The last year he spent in hell was eventful. He had accepted reality. This didn't just include the reality of his situation. This world was undeniably different. He could confirm there was a type of energy or substance in the air. He didn't understand his new sixth sense. He originally believed it was the mythical sixth sense one could find a number of stories about. It would explain how he found it possible to feel the cockatrice on patrol even when he didn't have a visual of them.
It was only later as this new sense started to develop he realized he could minutely feel it outside of creatures. He would be lying if he said it didn't scare him. This was because he could feel it gathering inside him. It was a lump sum that was slowly building without moving. This scared him into action. He didn't follow the cockatrice after that first attempt. During this period, the massing of the substance building in his chest forced him to risk the danger.
Slowly as he started to mimic the cockatrice he was able to move more fluidly in the hunts. They were natural predators with their own unique style. They wouldn't attempt to fight and kill their prey. Once locked down they would use sound, sight, smell, and other sources to their advantage. From heavy handed steps to sending one of them up wind.
The standard procedure was to alert the prey of a predator. Once startled they would subtly create a chase. As the three cell team maneuvered around the target they would lead it in circles or around by the nose. Worst was a large bear-like creature with four arms. It was the size of a pickup truck. This wasn't a creature that was scared easily. So instead of using their normal methods they started a different operation.
One was sent in with a fake injury. This was an eye opening display of the true horrors of the depravity of these creatures. When the bear chased, it used its smaller body to move in a way that allowed it to just barely avoid being hit by any of the attacks sent its way. As one can imagine, slowly the bear started to find the situation fishy. Sure enough as it stopped chasing the injured cockatrice didn’t keep moving and turned around to watch it. He had no idea what the bear was feeling but he felt his arm get goosebumps just watching this from an outside perspective.
Soon the other two showed themselves and this naturally made the bear angry and yet all it could do was roar. Maybe it was luck or maybe the distance was calculated. He didn’t know which was true even to this day. But the cockatrice scattered after the roar but not for the normal reason. As he followed the cockatrice he noticed they didn’t leave the area and only grouped back up together. At the time their actions seemed odd. Still the cockatrice sat still a good distance away for around five minutes before they went on the move again.
Taking a roundabout way they returned to the original location that was not even remotely the same. If before it was just a normal part of the forest there were trees and a small hill. The cockatrice didn’t immediately stop moving once the bear stopped chasing. Instead it sat at the top of a slightly steep cliff it climbed with its sharp claws with ease. Currently there were chunks of the hill that were completely upturned and the top had a large dent with traces of a fierce battle left on the ground and toppled trees. It appeared in the five minutes they had just been away a battle had ensued.
After moving around the battlefield the group didn’t immediately make a decision. As if looking for something they spread out before they went here and there before one made a call. Once it was heard the other wanted to move but was cut off by Tiny. Unlike usual it wasn’t as barbaric in this current hunt. After seeing the traces it started to move before the other two followed. He really wanted to see what was the trace they found but he didn’t have the ability or the time.
While it was a group of three if anyone was watching they would have noticed there were four moving together. After prolonged exposure he started to move the exact same way they did. His ability to move had long since reached a level where traveling was possible even while tailing a decently mobile target. Even if it wasn’t perfect this group was the only one he followed because even if there were slight mistakes or traces after they ate they didn’t backtrack and simply returned with full bellies. His impression of the other two groups he had identified left him feeling this was not the normal procedure that was followed and had to do with the team leader Tiny.
After following they had found the target. Even from a distance he could see the traces of fur and blood on the ground. The cockatrice didn’t immediately move and did the normal tactics. By this time he had been following them out on their hunts for over a month. He hadn’t kept exact dates but it was likely well into the second month. By this time it wasn’t just his familiarity with their movements. He had learned to identify some landmarks outside of the safe zone. By this point he started to realize what they were doing. He couldn’t be positive of the end result but he knew where they were going and what they were doing to an extent.
The bear was fleeing from something chasing it and with much hesitation from the pace of the cockatrice that were slowing down before speeding back up it was clear the bear finally made a drastic decision. It was likely it didn’t know what the cockatrice was but knew about the dangers of the safe zone. It made a quick beeline for the safe zone. What was once a curved line back and forth trying to find a place to lose the things tracking it, turned into a straight line. It likely thought it could cause them to stop chasing if it entered the infamous safe zone. That was the only conclusion he could come up with. It was possible he was wrong but in the end the insidious methods of the cockatrice seemed to fit this way of thinking.
What he wasn’t sure of at first was that they didn’t enter the safe zone from their patrol route. Maybe having second doubts it didn’t immediately enter and skirt around the edge. It was only once it couldn’t get free of pursuit it bit the bullet and crossed the invisible barrier and entered the safe zone. What surprised him was that Tiny did in fact hesitate. This made him question if there was actually a structure to these creatures. He already found it odd that the patrol teams didn’t seem to change along with where they patrolled.
Still with such a large piece of meat they didn’t hesitate too long before they entered a different territory and gave chase. He also hesitated but in the end he kept following with a greater distance and was ready to flee at a moment's notice. The further they went in he started to get uneasy but he didn’t leave. He was also unsure where this unease was coming from. Soon he found out what the issue was. As the distance between him and the cockatrice closed he realized they had slowed down and were seemingly giving up on the chase. But they continued to move in the same direction they just did so slowly.
The big decision came from when they finally stopped. They didn’t head back into the center and were actually laying down as once or twice one would leave the group before moving in the direction of the bear before quickly coming back. He felt incredibly uneasy as a nagging feeling inside the pit of his stomach told him he should leave. But curiosity got the best of him and he stayed. It took around an hour or two for the cockatrice to get up and start moving again. He was about ready to give up as even his curiosity had a limit. It was going to start getting dark soon and he would need time to make it back.
The only upside was that the cockatrice didn’t often travel at night and usually around this time they would have already started to return to the center area of the safe zone. The only time he saw a group out this late was Tiny’s group that had gone out hunting and returned late. Yet since the finale seemed to be here he decided to see it to the end. Once dark came he would be able to return without much trouble from the cockatrice the biggest issue would be his tracks. Therefore he would only follow a bit before giving up if he had to.
In the end he wished he had left earlier but let the curiosity hold him back. Once the cockatrice stopped to feast on the down bear he had his answer. He didn’t need to think about the situation as it was already clear. He had gained too much from this exploration. The confusing situation became abundantly clear when he saw the river and berry bushes. It was also at that moment that changed everything, the moment he decided on a course of action that would in roughly six months later bring everything to a close.
That was a sleepless night. No matter what he tried he couldn’t get the stray thoughts out of his head and he couldn’t therefore sleep. His mind kept moving a thousand thoughts a second. He continued to replay past events looking for clues to understand the crux of the issue. In the end by the time the sun started to rise he didn’t find his answer. There were still too many things in fog that were yet to be cleared therefore he was looking at sporadic dots spread on a piece of paper needing to travel blindly between them in search of a connection.
That day was extremely unproductive as he had supplies so he decided not to go out. It was one of the reasons he allowed himself to follow the cockatrice for so long. He had enough water and food stored to last a few days with careful consideration. Even still he very rarely didn’t do something. It was not a good idea to sit around blankley allowing your thoughts to consume you. Not in a place like this, not when the only thing keeping you going is the daily activities that keep you from thinking about the reality of the situation. The reality of his life was looking to be alone in a forest without anyone else.
Luckily for him his thoughts were elsewhere. While this didn’t mean he was in a good place mentally he was currently looking for answers. As if looking at a puzzle that he had believed to have all the pieces in front of him. Only the puzzle pieces were flipped upside down so he couldn’t see the big picture. He had to blindly put the piece together trying to find the right piece that fit the other. Each time he tried to connect the two he would find himself missing parts that connected the two. By the time the day ended he was left with corner pieces without anything that connected them to the rest of the puzzle.
As if connected by some ungodly force he went out the next day. He didn’t sleep terribly well but he did get enough rest to go out without having to worry about being sloppy because of not sleeping at all. By this time he had already exhausted all possible leads so it was only him waking up everytime he was able to fall asleep. Only this wasn’t new, this was something he had experience with so even if the situation was horrible it was one he felt some of the comforts of normality from.
He didn’t do a whole lot. Refilling his rock cauldron with water took a good chunk of his time. Making a second trip out he stocked up on a few extra berries from the fruited tree and checked his tracks from the other day. He had been worried a few times as his paranoia kept eating at him that he had been distracted on his way back so he had left traces behind. He was able to push these thoughts back but in the end he still succumbed to the notion and went back to make sure he was safe.
After a few rounds he didn’t find anything overly obvious. This also meant that when he found familiar land he hadn’t made tracks he could follow. Without finding those he wouldn’t be able to figure out where his traces were so without much luck he had to go back and hope for the best. While the paranoia often ate at him he generally appreciated the constant reminders he needed to be careful. If not for the patrols he felt like a wilderness man that simply lived out in the desolate wilds.
It was on his way back he saw something strange from the corner of his eye. At first this made him take a second look carefully before he realized what it was. It wasn’t anything to be worried about. He found a small shriveled black tree. He would occasionally come by them. At first he found it strange why all the trees he discovered after that first one looked this way. Slowly he came to the realization that the black tree that was intact was a lone tree with a wide gap between it and other trees. In fact the last time he returned he found the tree had created an even bigger zone around it.
It appeared that the black tree required an insane amount of nutrients to grow. The rest would always sprout in terrible locations covered in an abundance of other trees. This one was no different and was in fact growing right beside a large oak looking tree. The sickly looking black tree was shriveled up like a mummy that had been dried out for days. The only piece he found intact was a strange branch that grew in an abnormal way.
He called it a branch but in reality it was the base of the trunk. The trunk of the fully grown and even the other dried up ones he had found normally had a base around the size of a large palm. He wouldn’t get his hand around it, only if he used both hands could he touch fingers around the smallest of trunks. This one on the other hand was like it had cannibalized itself. From the base the trunk had decent size for the rest of the tree but it would curve in and out as the nutrients ran out periodically giving birth to an unsightly looking tree. As it grew to about two feet the trunk continued to grow without any nutrients and was left with a dried up husk that looked like a twig. He reached out to touch the part separating the somewhat normal looking part with the dried up tiny husk of a trunk that was smaller than most healthy twigs. The second he made contact the top part cracked and broke off with his gentle touch.
This surprised him greatly as the two he used were still fine even after long exposure away from the original tree. The wood seemed to naturally preserve itself like it had been treated. Yet this one was killing itself as parts of it would take all the nutrients as one entity fought itself for the food. As an experiment he started to bend the base back and forth and even though it did look sturdy it too started to crack and break. It didn’t break nearly as clean as the top but still he was able to pull out the trunk from the ground.
He didn’t like staying in one place for too long so he took it with him. Normally the weight was five times but this small piece was roughly twice as heavy. Parts of it seemed rotten as it was soft unlike the hardness of the others he had seen before. Once he returned he started to test the hardness as he found it interesting. As he started to rub it against different objects he saw that rubbing it against rocks he had used the other pieces to break apart with ease caused this one to chip and break off from the trunk.
As he started to rub it against the rock he slowly took off large sections of soft wood before finally reaching a hard core. By the time he realized it was night he put it aside and went to sleep. This gave him a new interest as when he went out he would look for more black trees. When he had time he would play with the wood core. After shaving it down he ended up with a strange shaped branch that looked rather comical.
