TheBipBoop2003
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3. Returning to stone age
🕑 Added 2023-05-02 10:28:24 +0000 UTCOn the thick branch of a tree sat a human, his face was tense, pale, and sweaty and his eyes bloodshot, his breathing ragged, the start of a headache, and his hands clutched against the bark. He succeeded in climbing but was injured in the process.
'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.', was all that Liam could think, looking down he was met with the great austrapede's head, its four eyes glaring at him, and one of its claws was tainted red with his blood. It was calmly sitting on the ground with its legs folded under itself.
It was waiting for him to fall, for him to weaken enough through blood loss and finish what it started. It could wait as long as necessary, all this area was part of its territory.
The realization that the bird will wait and will not give up on wanting to kill him lighted something in him, a deep seeded anger born from his current situation, and at the moment it was mainly aimed at the bird.
He never felt such a powerful urge before, he was going to kill it he promised himself that. But not now, it was not blind anger, he wasn't going to kill himself for that and neither risk greater injury.
His implant glowed brighter in response to his emotion. He will recover, and be properly prepared, all of which will need to be done methodically. But he will for the moment injure it, at least try. The law of retribution. An eye for an eye.
Amidst the agony caused by the open wound on his back, he stood up. Each of his movements was felt through his back, only amplifying the pain.
A jagged stone appeared on his left hand just like before, Liam took in a throwing position, muscle fibers flexing, muscle memories of his body working in tandem with his mind. He concentrated, regulating his breathing, he then took a very deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"HEY! YOU SON OF A BITCH!", this instantly attracted the great austrapede who stood up, it didn't understand what the creature's noises meant and it didn't care, it attacked with its beak, snapping it shut at barely 2 meters from Liam's feet.
Not wasting this chance he threw the stone with as much force he could muster, and the projectile flew through the air with great speed and force.
*SqAwW!*
It hit its mark, it dug right into the upper right eye's cornea, and blood immediately spurted out of the ruptured eyeball. The great austraped panicked, it felt such intense pain for the first time, it didn't understand what just happened.
It squawked in pain and moved away shaking its head and body to get rid of the stone, but it was in vain and only aggravated the damage on the now unusable eye. It stumbled before running away, it should have gone for the kill earlier.
The human didn't even celebrate his temporary victory, too exhausted, both mentally and physically to do so or even care. The spur of anger had drained him of his last bit of strength.
He lay against the smooth trunk, his weight on the uninjured side of his back, staring up at the sky he saw the beautiful sunset of Pandora, from this place he could see the sea in the far distance. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
The next day he woke up not thanks to the melodious song of small hummingbird-like creatures flying around and gorging themselves on the delicious nectar contained deep within the flowers but to the pain in his body.
"This is real.", Liam mumbled. This tiny bit of naive hope that it was but a nightmare was crushed.
Looking up he saw a different yet similar enchanting sky that when he first woke up. There were different moons at different places. It was a sky he would see each time he woke up, each time a reminder he wasn't on Earth.
Moving he hissed as pain permeated his entire being. It was less powerful than yesterday but just as intense, his back turned the most and his legs were also extremely sore.
Just like the next day of an intense workout, a workout was taken to the extreme, to the point of potentially crippling oneself. He was not in the best of shape, but he is alive. He didn't die of hemorrhage, and he was far from having lost a dangerous amount of blood.
'How do I even take care of that? Will it just heal away like the cuts on my hand?', he thought with clear worry written on his face, a part of him was furious but he controlled it. Anger here will not help.
His hands carefully explored his back, it was caked in dry blood, and his face twitched in discomfort each time his finger moved too close to the claw wound, at the edges skin where the cut was sallower the skim already showed signs of healing.
However, it will take time, he may heal faster than the average common mortal man but a wound of this size will take more than a few hours and a tap on the shoulder to fully heal.
Not counting that the wound would need to heal on its own without the help of suturing as he couldn't do it himself for obvious reasons, and other modern medical necessities that could prevent several complications.
And that he wasn't a doctor, and was blind to the flora and fauna of this world, most of the things he could think of could lead to different problems or be counterproductive.
The knowledge in his possession was more on the engineering side of things, multiple tools could help, such as the Tek Phase Gun that could mend flesh but it was not made with sticks and stones. It was even more frustrating to have the solution but not the means to make it happen.
"I can only wait and hope I live… Fuck. At least… Let's use this time productively.", he said to himself, with conviction in his voice. He wasn't going to let himself die.
He was hungry and incredibly thirsty, both of these problems could be answered by the various plant life he collected, such as the alien aloe vera, there also were flowers he could grab on the tree.
If certain flowers can be eaten on Earth, surely why not here? Even the tree's sap could also potentially be used as a stable food and water source.
He needed to regain strength.
On the palm of his left hand appeared the beefy leaf of the 'aloe vera' he took, the exterior was of a faded turquoise with some spine on the side. Switching the leaf of hands a black seashell appeared in its place.
One part of it was serrated and sharp like the blade of a knife while the other was where the body creature that made the shell used to be when it was alive and now it served as a handle.
He cut the stem of the leaf with practiced ease and technique, the flesh inside was transparent and of a beautiful shade of pink.
He sniffed it, it smelled similar to basil oil. It was far from the most appetizing thing he saw, but far from less appetizing either. He wasn't a picky eater and wasn't going to be one here.
Lacking utensils to eat properly and not wanting to bite the outer layer, he put pressure with his finger, and with his force like the tube of toothpaste the flesh was slowly squeezed out.
Not waiting for it to fall he ate the gelatinous pink flesh from the source. It was weird in the mouth but otherwise tasted slightly sweet with an undertone of sourness at the end.
Then his stomach grumbled and without realizing he already ate all of it and was cutting a second leaf open, which he then also ate in record times.
Ten leaves later and he was only somewhat satiated, but he stopped, he needed to be mindful to not eat his entire stock too soon. The flesh/gel in the leaves had a pain-dampening effect, he noted and hoped it didn't have any other less than pleasant effect.
It lessened the pain in his muscles but the pain in his back was still present and happy to prove its presence by the random wave of burning pains that made him want to scream high and loud. He didn't even know how he could think straight with that kind of pain. He was your run-of-the-mill civilian but here he was…
A different person or a different aspect of his personality came up, or both, in all cases he was changed, forever. It was… He didn't know how to feel about that… It was both good and bad.
The next few hours flew by, the shade of the tree protecting him from the harsh ray of the sun. It was a good spot, not too cold nor too hot, not too much wind, and high enough to protect him against most potential threats.
Liam couldn't move much if he did he risked reopening the wound on his back or even worse falling, which would at best worsen his injury or at worse kill him.
So he passed the time by crafting items that will help him. He made several wooden objects, notably a spoon and many, many spears, learning about what woods seemed better or worse for this or that purpose. It wasn't his first time carving wood, it was one of his hobbies, and it was relaxing… Distracting. Even if anybody could make pointy sticks, but he made better pointy sticks.
Then he also weaved various plants, at first, he simply tested which one was better for what, which was good for paper, string, ropeetceteraa. Once that was done he made what appeared to be a cover, and the start of clothing, notably a band that protected his back.
He never did this before but it felt as if, for comparison, someone was relearning to ride a bike. Liam knew of dozens of ways to weave plants into various things, from clothing to furniture, and what were each technique's weaknesses and advantages, all of this thanks to the engrams engraved in his very being.
Since he was going to live on the tree for some time he was going to make it as comfortable, and safe as possible. So sleeping at the mercy of the elements and alien wildlife was a big no.
Liam was like a child, at least in terms of understanding this world, and he was aware of it. He needed to learn, he would evidently make mistakes which he already did earn a nasty wound, he would stumble, he would need to take risks, make difficult choices, and be resourceful and quick-witted, or he would be swallowed whole by this strange environment that inhabited Pandora.
And so the day continued on, he also started to make a ceiling by using the branch above him. He then ate some more alien aloe vera to reduce the pain in his back, before falling asleep under the mesmerizing sunset of Pandora. A proto blanket protecting his body was made of wide leave tied together with strings of grass weaved together.
This might have been harder than the first, he barely slept. Between the strange sound of animals, the odd position of his body, the various bugs flying around, and the wound on his back.
The pain was at the forefront of his mind, the constant tingling of his flesh healing with the random wave of pain that came just before he managed to doze off, and the movement he made when he touched his wound kept him awake. Only at the end of the night did he finally fall asleep.
