So... my first ever story on this site... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous, since I haven't done anything like this before, but I'm also excited for the opportunities ahead. Anyway, let's get into the first chapter of Zyram's story...
The first thing that came into my mind was the pain I was in. The second, was to open my eyes. I was laying down on the ground, staring upwards. Above me was the starry night sky, and the towering silhouettes of trees around me, occasionally revealed by a flicker of orange glow. Struggling onto my feet, I got a better look of my surroundings: my ship, or rather, chunks of my ship, were scattered all around me. Some were ablaze, giving off a small amount of flickering light, and some were warped into unrecognizable pieces of scrap. Some distance in front of me lay most of the front half of the wrecked ship I once knew.
I had crashed. That much was obvious. My head hurt - my whole body hurt - and I cursed myself for not having been more careful when piloting. Either way, there was nothing I could do about it now except try to get through this. Going through my mind, I recalled the storage unit I usually kept at the front of my ship, where I kept the usual basic supplies - medical supplies, food and the like. I started approaching the large ship-half in front of me, hoping that- Ow! Taking my first step with my right foot, immense pain shot through me. Carefully testing it, I realized it must've been sprained, if not worse... Though I still continued, taking care not to put too much pressure on it.
After finally, painfully, reaching the wreck, relief went through me as I could spot the wall-mounted storage unit on the inside. It hadn't been torn off in the crash. Prying it open revealed a few supplies: some canned food, a flashlight, sleeping bag, pistol, and, most importantly, bandages. Although I may not know much about medicine, I know that I'll need them if I am to treat any of my injuries. I grabbed them and started getting to work, attempting to bandage any major cuts and other injuries I had sustained in the crash. I noticed the blood from them had started staining my black feathers, turning the color to a dark crimson. In addition to the cuts, I also bandaged my sprained foot in order to constrain movement and help it heal. It wasn't a fantastic job, but it was definitely better than nothing.
Finally with a moment to think, I reflected on my situation: without a ship to get me off this planet, I would be left stranded. Stranded... The realization hit me. How would I get off this planet? I might be a ship mechanic, but I wouldn't be able to fix my ship considering the state it's in, not even if I had the tools required. I'm probably going to be here for a while... I was thankful that the planet did not seem all that dangerous, though. It looked to be mostly forest, if what I saw while crashing was any indication.
With that in mind, I decided to start seeing if I could get some sort of basic shelter set up; planning would probably be easier in the morning, and the burning wreckage of my ship probably wouldn't be a safe place to sleep... A short inspection of the immediate area gave a few results. For one, there was a small cliff right next to the crash site. In fact, it seemed that a decent portion of the ship had been caught at the top of the cliff in the crash, judging from the fact that I could see the flames of a large ship chunk up there. Most importantly, though, was that I could probably use the cliff as support for a makeshift shelter. I couldn't find any immediately better spots, so it would have to do for now.
And thus began the construction of a basic shelter. It was slow (and painful) due to my injured foot, but with the clever utilization of a few wrecked parts from my ship and some tree branches, I had something that could arguably be called a shelter. Again, it wasn't a fantastic job, but it would at least keep me relatively safe from the elements for a night. I was tired and in pain, so, having grabbed my sleeping bag, I laid it down in the shelter, and retired for the night...