At first, I didn't really feel anything, I was just floating through some black space of nothingness. That was at least until I felt sand scratching my back, and a scorching sun blazing my face. I painfully opened my eyes and lifted myself up into a sitting position surveying my surroundings. I was on some sort of beach. The sand and large body of water in front of me gave that away. I lifted up my left arm as I felt something inside of it, I wouldn't call the feeling painful but it was definitely a pressure, I inspected my appendage and found a strange prism embedded into my flesh. I scratched at it absentmindedly as I got to my feet.
After more looking around, I deduced that there was a large log of driftwood half hanging out of the waterfront to my right. There were some large boulders blocking my way to the left, and a sheer cliff that stopped me from going inland, unless I dared to climb it, which I wasn't about to do seeing as I was still feeling light headed and... Hungry.
My stomach growled bad temperedly as I moved along the beach, suddenly I noticed a few bushes along the cliff which I staggered over to and began to pick berries from, I picked a mixture of blue, red, and yellow berries from the bush and examined the handful of berries in my hand. I had a bit of an internal struggle as my mind shouted that these berries might not be safe for consumption. Unfortunately, my stomach wasn't having it, it growled and sheathed loudly until I finally gave in and took a big juicy mouthful of the berries.
Finally, my stomach quieted, but my throat took the call to arms. I needed water; my eyes immediately went to the ocean. Which I wasn't happy with salt water didn't help thirst and it couldn't really be digested. At least as far as I knew, then I took in another major detail. The air didn't smell salty, like most of the beaches I'd been to you could smell a faint scent of salt through the breeze, there was no such smell here. I took a few hesitant steps over to the sea and bent over taking a bit of water in my right hand. I took a small sip as the liquid seeped between my fingers and fell onto the sand changing it from tan to brown in a small area. It was fresh.
I smacked my lips a bit as my thirst was quenched, I didn't know what to do after that. I leaned against the cliff for some shelter against the wind, I realized that I was pretty much naked, save a small pair of shorts with covered my unmentionables. I decided not to focus on that detail and instead focus on exactly how I'd gotten here. I closed my eyes and tried to reminisce about my day before coming to this beach.
I had been on my way to a lecture from Professor Abraham, just a normal college day for me until everything went black and I'd woken up on a beach in who knows where. I looked to the right and to the left I seemed to be alone. There weren't even any birds around, at least I was alone until some short squat creature came scuttling out of the ocean. I'd never seen anything like it, the closest I could compare it to was a horseshoe crab and even that was a long way off. I got to my feet and walked over, it seemed entirely deaf to my presence as I picked it up off the ground. It was heavy, I held it on the sides of its shell and examined its legs which seemed to still want to be walking after being picked up. I set it back on the ground and continued to observe the small shelled creature.
My attention didn't stay on the shelled thing for very long I heard a loud screech coming from my left on the other side of the boulders. I stood stunned, that had sounded big. A bit bigger than a human at least. I took a step back hoping beyond hope I'd be able to outrun it, whatever it was. I spied movement from the other side of the rocks and was surprised to find a girl, around my age climbing up the rocks. She was a bit of a looker, and I was a little ashamed to notice that before anything else. She had short cut braided brown hair, an athletic body, tan skin and from my distance it was hard to tell but she had... Green eyes. For clothing she was more well off then me, wearing knee length pants of some hide make, and a top also made from hide which were sleeveless. She had a pack which seemed to be encumbering her back, and a bow hanging limp in her left hand. She leapt off of the rocks and landed running she noticed me and I saw her point behind her and yell, "RAPTOR"! I didn't know what to make of that, I didn't see anything behind her but I didn't figure it was her who made that noise.
"What are you talking about"? I called as she reached me, she turned around quizzically, as if she expected the... She'd said raptor. To be closer behind her than it truly was. She took a glance at me and pointed at the rocks. She reached to the pack on her back and pulled out an arrow. She brought the shaft to string and pulled back the arrow bring the bow to the side of her head for a better shot. I almost asked her what she meant by raptor, but she noticed me about to open my mouth and shushed me.
I heard a scrabbling behind the rocks and my eyes widened as there was a loud sound of pebbles receding down a surface. I was stunned into silence as I finally got an eyeful of the raptor. It was big bigger than me at least. It was mostly scaly with a crown of feathers atop its head. Its cold glassy eyes surveyed the two of us, I swear I could almost count its teeth I was so focused upon them, until my eyes fell onto its cruelly curved claws. I could so easily imagine those claws ripping my guts out it wasn't even funny.
The raptor made a series of clicking sounds in its throat as it leapt off of its perch and turned its head sideways at us. I noticed the girl moving the bow from side to side trying to get a shot on the animal. The raptor turned on us suddenly screeching and rushing at the two of us with alarming speed. The girl gritted her teeth a loosed the arrow, there was an audible thump as the shaft buried itself right between the raptor's eyes. The creature gave a loud screech of pain as it flopped forward and lay limp upon the sand. The girl took a breath of relief and I could feel my own heart start to beat a bit slower.
Now she turned to me, I honestly got a bit frightened that the next arrow she fired would be in my direction but she just laughed at me. "Why the hell" she managed to get out between laughs. "Are you trying to travel through here without any weapons". I didn't know what to say to that statement.
"Well I'm not travelling anywhere I just sort of woke up and". I was trying to explain myself however the girl wasn't seeming to have it. As she cut me off mid-sentence as she pulled out a steel knife from her pack.
"Oh, you're a new guy" she said. I couldn't really say much as my eyes wouldn't leave the wickedly pointed blade in her hands. "Will you stop staring at me like that, if I wanted to kill you, I would've kept on running and let the raptor eat you. Name's Jackie, but most people just call me Deadshot. I'm gonna start stripping this raptor, if you wanna help that would be great" she said. I nodded dumbly.
"I'll help, if you uh tell me what to do" I said. She began to use the knife to hack at the claws of the raptor. She turned to me and pointed to the feathers on its head.
"Start pulling these off, I have a friend who likes them. After I get the claws off I'm on the move, you can come if you want. I'll take you to my tribe and ask Hugh about whether or not you can join, I'd say you've got a fifty-fifty chance of getting in. It's kind of a journey though" she said plucking out the last claw and sticking it in her pack.
I pulled off the last feather and followed her, I wasn't really wanting to stay by myself anyway, and she had weapons and apparently knew how things worked in this place. Which were all good reasons to stick with her. "What is your name anyway, quiet guy" said Jackie.
I remembered I should've introduced myself awhile ago, so I gave her my name, "I'm Barry" I said following close behind. She nodded and climbed onto the rocks offering me a hand up. I took it and she pulled me onto the rocks. "Do you want me to give you these feathers" I asked? She opened her pack and held it out. I took it as an invitation to dump the feathers into it which I took. On top of the rocks I could see much farther into the horizon, was that snow up ahead.
She pointed to the snow, "we'll make a stop at Coldsreach along the way, that's what I came out here for in the first place, the raptor got the drop on me and I'm lucky I'm not dino chow at the moment. It's a bit of a trek through dangerous territory but if you're smart, but if you do something stupid and its too dangerous for me to try and help you... Well I'm sorry, but I won't be risking my ass to save yours" said Jackie. I nodded that was reasonable.
"What kind of danger are we talking about here" I said. I then realized I was still pretty much nude and now there was a girl around here, but she hadn't said anything so I decided to just ignore it.
"Mostly the cold, but a big danger is dire wolves. They're everywhere when you get close to Coldsreach, I guess the scraps of a trading town attract them" she reached into the pack and pulled out a pair of leather pants which matched her own. "They might not fit like a glove, but they'll keep you warmer than those". She threw the pants at me, I felt that might be more her way of telling me to put some damn clothes on.
I nodded gratefully and covered myself up as she started walking, I followed her by skidding down the rocks carefully. "You it's getting dark right" said Jackie pointing skyward.
"What does that mean" I asked? Feeling stupid and useless. She gave me a look that told me for the moment she agreed with me.
"That means predators are gonna come out of the forest and it's gonna get a whole lot colder. We should collect things to make a fire" she said. Listing off things she'd need to make said fire. Thatch, wood, stones, and flints. She said she'd handle the flints because she had a pick and I didn't so I started to collect stones off the beach. Once I had a lot of stones, which disappeared into my arm thing, much to my surprise. I grabbed a large log of driftwood and dragged it over to where I could see Jackie hitting a rock with a pick. "That'll do" she said. Stripping the tree of thatch and taking whatever wood was left she set up a firepit, and I beat a pair of flints together to get a fire going, which worked quite well as I stood and admired our handiwork she said. "You're not as useless as you look Barry, even if you don't anything, and I did most of the work".
I was a little hurt by her jibe but didn't want to piss her off. The dusk sky was punctuated by a loud howl. She held up a finger to me and whispered. "Kill the fire. Now" she said.
"Why" I said not understanding. Wild animals were scared of fire, right? She grunted me annoyed as she suffocated the fire in dirt.
"Night Screamers. They're a tribe of cannibals, they only ride at night. You can find them just about anywhere along the island but the sect around here usually rides dire wolves. I was hoping they wouldn't be riding near here tonight but I was wrong. Move now" she said. Getting up and not waiting to see if I followed her or not. I was too scared not to. I quickly got up and sped after her feeling a pair of eyes following me as I moved. As we had moved the cliff face had changed into a forest, and in the dark depths of the forest I could see lights swaying between the trees as if they were galloping, then I realized those were torches. Jackie noticed them as well, and I heard her mutter fuck under her breath before speeding up. I followed suit desperate to keep up.