DAY ONE

Erik's journal

As far as I knew, I was stranded in a tropical rainforest; alone, lost and miserable. I don't know how I ended up here, but somehow or another I found myself crouching in the bushes, awaiting the arrival of some sort of creature I could sneak attack and strangle for food. I was only glad - and silently thanked myself - for always keeping the Punjab lasso on me. I didn't think I'd have to come to such heathenistic approaches, but I was going insane with hunger. I'm telling you, I didn't sign up for this. I believe I was pummeled from behind by some twisted enemy, kidnapped and dropped off here as some sort of torture. After an hour of waiting for prey, I gave up and searched surrounding areas.

..........

Erik stumbled through a bamboo patch, up to his shins in muddy, warm suspiciously-colored water. He was constantly on the lookout for aqua snakes and such, but he saw none. The pool was still, save the ripples his own trudging caused. The forest was freakishly silent, and all he could hear was his own steady breathing and occasional squelching as the mud sucked on his feet. Erik wandered out of the bamboo and came upon a giant fern, which he pushed through to discover a clearing where a body lay still.

..........

I came upon a clearing only to gaze upon the familiar form of Raoul le Vicomte de Chagny. Of course, I had recoiled in disgust and a queasiness jumped to my stomach once I realized who it was, but I rushed to his side all the same. If I was the only person in that jungle, I would have gone mad. With the fop along for the ride, at least it would be enjoyable to feed off his suffering while he battled unpampered worlds, if nothing else. I didn't want to touch him, but instead hovered around his body to find out if he was still alive and merely unconscious. I couldn't tell. I only knew of one way I could arouse him, and that was by poking him with a stick.

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Erik searched the clearing for tree excrement, or loose ends which he could yank off and use to jab Raoul with. When he found a suitable branch - several feet long, thick enough, and pointed at one end - he gently lowered it to Raoul-level and prodded the man with the sharp side. The viscount squealed and rolled over once very quickly as if he had spazzed, then laid still again. He of course, was alive.

..........

I found a branch sure enough, and gently poked the fop in the side. He reacted, and I must admit I felt a combination of relief and disappointment all at once. Disappointment because, alas - his sprawling dead body of my dreams was not reality-duplicated, but relief, for I didn't want to endure this silly jungle alone. The boy did not wake up, but his jump was good enough for my satisfaction. I was about to leave the clearing and go searching for more victims - which I hoped there were, especially of the Christine sort - when an interruption occurred at the non-jagged end of my stick.

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Suddenly, the branch Erik was holding, moved. He screamed "Holy God!" and dropped it, only to discover that there was something rather large, gray and fuzzy on the blunt end of the stick, which was the cause of the movement. He wondered how he could have missed it, but decided not to think about that, and instead worry himself with what this creature was. It wasn't moving anymore, but instead just clung onto the stick like a giant hairy barnacle and did nothing else.

"I believe I frightened it," Erik said to himself, circling the stick and examining the creature with interest. He noticed that the creature had three very long claws with which it hung onto his branch, and immediately Erik realized what this was.

"A three-toed sloth," he breathed, knowingly. "But where is his head?" Erik braved the animal's wrath, slowly approached it, and touched it with one long pointer finger. The sloth slowly poked its head from the folds of its fur and opened one eye. The other followed suit after a few seconds. Fascinated, Erik poked the creature's eye to see how fast its reflexes were. The sloth shrunk its eye back like a slug in slow motion, then opened it again, warily.

"This is the slowest animal I've ever seen in my life," Erik muttered to himself. He softly patted the sloth once on the silly head and bid it adieu, completely forgetting about Raoul, and going off on his way.

..........

I discovered that this interruption was a three-toed sloth; a remarkably gentle, stupid and slow animal. I could not believe how retarded its movements were, but I decided that once I found a way out of this rainforest, I would most definitely take a sloth home with me. All I could do was wander on in fear, hungry and hoping to find someone else. I don't know what I wanted more; to come across another human, or a meaty beast that could satisfy my growing famine. I knew I could have killed and eaten the sloth, but I would not give in to such easy prey. I would never in my life hurt such a pathetic and cute little animal, which quite frankly, was much bigger in real life than I imagined from the pictures I'd seen. I just walked on, staggered on, carrying on, giving my life to the forest and its raw nature. If it saw fit to swallow me into death, then so be it.

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Sloth's POV

That was the first and last time a human has crossed my path. I daresay, he wouldn't dream of coming back to challenge me. I believe I was an appropriate threat to his life, and when he promptly poked my eye, that was the last straw. He would pay. I was going in for the kill, extending my powerful claws and widening my evil jaws of death to reveal my razor sharp teeth an animal as beautiful as I would normally not possess. As I carefully aimed and swiped for the human's face with awesomely accurate precision, I unfortunately miscalculated how long it would take me to do so.

..........

It had been an hour and a half since Erik's encounter with the sloth, and by that time he was meandering deeper and deeper into the rainforest. Meanwhile, the sloth's claws made contact with the fallen branch once again, and it was disappointed that it had missed its target.