Chapter 3: What the Hell are those Penguin Things

Fortunately, I was able to find a few carrots relatively quickly, but still no berry bushes. That was mildly concerning, since the bushes would grow back, while the carrots would not. It wasn't like I had any carrot seeds to plant. Then again, considering it was winter, any berry bushes might not grow back anyway... that was even more concerning.

In the span of perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, I had acquired a decent stack of grass and twigs, though my hands were growing numb from digging around in the snow. I was just kneeling beside the coast (did I mention that the world Maxwell had sent me to seemed to be on an inescapable island? Yeah, that's fun), reaching for another sapling when suddenly something leapt out of the water in front of me and struck me right in the face, bowling me over.

My little pile of grass and twigs that I'd been carrying went flying in all directions, as I flailed my arms and shoved the squirming thing from my face. The thing made a heavy plopping sound as it hit the ground, and for a moment I thought it was some kind of big black ball. But then, it lifted itself up on two clawed feet, shook itself, and blinked up at me, looking rather annoyed.

It was some kind of animal, and it almost looked like it could be a penguin, but it had an absurdly long beak, like a pelican. Like every other creature I'd seen so far, it had large white eyes, with no pupils. Perhaps a side-effect of the weird mutation that was clearly going on.

The penguin/pelican creature ruffled up its wet feathers, and then squawked back at the water. I let out a squeal and fell back as several more penguins, at least five or six, came leaping from the sea after the first. They squawked at each other for a minute or two, flapping their little flippers and waddling around, before they all began toddling off in a seemingly random direction.

I blinked after them. Well, those penguin - things - had nearly given a heart attack, but they hadn't attacked me, at least. I wasn't dead yet.

Glancing at the sky once more, I noticed the sun had slipped below the horizon, and the light of the day was slowly draining away. It was officially dusk. Quickly, I snatched up my gatherings, and kept on going. I intended to make the most of my first day here, and I still only had three carrots. Berries would be good to find. Or at least a few more carrots. I wasn't hungry yet, but I would be later.

That was a certainty.

oXoXoXoXoXo

After another ten minutes or so, I had bad news, and more bad news.

First, I still had not found any berries bushes. Or any more carrots, for that matter.

Second (and this was significantly worse), I had found a spider's nest. Actually, two spider nests. And, since the creatures appeared to be nocturnal and since it was dusk, there were several way-too-big spiders crawling around the area, which was making it considerably more difficult to gather supplies. I tried my best to give them a wide berth, and they actually seemed quite nearsighted, so I went unnoticed. I wasn't sure if they'd attack me the moment they saw me, but they certainly looked unfriendly.

I had also found another animal's home - the penguin/pelican things. They had all congregated in a particularly icy spot on the ground, surrounded by little glaciers of ice. Speaking of which, the glaciers were incredibly strange. They were somewhat like small icebergs, but they had formed on the ground, not on the ocean. I couldn't figure them out.

It's worth noting that the penguins' home was right beside the spiders'. They were nearly overlapping, in fact. I wondered if I would get to see the two mutants fight.

While watching the oversized spiders and hybrid penguins, I hadn't really realized how cold I was getting. At least, not until I reached to pick a tuft of grass and noticed my fingers were too numb to work.

Hurriedly, I stumbled back to where I'd found the chest and the campfire. The fire had gone out by then; I hadn't put any more logs on it to keep it going, not wanting the chest to catch flame. I grabbed up a few logs, and by then I could recognize the early signs of hypothermia starting to set it, my brain feeling sluggish and disagreeable, my teeth chattering uncontrollably.

With some difficulty, I began to build another fire - considerably farther away from the chest this time. It wasn't like the chest itself was of much importance, now that I'd taken the items out of it, but I thought it'd be good to keep something to store my gatherings in. I couldn't carry everything around with me, after all. In the previous world (and, yes, I really did think it had been a completely different world, it was autumn there), I hadn't gathered enough stuff to necessitate building a chest or digging some kind of hole to put it all in. But if I was going to be staying here, I would probably end up needing some sort of storage space.

Eventually, I was able to get a fire going, even though I couldn't feel my hands or feet, and simply sat for a little while, warming myself. I didn't want to stay at the fire too long, though. I wanted to find more food before nightfall. I was not satisfied with three carrots.

I shook out my fingers and wriggled my toes inside my boots, the familiar pins-and-needles feeling spreading across my skin. Satisfied that I had staved off my hypothermia, I got to my feet, tossed another log in the flames, and went to take a step.

And promptly tripped over a spider.

I went tumbling to the ground, letting out a pained "Oof!" as I hit the packed dirt chest-first and knocked the air out of my own lungs. Gasping, I scrambled away, crawling forward like a snake on its belly, legs flailing as I struggled to put distance between myself and the mutant arachnid.

Behind me, I could hear it hissing, a low, gargling sound that was unlike anything I'd ever heard before in my life. It wasn't the first time I'd noticed them make those noises, but this particular hiss sounded much, much more aggressive than ever before. I turned my head, and while I wish I could say I did not let out an embarrassingly high-pitched squeal when I saw the creature crawling furiously forward with its teeth bared, I'd be lying if I did.

I staggered up to my feet, clumsily brushing snow from my clothes as I bolted out of there. I was in no mood to tango with giant insectoids of any sort. And as I ran, panting and shivering both from the cold and from fear, I noticed something even more horrifying.

The damn spiders were everywhere.

(A/N: Hello, my lovelies! Third chapter is here. In complete and total honesty, I'm dissatisfied with how the story is currently coming along. It feels... dry, to me. Hopefully, it'll get better as the plot progresses. Also, fun fact: Whilst playing Adventure Mode to write this chapter, some pengulls did indeed jump out of the ocean, and startled me quite a bit. I decided to incorporate my little scare into the story.)