In the Forest

Brown, curly hair gently hangs over a thin, wild face. Small grey eyes, set delicately within their sockets. A rough scar stretching from just under the left eye, running towards the end of his left cheek, leaving an arduous reminder of his life.

What was once a clothing is now barely a piece of clothing at all, the dirt stained fabric hangs onto his shoulders like a discarded old towel. Much of him is exposed because of the numerous holes in the piece of cloth. His pants are a mess as well. A big tear has split the left leg in two and there are holes everywhere due to wear and tear. But there is something enigmatic about him, perhaps it's his presence or perhaps it's his look for danger.

The forest was humble, thick and exuded an ancient aura. Archaic trees that were centuries old, blotted out the landscape. The canopy was reigned by dense leaves and branches, permitting ample, shimmering lights to descend for a range of thorns and mushrooms to spread in the brittle leaves on the ground below. Occasional roars, predominantly of those mighty beasts unheard of, and tweets could be heard echoing in the depths of the forest.

The young man, currently sitting on a branch, while chewing on a piece of grass, he wondered how long has it been since his stay in the forest. Whenever he tried to recall how he got into the forest, darkness clouded his memory as if something was blocking him from seeing them. All he remembers his name, Long Xun, imprinted in his mind.

Throughout his stay in the forest, he struggled and fought brutally with the wild beasts occupying the dangerous forest. Soon, after numerous fatal encounters with the bloodthirsty beasts, he developed a keen sense of awareness which has has helped him escape many huge and mighty beasts that occupied the inner region of the forest, something he told himself to never venture into anymore after encountering a humongous Four-headed Serpent, which he is lucky to escape with his life.

If he had the choice to escape the wilderness, he would but unfortunately he tried and all he met was the endless forest, eventually he gave up.

Moving down from the tree, he picked up a rugged spear, standing against the bark of the tree, spitting out the grass. He took a deep breath while grasping the spear, it was time for him to hunt for tonight's dinner.

A three-eyed rabbit the size of an average sized human, carefully scanned the dense grass and shrubs. Not finding anything unusual, it began to nibble on its meal.

*Whoosh*

A spear flew out from a bush, one metre away from the rabbit, leaving a trail of rustling leaves, straight towards the three-eyed rabbit. The three-eyed rabbit turned its head and saw the spearhead speeding towards it, mere inches away and it tried to escape using its long hind legs as a desperate attempt but to no avail, the spear pierced through the rabbit's neck, jabbing it against the tree.

A trail of fresh blood surged forth from the fatal wound, dying the grass below a sheen red. Its body quivered slightly, then grew motionless.

"Got to get out here quick before the smell of blood attracts the other beasts."

A pair of grey eyes peered through a small opening in the bush, jumping out and quickly picked up the rabbit with minimal effort, packed it in a handmade rag-bag and hurried towards his dwelling.

Arriving at a small cave, riddled with leaves and twigs, and a campfire at the middle of the cave, Long Xun put down the rabbit and was ecstatic. He finally got a decent meal to enjoy for a few days, quickly prepping up the rabbit.

*Burp*

"Now, that was a delicious meal."

After finishing his meal, he wrapped the rest of the meat with a few large leaves, and placed them in the corner of the cave. He discovered ages ago that the meat of the beasts in the forest can last for a long while.

Long Xun then closed his eyes in concentration, and tried to sense something. Ever since he arrived at the forest, at random times, whenever he concentrated with his eyes closed, he could feel motes of some kind of energy wavelessly dancing around him and he could somehow absorb the energy into his body.

As a result of doing this everyday for who knows how long, he could feel an increase in his strength and awareness to danger has increased to quite a considerable degree.

*Rumble*

With the sudden rumbling of the ground interrupting his meditation, Long Xun quickly got up and looked towards the source of the ruckus. Hundreds of metres away from the cave, a large wide crack appeared on the ground slowly widening. The rumbling caused the surrounding beasts to run away from the scene. From the dark depths of the crack, a large murky cave slowly appeared sinisterly and the rumbling stopped.

Long Xun, noticing the commotion gradually stopping, he curiously wondered what happened. Pacing back and forth, he is deliberating whether he should inspect the commotion or not.

"Maybe I should go. I can probably find out a method or a way to leave this hellhole of a forest."

Picking up the spear for protection, he stuffed a few herbs in his ragged pocket and stuffed out the fire.

"Alright, I'm ready to go."

Making sure not to make any unnecessary noise, to avoid meeting any beasts, he ventured through the forest towards the source of the commotion.

"Woah"

Long Xun sucked in a deep breath as he saw a large amount of beasts encircle a wide crack, but they dare not approach it.

"Damn, guess I can't approach that crack unless I'm waiting for a death wish."

Just as he said that, a loud roar reverberated from the inner region of the forest, and the sound was larger than usual.

"Is it coming this way?" pondered Long Xun, with a fearful expression gradually appearing on his face. The beasts surrounding the crack heard the roar, scared for their life, scattered around and speedily ran away from the crack.

Looking at the beasts running away, Long Xun saw a window of opportunity to enter the crack, but if he does so, then he will risk encountering the powerful beast coming towards the crack after.

"Aargh! To the hell with it!"

Against his nature, he boosted away from his hiding spot and sprinted towards the crack. Reaching the crack, he prayed to some unknown God and jumped into the crack. Just as quick, he landed with his two feet on the ground.

"Why does it feel so chilly."

Taking a look around in the crack, there was nothing notable apart from a large cave sitting a few metres away. Grasping the spear tightly, and taking a deep breath. He walked slowly towards the entrance of the cave. The cave entrance is surrounded with long weeds and a sense of doom permeates from the cave.

"I should have just stayed back at my cave."

Perspiring with sweat, he brushed away the weeds and entered the cave. The cave was narrow leading to a ragged room covered in cobwebs, tainted with time. Walking towards the room, he saw a silhouette sitting on a mat in the middle of the room.

*Screeeeeech*

"Aaaaahhhhh!!"

Numerous tiny hidden red bats flew away from the corner of the room, scaring Long Xun to the ground.

"Give me a break. Thought I was gonna descend into the underworld."

Steeling up his courage again, he entered the room and was immediately stormed with a fragrance of damp musky smell. As he got closer to the silhouette, he discovered its a remains of a skeleton sitting in a pose.

"What the heck?!"

Long Xun wondered who the person was and what was he doing here. From the corner of his eyes, he saw marks of painting on the cave. They depicted a human sitting in the same pose as the skeleton and a revolving spiral core in the center of the torso. Around the human painting, there were numerous dots converging into the revolving core.

Looking at this painting, Long Xun developed an idea.

'Those dots remind of the motes of energy that I could somehow absorb into my body. What if I concentrated my sense into my body? Maybe I could imitate the revolving core.'

Excited and dreading whether this would affect him positively or negatively, Long Xun sat down on the ground in a meditative pose and closed his eyes. Instead of trying to sense the outside of his body, he spread his sense into his body. He could feel a tremendous and boundless amount of energy pooled in a space in his torso. Instead of a core, it was like a river, no, rather it was like an ocean.

'I guess years of absorbing the energy lead to this.'

Without wasting any second, he tried to get a feel of the boundless energy stored within him and tried to control it. After a few attempts and failure, he could control a few strands of energy albeit with difficulty probably because this is his first time trying.

Remembering the direction of the core revolving anti-clockwise, he attempted to try and revolve the strands of energy anti-clockwise. He was immediately attacked with pain surging through his stomach. Although the pain was there, it was minimal, and Long Xun thought it was normal.

Ignoring the pain, he started circulating the energy. He could see the few strands slowly combining together and forming a tiny revolving core. This formation slowly became stable and independently floated above the ocean of energy. Excitedly opening his eyes, he could feel the change in his body.

"I am pretty sure I've just gained a huge leap in strength and my perception towards the energy around me has improved."

Long Xun was very happy with the results but the one ojective he had in his mind before coming here weighed on him. He still hasn't found a way out of this damn forest.