The Bear

Day 5: I delved deeper into the realms of dark magic. This obsession with eternal life is beginning to consume me, as I seek to unlock the secrets that lie within the essence of evil itself. The path I tread is treacherous, but it is necessary. I discovered a spell that allows me to infuse a lifeless body with dark magic, rekindling a flicker of life within. However, sustaining this spell requires a lot of energy. I must re-examine this and make it more efficient.

- Excerpt from The Falcon's Diary.

I breathed in deeply, thinking about how to handle this situation. My home town of Trondir was very small, at a population of about 800 people, and was surrounded by the forest.

I decided that escaping to the forest would be the best option. The threat of animals is much better than the threat of magic and humans.

I squeezed myself between the houses and found myself on the outskirts of the forest. An old man called out from the window of a house,

"Where do you think you're going, young man?"

I took a few more steps towards the forest

"I see," the old man said, "I suppose I can not stop you, I was like you in my younger days. Give me a moment, I have some old things for you."

I was happy to oblige, I'll always take something that's free and gives me a benefit.

I heard a crash from inside the building. I was startled and opened up his back door.

There were various items strewn around the floor, emanating from the fallen man.

"Old man, are you okay?"

The man didn't respond. I hoisted him onto my shoulder and laid him into a chair. Scooping up the items he was bringing out, I departed into the forest.

I took a backpack, which stored some old, tattered rope, a rusty metal box, and some wood. Attached to the outside was a small trowel and a hatchet. additionally, a silvery sword was laid in a leather sheath.

"This is in excellent condition!" I said to the multitude of trees around me. I didn't have a way to attach my sheath to my trousers, so I withdrew the sword from the sheath and stashed the sheath in my backpack. Nearly immediately, it started to sprinkle rain on me.

"Hopefully, this rain lifts soon," I said, knowing it would only continue to get worse.

I wandered about for hours on end, taking short breaks to forage from my surroundings. As the day darkened, I eagerly searched for shelter from the elements. I eventually came across a cave on the side of a cliff and scrambled into it. It had a slight uphill, so no rain was pooling inside.

I couldn't muster the energy to make fire, so I laid on the cold, hard ground until I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to the sound of huffing and growling coming from near the entrance, along with some sort of stomping. from the moonlight outside, I could see the silhouette of a large, furry, dog-like creature.

It seemed to be more intelligent than the rats I found in my home and had at least some weariness of me. I must have entered into its home. The sounds of rain had ceased while I was sleeping.

The Dog-like creature made its way back to the entrance and laid down, with its head on one of its front legs. I could see light reflected across something in its hand. No, it was its hand. Sharp looking protrusions emerged from the end of each of its appendages. Much like claws, but much larger.

I picked myself off the ground as silently as I could, and I collected the things I set on the ground. I crept backward into the cave. It soon turned black, and I remembered facing the figure the day before. A shiver ran down my spine, and the darkness seemed darker somehow.

I wandered around, crouched, and with arms reached out to avoid any large rocks. I wandered like this for about 30 minutes until I could see a slight light from further inside. It was red and ominous, but I was too tired of the darkness to care about not looking. I crept forward, still in my crouched state, before I nearly reached the opening. I extended my legs and peeked around the corner.

A group of cloaked figures stood around a large, fleshy mass with a glowing, beating heart. I nearly threw up my sparse meal from the night before. I started to creep into the larger chamber, and as I first started to move, my foot caught on a large sheet-like rock.

Each of the figured turned their heads towards me, and one of them whacked the back of the head of an unconfident looking member, who stumbled forward. I got my hands underneath my body and pushed myself up to my feet as the timid one approached me.

"Come with me, if you please."

I sensed that I had no choice but to follow, so I did. The group parted for the two of us, and we approached the heart of the fleshy mass.

"Give me your hand." They said.

"Sorry, I'm not available."

"It was not a suggestion."

I held my palm out towards them, and they placed a spike made out of green metal into my hand.

"Stab the heart, please."

I sighed. If they were having a stranger do something, it must be dangerous. I called out to the god that had been speaking in my head in my thoughts.

"You told me to shut up," It was pouting.

"I had a sword in my stomach, all your immortality, and you can't read the room?"

I suddenly felt a hand whip across my face.

"Stab it!"

The large cloaked one who whacked the timid one pushed me towards it.

I plunged the spike into the heart and slightly glowing blood shot out, burning my arm. I dropped to my knees and screamed in pain. the large cloaked one reached his hand into the incision and withdrew a stone about the size of my palm, but it fit in his hand easily.

He reached his hand into his cloak and withdrew a knife, and I looked in his direction gloomily.

"Now!" He yelled, "Behold the process!"

The knife in his hand was plunged into the bottom of my jaw. He withdrew it, and I tried to move to get away, but I couldn't for some reason.

"After your target has been killed, paralyzed, or restrained," He announced, "Cut a small slice of the devil fruit, and insert it either into their heart or their head. We will be using the head." As he said this, the knife in his hand pierced the top of my head.

I jolted awake, my hands instinctively reaching for my head and my knees coming up to support my sitting posture.

I sat in the road, in a section that was blood-stained. The ocean smelled of blood, and I noticed the alley I took to get to the forest.

I moved towards it and made my way through, like I had done earlier. I walked towards the forest when a voice behind me called out to me.

"Where do you think you're going, young man?" The old man said.

I once again took steps towards the forest, judging his reaction.

"I see," He said, "I suppose I can not stop you, I was like you in my younger days. Give me a moment, I have some old things for you."

He repeated the things he had said before. Didn't he fall when he got stuff?

"Old man! wait!" I yelled out, and he peeked his head back out of the window.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Let me help you with those. Your body must be weaker now that you're older."

"I suppose," he said, "Come through the back door, I don't lock it anymore."

I stepped over to the back door and entered his house. It was small, with a doorway on the right side of me. An expensive looking fireplace adorned the left wall. The wooden chair I had laid him into earlier was where it was before.

I walked into the doorway and into his room. He was collecting things that were scattered around.

"Give me a moment, young man." He said, scooping items off the floor.

"Take these," he said as he pushed the familiar bag into my hands. He hoisted the sheath up.

"This was my old sword. It is very dear to me. I hope you use it well." He said as I moved the bag onto my back.

He held out the sword, and I firmly grasped it.

"Don't die on me, old man, I'll be back."

I started to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" The old man said feebly."I forgot one thing." He pulled a golden necklace with a ruby scarab adornment from around his neck.

"When you will it, it will glow."

I left without a word.

I returned much earlier to the cave than before. I stood outside, considering what to do.

"Those cloaked people must have gotten here later." I thought, "I doubt I could take them all by myself."

I entered the cave. "I think I could steal that stone before they get here."

I willed the stone to make light. The whole cave immediately was filled with a dim red light, similar to the light exhibited by the heart.

I traveled to the end of the cave and discovered the fleshy mass with instead of a heart, a bulge of flesh. I pulled out the sword that the old man gave me and started to cut away the flesh.

Red light permeated from the newly exposed heart, and I backed away, picking up a rock. I threw the rock as hard as I could at the glowing flesh, and it bounced off.

I sighed. "I guess it wouldn't work that well. I'll use my sword then." I remarked, drawing the sword out of my bag. I carefully pierced the heart and lept back when the blood sprayed out.

after the blood stopped spraying, I approached the heart and reached inside, and withdrew what I before thought was a sphere, it was an apple.

"Devil fruit... just looks like a glowing apple to me." I smirked. I left the cave, and it was just starting to rain. "Those cloaked people should be getting here soon. I should hide now."

I climbed into a tree near the cave entrance. I found a nice Y shape and lay in it and waited. Soon after, the cloaked men arrived. There are 6 of them. I could clearly see the large one and the timid one near each other. The group entered the cave, and I allowed myself to drift to sleep.

I awoke to the dog-like creature rubbing itself against the base of the tree. I was pretty unconcerned, as it probably couldn't get to me.

I could see its large black nose, It had big round ears and a large head. It was about as tall as me. It soon went inside the cave entrance, and as it did, I heard a huge noise and a burning ball of flesh shot out into the forest. The six cloaked people emerged, one of them, who was wearing gray robes, as opposed to the brown cloaks that the others wore, said, "Bears are 6th ranked monsters and it fell that easily... They must have been wrong while classifying it."

The large one piped up, "I've fought one once. You must remember needing to kill it after it overpowered me."

"Yes," the gray robed one hissed. "It was a pain having to avoid hitting you with fire."

They walked along the cliff face, away from the sea at the village. I pulled out what the called the devil fruit. "I wonder what this does... I can try it, " I muttered.

I raised the luminous fruit to my open mouth and took a bite. The fruit was bitter and metallic tasting. I forced myself to swallow it. I couldn't stomach to eat another bite, so I stashed it in my pocket.

They described the ritual while I was there, didn't they? I probed my memory. A monotone voice spoke inside my head.

"Rebirthed memory activated." It spoke.

I remembered the large man explaining how you should either put a slice of the devil fruit in the heart or the head. I decended the tree I was hiding in.

"This ability... is interesting," I said."It should be useful to me.

"What color shirt was the old man wearing?" I wondered.

"Rebirth memory activated," It said once again.

I recalled his baggy light brown shirt. It had a stain on the left shoulder, as if it was wet with blood.

"Interesting... I didn't notice that before."

I made my way back to the village, remembering the way using "Rebirth Memory" to help me. It seems this memory has two different things it can do: It can recall my memories of something I can think of, and it can bring up memories about something.

Soon, I ended up back at the old man's house and noticed him gazing out to the forest. He noticed me soon after I saw him and waved me over.

"Hello, young man, I didn't expect you to return so soon... I assume you can't handle the pressure fufufu," he laughed with his lips.

"I had a thing to ask you, can I come inside?" I asked him. "Of course, of course," he said. "Come inside, young man."

I entered through the back door, and the old man was already making his way through the doorway to his room, dragging a chair along with him.

"Tell me, old man, do you know what this is?" I inquired, pulling out the devil fruit.

He very visibly shivered and was surprised.

"I haven't seen one of those since we killed all the dragons... Where did you get this?"

I breathed deeply, "I ventured into a cave and found a glowing heart in a mass of flesh. I found this thing, but my arm was hit with this burning liquid as I opened the heart," I lied, "I ate a bite of this, and I think it helped me heal."

The old man looked confused. "The devil fruit does not have healing properties when extracted from a live dragon, but what you speak of, it sounds like a tumor. Dragons have gone extinct during the dragon wars, but I suppose the immense healing factor that dragons have, It could become a tumor." He babbled.

He suddenly becomes very serious, "You said you ate some." He said blatantly. "I have a way for you to survive. I've learned for myself." He said, lifting his arm. He flexed and muscles flexed out, appearing out of nowhere out of his flimsy arms. Muscles bulged out of his whole body.

"Let me teach you to harness this power you've found!"