Day 26

I didn't have much of a dream that night, I fell asleep during meditation and only recall that the dream felt comfortable. I woke up feeling rested, crawled out, and started the fire back up, and threw some meat on the fire. I didn't have much to do in the morning and started to carve out more of my stone bowl, hoping to finish it before the meat was done.

I carved away at the bowl, eventually carving another inch deep before my food was done, I figured I could carve out another inch before I would consider it done, and then I could use it for cooking, or maybe as a water catch or something. I sat there eating my roast while looking at the sticks and logs I had left, when I realized I had been a bit of an idiot, and set my roast down carefully, then grabbed two little sticks. I used my knife to carve them down and made some makeshift chopsticks. I finally had more cutlery besides a knife, and immediately started using them, mainly to hold the meat down while I cut it on my carapace plate. I ate the rest of the roast quickly, buried a chunk of meat to cook, and started into the forest, spears in hand.

I walked to the clearing with the hole, stretching and shaking off the last of my drowsiness. I was yet again going to discover more interesting things, I was hoping I would be able to find some sort of subterranean vegetables, or maybe a water source. It took me an hour of walking to get to the clearing, and I came upon a rather interesting sight, it was a short stubby creature, the size, and shape of a pig, charging out of the hole like it was fleeing something.

I looked around and saw what it was running from, on the other side of the clearing was a large snake, maybe one foot around, and five feet long, similar to the one that bit me, and gave me that crazy dream. Slowly, I backed away, and then 'SNAP' I broke a branch underfoot, and it whipped its head towards me, and once again, I saw that look of a cold intelligence in its eyes, like it thought of me as prey, not as competition. I stepped back again, not taking my eyes off of it, and readied a spear, waiting to see if it would do something. It looked back at the pig thing, and I started whistling, that six-note tune, the pace of it felt different, but it felt right. Its head slowly turned back to me, its eyes drooping a little bit.

I didn't approach it for a minute, as I whistled the tune, as its head slowly rocked back and forth, eyes half-closed. I walked over, slowly walking around it, till I was right behind it, and I reached out with the Manaphage and my hand, spear at the ready. Then I struck, grabbing its jaw with the mitten like Manaphage and wrenched it open, already draining it from the inside out. Then I shoved the spear straight up through the roof of its mouth. It was quick, and I felt it tense under me, then it snapped its jaw shut like a bear trap, breaking the spear in half, shoving the point through the rest of its head, creating a bulge in the roof of its head.

I felt its life force quickly flow into the Manaphage, bringing with it that refreshing taste of lemon and mint. I relaxed my shoulders, and once I felt the flow trickle to a stop, I pulled the Manaphage back, shaking it out of the snake's mouth. I sat down, the adrenaline that had been pumping through my veins flushed out of my system, and leaned back against the cave wall, I realized it after the fact, but as I was whistling, the Manaphage had been slowly dimming, and when I grabbed its jaw, it lost the light for the briefest second, before I started to forcefully absorb its life force. I had successfully used magic, beyond my body, like I had cast a spell. I raised my arms in tired celebration, a manic grin forming on my face, I finally had something I could fight with, sure I had the Manaphage, but that relied on my own strength to tussle with these monsters, whereas with the notes, I could actually gain a real advantage.

I sat there, in a comfortable victory, and rested for a good while, until the sun came overhead, and then I started getting up when I heard a rustling. Looking back, I saw the pig thing peering out from behind a tree, and it saw me looking at it, and ran away again. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to worry about it too much, as it was much too scared to approach me, it probably wouldn't attack me in the hole, right? Regardless, I grabbed the snakes body and positioned it so it looked like it was looking out beyond the hole, hoping to ward off the pig thing, or anything else. I started walking, hunched over, into the hole, the Manaphage held above my head, a sense of familiarity coming over me like I had done this far too much.

I walked a ways into the hole, it slowly curved around the rock, the rock getting larger and larger around when I eventually reached an open-air cave. I was still on the now drill-like a spiral, almost like it was carved out of the rock, and I was looking out over the cave, the Manaphage lighting up my environs fairly well. I looked around and saw the trunks of the trees extending downwards, once more penetrating the floor, about 60 feet below. I followed the spiral down, and eventually reached the floor, and it felt like the ground I had been standing on up top. I looked around and noticed that around this rock there was a similar clearing, though it was much tighter, much closer to the rock itself, and there was no hole leading deeper in. I walked up to a tree trunk and struck it with my ax, and the ax bounced off, making a dull thunking sound, and leaving a small mark on the trunk.

I stopped then, not knowing what to do, getting lost would be much easier down here, and decided to head back up, I had seen what I needed to and knew what I had to do now. I made it to the surface, the snake untouched, and started back to my camp, dragging the snake behind me.