at least, has not vacated the island yet. Suddenly the fire cuts out and my view goes dark. I hear inaudible noises coming from the island where the fire once was. I put the fire in my cave out to prevent any light coming out that may give me away as it is very likely the man did not put the fire out himself, and it is also quite likely that he may have been killed. However if it does not affect my safety, it is not my problem. As first light will be rising soon I decide to stay awake and keep an eye on the island for movement. If the ship from last morning had stuck around he must have been friendly as otherwise a fire would not have been lit this night, so assuming they were attacked by raiders there are at least two corpses that the sun will shine upon today.

I decide to explore. Obviously I am not safe with stone weaponry and need to advance to a defensible toolset. I one again sail to the island I have dubbed the Main and begin walking. I have packed bread, carrots, and plenty of water in stored canteens, and am prepared to defend myself if need be though I hang to the shadows of the varying forests. After continuous walking I see a large tree in the distance with native cows surrounding area. I can see a cave in the residing hill, to which I enter. A steely rock and a metal obviously gold are visible, and I mine what seems to be iron ore. I grab gold too, in hopes that it may provide for a trade if necessary, possibly for my life in the gravest of situations. I return home before sundown with ores and some wood supplies, and begin to refine the ores in the hidden darkness of a cave. I decide it is time to prepare for combat- and for exploration.

First Encounters
In the previous days, I have built a set of iron armor, which is quite heavy but hopefully provides useful, an iron sword for the close combat that I may run into, an iron javelin for range, and a trusty knife which I keep hidden in my rough boots. I have become quite adept at using cow fat as a waterproofing for ships and have built a sailboat worthy for I to sail around in yet I have not used it. So far I have only explored three islands though I have quite a stockpile of carrots and bread- in fact, I am amazed by something I have found with the way this world works. Carrots, and wheat for that matter, grow within an hour of being planted, making any food I need very easy to come by as long as I am prepared with seeds. Morning has dawned and I leave my simple bed in the cave to sail.

I do not know where to go, as I do not know what I am looking for. I have seen no human life save the encounter on the island with deer which I have started to call Central, and what may simply have been a cow on the Main. I have seen no human inpact on the world in the way of disturbed nature or buildings, though I accredit nature to the amazing rate of growth noticed. I decide to sail along the flat coast of the Main, as I cannot easily sail around the island very well. Instead I head to the island straight across along the flat coast, and I do my best to hug the coast as this is a very open area of the sea and I am easily visible to anyone looking in this area. The wind however, is on my side, and I quickly coast to the fragmented island.

I hide my sailboat in an inlet of the cliff face and swim out as I see no visible exit from this small aclove. I climb to the top of the island to get a better visual, though this requires a lot of physical strength as this island is built up of steep, sharp cliffs. I reach the top and find the first evidence of intelligence- a wooden, planked bridge across. Doubting the sturdyness of this well-rotted bridge I instead get atop another rock. From here I get an okay view- I can easily see where things are though the view is rather flat as it is quite distant. I also see the first settlement very far in the distance. I return to my boat though I grab some golden chunks of a soft substance from a vein nearby as I know it is not gold but I am quite sure I will find a way to use it.

~

On my way to the island with basic civilization, I stop at a rocky island on the way. Here I find an irritatingly dumb creature hard as rock that appears to enjoy crawling along stone all day. I've no idea what it must eat as all I find on this island are stones and dead stumps. Inside another aclove of the cave I find a huge deposit of iron. I eagerly mine this up. I managed to carry the core ingredients to my forge on my boat, but it will require time and a lot of stone to reassemble, so for now I decide to refine the ore I mine on a wheat thatch I have been using as my bed coverings, as it will be easily replaced and barely missed. I also mine some coal nearby and decide to do some experiments.

When finished, I've managed to create a chunk of a carbon-iron mix. When refined, I get a heavy pile of carbon steel. I bag this with hemp and plan to make use of it at a later date. It is incredibly heavy, but I will be able to make something useful in the way of defense out of it. I also kill one of the meandering rock monsters and gather its strong grey hide. Eventually I'll use it for something and I have no problem storing it on my new sailboat, which is strong enough to support over two hundred pounds of deadweight. I also notice that once again, it has been a warm day. My guess is that I had awoken at the start of Spring- which, if correct, provides a very promising summer season for technological advancement.

~

It's still light out and I get on my sailboat. The wind is dying down and my boat is quite slow now so I do not know if I can make it before dark. It has been a relatively warm day and I am quite sure that I can brave the night in my ironclad leather armor. I decide to once again use darkness to my advantage and as the sun sets, I pull around the eastern side of the island. I can hear voices and the crackling of fire as I slowly scale the back side using wood I climb the face- though this time it is a lot less abrupt and grassy, so my hands are not cut up from rocks this time. I can hear two distinct voices now- one masculine, one feminine, though I waste no effort in trying to figure out the words as it is too quiet over the sounds of the fire to even tell if they are speaking English. Holding spear and sword I sneak up from behind.

I can see two humans around a fire- both appear to be about fiveteen years of age though my judgement is clouded by dark and haze from the heat of the fire. I decide speaking to them would be wiser than attacking as I do know this two to be intelligent.'' "How are you?" ''This surprises them. ''"Don't turn around now- I need to see your hands in the air. Drop anything you're holding please." ''The woman speaks. "Are you kidnapping us like you did John?" She clearly understands, or at least speaks, proper English, though I've no idea who John is. If she speaks English, I doubt the man on Bento I encountered was John, but they may well have been those on the other boat or the raiders in the night.

''     "I'm not here to alarm. I wish to know where I am, and preferably who you are as you are one of the first people I have crossed paths with, and the first who properly responds to communication." ''The man speaks up. "We- John, Sarah, and I- arrived together maybe a week or two ago. We've been trying to survive, but John was off sailing to explore and didn't return. We saw a large ship come to the island he was on in the dead of night and assumed they had him." Their time of arrival coincides with mine well. "That's all well, but what have you in the way of gear? I've armed myself with iron after I saw a conflict on Central." "Central? You mean the island with the deer? We call it Bento; I'm pretty sure what that breed of deer is called. That's also where John was when he was taken." "That is what I mean, and I do believe I saw John- or someone, at least, being captured."

     Sarah replied, "We haven't seen the large ship around recently, but I'm afraid it will return eventually. How did you forge iron weaponry?" Obviously these two are still quite primitive. They're about a year younger than I, and lacking in determination, but are not bad people as it seems. "I can show you in the morning. For now, I need to rest. It's getting quite cold." Michael begins to speak. "I'm on watch right now. If you like you can stay with us- you seem to be trustworthy and probably our best chance of survival." In good faith, I accept their offer and lend Michael my iron spear. I sleep in a hut that night, but I keep one eye open. I am not a very trusting person.