Yo schmos! It's SuperWuppy again, with Chapter 2. Hope you enjoy!

And don't forget…. 24 is 10, 10 is 3, 3 is 5, 5 is 4, and 4 is cosmic! (though technically cosmic is 6!)

Whoever can tell me what 36 is wins a cookie!

Chapter 2

A New Friend

Will…

I'm sorry… It's the only way…

You'll thank me someday…

I groan. The light is cutting through my eyelids, and breaking apart my dream.

If you survive…

Good luck…

I crack my eyes open.

I slowly sit up, and am momentarily shocked to see the forest surrounding me. Then I remember.

I am stuck in this other world, which as far as I can tell so far, has no other friendly life on it.

Just as I'm ruminating on the lack of any other creature that is not trying to kill me, something nudges my leg.

"AARGH!" I scream involuntarily, jumping back and adopting a fighting stance as I prepare to deal with this new menace. Is it another zombie? An overgrown bug?

Maybe it's some sort of kamikaze exploding thing that will blow itself and me to bits any second… No, that's absurd.

Actually, it's a pig. A fat little pink oinker. It's sort of cute.

The sight is so ridiculous, and so different than what I was expecting, that I start laughing out loud. I don't really care that any passerby will think I'm an idiot, because the issue at hand

is that there are no passerby. As I stare down at the pig, some sort of primal instinct awakens within me. I see not an animal, but floating strips of bacon.

I lick my lips in anticipation.

But… no.

This thing is in just as much danger as I am. Why should I kill it for a mouthful of food? I still have some mushrooms left over, anyway.

I decide to keep the pig as a pet!

I crouch down in front of the pig, who is observing me with a cocked head. "Hey there, buddy!" I say in a high-pitched voice. I'm gonna call you… uh…" I cast my mind about for some sort of

incredibly dazzling and creative name. Then it hits me! After all, it's all I see when I look at him.

"Bacon!" I exclaim.

The newly christened Bacon oinks rebelliously.

"Now, now, Bacon, don't be like that," I plead. "Here, have a mushroom!"

The scientists in the bare, white room watch the scene with interest.

"There, there!" says Derek. "Anyone else would have chopped up that pig with their bare hands! He gave it a mushroom! I told you he was the right one!"

As the intern dances jovially around the room, the other scientists shake their heads disdainfully.

"What this kid has to do won't be helped by owning a pet pig!" rages one coated individual. "He needs strength! Courage!"

Derek nods serenely. "You'll see. Thinking outside the box, doing what no one else would- that will serve him far better."

The tall scientist with no name tag clears his throat. "It better. What happened last night was a one-chance deal. We can't save him again."

I stand by the river, looking at growths of reeds that dot the bank. Bacon oinks happily at my side.

I dredge up a hazy memory. I recall that the ancient Egyptians made some sort of paper-ish thing out of reeds… Papyrus, that was it.

I pluck some reed and look at it in my hand, absentmindedly lining up the strands. Paper would be pretty useful… I thought.

Suddenly, my hand flashed with brilliant light. I watch, amazed, as the reeds seem to melt together and spread into a perfect sheet of blank paper.

I drop it like it was on fire.

Backing away from the paper, I attempt to sort out my thoughts.

What did I just do? I created something. No, I didn't create it. I had the materials, and somehow… just made it happen.

I… crafted it?

I decide to try it on something else. A bowl would be useful, too. I gather up some sticks, and bend them into a crude bowl-like shape, binding it together with reeds.

I need a bowl, I think, imagining it clearly in my mind's eye.

A perfect wooden bowl appears on my hand.

How about… about….aha!

I lay out on the ground a short stick, and two pointed rocks I find by the riverside.

A sword! I need a sword!

Laying my hand on the contraption, I wait with bated breath. Sure enough, a wicked stone sword appears on the ground.

I heft it in one hand the balance is perfect.

"Your name is Tamerlein!" I declare, looking down the blade. I imagine dramatic music playing in the background.

I set off for my shelter. Those zombies will have a reckoning tonight!

An hour later, I am hopelessly lost. Bacon is still resolutely following me, but is periodically letting out tired oinks.

"Sorry, Bacon… a little farther…" I pant. Climbing the millionth hill, I look out at an open plain and stop dead.

I see a village of wooden houses and a stone church rising above the streets.

"CIVILIZATION!" I scream, my voice cracking.

I race down the hill, Bacon at my side.

It's a little shorter than Ch. 1, but I wanted to have a cliffhanger.

What will Will find in the village? Is Bacon a cool name or what?

If you got the sword reference, you are a boss!

Stay tuned...