Day XXX

I have been living in this temple for 3 years now. The harshest time was the first winter, when i had to….kill, i thought id take it harder but i got over it, survival took precedence, the whole incident is a bit fuzzy but i’m sure i did not eat her, she was a starved beast and i refuse to stoop to that level…..i...i don’t want to fall any lower.

Most of my days i spend foraging and hunting, i was fortunate a river was not too far from the temple, otherwise collecting fresh water would have precedence and id have less time to get food, the river also gave me the opportunity to catch fish once and a while, if my fire goes out (fuck you rain) i tend to rely on fish, since i can eat it raw.

This area i call home is truly beautiful; it’s surrounded by forest with just one overgrown path leading to the temple ruins. It’s secluded from human strife and although its harsh living alone in the wilderness, anything is better than living with humans.

Unfortunately the day I would be re-introduced to humans is the time my brief peaceful life is destroyed. They truly only bring suffering.

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“fuck, Fuck, FUCK!, we’ve hit 3 towns and nothing! Even the women are too starved to be considered as such, i ain’t gonna fuck a Fucking half dead skeleton! What has the world come to if even us bandits are no better off than the villagers” Bandit A

“b..boss why don’t we go after em lords, they got food don’t em” Bandit B

“......god you're so fucking stupid. The reason we go after villagers and not nobility is because lords fucking guard their shit, especially now when they are the only ones with food. If we were part of some larger bandit group we may have a chance but we’re a group of two! If we even attempted to rob them, we'd be met with certain death. DO YOU U.N.D.E.R.S.T.A.N.D” Bandit A

“y..ya, I mean YES boss.” Bandit B

Bandit A Pov:

I used to be part of a larger bandit group only a few weeks ago and was doing moderately well considering the era. I didn’t have to starve and had a roof over my head, things were going great, until everything went to shit.

‘How the hell did i end up in this situation?’

I know i'm better off than those pitiful peasants, stuck under the overbearing rule of lords who don’t give a shit about anything but their own well being.

I realized this distasteful truth when i was a boy but things were tolerable until the famine started to get truly bad. My father and mother were killed for trying to hide some food for us. I escaped and left my village to join in the more rewarding profession of being a thief.

Fuck being a farmer; I'd rather be the one taking than being taken from; unfortunately the group i joined ended up stealing too often in the surrounding towns which caused the already meager food supply to lessen further, which upset the lord, as he was gaining less tax. A subjugation was ordered and the bandit group was annihilated. I was able to escape and ended up dragging along some other guy but while we kept our lives, we lost basically everything else.

Life still sucks, being on the run while starving was wearing us out and since all the towns were barren I decided living off the land and getting a bace was our best bet to survive, especially with winter on the way. I decided to lead us down some forest roads, hopefully my luck will turn around and we can find a secluded hideout to start fresh.

New goal- become the leader of a bandit group

Bandit A Pov End.

“Am i hallucinating” Bandit A questions while peering at the sight between the foliage of the surrounding trees “You seeing what i’m seeing” looking towards his companion he asks.

“y..yes boss” Bandit B replied meekly

“YES i'm hallucinating or YES you also see burnt down temple ruins! Start speaking clearly you incoherent idiot” Bandit A

“...........sorry…. i also see the temple” Bandit B

“Fucking God I swear, how is it a muscle giant like you is soo fucking meek! This is why you always get taken advantage of. Lucky you got me to take care of you” Bandit A

“....……” Bandit B

“Well come on, we can even start recruiting to create a new bandit group. The location is perfect, with a little reconstruction and defenses it’ll turn out better than the last fort. If we grow big enough even taking from the lords should be simple” Bandit A

Boy Pov:

I woke up to a well placed kick in the gut, flung across the room i ended up hitting my back and head against the surprisingly solid wooden wall of my temple abode. Though looking at the two figures towering over my curled up body, i believe they would refute my claim to this wooden structure i’ve been calling home for three years, being mine. Their posture and eyes divulged their intention to claim this space for themselves and judging from their ill mannered greeting, they see me as a pest to be culled from it’s premises. I never take my eyes off them as i struggle to regain my breath, i observe these two creatures, trying to extract their intentions while being cautious as their figures and strength is well above my own.

They start speaking to each other, the smaller one is clearly the leader of this two man group, judging by how he shouts to his companion and his arrogant posture. during their brief one sided conversation i notice a problem. I don’t understand them at all. ‘well that is inconvenient’ though understandable as the only human contact i experienced was that of the woman that raised(?) me, and even then she never really talked.

I stay curled on the ground as still as possible as i try to regain my breath, hoping they don’t notice me i look for an opportunity to escape. I concluded escape was the proper choice as the shorter man seemed to have bad intentions and id likely be killed if i stayed.

The instant the two mens awarenesses drifted of me i dashed for a small gap in the splintered wood not far from me. I was just small enough to fit through and it would give me a large enough head start to escape them…..i hope. I ran, through the trees and brush trying to choose a path that would obstruct any figure larger than my size. My adrenaline pumping, heightening my senses i heard the steps behind me like the beat of a war drum along with the snapping of branches as the two figures behind me started to gain on me, in their pursuit. I had the advantage of topography as i had lived here for 3 years, but i never wandered more than a mile or two away from my temple home. The forest is dangerous and i wanted to avoid getting lost or find myself without water. My home field advantage advantage was lost after the first day of pursuit. I had managed to loose them a few times and rest, but they never gave up in finding me and continued to give chase. ‘persistent bastards, why can’t they leave me alone, i already left the temple. Do they really mean to kill me!’ My thoughts drifted towards the reason they won’t leave me. ‘do they see me as sport’ no thats unlikely they looked quite starved they wouldn’t waste energy just for the thrill of the hunt………….....s..starved…!

(flashback) Mindless skeletal beings, barely walking with a look of utter hopelessness. The dead on the road whether rotting or fresh were picked clean not only by the birds and stray dogs but by their own kind. Occasionally that look of desperate hunger flashed across the face of one of these zombies….and they ate.

Bile welled up in my throat as i remembered scenes i’d rather forever forget. I forced it down and ran with a new vigor. My mind started to go blank and i could only feel disgust and fear well up inside me. My vision blurred due to my hunger but i continued to run, ignoring the pain of the jagged ground against my bare feet and the cuts that spread across my legs and arms from the branches and weeds id hazardously charged through. My mouth dry and my lungs burned but i continued to run through the dark forest ignoring the shouts of my pursuers.

Then white...the light hit me like a meteor, leaving me blinded and disoriented for a moment as my heightened senses made the change painfully apparent.

I fell, the adjustment took but a moment, my eyes used to the sun darted around frantically as i tried to gain my bearings, my mind processing the information around me. I was flying….no..i was falling. The line of blue before me became a raging torrent of water in mere seconds. My panic and realisation of the situation felt like an eternity when in reality only moments passed. Then the impact, a splitting pain across my body, my breath escapes me, then darkness.