1 Honourless metal-bird
"Ughh... my gut's killing me." Gustav muttered.
He was right to complain, as throughout most of the night he had faced nothing but discomfort. Sleep was seemingly non-existent, and he had only gotten a single hour of it last night; It wasn't enough.
The good man tried to stand up afterwards, but felt a sharp pain on his lower waist right away!
"Ah!" He grunted.
This type of pain was unusual amongst his kind, as a start, but it was also unbearable. It was mentally consuming to think that internal problems could weigh him down now, while in the past he faced gruesome battles that not everyone could survive! The current dilemma seemed pale in comparison.
Anyway, after he stood up, Gustav muttered. "All that cave bee honey is useless, but I need more. What else can I do? Nothing's been helping me for weeks anyway!"
With that desperate pace, he waddled across the muddy cave, and felt that the dim illumination here didn't aid morale in general; It was dark, obviously, but also depressing.
He quickly felt embarrassed for complaining, after he recalled what other men this collection of caves housed. He was only one of the many mammoth-men and women, eight-foot tall in size and gloriously strong too!
A lot of them were so tough that they rarely relied on their size to survive. Each mammoth could shape-shift into a smaller body type, which left their smooth skin exposed to mother nature's cold, and dangerous elements!
"My men are running around butt-naked, but here I am, dwelling in fur just to survive." He thought, and tried to remember that his furry version helped endure more pain.
While Gustav juggled those thoughts and tried his best to walk, something shiny called for attention, right near the spot where he had slept. It felt tedious to walk back there, but curiosity left him with no other choice!
"Maybe these are my last hours? That thing looks nice, but it's probably my own shit." He contemplated.
Upon every step taken forward, however, he only grew more and more shocked! For a short moment, he forgot all about the pain even.
"An egg?" Gustav grunted.
Afterwards, he said. "How the hell did that get in here? It looks like a fucking fireball!"
This sight was confusing enough alone but he forgot about it for a moment, once a whole load of crap suddenly shot out of his hairy, mammoth buttocks!
It sprayed all across the ground, at an efficiency which pierced the air quickly enough, to kill a whole storm of bees! Unsurprisingly, there was blood mixed with it.
This splattering layer of shit wasn't voluntarily shot out, so this wasn't a good sign at all.
At this point, he was more agitated rather than scared. "Why treat a warrior like me, with a death like this…"
This issue didn't give him much space to think. He wasn't struck by another wave of pain, but this time around, his internal organs felt like they were aggressively inflamed, on all sides!
Gustav's stomach boiled like a tea-pot, and several hot burps followed along; Which not only tampered with his throat, but also made him cough up blood!
Such discomfort called for desperate measures, he needed help. With a little idea in mind, he hastily grabbed the egg and stashed it within his fur rather easily, as it was only half-a-foot tall.
It was weirdly hot enough to sizzle his belly fur a tad bit, but Gustav still insisted. "Bet it'll buy me an antidote, I can't let it end like this."
Slowly but surely, he finally walked through a couple of caves afterwards, and was kissed by a ray of weak sunlight at the end. Snow had spread across the mountainside, as the ice-age grew more dominant by the day.
In the close distance, he saw a tiny herd of his own mammoth kind who battled a huge group of smaller men.
This species of tiny people loved to dress themselves with fur of any kind, likely because they couldn't endure the harsh cold as efficiently. Wars with them had been going on for centuries, and it only got worse as the ice-age thickened.
"Not again... why won't those smooth skinned ones die already?" Gustav sighed, as his eyes rounded like that of a disappointed puppy.
He wanted to swoop in this battle and lend a helping hand, but didn't feel strong enough to do so. Blood trickled across the snow every time he took a step, and it was even more concerning once he thought of where that blood came out of.
Thankfully, another flock of tall mammoths rushed into the scene. They pounced upwards, and used their honed musculature to squash those tiny attackers to the ground!
"Hah, that's what happens when you try to act like a mammoth. Dumb humans..." Gustav cheered, but didn't dare to move much.
With a slow pace, he walked up the mountain afterwards, and aimed to reach a cave where traders resided. With this special, expensive-looking egg in his possession, the good man hoped to get himself a better antidote this time around.
However, after he went half-way up a hundred meter long slope, his left eye caught a weird sparkle.
Subconsciously he peeked up, and that was when he noticed a weird bit of metal which flew across the sky!
With a hint of confusion, he calmly asked. "What kinda bird is that?"
As if to answer that question, the metallic contraption that was shaped like a giant plate, suddenly beamed towards Gustav. Now, it only hovered a few meters above his head.
"What?" He muttered.
A twenty-kilogram warhammer was strapped on his back at all times. When this odd encounter dawned, he had already grabbed that weapon subconsciously and waited for trouble to unfold.
With a drained holler, he demanded. "Face me with honour, you stupid bird!"
Yet contrary to that demand, the round, thirty-meter long bird did not attack. It just hovered on the same spot, and eventually beamed away into the far horizon!
"Huh, am I losing it? Oh... my gut, this is what pain does to a mammoth ha?" Gustav muttered.
He was right to be confused, as that flying object had disappeared faster than the eye could blink! It surely was overpowered, and unlike anything he had ever seen before!
As the hairy man tried to ponder that sight over, he suddenly went through an unshakeable feeling. Thankfully he wasn't struck with another layer of pain, but was still tickled in some weird way...
"What now?" He thought.
After a single glance across the sky, he saw over ten, transparent versions of himself which flew above the ground for some reason! Worse yet, they danced around like some ballerinas at an intensively slow pace.
Before he knew it those figures suddenly dismantled, and mixed together to form an entirely blinding, sun-beam!
"Well shit," He grunted.
Afterwards, he peeked down at his own rugged, and hairy palms to avoid getting blinded by that beam. For some reason though, his hands suddenly disintegrated into nothing but a ray of light. At a swift pace, his entire body joined the party too!
"At least the pain will be over," Gustav said, and finally gave in.
The surroundings went dark afterwards, which gestured towards the end of life itself! Yet at the same time it didn't feel that way, as he was still conscious enough to comprehend the concept of darkness.
All of a sudden, the confused man could see again, even though everything was blurry! He could only spot a partially transparent barrier, which was strictly coated with a light-silver color. It kept him at bay, utterly restricted!
Behind the same barrier, stood several creatures who were truly tiny, and looked at Gustav with ascending curiosity.
"Oh dear, this doesn't look like heaven." He thought.
